The year is 4005, and the recent death of President-for-life Jim-Bob Tucker II (3978-4005) was followed by the election of the ultra-authoritarian President-for-life Ben Tucker XVI who has declared the eradication of rebel forces in the empire as his top priority.
Following the 'War on Terror' in the opening years of the 21st century and the ensuing nuclear terrorist attacks which disrupted many of the major cities across the world, only the United States of America emerged politically intact albeit as a quasi-military dictatorship run by a president-for-life elected by an hereditary senate.
Seizing the initiative the USA enacted regime change after regime change across the globe. This was quickly followed by the enlargement of the United States, first in Europe and then in other developed countries such as Japan, Canada, Australia and South Africa. These were followed by the Latin American states and the Russian, Chinese, Indian and African regions. Finally the armed forces of the new super-state conquered the remaining Asian and Islamic states to form a single world government. General Pete Tucker of the USA proclaimed himself Imperial President-For-Life of the United States of Earth (USE) in January 2032. Since then all presidents have taken the surname of 'Tucker' in his honour.
Expansion into space followed rapidly. Permanent colonies on the Moon, Mars and the moons of Jupiter were established in the 22nd century and the development of hyperdrive engines opened up routes to the nearest stars. By the dawn of the 41st century mankind has expanded to over a million inhabitable worlds and innumerable other rocky worlds.
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Badge of the Imperial Forces |
Politically the President's word is law. His dictates are carried out by the Imperial Senators who elect each new president and whose membership is hereditary. The Senate itself only meets as a body to select a new President. Each world is controlled by a Military Governor appointed by the President and answerable to the Sector Senator.
Imperial rule is maintained by the brutal 'Goons' - a cadre of genetically modified super-soldiers churned out of the cloning vats by the billion. They are all totally loyal to the Empire and willing to lay down their short lives for it. Some even say they have been programmed to enjoy death in the line of duty!
The early Presidents and Senators were southern-style redneck good ol' boyz and the culture has stayed! Dixie WASPS's are the racial ideal. Known as Bubbafolk, only they are allowed to own and farm the land, all others (the Servs) are deemed lesser beings and are confined to the polluted, teeming cities and harsh asteroid mines. Criminals are executed without appeal or enslaved and put to work in the fields. Poor farmboys from good solid WASP stock (known as Bubbaboys) are routinely impressed and used as NCO's. If they excel they get promoted to junior officers and the ultimate accolade is to be chosen to have their DNA used as the pattern for a new generation of goons from the tanks. Younger members of the senatorial classes who join the armed forces go straight in as senior officers. From there they can scheme the political downfall of their family rivals.
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25th Baptist Church |
Religion is dominated by the 25th Baptist Church. A rigid hierarchy of pastors and archpastors keep the ignorant masses under control, and the whole bureacracy is run from the office of the High Pastor on Earth. Appointed by the President personally, the High Pastor also controls the Baptist Inquisition which hunts down all heretics and wrong-thinking individuals. Even Senators fear the wrath of the Inquisition. Traditionally the first question asked of a suspect individual is "Are you now, or have you ever been, a heretic?"
As the Imperials had already taken control of Earth before the march into space began, they controlled who got the pick of the prime new planets. Themselves of course! The lesser races were shipped out as necessary as slaves/workers/servants etc. for all the menial tasks that the Senatorial families wouldn't want to do themselves.
Most cultures (Brits, Europeans in general, Chinese etc.) were already shattered by the terror wars and never allowed to recover - Anti-American sentiment was supressed first by the church, followed later by the elimination of Non-American then Non-Dixie ideas. Now even literacy amongst the Servs is frowned upon.
Scientific research has been officially suppressed for centuries. Scientists are used to work the cloning tanks, improve the space ships and create better weapons and that's about it. Secretly, however, many Senators maintain their own small group of scientists in order to try to give themselves the edge over rivals.
In the wake of such absolute and oppressive rule it was inevitable that rebellion would breed in the margins of society. Acting more as a disparate array of independent guerrilla groups than as any sort of organised army, the rebel forces have proven impossible to destroy. Their hit and run tactics and the fact that they have no established bases or clear chain-of-command make then both elusive and pervasive.
President-for-life Ben Tucker XVI is an old man obsessed with the rebels, he sees them as the main enemy of the state and their eradication is the one last thing he can do to ensure his place in the history books. The ambitious Senators (i.e. all of them) will use any means they can to prove how seriously they take the rebel threat - and how much their rivals are not! They are even prepared to cynically support rebels in any rival Senators sectors in order to try and discredit them.