Coalition: Laws & Citizenship

Citizenship
Coalition citizenship is hereditary and shared among all heirs; however, it can and typically is removed as punishment for severe crimes, along with exile to the labor service. Non-citizen humans may apply for citizenship. The requirements are fairly stringent, involving a thorough background check and ideological screening. Given the poor state of communications in North America, the background check alone can take several years. The current review list is approximately three years; the short wait list for the review list is another six. Military service, discussed elsewhere, is the fastest way of shortening this waitlist.

Citizens’ duties include military service, participation in the various patriotic resource-raising drives (bonds, the state loan, scrap collection, even breeding), and service on civil juries. Because civil, as opposed to military or security, juries are rare, most citizens do not participate in a single jury their entire lives.

Human Augmentation
The Coalition’s focus has always been on people and machines as the primary ingredients in society; while the two may mix to some extent – cybernetic replacement parts, even full-conversion cyborgs – there is always a dividing line, which has kept the Coalition from particular interest in biological alternatives such as the Juicer process, or the Mind-Over-Matter (MOM) process that produces ‘Crazies.’ The exception to this is animal hybrids. Man’s best friend in the Coalition walks on two legs, but remains canine.

In the past five years, this policy has been relaxed somewhat; the Juicer conversion process is offered to volunteer soldiers, who serve two years’ Juiced service, followed by either extension or detoxification. These are the only Juicers officially allowed in the Coalition military; this was one of the key disputed points between Chi-Town and Quebec. Similarly, soldiers who perform exceptional feats but are mortally wounded may be given the option of cybernetic conversion if reached in time.

Identification
Citizens are issued with holographic identification cards upon reaching adulthood; these are supposed to be updated every five years. Police can scan the card to find information about vehicle licenses, past criminal history, and even financial records. For the same reason, holo-IDs are the basic unit of currency exchange. Holo-IDs are also issued to certain licensed and approved non-citizens, acting as laborers living in Coalition cities, and all military personnel.

In addition to holo-IDs, major and master psychics, mutant animals, commissioned officers of the Coalition military, most officials, recipients of authorized bionic augmentation, members of the labor service, and convicted criminals are implanted with identification coding (IC) chips. IC chips allow easy identification, though each category has a different chip type. Officers, officials, and bionic recipients are given so-called “green” chips, entitling them to much greater freedom of movement within Coalition cities; psychics and mutant animals are given “yellow” chips, for monitoring, and laborers and criminals receive “red” chips, subject to close scrutiny, inspection, and death if they step outside very narrowly defined parameters.

Magic, Religion, and Non-Humans
Magic has no place in the Coalition. This can be carried to extremes – during the Tolkeen war, there are stories of soldiers demolishing wells that had been enchanted only to produce pure, potable water, because even the least magical incursion was intolerable. The Coalition government spends vast sums every year on anti-magic research, focused around the ruins of Chicago, Detroit, and St. Louis, all magical and demonic hot spots.

Even non-magical organized religion is viewed with suspicion as it has links to the supernatural. Because Christianity has a divine-human component, it is tolerated; more icon-focused forms of Christianity tend to fare better because of their emphasis on the human face of their objects of veneration. Buddhism, which had been making inroads in the United States during the Cataclysm, is also tolerated, because of its disavowal of any specific divinities. In all cases, the number of practitioners is so small that they are not significant factors in Coalition society. The Great Cataclysm caused massive upheavals in what people considered “faith” and what was considered “reality;” most religious beliefs did not survive contact with functioning magic.

The Coalition’s official stance, rigorously enforced, is that humanity and humanity alone has a claim on Earth. The human-derived subspecies, such as psi-stalkers and the various less common psychic strains, are tolerated, as they are fundamentally human, but otherwise, this policy is rigorously enforced. Mutant animals, genetically engineered and created to serve Mankind, are the major exception to these rules, but the Coalition as a whole views them as a special case, more tool than living being.

Military Service
All citizens are nominally required to perform two years of military service upon their 17 birthday. Waivers may be granted in special cases, such as for extensive higher education, but even university graduate equivalents may face service upon completion; only guaranteed employment or further education (financed by the State for State benefit) will fully remove the obligation to military service. Upon completion of these two years, citizens have the option of enlisting for a further three, and again in five-year increments until 20 years’ service, at which time service becomes permanent until retirement. Promotion past the rank of Corporal requires at least a commitment to five years’ service.

Even with conscription, the Coalition has never managed to make its official establishment strength. This has led to offering citizenship to any Earthborn human willing to enlist for five years, or an off-world human willing to enlist for ten. Extending these citizenship benefits to family members and dependents requires a further five-year extension. Because non-Earthborn humans are more likely to be sent into harm’s way without adequate support or training, even the shortest enlistment is effectively a delayed death sentence.

The exceptions to the normal enlistment rules are the augmentation programs – a cyborg trooper in a Coalition force is always a lifer. Because full reconstruction is only given to soldiers mortally wounded in the performance of exceptional deeds, this is less of a hindrance than it might otherwise be. Enlistees who volunteer for the Juicer process may cut their enlistment time, whether citizen or non-citizen in half, to a minimum of two years, at which time detoxification is offered. If the soldier chooses to proceed all the way to burnout as a Juicer, citizenship is bestowed on any family members or dependents not already holding it.

After military service ends, former service members are considered part of the first-class reserve for an additional five years, and the second-class reserve for a further five years, to a total of ten years from end of service. Reservists are subject to mobilization at any time, without exception. Reserve call-up has happened only once, on a limited basis, during the crisis of 107 PA.

Mutant Animal Auxiliaries
Mutant animals are widely used in the Coalition military and police as auxiliaries. All mutant animals are registered and implanted with ID chips at birth, as described elsewhere. While they are considered to have a right to life (barring excessive or violent aggression against citizens), they are not citizens, even second-class citizens, except in the Coalition state of Lone Star, which grants them exceptionally broad freedoms, to the point of commissioning some as full officers in both Army and regional police forces.

Because mutant animals make many in Coalition society nervous, their presence is usually restricted to police and military forces. Mutant animals are likely to be subject to criminal complaints, even if in uniform, if they do not obviously belong in a given setting, and occupy a status similar to non-white Americans in the 19th-20 Centuries. So long as citizenship is defined by genetics, this is very unlikely to change.

Within the Coalition military and police, mutant animals are widely accepted as not-quite-equals. They are valued for their bravery and willingness to serve, but viewed as generally less intelligent than humans and more prone to instinctive behavior, requiring human supervision. The average officer views Dog Boys as lazy if not actively involved in their appointed task, prone to literal interpretation of orders, and generally less competent in any sense other than purely physical.

Psychics
Unlike magic, the Coalition tolerates, even embraces to some extent, psionic powers. Because they are not developed over a period of study, but are essentially birth defects, psychic powers are regarded as human in a way that magic is not. The average Coalition citizen may be nervous at the thought that someone might control their thoughts, but not as nervous as he might be that someone might create a golem or other artificial construct.

The Coalition distinguishes between three types of psychics: Major, Minor, and Master. Minor psychics are treated like non-psychics, because the advantages conferred by their power are fairly minor. Major psychics are actively recruited by the intelligence and military services; however, even if they choose not to serve in one of these branches, they are required to submit to IC coding as described elsewhere. Master psychics are subjected to the same recruiting pressures and identification procedures, and may find themselves restricted in traveling in the Coalition. The exception to the strictures on master psychics are the few psi-stalker clans which have bound themselves to the Coalition, primarily in Lone Star; because of their unique and obvious physiological differences, they are allowed to travel unrestricted.