The Southern Territories are featured in August's PDF, Ships of the Black Desert: The "Star Turtle" and are made up of Antarctica, Australia, and New Zealand. The polity is a minor power, whose main concern is the Chinese Alliance to the North, which constantly threatens to absorb the Territories in their bid to become a mega-state. The deserts of the Territories' Australian Outback is home to the largest enclave of Native Martians on Terra, whom are sponsored by the Consensus. The Martians are experimenting with terraforming the charred Earth's surface using their bio-synergistic techniques. Antarctica is home to a booming business in DNA harvesting of extinct plants and animals under the now much thinner ice sheets. These "new" DNA strains are revolutionizing bio-diversity trading throughout the Inner System.
That's all I've got so far; suggestions are welcome. BTW, it's looking good for the PDF to come out on time, August 1st.
Enjoy, RocketFans!
Hmm. They probably have some of the largest untapped mineral resources on the planet - oil, natural gas, metals. All of that can come in handy helping to rebuild things.
ReplyDeleteThey also have a major disadvantage - they will typically have a tough time reaching orbit. Only Australia is near the equator and its near their perceived threat - China.
Population is also likely to be small compared to other nation states. For folks from up the gravity well, its huge. But on Earth, well, probably pretty small. So, what's their take on AI? Citizens? Or Menace? Also, do they welcome immigrants?
That's one of the reasons that they use the Star Turtles. The electric prop modes allows the craft to fly over the Pacific until they're over the Equator before kicking in the L-Drive and going for LEO. There are few ground based launcher stations in ST and almost no tail-landing rockets.
ReplyDeleteThe Southern Territories are called that because the citizens of the Polity are all signatories of the Martian Consensus. National recognition by Mars is one of the BIG checks against aggression from the other states on Terra. The truth is, EVERYONE wants ST, as the area of the polity and its resources would give any other power on Terra enough advantage to make a play for control of the entire world.
...Which is precisely why the Martian control it. The Territory was declared neutral and the location of the peace talks that led to the Treaty of Mars. This is not that far-fetched, as Antarctica was already neutral ground for centuries at that point and AU and NZ were both inundated and devastated after the War. The Consensus offered to "test out their terraforming techniques for use in rehabilitating Terra's biosphere" Which is an awfully nice way of saying, "We're going to hold the keystone of Terra's future so you assholes will play nice"
Ain't politics grand?
Immigrants are welcome, but in order to gain citizenship the candidate must work for a period on Mars. The logistics and cost of such a move insures that the number of new ST citizens is only a few hundred a year, and the infrastructure of the Black Desert, the Destiny Foundation model and the Martian economy are maintained. Mars sells ST resources to Terra, giving them a decent balance of trade by not needing to import trade goods from Mars itself, and ST gets money, protection from China and the rest of Terra.
This is not only military protection; ST, through the Consensus, is the only civilian based government in the entire Solar System by this time. A long as the Articles of Consensus are not violated, the MC couldn't care less what you do. There are no "victim-less crimes" for example, and it is legal to criticize the government.
Groovy. Looking good.
ReplyDelete