Democratic Cobaltian Empire

The Democratic Cobaltian Empire (D.C.E.) is a faction located in the Beta Quadrant, bordering the Galactic Abyssal Federation to the west, and the Gazarian Dominion to both the south and east.

Its government is near-entirely run by the Ratakka Council - a small, elected body of ministers that handle specific societal issues based on their chosen scientific disciplines or educational backgrounds. The Council itself is headquartered on Cobaltia, which is, of course, the D.C.E's most populated planet, and also the homeworld and cultural capstone of the Cobaltian species.

Additionally, the D.C.E. happens to be the G.A.F's oldest major geopolitical ally; it was the first faction to directly sign a mutual defense pact with Earth, thus making it largely responsible for the federation's transition from a somewhat isolationist power primarily concerned with regional issues to a more internationally focused one with large ambitions beyond its own immediate periphery.

Historical Turbulence:

With its core species being avid practitioners of academic scholarship, the Democratic Cobaltian Empire's history is very well-documented in a vast plethora of digital archives and data chips scattered across its territory.

Early records indicate that Cobaltia itself became a singular, united polity in roughly ~13,300 BCE, with the governing ideology mostly revolving around a driven obsession with scientific progress and pursuits geared towards achieving the impossible - something that would grant its natives an immense and very potent technological prowess.

FTL drives would then be developed by their scientists shortly after, and from there, they were quick to spread outward into the cosmos, becoming one of the first civilizations in the galaxy to break free from the confines of their home star system.

However, as fate would have it, superb technology and early ascendancy would not prevent them from staying out of trouble, as neither democracy nor free speech was part of their original civic framework. Ruled by a brutal autocratic regime in its early days, the term "Democratic" within the Cobaltian Empire's full name used to be entirely absent from its official title, with its formative years being fraught with atrocities ranging from unethical scientific experiments on its citizens to blatant genocides of other sentient lifeforms. It wouldn't be until a violent revolution ousting the then-current dictator took place that the now-ruling administration under the Ratakka Council would be implemented, which happened thousands of years after Cobaltia's debut as an interstellar entity.

Furthermore, while the post-revolution era would - for a time at least - be a relatively stable period, the questions of "can" as opposed to "should" within Cobaltian society would continue to plague its people nonetheless, with the parts of the timeline directly succeeding their brief "golden age" marred with a list of further large-scale experiments that went wrong, the biggest of which include the following:

• Giving advanced technology to pre-FTL sentient species - a practice that often backfired and resulted in nuclear wars between primitive nation-states, thus wiping out entire civilizations through negligence.

• Compact, starship-deployable planet-busting bombs, which saw frequent misuse during multiple wars with several historical civilizations that no longer exist.

• A rogue artificial intelligence suite known as the Azurite Matrix, which ravaged countless planets and nearly killed off the D.C.E. outright before being destroyed itself.

Modern Decline:

The Democratic Cobaltian Empire's rocky history has contributed to massive losses in planets, resources, and resolve in multiple ways since its highest of heights. In centuries that are considered "modern" by galactic standards, it was already beginning to show early signs of a major collapse, and said signs have only become more prominent as time has continued to pass. More than half of the territory it has ever owned is lost, ruined, or abandoned. Its people are facing a demographic crisis and slow population decline. Its economy is continuing to worsen due to the presence of an overly bloated tech sector with dwindling employee counts and raw material stockpiles.

By the time it first came into contact with the G.A.F. in 2688, it was far too weak to engage in wars against enemies in its quadrant without help, and desperate for another power with whom to form an alliance. Fortunately, the G.A.F. was also looking for new allies at the time, and so the D.C.E. donated the horribly-mismanaged western third of its territory - a province known as the Mootinari Strip - to Earth's government, which alleviated much of its economic strain while also granting the Abyssalites a very sizable holding in the beta quadrant, thus laying the groundwork for future cooperation and a mutual sense of trust.

This decision would be something that would ultimately save them from complete ruin decades later when the Southern Galactic War (2767 - 2775 CE) would break out between them and a combined Starkonian-Gazarian alliance, as access to G.A.F. markets resulted in economic recovery and a bolstering of military capabilities, not to mention the fact that their new ally elected to come to their aid when the fighting began.

Additional Facts:

• The Democratic Cobaltian Empire - similarly to the G.A.F's own Federal Data Forces (F.D.F.) - maintains a massive covert operations and espionage firm known as the Intelligence Sentinel Agency, or I.S.A. in acronym form.

• Despite being far less common of a sight, D.C.E. warships are far stronger than their G.A.F. counterparts due to the advanced technology they are constructed with. The only known factions that manage to exceed Cobaltian technological standards in the defense sector are precursors with direct ties to either the Aether, or the Originator Empire.

• The D.C.E. is a dedicated member of the Orion Pact - a coalition of multiple factions/nations with free governments designed to act as a counterbalance to aggressive authoritarian powers like the Gazarian and Starkonian regimes. From 2811-2817, it also fought against the Holy Union of Sarnakus and Vascor United Systems in an armed conflict known as the Western Galactic War alongside the rest of the alliance.

Main Story Importance:

• As a major G.A.F. ally, the D.C.E. and several of its affiliates make repeated appearances throughout the main story, with the first major occurrence taking place in the early parts of Season 1. During the episode in question, the Ratakka Council requests the S.G.A. Washington's help with a covert operation to thwart a Starkonian black-ops group in their efforts to reactivate a series of decommissioned ballistic missiles constructed in the Gateway Sector by Cobaltia's old, pre-revolution regime - each of which is capable of destroying an entire star system.

• Despite not being part of his crew, an I.S.A. agent by the name of Rik-Tar helps Captain Crossman and his ship during multiple missions, which include both the ballistic missile assignment, and a rescue operation for a Hyperionite Pioneer that was kidnapped by the Starkonian military.

• The D.C.E. deploys forces to the Galactic Core Zone and becomes a co-belligerent alongside the G.A.F. and Hyperion Federation during their collective conflict with the Originator imperial remnants led by The Timemaster, even participating in the first season's finale by helping our heroes destroy the Temporal Engine.