The Aegis Problem
On the face of it, Aegis looks like a good idea; all the superpowers, working together for the betterment of humanity. What could be wrong with that?
But there's a problem. A problem at the heart of Aegis, one which has caused its colossal failure in the past, and will do so again. In fact, we have already entered the middle stage of the inevitable collapse of Aegis.
What do I mean? Well, to understand, you need to go back. Back before Aegis, to the start of...
The First Thargoid War.
Thargoids were an impossible threat. Nothing we had seemed to be able to even slow them down, and despite all of humanity working together simply to survive, defeat looked inevitable. Humanity was throwing everything at the wall, in the desperate hope that something would stick.
Ultimately, the war was ended by the Mycoid Weapon, but not before significant advances had been made in other domains, notably the chemical compound that later went on to be the centerpoint of AX Weaponry. Once the war was over, these weapons were shuttered away, saved in case they might be needed in the future.
It was only logical that when the Second Thargoid War began, they would attempt to emulate the success of the first war. But here, there was a crucial difference. In the first war, humans were fighting for survival. There was no holding back in the face of annihilation. But in the second war, Engineers were able to quickly utilize the existing stockpile of weapons to create countermeasures that had never existed before. AX weapons, flak, and then the discovery of the Guardians; for the first time, we had some hope of defeating the enemy conventionally. As such, they tried to solve the problem via diplomacy. Rather than mandatory cooperation by an unstoppable alien aggressor, they formed the Aegis Treaty, and in doing so, planted the seeds of its own destruction.
On the face of it, the Aegis treaty makes sense. All superpowers must share all ax technology, as well as supply conventional forces to attempt to repel the enemy. Aegis will operate independently, unless at least two of the three superpowers disagree with its behavior.
Now, consider this treaty from the wiewpoint of any one superpower. If they develop some new technology which could change the course of the war, by its very nature it could almost certainly also change the course of human dominance. If the Imperials develop a shield that is immune to caustic damage, then once the war is over, if they keep it to themselves, they could freely use caustic Weaponry against enemies with dramatically outdated defenses against it. If the Federation creates a new Gauss Cannon, it can tear through Imperials as well as Thargoids. These are precisely the sorts of advances that would be hoarded and protected at all costs.
But thanks to the treaty, all ax advances must be freely shared.
So the best option from the individual level is to allow the other superpowers to make any advances, and then reap the benefits for free! Which, of course, means no superpower has any incentive to make any progress at all. What sought to cause collaboration, instead caused stagnation.
Want proof? Look at the progression of ax weaponry. In the beginning, Aegis was the primary motivator behind exactly one ax weapon - and it was basically achieved by slapping the existing AX compound, dug out of deep storage, on a conventional weapon and calling it a day. Sure, not bad giving the short timeframe available, but nowhere near a complete or elegant solution. After that, the outsourced the work to engineers, and once they had basic tools available to fight, Aegis made absolutely no progress for something like 6 years. It was in this time that their resources were gradually turned to corruption, by individuals such as Professor Alba Tesreau, who diverted attention towards their own pet projects - projects which ultimately proved fruitless.
And of course, the Superpowers couldn't do anything about it, because doing so required them to cooperate, the one thing they could never do. Freedom ultimately led to complete corruption.
It was only the complete collapse of Aegis that finally forced things to a head. With these vast resources finally freed up, we finally saw what SHOULD have been happening from the beginning, as Azimuth proceeded to make massive leaps of progress in an incredibly short time. Of course, Azimuth ultimately turned out to be a huge mistake, and Azimuth certainly had its own role to play in the downfall of Aegis. But none of that would have been possible if Aegis hadn't made itself the perfect target to start with. The very idea of a tiny, secret company causing the collapse of an organization with virtually unlimited funds and the complete support of all three superpowers is laughable. If they had been making progress at a reasonable rate, and spending their resources practically instead of devoting them towards frivolous wastes, there never would have been a weakness for Azimuth to exploit.
Azimuth's actions ultimately provided the needed incentive to trigger a new surge of scientific research and advancement. With 8 Titans bearing down on us, and Thargoid forces spreading seemingly unstoppably, we once again had the perfect, unstoppable alien threat to trigger massive progress. And, just as expected, in a matter of months we advanced human technology by leaps and bounds. What the old Aegis failed to achieve in years, the new Aegis managed in a fraction of the time, even with resources heavily strained by the massive front of the war.
Which leads us to today - where once again, we are faced with the core failure of Aegis.
Despite millions of tons of tissue samples being delivered, Aegis's progress and scientific research has, once again, slowed to a crawl - and the answer why is obvious. Once again, we've managed to gain a fighting chance. Once again, we no longer have an implacable alien adversary bearing down on us, but merely the flaccid grasp of a poorly-written treaty. Once again, Aegis has no incentive to use their vast resources for good, and every incentive to mass-produce existing weaponry via their own factories to line their own pocketbooks.
This has happened before. It will happen again. It will continue to happen until the rotten core of Aegis is finally excised. This change needs to begin now. The longer we wait, the more humans die unnecessarily, and the more we open the door to Thargoid adaptation.
The death of Aegis - and the birth of something new?
First and foremost, the sharing of AX advances must be stopped immediately. All superpowers must be allowed and encouraged to advance and develop on their own, and in doing so, compete with one another. Nothing is a better motivator for advancement than the advances of your enemy.
Next, the core idea of Aegis - which is to say, their independence - must be heavily curtailed. While on its face it seems a good idea, it ultimately only opens the door for bad actors to unilaterally seize absolute power. Rather, a decentralized and mixed fleet - with pilots from all Superpowers - should be established, giving all pilots incentive to fight for all of humanity. Any new technology developed by the Superpowers would therefore benefit all of mankind, even as it remains firmly under their own control, and the bonds of friendship that form within these diverse squads would ensure they all work together for the betterment of all.
A team, not an army. A squad, not a legion. Not an Aegis, but a Phalanx.
