CONTACT SERVICE & DIPLOMATIC CORPS: GOVERNMENT CIVILIAN SERVICE

The Contact Service is a highly professional branch of the Diplomatic Corps. All First Contact personnel are Scientists with a strong background in the Social Sciences-Comparative Cultures, Linguistics, Historical Sciences, Xeno-Psychology--or Xeno-Ecology. A Contact Service officer must have Empathy 12+, Intelligence 14+, and Intuition or Psionics 12+. His Bravery must also be 13+. Leadership 11+ is required to qualify for promotion, with +1 Leadership required for each advance in rank above rank grade/5. Promotion is on 9+ rolled on 2d6.

The task of the Contact Service is to initiate relations with aboriginal and primitive peoples so that undue dislocation will not occur through contact with the advanced starculture that has discovered them. Even totalitarian and imperialistic starcultures are careful to 'manage' their initial contacts in order to obtain the best possible chance of effective and profitable integration of less advanced races into the Empire. Heavy handed exploitation and unrestrained colonization by civilian merchants, settlers, and prospectors tends to destroy the 'natural resources' a less advanced race represents. The Contact Service thus has sweeping powers, and Contact Officers can declare a planet to be a 'protectorate' if it contains an indigenous sentient race. That means that all unauthorized contact, trade, settlement, or other exploitation is strictly forbidden. To this effect, the Service can require full co operation from the StarForce, IPA, or any other appropriate government agency. Often, a small StarForce base or IPA base will be established on a protected planet to provide the necessary enforcement 'muscle.' When a more advanced race (Teck/4+) is contacted, the Contact Service Officer aboard the Survey ship will take charge of the whole expedition with the intention of establishing diplomatic relations.

Diplomatic Corps personnel are really identical to Contact Service personnel with regard to the qualifications required of PCs. The Diplomatic Corps is merely the political arm of the same department of government-- Foreign Affairs. Personnel from other branches of the government services may be attached to the Diplomatic Corps as required.