AUTHOR
DANIEL RAFFERTY
Neucarron History: Analysis
General History
Neucarron recorded history is heavily fragmented due to the four nations engaging in almost constant regional and global warfare for the last six thousand years. Soil samples have shown scientists that there has been at least seven nuclear winters and even two nuclear summers. Nuclear summers have confirmed to historians/scientists that the more ancient societies of Reclara, Troon, Frudin & Lovin had access to advanced combustible technologies in order for such an event to occur.
Confirmed historical evidence puts the Neucarron species as having achieved behavioural modernity only a few thousand years ago, with geneticists theorising that something extreme must have happened to cause a bottleneck in the civilization. This bottleneck pushed the species forward at impressive speeds, allowing for modern civilization to occur outside of normal evolutionary parameters. Historians estimate that Neucarro entered the industrial age multiple times over the last four thousand years, with a planetary ice age lasting eight hundred years destroying most of known society around 3,000 years ago. The modern computer age began without broken linkage 900 years ago. From that point forward, progress has been stagnant and reversed many times until the first world government was founded.
Progress was minimal up to 0735 when the energy crisis became critical. Having exhausted the planet for all easily accessible oil and gas, the four regions found their cities rioting as rolling power cuts became normal. The four regions, instead of combining their resources, turned aggressive once more and jealously protected their remaining reserves. Then, in 0741 a Reclaran expedition to the snowy Fabled Isles, on the very edge of Northern Reclara territory, detected what appeared to be a vast underground basin of rich liquid gas. The Reclaran government quickly mobilised a full mining expedition and sent a fleet to guard the island. Aircraft carriers and submarines set sail, with surface missile destroyers and even the intelligence service to protect against terrorism.
Two months after drilling began, the mining teams crashed into an ancient underground base. Carbon dating confirmed it was probably around four thousand years old. The intelligence services of Reclara - The RSS - immediately suspended all drilling and sealed off the site. The Reclaran government sent another fleet of warships to guard the area. With the RSS holding many of the levers of power in the government at the time, elected politicians including the prime minister were not informed of the true findings. It was labelled a historic but unimpressive find, described as an old Reclaran military base from a period of time before verifiable recorded history. Technology was old and dated.
Troon did not take well to this labelling, with their own intelligence services indicating the Reclarans were withholding vital information, and demanded immediate access to the site. Reclara refused, and Troon struck the Fabled Isles with a tactical nuclear missiles. Thus, what became known as the Snow Wars began. This war involved a fresh exchange of nuclear missiles between Reclara and Troon, with 6% actually breaching regional defences. Thirty million died as a result in a war that did not end for eight years.
In 0749, a 300 metre wide asteroid struck north-east Reclara in the mountains. With the Snow Wars, the fighting had extended to space, with all sides destroying vital satellites and there was little notice given of this impact. The immediate death toll was eight million, and the Tripartite alliance (Reclara, Frudin and Lovin) expected Troon to begin an immediate land invasion. Instead, Neucarros industrial superpower called a truce and was the first to respond with mass aid and evacuation. Thus began thirty years of peace, known as the "first golden era". This period saw rapid advancement in social care for Reclara, Frudin and Lovin who started to focus more on their large poorer populations outside key cities. Reclara, for being a titan in science and research, had always focused on its capital city and left the outlying regional cities and towns to fend for themselves. Finally, investment was seen across the region with Frudin and Lovin following suit. During this time, Troon focused on ecological terra-forming of its naturally arid continent, while honing its manufacturing might. For its autocratic government and centrally planned economy, Troon had always focused considerable resources on population investment. All cities and towns were included in national plans, and the continent had a much higher level standing of living when averaged.
During this period of peace, it was agreed that the Fabled Isles were strictly off limits to all four regions. The RSS did send a small intelligence team to inspect what was left of the area, but could not gain access. During this thirty year period of peace, significant advancement was made in nuclear power generation, helping to stave of some of the harshest effects of the energy crisis. The four regions created a joint scientific panel that looked at creating "mega" nuclear plants. Fourteen were constructed on a rapid timescale, classified as critical international priorities. This global achievement would help sow the tiniest of seeds for scholars and forward thinking politicians, some who began to see just what could be achieved when the four nations were united. Reclara and Frudin designed the nuclear plants, while Lovin provided most of the funding and Troon manufactured them.
When the fourteenth mega-reactor went online, 29% of all global power needs were being met by nuclear power. Some dared to begin say the age of war was finally over, and that if the four regions could continue to work together, it would make war impossible. Then, in 0816, Neucarro changed forever.
The Great War
The Drumbora islands were a chain of small islands between Troon and Reclara that had been recolonised by both nations to create joint communities. This was a highly controversial sociology experiment but did show signs that these very different cultures could work and live together. On the morning of June 1st, 0816, at 11.10am a Troonian terrorist group of thirteen people invaded and took control of the nuclear power plant on the centre island. This was the fourteenth nuclear power recently constructed, and the largest. Within two hours, a meltdown ensued through the use of explosives, computer hacking and sheer will of the terrorists. The Troonian government immediately professed their innocence, claiming they had no prior knowledge of the terrorist organisation. The Reclaran prime minister, with extreme pressure also from the powerful military apparatus, suspended all diplomatic ties and ordered a full naval embargo of Troon. Two days after the nuclear meltdown, a rogue Reclaran naval admiral sunk a Troonian supply ship daring to cross the embargo zone. Troon retaliated by sinking a Reclaran destroyer. Events over the next four-eight hours went into hyper speed. The Great War had begun.
Frudin and Lovin immediately declared war on Troon and launched their own attacks on Troons western seaboard. Eight years of conflict ensued. Lovin fell to Troon, and remained under full occupation until the end of the war. Reclara and Troon exchanged nuclear missile fire intermittently for the duration of the war, each side using more extreme weapons in an attempt to deliver a "knockout blow". Extreme climate change quickly set in by year five, and the major food belts of middle Frudin and lower Reclara quickly withered and died. Troon, who in peace time had always relied on food imports suffered even more. In an act of desperation, Troon launched a sea invasion of Iris, the southern naval city of Reclara responsible for 70% of naval construction and repair. More importantly, it had direct access to what was left of Reclaras food production lines. The invasion lasted three months, and involved land, sea and air forces. Troon eventually resorted to further tactical nuclear strikes at outlying reinforcements and successfully captured the city. This gave it access to the deep ocean surrounding Reclara which was rich in fish, easing the rationing on the Troonian mainland.
Recalarans were horrified, and demanded immediate retaliation. Neucarros oceans are incredibly deep, so much so that no vessel as ever been reported to reach the bottom. Estimated to have a depth of 90km in some areas, the deeper oceans of Neucarro had always been a scientific fascination. With the Troonian invasion of Iris, they discovered that Reclaran scientists had been developing a submarine that could go below the max. 6km depth limit currently stopping all other submarines. Troon immediately panicked. It’s regional defences had created a coastal sensor network around the continent right down to what was seen as the depth limit for enemy submarines.
Thirty-two hours after the fall of Iris, a Reclaran submarine bypassed Troonian sea and air defences and launched nuclear missiles into the heartland of Troon. Five Troon cities were immediately vaporised, victims of the new missiles developed by Reclara that doubled the explosive yield to 120 megatons. One hundred and ninety million Troonians were instantly killed. This was in part due to the high rise building favoured by Troonians for their civilian populations. While the death toll was mammoth, the real evil showed weeks later when the skies turned black. These final five bombs pushed Neucarros atmosphere into full retraction. The sunlight began to lessen each day and temperatures plummeted. Centuries of nuclear and chemical warfare had poisoned the planet. The Reclaran prime minister issued an urgent please for a truce, not peace, but a postponement of hostilities until their scientists to better gauge how serious the situation was. Considering he had committed what many saw as a horrifying war crime destroying five cities, Troon was in no mood to agree.
Reclara tried desperately to fix the problem, launching experimental missiles into the atmosphere seeded with spores that helped clear the skies and let sunlight through, but it was a temporary fix. The darkness quickly came back and with it the planet began to die again and a new ice age began.
Towards the end of the war, numerous attempts at peace from all sides failed, and True Blood – an old terrorist organisation that had appeared every century or so decided to step in. Using their deep contacts and power in both Reclara and Troon, they tried to orchestrate peace before the planet damaged beyond repair. TB had their own long term goals, but without the planet surviving everyone would die. After weeks of trying everything they deemed acceptable – which was much – they acted.
The Goldberry Islands – the retirement golden sand islands just off the clear waters of Frudin – were destroyed. Goldberry was the only off limit zone on the whole of Neucarro during the Great War, a place for the old and the children to stay from all four regions. Troon destroyed it in one missile strike, using up the very last of their nuclear reserves. There were no survivors. With the planet now in permanent darkness, the Goldberry Massacre as it became known was the final straw. The Reclaran prime minister announced to the world that unless Troon sued for peace, they would launch the remainder of their nuclear missiles and destroy every Troonian city in existence. The Goldberry Massacre and the nuclear winter taking hold had finally pushed Reclara and Troon to the brink of annihilation. At 12 noon on Sept 3rd, 0824, the Great War ended. Troon immediately began withdrawing from Lovin, ending their five-year rule of the commercial region. Now world pariahs, Troons government were more inclined than ever to be agreeable during peace talks.
The World Council
As usual, Reclara and Troon were the deciding masters on the future of the world. Lovin had been devastated by the Troonian invasion and occupation, while Frudin’s limited military had been destroyed in the war and they were at the mercy of Reclaran economic strength.
Prime minister Boris Pion of Reclara and president Logan of Troon held a series of meetings aboard the Reclaran aircraft carrier Prism in the centre of the Fintula ocean, between the two regions. Unprecedentedly, most of the meetings were public and both Pion and Logan accepted that the planet had to come first. The massacre of the Goldberry Islands had seen most of the Troonian government collapse, with many cities outside the capital declaring independence. Lovin was facing similar social upheaval, not wanting to go back to the failed ways of constant regional war. Pion and Logan agreed to set up a world governing council, centred in the Reclaran capital of Ravenport. Ravenport was selected due to that city having the worlds most sophisticated missile defence technology and therefore had came out of the war relatively unscathed. Every other major city across the four regions lay in ruins after the Great War.
This new world council was given three main tasks – climate repair, address the food shortages and investigate renewable energy. The council was helmed by senior civil servants and the deputy prime minister of Reclara – world respected engineer Angela Warren. Warren was renown for her no-nonsense attitude and quickly swept across regional boundaries to address the planets pressing problems. She quickly reactivated the stalled project on Troon focusing on atmospheric cleansers and relocated a thousand Reclaran scientists to Troon, with protest, to get the cleansers completed and manufactured.
Simultaneously, Warren assumed under new laws, “council ownership”, of vast regions of Reclaran farmland. These areas were immediately industrialised for large scale basic farming. Similar land was brought into council ownership across Frudin and Lovin. These food-belts helped stop the food shortage in sixteen months, but by that point a further eight million had died from starvation since the truce was declared. Unusually, this death toll was blamed on both Pion and Logan, with Warren seen as the only effective government operative who was actually achieving things. In January 0825, everything began to change.
Out With The Old
Warren continued her heavy handed powered approach to governance across the four regions, using her powers as council president to began a mass international food dispensing program, quickly followed by mass fabricated hospitals in every major city. The food was basic and the hospitals grey and cheap, but it was still the beginnings of progress. Healthcare policy had been spotty across the regions pre-war, but Warren used the council to bring basic healthcare to everyone. Both Pion and Logan begrudgingly went along with this, fearful of their populations ever souring mood.
President Logan officially declared a national emergency on Troon in February 0825 when the army refused to move into major cities outside the capital, particularly among the West coast of Troon. These cities had declared independence from Troon and had now stopped sending all taxes to the capital. Warren however continued to supply all those cities, and both she and Logan were now on course for a public showdown.
Fearful of Troon collapsing into anarchy and splitting into numerous small powerful cities, the Reclaran prime minister summoned Warren to the palace at Ravenport, asking for her advise. Still unknown today but to a select view at the top of the now Global Security Agency - GSA, what Warren recommended was tantamount to murder and sedition. The meeting quickly ended with Pion warning the engineer he would have her removed from the council within the week. Pion was now fearful of both the breakup of Troon and the ever increasing power of Angela Warren. He brought in the Reclaran Security Services director. The RSS was still Neucarro’s most fearsome dark agency, and the director – Bradbury, the darkest agent to ever grace the halls of the agency.
Pion ordered Bradbury to have Warren executed, and to make it look like a tragic accident. Bradbury immediately obeyed the order, and went straight to Warren himself. Unfortunately for Pion, Warren was able to make the case for the future of Neucarro to the powerful RSS director. She argued that both Pion and Logan were old school war guards, protecting cultures that had to die if Neucarro was to ever flourish and be united. She warned him the damage to the planet was extreme, and one more incident would push it beyond repair. She also claimed that the only way to bring all of Troon back into the fold was to have Logan removed from the Troonian presidency. She was adamant they could force both Reclara and Troon to hand over more national powers to the would council, diluting their own, weaning the public off national government and showing them the benefits of world governance. Bradbury agreed, and that one meeting changed the course of Neucarro for ever.
Troonian president Logan, who held office for twenty three years, died on March 0825 during a visit to one of Troon’s remaining nuclear power plants. The official story went that during the unexpected containment breach, Logan refused to be evacuated and made it possible for thousands of civilians who had taken up residence in the plants vast underground car parks to escape. The president and his team never survived. Bradbury and his top team ensured the media were given precise details of this heroic tragedy. In reality, the RSS had created the containment failure and murdered Logan in the hallways outside the control room of the plant. Logan’s “heroic” death helped mollify the Troonian cities who wanted to break away from the capital, stalling independence a little longer. That same evening, both Bradbury and Warren visited the Reclaran prime minister, Pion. Pion was told he would be killed if he did not start granting the council sweeping powers before eventually standing down and enjoying a very comfortable retirement, at the expense of the state. Every Reclaran prime minister had always had a healthy fear for the RSS and Bradbury made sure his tenure ship was no difference. This premiership ended that night and he was a placeholder leader from that point forward.
The Rule of Warren and Bradbury
0825 saw the beginning of what historians now call the rule of Warren and Bradbury. Warren was seen as the new unofficial president of Nuecarro with Bradbury as her tough enforcer. With over half the global population still living on basic rationing and in need of continued access to healthcare and medicines, their rule went virtually unchallenged. Troon never elected another president, civil servants taking over at the direction of Warren while Pion of Reclara was a puppet prime minister. Lovin, with twenty years rebuilding work ahead due to the invasion by Troon, didn’t want to challenge the council. Indeed, it was council funds and logistics that were rebuilding the continent. Frudin had become permanently tethered to Reclara during the Great War like a much younger sibling and stayed silent.
Revisionist historians have agreed that more was accomplished in the two years since the Great War than could have ever been accomplished in five years with individual governments. As the world council powers continued to grow, Warren placed great emphasis on sorting out the basic needs of society first. Except for the atmospheric cleansers, all research and funding into non-critical areas was suspended. Historians called Warren’s reign of the council as the dark age for science. Instead, global resources were directed to food, health, education and basic infrastructure. Even after Warren’s reign, this spending freeze on all other areas of development would last ten years until 0835 when the ban was officially lifted.
By Feb 0826, Warren officially declared starvation extinct. The mass industrialisation of farmland, brought into government ownership, had now created a monthly surplus that was to be used to create more luxurious food stuffs above the basic ration allowances. All cities deemed of global importance had full access to a basic but high level of healthcare. This was now rolled out to medium and small regional cities. Troonian industry was now constructing three hundred new hospitals per-month, planet wide.
This same mass fabrication of basic public services was then copied to education, with Warren directing the construction of a completely new education network from kindergarten to university level. She took particular interest in the new curriculum, focusing on a new age of global unity under one council. The council dictated areas of global skill shortage and those students deemed most worthy for those fields were seconded. Choice of education was removed. Warren’s argument was the global need to replenish depleting skillsets from the Great War. With this in hand, Warren, who had just turned seventy years old, now turned her attention to what she saw as the last battle she had before announcing the final part of both her and Bradbury’s grand plan. The Great War had only ended two years ago and both Reclara and Troon were still bristling with large standing armies. What worried Warren most was the vast, deep power these high generals of these armies still wielded in many levels of old government. Warren knew the military had always been key decision makers in Neucarron society.
The Cull of the Generals
In May 0827, Warren struck against both Reclaran and Troon military command. The attack was simple in design and execution, something that was a trademark of Bradbury who despised complicated technical plans. Selecting his best one hundred agents, on the 23rd May 0827, two hundred and ten senior military commanders across both Reclara and Troon were executed in the early morning hours. They had all been tracked months before with sub-dermal devices inserted into their stomach during routine visits to Warren’s city hospitals. The attack was swift and cold, much like Warren herself who saw each challenge Nuecarro faced as an engineering challenge that needed a plan of action. Both she and Bradbury then sought about arresting lower ranked commanders over the coming weeks until the military of both nations was leaderless. Trumped up charges were created, and media trials held. Warren then redirected the majority of military finding to new social engineering projects that the public supported along with a new Neucarron Police Force – allied to no nation. Warren then went further, and the placeholder prime minister Pion announced a new retraining program for 70% of all recruited military personal. Again, the public sick of war and death, still remembering the millions who had starved, backed the plan wholeheartedly. Within two years, Warren had for the first time in recorded history removed the bite of the military forces in government.
The Cull of the Shadows
In Sept 0827, Warren had a number of meetings with Pion’s chief of security. Every Reclaran prime minister had always operated from the palace at Ravenport, and the senior security post in the palace was Chief of Security. It was generally a job for life, seen as sacred to the few that obtained such an honourable position. The current incumbent was Yeltsin Quinn. Quinn had held the position for eighteen years but had lost faith in the job during the Great War. He had spoke openly among colleagues about the constant cycle of war and that the politicians and military commanders must take the blame. When Bradbury mentioned this to Warren, she immediately set about making Quinn an ally. It did not take much convincing and Quinn quickly became Warren’s eyes and ears in the palace. Quinn ensured prime minister Pion was kept locked in the palace, signing whatever policies into law that Warren required. In Sept 0826, both Warren and Quinn set about putting into motion the final part of their plan. Quinn had access to dozens of Reclara’s best security agents, all under his command to protect the prime minister and the palace.
On the night of Sept 28, 0827, Quinn summoned all the agents to the cabinet room. There, he told them that there was an attempted coup to take place the following day by director Bradbury and his senior officials at the RSS.
That night, both Bradbury and his senior team were murdered at the very institute that had survived three wars. The RSS institute could be seen from the palace bay windows, always watching the democratic prime minister closely. That night, Quinn led his team and shut down the RSS ownership of the capital once and for all. Warren, who had set at home that evening, retired to bed early. She had always accepted that as effective as Bradbury was, he was director of an intelligence service that saw itself as government, and that would never be acceptable in the future she was trying to create. The next day, with the RSS in disarray, she enacted the final part of her plan.
True World Government
Sept 29, 0827. The day after the murder of director Bradbury, Warren marched into the palace of Reclara and to the prime minister. Pion set behind his imposing desk, the office was grand. Warren informed him of everything she had done, and now with the death of Bradbury the time was ripe for true world governance. She explained that while she and Quinn had considered killing him as well, it would look too tidy. Warren instructed Pion to announce to world media his intention to expand the world council’s powers to include taxation, police and military command, and the enactment of long-term ten-year development plans. He would also create a new position in the council – prime minister. She argued that Neucarro could not survive unless the four regions came together.
Pion, now and old and deflated man, agreed. In return Warren offered to support him in electing a Reclaran as the councils first prime minister. She did not want the job, instead now wanting to visit each region and begin addressing the more complicated post-war infrastructure issues. Quinn would stay at the palace, ensuring Pion followed the plan. The announcement was generally greeted with applause across the four regions. The idea of world government had been openly discussed in Reclara for many decades, and the cities of Troon who wanted independence fully supported a new way of government. Lovin and Frudin, tired and bankrupt, always being dragged into the wars started by Reclara and Troon, signed up.
Two years later, Jan 1st 0828, the first world government was entered into law. The regional parliaments were dismantled, with only the courts surviving. Angela Warren went to Lovin, instrumental in rebuilding that region and helping restart the financial heartland of Neucarro. Chief of security Quinn remained at the palace long after Pion retired to his bungalow in the north of Reclara, under constant guard until his death.
The First World Government – The Dictators Decade
The first year of the world government in 0828 saw considerable turbulence. The elections for the world’s first prime minister had to be held three times – albeit with the same winner – due to every region claiming foul play. Eventually Brook Feng was elected on June 5th, 0828, and became the first world prime minister in Neucarron history. There were four deputy prime ministers, one for each region, to give each region a voice in the new world government. These positions had no real power and became symbolic in the years ahead.
Brook Feng created the first “Neucarron” cabinet, comprised of expert senior civil servants from the four regions. Twenty-six global departments were created, and with the world court not yet created Feng’s ten year premiership was essentially dictatorial. Feng set about dismantling the much of the military infrastructure of each of the four nations. No one above the rank of lieutenant in the old militaries could serve in the new Neucarron Defence Force – NDF. The NDF made up land, sea, air, and special forces. For his ten years in power, Feng and the civil service directly controlled the military. With Warren’s purge of military leadership still fresh. Apart from creating the NDF, Feng created another organisation that would become a central component of Neucarron society up to and including present day – The Global Security Agency – GSA.
Feng reasoned, rightly, that the NDF was the easier organisation to create. The creation of small but effective military with no real enemy except civil unrest could be controlled. For decades ahead the NDF was primarily a strong police force, there to support local police. Feng truly believed that it was the GSA that would be the true warriors for the next century as he and successive prime ministers forcibly sandwiched the four regions together. Feng sought council with Angela Warren. Palace chief of security Quinn was instructed to visit each of the two “Shadow Gulags” that had been built in the south of Troon to house war criminals, spies, traitors and even some media who were deemed dangerous to the would council after the Great War ended.
In March 0831 Quinn helicoptered to the south of the planet, and spent eight months interviewing and threatening thousands of detainees. The security agencies of all regions were seen as major players in the walk to war and had all been imprisoned. Quinn returned after eight months with a list of three hundred names he deemed acceptable to bring into his new and empty organisation. The GSA had its first recruits.
Feng allocated a massive 4% of all government global spending to the GSA from year one, giving it unprecedented resources. A massive recruitment drive was started, and Feng pushed protective orders into law before creating the world courts, allowing the GSA to go truly dark. Revisionist historians believe that the GSA has played just as critical a role in the survival of the world government as much as any prime minister and the will of the people. Some have argued that without the creation of the GSA, the first world government would have failed and a return to nationhood was a real danger.
The Feng premiership would always be remembered for the creation of both the Neucarron Defence Force and the Global Security Agency, the latter being the most powerful tool at the disposal of every future prime minister after him. Conveniently, he created the apparatus of the world court only in his last year as prime minister, failing health forbidding him from seeking re-election which he would have won. Feng retired to approval ratings in the high 70s, leaving behind a world with a stable, if basic, economy but one that was now fertile for future prime ministers.
Brandenburg & The Rise of The Ministers
June 0838 saw the election of prime minister Josias Brandenburg, a Troon candidate who had swept through first Troon and then Reclara with his bombastic rhetoric of now being the time to rebuild on a mass scale, something the returning manufacturing might of Troon could facilitate for the world. Frudin and Lovin quickly followed, all four regions knowing their populations were hungry for the rebuilding of major cities and new infrastructure. The reign of Angela Warren and the premiership of Feng had always been about stabilisation, pulling the planet back from the brink of no return. Now, Brandenburg wanted to push forward into growth. His ten-year tenure saw Troonian industrial might expand over five hundred percent. This massive surplus of industrial power was channelled across the four regions and for the first time, citizens began to get a real flavour of what could be achieved with combined global objectives. The effective, but basic, hospitals and arbitrary school systems set up under Warren and continue by Feng were modernised and expanded. Compulsory subject choice was abandoned. Brandenburg was obsessed with mass manufacturing, and Troon quickly once again became the workhorse of the planet. To avoid the curse of favouritism, Brandenburg ensured every region benefited. Many Reclaran cities were completely rebuilt/refurbished, and sprawling new research campus’s popped up across the south of the continent.
The Warren draconian laws that limited the research topics that both public and private companies could select were significantly watered down, with the setting up of a new international science board were scientists could bring forward their proposals. The fields allowed for proposal were quadrupled in his first year, with all being guaranteed access to both funds and industrial resources. Brandenburg was determined to make up for what he saw as centuries of lost progress. In 0844, six years into his premiership, Brandenburg hosted the world’s first state funeral for Angela Warren, who has died at eighty-eight years old. Fully televised, Warren’s funeral was watched by over 90% of the population and she was awarded the newly created Warren Medal of Honour. Brandenburg, wanting something more fruitful to come out of the funeral, declared shortly afterwards that Warren’s final plans – an orbital space station – would be put into action immediately. By 0848, in the last year of Brandenburg’s first term, the first core modules of what became known as Patterson Space Station – named after Warren’s pet dog who she had called her one true companion in life – were launched from the first space port in the Troonian mountains. Brandenburg won a second term, serving a total of twenty years as prime minister. His second term focused around the drastic expansion of Patterson station and the creation of an weather control net, while overseeing what was still the largest mass scale infrastructure building scheme in history. Analysing data available, revisionist historians estimate that 29% of Neucarro was rebuilt in twenty years, with a further 38% receiving extensive improvement and refurbishment.
During the last two years of office, Brandenburg created the Durand Commission. Durand was a renowned global scholar specialising in advanced democratic theory and social cohesion. Before the Great War, this area of combined study was seen as fringe science on Neucarro, but it had now come to the forefront. Durand was from Frudin, fifty six years old and full of determination to make his mark on history. Durand proposed the creation of a grand regional minister for Reclara, Troon, Frudin and Lovin, replacing the symbolic deputy prime ministers. These regional ministers would have considerable regional power, and be elected on their own manifestos by each continents populations. Their manifestos were allowed to address local concerns, but could not touch on any area deemed under the strict purview of the global government – military, global taxation, global infrastructure etc. A vast working apparatus of what could and could not be done was created by the Durand commission, most of which Brandenburg was happy enough to sign into law. This system was to create four regional ministers who would all report directly to the prime minister only. They would be held accountable by the world court.
Interestingly, Brandenburg insisted that the prime minister always have the power to remove a sitting regional minister should it be deemed necessary. Durand was abhorrent to the idea, but agreed when Brandenburg threatened to shut down the entire commission. Brandenburg retired to the new Goldberry Islands in 0858, his final was to create the regional ministerial position. The new incoming prime minister would for the first time have four powerful regional ministers under them to work, and conflict, with.
The Golden Years
From 0859 to 0925 Neucarro experienced a period of rapid technological and social development. The first twenty-year premiership of Jan Kia in 0859, an award winning scientist turned politician who was elected for two terms, saw a massive focus of global resources on R&D. Specifically, the Kia administration focused on what it deemed quality of life improvements for citizens. These were focused on but not limited to medical research including the abolition of 90% of all cancers by 0875. Development also shot forward with weather control, a global satellite grid becoming active in 0874 and being controlled by Patterson station. This neutered extreme weather phenomena – something Neucarro and particularly those south of the equator had been subject to for centuries. Now, the planet enjoyed a firm tropical climate. While the Kia administration was also noteworthy for their concentration on education and the expansion of what it dubbed global sea city hubs, the cure of most cancers and the weather grid success are what Jan Kia is most remembered for. A statue of him stands twenty metres tall in the grounds of the Reclaran Institute at Ravenport.
From 0880-0900 the premiership of Tans, a Troonian with an extensive background in mega-engineering, set about utilising every natural resource and feature of Macro for economic output. Vast dams, windmill farms, geothermal plants and new regional cargo hubs sprouted up. These mammoth projects took the entirety of his time in office to build, using the industrial might built up during the Brandenburg premiership. When finished, they increased economic output globally by 11%. Patterson Station was doubled in size, and instructed to assist the new Warren Energy Commission in their hunt for a sustainable source of fuel. Since the end of the Great War, Neucarro had been utilising both nuclear and renewable energy, but could not generate it in the substantial amounts now needed for this era of progress. The completion of mega global projects under Brandenburg, Kia and now Tans had always led to rolling power cuts, usually at night, with the population told that it was a necessary evil for progress. Tans wanted to be remembered as the prime minister who solved what was seen as the main problem still unsolved since the Great War, but he failed. Tans left the premiership in 0890 with a list of successes, but the Warren Energy Commission had made little progress.
This all changed with the one term premiership of Martin “Watt” Bison, starting in 0900. Nicknamed the “Watt” in the media for his lifelong career in nuclear energy, Bison brought a fresh new approach to the Warren Commission. He tore up their investigative lines, and instead told them to dream big. His partnership with newly appointed head of the commission Peter Fink was to change Neucarron history forever. Fink was considered a fringe scientist, focusing on an elusive substance he called prime energy. Fink argued that extracting the recently discovered prime EC5 element from deep underneath the seabed and fusing it with three separate atoms could potentially create a wondrous new power source. Unfortunately, the onetime experiment he received funding for a decade earlier (0891) had resulted in the destruction of the entire laboratory on Reclara due to the substance becoming uncontrollable after thirty seconds. Fink had spent ten years reviewing the data, showing that this basic form of fusion energy was possible and that he now knew what to do.
The previous Tans administration had been hesitant to authorise another attempt, due to the loss of nearly one thousand researchers during the original explosion. Bison however reviewed the new data himself, and used executive authority to overrule both the Treasury department and the Warren commission panel. He ordered immediate construction of a new test facility. It took six years to build the facility to requirements, and nearly a trillion Neucarron credits. Bison was not a politician, or an effective prime minister, becoming solely consumed by this one task while ignoring everything else. The public voted him out at the next election, but the groundwork he laid here would ensure he would eventually be remembered forever.
From 0910-0930 there was the premiership of Maurus from Troon, seen as an old pair of safe hands by the public. Maurus focused on many small reforms, tinkering with current existing laws and amending where necessary. He set up regional funds that allowed the regional ministers to draw from if their proposal got approved by the newly created World Parliament in 0917. Parliament had no real legislative power when first created, instead used as a focal point for the councillors elected across the four regions who then served under the regional ministers. The argument had long been made that the regional ministers were powerful in their own right, and the supreme executive power of the prime minister meant that these eight thousand councillors had no real voice outside their local multi-city level.
The World Parliament changed all that, and their title was changed to parliamentarian from councillor. This forum was able to bring together key issues affecting large majorities of people, with many smaller unnoticed issues also receiving good news coverage. Maurus seen it as a way for a sitting prime minister to have a direct link to the elected representatives across the four regions, instead of relying on the regional ministers alone. The World Parliament would transform eventually into a powerful voice in Neucarron world government, with successive prime ministers giving them much more due time and consideration. Eventually, parliament would achieve the historic right to veto proposals by regional ministers, and even had the authority to review, and recommend revision, of global policies announced by the sitting prime minister. Revisionist historians continue to argue whether Maurus actually intended for this to happen.
In 0928, there was a breakthrough at the Watt Research Facility. Set up under the previous prime minister – Martin “Watts” Bison, along with professor Fink. Bison had died in 0927, but Fink, who was now seventy two, continued to work with a large budget resource that Bison had enshrined into law until 0930. Two years before the facility was due to close, the breakthrough finally came. The elusive energy substance was created, and controlled without danger. In honour of the deceased Martin Bison, Fink named the named the new substance Bisoprime. Bisoprime Mk One spent the next four years under heavy investigation by leading scientists, every aspect of its design and elements being triple checked. Fink retired from active duty in 0935, but still maintained a seat on the commission until his death.
By 0945, seventeen years after the Bisoprime breakthrough, Fink was now 89 years old but lived long enough to see the opening of the world’s first Bisoprime Reactor. A Bisoprime chemical plant was also built on the north coast of Troon, allowing for the creation of the critical Bisoprime liquid. From there it was pumped underground to a newly reclaimed section of the nuclear wasted islands of Drumbora. Here, the worlds first Bisoprime Reactor converted this liquid fuel through gigantic turbines to create clean energy with almost total efficiency. Fink died in December 0945, but he saw the first Bisoprime Reactor achieve full electrical output the month before, powering seventy-three cities on the Reclaran and Troon continents alone.
In 0952, the current prime minister, Thomas Kevington, made Bisoprime his administrations number one priority. The Warren energy commission was expanded, now focusing on making more refined versions of the substance while plans were being drawn up for Bisoprime reactors two and three at different world locations. These reactors were substantially larger than the first, and was estimated that each would take thirty years to build due to their technical depth and the lack of available expertise to run both projects concurrently. Bisoprime reactor two began work in 0959 in the Reclaran mountain range of Jidan. The Reclaran city Trodal was less than fifty miles from this new construction site and saw a massive influx of government funding and construction. With the reactors taking thirty years to build, Kevington wisely also focused on the refinement of Bisoprime, and soon versions two and three were created, each more efficient than the last. Two more chemical plants were opened on the Troon north coast, and a large global works program began, laying the undersea pipework for the mass transportation of both liquid Bisoprime to reactors two and three when they come online, and further networking to transport the electricity from these plants to the cities.
Kevington retired two years earlier than he was due to step down (0966) due to severe failing health, but his guiding hand saw Neucarro secure its energy future in a way that no one had thought possible. One of his final acts was the creation of an observatory panel, attached to Patterson station, to begin detailed probing of all planets in the solar system.
0966 saw the election of prime minister Kurtis Halls, considered by many to be the most militaristic prime minister that Neucarro had ever seen under the new world government. Halls increased military expenditure by 2% annually for his ten years in office, allowing the military to finally pump funds into its own research and development. Since the great war, successive prime ministers had always ignored the military, seeing them as an antiquated device that served no real purpose in a global government hegemony. With the might and firmness of the GSA watching every aspect of Neucarron society to protect it, there was already discussions among senior civil servants about disbandment of the military over the next fifty years. Halls certainly set this back a few decades with the budget increases, and he was subsequently voted out of office by a public who didn’t take kindly to the military being lavished with resources.
Nevertheless, revisionist historians have begun to praise Halls for other areas of his premiership. He reformed the civil service, cut red cape across Neucarro and freed the controlled financial markets of Lovin, allowing financial services and the sector as a whole to thrive. Over the next fifty years, this single action would bring in enough taxation and revenue for the Treasury department to fund all the next great mega projects by successive prime ministers.
Margaret Hunter, elected in 1004, would use the financial power of Lovin in a way never seen before in Neucarron history.
The Reign of Margaret Hunter – 1004
Margaret Louise Hunter assumed the premiership on June 1004 at the age of 40, and would go on to win three successive world elections. She was the first individual to ever accomplish such a feat and many continued to speculate that a fourth term was easily achievable. Hunter brought with her to the palace a team of experienced task masters and politicians from across the four regions. She had led a fever-pitched first term election campaign, running on the promise of bringing in the best talent from all regions directly into the palace. The method worked, and she achieved 83% of the popular vote in 1004 – a record breaking figure. From day one, Hunter began to exhibit a new style of governance, something that she would be famed for over the next twenty eight years. Firm, executive, total power.
The First Term
The first ten years of Hunter’s premiership focused on three things: the new Global Health Service (GHS), networking the four regions and a new Space Ministry. The GHS was her signature proposal on which she received the most votes. Neucarro had a healthcare system free at the point of use for all citizens since the end of the Great War, but it had deteriorated the past two hundred years and service and access to treatments was shockingly varied. Hunter addressed the problem head on, and brought in Troonian mega-engineers. One hundred global hospitals were created, distributed through the four regions based on population number and density. These global hospitals would be connected to the new Network4Regions program, an industrial project to connect all four regions together through hyper sonic travel tubes that operated under the seas and oceans. They would cater for cargo, pedestrian, car and emergency services. Each global hospital would have a patient capacity of seventy thousand and specialise in all major areas of latest medical development. Troonian mega-engineers were set a time limit of ten years to have them all constructed. They succeeded.
While this was happening, Hunter overseen the Network4Regions program that replaced the ageing undersea cargo hubs that had been developed during the Kia and Tans administration. New sea hubs were created, some ocean based. This new hyper-sonic travel allowed cargo to traverse the entire world in sixty-two hours. The technology was new, but Hunter saw its extraordinary potential. Not only that, she was the greatest advocate of world governance and saw this as a way to further bind together the four regions, locking them together forever.
Other non-public actions were also taken. Black Tail Island, the highly classified military base in the South Troon sea, benefited from substantial resource increases. In particular, Hunter tasked them with creating the world’s first space faring multi-purpose vessel that included offensive and defensive weapons. Hunter used the power of the GSA keep this project hidden from the general public. Director Diamond of the GSA – a long serving spy who had been in the directorship now for ten years, enjoyed an unusually close and frank relationship with the prime minister. He was once quoted as calling her pragmatic, stellar praise from any GSA director who saw themselves guardians of the world government project.
The Second Term
Hunter’s second term saw her elected with a popular vote of 84%, an astonishing increase despite already having served a decade in power. During her acceptance address, she announced plans to begin sending robotic and eventually manned space craft to Rideon III, the only other habitable planet in the solar system. Other major announcements included a new Global Education System – GES – which was expected after her success with the GHS. The GES had a reformed curriculum, doubling down on global governance and the dangers of nationhood and nationalism.
The final two bolts of her new ten-year term focused on social housing and the tax system. On Neucarro, every citizen was entitled to one dwelling upon turning twenty-one. After that, citizens could upgrade their home at their own expense, apply for bigger housing if they married/had children or purchase their own land. There was also a vast sector of private homes available. Hunter wanted to overhaul the current stock of social housing and announced an ambitious ten year plan were her administration would replace 50% of current housing stock and refurbish the other 50%. This would coincide with a new Treasury fund set up for the regional ministers to draw down from for social recreation initiatives – everything from parks to swimming baths to new sports centres.
Tax overhaul was the first real reform of the current tax system since it was created when the Great War ended. Hunter sought to further strengthen the current tax system through a series of new caps, increasing the amount large corporate organisations had to pay in tax when their profits reached certain thresholds. It was estimated this would net the Treasury an additional 4% per year in real terms, allowing for the financing of the Rideon III space missions and the social housing overhaul. Hunter, with a savvy media team at her disposal, was able to market the initiative in this tone and many CEO’s quickly fell into line. Since the Great War, the general voting public held great power over private companies, their trust in the world government and in particular the prime minister being absolute.
Hunter’s second term in office was seen as a great triumph by even her protagonists. The Rideon III missions had proven habitation was possible, and in 1017, 13 years into her premiership, she announced to the world that colonisation of Rideon III was now being planned. The world rejoiced, and with it a new tax was created for both the public and businesses, allowing for new funding of this giant undertaking. The next seven years of her second term was a whirlwind of frantic activity across Neucarro. The colony ship was to be called Endeavour and rapid design took place. In tandem, Patterson station was expanded once again to help cater for supply runs and the docking of ships with Neucarros first off world colony site. The station now housed five thousand people. During this time, Hunter privately commissioned a panel to look at ways of dismantling the military entirely, wanting to use its resources for more civic based matters.
The GES came in ahead of time and within budget, allowing Hunter to claim triumph there. The remaining funds, two trillion, were used to begin construction of Bisoprime Reactor Four. This latest reactor was based on a new design – the mark five – and had the output potential at full capacity to generate more than reactors one and two combined. Construction time was estimated at 14 years. Urgent upgrades on the original two reactors also began, with the Drumbora reactor being prioritised.
During Hunter’s second term, many in the media began using the phrase paradise. This word, which Hunter personally detested, caught the public imagination as the overall quality of life on Neucarro began to enter a new age. Hunter never used the word herself, always fearful of tempting fate. Towards the end of her second term, Hunter was now 60 with two wins already under her belt and many assumed Hunter would not run for a third term in office. Regional ministers eagerly waited, circling for their chance at the top job. In particular, regional minister Steel of Troon was vocal in his desire for a Troonian to return to the seat of world power.
The Third Term
Hunter won her third term in Sept 2024, again winning 83% of the popular vote. Her nearest rival, Steel, won the remaining vote - primarily in Troon where he governed. Regional ministers were always from their respective region. Hunter’s third term in office began with a major focus on the completion of colony ship Endeavour and the final expansion at Patterson station. The defence ministry finally got their expansion approved for a full military suite aboard the station, with accommodation now being made for marines, new orbital jets and anti-ship technology. Hunter also authorised the team at Black Tail Island to install shield and armour technology on the station, similar to what was being designed for the classified military space vessel.
Between the years 2025-2031 the Hunter administration allowed the colonisation plans for Rideon III to charge forward at full speed while all effort was made to increase the construction process of the fourth Bisoprime Reactor. This was scheduled for completion in 2036 after Troonian engineers introduced a new nano-robotics into their building methods. In 2027, Diamond reported the discovery of a Troonian dissident group called The Hammers, who wanted Troon to return to what they saw as the glory days of independence. Hunter refused to tolerate any nationalist dissident groups, and warned Diamond that either he and the GSA brought them in or she would replace him.
In Sept 2031, Hunter watched the launch of the colony ship Redemption. It was to be recorded in history as a great milestone for their civilisation. Due to the colony ships sheer size and use of a mark two Bisoprime drive, it would take two weeks to reach Rideon III. The new military ship at Black Tail Island being constructed would use the latest mark four drive, and was much smaller. It could reach Rideon III in twelve hours.
Two weeks after the launch of the Endeavour, Neucarron history would change forever and for prime minister Margaret Hunter, she would certainly go down in the history books. Forever remembered.