The Imperial Protectorate of Great Britain
This great globes-spanning empire has seen better days, but this does not mean its suns have deigned to set quite yet. Quite the contrary, the British dominion remains one of the most frightening military powers in the world, with the largest aether fleet, cutting edge technology, and an incredibly diverse ground force. They hold land on every continent on Earth, as well as multiple other celestial bodies, developing their holdings at a breakneck pace. No, the British Empire is quite far from collapsing, and it certainly will not be allowed to do so under the watchful eye of the Lord Protector, lest he forsake God, King, and Country.
“England Expects That Every Man Will Do His Duty”
The turn of the 19th century was a period defined by rapid industrial transformation chafed and chipped at by constant military clashes. As the first nations to embrace industrialization in the mid 1700s, England and Wales were powerhouses of naval production, and were ready to remedy the issues they faced in the American Revolution. Their lightly armored steam clippers were capable of reinforcing loyalist armies in America, but unfortunately colonial troops were often heavily entrenched in coastal fortifications, whose artillery could easily land killing blows on the craft. Their solution was the production of the first ironclads, heavy warships that could resist most arms. If only they had the opportunity to properly test them before the enemy acquired some of their own.
In October of 1805, the bulk of the French Navy, now also equipped with ironclads, was enroute past Cape Trafalgar to launch an invasion of England. This was in response to Britain’s efforts to blockade access to the Atlantic amid the Napoleonic Wars, which had been raging on the continent for quite some time. As recompense for assistance in their revolution, a dozen American “privateer” vessels were supporting the invaders, with the coalition’s ship counts doubling that of the defensive line, commanded by Admiral Horatio Nelson. The battle was the perfect proving ground for Britain's top of the line, unblooded ironclad contingent. Nelson’s own HMS Victory received extensive refits, making it the bulkiest warship to date, barely capable of staying afloat when accounting for cargo. While both heavy and high profile, the ship’s engines were able to provide sudden bursts of speed, giving his ship a surprising amount of agility as the legendary admiral commanded his fleet.
The heavy armor of the combatant’s ships only extended the conflict, which lasted for much of the day. Not long after lunch, Nelson was struck by rifle fire and carried off deck. The ship’s doctor did his best to stabilize his condition, but knew the shrapnel would require surgery to be treated. The admiral refused treatment until the battle was finished, though he knew he likely wouldn’t survive the day. He decided to use his injury to his advantage, goading the French Coalition into a reckless advance. He allowed the enemy to believe him dead to falsely inflate their morale, which successfully lured them into range of his reserve ships, which were poised for maneuvers. His plan was made perfect by a brewing storm overhead, with the French sailors feeling unprepared for ironclad combat in choppy waters. The British fleet encircled their aggressors, forcing them into an open shootout they could not win against a more experienced navy. By sunset the battle was won, with Nelson passing as he watched the Aigle sink.
While his victory was miraculous, Nelson’s deeds at Trafalgar were not entirely enough to turn the tides. Of the 50 ships he had at the start of the day, only 8 would limp back to harbor. In fact, if it wasn't for the 78 French and American ships that lay in their wake, people at home would have called it a loss. The French would take years to recover their navy, but the British blockade of the Atlantic was no longer large enough to be effective. Their battle with France had to continue onward.
Skies Over Iberia
The struggle against Napoleon would not end for another 9 years, with Spain becoming the great battlefield of Western Europe. Spain and Portugal had fallen to Bonaparte earlier in the period, and a cooperative puppet state had been operating there since. With France now at peace with The Holy Roman Empire, Parliament was desperate for a decisive victory, and saw Iberia as the prime target. In 1807, British troops landed in the city of Lisbon, formally starting the Peninsular Wars. While their initial invasion of former Portugal proved easy, with all major urban centers captured by winter, the next few years of fighting would not be so easy.
French reinforcements arrived in Spain in early 1808, holding a strong defensive line against attempts to push east. Their superior supply lines allowed them to maintain high morale, even as local support waned. Many local militias joined with Britain, supporting them in their efforts at liberation. Remnants of the Bourbon dynasty even came out of hiding, and were ready to reclaim their throne from the Bonaparte invaders. All the British advance required now was a small technological edge.
In 1807, Scottish inventor Gordon Balfour tested the prototype for what would become known as the Balfour Drive, the very technology that has allowed aether travel in the years since. Even the first models were capable of lifting heavy objects, as demonstrated by the inventor launching a train into the air. In 1810, the military contacted Balfour, asking if he could provide some drives for use in battle. The resulting designs produced floating bombing platforms assisted by hot air balloons and simple propellers, still too rudimentary to be considered zeppelins.
On June 16th, 1811, these prototype war blimps were deployed over Toledo, bombarding French fortifications across the city. Their flight range was limited, and they were only able to complete two runs before returning to the British encampment in Talavera de la Reina. The shock factor of being attacked in the sky was nonetheless enough to break the defenders, who surrendered the next day as the combined Bourbon-British forces marched to the city. These early aircraft would continue to aid the liberation effort for the next few years, with the French unable to slow their advance into Spain, even as they saw victories in Canada amid the War of 1812.
The Holy Roman Empire ultimately forced the age of conflict to finally end. Starting 1813, the Empire began sending aid to the Bonapartists in Spain, citing Britain’s unjustified aggression in territories that were not their own. In the meantime, British Canada’s defense was failing, and there were calls in Parliament to end the conflict in Spain so that they could focus on defending their colonial assets. By this time they had aided the Bourbanites in liberating most of Spain, with the bulk of French resistance holding in the northeast. Nonetheless, in January of 1814, The Holy Roman Emperor bluntly announced plans to join the war on Napoleon’s side if Parliament did not immediately come to the negotiating table.
On April 17th, the treaty to end the Peninsular War was signed in Bern, Switzerland, with the document only succeeding in leaving every warring party dissatisfied. Valencia, Aragon, Catalonia, Navarra, and the Basque Provinces would form a Bonapartist kingdom, which would in short time be incorporated as an autonomous nation within the French Empire. The remainder of Spain would fall under the dominion of the resurrected Bourbon dynasty, and would grow to include the realm of Portugal following the end of their civil war two decades later. Officially Spain is largely independent, though their foreign affairs are largely controlled by the British, as part of the Treaty of Bern required the reformed Spain to cease colonial operations granted to them in the Treaty of Tordesillas. Britain in response to this change laid claim to all former Spanish holdings overseas, greatly enraging the Imperial and French delegates who had worked tirelessly for a favorable treaty. As a final retaliation, the two continental powers issued a permanent embargo on all British dealings on the European mainland, effectively banishing the empire from the region. The French also ignored discussions to end the War of 1812, working together with the United States to rip most of Canada from the Commonwealth before peace talks could finish in 1815. At the end of the day, Britain may have nominally won the Peninsular Wars, but their credibility in Europe was outright destroyed in the process.
The War for Egypt
Regardless of previous outcomes, hostilities between Britain and France would not so easily cease. The ailing Napoleon Bonaparte was well aware of the waning strength of the Ottoman Empire, and invaded North Africa in 1830. Peninsular Wars veteran and recently disgraced Prime Minister Arthur Wellesley personally took command of an intercession force bound for Egypt, citing the goal of protecting the Ottomans from this wanton French aggression. In actuality, as the control of the sultanate continued to crumple, British occupation over the territory would never cease, even after their enemies retreated.
The two forces fought several skirmishes in the open deserts of western Egypt, with neither general landing a meaningful victory on the other. In their youth, Wellesley and Bonaparte fought many times in Spain, where they practically ground each other into a stand still before Imperial intervention. They had an obvious grudge with one another, which came at the expense of the men under their command, as the pair slammed line after line against each other. Their warfare culminated in the Battle of El-Alamein, with the British-Egyptian coalition taking a defensive posture as reinforcements landed on the beach. The coalition ultimately were able to cause a French rout, which precipitated Napoleon's forces retreating all the way to Tobruk. Following the defeat, the French Emperor had a bout of severe health problems, and he returned to France with his ego severely bruised.
The French army formerly under Napoleon’s command would continue to launch strikes into Egypt, only stopping after the Emperor’s passing in 1840. As the situation in the Ottoman Empire was in no way improving, the British supported the independence of Egypt, which coalesced as a Sultanate under Muhammad Ali, the former Ottoman governor and conqueror of Arabia. The new Sultanate would later go on to reclaim the Arabian peninsula, and push northward into the Levant. Their reign was well supported by his new British benefactors, who only asked for nominal fealty and land rights in Suez. The canal they built there soon after became a key focus in the commerce of the Commonwealth and its many dominions.
Spreading Overseas
The British Imperium rushed to fill the void left by the Spanish and French navies, claiming as many overseas colonies as possible. They claimed all Spanish islands in the Caribbean, Atlantic, and Pacific, facing few challengers. Many of the Commonwealth’s many dominions were assembled in this period, including the British East Indies (now referred to as British Oceania), which is administered from its capital Singapore. Burma would be systematically weathered down by British raids over the next few decades, finally being subjugated in 1886. Even India fell under total government subjugation, with the crown cracking down on the crown jewel following a failed revolt in the 1850s. Nonetheless, a new global player would still find the time to interfere in British affairs.
The United States of America had unlawfully claimed multiple colonies formerly administered by the Spanish Empire, which Britain had previously demanded following the Treaty of Bern. The biggest examples of this were the Philippines and Mexico, which America conquered in 1843 and 1849 respectively. In 1861, Queen Victoria formally requested the return of all colonies rightfully owned by Britain, a request President Houston openly mocked. The ensuing Anglo-American Island War did not go well. The Empire was exhausted after fighting the French for over 50 years, while the American Navy had the opportunity to quietly build up after Trafalgar. Britain as a result lost most of the Caribbean, only holding on to Jamaica, Bermuda, and the Lesser Antilles. The wound from this defeat has never healed, with the conflict still coming up in conversation in Parliament to this day.
A small benefit of the conflict with America was the birth of British Military Intelligence. The Quartermaster General found that military command had a severe lack of knowledge of the geography on the Caribbean front, outside of simply being “sand and water.” Engineering teams needed intel ahead of time to build fortifications, making professional scouts and military spies a necessity. By the 1870s, this survey corps had developed into the Directorate of Military Intelligence, with sub departments focused in internal surveillance as well as espionage.
In search of raw resources and new sources of wealth, many colonial efforts were undertaken in Africa as well, with most of the continent falling under British jurisdiction by the end of the century. The southern region of the continent saw the bulk of these efforts, as rare materials such as diamonds and Cavorite were discovered in high quantities. These riches drew in many business magnates, whose successes raked in tens of millions of British pounds.
One of these young tycoons was a diamond miner named Cecil Rhodes, whose massive wealth allowed him an early jump into politics. Rhodes had very eccentric views about his homeland, largely born out of a racialized superiority complex. He held the role of Prime Minister of the Cape Colony for a few years, while simultaneously increasing his control in British Parliament, effectively purchasing his way into power. Some more earth-shattering events in the late 19th century would greatly alter the course of his destiny, pushing him to be arguably the most powerful man on the planet.
The Great Game
The last great conflict fought by the British Empire was a series of conflicts in Central Asia, culminating in open war with Russia. The Commonwealth had begun spreading into Afghanistan as early as 1838, installing a new government subservient to the British Raj. This later dragged the Raj into conflict with Iran in 1856, who claimed Afghanistan as part of their sphere of influence. While in an open battle the British Army could easily win, the outbreak of the Sepoy Rebellion in 1857 halted plans to lead a counter offensive. Ultimately the local Raj forces retreated to Jalalabad, and Iran temporarily reclaimed the region.
In 1864, Russia capitalized on this void, pushing deeper south while the British could not respond. By 1869, they had secured everything north of Termez, pressuring both the Raj and Iran. Sensing a greater threat from the Russians, representatives from the Safavid Dynasty cut a deal with Parliament, ceding much of Afghanistan for guarantees of their independence. This ultimately deterred Russian efforts to potentially invade Iran, but they would nonetheless try one more invasion into Afghanistan before the ink could dry.
In 1885, Russian troops outside of Shahrtuz staged a false flag incident, trading artillery fire with the nearby Raj garrison. The local commander, General Pavel Babikov, surged deep into Raj-Controlled Afghanistan with a whole armored division on a direct course for Kabul. Even on main arterial roads, the local Afghan troops had the advantage of terrain, making the Russian force pay for every kilometer it traversed in blood. By the time they reached Kabul in 1887, the British garrison there outnumbered them, though they admittedly had inferior ordnance. The battle lasted 6 days, and the remaining troops under Babikov were wiped out.
While The Russian Empire continued to harass the mountainous region for the next 4 years, they never made significant gains again. The war ended on May 9th 1891, with the Russian government forced to pay reparations to the Raj. The Great Game fared well for the British Empire, but problems were still brewing back home.
Irish Troubles
Ireland was the victim of many hardships in the latter 19th century, which ultimately increased tensions with the central government. The famine of the 1850s left the island in a constant cycle of food scarcity and price hikes, straining the local economy well beyond its breaking point. The subsequent “Land War” made it difficult for crop yields to bounce back, and made it increasingly difficult for the average Irishman to own land. These problems led to increased agitation of the Irish public, heightened crime rates, and extremist activities. Queen Victoria was quite vocal about her disgust over the whole affair, likening the Irish to an unwashed rabble. Unfortunately for her, her words led to some unwanted attention.
On March 2nd, 1879, two Irish nationalists waited outside Windsor Palace. As Queen Victoria’s car left the grounds, one of the men dropped onto the road, feigning a slip in the mud. As the driver slowed, the second assailant drew a revolver, firing 5 shots into the vehicle. This incident was the 8th attempt on the Queen’s life, but it was the closest to succeeding. The shield generator installed in the vehicle failed, and the shots rang true to their target. Three of the bullets hit the 59 year old monarch, who was soon unconscious in the back of the vehicle. Royal guards rushed the two would-be assassins, but only after the gunman used the sixth bullet on himself. The surviving member was later sentenced to hanging, but only after weeks of unsuccessful interrogation.
Queen Victoria would mostly recover from her wounds, but was practically bedridden for the rest of her life, and was never again seen in public. Common rumor speculated that Her Majesty was struck in the face by one of the bullets, and was hiding her disfigurement. Others even hypothesized she was comatose, or even brain dead. Nonetheless, she was no longer capable of carrying out her royal duties, which then fell to her son, the future Edward VII.
Albert Edward, as he was then known, was greatly disliked by his mother, to a degree that the public was aware. He called for a direct move against the growing threat of Irish nationalism, but countermeasures carried out by Commander in Chief George, Duke of Cambridge and Prime Minister William Gladstone only succeeded in inspiring further uprising. Two years after the shooting, the Irish Republican Brotherhood initiated the Fenian Bombing Campaign, an 8 year terror spree that left much of the English public in fear for their lives. Even after the architects of this plot were captured, imitators carried out smaller strikes against British government and military buildings.
In mid-1886, Queen Victoria reportedly suffered a stroke due to complications from the assassination attempt. She would die on September 12th the next year, leaving the country in a mix of mourning and paranoia. While he had tried his best to reduce tensions during the regency, the now King Edward VII still did not instill a great deal of confidence in the public. Having finally hit a breaking point on the issue, Edward supported the passing of the resettlement programs that culminated in the Great Irish Displacement, where as much as 80% of all Irish peoples were shipped offworld to the Empire’s new aether colonies. The process was done over the course of five years, during which tensions were incredibly high, with open rebellions breaking in multiple locales. The Irish Republican Brotherhood, however, would get one last laugh in as their people were removed from Earth. In January of 1892, Prince Albert Victor, the king’s eldest son, was attending a ceremony in which he would formally become the Viceroy of Ireland. During his speech, a bomb was detonated underneath the stage, mortally injuring the young man. His father was utterly heartbroken by the incident, and retreated into seclusion for the next several months. Even removing his enemies from the very planet was not enough to protect him.
All Hail the Lord Protector
In 1895, the young and fiery Cecil Rhodes was appointed the Prime Minister of Great Britain, after stepping down from his seat in Cape Colony only the night before. He had spent the previous year stoking the paranoia in the hearts of the public, while behind the scenes plying his allies with his diamond money. In his first meeting with King Edward, he plainly laid out his argument for a safer Dominion, unabashedly using his losses as leverage. The two agreed that allowing Parliament to deal with normal governance was perfectly acceptable, but their ability to handle matters of security had ultimately failed, and the world was only becoming a more dangerous place for the empire. Britain needed the ability to decisively respond in a time of crisis, but this power was outside that of both Parliament and the monarch. Together they found a solution that would allow for a necessary shift in British governance to occur as soon as possible, and over the next two years they slowly eroded the status quo.
With the retirement of the Duke of Cambridge, Edward VII appointed Prime Minister Rhodes as the new Captain-General and Commander-in-Chief of the Empire. Controlling both Parliament and the military, Rhodes evoked special emergency powers not used since Oliver Cromwell, declaring himself Lord Protector of the Realm. In his new role, he had absolute power over the government, excluding the drafting of actual laws. His special appointment even allowed the selection of his future successors, making this new government, which ruled in the name of public security, effectively a military junta.
From his new estate at Whitehall, Rhodes’ government immediately jumped at the opportunity to identify threats to the Empire externally as well as internally. His greatest tool for the task was the Directorate of Military Intelligence, which answered directly to him rather than the government. MI5’s primary task was to finally snuff out the last holdouts of the Irish Republican Brotherhood on Earth, as well as surveil the growing socialist movement in northern England. MI6 took a broader approach, spying primarily on the five greatest threats to British security, ranking them numerically in a special briefing in February of 1900.
Due to their size, wealth, previous conflicts, and increasing cultural relevance, the MI6 deemed the United States to be the single greatest threat to British hegemony. The volatility and unpredictability of The Russian Empire made it almost equally dangerous, a fact proven true when Russia entered the Long Regency. From there in descending order, it was predicted The Holy Roman Empire, France, and the Rising Japanese Empire posed the greatest threats, even after Japan was essentially married into the Commonwealth. It is not uncommon for espionage reports to mention the state being surveilled only by their number in this hierarchical system, with the homeland always being referred to as Null.
By 1910, Rhodes had turned the Empire into a giant surveillance state, with half of all government civilian employees answering to the War Office and Directorate in one way or another. The perceived stability offered by the Protectorate worked for a time, though it is unclear if MI7’s propaganda wing had anything to do with that assertion. What was clear was that the state became overall more efficient, with the whims of those at the top being far more attainable, an increasingly important factor as the British Empire spread into the aether.
The Chamberlain Protectorate
On March 15th, 1915, Lord Protector Cecil Rhodes was found dead in his home office at Whitehall. He had battled heart issues his entire life, but ultimately succumbed to a secret bout with colon cancer. His body was laid in state for two days, before being sent to Rhodesia, where a monument was built near his old offices. While he had not selected a formal successor, he had made it clear to select members of his ruling council that if no suitable candidate could be found in time, it should be passed to Joseph Chamberlain, a man almost two decades his senior.
Chamberlain was a career politician, who at a younger age held views far too liberal for Rhodes’ comfort, but his experience shone through as reliable. Fortunately, as he aged he became more receptive to the Protectorate’s results, and had become a well-trusted advisor. He was the quintessential Imperialist, and his time as an MP was spent dismantling further the rights of groups that threatened the security of the Empire, such as the Archbishopric of Armagh. He accepted the position with dignity, but also immediately began the search for his own successor, as if an albatross was already over his office. He knew he was the best candidate, but not necessarily the perfect one.
Having experienced the business sector from both sides, Lord Protector Chamberlain was lukewarm to worker’s unions and other similar trade movements. This changed in 1917, when Russia became embroiled in civil war. King George V, who had ruled since his father’s death in 1910, requested the Lord Protector interfere on the White Russian’s behalf, as he was close to his cousin, Tsar Nicholas II. Chamberlain agreed to send a small strike force to assist efforts to liberate the Tsar, but they were ultimately too late. While the Bolsheviks were ultimately crushed, the death of the Tsar only increased paranoia against socialism, causing Chamberlain to double efforts to stamp out unions and corporate strikes.
Chamberlain had to further navigate global problems affecting the Commonwealth. Economic problems in 1916 precipitated into a worldwide recession the next year. Piracy on the Kazakh/Afghan Border became commonplace, largely in response to supply chain issues. The economic stopgaps passed under his watch did well at delaying the pains felt in Britain, but they failed to mitigate any of the problems that would soon manifest. Supply of local crops had been drained, forcing the Commonwealth to rely further on aether colony crop yields. They never expected these crops would bring back even bigger problems.
A glowing blue fungus called Mors Frumenti was accidentally delivered to Earth aboard a grain shipment from Victoria II. The fungus, while not immediately deadly to humans, was capable of choking out an infected crop. The resulting famine, coupled by massive heat waves, caused a significant portion of the British Empire’s population to waste away with empty stomachs and parched lips.
1922 brought yet another crisis ashore, this time the notorious Bengal Flu. The name itself adds a great deal of blame to the British Empire, even though the original strain did not originate within its borders. It is true however that the deadliest strain was born from the overcrowded environs of the British Raj, and the death toll throughout the Commonwealth was especially high. The British Isles in particular, which had been spared from the famine thanks to grain stockpiles, was hit especially hard by the pandemic, with 29 million, almost half the population of the homeland, dying from the disease or related complications. One of these victims was none other than the Lord Protector himself, who caught the affliction while making a public appearance in the Whitechapel Quarantine Zone. He was able to overcome the initial symptoms, but his aging body was unable to get over damage to his lungs, and he would quietly pass in 1925. His legacy may not have been that of Rhodes, but he continued to fight for his country until his last gasp.
The Baldwin Protectorate
Tragic as his passing was, Chamberlain had already lined up a successor ahead of time, avoiding the mistakes of his predecessor by taking several years to groom a replacement. His choice was Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, who had been leading the civilian government for the past two years. Baldwin was a very capable statesman, who often thought ahead years for political maneuvers. He was also a staunch supporter of trade protectionism, and his years as PM were spent negotiating favorable economic deals amid the pandemic. Most importantly, Baldwin was still relatively young, taking up the mantle of Lord Protector in his late 50s, ensuring he could manage the nation for longer than Chamberlain.
His predecessor left him with an empire in chaos, still reeling from the famine, plague, and economic downturn. Fortunately Baldwin was able to mitigate some of these crises both before and after his ascent, though at the cost of stability among certain groups in the Commonwealth. While Prime Minister, he passed legislation allowing the displaced Irish to pay taxes with crops, which helped free up food for reallocation. As they were now residing offworld, their crop yields were not as hampered by the drought and pandemic. When this measure did not work as successfully as intended, he in turn raised taxes on the sale of Irish crops to anyone outside the government. He also seized the land of high profile farmers across the Commonwealth who died as a result of the pandemic, using government mandate to redistribute food. His quarantine mandates were especially controversial, with entire districts being closed off in extreme cases. Ultimately, while many of his methods worked, they also succeeded in angering the public.
To combat growing unrest, Baldwin updated the nation’s security protocols for the first time since the tenure of Cecil Rhodes. His new vision of the Empire, derisively referred to as the "Watchman State" ushered in a new age of paranoia. Areas in unrest were issued very strict curfews, with air and aetherships hovering overhead on patrols. Due to the immense manpower required to police an empire so large, new solutions needed to be devised. The Merlin Capsule allowed for rapid deployment to the scene of unrest, but it did not allow for an easy retrieval of troops, assuming they survived entering the atmosphere.
To cut down on the number of troops needed, the British Empire oversaw the creation of the Oculart Systems Automata, a humanoid infantry platform capable of rudimentary combat roles. These “Tommybots” are not intelligent, rather operating under the parameters of pre-programmed subroutines downloaded onto heavy-duty cassettes. They are typically equipped with short range automatic weapons, in order to make up for their poor accuracy. Automaton squads are usually led by a human soldier tasked with their maintenance, as well as issuing them new subroutines. While not a full replacement for organic troops, the Tommybot is a common sight in situations involving riot control, or where no neutral parties are present, as Friend/Foe Identification is a common problem they encountered in testing.
Through automated soldiers, rapid deployment, and top notch surveillance, Baldwin has made sure that the Protectorate is seen as one of the safest nations on earth. Dissenters have been run underground, what crime still occurs is punished with the full strength of the courts, and enemies of the state are silenced by agents of the Directorate of Military Intelligence. As the world plunges into an era of war, the sleeping Colossus of Rhodes lies in wait, anticipating their time to return to the world stage. With half of the planet’s landmass, immense resources, and an alliance of some of the world’s most fearsome newcomers, the will of the Lord Protector will be hard to ignore.
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