Jay Allan - The Cost of Victory

Cog is a derogatory term widely used to describe the lower classes in the Alliance, particularly the U.S. Officially called non-designated workers, the Cogs are citizens who do not have work permits or assigned professions. Denied access to the segregated middle class enclaves, the Cogs live predominantly in semi-abandoned sections of cities, typically crime-ridden ghettoes with minimal municipal services and crumbling infrastructure.

The Cog demographic has its roots in the years prior to the Unification Wars, when political parties sought to increase dependence on government to more effectively create easily-controlled voting blocks. As terrorism escalated and the economy began to collapse, government found it no longer had the resources to fulfill its obligations, nor the need to do so. War and strife allowed the politicians to establish tighter controls over the population, obviating the need to incentive voters. The secret ballot was abolished, ostensibly as a security measure to protect the integrity of the process, but in effect allowing governmental agencies to persecute those who voted "incorrectly." Henceforth, governments became entrenched and elections were held strictly for appearances.

The precursors to today's Cogs fell into desperation and despair. In the new economic reality, they were unable to obtain educations or decent jobs, and government support and assistance levels were severely reduced or eliminated. Ultimately, it became apparent that paying sustenance-level wages to desperate workers was cheaper than using high-tech automation, allowing the Cogs to survive, however marginally.

The Cogs are mostly illiterate and born into their station. It is almost impossible for an individual born a Cog to obtain anything but a minimal education or to move to the middle classes. Cogs continue to work in unsafe and poorly maintained basic materials factories and similar facilities for sustenance wages.

Members of the middle classes whose work permits are revoked for committing some offense effectively become members of the Cog class, though they are not designated as such officially. The victims of these punitive actions create a small pool of educated workers among the Cogs, though they are generally barred from anything but the basic menial jobs available to their less well-trained neighbors.

The Cogs are generally preyed upon by the Gangs, which consist mostly of Cogs themselves. The Gangs are secretly sanctioned and loosely directed by the government, and they serve to keep the Cogs too terrorized to contemplate rebellious or disruptive activity.

The middle classes consist of the (mostly) educated workers who perform the various jobs that keep a technologically advanced society functioning. Engineers, computer programmers, accountants, doctors, chefs, and similar professionals are all members of the middle class. Members of the middle class are allowed to live in segregated enclaves with security and services far superior to those available to the Cogs. Food and other necessities are generally available in adequate, though not excessive quantities. Families live in small apartment flats, usually in residential blocks managed by employers.

The middle classes are highly regulated. Everyday activities are subject to considerable monitoring, and anyone whose reading, video, or other entertainment selections are suspect is marked for monitoring by internal security. Travel, pregnancies, marriages, and job changes all require governmental approval and appropriate permits.

The middle class enjoy a life that is relatively safe and secure, as long as they obey the many laws and regulations. While long lines, waiting periods, and shortages are common, for the most part the middle classes have the basic requirements of tolerable living. Any dissatisfaction is stilled by the fear of losing status and being expelled from the middle class zones and forced to live and work among the Cogs.

The Western Alliance is a two-level federal republic consisting of the marginally separate but strongly allied nations of the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Oceania (greater Australia). This commonwealth arrangement is unique among the superpowers. The Alliance also occupies Latin America and administers the area as a resource zone under the supervision of a military governor. The occupied territories are not represented in the Alliance Senate.

Though their governments are a sinkhole of incompetence, authoritarianism, and corruption, the states of the alliance remain, at least in theory, the most democratic on Earth. Superficially a republic, the Alliance is, in effect, an oligarchy controlled by an entrenched political class. Citizens have few freedoms, and speech, travel, and other activities are heavily monitored by the government.

The individual nations maintain their own separate military establishments, both on Earth and in space, though they are commanded by a unified Joint Chiefs of Staff organization and are frequently combined for operations.

The U.S. deep space ground forces consist primarily of the Marine Corps, which operates alongside the British Royal Marines and other Alliance offworld forces. British military organizations continue to carry the designation "Royal" despite the fact that the monarchy was eliminated during the Unification Wars.

The Western Alliance is one of the strongest superpowers, both on Earth and in space. Its terrestrial economy is perpetually bankrupt, and the government is highly dependent on the profitable exploitation of its colony worlds, which are allowed a significant level of independence as long as mandated production quotas are met.

Though the jihad failed to achieve its goal of world domination, the forces of the Caliphate ended the Unification Wars in possession of a vast domain stretching from Western India to the Atlantic coast of Africa.

This vast theocracy is headed by the Caliph, who rules with absolute and unquestioned power. Below the Caliph are several levels of nobility exercising direct control over the larger population, which lives barely above the sustenance level and enjoys almost no comforts or freedoms. Citizens are encouraged to live a simple existence and to practice obedience to their lords and the state. Laws are restrictive, and violators are punished harshly.

The Caliphate’s colonies are organized according to a highly militarized feudal system. The local commanders are lords, and essentially “own” their colonies in return for providing resources and militia units for use on the frontier. By encouraging the use of private resources in colonization efforts, the Caliphate has established one of the largest interstellar empires.

The Caliphate military is capable and well-equipped. The frontline Janissaries are elite powered infantry trained from childhood to serve for life.

The Central Asian Combine is the descendant of the People’s Republic of China. When the Chinese economic "miracle" proved to be at least partly illusory and exports evaporated as the overall world economy collapsed, the nation exploded into revolution and chaos. The Peoples' Liberation Army crushed the dissenters and established a new government in partnership with remnants of the old regime. Senior generals and several leaders from the old government formed a ruling council, the decrees of which are strictly enforced by the military and internal security forces.

The Combine is less technologically advanced than the Western Alliance or the Pacific Rim Coalition and lacks the religious fervor of the Caliphate, but it has shown a willingness to expend enormous amounts of manpower to compensate. The pre-cursor power to the CAC stopped the Caliphate’s initial eastward expansion with massive human wave attacks, and the resulting 50-year war of attrition depopulated much of the Indian subcontinent.