Editing Quest:Hive Queen Quest (section)

==== Union of Independent Colonies ====
:''Capital: New Prescott City, Gemini, Tau Ceti system''

===== Parliament and the Secretary Council =====
[[Image:Secretary_Council.jpg|300px|thumb|right|In order from left to right: Secretary of State Neville Morgan, Secretary of Defense Alexandra Dupont, Secretary of Intelligence Jack Windsor, and Secretary of Commerce Nathaniel Anderson.]]
The Union is a governing body formed from representatives of a large number of otherwise independent and often politically opposed worlds and systems. Every member planet is represented by a single individual, often elected but not always, which form the Union Parliament. There is no executive title or organization within the government, however it does posses a council of highly ranked individuals known as the Secretary Council which serves a similar role. The council's legal capacity in parliament is strictly advisory, however each member is charged with overseeing a critical component of the Union's function, which gives them great sway over the members of parliament itself in practice.Members of the council are rarely present during meetings of parliament, however they often make appearances during the drafting and debating of bills relating to their positions.

The council is composed of four members that each serve in important administrative roles under the authority of parliament, which is charged with appointing the members of the council.
* Secretary of Defense who serves as the Executive Commander of the Union Space Forces, the Interstellar Marines, and the Mobile Infantry
* Secretary of Intelligence who serves as Director of the Bureau of Foreign Intelligence and the Research and Development Administration
* Secretary of State who serves as the Chief Ambassador on behalf of the Union and Director of Foreign Affairs
* Secretary of Commerce who serves as Treasurer and Director of the Interstellar Trade Commission.

===== Society and culture =====
The Union is, on the surface, a melting pot of many cultures and histories with a wide range of political ideologies. In reality, these many different subcultures are often separated and segregated of their own accord to specific planets or regions. On the local level, it is easy to see strong divisions between the average humans of any two worlds. In theory it is this wide range of beliefs and ideologies that grants the Union its long term stability, as there is always room for debate and people to question contemporary wisdom. In practice, this often results in numerous isolated subcultures that often refuse to interact with, or are openly hostile to other views, which can be seen in the wide range of laws and regulations between the many worlds of the Union. A common commodity on one planet could be an illegal good on another, with little to no agreeable standard between worlds. This was one of several key motivators behind the signing of the Homestead act, which designated ships capable of interplanetary flight to be immune to the customs laws of individual planets, so long as such illicit goods do not exit the ship in question, or are in any way involved in any form of sale or exchange while the ship is in dock. To prevent items from being 'conveniently stolen' while in dock, illegal items must be registered with customs, however ships that do not request protection under the act hold an incredibly limited expectation of privacy under the nicknamed "nothing to hide" clause.

The results of the laws have had several unintended consequences and have, ironically, further stratified the culture of the Union along ideological, astrographical, and economic lines, with those living on the surface of worlds often living under far stricter laws then those travelling trade routes or living within space habitats, giving rise to the modern cowboy, often called Spacers that typically consist of private freight runners, mercenaries, fugitives, and anti-government separatists. The rise in dangerously unregulated space activity eventually lead to the bolstering of the Interstellar Trade Commission, granting it regulatory power over the Union's space cities, starports, and stations, however since the enforcement of these regulations rely on the Union Space Forces and the voluntary compliance of station operators space remains something of a wild west in many systems.

===== Military doctrine =====
The Union military, much like all human organizations, is divided into a number of smaller organizations that work together, or independently to accomplish objectives across space. The military branches of the Union include the Space Forces, the Mobile Infantry, and the Interstellar Marines.

Every planet within the Union is charged with its own defense, as well as granted either garrisons, patrols, or subsidy funding aimed at building defensive infrastructure. This collection of military, law enforcement, and logistical systems are collectively known as the PDF, or planetary defense force, which every planet maintains to some extent. A PDF is expected to be specialized in combat in the terrain of their home planet, and is expected to be prepared for any and all eventuality. While their most obvious use is to defend from invaders, the PDF are most frequently used in natural disasters to facilitate evacuations and perform relief efforts. Despite sharing a name, the PDF of every planet is considered a separate entity, and do not share funds, resources, or logistics. A local PDF will often be composed of local police, militia, a small collection of trained soldiers, and in some rare cases a small locally built picket fleet. In most cases their numbers are bolstered, or sometimes mostly composed of, members of other military branches, especially the Mobile Infantry.

The Union Space Forces make up the bulk of the Union's space worthy fleet, and performs patrols, scouting missions, and picket defense duty across Union space. The fleet is largely composed of small and fast corvette class ships which serve in a logistical role, however it does posses a sizable combat ready fleet, including powerful battleship and carrier class capital ships. Union ships are typically in the shape of a mushroom, with a large metallic shield cap mounted at the front that serves to protect the crew from radiation, micro asteroid impacts, and as additional protection against enemy fire. They also serve as water storage, and contain enough liquid water to maintain the crew for the duration of deployment, as well as being used as reaction mass by the ship's maneuvering thrusters. The shield cap contains most of the ship's weapon mounts arranged around the rim, as well as a cluster of sensors mounted around the center, where the spinal mount is located. On most Union starships, the command bridge is located just behind the shield cap where is it most protected from attack. Behind the cap a central spine runs a great distance behind the ship, and makes up the main hull. The hull of the ship itself is incredibly thin and fragile but is modular in nature, allowing armor plating, shield emitters, cargo pods, missile launchers, auxiliary sensors, hangar bays and more to be added in, or taken and rearranged as needed. This modular construction method serves to the human's strengths and weaknesses, allowing them to build ships in small pieces before being assembled together, allowing as few humans to be used as possible. Once completed, a Union ship is a high quality machine, often quite fast and well shielded, but will only moderate physical armor. They often favor railguns as their primary weapon, firing at long range while using speed and maneuverability to avoid close engagements. Smaller fighter craft are often deployed from larger ships to scout the edges of the fleet's formation and missiles are typically used on smaller ships to counter their lower spinal mount damage output. The Space Forces offer basic training in infantry combat in the event of an emergency, but otherwise work closely with the Mobile Infantry and Marines to maintain small garrisons on most ships. While the Space Forces do maintain frequent patrols of Union space, most of its assets are maintained in dockyards, where they can be maintained at low cost until their deployment is needed.

The Mobile Infantry is by far the largest military branch of the Union, but holds one of the smallest budgets according to public records. The majority of MI resources are composed of garrisons both in space and planet side, and nearly a quarter of the MI's troops are on loan to various PDFs at any given moment, with the majority of the rest composed of off duty and reserve troops. The Mobile Infantry have no ships under their command, but work closely with the Space Forces to be transported as needed, as well as using various public-private partnerships with privately owned shipping corporations and public transport to help manage small deployment changes. The MI typically utilize a number of equipment and weapons to accomplish their missions, typically in the form of tanks, atmospheric fighters, artillery, and move-assist capable skeleton suits, which are lightly armored and highly mobile, as well as cheap to build and replace.

The Interstellar Marines are a small but very effective and well funded branch of the Union military, and often serve the role of special forces. The Marines posses a small fleet of corvette to cruiser sized warp capable ships, all of which are troop carriers, armored transports, or assault carriers, but most marine transport is still managed by the Space Forces with small garrisons of marines often being stationed aboard capital ships or vessels on high priority missions. Marines utilize powerful and expensive powered combat armor capable of offering a wide range of offensive and defensive capabilities, including jump jets capable of short ranged flight, anti-infantry and anti-armor weapons, and even missile launcher capabilities. The marines are unique in that they are trained and capable of being inserted into a planet's atmosphere from an orbiting ship through the use of a drop pod, making them the primary choice as first response units in the event of an emergency.