The Republic of Morningstar

The Republic of Morningstar is a hegemonic empire founded in the democratic tradition. Though such institutions were moderate or rare during the rise and brief reign of Terra over known space, the Scourge War and The Flame produced a new lease on life. The Republic has gone through a dozen serious regime changes, revolutions and struggles, but for two thousand years this empire has elected its officials. Now it seeks to extend its rule over the rest of the known galaxy.

The Founding
The planet of Morningstar was located in a system at the very periphery of known space and used as a Terran outpost for expeditions into the Dark Stars, the vast wilderness of uncharted space which, to this day, remains majority unexplored. When the Scourge arrived and assailed Known Space, Morningstar attempted to send an early warning, but even with foreknowledge the attack came in numbers too great to overcome. Later, thanks to its remoteness, Morningstar was one of the few worlds to go completely unscathed by war, its relatively small population sustained by internal farming and manufacturing. This allowed its population to survive and grow in the immediate aftermath of The Flame.

Dissenting human states, such as the East Fringe coalition, were hit especially hard by the Scourge thanks to their small numbers, and it was a refugee fleet from one such state that found Morningstar. The takeover was essentially peaceful, but melding two societies- one founded capitalism and democracy, the other leaning toward autocracy and Chinese Socialism- was far more difficult, and the early years of the Republic were shaky. As time went on, the two sides reconciled and the first regime exercised power steadily. Over time, the Republic came to accept further refugees and immigrants, expanding back into space and ramping its human population back up to healthy levels, reaching ten billion total within eighty years of founding. It was at this point that the alien Aluur were contacted and, after some negotiation and alliance, were joined with the Republic.

Even from the beginning, the Republic found itself uniquely suited to dealing with conflicting ideas, and even though civil conflict occasionally marred its history, the Republic legally retained its democratic character and willingness to change, shift and compromise throughout its existence.

The modern Republic.
The Corporatist Uprising of GR 4010 changed the economic nature of the Republic. Though it was generally believed that government interference in private business was undesirable, the government could not allow a truly hands-off approach and instead set down laws designed to benefit the greater whole of the economy, preventing monopoly and armed conflict. After the uprising and change of government, this changed, and the megacorporations effectively became the government and set down new laws. 'Fair competition' merely meant that monopolic blocs had to communicate officially, and that battles over market resources...truly became battles. Formalized, and using corps' private military forces, these battles were nonetheless 'for keeps' and resulted in a fair amount of death and desensitization to violence amongst corporate "assets".

The Republic has always been expansionist to a degree, but both some time before and ever since the uprising, its means have become more forceful. Never one to discount a solid method of gaining new stars, the Republic will negotiate, economically pressure, and even hire outside mercenaries and empires to harass groups they wish to control. Rarely, but notably, their own battlefleets will mobilize and seize enemy assets "for the good of the Republic". Much as Terra has sent its agents into the galaxy to assess the state of civilization, the Republic has infiltrated many governments across known space...and would much rather that Terra never returned.

Within itself, the Republic is an intensely heterogenous empire. Humans are not a majority, but are the largest population group with thirty two percent, followed by Aluur with twenty percent; their alliance provides the political framework that holds dozens of minor polities and cultures together, at times tenuously. Morningstar is one of the few worlds where an Askari can engage a Szzlik in philosophy over a large sized cup of tea. Although some species are less welcome than others, none are specifically barred from tradeports...although some, like the Cordu and Evocati, must be under guard if they arrive.

Republican Military.
The Morningstar Republic uses its vast biodiversity as a weapon; not only humans, but Aluur, Askari mercenaries, Gera-kzun and a host of other alien types bring their unique abilities to warfare. Askari, for example, provide their services as extremely hardy and zealous shocktroopers; Gera-kzun use their vast waves of radio-telepathically linked warriors to overwhelm and uproot enemies, while Aluur provide remorseless, skilled marksmen. Humans are humans; human genetic pliability is legendary even among the philosophically flexible Askari, and it isn't uncommon for hardier, more-than-baseline humanoids to deploy in battle. Morningstar is incapable of replicating Evocati- their attempts, while many and varied, all ended in horrific failures- and when truly hardy troops are needed, and the Askari have no troops to sell or their brutish services would be a liability, the Republic deploys perhaps its greatest infantry asset; militarized synthetics. Of hardy and relatively low tech construction, combat androids, walkers and roller forms are cheap to make and hardy to fire, designed both to resist kinetic impactors and thermal bloom.

For fleet assets, Morningstar fields similarly hardy warships; their armor is thick and layered over and over to compensate for their relatively short range weapons, and heavily laser-armed Liberator class battleships have been known to take thermonuke hits and keep fighting. More recently, the Republic has begun deploying screens to its warships; these targeted deflectors were evidently a secret technology, and their advent was top secret up to the highest echelons of both military and corporate leadership...because of their origin, from salvaged Aduuni warships. In fact, many recent advances in technology can be attributed to salvaging operations in former Aduuni space, and though this has made a fierce enemy of the enigmatic aliens, the Republic has leapt forward by many decades and more in their understanding of technologically complicated warship systems.

Most notable is that Morningstar almost never has full deployment; its warfleets are most commonly mothballed, with peacetime levels of ten percent mobility and heightened alert levels of fifty percent. While this makes them weak on a first strike basis, it also gives them a greater industrial and economic resource base, and a lesser vulnerability to having all available assets crippled in a few major battles. Much like the United States of Old Earth's pre-Second World War, the Morningstar Republic has very weak immediately available forces but a deep reservoir of military potential; their use of proxy states often disguises this strength.