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  Powered Infantry in the Third Frontier War

  The 21st and 22nd century soldiers who fought the Unification Wars were equipped with what was then extremely advanced body armor and weaponry, but the fighting suits utilized in the Third Frontier War are an order of magnitude more sophisticated and capable than anything seen before on the battlefield.

  The modern suit of armor was made possible by advancements in nanotechnology, which facilitated the miniaturization of various operational systems. The development of a nuclear power source small enough to be carried as part of a trooper's kit caused a quantum leap in the amount of firepower and destructive force possessed by the armored infantryman.

  The massive increase in energy available to power the suit led to an increase in defensive strength, as weight concerns became far less important. The availability from colony worlds of materials that were extremely rare on Earth facilitated the creation of more sophisticated designs for armor plating, increasing the survivability of the soldier and creating near-invulnerability to any enemy not themselves armed with the most powerful weapons.

  The Model 7 armor worn by Western Alliance troops is constructed of a multi-layered arrangement of steel, osmium, iridium, and a variety of polymers. The result is an extremely hard and dense, yet not at all brittle, metal suit, which provides excellent protection against virtually all types of small arms.

  The suit has highly developed servo-mechanical systems that allow the marine to walk, run, and take other actions almost normally, with the suit interpreting the move from the wearer's motions and executing the desired action. The armor provides greatly amplified speed and strength to the user, and significant training is required to develop proficiency in controlling and utilizing these capabilities.

  The atomic power source of the suit also allows the trooper to carry weapons that require an enormous amount of energy. The Model 7 suits currently in use have a modular design that can accommodate four mission-programmable weapons systems.

  The primary infantry weapon for fighting in an Earth-like atmosphere is the Gaussian Magnetic Rifle (GMR) version 3.2. The mag-rifle is a multi-stage coilgun firing a small iridium or depleted uranium projectile at a velocity of over 60,000 meters per second. It is capable of breaching powered armor and virtually shredding normal steel and plasti-steel constructions. Because the velocity delivers so much impact energy to the target, the projectile itself can be very small, allowing a magazine to hold 500 rounds and enabling automatic fire without immediately depleting ammunition reserves.

  Troopers have a variety of support weapons, such as a mag-powered grenade launcher that is capable of firing a wide variety of rounds, including explosive, incendiary, fragmentation, chemical, and even nuclear, though atomic weapons are rarely deployed at the level of the individual soldier.

  There are a number of energy weapons as well, which are used primarily in low-density atmospheres and vacuum conditions. The most commonly deployed are portable particle accelerator units, lasers, and the laser-blaster, a very high-powered short-range pulse laser.

  The Model 7 suit is capable of sustaining its wearer in virtually any environment, including deep space. Various systems are included to accommodate bodily functions and deliver intravenous nutrition and hydration. The suit also has a sophisticated medical monitoring and trauma control system designed to medicate a wounded marine and administer whatever first aid is possible pending pickup and transfer to a med facility.

  The trooper is assisted in operating the suit by an artificial intelligence computer system that communicates verbally with the marine, eliminating the need to physically touch controls to achieve desired results. The AI also monitors the trooper's physical condition, and administers medical or nutritional supplements as required.

  The Model 7c command fighting suits used by officers are outfitted with a much more sophisticated AI. Trooper AIs are mostly concerned with assisting with the needs of the individual soldier. Officers have a far greater stream of information into and out of their communications systems, and the officer AIs are designed to help control this data flow. The officer AIs are quasi-sentient computers, with developable personalities. An officer's AI is able to grow and alter its personality in response to stimuli and communications from the user. This often leads to unpredictable results, including common complaints that the AIs are churlish and difficult. Generally, this sort of user-AI interaction serves to reduce the overall battlefield stress experienced by command personnel, though many of these officers would disagree, some of them in quite colorful terms.

  Beyond the heretofore unparalleled suite of equipment, the powered infantry trooper is the most trained and educated soldier in human history. Western Alliance training is a six year program including physical, classroom, technical, and operational segments.

  A planetary assault is a very tightly planned and executed affair. Troopers are typically put on pre-assault intravenous feeding programs and injected with a cocktail of narcotics designed to increase reaction speeds and stamina.

  When the powered infantry solider hits the ground on a target world, he or she has all the equipment and preparedness that technology, medicine, and training can provide.

  The Western Alliance

  Political & Economic Structure of the Western Alliance

  The Western Alliance at the time of the Third Frontier War is a two-tiered federal republic governed by an entrenched political oligarchy. The Alliance president and ruling council are selected by the governing bodies of the component nation-states: The United States, Greater Canada, Great Britain, and Oceania. There are no general elections for these top-tier positions.

  The United States is the largest and most important of the component nation-states, though all are similar in structure and governmental operation. Superficially a democratic republic, the U.S. is dominated by a semi-entrenched political class, which controls every aspect of the economy and the daily lives of citizens through an incomprehensible tangle of laws and regulations.

  Although no official distinctions exist, American society in the 23rd century has three basic classes. The political class forms the highest strata, consisting of holders of political office, supervisory government employees, attorneys, and their families. Membership into the political class is theoretically available to any citizen, but in reality access to the political academies is controlled by the existing class members, whose sponsorship or patronage is required to gain entry. The corporate magnates, who run the major business enterprises, are associate members of the political class, and enjoy similar privileges.

  The middle class consists of the educated workers and low-level government employees, who mostly reside in segregated sections of cities, such as the Manhattan Protected Zone of New York. The middle class enjoys relative safety from urban violence and is generally provided with sufficient food and entertainment to make life tolerable. The standard of living is, however, far below that enjoyed in the 20th and early 21st centuries, before the great debt repudiations of the mid-2000s.

  Below the middle class are the vast numbers of the lower strata workers and unemployed. Consisting of the uneducated, those who have been cast out of the middle class, and out-of-favor minorities and religious groups, the Cogs, as they are known, scratch out a miserable existence the best they can. Living in violence-plagued cities outside the middle class zones, the Cogs work for minimal pay in large factories and basic materials plants. The Cog typically live in older, poorly maintained housing stock clustered outside the city centers where the more educated workers reside. With limited access to civic services and low medical priority ratings, the life expectancy of a Cog is less than half that of a member of the middle class.

  The government maintains a large number of paramilitary organizations through which it enforces control over the population. Elections are held regularly but change very little. The two political parties determine who will run in what district, so generally there is only a single choice in each election. Voters ma
y express displeasure by failing to vote for the designated candidate or by writing in an alternative, however anyone taking such action risks punitive sanctions, such as an unexplained reduction in one's medical priority rating.

  The economy consists solely of large enterprises, run by the corporate magnates in cooperation with the government. There is little competition, and markets are allocated by government fiat. The system is an economic failure constantly on the verge of bankruptcy, but it is sustained by the wealth created by the space colonies and their exploitation of the mineralogical treasures of the new worlds.

  Political and Economic Structure of Alliance Colony Worlds

  The colony worlds of the Western Alliance have a radically different societal structure from that of the Alliance on Earth. The earliest colonists left Earth with almost no prospect of ever returning. The challenge of developing new worlds attracted independent and adventurous individuals, just the kind the government was happy to ship off to space.

  The distances and travel times between colony worlds made it impractical for the central government to exert tight control over these remote, tiny populations, so they were left mostly on their own. As long as the expected resources flowed back to Earth, the colonies were allowed to govern themselves as they saw fit.

  Most of these worlds adopted democratic governments of one sort or another, and the frontier in general had a spirit of egalitarianism that was long ago lost on Earth, if it had ever truly existed there.

  Democracy on the rim was not perfect. Some of the worlds established enhanced levels of citizenship, usually preferencing those born on the world over those who emigrated from Earth. Others produced their own odious politicians not unlike those on Earth. But generally, the colonials were a rugged, self-reliant breed, resentful of the intrusive government they'd left behind, and highly resistant to the development of anything remotely similar on their new homeland.

  When colonies were tiny and starships slow, this arrangement worked without any problems. But as the importance of the colonies increased and populations grew, the central government on Earth began to interfere more and more in day-to-day colonial affairs. The colonists resisted these attempts, and tensions slowly increased. The nearly constant warfare with the other powers kept this problem from becoming severe by focusing energies and resources on defeating the enemy. But the discontent remained, and it was increasing.

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