The Gaia RepublicRuler: President Maxwell Parsons, Congress of Gaia
Species: Three quarters Terran, one quarter mutant
Gaian Mutant: Largely looks human, but with sharper teeth, purple skin, green eyes, and full black eyes, and longer limbs and bodies.
Allegiance: Staunchly, proudly, unshakeably Terran
Government: Based on the Pre-Imperial United States of America, with a bicameral legislature, an elected President as executive, and a separate judicial system. Only terran, male, landowners native to Gaia over the age of 20 are allowed to vote.
Military: Soldiers are mainly from the mining class, and commanders from the planter class. Only male terrans over age 15 are allowed to enlist, and service is compulsory for males from the mining class. The right to bear arms in sacred, and most male terrans from any class are well aquainted with weapon use. The Gaian military is very mobile, with most of the large ships in the navy being carriers for the fighters which make up the main fighting force, which swarm enemy ships. The army is mainly comprised of infantry, supported by tanks and artillery, with little to no robots or mechs.
History: Before the empire existed, when humans first started to colonized space, a corporation from the United States of America was created, with the purpose of colonizing the nearest solar system to the Human solar system, Alpha Centauri, and the company became known as the Alpha Centauri system. After terraforming the only planet in the Alpha Centauri system, Proxima Centauri b, it was renamed Gaia, and colonies began to be set up.
The plan of the Alpha Centauri group was to use Gaia as a central base from which the main goal of the company could be achieved; to mine the large asteroid belt that existed around Alpha Centauri. Because of this, largescale farming operations started to be built on Gaia, so as to provide food for the miners, and a large spaceport was built in the capital of Gaia. Mining operations started to be set up in the asteroid, with most of the miners coming from the United States region of Appalachia. But what the corporation hadn't accounted for was the radiation of the stars of Alpha Centauri. While asteroid miners were unaffected, many new children born in Gaia were born with serious deformities, and over the generations these mutations became consolidated as one population; the Gaian mutants.
As the Alpha Centauri group lost funding, and the Terran Empire became more powerful, a local government in Gaia became more prominent, and the colonists unaffected by the radiation became to see themselves as superior to the mutants, and the mutants were enslaved to work on the plantations owned by the Gaian elite. The farms which couldn't afford mutant slaves were soon bought out by those who could, and soon, a planter class came to dominated local Gaian politics, while the nomadic asteroid miners were either self-governed or still completely obeyed the rule of the Alpha Centauri group.
Eventually, the Alpha Centauri group was bought out by the Terran Empire, and the Gaian government, which while still existant, now was forced to respect the Imperial power, which they hated. They were even more discontented by the pro-Alien reforms. The Gaia Republic was one of the first groups to declare independence from the Empire, and fought brutally in the civil war, renaming its capital city on Gaia as Bethlehem. Eventually, they came to own Gaia, all of Alpha Centauri, the asteroid miners, and a few neighboring systems.
Today, Gaian planters are interplanterally known for their extravagant wealth, and elaborate social customs. In many parties around the galaxy, one could find a planter, with pistol in belt, loudly recounting his tales to a group of enamored terran females. Meanwhile, if one went out to the asteroid mines, one would find unimagineable poverty, and a population of Terran luddites who seem to reject most advancement and technology, and still play musical instruments found in Pre-Imperial Terra, such as violins and acoustic guitars. Gaia itself is also a key provider of food to groups around the galaxy.
Religion: The whole of The Gaian Republic are devout Christians, and religion is very much connected to politics, dominated by a church known as the Church of the Celestial Israelite, which organizes pilgrimages to Earth.
Other: The Republic frequently sets up mining colonies in asteroid belts far away from Alpha Centauri, and has a deep hatred for Aliens, especially due to the piracy experienced in these far off mining colonies. Additionally, amongst the mutant slaves, a revolutionary group is starting to rise up.