Mobile Suit Gundam: Salvation Frontier

Following the expansion of mankind into space, the nations of Earth gradually fell under the aegis of a single world government: the Earth Federation. From its inception, the Federation promised to be a beacon of freedom and democracy, bringing technology and peace to all its citizens.

But in truth, the hundred-year legacy of the Earth Federation was one of corruption and ineptitude. Liberated from the shackles of national laws, corporations tore down the last feeble barriers between themselves and absolute hegemony. Those not sufficiently privileged to be elevated to the corporate oligarchy were reduced to techno-serfdom at best and idle subsistence at worst. Unrest was staved off through comprehensive media distractions and the pressure relieved by the opening of new frontiers: the space colonies, the Moon, and the Solar System's red jewel: Mars.

The Martian colonies were largely the product of corporate efforts. Tech-billionaires, seeking greater wealth or historical immortality, founded multiple settlements on the surface of Mars, pioneering entirely new fields of technology in the process. Those who chafed under Federal rule found on Mars an endless hunger for creativity, energy, and independence. The direct influence of the corporations was often limited given the vast distance involved, leaving much in the hands of the colonial governors. The Federation's sole influence was in the construction of planetary infrastructure, including terraforming facilities, a ring of orbital mirrors, a space elevator, and a small garrison on the satellite Phobos.

Unfortunately for the Federal elite, not even the establishment of the Jupiter colonies was enough to save it from destruction. As corporate conflicts over limited resources escaped the courtroom and ended up on the battlefield, public order broke down and Earth, already wracked with separatism and discord, found itself falling apart at the seams. Private military companies flourished and arms sales skyrocketed, with nuclear-powered war machines taking the field for the first time in conflict regions -- the predecessors of the Mobile Armor.

The destructive conflicts were ultimately brought to a climax through the advent of new technology. The Colonial Energy Corporation, headquartered on neutral Luna, announced a major breakthrough in harnessing the fundamental force of gravity. By capturing and manipulating gravitons, actual particles of gravity, the CEC had unlocked countless new avenues of research.

As functional anti-gravity prototypes entered public awareness, corporate security forces turned them towards their own ends. Heedless of the consequences, they incorporated anti-gravity into their war machines, giving birth to the first Mobile Armors. These colossal engines of destruction heralded a new and much bloodier era of corporate warlordism, leading to the wholesale disintegration of Federal authority.

In the end, the corporations were brought down by their own aggression. The Eurasian Terrestrial Resource Company found itself the subject of a bloody coup, carried out by their increasingly powerful security forces, who had been granted unlimited autonomy and resources to prosecute the corporate war against its competitors. With a global corporation's resources behind him, the new leader of the ETRC set his R&D department to designing a weapon to end the war, once and for all: the Mobile Suit.

While Mobile Armors massed tremendous firepower, they were often cumbersome and vulnerable to sabotage. The Mobile Suit, with its humanoid design, made use of a man-machine interface and anti-gravity thrusters to move with unparalleled speed on the battlefield. By reading the pilot's brainwaves, the man-machine interface allowed the Suit to be commanded by a single pilot, and with near-seamless fluidity. A squadron of Mobile Suits could dismantle a slow-moving Mobile Armor at a fraction of the cost and manpower required to field one of the mighty war engines.

Not content with wrapping up his own company's conflicts, the ETRC leader turned his attention on the rest of the corporate forces, and finally on the Federal capital at Luxembourg. The hopes and dreams of billions were realized that day, only to be cruelly dashed in the coming years, when the new President of the Earth Federation declared himself Emperor. The Old Federation was dead, with even its hollow promise of freedom gone. In its place would now exist the Terran Imperium.