States and Geography of Human Space
Introduction
The political geography of human space has been rewritten by the Intervention and the war that followed, but you cannot examine it without referring to history and to the operations of jump drones.
For much of the twenty second and twenty third century the major nations of Sol have been divided into a massive cold war down national lines, a continuation of the long nationalistic struggle that had been waged throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. For fear of falling behind, the great nations of earth sent colonies to the stars. For dominance of space they supported them against one another, being drawn into local struggles and politics and supplying vast quantities of modern weapons to colonies, corporations and associations who thought of as their pawns... but who used them in turn.
In many ways it was this tireless quest for national advantage that took humanity, without considering the consequences, from the path the Makers had prepared, and in turn caused the Intervention and its consequences. The vast quantities of arms created to oppose one another in the cold war, including tens of thousands of nuclear warheads were used not against their intended target, but rather against the Interventionists during their invasion of Sol and the inner colonies, doing great damage but leaving those systems seriously damaged in turn. The Intervention shattered the old super powers hold on human politics and devolve the centre of power in human affairs to the Middle Regions, while at the same time causing the Old and New Rims to largely destabilize due to economic crash and alien assault, leaving them increasingly lawless and untamed.
The other factor which plays into the shape human space is gate drone operations. A standard gate drone is a fairly large device, around a kilometre long, consisting of mostly thin and delicate seeming (but so far all but invulnerable) wires wrapped around a massive hyper dense spin core which powers the device. Gate drones continually transmit a series of binary instructions which when repeated back to them on the correct frequency cause them to generate a large wormhole to the system in question.
In the wake of the intervention it seems clear the creators have the ability to link any gate drone to any other (though this maybe rather draining, Sol's drone showed a massive power spike just before it opened a portal to the interventionist's marshalling systems) most of the unlimited links are to a small selection of the network, which seem to be relatively close to one another spatially.
At the start of a gate drone's life however, several of the code transmissions it sends allow links drones much further away. These drones are close to planets, allowing even relatively primitive space craft to pass easily, but stop working after only a few years of gate drone operation, isolating the colonies.
Further from Sol, and other designated "homeworlds" Drones also seem further from stars, requiring much greater technology in order to successfully transit. This seems designed to keep new colonies isolated for as long as possible.
In short it seems that the networks very design has been created to fragment civilizations that pass through it. It is unknown why the creators of the networked programmed this feature.
The Middle Region
The Middle Region is now perhaps the most important region of human space. It was the least damaged in the Intervention and now holds most of the surviving and thriving colonies of humanity, including those of the old super powers and various independents, isolates and corporations.
During the Intervention, while Sol and the Inner Colonies were responsible for most of the damage inflicted on the enemy, it was reinforcements from the powers of the Middle Region who ultimately turned the tide and forced a peace settlement.
The Amtis Derelict
The Amtis Derelict is the crumbling remains of a massive alien megastructure, a dyson swarm which seems to have been uninhabited for several billion years. Amtis was one of the earliest human colonies, as a skip drone bought 21st century colonists near to the least damaged part of the derelict.
The Amtis gate drone ceased connecting directly to Earth some five years later, leaving a thriving colony completely cut off in the night. Bootstrapped by the alien technology they found in the Derelict however, and with several skip drone connections to nearby planets, Amtis managed to thrive.
Amtis is now the main free port and trade station for the Middle Region. Governed by a stable, if rather authoritarian representative democracy, it's government is a light touch with very few laws and regulations, which allows corporations and traders from all across human space to operate freely.
Amtis has a fairly powerful military which keeps the peace in system, but avoid entanglements with other powers, and maintain a strict policy of neutrality, even protecting Compact trade vessels, much to the disgust of more militant polities. Others express equal disgust at the allowances Amtis makes for slavers, drug runners, dealers in alien technology and the like. Despite this, Amtis's government and corporations fronted much of the money to fight against the Intervention, and there are few who are willing to do without Amtis's trade.
UNCAR
While the UN maybe defunct on Earth, various Isolate colonies settled by UN Mandate still maintain its dream. The United Nations Colonial Administrative Region consists of several Isolate worlds who, due to heroic effort and organization were able to maintain links to one another even after the loss of contact with Sol in 2096.
The modern UNCAR colonies are a varied lot, but maintain a commitment to human rights, peace and internationalism which has made them the moral centre of the Middle Region... at least in their own minds. During the cold war, UNCAR was also at the forefront of the non-aligned movement, and attempting to defuse the super power initiated (or enabled) conflicts in the Middle Rim, with varying success.
UNCAR's battle fleets took a strong part in fighting the Intervention, and this is widely seen as the time period when they came into their own.
Terra Incognita
Lush, resource rich Terra Incognita was always going to be a conflict zone, with abundant biomass and resources which allowed for industrial civilization. . . and encouraged invasions and coups. The super powers poured colossal amounts of money and vast numbers of combat machines into various Incognitian factions, vying for the colony which was seen as one of the crown duels of human space.
These proxy conflicts continued for years, and created one of the largest military forces in the Colonies. Terra Incognita came to something like peace during the intervention, as the pressing need to fight the aliens overrode local concerns. After the war though, local powers have once again begun to glare at one another, and still have many weapons and resources with which to back up their harsh stares.
The Inner Colonies
The Inner Colonies were devastated in the Intervention and various counter offensives, and what was once the most stable and prosperous area of human space is now a wilderness of half starved worlds, haunted by pirates, roving bands of former military vessels and rogue human and alien AI war machines.
Sol
Still ruled by the shattered reminants of the old Superpowers, Sol is still the most heavily populated and industrialized system in human space but it's a shadow of its former glory. Dominated by the Jovian Confederation and Asian Alliance, Sol is a promising trade destination or alliance partner if the dangerous Inner Colonies can be braved.
The Old Rim
Up until fifty years ago, the Old Rim was the edge area of human space, where gate drone lines began to run out. The lines seem to have extended now, perhaps to facilitate the Interventionists travel, and like the Middle Region the Old Rim is beginning to come into its own. A worrying development for some is the continued upsurge in the activities of several highly transhuman powers there however, especially the Ebony Sign.
The Ebony Sign
The Ebony Sign are a strange group, with their origins in Sol over one hundred and fifty years ago. Believers in radical genetic, cybernetic and AI enhancement, the Ebony sign despised laws restricting such practices. When political campaigns were unsuccessful in getting these laws removed, the Sign began to form colonial expeditions to leave for the Rim.
Many powers chose to restrict their citizens from participating in these expeditions, not wanting the birth of a radically transhuman power where they could not restrict it, and this caused riots and even terrorism in many areas. Despite attempts to stop them, many Ebony Sign groups were able to leave Sol and the inner colonies and fled deep into the rim to
These Colonies still persist today, mostly on large megastructures which the Sign have apparently designed themselves. The Sign do not involve themselves much in the affairs of other humans, and may even trade directly with the interventionists, but Sign ships and agents have been increasingly present in the Middle Regions lately, and they have shown great interest in acquiring jump drives.
The New Rim
The New Rim appeared in the gate drone network around fifty years ago, extending the sphere humanity could penetrate. These caused a gold rush of claims and counter claims, with many wild cat colonies, rogue corporate mining operations and the setting up of large super power military camps. During the second stage of the Intervention, these bases in turn drew much attention from the Interventionists and were struck heavily, with the region seeing very heavy fighting.
The Intervention shattered the regions fragile economy and it is now a lawless frontier even worse than the inner colonies, all be it one with many opportunities for governments and corporations, especially those in the business of collecting alien or military salvage.
The Compact: Quislings!
Created by the Interventionists, the Compact is the one major power of the New Rim, a large group of humans and human clones heavily supplied with Interventionist technology apparently as a way of showing humans how much better their life could be if they'd just obey the rules and get on with the business of trading and exploring.
Needless to say this has not been a particularly popular among other humans, who regard the Compact as at best traitors, and at worse barely human. Still the Compact continues to try, launching trade expeditions, peace keeping forces and the like across human space to mixed results.
While it may cause diplomatic problems, the Compact is an excellent place to obtain advanced alien technology, and is one of the few stable areas of the chaotic New Rim.