Scolopendran history

XXI Century

The Federated Segments of Scolopendra is a direct result of the massive shift of power from the nation-state to the international corporation which began late in the twentieth century and progressed throughout the twenty-first to its logical extreme sometime in the twenty-second century. Earth, still troubled by pollution and overcrowding and the traditional woes of humanity, was split up into blocs of power based not so much on military or political strength as in the past but on economic and market-building strength. The strongest of these blocs, in no particular order, were the United American Conglomerate (UAC) consisting of the American supercontinent, the European Union consisting of Western and Eastern Europe, and Confederate South-East Asea (CSEA) consisting of China, Indochina, and most of Malaysia. While these superpowers controlled most of the worlds major economies and therefore monies, there were fortunes to be made off the trade between these major economic blocs. Thus did the Capricorn Group, a conglomerate of multinational corporations based around the Mediterranean Basin, find itself growing rich off of essentially regulating sea trade between the EU and CSEA and orbital trade (having access to the prime equatorial launch sites of North Africa) of the entire world.

XXII Century

By the twenty-second century, environmental sciences had advanced sufficiently to at least maintain Earth's present state of disrepair and actually fix it for those who had the capital to expend. However, "present state of disrepair" was rather bad indeed and was the every-day existence of the average proletarian. In yet another historic precedent of the Marxist-view of unregulated capitalism--oppression to subsistence--triumphing over the far older and far more starry-eyed Adam Smith-view--rising tides raise all boats--the workers of the world were essentially forced to eke out their meager lives in the squalid filth that was most of Earth while the rich and powerful maintained lives of luxuries either in private arcologies or orbital facilities. This state of affairs filled up another century of history, generally peaceful but not well loved, the Pax Economica.

XXIII Century

The Revolution

In the middle twenty-third century, enough was enough. Idealists from across the world, especially from the UAC, fed up with the conditions they were surrounded by congregated in Turkey for several generations, nestled comfortably between the benignly competing interests of the economic blocs. Once there, they used positions in the Capricorn Group and the money those positions entailed to create connections, to spread ideas of revolution across the Mediterranean Basin, undermining the very megacorporations which paid them. Beginning first as a whisper, and then scattered examples of minor unrest, the Revolution spread, quietly and subtly trying to wrest control from the Capricorn Group. The Capricorn was wise and had paid off most of the Islamic imams in the area to preach its glories, thus subverting the traditional overpiety of the region to its control. One night, a major Revolutionary group struck at the Capricorn Group's major monetary stockpiles in Venice, equipping the Revolutionaries with all the funds they needed.

Ghostwriter

Later that year the imams suddenly began extolling the virtues of freedom of speech, congregation, worship, and democracy; of the equitable sharing of wealth and the welfare of the masses. While there is no documentation to prove that the Revolutionaries counter-paid the imams and thus used the Capricorn's own strategy against itself, this "Ghostwriter" conspiracy theory is generally accepted as probable history, although the importance of Maria Rostov (who would later become the first Intelligence Advisor of the Segments) is probably overplayed. This grass-roots support is what the Revolution needed and, in a well-timed operation planned for years, the Revolution struck out against major Capricorn Group and local government assets simultaneously on Revolution Day. Overwhelmed, Capricorn Group private armies and the meager governmental defenses quickly surrendered and accepted pay from the Revolution, and within several months pactically the entire Mediterranean Basin had seceeded from its European and African national governments (the Middle East came as a large unified bloc due to the works of the imams).

Fall of European Nationalism

The consequences of this were wide-ranging. Local national governments lost power due to the successful secession, and therefore the European Union federal structure became more powerful. The newly seceded territories, united by language and cause, quickly came together in Istanbul to build their new nation, understanding that time was of the essence if they were to defend it successfully. They chose the Latin for "[centipede]," Scolopendra, because it was a generally neutral term and their new nation resembled the myriapod; unified strength was necessary so they built a federation; continued economic growth was a must and so they decided upon enacting a pseudosocialist economy with socialist workfare policies towards its citizenry and capitalist policies towards the growth of capital. It tended more towards the former than the latter at first, but this was to be expected from a reaction to massive corporate abuses. The new Scolopendrans immediately began studying the secrets of advanced terraformation and biome reclamation and began to implement it on a large scale, cutting costs by increasing supply and attempting to make their chunk of Earth decently livable again.

For years, things continued as they had previously. Scolopendra maintained the Capricorn Group's foreign policies, with some price cuts to boot, keeping the economic superpowers happy; however, unlike the Capricorn, the Segments shared the wealth among its citizens. Having a large territory to defend quickly, it built up a military orbital presence, first using the orbital platforms of the rich before cannibalizing those into the ungainly yet solidly-built circular Mobile Infantry drop-platform discs that became the symbol for Scolopendran world-wide deployment capability over the years. Thus did the twenty-third century pass to make way for the twenty-fourth.

XXIV Century

NeoCommunism and Economic Warfare

Seeing the success of a pseudosocialist states, the Ukranian and Russian territories, still basking in the reflective glories of centuries-old communism, tried again with Neocommunist policies. The European Union, still remembering the pain that the first Soviet Union caused, used its greater federal power to attempt economic warfare on the new Neocommunist states, economically eliminating their means of production without ever firing a shot.

They were more successful than they could have hoped. The Ukraine and Russia immediately fell apart into collections of petty warlords, the NeoRus, fighting randomly in a sort of repeat of both the Germanic Holy Roman States and feudal China. These warlords, some still holding on to the nuclear legacies left them by the long dead Soviet Union (no, the bombs were not the same, but the stance maintained), fought with every means at their disposal, utterly destabilizing northern Eurasia. Some discovered the EU's hand in their new situation and retaliated by annihilating major EU trading centers; lacking the arsenal to retaliate effectively and the money to continue, the European Union collapsed as its member nations desired guns over butter.

The Beginning of the Idealism Militant

Fifteen years before The Break, the Federated Segments started its famed Extraction Campaigns, trying to rescue entire populations from the ravages of the NeoRus in the Crimea and from the de facto slavery of UAC exploitation forces in Europe. Using superior mobility and tecnology, the relatively small Scolopendran Military Forces were able to consistently thwart the powers that opposed them, finally making the Segments a realized threat on the international scene. Pressure increased from the economic superpowers, and three nations--the Federated Segments, Suunto suffering from both the NeoRus and CSEA, and Karmabaijan, pressed between the UAC and CSEA--formed an alliance of opportunity they called the Triumvirate of Yut. With Suunto's Siberian resources, Karmabaijan's international business skill, and Scolopendran technology, they started on an ambitious plan to escape their foes, rebuild, and return. Ten years before The Break, the Economic Alliance of Africa (EAA) formed itself and began pushing northward against southern Scolopendra. Spurred on by a lack of funds and an absolute need for the stable markets of North Africa, the EAA launched full armored assaults into Egypt along the Nile river basin, always stopped, repelled, and annihilated by orbit-deployed Scolopendran forces.

The Kzin

Five years before The Break, radio contact was made with a previously unknown culture in the Tibetan Highlands that called itself the Kzin under attack by CSEA exploitation forces. A division of Mobile Infantry under the command of Colonel Julius M Razak landed in the Highlands to extract the Kzin in the Tibetan Extraction Campaign and, accidentally, Colonel Razak made first contact with the Segments' first nonhuman sapient species. In the resulting conflict, the M.I. succeeded in extracting the Kzinti population but failed to protect their Patriarch, thus causing (at the time) irrevocable damage to the Kzinti culture. The Scolopendran war machine retaliated against this loss, annihilating the CSEA forces arrayed in Tibet and practically breaking that power's back as a regional power. This increased the Scolopendrans' threat level in the eyes of the remaining superpower, which stepped up its economic attacks and military adventurism.

The Escape

Finally, the Triumvirate's first joint project was complete. Project Labyrinth, the colonization and terraformation of Titan, launched and landed at its destination when The Break occured. In a flash of warping reality, the Earth that the colonists had known had disappeared, leaving behind only the colonists and a do-or-die situation. Time, space, the very fabric of nature and geography itself, had become the broken fractal mix of paradox and unreality that is the multiverse. The last of the Old Wave of the Triumvirate Extraction Campaigns ripped away from Earth just in time, the saving of a few mechatronic cores from Arabian Zero-One before it was bombarded into nothingness by UAC strategic assets.