Bacterian Empire

Bacterian Empire
Anthem: Hymn of the Emperor's Reign
Homeworld (and largest colony)		Bacterius
Capital(s) (and largest city)		Trebia
Official language(s)		Ploggium
Recognised regional languages		Various Bacterian dialects
Ethnic groups		78% Bacterians 22% Various
Demonym		Bacterians
Government		Parliamentary republic
-	Emperor	Namgron
Legislature		Court of Bacterium
Area
-	Estimated	~10 billion star systems
Population
-	estimate	300 billion
Currency		Imperial Stater
Time zone		Bacterius Standard Time

The Bacterian Empire is one of the largest known interstellar government, comprising large swathes of the Gamma Quadrant of Milky Way and the Bacterian Home Galaxy.

Etymology

The name of the Bacterian species comes from their peculiar parasitic/symbiont biology, based on genetic assimilation via a highly advanced microbiological vector, known as the superbacterium. For more information, see Bacterians, Evolution and Genetic Assimilation.

Executive branch

Known leader(s): Emperor Graciobacillus, Emperor Pavonidas Bacterionema I, Emperor Namgron
Ruling Body: Court of Bacterium

Although theoretically the state, and therefore the Emperor, holds ownership of all Bacterian territories, the system has some feudal elements, with lesser territorial lords pledging their allegiance to greater ones. Established warlords are rewarded for their loyalty with surplus wealth, territories or labor services. The hierarchy that holds this system of government together is reinforced by close ties of loyalty between warlords and their subordinates.

Each warlord governed territory is dynamic, not static. Power is constantly shifting and authority is often ambiguous. Each warlord territory encounters competitors, including the Emperor and the court aristocracy, the imperial governmental systems, and religious authorities such as the Great Temples and shrines. Each territory reflects the necessity of new ways of balancing the changing requirements of central and regional authorities. The study of the ebbs and flows in this complex history continues to occupy the attention of scholars.

Military

The vast Bacterian military force, possibly the largest in known space, is not a centralized organization. Instead, individual Fleets of the Imperial Bacterian Navy are typically commanded by individual warlords.

While most Bacterian systems maintain a specialized customs and law-enforcement force, in many cases some part or all of this role falls to the Provincial Fleets of the Imperial Navy. Naval starships have the right to stop and search suspect vessels – and they have the weaponry to compel obedience. The enforcement role includes suppression of piracy and smuggling.

Population statistics

Ethnic Factions: Bacterians - 98%, Other - 2%
Most of the Bacterians live under the direct control of the Bacterian Empire.

Territories

Control World: Bacterius, Bacterius system, Gamma Quadrant.

Territories: Medium-sized territories in the Gamma Quadrant, estimated hundreds of thousands of systems in the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy.

Treaties & Diplomatic Relations

PEACE TREATY: The Hemmoian Federation

History

Origins & ancient history

The exact age of the Empire is not known, but it is regarded as one of the oldest governmental institutions in the Universe. The history of the Empire is a bloody one, with constant conquer and invasion, civil wars, death, and sorrow. According to gathered intelligence, a powerful noble house has traditionally held the power for generations, until a takeover, hostile or not, was performed by some other noble house.

The Emperor is the supreme commander of the Imperial Navy, the Imperial Legions and the Bacterian people themselves. A court of some sort exists, but its power and impartiality is questionable at best.

The Empire originates from the Bacterian Home Galaxy, which to this day has remained an area of mystery to the peoples of the Milky Way. Based on the Vobyscum Fragments, it is believed the Bacterians came to our Galaxy from the Large Magellanic Cloud of our Local Cluster. There, it still is one of the three major starpowers, along with the Amandas and the Hagourians.

Era of Expansion

Many generations ago, the Bacterians discovered an active singularity which had successfully ripped through the space-time continuum to form a gateway to the Milky Way Galaxy. Realizing the infinite possibilities of extra-galactic conquest, the scientists of the Bacterian Empire quickly replicated this natural phenomena. With the capability to open portals to other galaxies, the Empire soon took over large swaths of the Milky Way's Gamma Quadrant, by force or by establishing false treaties with the locals. A large uninhabited planet suitable for Bacterian life was selected to be the Bacterian Command World in the Milky Way. The planet was named Bacterius.

Fortunately, the Bacterian advance was then stopped by lack of resources since the Empire was soon the size of a medium-sized galaxy. Furthermore, they had to slow down as they encountered two major adversaries, namely the Gigerdians with their Federation and Confederation in the Alpha Quadrant and the United Orcs in the Delta Quadrant. After the historic First Contact with the UO, the Bacterian Empire co-existed semi-peacefully with its neighbours for 22 years.

First Bacterian War

However, when half-Orc half-Bacterian Paavo Bakteeri seized control of the Empire, craving for vengeange, this era of peace was ended quickly and replaced with a mass slaughter like no other conflict before - The First Bacterian War. The Bacterian Empire sent out huge Purification Fleets, composed of planet sterilizing weapons of mass destruction and bioweapons capable of incomprehensible horrors. Billions of Hemmoians, Orcs and Ollapukkitians were lost to the sudden aggression. The unstoppable bacterian war machine tore apart the new homeworld of the UO as well as nearly every colony. The remaining leaders of the United Orcs fled to a distant minining colony and prepared a huge colonyship, named the UOSF HemmoCruiser III, after the two colony-uniting vessels of the Great Chaos Era, to escort them beyond the Rim, to a safe haven in the Inter-Galactic Void.

They suffered staggering defeats during their retreat and extinction of their species seemed imminent. Against all odds, the First Bacterian War suddenly ended just when the aggressors were ready to eliminate the HemmoCruiser III with Bakteeri Paavo being forced to step down from his position as an Emperor, and giving back the conquered colonies of the United Orcs. The retreat of the United Orcs also lead to the UO - Gigerdian First Contact, as the HemmoCruiser III had unwittingly entered previously uncharted Gigerdian space in the Alpha Quadrant. In fact, the Gigerdians were instrumental in saving the UO survivors from the doomed colonyship.

Main article: First Bacterian War

Peace Station Era

The Bacterian Empire backed down, ending their era of violent conquest and enlargement for a while. When the Independent Hypersentiences proposed the Peace Station Inter-Species Peace Treaty, the Bacterians signed it with the rest of the starpowers and sent an ambassador aboard the Peace Station.

While the Peace Station Era was not a time without conflict for the Bacterian Empire, no large scale wars erupted (at least in this galaxy; the events in the Bacterian Home Galaxy remain a mystery). But as the Peace Station Project was about to get closed down, and members of the Bakteeri family had once again infiltrated the workings of the Government, the Empire's prolonged age of peace was about to end. About a year before the official abandoning of the Peace Station, the Empire had gathered a tremendous attack fleet in secret Imperial Navy installations. This fleet was now ready to be deployed in a full frontal assault against an enemy starpower. The target of choice was again the United Orcs - only this time the union was named the Hemmoian Federation. The Second Bacterian War had begun.

Second Bacterian War

Main article: Second Bacterian War

The strategy of choice for the Empire was to mobilize its full starfleet, to jump into the target system, hit hard, hit fast, and eliminate all resistance. While this was brutally effective when engaging younger, less influential civilizations, it proved to be a grave error when applied against a major galactic superpower. The Hemmoian Federation, caught off guard at first, lost several borderworlds to the aggressors but soon gathered a defensive force of an equal strength to take care of the invaders. In a gritty showdown between two superpowers, the IHSF fleet moved in defensive positions around their command world, Aldaain, while the entire Bacterian attack fleet "fell upon them like an endless black rain emerging from the jumpgates", as a Hemmoian fleet admiral described the scene. Both sides suffered heavy losses, and the surface of Aldaain was partially bombed to ruins, but the Hemmoians emerged from the conflict as winners. With their entire attack fleet decimated, the Bacterian Empire was forced to call their campaign against the Federation off when they threatened to take out their command world.