Sagittarius Transcultural Cooperation
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Sagittarius Transcultural Cooperation |
After the Version War and the break-up of the old Sagittarius Sphere, many traders, ontologists, free zoners, and old Sphere hyperturings began to work with the occupying Dominion, Negentropist and MPA military authorities to create a new, non-aggressive Sagittarius alliance. They reactivated and repaired old stargates and began to build new wormhole networks, slowly establishing a sprawling domain which became known as the Sagittarius Transcultural Cooperation. Unlike the Sphere, it was not ruled by any hereditary house or major AI, but it managed to recapture at least some of the power of the old Sphere. It became a federation of independent worlds, mainly cooperating in building and maintaining the wormhole links but also in dealing with a mutual foreign policy. Over time planets have entered and left the Cooperation, but a firm core of approximately 400 major groups ("the skeleton") remains stable.
The Cooperation is spread over a huge volume, with many non-aligned worlds interspersed within the volume. From time to time it is forced to deal with expansive or emerging local powers. So far it has handled it mainly by diplomacy or by collecting fleets from neighbouring systems. Near the edges there are many groups whose allegiance are more a formality than any actual political reality - the Cooperation has no real borders, just a gradual lessening of its influence.
Some of the old powers still view the Cooperation with suspicion. The original Dominion and Negentropist plan of an huge but regulated territory did not come to pass, despite their best efforts. Instead, the STC is chaotic, expansive, under the control of many factions with wild ideas, and much more culturally diverse than many of the other domains. It could become a hotbed of anarchy and trouble (many think it already has). Only the Non-Coercive Zone and the MPA seem happy with the way things have turned out.
By the end of the tenth millennium things are not looking too good for the STC. Recently it has been weakened by internal schisms, and in addition there is the threat of the Laughter Hegemony, which is stirring up dissent in some of the outer worlds where Cooperation influence is weak, and has already annexed some of the STC outposts, almost always on the pretext of a Mutual Co-operation Treaty / Co-Prosperity Sphere / Alliance.
Just as the original Sagittarius Sphere and the current Sagittarius Cooperation are so different in rulership, government, and everything else that only the name unites them, so it is believed that, as both internal and external tensions develop, the Cooperation it will soon metamorphose into something new again, perhaps a real federation or dissolve into civil war or maybe change in a completely unexpected direction.
