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The United Civilized States (UCS) is one of the factions in the Earth series, alongside Eurasian Dynasty, Lunar Corporation, and Aliens. It’s originated from the old United States of America, and holds most of the American continent under its control.

History[]

As the 21st century began, who could have predicted that things would turn out as they did? With millenium parties in full swing, people around the globe celebrated wildly. As the world's most prosperous country , the United States had the most to cheer about - and the most to look forward to. Globalization had won the day, and there was little doubt who the big winner would be.

But after the empty champagne bottles had all been cleared away and the hangovers subsided, the first rumblings started. First came the crash on Wall Street. Stocks plummeted to levels which made the 1930s look good. As irrational exurbance gave way to incurable pessimism, one international corporation after another simply dissolved, factories closed their doors, and pictures of millions of unemployed citizens wandering around desolate city centers in the vain hope of finding something to eat came to symbolize the plight of the 21st century.

The crisis brought some dramatic social and political changes in the US. To focus attention away from the miserable economic situation, those in power pushed for a "guns instead of butter" policy. Defense outlays were dramatically increased and a siege mentality created among the population. For 30 long years, Americans were made to believe the entire world had become an enemy, and that foreign armies were just waiting for the right moment to attack. Under these tense circumstances there was little to prevent a relatively minor incident with Greater Russia in the 2040s from escalalting into a large-scale conflict. In the ensuing war of 2048 all European and Asian powers were completely destroyed. Since the US had invested early in a top-rate missile defense system, it suffered less damage than the others. But the war left its mark. Not one single nation managed to emerge unscathed. The only result of the bitter conflict - global anarchy.

Slowly and painfully, the North American continent began reconstruction. Twelve states in the former USA formed a federation called the United Civilized States, with a provisional government. But people had long ago lost faith in politicians, who were seen as self-interested and greedy. A new movement led by Richard Bowman stepped into this power vacuum. Bowman's theory was radical if not particularly original - power corrupts and since those who seek it are usually motivated by the lowest personal interests, the best government is the one that doesn't exist. To his critics, who pointed out that somebody must govern, he repeatedly claimed to have a plan already worked out.

And that he did. His "solution" was a government run by an absolute minimum number of bureaucrats, chosen by a lottery system. To keep them from becoming entrenched, they could only remain in office for a few months.

Despite some opposition from conservatives, this strange form of government was installed and given the name "Stochocracy". At first it was difficult getting newly chosen politicians trained in their new positions. But after a few years government ran smoothly. Occasionally a new lottery "winner" was reluctant to take up a position, but these were rare cases. Most citizens saw it as their patriotic duty to carry out the tasks of government - at least for a short time. Fortunately the greenhorn politicians could rely on highly specialized computer systems to assist them in day-to-day matters of state. In fact, they began depending so much on these so-called "advisors" that, after a while, it became clear that the systems were fully capable running the government without their human overseers.

In 2074, the physicist Mark Springer became head of state. During his short one-year reign he was able to secure financing for a large scientific research program. Back then there were quite a few research institutes, Stanford Laboratory being the best known. Springer also led expeditions into some of the regions destroyed by the war. One of these was known as Area 51, formerly a secret military base. While digging nearby, Springer's crew unearthed a mysterious wreck, which turned out to be the remains of an alien space ship. Scientists began thorough investigations into the strange find to see to what use it could be put to.

The steady stream of scientific breakthroughs, inventions and discoveries had a great influence on the daily lives of UCS citizens. Soon CPU-controls were everywhere. Automated factories needed little attention. Robots did all the household chores. There was little work to be done, and everyone lived quite comfortably. Computer systems assumed de facto control over running the country, since the human rulers by now hardly ever felt confident enough to reject their "advice", which now covered every decision imaginable.

This situation changed in 2134 whern Jonathan Swamp became Defense Minister. A highly skilled programmer, Swamp was for many years in charge of the main government computer systems. This experience made his the only person in the country capable of using their total potential. As Defense Minister he was granted unlimited access to the military administration processor, known as GOLAN.

While in office, he made some radical changes to the system, allowing him to run computer simulations of military battles all over the planet. But by changing GOLAN's delicately balanced program structure, Swamp created unforeseen glitches throughout the system. As a result, over the next few years incorrect data led GOLAN to make some fatal miscalculations. The worst of these was the order issued to send a large army to the former British Isles. The ED rulers of the territory naturally saw this as a declaration of war.

The resulting war lasted ten years and was fought on all continents. The intelligence of the GOLAN system went up against the courage and experience of the ED leader. Employing some new tactics, the ED at first had the upper hand, until GOLAN calculated the right counter-measures. The battlefield was in a state of constant flux. For a while the ED army occupied part of Northern America, until the UCS deployed units equipped with the most modern arsenal. By 2148 the ED was in full retreat before the UCS onslaught from the south. While crossing the North Pole towards Siberia the ED shot off nuclear weapons to stop the advancing UCS units. This turned out to be the turning point - but not as intended by the ED commanders who ordered the launch. The power of the explosions literally knocked the Earth out of its orbit.

In January of 2150 the UCS scientists proved beyond any doubt that in only a few years a major cosmic catastrophe was inevitable. GOLAN was clearly unable to deal with this new information and completely shut down. A new government was quickly chosen to deal with the situation. The solution they came up with was most human in its simplicity - build a space station and evacuate the population. To work out all the details they rolled out their new cyber-leader: GOLAN II. This state-of-the-art CPU quickly started issuing orders for new factories to produce the necessary parts. Through computer simulations, it became clear that such a process would require massive amounts of ore and other raw material. So GOLAN II issued another order , this time directly to the UCS Defense Minister - "Must immediately call out army ... secure all identified sources of raw material"

Before the Earth exploded, most of the UCS members did manage to board an enormous evacuation ship – their destination was the Red Planet - but The Phoenix never made it... no-one knows what has become of that giant vessel, with all the UCS technology and hundreds of thousands of human beings on board. Some say the ship was destroyed by a meteor - but that theory couldn't be proved. The monster ship was lost without a trace. One opinion was (and it was the most likely) that the ship had been driven into deep space thanks to computer error.

However, The Phoenix wasn't destroyed. In 2160, the ship was discovered by the rogue LC commander Ariah and the rogue ED Major Michael Falkner. The AI commanding the ship had decided not to complete its journey to Mars. Instead, it was waiting until the war between the ED and the LC was over. Ariah and Falkner were able to convince the AI to take go to a diffirent destination; Eden. By activating an Alien space portal, the ship was teleported to Eden, but they weren't the first ones to arrive. An LC outpost was built on the planet. After reaching the base, Ariah discovered that the base was empty; with the exeption of a man calling himself "her majesty". She also discovers that this base were the ones who first awoke the Aliens.

After destroying all Aliens in the area, the UCS started colonizing Eden. However, the war wasn't over. In an effort to destroy the Aliens, the UCS allied with the ED and LC forces on Eden (how these got there in the first place is currently unknown), only to be betrayed by the ED forces under Colonel Greg Rifkin. In the end, the Aliens are destroyed and the ED forces have surrendered, but a currently unknown object comes through the Alien gate; a new challenge for humanity and the UCS.

Organization[]

Within a dozen years, the Earth's inhabitants had begun to restore their old nationalities - with a few twists. Twelve states of the former United States joined together to form a new country, call- led the United Civilized States. The UCS citizens had essentially given up their old roles as producers and leaders. Nearly all work was being performed by robots which are controlled by expert computer systems. Not surprisingly, the human inhabitants of the UCS had become lazy and decadent.

Unlike the Eurasian Dynasty, which relies on human decision makers, the sole human figurehead is the President, randomly selected through a lottery from all UCS citizens. Their performance is constantly analyzed by computer systems, boiled down into performance reports tracking incorrect decisions made under duress and satisfaction level of the population. If a President is found to be consistently underperforming, they are executed on orders from the AIs, recycled, and a new lottery takes place.

There are several artificial intelligences that control the UCS, each with its own area of expertise:

  • NOAH I - Evacuation Coordination Processor
  • DEMOKRIT III - Research/Design Processor
  • GOLAN IV - Central Processing Unit
  • KAIN IX - Espionage Intelligence Processor
  • HADES XII - Geological Research Processor
  • ARES XIV - Mobile Tactics Processor
    • Phobos MCIX - Combat sub-processor activated as a fail safe in case the ARES is disabled.

Technologies & Arsenals[]

In general, UCS is considered occupying “the middle ground” at the technological spectrum, as seen in all games, its hierarchy of technologies being obviously more sophisticated than ED equivalent, but still falls short against the more extraterrestrial-like counterpart of LC.

Extensive research, coupled with the discovery and reverse-engineering of alien relics, have bestowed UCS a jumpstart in many fields of unique and promising technologies, including directed energy weaponry and anti-gravity, even teleportation, greatly benefiting its war efforts.

AI plays a major role in UCS’ civilian and military affairs, and by such, UCS military is highly automated, requiring minimum human involvement.

In Earth 2140[]

In Earth 2150 & Expansion Packs[]

Base Construction & Maintenance[]

Construction of structures is tasked to universal construction unit “Mammoth”. Heavy, slow-moving vehicles also capable of setting up bridges, erecting walls, flattening terrain, digging trenches and tunnels.

Repairers are fielded to patch up damaged buildings and units, also to capture disabled vehicles of enemy factions, however they're only compatible with very few, certain chassis.

Energy Production & Distribution[]

UCS relies on small-sized, high-efficiency nuclear powerplants to energize its bases, and each powerplant can be further added with four reactors, meaning UCS bases can have much more abundant electricity supply than ED, also much more stable than LC.

A powerplant can transmit power to quite a distance by itself, Energy Transmitters are required to keep farther structures energized, multiple Transmitters can form a relay grid to cover a very large area.

Resources Gathering & Processing[]

The mining process of UCS is more streamlined than ED. Mining units known as Harvesters dig ores from underground deposits and transport them to Refineries. Flyable variants of Harvesters can be researched to further increase efficiency.

Harvesters can be directed to dump ores to Ore Transportation Center, a special version of Refineries to store and deliver resources to the orbit for building the evacuation fleet.

Base Defenses[]

UCS factories prioritize productivity over security, therefore many of its buildings can only be armed with a light-duty weapon for self-defense, or cannot be armed at all. Normally a UCS base’s defense is centered on Fortresses, citadel-like structures both heavily armed and armored, supplemented by Large Towers. Self-powered Small Towers serve as the last line of defense should enemies manage to breach into the complex.

SDI Defense Centers keep ED's ballistic missiles from approaching. Shadow Towers cloak nearby friendly units from unfriendly eyes. Teleporters allow quickly summoning reinforcements.

Heavy Towers are introduced in expansion packs to largely, if not completely, replace Large Towers. Artillery emplacements also can be built to bombard invaders en route.

Landmines are laid by Miners to give ED nasty surprises, but are useless against LC, since the latter’s ground units are all but hovering ones.

Ground Units[]

UCS doesn’t employ chassis running on wheels and caterpillars (trucks and tanks), instead its ground units are mostly “biped” or arthropod-like (mechs/mechanized walkers) in order to better adapt adverse terrain. Light-duty, general-purpose chassis “Tiger” and “Spider” are responsible for recon, early harassment and non-combat-related duties such as repairing; medium-duty chassis Panther forms the backbone of frontal offenses, supplemented by heavy-duty “Jaguar”.

Aerial Units[]

UCS has discarded rotors in favor of more controllable anti-gravity for its VTOL craft. Light-duty “Gargoyle” serves as scout craft and fighter, while Bats serve as medium bombers, and Dragons are deployed as heavy bombers.

Fast-moving Condors deliver fresh ammunition from Aerial Supply Depots to any structures and units call for replenishment, Albatross-Class Transports can ferry units and resources back and forth between frontlines and rear areas. Foxes enter active service in expansion packs to answer the demand of short-distance unit-airlifting.

Naval Units[]

The naval branch of UCS military mainly operate on Shark-Class Gunboats which also doubled as support vessels, its capital ships are Hydra-Class, with Orca-Class patrolling underwater as strategic submarines.

Armaments & Ammunition[]

Apart from universally accessible 20mm Chaingun and Rocket Launcher/Heavy Rocket Launcher, also Earthquake Generator introduced in expansion packs, UCS has several families of weaponry exclusive to itself.

  • Grenade Launcher

Available by default alongside 20mm Chaingun, used as both anti-tank cannons and howitzers, but unable to be fitted to structures and lack of accuracy against fast-moving targets, thus putting UCS in disadvantage to early rushes of ED Pamirs and LC Lunars/Moons.

Heavier, better Grenade Launchers allow UCS ground forces to decimate enemies, especially structures, in a very short order, for the long-range, high firing rate and splash damage.

  • Plasma Cannon

Arguably the most well-balanced weaponry in this war, combining reasonably good rate of fire, range, accuracy, lethality, and zero demand of ammunition replenishment, not to mention the vast compatibility.

The final item in Plasma Cannon's research line is Offensive Plasma Cannon, WMD of UCS side.

Earth 2150: The Moon Project introduces AA Plasma Cannon, deadly anti-air directed energy weapon; and Gargoyle Plasma Cannon for Gargoyle-Class Fighters.

  • Plasma Bomb

Derived from Plasma Cannon, destructive plasma-based ammunition for Bats and Dragons.

  • 105mm Cannon & 120mm Cannon

During the war, UCS spies manage to steal the plans to ED’s prized 105mm Cannon and 120mm Cannon, the schematics are thoroughly analyzed and revised, creating better versions of said armaments for Tiger-Class, Panther-Class, and Jaguar-Class Mechs.

In Earth 2160[]

Base Construction & Maintenance[]

Design of UCS bases has changed dramatically after escaping the blue planet and before arriving the red planet. Now there’re only a few “main buildings”, each takes a core function such as “unit production”, “energy production”, etc. These main buildings are constructed by Drones, airborne universal construction units also responsible of repairing buildings and units.

A main building can expand its functions by adding upgrades to it, each type of main buildings come with several upgrade options corresponding to its core function.

Energy Production & Distribution[]

UCS has completely phased out nuclear fission and traditional generators, now its bases utilize cold fusion for electricity. However Energy Transmitters are still needed if to keep remote structures energized.

Resources Gathering & Processing[]

The "gatherer-refinery" mode is retained, but the bulky Harvester variants are replaced by lighter, more agile mining units with the codename “Termite”.

Base Defenses[]

This time UCS bases are guarded by Main Defense Towers, general-purpose core defensive structures with four expansion joints, can connect with Heavy Defense Stations as advanced anti-armor, High Defense Towers for advanced anti-air, and Bunkers in case of power failure.

Ground Units[]

UCS fields three types of cyborg infantries: General-purpose Silver One, anti-armor Silver P and hacking specialist Decker.

Light-duty chassis “Spider” and “Kazuar” fill the roles of recon and rapid response; medium-duty “Jaguar” is the centerpiece of frontal offenses, supplemented by four-legged “Lion”.

Scorpion-Class chassis are used as self-propelled artilleries, and Salamander-Class chassis are the support units for electronic warfare.

Aerial Units[]

UCS competes for air-superiority by fast, maneuverable Scarabs, with Beetles as medium-duty bombers and Condors as heavy-duty attackers/bombers.

Moreover, UCS also deploys mobile airborne munition factory “Reloader” to supply fresh ammunition to its army, via short-range teleportation.

Armaments & Ammunition[]

Conventional weapons like chainguns, grenades and rockets still have their places in the arsenal, albeit changed significantly. Chainguns are now retrofitted to be Gatling-styled, and are the only armament capable of hitting both ground and air targets by default; grenades are reduced to a light-hitting, auxiliary option of offense, while rockets are largely divided into anti-ground only and anti-air only.

Plasma weaponry now has two major categories: Plasma Blaster and Plasma Cannon, filling the roles of anti-armor and artillery, respectively. They also trade fast-firing in favor of heavy-hitting. Plasma Bombs are reserved exclusively to Beetles, alongside conventional heavy bombs.

Newly fielded toys for UCS military include Gaussian Beam, X-Ray Gun and Shield Disperser. Also the shield technology is further advanced to the extent of partially bouncing energy attacks back to attackers. However the Shadow Generators seem to take a retrograde step, no longer to affect aerial units.

Some UCS units are seen using flamethrowers against enemies, and they're effective despite the obsolete nature.

Lore-wise, UCS being largely dormant when ED and LC battle each other for supremacy, therefore it doesn’t re-establish a satellite network around Mars as the framework of superweapon like the previous war, so it takes an alternative, utilizing teleportation technology to transport specialized bombs behind enemy lines to surprise adversaries.

Trivia[]

  • UCS names its units/chassis after animals, perhaps due to the wide application of bionics, and many units/chassis in its military do look like animals.
  • Interestingly, UCS ground forces lack amphibious chassis, despite mastery of anti-gravity propulsion should have granted them the ability of hovering above water.
  • Its default color in singleplayer campaigns is red.
  • In Earth 2160, UCS clearly shows traits resembling SkyNet/Terminator Series, possibly due to the complete absence of human involvement to its AI’s decision-making during that era, also might be a homage to the said franchise.
  • Due to the change of veterancy mechanism in Earth 2160, UCS units can't become veterans anymore, but it's compensated by the capabilities of fast-manufacturing units of lower tiers and quick-deployment from factories via teleportation.
  • Unlike ED and LC, UCS in Earth 2160 calculates its capacity of stored resources and cap of buildable units in two separated systems.

Gallery[]

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