Name:
United Secondary SystemsBrief Description:
Seventeen and five Human systems that became independent of Sol. During the rise and fall of various Empires they’ve joined larger unions, even willingly joining the Zuukid to avoid an unwinnable conflict.
Over seventy-five percent of the seventy-three billion or so people living in the system live in rural areas. Robots and complex machines are a common sight, and they’re somewhat known for their large, blank landscapes with the occasional massive structure interrupting the farms and forests and hills and farmhouses.
There are only a handful of truly urban areas, and most are closer to suburban systems. Each system only has a handful of major urban areas, generally ranging between five and six. This general decentralization means that even when invaders attack the cities, they still have billions of people to fight off.
Government:
Seventeen and five elected governors represent each system on the secondary scale. Tertiary leadership and lawmaking is managed by a senate of one hundred and eleven senators from each system. Below them are mayors and locally elected officials, such as sheriffs.
Primary leadership is managed by three presidents at a time, which act as the final say in important law-making and as the representatives of the people. Their fundamental goal is to serve the people and enact laws that are best for everyone.
The presidents are elected in a staggered manner. Every three years, a president is replaced by popular vote by the people. President A is replaced, then one more rotation passes and B is replaced, then an additional rotation passes and C is replaced.
Managing that all is a constitution with three primary portions. The first establishing chapters are set in stone. The second and third portions are rewritten every ten years. The second portion is dedicated to social and cultural matters, while the third is dedicated to economic matters. The third portion primarily holds promises that need not be followed up on if the people’s opinion is seen to change through voting.
History:
Their history is relatively recent. The systems have been settled and functioning in this loose manner since the original great Empires. Following several Imperial collapses they split away and have maintained independent ever since.
They trace their ideas back to old American ones, pre-hegemonic conquering of the Sol systems and the establishment of the modern Martian State. While it isn’t commonly discussed, they desperately want to glass and cleanse the Sol system and re-establish it under their social and cultural control.
The settlements that became the USS were established by seventeen explorers from Sol and their five disciples, who established the most recent five colonies through terraforming key defensive positions. The common phrase, “Seventeen-and-five,” not only refers to their founders, but the number of systems that they hold.
Military:
Military isn’t a huge cultural or social focus for them. They’re far enough out that they don’t often have to worry about conflict. What military they do have is brutal and efficient and almost entirely dehumanized. Machines, strategic simulation AI, dirty bombs, and attack drones are the most common sights. It is a rather well known fact that for every one hundred machines seen on the battlefield, there is a single USS Human soldier in the area.
What Navy they do have is heavily mixed with a more even proportion of fifty machines to fifty humans. Few machines of theirs are complex enough or close enough to Human intelligence to effectively fly or manage a fleet, so Humans are used to remotely pilot fighters while Human commanders and Generals direct fleets from the bridges of larger ships.
Religion/Culture:
Catholicism and Islam are the largest organized religions in USS territory, but they are not the largest group. Most are religiously indifferent or non-strict adherents of many Earth-based religions.
Large groups of atheists also exist, but they still do not outnumber the established religious/uncaring populations. Some new-age religions exist as well, with New-Odinist movements and Wicca movements and various Xeno-Worship groups being scattered about the systems.
Demographics:
95% Humans, 5% mixed; Seventy-three Billion Total
>500 Billion Partially Autonomous Robots, <60 Billion Fully Autonomous RobotsRelations:
Ex-Orionic State, Ex-Zuukid State
Have remained relatively isolationist since the fall of the Zuukid, so have no major relations save for the pre-established exportation of trade goods. Independent companies and traders are largely responsible for the movement of goods and the government is hands-off with economics at the moment, save for some quality of life programs that draw from taxes.
Habitation:
Rural towns and environments. Wheeled-cars of various ages exist, though some use more modern repulsion tech in cars that don’t make contact with the ground. Trains and public transportation are incredibly common for moving people and goods.
Large structures are created for important urban sites. Three massive towers are erected on the landscape in a triangle shape, and these act as space ports and high-density areas. Here is where one is likely to find businesses, services, and non-Humans.
Some suburban cookie-cutter towns exist, though they themselves are frequently extensions of rural communities and are fledgling cities that are kept small in part by culture and in part by government intervention to prevent high-density areas forming outside of areas that are specifically set aside to become cities.
Otherwise, various spacecraft are used. Few people leave the planet they are born on, but those that do use public transportation or personal ships. Few own or are capable of owning spacecraft. Few have any want to.
