This session deals with rebel units and how the rebellion will grow, many of these issues are things the PC's will have to deal with within the first ten years.

The council members have gotten greedy, for money and power, their knowledge of the expanse of GC space has led them to think that a show of force will make the GC recognize them as a sovereign power and leave them alone. Except for a few individuals, no one knows what is going on, most won't care though as they are enjoying more freedom and have it better off than they have ever known. If the council realizes that the PC's will oppose them, they will begin turning the populous against them and the starbase defenses too. The PC's will need to act like nothing is wrong, until they can think of what to do, but it is obvious, the council needs to be overthrown.

If the PC's have openly confronted the council, or used force already to overthrow them, without the help of anyone on the starbase, they will be considered to be in the wrong. If they are not all dead, the council members will call on their friends to break them out of the brig and take the starbase back. The PC's will be labeled as outlaws and the next time they enter the system the starbase will fire upon them. While they don't have enough manpower or control to be able to destroy the PC's cruiser, it should be enough to scare them off. The PC's will have to find another way to get on to the starbase. Like stowing aboard one of the merchant vessels.

The PC's will need to establish spy and special forces bases nearby Cirrus, to keep an eye on their future counterparts. As soon as possible they will need to overthrow the Cirrus Council and establish an open democratic election. Taking away their cruiser is a priority to the success of this, or at least one of them will escape in it and give the rebellion grief later. How they accomplish this is up to them, but they can find out that each council member has a dozen loyal body guards and they should be taken during a council session, or take the chance of one or more escaping. They will not call another session though until the Xenophone departs and they feel safe.

The army is no longer loyal to the PC's and they will find this out if they do a little recon first. The only ones that the council hasn't got to is the researchers, Ben, and his techs and he already suspects what is going on and he and his men (500+) will gladly help the PC's. If the PC's are not secretive though, the army will be given the orders to apprehend the PC's and if they are on the Xenophone when it takes place, the rebels will lose their army and the PC's will be blamed for trying to overthrow the government and alienate the population against them.

There are five members on the council and each will have at least two bodyguards with them at all times, all dozen while the PC's are on the station. The PC's will need to disappear after the coup and act like they had nothing to do with it, letting Ben take the credit. He will be their next leader, but not go up for re-election as he will miss building ships. If the PC's hang around though, the rumor mill will cause the population to turn against them and Ben too and he will end up getting assassinated. In this case the PC's will lose a vital NPC and ship production will be reduced to TL-7.

If the PC's confront them in open council, they will retreat to the command tower and one of their orders will be to destroy the Xenophone. If the PC's are trying to break into the command tower at the time, the ship can be destroyed, if they are onboard though it will escape with some serious damage, but will make it. The Xenophone can not enter the system after this without being detected and fired upon.

If the council can maintain control of the starbase they are a serious liability to the rebellion as the resources and ship yards are needed by the rebellion and the merchant lanes provide new recruits. If the council is still in control of the starbase when it moves, it will be destroyed.

Another issue that should be addressed fairly soon, is moving the starbase, it is due to move on to terra-form a new planet, about six years after the Lyris science vessel arrives. Which happens to be one closer to GC space, depending on how much effort the PC's have put in to taking over the starbase, or helping to do so. The crew may, or may not be able to stop it from moving, or be able to move it themselves. Ideally, the PC's will want to terra-form the Lensmen planet next, which means they will have to find one first and then over ride the auto-command. This of course poses all kinds of problems, the crew must be properly trained and the equipment checked out, if they allow the starbase to move on it's own first and just watch the procedure, they will gain a vast amount of knowledge on how it's done. If they interrupt the sequence and/or try to move it themselves, there is a serious chance that the starbase will be destroyed during the move.

While the starbase has some serious defenses, the GC can send a force that can overpower it and it is worth more to the rebellion as a base of operations than anything else. If the PC's lose the starbase their chances of winning the campaign will go way down. It is their primary source of fuel and the manufacturing capabilities alone would take decades to build, not to mention the rebellion's Technology Level would drop to zero with the loss of the scientists and labs. Eventually the PC's will want to move the council off the base and take it over as their command base, but this won't be an issue for quite a while. Before they can move the council, they will need to start a colony and ensure that it is sufficiently protected, from ground and orbital invasions.

Other starbases can be manufactured, but it will be awhile before they are operational, so the PC's should be mindful of this, if they wish to create a fleet big enough to take on the GC. They will also need merchant ships, transports, and colony ships, to mention a few, but without additional shipyards the rebellion does not stand a chance. Armies can be dealt with later, but GC fleets will pose the most opposition to the rebellion and the PC's will have to realize this early on, or suffer defeat later. They will have the opportunity to take over GC starbases, but there is always a risk of self-destruction, or combat damage, which will make it useless once they take it over. Not to mention that even if the entire crew is taken off, there will still be a few stowaways that will sabotage equipment and create havoc for them.

The separate issues that the PC's will have to deal with are as follows;

1. Moving the starbase.

2. Allocating resources.

3. Monitoring shipyards.

4. Monitoring manufacturing.

5. Monitoring research.

6. Defending the starbase.

Appendix Four & Five covers this providing schematics, stats, and charts to track everything and should be given (in part) to the players once they have control of the command tower.

In the beginning, dealing with the GC merchants will be the rebellion's greatest tactical weakness. At any time a patrol can follow a merchant that goes off course, see who they meet, and follow it right back to the starbase. The PC's will need to do several things to prevent this from happening;

1. Place a cloaked satellite in the area where each transfer is made.

2. Build, or take over a starport so that the transfer goes fast and smoothly.

3. Track patrols in the area.

4. Have a spy team on the starbase where patrols report.

5. Have a fleet ready to intercept a nosy patrol.

6. Do not deal with the same merchant, but also with his competition.

7. Do not move large quantities of resources, but only enough to pay for recruitment.

8. Work with minor merchants that travel to the farthest reaches of a region.

9. Use stealth transports to move resources and recruits between regions.

10. Build supply depots so that a direct line is not made to PC's bases.

There is also the chance that a merchant can make a mistake and have their cargo inspected. Early on, because the rebels need recruits, it pays for them to use the merchants, but the farther they extend their trade, the greater the chance they are taking. They will also need to use the merchants later on, to run supply lines to their units once the full scale rebellion starts and do not want to alienate them, or the merchants will spy for the GC.

So long as the PC's do not let the trade develop on it's own and play it safe, there is little chance that they will be discovered. The merchants will jealously guard this new source of wealth, especially the minor merchants, major merchants are a different story. They have enough experience with patrols to cajole, or bribe their way out of an incident, but will want bribes just to decide if they want to help. It is only if the PC's do not give directives to Gordo, to be careful that they will have problems. Left on his own he will maximize the profits, taking more and more risks. This relates to a 1.0% accumulative chance per month that something will go wrong. By taking the above measures though the PC's can drop this by 0.1% per directive. Then the chances of something going wrong become 1% accumulative per year.

Some other things to consider though is if the GC starts gaining spies, Dark Side Jedi, or regions go on alert, things like this will raise the chance of something going wrong considerably. If the PC's do not make provisions to avoid the sectors, or regions that are dangerous, they will be discovered. Major merchants will report to the security council if anything is amiss, if the PC's do not issue directive #8.

In the event of discovery, a trade route can be traced by to the PC's by one sector a month. If the patrol ship is then destroyed by rebels, a fleet will be dispatched to that sector and begin searching colony by colony. If the PC's do not pull out, it will be only a matter of time until they will be confronted, or followed. Additional patrols will be sent along the border in that region, to watch each colony in a sector, as well as patrols sent beyond the border to check nearby sectors for any activity. If a big enough operation was uncovered the GC will move their rebel hunting fleets and patrols into the "F" quadrant, shortening the time till an all out confrontation takes place.

Most of the rebels interaction will be with the minor merchants, who are hungry for credits, a few (1 on a d6) will want a bribe, of 5,000 credits, but most will accept cargo. Major merchants will be tricky, even if they accept a bribe, there is no way for the PC's to tell if the merchant will report them (1 on a d6). Primary merchants will not accept bribes, or transfer the PCs cargo, they are making enough credits as is and don't want to jeopardize their route. Primary merchants and some major merchants work for a company, where as minor merchants work for themselves.

For the Merchant PC it will be a different story, every time the PCs stop somewhere, roll against the PCs Merchant skill, success means that they have found an outlet for one of their novelties and sell an entire cargo container 5000 credits and can sell more if they can find a way to deliver it. This PC will be able conspire with any type of merchant, without the fear of being reported, but only for personal reasons, not as a rebel representative. At skill level 5, they will be able to convince a minor merchant to go out of their way to pick up a load of cargo, so long as it is within their region of space. At 10th level, the PC will be able to convince colonists to manufacture a novelty for them, which will earn them 50,000 credits a year, per factory. If this PC takes a vacation, to go and make arrangements, they can build a factory for 100,000 credits and start supplying non-essentials, that will earn them 1,000,000 credits per year. In these cases, the merchants will take care of the paperwork and bribes and the PC can sit back and rake in the cash.

Once the PC is worth 10,000,000 credits, they will have some clout and can build a factory to produce, essential items, for 1,000,000 cr and make 10,000,000 cr per year. These items though must be manufactured within two jumps of Gal-prime and delivered outward, if the factory is not within quad A, at least, the PC will get sued for 10,000,000 cr and lose the factory. If the PC goes broke no one will want to deal with them, if they get sued, they will lose all factories, essential, non-essential, and novelty.

The rebels will need to build multiple bases, for training and support of units, but there are several things that the PC's should consider when doing so. First that they need numerous bases scattered all across GC space, in case one is captured, or destroyed, it should not seriously effect the rebellion. However, when a base is discovered, or destroyed the ramifications could lead to serious problems. The various types of units are dealt with in separate sessions, here a basic overview of the network is examined. As each base needs to be supplied and supported in some manner and the possibility exists that a ship arriving at a base that has been compromised may be taken as well.

There are only a few of the top secret base sites that the rebels will find, like Vilken and the ice planet near Mara. Most bases will be placed on prime worlds, or outlying colonies where the chance of discovery is somewhat higher. If a special team is simply left to their own initiative to build a base, their main thought will be convenience and less consideration will be given to secrecy. In generosity the GM should allow that bases built by the PC's have a priority of secrecy and will be the last to fall, where as if NPC's build the bases, the larger the network grows, the sloppier they will get. Both in building the base and in regards to the supply lines between bases and units.

The only way for the PC's to get around this, is to form a special unit that does nothing but build bases and establish supply lines and has the following directives;

1. Utilize hazardous planets, this ends up being a first line of defense.

2. Stay at least 5LY away from shipping lanes. So that TW drives can be used.

3. Have supply lines take indirect and random routes, to avoid being followed.

4. Use the least TL possible, if captured the base will give away less secrets to the strength of the rebels.

5. Plan escape routes.

6. Do not defend bases, if discovered set the auto-destruct and flee, there is less of a chance of giving up secrets.

7. Use sentinel devices to ensure the base has appropriate time to evacuate.

8. Do not build training bases within known space, simply looking at the stars can tell a spy who has infiltrated the base, it's general location.

9. Each training base should have a jedi with telepathic ability examining new recruits, to check for spies.

10. Supply bases should not be re-supplied, or visited by merchants.

While it may seem advantageous to the PC's to build the best bases they can, the chance of having one infiltrated, invaded, or destroyed and inspected, grows higher as the rebellion progresses. By building bases specific to the task and not building all encompassing ones, the GC is less likely to go on full alert. If the PC's build additions onto their bases though, making them bigger and able to train, or support any unit, they take a bigger chance at losing it. There are three types of bases the rebels will need and they should be kept separate from each other; Support, Supply, and Training, if they are built together in the same location, the loss of one could cripple an entire region. The chance of discovery is higher as well, just from the amount of traffic.

For support bases, the rebels can use pirate bases, as they are usually secret locations to begin with and some of the work is already done. Once they find these bases, if operations are not suspended for at least a year, the GC will continue to hunt for it and the pirates who use it, they will find it within (d10) months. Typically these bases will need some work, to make them something more than just a hide out. A consideration with this is the rebels learning the technology to build on worlds that are airless, with low gravity, or hazardous, while the starbase can produce the buildings and equipment they will need, the rebels will be unfamiliar with the technology, remember the GC builds on normal planets.

Supply bases can be located anywhere, but should be kept off colonized planets to avoid detection, a shuttle travelling back and forth to the surface of a planet would be fairly easy to pick up by a satellite, or sensors. The safest supply depot would be a supply ship parked in a gas cloud somewhere, but moons and asteroids would be the next choice. The GM should keep in mind the anti-matter can be picked up on scanners if someone is actively scanning the surface. Delivering the supplies will be a problem also, if a stealth ship, that has transporters are not used, as the GC will be able to intercept shuttles.

Training bases will be needed for each type of unit the rebels deploy and should be in a remote location. Like units can be trained on the same planet, infantry with artillery, etc… If the rebels group their training bases together, they will be taking a chance if they are infiltrated by spies, on the other hand, less ships will be needed to support one planet. The GM should consider whether the PC's are helping to design the bases and curriculum, or just giving orders for them to be build. If they take an active roll, they will find blueprints in the Xenophone's databanks and the units produced will start the game at level 2 skill, in their respective fields. If the PC's do not specify that training bases are for each type of unit then they will be producing generic armies that will have a level one skill each time they go into battle.

The various types of units are discussed in Part Two - Session Four, but if the PC's do not distinguish that a base is training specific units the rebels will be attacking with straight armsmen with additional equipment, not as a specialized unit, that gains modifiers. Attacking a military outpost for example with armsmen, who have artilillery, is different than attacking an outpost with an artillery unit, which is specifically trained at a separate base. So much so that a dozen specialized units in an army will give that army a modifier, where as a 100 generic armsmen with the necessary equipment does not gain the bonus. Specialized units are deployed in groups of a dozen, though an army of 100 can not support more than four specialized units, (someone has to do the grunt work…).

During Part Two, the issue of confrontation between armies is not addressed, as if this starts too soon, the GC will be able to wipe the rebels out by sheer numbers. The last thing the PC's will want to do is start fielding armies, the supply lines for one thing become a major liability. If the PC's start deploying armies now, do not even bother to look at Part Three, the rebels will have over played their hand and within a year will be wiped out. It is doubtful the PC's will want to play this type of end game, so it would be better to just say, "you lose" and let them travel back in time to stop themselves.

A consideration the PC's might not think of, until they start losing whole armies, is specialized training. Sending an infantry unit up against a armored infantry will be suicide. The PC's will need bases to train each type of army unit they put together and they will want specialized units as the GC can win by sheer numbers. Something else they might not consider, but that is allowed is Advanced Training Bases, normally an army unit will start as level one and only gain experience in battle. But by building ATB's and sending units back through them year after year, a unit can gain one level per year, this would allow the PC's to field a highly trained unit that in actuality has no real combat experience.

The Tech Level of a base is important too, especially during the end game, a unit trained with ED rifles, even at level one, can mow down just about any other unit. In the beginning though this type of unit will be a liability, as if the rebels start using high tech, the GC will have time to re-outfit their armies. These type of high tech units should only be deployed during the end game campaign, when the GC is up against the wall trying to survive. This will go along way in forcing their surrender, where as if they are already evenly matched they won't even consider surrendering…

At this point the PC's should be counting the oppositions numbers and realize that they can't win by starting an all out confrontation. The only way they have a chance at winning is by strategy and tactics, even if they match the GC army for army, when the fighting begins the GC can raise armies a lot faster than the rebels can. Even if the rebels have a higher Tech Level, the GC can win in the end by sheer numbers, how the PC's come to realize this may make the difference between winning and losing the campaign. In Part One - Session Ten, the Commander comes up with the idea of kidnapping the general, but if the PC's decide to do this early on, they will be overplaying their hand, they need to time it coincide with the ground war. A GC general will be far less effective if they are also thinking of how to gain that next star and be put in charge of a training base. If the do not consider their timing, then when they start the ground war the three star generals will be replaced.

Many of the scenarios in Part One are presented in this manner, where if the PC's jump on the opportunity they will likely be committing a tactical mistake. Timing is everything and if the PC's go around haphazardly executing missions, it will not effect the GC to any great extent, for when the time comes the GC will be prepared for the rebellion and have replaced missing, or damaged units. The main problem with deploying units too early on in the campaign, will be causing splinter groups, which will rebel against the GC, but also against the PCs in the end. Inciting a rebellion is not the same as winning a rebellion, the PC's will lose points for each splinter group.

This campaign make the distinction between the following units;

Armsmen: Specifically the ground units, that will be carrying archaic weapons, blasters, or ED rifles into battle. These units will make up the bulk of the armies that will be on permanent assignment and should not be confused with space marines.

Mobile Inf: This type of unit just means that the armsmen do not have to walk, but there is a difference between mobile infantry and armored infantry.

Urban Unit: Training in street combat, these armies will need to take over cities, one unit is needed at a ratio of 1000:1, so that a city of 100,000 will require an army of 100, to have an even chance of success.

Airborne: Airborne units will have the best chance of success against GC outposts, as they can attack before the base gets planes, or missiles in the air.

Armored: Armored units are a must if the rebels decide to attack multiple bases with only one army, otherwise they will get wiped out while travelling from one place to the other.

Aircav: These units can nullify the air defenses and attacks of a base, engaging enemy aircraft and missiles while the ground units move in.

Mech-warriors: These units will give the rebels an edge, but are used to support ground forces and not as an army themselves.

There are various types of units within these types of armies, that may increase, or decrease the rebels chances of winning, like tanks, APCs with blast Cannons, etc… As there is a difference between how these units are trained, the GM should let the PC's devise their own armies, the strengths and weaknesses of each type is specifically addressed in Part-Two Session Four.

While the PC's could manage to run through the end game and technically win the campaign, the ensuing chaos from this would result in GC space being thrown back into a dark age and things being worse than before though. So in the end, the PC's would not win, but lose, as the idea is to wage a successful rebellion, not just start one. This can't be done without the rebels deploying a sufficient number of starships to prevent the chaos that will take place when the government falls. But this only covers maintaining shipping lanes, the PC's must also have sufficient ground forces to prevent anarchy on prime worlds and their outlying systems, they too require starships for supplies and support.

For the most part, a successful campaign relies heavily upon the rebels building, manning, and deploying fleets, at the right time, in the right strength, and right where they are needed the most. Very little of the campaign is designed around fleet battles, though more likely than not, the PC's will find themselves embroiled in starship combat, sooner, than later. While the campaign is multi-leveled, from a man sitting in a bar listening to rumors, to deploying fleets along a border, a successful win is more dependant upon the timely attack of rebel fleets, than anything else.

It may appeal to the PC's to play a galactic game of risk though, so the possibility was not left out, though it is dealt with on the grand scale in GC Forces, Part Two - Session Four of the campaign. If the PC's start a border war at this point of the game, before they can even field one fleet of ships, there is no hope for them, as within a few months it will all be over. Which is about how long it will take GC to find all their bases, not how long they can hold back the GC, that would only last a few minutes…

There are a number of things the PC's will need to consider though, before they can begin to think of a major confrontation.

1. Building additional shipyards, even at max output the starbase is incapable of producing enough ships to successfully mount a campaign

2. Location of shipyards and protecting them.

3. Training bases for crews, along with training ships.

4. Refueling points and how are they going obtain the fuel.

5. Charting routes that supply, support, and transport ships will take, using normal shipping lanes will quickly lose the game.

6. Ship size and Tech Level, if the PC's supply their rebellion with high tech ships, the first one that is caught will send the GC into a panic and guaranty that they will making better ships very quickly.

7. Time and place, if the PC's confront a fleet, or even a patrol within the GC border, there is an excellent chance that at least one life pod will survive and start a rumor of an invasion.

As far as numbers go, if the PC's haven't started doing the math, it will take them awhile to launch a large enough force to counter the threat of the GC just going through and nuking rebellious worlds. Each prime world has a full fleet of 25 ships in orbit at all times. Each major world has five ships, which are usually located at the starport. The outlying systems have one ship docked and another patrols. Each major convoy, that departs along each route, has an escort of five ships. These numbers are respective of all the outer quadrants, quad "A" is double that number and the closer you get to Gal-prime the more ships there are. So that there are approximately 2000 military class starships in the outlying quads and about 5000 in quad "A".

Rolling individually for each combat is unrealistic and the rules have been simplified to maximize game time. For now though, use normal SO starship combat rules, this alone may deter the PC's from starting an all out campaign too early. Too early, is deploying fleets to hold a region of space, or starting a border war, even against a stealth fleet the GC can send in enough ships to eventually over power the rebels. The only chance they have is to attack all the prime worlds at the same time, by engaging all of the GC fleets and starbases they can prevent them from sending reinforcements and refueling fleets that are travelling already. Unless a region is on alert, GC fleets are usually given the fuel they need to reach the next starbase, but not much more than this, if the PC's time it right, many of the GC's fleets will go dead in space after the initial attack. If the rebels are haphazard though and regions keep being put on alert, the fleets will be fully fueled and be able to engage over and over again.

The rebels do not necessarily want to destroy the GC fleets out right, they will need these ships to prevent a sudden growth in pirates after the rebellion is won. Merchant ships will also put up a fight if they think the GC has a chance of winning, but if the battles appear one sided they will sit back and watch. The rebels do not want to attack merchant ships though, as they will be needed more than the military ships, after the rebellion.

The following distinctions are made in fleet combat;

Fighters: Are used to weaken enemy shields so that when the big guns are fired, less of the shot is absorbed by the shields. Fighters can also keep ships from taking off from starports by just passing over and activating proximity sensors, which automatically kill the engines, or slow them down.

Lt. Cruisers: Like fighters, they help weaken enemy shields, but are not much of a threat, if used by themselves.

Md. Cruisers: Are primarily support ships for fighters and ground armies, while they are strong enough to engage in fleet combat, they are more useful as support vessels.

Hv. Cruisers: These are the lead ships of the fleet, able to go toe-to-toe with a fleet, one successful hit can usually disable a ship.

Battleships: These ships will be needed to attack starbases, able to withstand the firepower and dish it right back, they are also capable of launching fighter attacks. Tactical Orbs have the same strengths and weaknesses as the battleship, but can not launch the fighters, nor support the rest of the fleet.

Support Ship: Support vessels, either carry supplies along with the fleet, or are used in supply lines. They can not engage and enemy, but because they are favorite targets, are often heavily shielded. These ships are used if a fleet does not have a battleship, which pulls double duty.

The type of ships that the rebels build will determine the modifiers for fleet combat, but the above units will determine the tactical strength and weakness of rebel fleets. If the PCs decide to develop stealth fleets, they will have a greater chance of winning the rebellion in space, but the resulting pirate success rate afterwards will cause them to lose the campaign. By letting the rebellion man regular ships and keeping the stealth ships for themselves (psionics) the PCs can support the special units, help in the rebellion, and then consolidate their power afterwards. If the PCs duplicate the Xenophone, with all of it's enhanced abilities though, they will find themselves fighting the GC and the rest of the galaxy as well.

Before too long the starbase will become overcrowded and the rebellion will need to colonize a world. This to is a point of strategic importance, as the colony will have to be defended, but it can also support various military bases. If the PC's don't think ahead of time and prepare for this contingency, when the time comes, the colonists will be pioneers and pretty much useless to the rebellion. Even before the starbase is full, the populous will start demanding a world to colonize though, as many of them don't want to live in space. About a third of the population will want to colonize and if the PC's see this as an opportunity and not a setback, they will be able to capitalize on this.

The location of these colonies can be a tactical move, or one that will cause the fall of the rebellion, because colonies are fairly easy to locate, infiltrate, and destroy. If the PC's do not take matters into their own hands the people will start a colony on their own, when the population rises to 30,000. 5,000 of them will simply move to the closest colonizable world, but not the one that the starbase is working on and by years end, another 5,000 will join them. Unless the rebels build a military outpost on the world, the colonists will spread across the continents, as a way to protect themselves, living in small communities. With the insurance of a military presence though, they will congregate in cities.

There are numerous things to consider, to make a colony viable and ensure it is a productive part of the rebellion. Things like schools, government, factories, roads, etc… If the PC's let the people deal with these concerns themselves, they won't, they do what they need to get by and nothing more and end up draining resources rather than helping obtain them. The PC's can set up a colonization committee, to help solve these problems and to ensure that the world becomes one that produces things that the rebels need. But possibly, more important than all of this, is the location of the colonies, if they are not dispersed, when the GC finds one, they will be led straight to the next and the next…

Ideally, the PC's should scatter these worlds around the borders of GC space and make them strategic bases for the eventual confrontation. If they locate them in one group of stars, the GC will be able to figure out where the threat is coming from and send a sizable force to eliminate it at the source, especially if the rebels are launching ships from that direction. The Federation, in quad G, offers the rebels a unique opportunity, by supporting them and eventually bringing the Federation into the empire, the rebels can send their people to these worlds to colonize and not have to support and defend their own colonies.