This session discusses special units and agencies that will be needed to keep everything running smoothly. The GM should allow the players to come up with these groups on their own, as the PCs will probably think of something along these lines as the rebellion gets out of hand, and/or the PCs get tired of doing all the paperwork. These groups will take over the mundane operations of the special units and provide the PCs with a way of controlling the entire rebellion without having to take an active part.

Special Forces units have a dual effect on a region as a whole, the populous sees that a small team of armsmen can make a difference and when they think of rebellion, they lose their fear of the GC. The second and less apparent effect, is the morale factor goes up, the government begins to fear the rebels and asks for more and more GC intervention and they become hard liners to the GC governmental policies. The morale factor of 01-100 is the relationship of the region's alignment with the GC, a morale of 80-100 is considered as hard liners, where the government is solidly with the GC and attempts to sway this will result in security forces moving in to deal with dissidents. Regions with a factor of 01-20, are on the verge of open rebellion, or having the governor replaced because he is not doing his job. Intervention by the rebels can cause this to become an open rebellion, GC military will step in and quell the rebellion, and figures of authority will be replaced with hard liners, in this event the morale of the region becomes 100 in favor of the GC and the rebels will have a harder time trying to influence the government. Jedi deployed to a world with special forces on it will nullify this movement of morale, as is the opposite being true.

The team that the PCs placed on Gallos, will eventually cause the world to rebel again and consequently be nuked again. The PC's will need a way to prevent something like this from happening. As well as putting a hold on letting special units get out of hand. By forming a National Security Council, made up of their top people in the special units (SF and spies), they can issue standing orders, or Directives. One such order is that units reaching the rank of nine are to muster out and become Security agents, body guards and such, to prevent revolutions from happening haphazardly. Without this council the PC's will need to monitor the special units themselves and will become overwhelmed by the little details and tied up with paperwork.

With the NSC in place, the rebels can expand without losing control and then when their ready, the PC's can order a galactic revolution that will sweep GC space in a span of a year and gain momentum as it goes. If the PC's do not come up with this idea and try to run the show themselves, they will end up with splinter regions of space where the region has revolted from the GC and is also not aligned with the PC's. If this happens the PC's will not have the manpower, or support to successfully wage a galactic revolution and will lose the campaign completely. They will also have a lot of paperwork and miss out on the serious game time of missions.

Another standing order that the PC's should issue is the SF directives, or the priority of their missions, if the PC's do not think of this, the GC will be able to successfully hold their own, by being able to match the rebels tech level. If they order that research facilities, factories, mines, and penal colonies be targeted first and lastly colonies, not only will they be able to keep the GC at their current tech level, but they will win the loyalty of the masses. If not, the SF forces will defending colony cities first, thinking to protect the people, but end up raising their morale towards becoming GC hard liners.

The effects on the morale factor is opposite with SF than what it is with the Jedi, who lower the morale factor, where as special forces teams raise the morale factor each year. If the two are operating on the same planet, they cancel each other out (in regards to the morale factor). A spy unit is the only way to determine the morale factor and it takes five years before they can make an accurate determination. Spies do not effect the morale factor as part of their mission is to remain secretive, the things they do will appear to be accidents, not sabotage. They can however alter the morale factor by assassinating the governor, the new governor, by his policies will cause the morale factor to be recalculated.

The NSC will be able to direct SF units to move on from one penal colony to the next, otherwise an SF team will get stranded on a planet with nothing to do. They can also react to specific threats that the GC security council comes up with, like attacking research facilities that are developing better scanners, ones that are researching rebel technology, and ordering units to stand down in a region that is about to go on alert. Another important factor is that by the NSC controlling the placement of bodyguards, the rebel and later empire governments will be less likely to become power hungry, thinking that the bodyguards also double as spies, which in a sense they do.

In regards to the Spies, the directive to concentrate on prime worlds (that have starbases) should be the priority. In this way the spy network will expand more rapidly and when the time comes the spies, by assassinating all of the "heads of state" in the same year, will completely throw the GC into confusion and set them up for almost a bloodless takeover. Otherwise the rebels will literally have to take the GC sector by sector. The PC's do this by forming "The Company" which takes over the daily operations of the spies and directs them to follow the PC's initiatives. The company will quietly gather information and ensure that the GE can take a sector without missing a GC base. Loyalists will be identified also and the chance of subversive movements against the GE will be nullified as the GE border moves through the sector. Without the Company the GE will never have a stable border and acts of sabotage will plague their supply lines as much as they had done so to the GC.

The Company can also find out when and where the security council meets and automatically take out the members and steal the data files. This is providing spies are located on every prime world in a quadrant, otherwise where ever they are not, that is where the council will meet. They meet once a year at a different location each year and all the leaders (in a quad) of the security force are required to attend. Taking out the security council lowers the chance of the rebellion being discovered, or the GC upgrading their tech level. Special units have less of a chance of getting caught and rebel bases will be safe from discovery for the next year. The company can issue orders that cause the security council members to miss the council session and once the company has spies within an entire quadrant the rebels will be safe to operate in that quadrant without fear of GC forces.

One thing the company can learn of, that the spies will think of inconsequential, is worlds where the GC has bombarded the planet and then needed to transfer the seat of government because of it. These worlds, if low in population were left to their own means, where as if the population was high, they became penal colonies. The smaller colonies offer the PC's an opportunity to recruit without intervention by the GC as the worlds were left to die out and they are restricted from anyone visiting them. A satellite remains in orbit to monitor space traffic, but otherwise the PC's may come and go as they please from these worlds. At least once a month a patrol will pick up and examine the sensor logs from the satellite, but if the PC's are careful about the jump flashes and missions, they shouldn't have any problems. While ship sensors have a range of 5000LS, satellites have twice this range, so if a ship drops within 10,000 LS from an inhabited planet with a satellite, they will be detected. It is important to note that this distance is from the colony, not the star. Normally a ship will drop from FTL 10,000 LS from the star, this will be well within the range of the satellite, which is 150 - 1000 LS from the star, allowing them to detect 10,150 - 11,000 LS out.

Once the PC's have visited a world, if it only has 1 satellite, they can time their emergence from hyperspace so that the satellite is on the other side of the planet, shielding them from it's sensors, this will allow them to drop from FTL as close as possible, though playing it safe, only adds on minutes to a flight that could have taken weeks at FTL. The sensors of GC satellites can not detect a cloaked ship and can only detect an uncloaked stealth ship if it is on the same side of the planet. By matching the satellites orbit and remaining on the opposite side of the planet at all times, the stealth ship can avoid detection. This only provides a window of 10 hours a day in which transports, or shuttles can operate, but hopefully the PC's think of this. If they don't, the patrol will learn that the planet has been visited and try to prepare an appropriate trap.

The Company will also try to gain control over an entire quadrant, before moving on to the next, where as, without the Company, the spies will haphazardly move into each region and even if there are spies on every prime world, the security council will not be neutralized and the rebels will always have the chance of their bases being discovered. The formation of the Company has the ability to nullify the effectiveness of the GC security forces and their ability to assess the threat of the rebellion. Without the security council the GC will never take the rebellion seriously, with out the Company though, the security council will be able alert the GC government to the building threat and direct rebel hunting fleets and teams, and will also advise the GC to upgrade their technology to counter the threat.

Probably the primary significance of spies in general, is their ability to determine the morale factor of a colony. A team of spies can determine the morale factor of a region, after they have been in place one year, to whether it is high, or low. After two years, they can guess within 1/4's, after three years, to within 10, at four, to within 5 and after five years they can determine the exact morale factor. Special forces groups effect the morale factor also, which was discussed above. Spies do not affect the morale factor as their operations are carried out in secret and made to look like accidents. They can however alter the morale factor by assassinating the governor, the new governor, by his policies will cause the morale factor to be recalculated.

If the PC's pay attention to the morale factor, this will allow them to place special units to effect the morale, rather than just place them as they become available. If the PC's do not give this consideration, their units will become ineffective and/or cause splinter groups. The morale factor of major and minor worlds can be determined by the GM, by rolling (d100), but the special units will only effect the morale on primary worlds, these other worlds already know their unimportant and will not openly rebel because they know they don't stand a chance.

The Strategic Command is somewhat like the NSC and the Company, but it oversees both the fleets and armies of the rebels. The SC is at first, located centrally, so that the special units can report to it, but when the rebels turn to the offensive, the SC is usually just behind the front line. Besides putting the SC together, by selecting personnel, the PCs will need to designate one ship that is the command headquarters during confrontations. Without this central location for combat information, the fleets and the armies will lose all strategic capability. For example, if the order is to attack, the closest units will charge and the ones farthest away will do the same, but weeks later. The SC also coordinates the supply lines, so that after the initial surge, the rebellion does not find itself faltering because it needs supplies. Another major factor is the strategic placement of units, before and after each battle, so that the fleets and armies of the rebels can match, or exceed the strength of the GC.

The logical place to form the SC is on the starbase and if the rebels gain complete control over it, then the next logical step would be to move it continuously, with the front line. Otherwise the PCs will need to specifically build a ship for this purpose and designate a fleet to protect it, yet it will not have the capabilities of the starbase. The PCs might not realize the importance of such a command structure until they start the offensive and issue the orders to attack, then about a month later they will get word back, "Ok, what next?", which will be echoed as each unit reports in. Before the next set of orders is issued the GC will have taken out the fleets, one by one and it will be the GC reporting back, asking, "Do you surrender?" Let on their own fleet commanders will simply attack their objective, then try to hold position and in some cases the front line will be stretched to thin, or units will become bunched up.

This will take much of the responsibility of the offensive off of the PCs shoulders and an extreme amount of paperwork as well. Supply ships will be sent where they are needed, before they are needed and ground based armies will be dropped and picked up with precision. Repair ships will also be able to service more ships by going where they are needed most, rather than letting crippled ships try to make it to a base. Fleets that lose ships will be directed to join together to keep strengths and weaknesses from becoming pronounced and reinforcements will arrive in time to help out, instead of starting a new battle. Without the SC the rebels will find themselves cut off and then ground into pieces, by the lack of communications and supplies.

Another important aspect of the SC, is that in the beginning, they can direct offensive attacks to take the heat off of the rebels special units. A GC army may be hunting a special forces unit, but they will leave off chasing a band of twelve to confront a planetary invasion on a minor world. When the invading force is gone when the GC army arrives it will put them into confusion and the SF team can continue operating with impunity. The SC can also move rebel factions around, to where they are needed more, and prevent them from going to far in the operations.

The Merchant PC will likely not figure this out on their own, but if they make an attempt to talk to Gordo on how to start their own merchant line he can fill them in on the details.

The Merchant Association is basically a front for the Merchant PC, without it this PC will just be a small time operator, wheeling and dealing as the opportunity presents itself. The MA however, if started will make the PC one of the wealthiest individuals in the empire. The MA is the only way the PC will be able to deal with the major and primary merchants, without fear of being reported to the GC security forces. The MA will allow the Merchant to build a factory on a minor world, by obtaining permits, both legal and forged, as well as documents to sell the products through normal shipping lanes. While the PC appears to be a legal guild member at first, after five years they can start their own minor merchant shipping line, after ten, a major, and at fifteen years a primary. Depending on the type of products the PC is providing, they can increase their net worth and expand the business across the entire GC.

Much of this will be trial and error upon the part of the PC and they may have to cut the other PCs in on the action, but they will want to put most of the profit back into the business. The credits that this PC will earn can be used openly, but they will be restricted from spending it, until they gain primary merchant status. This is because the lesser merchants usually send the bulk of their profits to the guild, which is what the Merchant PC will have to do also, which is pocketed by the wealthy nobles of the Gal-prime region. To start this enterprise the merchant PC must build a factory on a minor world in quadrant A, if it is built outside of quadrant A, the product and factory will be confiscated and they will be charged with patent infringement. The factory needs to produce more than the current minor merchant ships can carry, the PC complains and they are granted permission to hire their own ship. The product is then transported to a major world, where the PC must dump so much product on the colony that everyone has one and sales drop to zero.

Complaining will get the PC permission to make a cargo trip to the primary world of the region, where they sell the product to outward bound merchants. For the next stage the PC will have to build several more factories, that produce the same product within the region. Then they need to send representatives to several adjoining regions and have them start complaining that they can't get the product fast enough, showing a large amount of growing orders and a cargo manifest that only allows them to transport so much. So they get permission to hire their own ships to transport from region to region and from that point on the PC gains power and influence to travel and buy whatever they wish.

The stages that the PC will have to adhere to, unless they want to attract unwanted attention is as follows;

The PC can cut the time down by starting additional factories on other worlds, or on the same one, but only if they do so in another region will it shorten the time for each stage, by one year per factory. It costs 50,000 credits to build a factory, but in the beginning the PC can deliver goods from the starbase and make it seem like the colonists are producing it. The PC can add one additional product per year, to a factory production list, but they won't gain the next stage faster unless dues are paid in full, so the PC may not make any profit during the first five years, but the sixth they can make 3,000,000 credits (50% of six products). After the fifth year the PC can branch out and build additional factories, they will gain more credits if they build in the same region, but they can shorten the time between stages by one year per region they have a factory in.

Cargo inspections can be avoided by bribes of 5,000 times the stage of the PC, as merchants do not normally smuggle, the bribe is to speed the process rather than bypass the inspection. Bribes will not work if the PC is possibly stepping on someone's toes, or it is in the first year of operation, by waiting until routine sets in and not letting the ship's captain know what's going on, the PCs will eventually be able to ship anything, from anywhere, to anywhere, especially if they have agents on the various starbases. About the only other way the PC can get in trouble is if they don't think big, if they get comfortable and do not continuously expand their influence, another merchant will take their business away from them. The merchant guild will protect the PC though, if they see increasing profits in the future.

The PC can bank the first year's profits, but they will not be allowed to add a product the next year and a factory must be built during the first year. The factory will be inspected at the end of the year and the PC will be warned about guild dues, which normally are 10%, but they won't be able to expand if they don't pay the full dues listed above. The PC can put Gordo in charge secretly, but if the other PCs find out there should be problems as they won't see any profits for quite a while and the GM should not reveal how long it takes between stages.

The Jedi Knights are as equally important to control as the two other NPC groups (spies and SF). Without the PC's intervention, the council will send these units out in a slowly expanding influence, to minor and major colonies, as well as prime ones. The PC's need to issue the directive that the knights should concentrate on prime worlds, using their diplomatic skills to sway the governments and encourage the underground to work with the rebels. Without this directive, the Jedi will not play a very important roll in the rebellion and the entire psionic society will pretty much become useless. With this directive though, the regions will sway their loyalty to the PC's and when the time comes, the uprising against the GC will sweep like a wildfire across known space.

It is important to constrain the Jedi's influence as well, their presence on a world will swing loyalty from the GC to the GE in 1% increments per month, if the chance presents itself. Without a directive that they are not to incite a rebellion, the worlds they are operating on will end up getting bombarded and their old loyalty index will revert back and become unmovable. With the directive though, the worlds will wait until the GE has a border that can protect them and as GE forces move in the loyalty will become outspoken.

The Jedi are the rebels counter pieces to the governors, diplomats above all else, they use their skills more to avoid getting caught when things look bad, than to actually influence politics. This is providing there is a council to keep them from taking matters into their own hands. The Lensmen Council is the external council of the Lensmen society, their goal is to maintain peace throughout known space, their policies are enforced by the Jedi. The Jedi, without the sobering influence of the council, take the chance that their desire to help will out weigh their objectivity. The Jedi do not have the maturity of an actual Lensmen and often let personal feelings dictate their policy.

Bringing psionics into the rebellion in large numbers of recruits will be inherently dangerous, if they are simply dropped off on the starbase. Within a few short weeks, the rebels will divide into telepaths and non-telepaths and begin a civil war. If the PC's have outwardly displayed their talents, this will force them (all) on the opposite side from the rebels. The differences between the two groups will become so marked, that even if the telepaths are taken off the starbase, the damage will be done and the PC's will never gain the trust of the rebels again. For all intents and purposes the campaign has been lost, the rebels on their own, will force a confrontation too early and be wiped out and the PC's without the support of the rebels are reduced to mercenaries. For this reason it is important to keep the psionic NPC's separated from the rest of the rebels and while this won't become an issue with the PC's, as they are supposed to be super human, any NPC with psionics will run into problems. This should have played out with Clara and the other three psionics the PC's met from the Lyris, so that it would already have become necessary to separate them.

If the PC's have not already dealt with this issue, then when they come back from one of their extended missions, Clara and the others will have been burned at the stake, so to speak. The psionics can not be left on their own either, feelings of superiority will cause them to be at odds with the normal humans and as a society, they will turn to the dark side and start a revolution of their own. For these reasons the PC's will have to re-form the Lensmen Council. The PC's roll in this formation must be indirect also, if they accept positions on the council and do not stay behind to actively serve on the council, it will get out of hand and they will return at some point to find themselves declared as rouges and the society will have turned to the dark side. PC's who are politically power hungry, will certainly lose the campaign in this respect. The GM can hint privately to the Lensmen character who mind-melded with Clara, but it should be up to that character to convince the others that the code of the Lensmen should be adopted by the party as a whole.

The four psionic NPC's can form the foundation of the council, but the PC's have to direct them to search out and elect other members, as well as instruct them to form the psionic society as a whole. Without direction the psionics will merely be part of a colony of telepaths and in the end be far more of a threat to the rebellion than any GC unit. Eventually they will infiltrate the GC, thinking to effect changes from the inside and end up becoming part of the problem. The political structure within the GC is such that their ability to blackmail and influence high ranking officials will cause them to seek personal power and influence. The development of the dark side within the GC will make it very hard for the PC's to win the campaign, no matter how many clones are running around.

Formation of the psionic society will keep things quiet on the new colony and the Lensmen council will allow the Jedi to operate without the possibility of turning. This is providing that the rebellion goes smoothly and that the supply and communication lines are not cut. The Jedi can not be left on their own, or lose contact with the Lensmen council, or they will turn to the dark side and the PC's will lose all hope of gaining control over that region of space. The Jedi are very important to the plans of the rebels, as the Jedi can influence the morale of the governor and other politicians on the prime worlds. The ideal scenario, is where the Jedi have secretly convinced the governor to side with the rebels and when the rebellion flares into open conflict the rebels will only need to concern themselves with controlling space, the colonies then immediately come under rebel control and calculate into the rebel number of colonies.

While the PC's may think of forming the psionic society themselves without any hints from the GM, they must also issue a directive that the Jedi do not involve themselves in inciting an open rebellion. If this happens that particular region of space will become a splinter group, not under the control of the GC, or rebels, the resulting chaos may seem to favor the rebels, but in the end it will not. Splinter groups have the potential of keeping the Empire from forming at the end of the rebellion, this will result in border wars, pirating of merchant shipping, and other factors that will cause future head aches to the new empire. This will effect the PC's overall score in the campaign and may prove distracting to the rebellion during the campaign. The PC's roll in the rebellion is two fold in this respect, first it is their job to get things rolling and make sure that all the bases are covered. Secondly they are to provide the stability to make sure the rebels keep things in perspective and keep the rebellion from getting out of hand. The rebellion will gain it's own momentum once started, without the PC's influence though the rebellion will erupt in chaos and the end result will be worse than it is presently.

The influence of the Jedi is directly related to the morale factor of the region, but specifically on the prime world. The morale factor of 01-100 is the relationship of the region's alignment with the GC, a morale of 80-100 is considered as hard liners, where the government is solidly with the GC and attempts to sway this will result in security forces moving in to deal with dissidents. Regions with a factor of 01-20, are on the verge of open rebellion, or having the governor replaced because he is not doing his job. Intervention by the rebels can cause this to become an open rebellion, GC military will step in and quell the rebellion, and figures of authority will be replaced with hard liners, in this event the morale of the region becomes 100 in favor of the GC and the rebels will have a harder time trying to influence the government.

The GM can hint at the morale factor of a region, but do not give the PC's the actual standing. Just the presence of a Jedi, will cause the morale factor to move in favor of the rebels, by point one per year. For this reason two things can happen if the Jedi are not placed with care; The first is if the region is within the 01-20 range, the Jedi can inadvertently cause a rebellion too soon, causing the region to become an independent splinter group. If the PC's do not place the Jedi themselves, or issue directives, but allow the Lensmen council a free hand, they will send the Jedi out in an expanding influence, without regard for the morale factor, or the strategic importance of a colony.

The PC's will need to keep the rebels in check, with the orders to colonize and train, but not attack the GC forces except to protect their territory. In this way the GC will believe that there are too many hazards within the "F" sector and pull back out of it. If the rebels are allowed to "be rebels" so to speak, the GC will mount a campaign against them, successfully. And concentrate their attention on the PC's rebels and ignore the smaller factions within their own space. However, if the PCs issue the directive to support and recruit the rebel factions on a colony, the GC will not believe that a GC wide rebellion is taking place and will not deploy rebel hunting fleets, but will just strengthen outposts and military contingencies. If the PCs do not issue directives concerning the rebel factions and simply ignore their presence, the morale factor will drop twice as fast and within a short time the planet will rebel and get nuked by the GC, in this case the PC rebels will be blamed and will be hunted down by the civilians, as well as the GC.

The PC's will also need to support the rebel worlds in the "G" quadrant (the Federation), who are already successfully withstanding the GC. They want to carry the fight to the GC, but the PC's will need to prevent this, otherwise the GC will gear up to fight a major campaign against them and then be able to fight against the PC's rebels without too much preparation afterwards. The Jedi will succeed in this, with the help of SF units, and spies, working in concert, by taking the heat off the non-aligned rebels and putting it on the PC's units. The rebel factions will in turn, join the GE rebellion and take orders from them. The PCs must come up with the idea that the Federation needs to attack GC worlds more, in seemingly unorganized attacks, like pirates. Where as the Federation is trying to consolidate their defenses and put together a large fleet, to confront the GC directly. If this happens the Federation does not stand a chance.

It is important that the PCs do not arm the rebel factions with high tech weapons, or the GC security will realize there is a force behind the attacks that is a greater threat than the rebel factions themselves. This will be a serious temptation to the players, who are usually greedy to get better and more powerful weapons for their characters. It will only take the GC a few years though to upgrade their own technology if this threat is perceived and the rebellion stands less of a chance in the end, as all the PCs modifiers will be nullified. The GC will also start actively hunting the PCs and put less importance on the rebel factions, knowing the real threat is whoever is supplying the high tech weapons. Instead of sending in more fleets, they will begin sending in spies, and it only takes a year per region to trace the supply lines back to the starbase, or the PCs. The PCs shouldn't use stealth ships in these attacks for the same reason, but should try to get the GC to think that their own people are rebelling.

This will cause the GC to go on the defensive and suspect that their own governors and military units, are behind the rebel factions. They will end up harassing their own units and throwing them into chaos, doing the rebels work for them. If the PCs concentrate on this aspect of the game though, they can incite a GC rebellion this way, which in the end will cause each region to become splinter groups. The idea is to take the heat off the Federation, and not to start a conflict, but if the PCs are not careful the rebellion could start without them being in control.

The Federation offers the PCs more of an opportunity with their starship factories and crew training facilities, than anything else, the PCs need ships and crews, and lots of them. The PCs will want to ignore the other aspects of the Federation lest they succeed in making them stronger and in the end they will not want to join the empire as there will be no benefit to doing so. If the PCs hint to the Federation though that the Empire has superior weapons and ships, when the rebellion takes place they will want to be a part of it and when the Empire is formed they will join without question.

To gain the confidence of the Federation the PCs will need to take over quad B themselves, while training Federation troops. For all intents and purposes the GM should have the PCs become mercenaries, but they will also need to keep in contact with their own rebel movement. This should hint to the PCs on how to expand their influence, by laying down a communications net between the Federation and the starbase. The Federation will actually take up more of the PCs time, as if they are left to their own means, they will likely start an all out confrontation and get wiped out. The PCs will have to run through the scenarios of Part One, over again with each region in quad B, so that they maintain control and the Federation becomes dependant upon the PCs and courts favor with them.

The hardest thing will be to find the Federation, the PCs have several options; First is just to start their own operations in Quad B and try to attract the Federation's notice, they have spies on all of the prime worlds and spies on the starbases of Mara and Harporra. If the PCs put spies on these two starbases as well, not only will they run into each other, but the PCs will learn where the GC is hunting and can go harass the patrols and fleets. They can drop spy satellites and try to track the Federation ships, but as they are careful this will be unlikely to succeed other than to let them know that they are in the area. If they do spot one of their ships it will be a simple matter to just follow it to a supply depot and confront them there.

The scenario of bringing the Federation into the rebellion is covered in Part Two - Session 5

[prev]

[next]