| Another Earth | ||
 Knight Order (left) and AE (right) insignia |
||
| Abbreviation | AE | |
|---|---|---|
| Formation | CC 220; CC 225 (reformation) | |
| Type | Before reforms: Armed wing/military force After reforms Political union & central government | |
| Status | Dissolved (CC 433) | |
| Purpose | Unification of humanity | |
| Location | Whole universe | |
| Membership | ||
Another Earth (abbreviated as "AE", a.k.a. the "Union" or "Alliance") was a political, military, and economic union of different human organizations, world governments, and other human polities. It essentially represented the unified universal structure and central governance of all spaceborne humans.
The AE was initially established in CC 220 as the armed wing of the Central Assembly before mounting a coup d'état in CC 225 that effectively transferred the political and government functions of the Central Assembly to AE. The AE order ruled the human universe until its dissolution and subsequent merger with the Knights of the Temporal Order in CC 433 due to perceived failures in properly responding to Queen E-34's attack. The Alternative League became AE's official successor.
History
- Main article: Cosmic Century
Humanity losing in the Great War
Before unification, humans waged a series of protracted wars with each other known as the Human Civil War. The different human groups then coalesced into five great factions namely: Earth, Neoanthropinae Revolutionary Alliance (NRA), Ruin, Human Alliance, and Innovation Empire. The appearance of high rank beasts in CC 123 was grossly underestimated by humans and they continued warring against each other. The Innovation Empire and NRA were overrun by the Beasts in CC 128 and 129 respectively, while Earth isolated itself from extra-galactic affairs. This new found reality eventually forced the remaining factions (Ruin and Human Alliance) and the remnants of the rest to accept peace and begin the unification process to create a common effort in exterminating Beasts. The Great War against Beasts soon ensued with humanity achieving a costly stalemate by CC 218.
United Assembly
The United Assembly was the result of the first unification process in CC 130. It was an all-encompassing human confederacy union formed to realign the efforts of all humans against the invasion of Beasts. During the whole existence of the United Assembly, it was involved in the Great War. The unified government was not able to strengthen its institutions and cohesive culture due to preoccupation with the Beasts. As such, member states of the United Assembly took the opportunity to exploit the weak political clout of the unified government, developing their individual advantages instead of supporting collective initiatives.
In CC 218, the United Assembly declared the Great War to be over but the Beasts were merely subdued to pre-Great War strength. Meanwhile, humans have lost much of their original strength including their great technologies such as the original warp gate and Black Hole Engine. The general inability to repel Beasts led to United Assembly's internal political collapse in CC 220 - a precedent which would be used to justify the dissolution of AE in CC 431, 200 years from then. An implicit contract was then established between the constituent member states (representing the general human populace) and the unified government wherein the latter's legitimacy or right to rule emanates from its capacity to effectively repel Beast invasions.
Central Assembly
The Central Assembly was formed by General David Leonhard, a seasoned veteran turned popular politician, in CC 220 when he led a takeover of the United Assembly with support from various armed forces. As President, he then initiates a series of reforms to centralize power and greatly expand the responsibilities of the unified government. While these proved popular to the masses desperate for a strong leadership, the member states of the Central Assembly were alarmed by growing violations to their domestic affairs and the curtailing of their powers. President Leonhard was also able to implement levies for conscription, materiel, and finances. Information sharing was also strictly enforced.
To assist the Central Assembly in its reforms and to protect itself from possible rebellion, President Leonhard established the Another Earth alliance (AE) as the recognized armed wing/military body of Central Assembly and the unified supreme command of all armed forces of its member states. Officially, the AE is to improve efficiency in fighting Beasts but its secret function is to pressure member states to follow the policies of Central Assembly.
Takeover
AE command eventually recognized that it had concentrated the total military power of humanity unto itself and that it can strong-arm Central Assembly to approve its own interests. President Leonhard acknowledged that maintaining control over AE is proving to be too difficult already. In CC 225, the AE began aggressively displaying its political influence presumably to consolidate popular support. It initiated its own emigration project and promulgated its own regulations on the use of warp gate. AE then monopolized control of the warp gate through the creation of a universe-wide AE Gate Administration. Eventually, AE launched a successful coup d'état over the Central Assembly, taking over and assuming its functions initially as a military junta. The Leonhard family is then sent to exile.
Beast Wars
AE warships heading to battle
AE during the war against Queen E-33
AE during the Battle of Velchees
AE ground forces defending against Beasts (Battle of Void)
As the AE took over the functions and responsibilities of a unified government, it dawned unto them that the task of protecting humanity from Beast invasions is very burdensome. AE launches its own "Great War" to reinvigorate morale and trust into the AE government but humans ended up losing core planets Drian, Sivin, and Roam among others. AE then initiates an alternative plan of constant mass emigration away from Beasts instead of fighting them. In CC 228, the alternative plan is finalized with the completion of self-sustainable, giant colony battleship "Ion" meant to house humanity's last population on a never-ending cruise throughout the universe. In CC 233, EX-Type Zero Ingrid makes the first recorded use of Phenomenon Weapon. While preparing for its official commission, Ingrid attacks Ion using Morglay. The AE draws out all of its military strength to bear upon Ingrid. The battle proves to be indecisive until the timely arrival of the Knights who were able to repel Ingrid. AE loses Ion during the battle.
The AE, sensing a threat to its regime, then entered into a cooperative agreement with the Knights: AE shall remain as humanity's recognized unified government, having de jure superiority on the basis that it is the legitimate representative of humans' collective interests; while the Knights shall remain as an independent anti-Beast paramilitary organization separate from AE command structure. This arrangement initially brought satisfaction to both sides but eventually the Knights, given their popular support and military strength, would exploit AE's dependence on them - asserting the Knight's de facto superiority over AE in numerous occasions.
The Human-Beast conflict continued under AE-Knights co-leadership. Victories and losses interchanged between beasts and humans until the latter gained ultimate initiative after the Battle of Velchees in CC 422. Beast presence then gradually waned following several human offensives. By CC 424, AE and Knights both predicted that their progress would soon render the Beast threat as negligible within the decade.
Age of Humans
In CC 430, the AE and Knights managed to limit the Beast threat to the frontiers only, the general scale and intensity of the war have subsided. The Absolute Defense Line is now secured and greatly extended to cover all core planets. All known Beast Bio-Gates have been destroyed crippling the possibility of Beasts from infiltrating into or invading beyond the frontier. Humans are enjoying confidence in their newfound security and stability. The AE and Knights jointly announce the start of "Age of Humans" to commemorate the conclusion of the Human-Beast conflict which began earnestly in CC 123.
Suddenly, the core world capital deep inside the Absolute Defense Line, Arin, thought to be impregnable even without reinforcements, fell to the Beasts. Arin was eroded from the inside by Elise-Type Queen E-34 and her powerful and brood. E-34 assimilated all of human's advance technologies and repurposed human weaponry for Beasts' use. She also hacked into the Central Order system, stealing all data accumulated and reported by humans in recorded history. This allowed E-34 to target exactly the critical bases and personalities needed to collapse human organization. Though there were defensive protocols activated, the AE decided to prioritize consolidating its control first in the wake of Mother Knight's disappearance and the fall of Central Order. AE hoped to take advantage of the power vacuum to finally win in their implied competition against the Knights for legitimacy and recognition as the unified government of humans. Unfortunately, this prioritization was seen as hesitation by others in the only effective solution available - the retaking of Arin.
Master Knight Dry Leonhard, the Deputy Chief of the Eastern Order, took a strong and immediate stance on E-34's invasion. Dry Leonhard then announced the creation of a coalition of Knights and AE factions under a unified command - the New Alliance. The sole goal of the New Alliance was to retake Arin although it was implied that the whole Arin Recovery Campaign was a display of power to grab leadership from AE. Eventually, the New Alliance was able to retake Arin although it still took two more years to end the War of Prayer in CC 432. In the aftermath of the war, AE suffered numerous motions of no confidence from its member states who started withdrawing in favor of the New Alliance (later restructured as the Alternative League). In CC 433, the AE was officially dissolved and was succeeded by the Alternative League as humanity's unified government.
Structure
Governance
Despite starting as a military junta, the AE did not maintain its military rule nor transition into a stratocracy. Instead it issued wide-ranging reforms that allowed for a balance between a powerful central government and basic freedoms for member states. The AE follows a federal structure with delineation of the rights of its member states (treated as federal constituents), equal status of all member states, and limitations on the powers and responsibilities of the central unified AE government. Additionally, the AE structure outlines the participation of its member states in central functions, and interaction of member states with each other. Member states have responsibility for internal affairs, guaranteed by the principle of mutual non-intervention except in cases of declared and justified emergencies or when a member states are declared incompetent in exercising its functions or its actions are deemed insufficient in compliance of AE directives. Though the scope of the AE Government covers all human organizations, the AE is mostly based on core worlds where industry and development had been concentrated.
The AE also maintains a monopoly over space travel. To that effect, the AE established the AE Gate Administration to exercise control and regulate space travel. All human warp gate networks are owned by AE.
The overall structure of AE is reminiscent of the Holy Roman Empire and the United Nations.
Military
The AE has a unified military under a single command structure. The AE maintains the Absolute Defense Line which provides the boundary between human safe zones and the Beast frontiers. The conscription policies of the Central Assembly were continued by the AE and remained enforced until its dissolution.
Member states are allowed to have their own self-defense forces. Member states can also volunteer said forces to a joint command to serve as auxiliary units for the main AE forces. Arin's AUA is said to be the most powerful and potent self-defense force in the entire AE. AUA is even capable of providing several expeditions to reinforce frontier human worlds.
Politics
Knights
- Main article: AE-Knights conflict
Since the appearance and their display of power, Knights became a threat to AE's legitimacy and recognition as humanity's unified government. It did not help that the former Central Assembly's leadership, the Leonhard Family, whom AE exiled, is wholly supporting the Knight Order and are Knights themselves. Still, a level of amiable friendship was cemented through an agreement covering mutual defense and cooperation. The agreement also recognized the delineation of roles and competencies between the two amidst the Human-Beast conflict.
The cooperation between AE and Knights can be summed up by the statement:
- "If the AE cannot hold the low level Beasts back, the Knights will be overwhelmed by sheer numbers, but if the Knights cannot hold against the High Level Beasts, the AE will be helplessly destroyed."
However inherent mutual distrust and suspicion due to various factors snowballed into perceived rivalry which eventually further ensued into a covert power struggle. By CC 424, this hidden conflict turned into an arms race when both sides began preparing for a post-Beast reality with the expected coming of the Age of Humans.
Robert Nelson explains the effects of AE-Knights conflict in Tobal
The AE-Knights conflict had a direct effect on Tobal where a planetary government is prevented by political interventions of AE and Knights. The two also manipulate their respective aligned countries to wage wars against each other regularly in order to test new technologies and to wrestle control of strategic Ground Zeroes.
Internal factions
The Central Committee of the anti-Knights faction arrives in Tobal
The different member states and individuals under AE have different interests and agenda. The factions that were represented in the Knight Run series are as follows:
- Pro-AE / Anti-Knights - a faction that seeks to strengthen the AE unified government through centralization. This faction sees the Knights as the greatest rival of AE. It was apparent to be very structured and organized as it had a Central Committee to plan its actions. The Central Committee was purged in Tobal though a complicated bait strategy planned by Dry Leonhard and Cross Society agent Leny.
- Pro-Knights - a faction that seeks for amiable and closer ties with the Knights. They are neutral to attempts in unifying with the Knights until the arrival of E-34.
- Anti-Beasts - a faction that fanatically pushes for the extermination of the Beasts.
- Ancient Church - an inter-galactic humanitarian aid organization that runs orphanages, schools, soup kitchens and others across the universe. The Ancient Church generally provides services to impoverished human worlds. Though it is not a vocal political voice, it advocates for equal distribution of wealth and development proliferation. Master Knight Milo joined the Ancient Church after retiring from the Knight Order.
- Cross Society - a pro-Knights secret organization that acts as the Knight Order's spy agency in AE. Unlike the pro-Knights faction, the Cross Society is directly under and is even staffed by Knights. It runs a front organization that acts as a think tank and professional lobbying group in several AE member states. Cross Society also covertly provides consultation, advisers, and mercenaries to assist allied/puppet governments. Cross Society is responsible for managing Knight Order's interests and affairs in Tobal.
Dissolution
In the advent of the War of Prayer and AE's hesitation to decisively mount a counter-attack, the Knights under Dry Leonhard and some pro-Knights/avidly anti-Beasts AE factions formed a coalition known as the New Alliance. Dry Leonhard was appointed as supreme commander of the New Alliance unified command. New Alliance eventually managed to retake Arin although they still had to abandon the planet afterwards due to irreversible erosion. Still, its victory earned it great prestige and better reputation than the AE. Opinions were abound that the New Alliance should spearhead the war against Beasts - essentially to take de facto leadership of humanity. Since the New Alliance is not a political union but a mere military alliance, it lacked the formal structure to govern. Dry Leonhard then announced in CC 431 the restructuring of New Alliance to establish a new unified government known as the Alternative League (AL). The announcement was made after purging the Central Committee of the anti-Knights AE faction which was hiding in Tobal. The AL, with the expressed goal of replacing the perceived ineffective rule of AE, started a successful political and military campaign that ultimately led to the passage of legislation officially dissolving the AE and subsequently incorporating its institutions and member states to the AL.