Using Arch-Villains will allow the GM to harass the PCs, without causing the rebellion to start too early and get the PCs involved in the game, rather than letting them sit somewhere and just issue orders. This will help develop the character personalities more than anything else, but in a way that is normally not approached in RPGs. Most character personalities are put together by the player and how they view what they want their character to be like, whether it is true, or not, there is never anyone to question this. Arch villains however, allow the GM to take a much larger roll in this formation of personality, as they offer a way to let the players see their characters from someone else's eyes. The players may have egotistical views of themselves and noble ideals, but if they are not actually playing this way, the arch-villain allows the GM to hold up a mirror and let them see themselves by their actions.

Along with the arch-villains, are the leaders who interact with the PCs on a more friendly basis, like a governor who needs the doctor's help, a fleet commander who shows the PC Commander respect, etc… Between the two, the GM can reveal the PCs good and bad sides to the players, exaggerated to some extent, as rumors run rampant, but for the most part the GM can show the players when their characters are getting out of hand. Using propaganda, the more the PCs are successful, the worse the GC will paint them, though not directly, otherwise this would result in the GC mounting a campaign against the rebels. For example, when the PCs free the Mara governor's cabinet members, the GC will make it look like the governor was behind it and slander him so much that he dare not show his face in public. If the GC figures out that the PCs are indeed operating in their space, every little thing that goes wrong will be attributed to them. They will be rumored to be in several places at the same time, where there is an accident, it was PC sabotage, where their was sabotage, the GC will paint a far different picture, ie… The rebels blow up a bomb factory and rescue 200 workers, yet in the news they are said to have blown up a factory that makes baby formula and killed 1000 innocent civilians.

If it wasn't for the fact that the GC does not have mass media, the PCs efforts might be hampered, but as the rumors remain local, the spies are the only ones who will hear these reports. The GC military and fleets know the Security Force is prone to outright lies, so they won't put a lot of stock into these rumors and will often believe the PCs are scapegoats and sympathize with them. They will also have their own rumor mill, that actually favors the PCs, as they, more than anyone else, knows the lengths that the security force will go to keep the masses from rising above serfdom.

Most of the leaders of the GC will secretly be cheering the PCs on, hoping that they are indeed starting a rebellion. When given the chance, they will wine and dine the PCs, the lower ranks are a different story, they buy into the propaganda so they can ignore their own problems and will more than likely shoot the PCs on site. There are a few leaders though who like the "status quo", hiding their own machinations by helping the security force and even though they know the PCs can not be responsible for all the mayhem that will be attributed to them, will take any opportunity to kill, or capture the PCs. This is so they can blame their own evils on the PCs and take the heat off themselves. In these cases, an arch-villain is created, one who will go to great lengths to find the PCs and be able to sift through the rumors to figure out what the PCs are really up to. Rather than alert the GC though they will spend their efforts in trying to capture them, making themselves out to be a hero.

GC fleets use four classes of starships, the Callisto class Heavy Cruiser, which is used by the military primarily to move armies and equipment around and until the war erupts, they will not be directly grouped with the fleets that escort merchants, or guard regions of space. Most of these will either travel to and from prime worlds and be found orbiting the same, or if they are establishing a new outpost will be found in other sectors. For the most part though these ships will be found orbiting planets that have multiple outposts. Even when the war erupts few will be used to take on the rebels, only when a massive fleet of 50 - 100 ships is formed will these be used as the command vessel. There are only a few dozen of these ships in operation at the start of the game, but when the war starts, 2 more will be built per year and be put into service guarding prime worlds in the alpha quadrant. When the rebels attack a prime colony, these ships will not move to attack the rebels, but will remain in orbit to protect the planet directly.

Full fleets, of 25 ships and the security force utilize ?? medium class cruisers and there are only a few hundred of these. When one of these ships is seen traveling alone, it will always be a detachment of security force personnel, the rest are assigned to the military to support their outposts, with one in each region, usually traveling with four light cruisers. These ships will be conscripted into the large fleets, once the war starts, becoming the command ships for the fleet. A full fleet will also have five scout class ships travelling about 1LY out from the fleet, surrounding it. These scout ships are designed for speed and are presently used to patrol regions and run messages and personnel.

During combat, the fleet commander will order the light cruisers to attack, launch the fighters, and then bring in the medium class cruisers, hanging back with the Hv Cruiser until victory is assured. As a result, if the fleet is disabled early on, these ships will be the least damaged, most of the destruction will be to the fighters and light cruisers. The scout ships will flee, some to starbases, but as the war progresses more and more will abandon their comrades and hide out on minor worlds till its safe. About 1/4 of the fighters will try to do the same, if they are close to a minor world, so that at the end of a battle, the rebels may gain one hv. cruiser, five md. cruisers, ten lt. cruisers, and about 25 fighters, providing the rebels had gained the initiative and are using tactics. If not, the fighters, lt. cruisers, and three of the four md cruisers will be beyond repair. This will be due to a lack of training, where weapons crews will tend to shoot crippled ships doing more damage than necessary, which in the end will prolong the battle.

In the border war, scout ships will be able to alert minor fleets of an imminent attack and by pulling back and joining together, a full fleet will engage the rebels. For this reason, once a deep space battle has been won, the region is clear. The hinge point is the prime world, so that depending upon which side of the prime world the border is attacked, that side is cleared, while the other side will retreat to the prime world, to form a full fleet there. Strategically speaking, if the rebels attacked each region with three fleets, one full, attacking the prime world and two half fleets attacking in the next sector over. Then in this case the fleets would not be able to join and the rebels would gain an advantage of numbers. This is providing that they do not immediately engage the enemy, but speed to the prime world and flank it, then attack as the fleets close. This is also the only way to gain a tactical advantage, by plotting the course of the deep space fleets and lay an ambush at a convenient spot.

If the PCs simply direct the rebel fleets to engage the GC fleets, then tactics and strategy will have no bearing on the war. But if they study the first wave conflict and have already attacked the rebel hunting fleets, the GM can pass along the following information, to the PC Commander, upon a successful roll against Intuition, after each wave. These tactics will only work once and if the PC commander tries the same thing twice, then the GC fleets will gain the initiative roll…

Ambush Seeing how the scout ships flee back to the minor fleets and how they retreat until they can form up and then head towards the prime world. The PC commander devises a plan that as soon as the scout ships are met, the rebel fleet angles towards the prime world. Traveling at the best possible speed, they plot a course that will put the rebel fleet between the prime world and the GC fleet. Finding an anomaly along the GC fleet path they lie in wait. To bait the trap a lone cruiser is sent out and is ordered to act as if they are adrift in space. When the GC fleet drops from FLT to investigate the rebel fleet pounces.

Pick Punching a hole in the GC border. A stealth ship is used to attack a scout ship and make a hole in the border so that a few ships can pass through and get behind the other scouts. The fleet approaches the border and when the scouts retreat, they are attacked by these ships, but not before their course is plotted. The fleet then attacks these minor fleets, at 5:1 odds. (Once this has been tried, the fleets and scouts will remain in constant communication, if one doesn't report in, then the rest form up and head towards that point.)

Vice Knowing that the GC primarily protects the prime and major worlds, the starcharts are studied until a route is found that will bypass the major worlds and enable one fleet to reach the prime world without detection. Though this fleet does not enter the system, but hides near an anomaly to mask sensors. A second fleet makes a direct path for the prime world at a rate of speed that allows the GC fleet to form ahead of them. As soon as the two fleets are preparing to engage, the first rebel fleet attacks from behind, concentrating on the Hv. cruiser. Once it is destroyed, or disabled, the battle is over.

Moon jump This tactic has the ability to fail, as the idea is for the fleet(s) to travel at high warp, pushing their drives beyond the fail safe, in order to reach the prime world, before the GC forces can intercept, or reinforce. The result is that instead of forming up two fleets, first the minor fleet in the system will attack, then each minor fleet, from the outlying sectors. The rebel fleet enters the system, but hides behind the farthest planet, from the incoming starships, then as they drop to sublight, which causes them to lose their formation, the rebels attack. Failure (roll against PC Commanders Mech skill for each fleet) means that several FTL drives have burned out and the fleet must halt and wait to be attacked, as they make repairs.

Face to Face A variation of the above that works in deep space, at the moment that the two fleets would normally drop to sublight, to engage, the navigator of each ship picks an opponent and tries to drop to sublight very close to the target, the rebels do not form up, until they have made one pass and the idea is to prevent the GC from forming up, the second attack is upon the Hv cruiser, as the rebel fleet forms up. The rebels gain surprise and get a free attack before initiative is rolled.

The PCs may come up with other tactics, on their own, but these will be sure to work, the PC Commander may even save these tactics till the rebels reach the Alpha quadrant, in which case they will go a long way towards demoralizing the enemy fleets and cause the last few to surrender.

The military serves two functions in the GC, foremost as the police force of a colony and secondly as a deterrent against terrorism, by manning outposts. The PCs may confuse the rolls of the security force and the military, as usually they work closely together, but where the security force has no qualms about keeping a colony population in its place, the military has refused orders in the past and are little more than window dressing now. In a few cases the military has rebelled and attacked the security force units, which is why the outposts are mostly infantry units. Most of the heavy weapons that are found in an outpost are stationary and when the war causes outposts to be upgraded, this should be considered by the GM. The GC will not want to make the army mobile, as they might later turn on the GC when the rebellion is over, therefore the farther from Gal-prime an outpost is, and from a primary world, the likelier the upgrade will simply be more infantry. The closer to the center of the GC though, the more mobile upgrades an outpost will receive and long range weapons.

Military commanders are less sure of their capabilities than fleet commanders, as the only experience they have had is with mock combat. One of the easiest ways for the rebels to win, is to faint an attack on an outpost and then retreat to a point where they can ambush. Otherwise the fortifications will give the GC armies an edge over the rebels, even with ED rifles the odds will be somewhat even. Unlike fleet combat, the rebels can use the same tactics over and over, until the GC recaptures a planet and learns of the PCs tactics. There are of course ways to destroy an outpost, by orbital bombardment, attacks by fighters, or artillery, etc…, however, the armies of the GC will respect honorable combat, so that when the war is over, the military will not begin a rebel campaign of their own. If the PCs are just concerned with the body count, once the rebellion is over, the military will go underground and start a terrorist campaign that within a few years will cripple the new government and cause chaos and anarchy.

The PCs should think ahead, in the case with the military, as they have not earned a bad reputation, like the security force, or fleets have. The military has served as a police force primarily, with many stationed on their own home worlds, so that if the rebels fight an honorable war, the majority of them can be reintegrated back into society and continue to perform their old duties. The capturing of the generals, will help the PCs understand this, who will reflect this attitude and hint that if the rebels look like they will win, the military will side with them. The rebels special forces units may hamper this, but not to any great extent. And if the PCs are not taking any of this into consideration the generals may condemn their actions and make them think.

If the PCs have captured several of the two star generals and are listening in on their conversations, each month the war progresses, one of them may slip and mention the location of the three star general that commands the quadrant military forces. The PCs can then go and take the three star general hostage, which will demoralize and throw the military into chaos. From that time on, the outposts will not be upgraded in that quadrant and the outpost commanders may be forced to surrender without a shot being fired, (upon a successful roll by the PC's own military commander against their Leadership skill). Each time the rebels take an outpost and overwhelm the GC ground forces, a two star general can be coaxed into asking the next military commander to surrender, to lessen the bloodshed, (based on a successful roll against Leadership).

The merchants play a veiled roll in the campaign, while they are not openly hostile to the GC, they realize that with a new form of government their profits would skyrocket. They will not rebel themselves, but once the PC Merchant becomes a noble, they will make it possible for them to enter politics and actually become the next tyrant. They will be the first to recognize what is going on, but they will not say a word, nor will they jeopardize their own positions to help the rebellion. The GM may hint at some of this by letting the PC Merchant know of the frustrations of the other merchants at being unable to sell products to minor worlds that the GC is forcing to stay in archaic tech. Their motivation is credits and a more open government would provide them with thousands of opportunities. If the PC Merchant is calling for government reform, to open more markets, rather than because of oppression, the merchant guilds will pour money into the campaign coffers. The GC security force will harass the PC merchant, in this case, but if they are complaining about oppression the security force will become outright hostile, after all, oppression is their job.

So long as the PC Merchant is bringing money into the guild, what ever false identity the PC comes up with, as a cover, the other merchants will not question and will even help establish it. If the PCs are using the profits to fund the rebellion, attack merchant vessels, or threaten their profits in any way, then the security force will get a lot of help in capturing the PCs and rebels. The Merchant PC need only to stay within their rank within the guild, as they are gaining levels of influence, to keep from stepping on too many toes, (as outlined in Session 3:4) and they will not attract any unwanted attention. Between this and efforts by the spies of The Company, the Merchant PC can operate without problems, providing the rebellion does not cause the GC to go on full alert. Once this happens the PC's wanted posters will get re-circulated and someone will recognize this PC first.

It is also possible that the Merchant PC can take some of the heat off the rebels, by turning in other rebel factions, especially ones that do not want to join the PCs cause. This is an easy way to eliminate pirates and smugglers, whom the PCs can't recruit, that in the end will jeopardize the players score. Doing this will cause the Security Force to accept the Merchant PC easier and not harass them as much also. And they will in turn begin giving the Merchant PC reports of pirate activities, which they can turn over to the rebellion, for recruiting purposes. This PC can also go as far as reporting an attack by pirates, in which their own crew fended off and in turn captured the pirate vessel. By salvage law, the PC can then use the pirate vessel for their own purposes, this would be a cheap way to obtain cargo transports, though a new crew would be required to man it. After awhile the PC would be able to gain some notoriety and be allowed to carry weapons, they could also request reports from distant regions about pirates operating in the area. All they would have to say about the previous crew is that they took a walk out the air lock and no questions would be asked.

The Jedi will be the first to enter politics, using their skills to gain entry into functions and get close to the governors of the GC regions. At first they are merely observers, who are able to avoid normal political entanglements and so long as they don't become directly involved, are able to operate with little, or no interference from the security force. The Jedi require a communication network to operate though, simply to continually receive orders of non-interference. In the basic sense, the Jedi are political spies, but they can also influence the morale factor of a region by a word dropped here and there, with a "push" of course. Their abilities allow them to accurately read a situation, but their ability to influence the same, gives them an ego rush that is only tempered by being in constant communication with the Lensmen council. If left on their own, by the lack of, or break down of the communications network they will tend to get over enthusiastic about their roll and go just a little too far, which will cause them to swing over to the dark side. The Lensmen council maintains their objectivity for them and allows them to sacrifice opportunities, to maintain their good, or more accurately, neutral, nature.

There is no direct outward evidence of their manipulation of politics and part of their job is to prevent unwanted attention to themselves. They are also more than competent to operate solo, being able to avoid, or remove themselves from compromising situations. As discussed in Part Two - Session 3:5, the Jedi are able to lower the morale factor of a region, by one point, per Jedi, though only two may operate in the same region. As they progress in their duties they become closer and closer to the governor, until after ten years they become a trusted advisor. Their presence however nullifies the Special Forces teams effect on the morale factor and vice a versa, which is not necessarily a detriment though. This can be altered by the presence of a second Jedi, which causes the morale to drop, but the same is not true if two Special Forces teams are in the region. When the campaign begins the morale factor of all the regions are well above the rebellious stage, though it will only take two, or three years, in some of the more remote regions, to effect the start of a rebellion.

The Jedi will actually help the Merchant PC, once they enter politics, by influencing their political enemies, into becoming supporters. This PC is the only one who can effectively enter politics, primarily because of the vast sums of money that are required, to achieve their goals in a short time. So long as a spy team has been stationed on each starbase in the GC, this PC does not have to fear discovery, if not though, once they enter politics their political enemies will jump on the fact that they were once wanted (and still are) as a deserter and criminal. For this same reason, a Jedi should be in place, on each prime world, before the PC enters politics, or these governors will automatically become their political enemy.

Once the Merchant PC reaches Stage Eight in their career, as outlined in Part Two - Session 2:3, they automatically will become the next governor, in either a region that needs one, or in a newly formed region. The latter would be far more preferable, as the PC could build their colony from the ground up, instituting their policies as they go. Where as, if they fill a vacant seat, more than likely they would be either inviting rebellion, or retribution, by the present inhabitants, or Security Force. A new colony offers the PC the opportunity to create a highly viable society, which is presently non-existent on any GC colony. They could literally recreate the colony structure of the ancients, using the information from the Cirrus starbase and offer the GC a new way of doing things. If they tried this on a colony that was already established, there would be extreme opposition to any change in the "status quo".

New colony populations are normally built up by retirees from the various service branches, but in the case of a PC developing a new colony, they can also have the families of these people deported to their world. This quadruples the growth of the population, which normally is about 10,000 citizens a year. The PC can also integrate rebels who desire to colonize, on this world increasing the growth, but with the potential of starting conflicts between the once rebel citizens and regular ones. At any time after the population reaches 1,000,000, major and minor colonies can be started, but once this occurs the population growth on the prime colony is a product of births, rather than immigrants.

After five years, the PC can try to overthrow the old tyrant, but the possibility relies strictly on timing, more than anything else. The morale factor on all of the prime worlds, must be brought to 20, by the sixth year, in which case the other governors will call for a change and the Jedi ensure that they want the PC to become the new Tyrant. The only opposition at this point will be the governor of Gal-Prime, who was expecting to be the next Tyrant in due course and the present Tyrant of course. The Merchant PC will need to go into hiding at this point, as Security Force Assassins will be actively hunting them, if they try to hole up on their own planet and defend themselves, the military and fleets will be called in, to squash a rumored rebellion. To accelerate the whole process, the PC must visit each of the governors in person, on the pretext of thanking them for the vote of confidence. They are actually given a plan of a grand rebellion, which is timed to take place, when the PC arrives at the last prime world.

The only plan that would work, is to have the military seize the banks and prevent the flow of credits to the merchant nobles on Gal-Prime. Overnight, the governor of Gal-Prime would disappear and the only opposition left would be the Tyrant. This aspect of the PC's political career is played out in Part Three - End Games.

The GC Security Force has a home base on Starbase 2, orbiting Gal-Prime, but most of them live and work on the medium class cruisers, which have been adapted for their use. They are somewhat paranoid and don't want to operate on the backward planets of the outer colonies, so there fleet has become somewhat like the cruise ships of the normal SO universe. While they are still battle capable, none of them will want to engage in combat and for this reason will retreat at the first sign of a threat. The smaller starships too, are like private yachts and most are escorted by a minor fleet, as they are not designed for combat. Here then is an inherent weakness of the most feared element of the GC.

All of the officers and most of the personnel are from Gal-Prime, with one specific mission, to maintain status quo, they do not directly answer to the Tyrant, as they are more concerned with maintaining the superiority of noble families of Gal-Prime. The Security Force will offer the greatest threat to the rebellion, not as a force to be reckoned with, but because of their communications network. The GC has lost the capability of long range communication and uses the SF to hand carry data, from one starbase to another and so long as the PCs do not directly involve themselves in a conflict with them, the spies can delete and lose data files that relate to the rebellion. Only after the Merchant PC becomes a noble, can the rebels put spies on Starbase-2 and finally delete all references to themselves, up until this point though the SF can reissue "wanted" alerts to the outlying starbases.

Once the Merchant PC becomes a guild member, the rebels and PCs have to be careful, not to cause a regional alert, or the reissuing of being wanted will cause the Merchant PC their downfall. And while attacking, or interfering with the Security Council Meetings may seem like an opportunity to the PCs, it will actually cause their wanted data to be circulated far more than if they simply left the council alone. The more the rebels harass the Security Force, the less likely they will succeed at anything but an all out confrontation, with the GC. The PCs will more than likely be the greatest liability to the rebellion and their interaction with the GC security force. When they start actively hunting the PCs, every starbase they pass through will get a copy of wanted info on the rebels, spies will be able to delete this information within (d6) weeks, but the possibility exists that the locals will try to apprehend the PCs.

The Security Force will be the first to employ body armor, blasters, and other high tech equipment, which they will have on hand, stored on the cruisers. And may give the PCs serious problems because of it, they possess TL-9 equipment, but it has not been used in quite awhile and they will be unable to replace it if broken, or lost. In some cases there may be a catastrophic misfire, where a blaster rifle overloads, or something of the kind. Blaster pistols however are standard issue, it is only the more exotic weapons and equipment they try to use that may blow up in their face, (GM's discretion). The factories that produce blasters, calliopes, etc… are all on the minor worlds with in the Gal-Prime region, they are heavily guarded by contingencies of both the military, the security force, and will have a minor fleet located in the system. Multiple satellites will prevent the deploying of rebel special forces teams, unless the PCs provide them with specialized equipment to prevent their detection. About the only safe way the rebels can assault these factories is with an air campaign of stealth fighters, but they would cause untold loss of life, which may hurt their game score in the end.

The Security Force utilizes a military chain of command, but they have the components of a police force, military, star fleet, spies, and many civilian operatives as well. They are the backbone of the GC and are responsible for 99% of the oppression it represents, they are the arm of the Tyrant and therefore gain an amenity against repercussions from their actions. Most of the horror stories pertain to them and incidents like nuking colonies, deportations to penal colonies, etc…, can all be attributed to them. They will not hesitate to initiate mass destruction to take out rebel factions, including the PCs, whenever possible the GM should use overkill methods, when the Security Force is trying to get the PCs, or rebels. Things like air strikes against a bar they are reported to be in, massive fleet attacks, and such, but the GM should also allow the PCs to have advance notice, from the Xenophone, or the intuitive inhabitants.

The PCs should come to view the Security Force as their true enemy, with the military and fleets, just doing a job and only superficially involved in the atrocities. The Security Force personnel are the only ones that the PCs can actually kill, that won't hurt their game score and when the rebellion is over, they should become wanted themselves. When this happens they will scatter, knowing their days are numbered, but they will continue to be a threat, as they will turn to pirating to survive and continue to keep the PCs on their most wanted list. They will start a rebel faction of their own and the last scenario is having the PCs hunt them down.

The population of the GC has been spread out across known space, in order to lessen the possibility of widespread revolt, as a result the furthest colonies in the C & D quadrants will join the rebellion quicker, while the inner colonies have lived under oppression for so long, that they are less of a threat. New colonies are started by retirees from the various services, except for the Security Force. This prevents a lot of rumors from spreading and makes the families always think that there is a better life somewhere else, which is why their sons and daughters have not returned. This keeps the recruitment up, as it is the Security Force who deports the retirees to their new homes. These new colonies, with the exception of prime worlds, are kept in archaic tech and there are many people who retire from jobs like a starship engineer, to become a farmer.

The social structure is categorized as serfdom's, where the ruling class enjoys the finer things in life and control the life and death of their workers. While this keeps the lower class from successfully rebelling, their plight keeps the serfs from free thinking and inventing, and as a result the technology level of the GC is suffering. Their need to keep the status quo, to keep the serfs in line has caused a loss of two full tech levels and where the GC should be exploring TL-12 and 13, they are about to be reduced to barely being able to travel among the stars. If things continue as they are, within a few hundred years, the colonies will become isolated and Gal-Prime will be thrown into anarchy and in the end the GC will die off. What was once a noble experiment by the ancients, will become an archeology dig of the future and this can all be attributed back to the first tyrant.

The first tyrant was a mad dictator, who saw that the outer colonies enjoyed the capitalism earned by the years of toil by the Gal-Prime inhabitants. Some colonies even had the audacity to rebel and seeing an opportunity the tyrant raised a large army and fleet, squashed the rebel worlds and declared himself the sole ruler. In order to prevent the GC from rebelling against him, he restored Gal-Prime to a pristine world, by moving the factories, mines, and farms, to the outer colonies and started a massive ecological reclamation project. Taking control of the media, the Tyrant was able to convince the inhabitants of Gal-Prime that the same would be done on the outer colonies, except for the prison worlds, where the factories and such were moved to. With free labor, the cost of products dropped and the citizens of Gal-Prime started an era of debauchery. When they finally learned that many colonies had become prison colonies overnight and that the other prime worlds did not enjoy the same level of prosperity, they were already comfortable and had no motivation to change things.

That was over two thousand years ago and the GC has been on the down hill slide ever since. Most of the population doesn't realize that things could be any different and as the GC deals very harshly with malcontents things will not change on their own. The PCs could interact within this society, free to do as they please, but only in the roll of pirates, preying upon the supplies being run to and from the primitive minor worlds, their lives would be pretty dull though. If they want excitement, they have to think on the grand scale, causing a system wide rebellion will only get planets nuked. If however they cause a GC wide rebellion, in due course they would become a major player in the larger galactic societies that include the Terran race and alien races of the normal SO universe. Until now there has been no contact with the inner galactic races because most of the worlds between the GC and the rest of the galaxy were destroyed by the war. The other races saw that the worlds closer to the heart of the galaxy were inhabitable and the migration naturally moved away from the fringes of the spiral arm.

The greatest threat to the PCs operating in Gal-prime is the three starbases in orbit around the planet, they are of the same caliper as the Cirrus starbase, but not quite as advanced. They have been renovated several times and much of the technology stripped long ago, but they have advanced sensors and weapons and will detect and damage the stealth cruiser if it enters the system and does not have GC identity codes. If the PCs ignore the hails, it is even possible that the ship will be destroyed, as being cloaked, they will not have shields raised when the starbase(s) fire. Unless the android is piloting, which is extremely unlikely, if they do not turn around and jump within the first five minutes after they are hailed, each five minutes they travel towards the planet gives the starbase an additional shot and as its weapon systems are automated, the chance of a successful hit is 90% even at extreme ranges.

If the PCs turn around immediately and withdraw, without going to warp, but merely swing a U-turn at full impulse, the starbase crew will dismiss it as a computer glitch. If they continue on though, towards the planet, or jump to warp, the crew will track them and when they check the satellite sensor logs, they will find out that their sensors need to be upgraded. It won't be long after that the stealth ship can be tracked if it is not cloaked and the rebel's comm sats found and destroyed. The GC, after discovering the comm sats and any Tactical Orbs, will react to the threat by launching a full scale campaign against the rebels. If this happens before the PCs are ready to launch their own campaign, the rebellion will be over in a year.

Gal-Prime has the largest population of any colony in the GC, with large cities, a network of roads, rails, and commercial airliners. Psionic teams are needed on this planet as the population is extremely loyal and only telepaths can avoid being caught by GC spies. If the PCs try to extend their normal operations to this planet, they will be thwarted at every turn and most teams will only last a month, or so. Spies who wish to operate on the starbases must pull triple duty, as a psionic, a spy, an a tech, as credentials are frequently checked and all visitors are carefully screened. Except for the Merchant PC the PCs will be taking their biggest chance of discovery trying to operate in this system and region also. Unless they give the directive for teams to be sleepers, which will be activated when the rebellion erupts into open conflict, they take the chance monthly (1 on a d6) of their operatives being caught.

If the PCs teams and agents stay in passive mode though, there is an unlikely chance of their being caught as the planet prides itself on loyalty and security forces are more concerned with commercial interests than military ones. The PCs teams will need to establish their covers though and maintain them for at least five years before starting operations, or the citizens will turn them in. The morale factor will not change on this world, no matter how many teams the PCs put in place and their only method of operation is sabotage, when the time is right. Over confidence will be the PCs greatest downfall and open acts of rebellion, or even slander will get them in trouble quick.

The PCs will learn that the GC is governed by a Tyrant, who lives and controls everything from one of the starbases. There is no direct access to the starbase, as one must pass from one of the other starbases, after a thorough security check. There are only two types of persons that travel to this starbase, the crew and staff that work there, when they are first hired, or political persons, who rarely visit. Security is tight, as the Tyrant is very paranoid and no one has actually seen the Tyrant since he assumed command after the death of the last Tyrant. This starbase is in a stationary orbit, above the north pole, whereas the other two starbases orbit the equator, if the stealth ship enters the system it can conceivably be fired upon by all three (d6 / 3, round down).

All the skills that the PCs have not had a chance to use previously can be learned applied here, but the skills that will be used the most is; Streetwise, Diplomacy, and Intuition. Each time the PCs venture beyond the walls of the mansion they will be at risk of exposing themselves as foreigners, cultural mistakes may lead to their discovery and capture faster than any operations they have going. Every time they leave the mansion, the GM should have all the members roll against these skills and ability, failure means they slipped up in their speech, or actions, keep track of these numbers of failures, if it goes above 100, someone will begin to suspect they are not who they say they are. After this happens each failure is an accumulative chance that monthly, someone will report them to the security force and a background check will ensue. The chance of the security force is equal to 100%, minus 1% per month they have owned the mansion, assuming the PCs have spy teams operating to detour any queries, discovery is also checked once a month.

It does not matter how long the PCs have been operating on the planet, only someone born and living here is not questionable and the PCs will have numerous mannerisms that give them away. The only way to prevent this is to hire personnel and servants to deal with the public and avoid going out. This also includes buying a helicopter to transport them to the starbase, where they can directly board their ship and only have to interact with one individual. So long as the PCs are paying the staff more than the going rate, they will not act upon their own suspicions, if they are getting minimum wage though, the thought of a reward will entice them to report the PCs. If the PCs pay them well, the staff will point out such inconsistencies and help them to hide their lack of familiarity with the customs. If they don't bring it up though, about how much the staff is being paid, the GM should number their days to four months before a member of the staff turns them in. Their best chance is to hire a proxy, someone that will live in the mansion and run the company. By completely avoiding Gal-prime until they arrive in fleets, or allowing the Merchant PC to deal with this aspect of the campaign alone, the PCs chances of discovery go down and their profits will go up.

The GM can hint that their cover is blown, when a team of security officers arrive at the mansion and ask them a bunch of questions, in this case, have the PCs each roll against their Intellect, failure means they quote something wrong and they will have about a day to get off planet before a formal investigation begins and their travel is restricted. If the PCs do not take the hint, they will be apprehended in (d10) days and the game is technically over, the android will not be able to rescue them from this predicament and they will not gain a second chance. Escape may be possible from the jail, but without a means of leaving the planet they will be cut off from the rebellion and it will take place without them and fail. Trying to steal a starship will get them shot by the starbases and unless they are carrying around about 100,000 credits in cash, the chance of forging documents and gaining passage off world is very unlikely. The possibility exists however, but the GM should make it harrowing, their best chance would be to split up and meet up somewhere they are all familiar with that is in adjoining region.

The rebellion's biggest chance of failure is the PCs being unable to resist living the big life of a noble on Gal-prime. The GM should sweeten the temptation, with every conceivable perk they can, as when the PCs were children they would have dreamed of such a life of luxury. If the PCs do decide to throw caution to the wind and begin having parties and living in the lap of luxury, time should fly, instead of days passing, weeks. Give them free reign to live life large, as time passes, the rebellion will seem a distant threat, rather than something they started. If they live this way for a year, they may not want to go back and a roll against bravery should be made. If even one PC fails their roll, it will be a week before the subject is brought up again and another roll. Unless all of them roll successfully, at least one will want to stay and the rest will stay behind to talk them out of it.