OVERMAN 2335

The United Nations

Before the coming of the Hounds, the UN had more then ten thousand member states of all sizes scattered all over the Solar System; even so, this was only between a quarter and a third of the nations known to exist at the time. Its organisation had changed considerably since its formation, for many reasons. By 2335 it has more than one thousand member states, but these make up the vast majority of the surviving nations of Humanity, and its organisation has changed further because of the effects of the War, and its becoming the effective government of the Solar System. Representatives from all member nations (one from each) make up the General Assembly, which is in permanent, emergency, session; they make decisions by a two-thirds majority vote, except on particularly important issues where a three-quarters majority is required.

The UN has roughly 30% of the population of the Solar System (about 70 million people) working directly for it, of whom two thirds (about 45 million) are in the military, and eighteen million are superhumans (about 1% of whom are psionics). Despite its size, there is very little bureaucracy - things are too desperate for that, and it can mostly be handled at a 'subconscious' level by AI's in any case. As it has always been, the UN is funded from all its member states according to their resources, plus additional voluntary contributions which many nations provide.

Ceres, the largest of the asteroids, is home to the headquarters of the UN, and its largest naval base. Buried deep in the heart of Ceres, and reachable only by teleporter, is the War Room, the most heavily guarded location in the Solar System, from where the UN central command co-ordinates and runs the war against the Hounds. Only the finest and most trusted minds, of all kinds, are allowed inside; even so, there have been near misses.

The military branch of the UN operates under the command of Alan Trahurn, the Marshal of Humanity. He is advised by the Security Council, a group appointed from the General Assembly which has the power to veto his actions, and who are responsible only to the Secretary General. There is no equivalent post in the civil branch - it operates directly under the auspices of the Secretary General and General Assembly.

The UN will listen to suggestions from anyone as to what to do to win the war. Various minds consider their merits before adopting or rejecting them. No suggestion, no matter how seemingly insane or stupid, is rejected out of hand.

There are many Sikh, Jewish and Native American members of the UN, especially in the military. All three groups have a deserved reputation as high-quality tough and brave fighters. For this reason, although English is the official language of the UN, Punjabi, Hebrew, and Native American languages are widely spoken in certain parts of it.

UN personnel are divided as follows:

• BRANCH : MILITARY
  • Head - Marshal of Humanity Alan Trahurn, the supreme commander of all UN military forces
  • Sub-Branch (Arm) : STRIKE
    • Head - Vice-Marshal Charusita Rajvanshi Kuar, a woman of Sikh descent
    • Duties/Comments - Offensive action using ships such as the Retribution and Liberator classes; their ships are not quite as heavily armed or defended, but they are very fast, very stealthy, and capable of very long-duration missions; they are used to actually take the war to the Hounds
    • Total Number of Personnel - 20000000
    • Number of Superhumans - 7500000
    • Number of AI's - 4000000
  • Sub-Branch (Arm) : MONITORS
    • Head - Vice-Marshal Yigal Haelzni, a man of Israeli descent
    • Duties/Comments - Defensive action using ships such as the Duke and Immovable classes; the ships of the Monitor arm are very heavily-armed and defended, but not especially suited for stealthy or long-duration missions; they are used as close-in settlement defenders.
    • Total Number of Personnel - 20000000
    • Number of Superhumans - 7500000
    • Number of AI's - 4000000
  • Sub-Branch (Arm) : COVERT
    • Head - Classified
    • Duties/Comments - Social Engineering and Dirty Tricks etc.; also includes internal security, and the elimination of corruption among UN staff; there are frequent rumours, always denied by the UN, that this arm includes the 'Zero Branch' a group employing 'ZeroMen' (assassins) to ... remove ... the enemies of the UN
    • Total Number of Personnel - 2000000
    • Number of Superhumans - 1000000
    • Number of AI's - 500000
  • Sub-Branch (Arm) : INTELLIGENCE
    • Head - Vice-Marshal Burning Rain, an AI
    • Duties/Comments - Information Gathering
    • Total Number of Personnel - 3000000
    • Number of Superhumans - 500000
    • Number of AI's - 2000000
• BRANCH : CIVIL
  • Sub-Branch (Arm) : DISASTER RELIEF
    • Head - Taher Bodulzzaman, a man of Bangladeshi descent
    • Duties/Comments - Includes the High Commission on Refugees as a major component
    • Total Number of Personnel - 10000000
    • Number of Superhumans - 800000
    • Number of AI's - 500000
  • Sub-Branch (Arm) : LAW ENFORCEMENT
    • Head - Mnikelwa Ndlovu, a man of Azanian descent
    • Duties/Comments - Mainly the remnants of Interpol, with parts of the assorted regional law enforcement organisations, plus the International Court of Justice
    • Total Number of Personnel - 2000000
    • Number of Superhumans - 200000
    • Number of AI's - 100000
  • Sub-Branch (Arm) : RESEARCH
    • Head - Memory of Light, an AI
    • Duties/Comments - Scientific and Engineering research and development
    • Total Number of Personnel - 8000000
    • Number of Superhumans - 250000
    • Number of AI's - 250000
  • Sub-Branch (Arm) : POLITICAL
    • Head - Kata Karkkainen, a woman of Scandinavian descent
    • Duties/Comments - The running of the UN, including ensuring stability among its component nations
    • Total Number of Personnel - 1500000
    • Number of Superhumans - 75000
    • Number of AI's - 75000
  • Sub-Branch (Arm) : SOCIAL
    • Head - Aung Hla Sangalli, a man of Burmese/Chilean descent
    • Duties/Comments - Maintaining of social order, cohesion and sanity, including police work. Use lots of social engineering. Also includes the Rights Protection Section (formerly Amnesty International) which monitors UN and others to ensure they're not behaving too badly.
    • Total Number of Personnel - 2000000
    • Number of Superhumans - 100000
    • Number of AI's - 125000
  • Sub-Branch (Arm) : ECONOMIC
    • Head - Gurinda Pankratova, a woman of Indian/Russian descent
    • Duties/Comments - The financial health of humanity. This sub-branch includes the Industrial Section which is responsible for running the various corporations which have been nationalised by the UN over time, and working with the various independant corporations to obtain the goods and services the UN requires. Note that the number of personnel shown below does not include civilians working for the UN but not actually members of it.
    • Total Number of Personnel - 1500000
    • Number of Superhumans - 75000
    • Number of AI's - 100000

Military Ranks in the UN

The UN military of 2335 uses the following ranking structure, from the highest ranks to the lowest :

• Secretary General (Thomas Cannon)
• Marshal of Humanity (Alan Trahurn), the supreme commander of all UN military forces
• Vice-Marshal; this rank includes all the heads of the military arms of the UN
• General or Admiral; which title is used depends on the role the person is currently performing
• Brigadier or Commodore; as with the rank above, which title is used depends on the role the person is currently performing
• Colonel
• Major
• Captain
• Leutnant
• Private Soldier

The UN has a relatively flat command structure, encourages initiative and creativity at all levels, and does not generally stand on precedence and formality. This is helped by the fact that everyone rises through the ranks; no-one enters at a high rank (though particularly gifted recruits can rise very fast). Also, very few people are engaged in non-combatant activities; the vast majority of these are handled by automatic systems of various kinds.

UN Honours and Decorations

In general, the UN prefers to let the nation of a worthy individual provide the honours (though it will recommend people for them). However, it does have three honours of its own which are given to those who it feels are particularly deserving. These are, in order of increasing importance :

• The Distinguished Service Medal
• The Medal of Honour
• The Order of Merit

The UN Flag

The UN flag, introduced in 2165 to replace the original design, consists of a royal blue background with silver laurel leaves (with the same design as on the original UN flag) surrounding a golden sun, planets, asteroid belt, cometary halo and a representative comet. The only exception to this is the Earth, which is green. All the planets and the comet are in various positions along white lines representing their orbits.

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