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The United States Empire is the futuristic version of the current US Government, representing humanity on the galactic stage.
History
Establishment
Centuries before the events of the original Section 8 game, the United States of America had managed to accumulate enough power to dominate and overwhelm the other countries of Earth. After a long and brutal global conflict, the United States was successful in uniting the planet's many nations and peoples under one government. This new one-world government was called the United States Empire.
However, a sorely overpopulated Earth was by then heavily polluted and depleted of resources, ravaged by years of war and exploitation.
Interstellar Settlement
In a desperate attempt to alleviate Earth's overpopulation problem and find new resources, the United States Empire undertook the task of having the populations of whole national regions embark on a massive interstellar colonization effort, migrating to other far-flung worlds across the stars.
Early colonization efforts were unsuccessful, often being arduous and deadly endeavors, so a small faction of the United States Senate sponsored a secret project that used experimental genetic enhancements to turn a group of volunteers into a mighty army of supersoldiers. Codenamed Spear, the tasks of this new military force were the termination of any and all threats to human interstellar expansion and the protection of all settlers as they terraformed hostile worlds. These soldiers accomplished their tasks with superhuman efficiency, allowing billions of people to colonize other worlds and establish many prosperous colonies, greatly expanding mankind's power.
From the Ashes of Earth
While billions of people thrived in colonies across the galaxy, billions more remained on Earth. These people were unexpectedly plunged into a cataclysmic era of planetary rebirth. Decades of natural disasters, famine, and plagues mercilessly purged the world from millennia of damage and abuse- killing untold billions. The United States Empire's administrative and military efforts to keep the remaining population safe were successful, but only through use of the most extreme measures and implementation of radical new technologies.
When the era of near-apocalyptic crisis was over, utopia emerged. Because of major technological advancements in every manner of science available, Earth's population had evolved- physically, mentally, and genetically. This new, stronger breed of humanity was able to use its new technology to restore Earth from a depleted, polluted wasteland to a lush, verdant utopian paradise.
Prosperity and Expansion
Once stabilized, Earth began to establish authority over all the colonies. These colonies quickly recognized Earth as the prime governing world on which the United States Imperial capital would be based, and the colonies themselves forming parts of the interstellar administrative regions on which Earth would manage their affairs.
With colonial efforts easier and safer than ever, the military force responsible for protecting and paving the way for settlers, the Spear, was officially disbanded, its duty done. In the Spear's place, a massively expanded United States military, now known as the United States Imperial Forces, would take the reins of defending mankind and its interests. At the core of the USIF was the Armored Infantry, and they would become the guardians of a new utopian Earth and its ever-growing number of galactic colonies.
Current Events
As of the year 2535 AD, the United States Empire has recently fought two major wars against the formerly loyal supersoldiers, the Orion's Spear, known also as the Spear, and a band of other Armored Infantry defectors known as the Arm of Orion.
Using defectors from the famed 8th Armored Infantry Division, Section 8, and other units to create a false rebel group called the Arm of Orion, the Spear used the Arm to wage a proxy war to overthrow the Empire. In the opening moves of what would become known as the Outer Rim War, the Arm attacked and conquered planets on the fringes of US Imperial space, then waging a brutal campaign against not only the US Imperial military, but also against innocent Imperial citizens as well, with Arm forces even trying to massacre innocent civilians while fighting US Imperial troops. The United States Empire responded to this sudden aggression by deploying a task force, that included the elite 8th Armored Infantry Division, to retake the Imperial planets and liberate them from Arm oppression. After initial difficulties and fierce resistance from Arm rebels, the US Imperial task force eventually triumphed, killing the Arm leader and killing or capturing most of the Arm rebel forces.
Two weeks later, the Orion's Spear, the Arm's sponsors, decided to destroy the US Empire themselves. The Arm's embarassing defeat had forced their hand, and so the Spear gathered the remaining Arm troops and prepared their plan. In what would become known as the Spear Crisis, the Orion's Spear began by using a coordinated assault to stage a jailbreak on the planet Atlas and free the Arm's captured second-in-command, Commander Thorne, and other Arm troops, the Spear used the remaining Arm forces as bait to lure a massive US Imperial task force into an ambush on the planet Boreas. Fortunately, the task force was able to retreat in good order to a hidden Imperial military base on the planet Prometheus, under the leadership of General Stone.
While the US Imperial task force struggled to prepare defenses, nurse its wounds, and warn other Imperial forces of the Spear threat, the Spear attacked Prometheus. Against the odds, the US Imperial defenders won the day, destroying much of the Spear fleet and driving the rest away.
Tracking the remaining Spear forces to the planet New Madrid, the reinforced US Imperial task force foiled a genocidal plot, involving chemical weapons, by the Spear to completely exterminate New Madrid's civilian population, knowing full well that Imperial troops wouldn't be affected due to their sealed USIF Powered Assault Armor. In a last maniacal attempt to wipe out New Madrid's civilians, the Spear concentrated their remaining forces around a Terraforming Tower in an attempt to dismantle it and cut off New Madrid's colonists from the vital supply of oxygen. US Imperial troops were not only able to stop the Spear from carrying out their plan, saving millions of innocent lives, but also killed the Spear's powerful leader, General Salvador. With all Spear and Arm forces finally destroyed, and their leaders dead, the United States Empire had triumphed once again.
With two wars won, a dark chapter finally closed, and its citizens knowing they are safe from enemies within and without, the Empire continues to dynamically grow in territory and prosperity across the galaxy.
Government
The United States Empire is known to contain a legislative branch of government, in the form of the Senate, so it is presumed that it must also contain an executive branch (President) and a judicial branch (Supreme Court), in a manner akin to the present-day US Government. It possibly governs its many interstellar colonies in the style of a federal republic, also akin to the present-day US Government.
The United States Empire is also known to directly manage many of its colonies through dividing parts of a planet into manageable regions called "Federal Districts". For example, there is an Eastern Atlantic Federal District on planet Earth, which is known to include the entire East Coast of the United States of America and the capital city of Earth itself: Washington D.C. There is also a Southeast Federal District, which includes all of Mexico, and Central and South America. The Federal District system also extends to other worlds, as there is a Central Federal District on Mars.
There are a few smaller geo-political entities that maintain their own system of government, but all remain staunchly loyal to the United States Empire. These geo-political entities appear to maintain their own economic and political independence, but cannot hold an established military of their own, with the USIF being the only effective means of defense against aggressors. Thus, these entities are reliant on the United States Empire for defense against large-scale attacks. Such entities are known to include the Martian Republic on Mars, and the Grand Duchy of Australia on Earth.
Military
The military of the United States Empire is collectively known as the United States Imperial Forces, or USIF. The 8th Armored Infantry Division, or Section 8, is an elite unit of the Empire's vast military. In addition to powerful ground forces, the USIF also maintains a powerful space fleet, known as the United States Imperial Navy.
The United States Empire is also known to contain colonial militias that are responsible for defending US Imperial territory when official USIF troops are not present. However, they have a much lower quality of weapons, armor, and training than USIF troops have.
While the Commander-in-Chief of the USIF is unknown, there is a group known as the Senate Command that directs all actions of the USIF. Headquartered on Earth, Senate Command is known to direct the movement of reinforcements to all Armored Infantry divisions in addition to managing sensitive military intelligence.
Armored Infantry
The core branch of the USIF ground forces are the Armored Infantry. These elite soldiers wear highly advanced USIF Powered Assault Armor and wield a large arsenal of extremely lethal weaponry, various technological devices, and miniature weapon and armor modifications designed to boost the capabilities of armor, weapons, and tools alike. Additionally, vehicles like the hover bike, assault mech, tank, and convoy hover-truck fulfill the many roles of the battlefield, including fast reconnaissance, logistics ferrying, and ruthless armored assault, allowing the USIF to emerge victorious in any war across the galaxy.
The Navy, known as the United States Imperial Fleet, is also a force not to be trifled with, as it commands powerful warships that roam the stars. It is known to field large space cruisers and frigates armed with batteries of heavy energy beam weaponry for capital ship-to-ship combat, and heavy rail bombardment cannons for orbital support operations against ground targets.
Many of these ships can operate within a planetary atmosphere, such as the USIS Nevada. These ships can also perform faster-than-light "jumps" within a planetary atmosphere, and can even synchronize their FTL jumps so that an entire fleet can jump to another star system at almost the exact same time.
The Navy also has small atmospheric-capable fighter-craft at their disposal, which are used to perform air-to-air and air-to-ground strike operations against enemy forces. Notably, the United States Imperial Navy is also charged with operating and maintaining the Sky Crane dropships, which are used to drop Armored Infantry and any supporting vehicles directly into battle.