“If the cowards survive, they thrive.”
~ the First Citizens.
I t started as a group of deserters fleeing what the historians call the “Big War,” the war between the First Empire of the Bamos, the Kingdoms of the Rotanios, and the Ikamons. Soldiers from each side made the most foolish decision in the history of wars. Sickened by the never-ending war, they deserted their positions before the decisive battle and changed the course of history forever.
Because of that, the war kept going for decades with no clear winner. Meanwhile, the deserted troops signed peace treaties between them, merged, and took control of new territories. A few decades later, they announced the creation of their small nation, Amian. It was named after a war hero (or a coward, depending on your point of view, of course), who was known by the same name. That simple soldier changed the geopolitical order, as he was believed to be the first soldier that fled the big war.
The three old empires weakened each other and were now too busy to take that announcement seriously. After all, no one could challenge them, especially not a small, self-proclaimed nation of deserters. They could crush them at will any moment and erase them from the map.
The Amians kept neutrality for the first few years, but after that, they began to capitalize on the wartime opportunity and started producing and exporting weapons. Most of their production went to the factions of all sides of the Big War.
A few decades later, and thanks to the immigration of the best minds from the old empires still at war, the Amians became a strong nation. Now, we are a superpower, and maybe the most important one – the Confederation of the Amians.
We have the healthiest population in the world, not counting The League, of course. Our society has the highest diversity rate, as all the races have been mixed through many generations. This policy is still promoted by the state. It gives the highest and healthiest natality rate, a goal achieved easily through a mandatory school program for the very young. They learn at an early age that choosing a different-looking friend is a virtue. The feeling of freedom is omnipresent as every individual, no matter what his origins, has the right to accede to any political position if elected. This is very good, as no group feels excluded, which is a significant factor in our stability. But one must admit that the feeling of a homogeneous society is missing, and unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in our case. As they had to coexist to survive their treason, the first deserters created laws that were completely new at that time. They gave citizenship to every deserter as a right, no matter their origin.
The Confederation of the Amians is a direct, parliamentary republic. Most of the simple laws are voted on directly by the people and validated by the parliament. Still, the more complicated ones are discussed by the representatives that are experts in the affected fields. For example, the global budget allocation for the allies in a specific strategic foreign policy is developed by only the elected representatives from that specific academic circle. The most important institution is the “Cabinet,” which comprises 16 ministers presided by the Cabinet's head, the prime minister. He is elected by the representatives of the lower chamber. For the ministers, they are elected by the academic circle.
The Cabinet manages all the affairs for the state, except for the military forces. We are an independent entity and serve as a balance between different factions and movements. We have political representatives at every institution, and we are self-managed. To be honest, as much as we are a solution to balance the system, we are a problem, too. But our major problem now is the First Citizens. Unfortunately, the wealthiest seven people on the planet are from here. They are a group of entrepreneurs who took advantage of the early AI discoveries to accumulate wealth beyond imaginations in a very short period of time. They called themselves the “First Citizens,” in a way, to detach themselves from the rest of the population as they don’t want to be thought of as an equal with the average citizen. And honestly, I don’t blame them because one must admit that no one in the history of mankind has ever been that wealthy and powerful. More to the point, when they are completely controlling the state’s institutions, all the representatives, the Prime, and lately, even the army is under their strong grip. They designated me to be the head of the army without any objection from any general or even war heroes, they did overcome the system.
A couple of weeks ago, The First Citizens had a meeting with me, gave me their benediction, and the plan for our next big move. I was given the order to use the biggest army in the history of mankind to protect the new machine they are now building. It would be a “game-changer,” as they said. They plan to use it to intimidate the two other superpowers and break them into small republics, which would then be easily controllable. Again, the idea of total supremacy, the total control of the planet by a handful of people or “deities,” is still alive and doing well in the AI age. They think that this time, it is achievable, with the help of the new AI featuring a breakthrough code that somehow could generate consciousness. That is the only thing that the other empires can’t produce or even copy, as they claimed.
The key here is a very strange code that we still couldn’t trace to its source, as it is extremely well hidden by the First Citizens. Although, now I’m that thinking about, it’s not that strange, as the first AI was created right here by scientists that emigrated from the old empires and found very welcoming