Archive / Narratives

MACOFS Treaty Expansion, EOM Incursions, and the Free Zones (Full Detailed Account)

Type: Narrative — Canon History (Full Dictated Account) Status: Canon (confirmed by creator) — full text preserved per archival standard

See The MACOFS Treaty and Police and Crime Act of 1999 for existing shorter pages this significantly elaborates on.

The MACOFS Treaty (Early Confirmation)

A year or two after MACOFS's formation, it established a mutual defense treaty commonly called the "MACOFS Treaty." This treaty includes MACOFS itself, plus:

  • The Janastian Warhawks — a private military company founded by Perold Jonas while President of Janast (now a state within the Combinese Federated Islands, CFI). By 2020 (game time), the Warhawks number over 28 million members and over 3,000 starships. Recognized as a sovereign entity in their own right. ✅ Alternate account (per fog-of-history — a separate dictated source): the Warhawks number "nearly 30 million members" with "over 3,000 warships," founded in 1976, and their Defense Insurance is priced at "1 million to 10 million Kila Vas dollars per day" (rather than a flat $1 million/day) depending on the client. Both figures are preserved as separate tellings.
  • The Corporation Combined Fleet (CCF) — another private military company, owned by a group of powerful megacorps including LMT, also recognized as sovereign.
  • The Empire, Peplle, Spartania, P&D Ranch, and Jonesboro.
  • Powerful starnations including the Provinces of Magellan, Iryan, and the Subaas Star Republic.

The Janastian Warhawks are noted for unparalleled dominance in all aspects of warfare, and offer "Defense Insurance": for $1 million per day per planet, they insure a planet against attack, and will retaliate against any attacker. This has proven an effective deterrent to date.

With IFTR's dissolution, followed by civil war and the emergence of the Empire of Man (EOM), sovereignty gaps opened throughout the Milky Way, and nations in the region have been clamoring for independence from the EOM. MACOFS has been considering entering the Milky Way to offer these nations protection under the Janastian Warhawks' "Defense Insurance" model, following the now-defunct NWMG-IFTR treaty (which the EOM warlords have declared null and void) — a proposition regarded as a dangerous gambit.

The Io Sei Incursion

The Empire of Man is, in truth, just 16 warlords who briefly banded together to declare a sovereign entity — one whose legitimacy may or may not survive diplomatic scrutiny. One of these warlord states, the Io Sei, sent 2 warships across the Confluence Region into MACOFS space. MACOFS Starfleet intercepted and escorted them back to the Confluence Region, where they were observed re-entering the Milky Way. The Io Sei are recognized as particularly aggressive and potent; their foray is viewed with real concern.

EOM Espionage in Kila Vas

MACOFS recently dismantled 2 EOM spy rings operating within Kila Vas, with suspicion that others may be operating elsewhere within MACOFS territory. The rings were operating out of one of Kila Vas's Free Zones. They were discovered only because two members of one ring met outside the Free Zone, in the city proper, subjecting them to Peacekeeper observation. After obtaining a warrant, Peacekeepers backtracked the pair's movements into the Free Zone (permissible under existing law only if a warrant is obtained and the initial observed cause occurred in the city proper), where a second spy ring was then also observed.

The Free Zones: Legal Framework in Detail

Any legislation or enforcement touching the Free Zones is legally fraught. The Police and Crime Act of 1999 expressly forbids any police, law enforcement, or regulatory action within the Free Zones. Exceptions exist only for "hot pursuit," granted case-by-case and rarely approved. Travelers through Kila Vas proper are already tightly observed via facial recognition, psychological analysis, enhanced and drone surveillance — but interaction with persons inside a Free Zone is prohibited, as is any access control (anyone may freely enter or leave a Free Zone). Working with a "Free Zone authority" is inherently problematic since, by definition, such an authority is a criminal organization. Audits and inspections of any kind within a Free Zone are likewise prohibited. Kila Vas remains adamant about preserving the Free Zones' nature and integrity exactly as they are.

Tragic Incidents and the Walls

Despite public pleas for intervention, Kila Vas has never violated the Police and Crime Act's Free Zone provisions — even after several tragic incidents:

  • A prominent husband and wife "visited" a Free Zone, were kidnapped and held for ransom; the ransom was paid, but they were murdered anyway.
  • A child was enticed into a Free Zone; Peacekeepers saw what was happening and attempted to reach him before he crossed the gate, but failed — he crossed just before their arrival. No ransom request ever came, and he was never seen again.
  • A prominent up-and-coming politician, seeking to make his name, toured one of the "safer" Free Zones for several hours while cameras broadcast his every move live — until a bullet tore off half his skull, on live television.

After incidents like these, physical walls were built around all Free Zones, set back about 30 feet from the zone boundary and standing 10 feet high. The walls are intended purely as a deterrent and warning — not to prevent ingress or egress, which remains unrestricted. Between the outer wall and the Free Zone itself (most of which have their own internal walls) lies a 30-foot clear span, also serving as a warning, with numerous posted signs. Beyond these measures and standard citywide Peacekeeper surveillance, Kila Vas takes no further action regarding the Free Zones.

Expansion to 22 Free Zones

The success and popularity of the Free Zones led to the establishment of additional zones over the years. ✅ Updated count, per creator: 22 Free Zones (updating the earlier-established count of 17, then 21), the latest being Jahfaz, established in 2016.

✅ Free Zone 5's status, per creator: Free Zone 5 was destroyed in the Free Zone 3/5 Nuclear Incident (~2010), when Free Zone 3 nuked it — the incident that led to the citywide ban on WMDs within all Free Zones. Free Zone 5 has since been rebuilt and decontaminated.

Governance and Safety Levels (Confirmed by Creator)

Of the 22 Free Zones, 2 remain extremely dangerous; all the remainder are safe — some very safe, most roughly as safe as any other modern city, and one (Jahfaz) nearly as safe as Kila Vas proper itself.

Organized crime "operates" most of the Free Zones, and — to their own genuine astonishment — these criminal organizations have evolved into providers of police forces that patrol their own Free Zone and actively deter crime, functioning (like the Jahfaz police force) in a "customer-focused" manner. The underlying discovery: Free Zones could neither function sufficiently nor grow without outside inflows — capital, businesses, visitors, businesspeople, tourists — and that required making their streets and public buildings genuinely safe. Free Zones evolved from intended chaos into semi-stable micro-states with selective rule enforcement — order maintained not by external authority, but by pragmatic self-interest.

Jahfaz

Jahfaz is the safest of all the Free Zones, maintaining a full police force and private security presence throughout. Over the last 2 years it has become extremely popular with both tourists and city residents. The first (and to date only) "Scollonia Restaurant" has just opened there. Jahfaz now has 4 colleges, with more planned; biotech and drone firms are increasingly locating there, and the first "stargate" company has just made Jahfaz its headquarters. Many casinos have opened or are planned. Crime is low — mostly petty thievery or street scams — and considered manageable. Several pedestrian-only "walking streets" have proven highly popular, and top restaurants and 5-star hotels are opening or planned.

On the other hand, Jahfaz's government seems to deliberately antagonize Kila Vas. Its "Graduate School Of Advanced Political Studies" teaches that force is the only common denominator in the universe, and that those who succeed in life are those who understand the nature of force — particularly irksome to Kila Vas's established order. The Jahfaz Military Academy, training officers for war, is similarly nettlesome, as is Jahfaz's encouragement of weapons and recreational drug manufacturers to locate there. Neither activity is illegal, but both are tightly regulated in Kila Vas proper, and Kila Vas suspects they are not regulated at all in Jahfaz. Jahfaz will also sometimes issue official public statements directly opposing Kila Vas or MACOFS policy — all of it unsettling to Kila Vas.

Kila Vas's official policy remains, colloquially: "Whatever happens in a Free Zone, if it stays in a Free Zone, is not of Kila Vas's concern."

Appearances

  • Creator-provided detail (ChatGPT export, "Government to Commercial Shift")

Open Questions

  • The 4 new Free Zones beyond the original 17 (Jahfaz being one) are not all individually named in this account
  • Full relationship between Jahfaz's antagonistic posture and any potential future conflict with Kila Vas/MACOFS is left open