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Ethnic banner of the non-arsenic based sentient lifeforms of Grumf-3. The flag follows the normal pattern of being trifurcated despite the lack of the usual number of legs amongst the natives.
The Colonial Authorities designed the banner with the planet's ocean's colour in mind, although as the natives' eyes are incapable of perceiving K'ga'zmar Blue, that exact shade is perceived as something called "red" by them. Despite repeated requests to change it, so far nothing as been done to address the problem due to the cost involved in changing the flags and the fact that only a minority of the interstellar community has any problem seeing it correctly.
The Dark Forest
At last, mankind learned beyond any shadow of doubt that we are not alone in the universe. Unfortunately, the answer to Fermi's paradox turned out to be the Dark Forest theory.
Just one look at the alien ships made it very clear that fighting was not an option. Those who tried, found out that any attacks with conventional weapons simply went unnoticed. Either by bravado or stupidity, nuclear weapons were then used.
This at least drew a response. By an unknown process, all nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants on the planet were melted into a grey goo. From there on, the same would happen at any time when someone tried to construct anything involving a critical mass of radioactive materials. The nuclear age was officially over.
A century later, the aliens and their aims remain completely inscrutable. No human has ever seen one. The fact that all their work on Earth's surface has been carried out by robots has led to the theory that all of them are robots - but that theory is only as good as any other.
The aliens have shown almost no interest in governance. Most of the nations that existed before contact still survive, although massive conventional wars that erupted after the destruction of nuclear weapons have changed borders and wiped smaller states off the map.
They clearly gather some sort of resources, but our human knowledge cannot find any sense in it. What was the point, for example, in turning the entire City of London into a world's largest open-pit mine? The resulting refugee crisis almost collapsed the European Union again.
The only reason we know that they are even aware of us is the flag, the cruel joke that it is. This flag flies from every installation they have erected on Earth's surface. The engraving from the Pioneer plaque mocks the idea of contacting other civilizations and the canton is clearly designed after those of the old empires here on Earth.
If the double star in a pink sky is a clue to the aliens' homeworld, it is the final jest. For they know that mankind can never make use of even that tiniest shred of information about them.
The Human Members of the Unity
In 1702 The People removed the despotic King Imperial Edward VII [1] of the House of Somerset and established The Commonwealth. For some 50odd years The Commonwealth had expanded across the Earth under its banner of Blue, Red, & Green, and slogan of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. Then the extraterrestrial force known as the Unity arrived
The Unity crushed all opposition and declared they had perfected the Light that humans had dimly perceived:
Liberty – All freedoms are gifts of the Unity
Equality – All shall be regularly tested and a place found worthy
Fraternity – All that think shall be in Unity
Humans proved themselves uncommonly zealous in their service to Unity and so the multispecies organisation granted their human members the freedom to display a flag.
The allowed flag consists of a 2D representation of the Unity symbol [2], black on white, over a tricolour of Blue, Red, & Green. It represents the Light as perceived by (natural) humans through the prism of Unity
[1] King of England, King of Ireland, King of the Netherlands, King of Scotland, Prince of Brittany, Prince of Normandy, Prince of Wales, Emperor of the Overseas Dominions
[2] A tetrahedron within a sphere
A quick entry inspired by the Stargate SG1 movie, Continuum. In this alternate timeline (of an alternate timeline) Ba'al's plan to travel back in time to destroy Earth's stargate long before the humans figure out how to use it goes off without a hitch. In addition, this alt Ba'al figures that it really isn't wise to keep around any of the traditional ancient system lords, let alone promise them (or their replacements) any land on Earth. He conquers Earth with few real issues, and rules it as its supreme overlord. His rule would be considered relatively lenient by goa'uld standards, even allowing a sort of toothless planetary government under him, but it was seen as less than ideal by the humans themselves.
The banner that is flown all over the planet shows the mark of Ba'al over a pyramid, with the sun in the background.
Inspired by a remark by one Jack O'neill, some of the remaining pockets of resistance in the United States have adopted a simplistic red ghost as their symbol, in mockery of what they like to call the "Tattooed Pacman" flag.
