Alien Emancipation Front (AEF)

Alien Emancipation Front (AEF)
[SERAPH]] Sponsor and Former UPC Subfaction
Motto	"Right for the Common Man, Rights for the Displaced Alien!"
Ideology	Xeno Rights, Democratic Governance

The Alien Emancipation Front (AEF) is an egalitarian pro-alien lobbying group that works with the Maajid Memorial Foundation for the Education of Humanity (MMFEH) to expand the rights of aliens across the sector. In spite of being a product of the revolution on Yakiyah, the AEF is presently publically outspoken against the illegal actions of the UPC and Yakiyahn Mandate supporting synthetics. Much of the AEF’s tactics and resources lean into their pro-serf, egalitarian roots and they advocate for level-headed reforms to benefit the sector’s communal health.

Origins

Established on Yakiyah during the height of the UPC’s revolution, the AEF was made up of disparate elements. The first members of the Front came from planets where aliens and synths had been wrongfully enslaved. All members sought to join the UPC to actively fight against the imperial system and establish a new egalitarian and democratic society. With lofty goals of overthrowing The Empire, The Throne, and The High Church, the AEF set out to create new republic which empowered both the human work and the displaced alien.

An active political entity, the AEF was one of three central forces behind the founding of The Symposium For The Advancement Of Non-Human Rights and helped draft the “Declaration of Compassionate and Logical Beliefs.” In addition, the AEF lobbied significantly with the Party for the Rights of Aliens and Yakiyan Environmental Restitution (PRAYER) to create a pro-alien party in the Yakiyahn Mandate. PRAYER went on to lead the first truly elected coalitional government in the Yakiyahn Mandate Planetary Parliament. AEF’s role in coalition building is unclear but it would soon be all for naught.

Post-UPC

The Death of the UPC in late 3200 left AEF stranded. With the security for revolutionaries on Yakiyah draining under a buckling Yakiyahn Mandate, AEF members, for the most part, dispersed, back to their homeworlds. Surviving leaders escaped capture and prosecution by condemning the explicitly anti-imperial and pro-synth rhetoric of a group that was warped by the culture of rebellion on Yakiyah. Looking forward, the AEF’s remnants began a process of legitimization in a post-UPC world.

Re-Branding

After several months in hiding, leaders from various alien worlds reconvened the AEF at the Fakri Maajid Memorial Library on Cabina with a new vision:

the AEF would publically turn it’s back on the revolution of Yakiyah and instead lobby for moderate reforms specifically targeted at improving the lives of the sector’s aliens and increasing alien-human communication, coexistence, and community.

In a narrow vote, the remnant leaders of the AEF used the little money they still had saved and became official sponsors of the Maajid Memorial Foundation for the Education of Humanity (MMFEH). As sponsors of the charity, MMFEH provides limited legal and financial protections for the AEF, but leaders believed it enough to allow them to present the group in a new and positive light.

“Yakiyah was a dark time for all of us. Our members came from the far reaches of the sector, each of us looking for like-minded individuals; people who knew the plight of the alien and envisioned a one. We found such individuals in spades on Yakiyah, but the planet had a perverse effect on us. The revolutionaries created a miasma of demagoguery about them which warped and polarized all who came in contact with them. Nuanced opinions were pulled to the extremes until each moderate thought was utterly unrecognizable. If one was ‘pro-’ something when they came to Yakiyah, they soon became ‘anti-’ it’s reverse within the week.

Sadly, the Alien Emancipation Front was founded on that planet of extremists. No sooner had we found others who sought better protections for aliens did calls for protecting synths too and even the overthrow of the whole Empire. But that is not who we are. To be for one thing does not make you anti it’s reverse. We, the remnants of the AEF, stand as pro-alien, but we are not anti-human. We are pro-serf, but that does not make us anti-noble. And we are pro-reform to extend greater rights and liberties to displaced aliens and the common man, but that does not make us anti-Imperial.

The Alien Emancipation Front today stands proudly for who we are, and not for who the Yakiyan rebellion wanted us to be. Across this sector, our fellow man has mistreated our alien neighbors. Humanity has for centuries waged war against the alien races of Acheron Rho, but now is our time to right those atrocities where we can. Through restoration and preservation of the vast array of alien cultures in the sector, through the return of stolen lands to their original owners, and through collaboration with the surviving alien races, the AEF seeks to better the lives of Acheron Rho’s aliens and to pay respects and honor those who have been removed from it. As a sponsor and partner with the Maajid Memorial Foundation for the Education of Humanity, our small group of lobbyists, researchers, and aid-workers vow to stand up for our alien neighbors.”

- An excerpt from the AEF’s first formal post-UPC announcement

Three Missions

Primarily, the AEF acts as a lobbying organization petitioning governments, politicians, and landowners to amend and reform laws and codes to better protect alien life in the sector. The organization developed its techniques from the study of Yakiyan labor movements and practical experience promoting pro-alien policies and party platforms within the Yakiyahn Mandate. The most prominent issue for the AEF is the question of alien land-rights: the return of stolen lands back to surviving alien races is the most controversial and foundational, provisions of the Front’s political platform. With pushback from almost all non-Repentants, turning over profitable and productive lands to an alien is unfathomable for most nobles and imperial governments. In limited cases, where the resources from the land had been utterly exhausted and abandoned, the AEF has succeeded (if one were to call it that) in providing aliens with protected reserves, but true and legal land-ownership of habitable areas remains a long-shot.

Secondarily, they work directly with Fakri Maajid Memorial Library in research and to promote inter-species cooperation. Members assist the library’s Xenology research in many ways. AEF researchers, who are often natives of worlds with alien contact, have extensive first-hand knowledge and experience living with aliens and their ruins. With operations on (or planned for) Cabina, Chrates, Haqani, Intaglio, Kama, Leorgioly, Pylopid, and Thorhil, they are able to access parts of those planets outside of the Library’s traditional spheres. Taking hands-on approaches and providing amiable, local, and common faces to the populations of those planets, AEF researchers and surveyors are able to record extensive oral histories of alien-human contact, study artifacts kept from noble eyes, and authentically reimagine past societies. The aim of this research is to rekindle the understanding and create compassion between humanity and its neighbors among the stars.

Tertiarily, the organization commits itself to the betterment of all of Achron Rho and provides volunteers and resources in MMFEH various charitable efforts. The AEF stands strongly behind the MMFEH’s mission to spread “acceptance and unity” via education and enrichment. Schools with teachers and curricula influenced by the AEF often use “appeals to natural egalitarian principles” in argumentation in support of greater mutual respect with one’s neighbors, be they common, noble, or alien.

Underground Actions

Despite the firm language the AEF uses to shame and disavow the aid it provided to synthetics while operating from Yakiyah, the AEF continues to supply resources and hands to Vigil's Railroad. Working in isolated cells, AEF operatives maintain much of the covert smuggling and shepherding of synths, aliens, and vulnerable humans between various planets and frontiers to keep them safe from House Crux and other imperial forces.

As part of the AEF’s contract with the MMFEH and unrecorded verbal clause positions the Front as the default scapegoat if a large cohort of MMFEH agents in Vigil’s Railroad are compromised in their Pylopid missions. The legal and financial protections acquired by the AEF are conditioned by this clause and it the largest factor in the organization’s narrow vote to become sponsors.

Areas of Interest

Cabina

Their reformation on Cabina in 3201 gave the AEF a new lease on life. Seeing the interaction between the Cah-Binn and Cabinan humans, the front found a new avenue to pursue their pro-alien goals. Through the Maajid Memorial Foundation for the Education of Humanity, and the wider SERAPH network, the AEF has legitimized its operations.

Cabina, a beacon of xenophiles, is still not perfect. The horrors inflicted upon the Cah-binn by the War for Human Prosperity, and later The Blood Eagle’s campaigns, have greatly disenfranchised the sector’s most recognizable alien survivors. AEF activists aid and support the innate rights of the Cah-binn in any way they can. The local government has many provisions and liberties afforded to the indigenous aliens, but the AEF commits itself to extend natural rights to the entirety of the planet’s population.

Chrates

Alien life on Chrates is not well regarded by the “Frostnax” governments of the icy bubble cities. Seen as more of a threat to the integrity of the isolated cities, aliens on Chrates are rarely encountered, but the AEF endeavors to change that. Only a few representatives of the front have gone to the planet, and the plan for greater cooperation between the indigenous life and the noble governments is mostly just a pipe dream. No serious efforts have been made, but a thin hope exists.

Haqani

Alien ruins scattered around the corrosive surface and in tunnels below attract research from across the sector. Although no sentient alien life is found on Haqani, the AEF values the ruins for the lessons that they could tell humanity about various alien cultural practices. It is believed that the Great Libraries (both the ancient pre-scream library lost in the sector’s crust and the satellitic library on Pharos) contained extensive records of the planet’s alien past, but both resources are lost to humanity.

Intaglio

Little is really known about the alien ruins on Intaglio, but, much like Haqani’s ruins, they are a source of great interest for the AEF in learning how non-human cultures might understand civil rights.

Kama

Long a hotspot for tourism, the exotic alien pleasure world of Kama is more often a punchline than a respected civilization. The AEF endeavors to change that. Protections for the exploited sentients on Kama are paramount, but little has been done so far.

Leorgioly

The limited contact that Leogioly has with the wider sector has isolated its alien life from Imperial action, but recent actions by House Aquila have worried the AEF. The Imperial Legions have traditionally been xenophobic and the fate of the non-human sentients on Leorgioly will be reliant on the new Aquilan government. Lobbyists from the AEF have approached the legions to respect all of God’s creations. Although they would prefer more action, the AEF has limited it’s lobbying efforts to prevent backlash against the native sentients.

Pylopid

AEF support is greatest in Pylopid. Nestled in sector-north-east, Pylopid was once home to a vibrant alien civilization. In the deepest depths of the planet, The Taimders are believed to still survive, hiding out in the shadows, skirmishing with human foraging parties and building vast subterranean settlements. Working closely with the MMFEH, the AEF members continue the mission to contact and understand the Taimders who suffered greatly when Humanity arrived in Acheron Rho. Their mission also includes research into the local flora and fauna, as well as outreach to alien immigrants to the cold planet.

Unofficially, AEF members also participate heavily in the intellectual property rights debates and can be seen on many sides of the revolutionary sentiment. However, most align themselves with the Memetic Liberation Front. The narrowness of the revolution has permitted a release valve for members to express their frustration and displeasure with the systems of the empire, while not causing the entirety of the AEF consternation with imperial powers.

Secretly, the organization is also involved in the MMFEH’s efforts in alien resettlement in connection with Vigil’s railroad. Smuggling aliens from endangered zones to Pylopid is a risky business, but the integrity of alien life and flourishing is worth it.

Thorhil

Thorhil’s friendly foes are a curiosity for the AEF. Lawyers associated with the MMFEH are joined by AEF personnel to help protect the liberties of the planet’s life.