Space Assembly League
The Space Assembly League is a coalition of Spacenoid organizations that have chosen to ally with the New United Nations Earth. The Space Assembly League represents Luna, Sides 1, 6 and 7, Mars, and a significant portion of Side 2 colonies (PLANT) that chose reaccession to the Earth Sphere after their defeat in the war with the Earth Federation.
The Space Assembly League act as representatives and advocates for their colonies in the New United Nations Earth government, led by PLANT Supreme Chairman Gilbert Durandal. In the short term, restrictions on the colonies have eased following the Treaty of Junius, but many are still in place. Colonies outside the Space Assembly League and the people in the asteroid belt and beyond, however, get none of the benefits offered to the Space Assembly League and the SAL seem happy with this ‘screw you, got mine’ arrangement.
There is still discontent among the Space Assembly League about the current ruling coalition of NUNE and the Benerit Group, and some posit that the Space Assembly League is playing along and biding its time, waiting for an opportunity to equalize their standing with NUNE - or break free of it.
A recent addition to SAL is the newly built space defense facility, Camp Big Falcon is the first line of defense against the Boazanian invasion and home to the Voltes Team. Staffed by a mix of military and scientific personnel dedicated to humanity’s protection, Camp Big Falcon is not only a defense station, it’s also a lab carrying forward Kentarou Gou’s research on Super Electromagnetic Energy and its applications.
The SAL’s military forces consist primarily of the PLANT’s Fast Acting Integrate Tactical Forces (FAITH), ZAFT, and Camp Big Falcon. All of these organizations have snapped up a number of former Londo Bell operatives who wished to keep operating to keep peace in the Earth Sphere, but did not feel comfortable with the former rebels of Terminal, the corporate interests of Cathedra or the main Federation force of the Gaia Sabers. In addition, small colony defense forces are operated by the SAL under strict ratios enforced by NUNE.
Major Characters
Gilbert Durandal - The current Chairman of PLANT, Gilbert Durandal has done his utmost to ease PLANTs’ woes within NUNE. Formerly a researcher at Mendel Colony, Durandal is a staunch believer in a world without war. Publicly, he is one of the strongest advocates for the colonies to find peace with the Earth Sphere - but in private, even though he abhors war, he will do whatever it takes to implement his Destiny plan and bring peace to the Earth Sphere once and for all.
Feng Jun - A covert intelligence operative of the Space Assembly League, Feng Jun is a woman of many hats. Feng Jun changes her role as needed to achieve the goals of the Space Assembly League and maintain the cohesion of the colonies, but she doesn’t always see eye to eye with her superiors, and is prone to taking unilateral action when she thinks her superiors are in the wrong. This often leaves her working with just her partner, Guston Parche - but that seems to be the way she likes it.
Cameron Bloom - The former head auditor of Side 6, Cameron Bloom was one of the men who oversaw the Federation’s deal with Char Aznable for Axis, and has found himself with an outsized amount of power as a result. Still a ranking official in Side 6, Bloom does his utmost to prevent the SAL from making the Federation’s mistakes, but many see him as too weak willed to stop another uprising like the Second Neo-Zeon Conflict.
Brian Midcrid - The president of the Side 1 government, Brian Midcrid is known for both his charisma and his skill at politics. As one of the architects of the SAL, Midcrid helped create a unified front for the colonies under NUNE and continues to drive for more rights and privileges for spacenoids. While popular with spacenoids, many NUNE politicians are wary of the support Midcrid has in the colonies. As a result, Midcrid is often careful not to overplay his hand and is known for a tendency to understand the political winds before acting- even if it means walking against them. Unfortunately for those politicians, the closest thing they have found to Midcrid’s weakness is a tendency for casual flirting with some of his constituents.
Dominant Featured Themes
Ad Stella Gundam - Space Assembly League
Cosmic Era Gundam - PLANT
Key Questions
- Can we really do this again?
- Are the concessions we make now worth it for a brighter future?
- Can we wait for our moment, or is the pain of now too much?
Tension Points With Other Factions
Gaia Sabers: Gaia Sabers retains a lot of the more overtly anti-colonial sentiment that existed in the Federation. The Space Assembly League sees the backers of the Gaia Sabers, especially those not involved with Cathedra but possessed of significant funding, as a political obstacle, and while they'll play nice, there's absolutely clashes between specialist units that simply go fully unacknowledged.
Cathedra: In theory, Cathedra and the Space Assembly League have a cozy relationship, as Cathedra is functionally a semi-governmental organization operating within mostly-SAL-participating territories. In practice, however, the SAL would benefit significantly from a chance to break Cathedra's power, and -- while it *is* an integrated force -- Cathedra does retain some residual anti-spacenoid sentiment within its ranks even as the Orbital Ring participates in the Space Assembly League.
NERV: The relationship between the SAL and NERV is one of cordial indifference punctuated by occasional polite requests. They largely do not overlap in spheres terribly much other than being connected by NUNE funding.
Grand Glorious Guard: There's no significant barrier between these groups and their goals at the moment. However, their reliance on unquantifiables represents a long-term irreconcilable ideological clash with SAL leader Gilbert Durandal.
Terminal: While the SAL has no reason to overtly start trouble with Terminal, Gilbert Durandal sees Terminal and its members as a threat to his plans in the long term. He's not above covert attacks on Terminal with deniable resources, and the SAL has a lot of deniable resources.
Dawn of Fold: Overtly, these two are enemies and if they encounter each other they're *supposed* to shoot each other. However, they share many of the same covert cutouts and suppliers, and the supplies that Dawn of Fold goes to war with were created as part of shoring up the Space Assembly League's scientific advantage further. Things could change a lot if any of the gears slipped.
Satellicon: The Space Assembly League is where a fair number of Satellicon's... large... enemies list has dug in. Despite a lack of huge ideological opposition, there's a practical reason for them to be enemies.
BioNet: Officially, the kill-on-sight stance between these organizations is a matter of basic criminality versus the enforcement of law. Unofficially, however, the 'technology as liberation from genetic tyranny' attitude common in BioNet is something that needs to be inherently bad for Chairman Durandal's understanding of reality to work in the long term.
Anti-Earth Cooperative Federation: This relationship is messy. For every member like Chairman Durandal who's sympathetic to and even willing to work with the AECF under the table, there's someone on the Ring, Luna, or Side 1 who can't suffer these guys to live. Overtly, it's a murder relationship, but covertly it might be something else.
Yaman Rebellion: While officially it has to do with their status as unlawful combatants bringing a totally unrelated war into the Earth Sphere, the long-term goals of the SAL are mostly incompatible with the ideals in the Yaman Rebellion.