# The Federation: Ferocious and Free ## By Edmund Elliot-McIntosh, published September 1st, 83372 >The Federation, ferocious and free. But what do these words mean to me? >The fierce fleet secures freedoms, liberty through annihilation. > To maintain its headons, it brings about liquidation. Such are the parasitic words of the big boy brain slave, the high headon himself, Jacques Foucault, written while Foucault dined aboard the gelded station of Grizwald in 68392, a guest of Count Picerdly. His pens was brought to paper as two heavy cruisers launched their missels at the revolting masses below. The Count had said at dinner that the rebels were of no concern. A simple nuisance the decadent count declared. His gauche outfit an ostentatious and overdecorated military uniform with a deep purple cape, with the images of various victories his family had achieved sown into the lining such that any onlooker was treated to a visual history of the Counts families activities. The count himself was dining as his people were slaughtered by warship and military troop. He gorged himself while the people below rioted over exorbitant food prices. It feel on poets like Foucault to capture the pure absurdity of the situation. In this year I see the Federation still Ferocious and Free, but with much less the ironic knot Foucault finds himself stuck in. The Federation has walked out of the Great War on the side of the Victors, and now with Vers embroiled in Civil War, the Federation stands alone as the sole Great Power in the Known Universe. Under the restoring D.A.M Goodwin we have seen nothing but glory and triumph. Our fleet is smaller yes, but its punch is greater than ever before. She has trimmed fat, not cut muscle. On the grounds of Freedom, who has done more for our Freedoms than D.A.M Goodwin? Where else in the Known Universe enjoys the Federations freedoms? The Federation grants each citizen a free round trip to Earth. The Federation has captured the power of industry to provide a basic income to its lowest classes. The highest classes, our Lords, Earls, Dukes, Eklords, and Senior Politicians and those in their social circles, they travel across the Federation reinvigorating the Lecture by speaking with the Common people. The economic reforms, the changes to licenses, have allowed new masses to access ships. To gain the freedom that one finds in being their own Lord while out among the stars. Indeed the Federation embodies freedom, and its necessary tolerance, to such a great degree that it does not even force democracy onto all, and in the harshest of democratic sovereignties, the lordly titles are all but invisible. Indeed it is the true freedom of hte Federations soverignty system which allows for such an expansive amount, the tens of thousands of soverignties which now exist, and which each have hteir own laws, composed of counts iwth their own systesm of governments and Barons with their own systems. Indeed the Federations freedom makes it the fount from which ideas spring forth. A laboratory of a million places each embracing their own vision of freedom and obligation. In each sovereignty a unique experiment, and across the whole of the Federation the great successes of each being disseminated to the others. Yes, there might be violence between Sovereignties, but this is simply steel sharpening steel. Practice for real war against our greater enemies. No other nation would be as Tolerant as us of our enemies. We harbor allies of every enemy we face within our boarders, and we only take action on them when they act first. We must wait for provokcation before we act. None of Vers, the Empire, Germushia, Deutchrea, Xiao-Ming, any part of the Axion Alliance, nor any of the minor powers would tolerate such people within their boarders. At the top most level the Federation and its government is unrevoltable. Not because it is not questionable, for the Commons is as Sinful as the Senate, and Business the Lords; every council to every cabinet, and every committee, from senatorial to luncheon to the union for the McHortons in the palaces' government district, only a block from the great halls of law, industry, military, all around the presidency. No, the Federation cannot be revolted against because it is too large, to complex, and too efficient at elevating the concerns of those in need. If you hate the government you're under, and want more democracy, the Federal Government is only too happy to ship you to some remote colony where you're a direct part of the Government process. If you want to be told what to do, to embrace the life of a servant, there equally is a place for you. Such is the Federation, it seeks it find a place for all. The Federation has adapted before, and it will do so again. Even in its moments of falling it persevered, adapted to the circumstances, and came back with the force of a M.A.C round. The Federation offers freedom of choice, freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and of being. Vers may offer some of these if you're a part of the right guild, or from the right family. The Axion Alliance is so democratic that is only has chaos at the present. Germushia is a cartel Kingdom. Polandskia a wasteland. Venezuelar is simply the Federation with a Sigmarian religious vision. To even entertain the idea that Xiao-Ming is anywhere near as free as least free society ruled by the Jewel is to entertain an idea as absurd as the Void actually being the Abyss. What of the Empire? its cold meritocracy might be thought more free. But the Citizens of the Federation today have greater rights than the Empire, which maintains restrictions on its franchise like those of the early days of First and Second Federations. Perhaps Norlar, the Switzerswedes, or Egyptersia? Preposterous. The first is simply an empire of the few, the second an isolationist militaristic hellscape, and the last the perhaps only rival to Detuchrea as least free of any state in the Universalis Confederation, with its own unique religion. Indeed, only the machine slaves of the United Augmented Republic can attest to a equivalent quality of life to that of the media Federation citizen. The only loss is ones totals freedom, as the machine constantly views your might, making you the slave of everyone else in fulfilling your desires, while everyone else becomes a slave in fulfilling your dreams. So it is then that by simple comparison the Federation is the most free. And by undeniable fact the Federation is the most fierce. We its citizens have much to be proud of. The lectures, our Federal and Sovereign fleets. Our aristocracy and elites, who produce such great history and rule such vast region. Our datafeeds which buzz with information, sending out our net-shows, allowing one to experience the greatest heights of fantasy and fiction imaginable. Our industry is cutting edge, and our social safety net vast in its protective features. We are a society which gives those who have yet to wake up a space to sleep, while the present are given even tool necessary to pull themselves to whatever destination they set, they have a great history to be inspired by, and great culture works to draw on as narratives for the various arcs of their life. The Federation will work through its problems, but it is better together than apart. The Federation is Fierce and Free.