Alliance SpecForce - idea

[Captain Untouchable]

Hey, guys.

Dunno if anyone has brought this up before (heck, I may have done already, knowing my memory), but I was wondering if there were many people about the place with SpecForce/Army characters, or who would consider creating one/some.

Fleeting is a bit slow at the moment, but the Imps seem to have pleanty of characters willing to run around and do more groundy type things. I know we have Intelligence Agents and what not, but I was wondering if we'd be able to get together and create a little Squad of people to run around and blow things up, back up Intel when needed, serve as the SpecForce equivalent of Rogue Squadron, or whatever. Maybe something along the lines of Renegade Squadron (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Renegade_Squadron)?

I figure, there may not be much Imperial activity on the Fleeting side of things, but they do have pleanty of Moffs, Inquisitors and other important people who might be willing to RP opposite such a group. *shrug*

[Kyran O'Hurn]

I'd be up for something.

[Dasquian Belargic]

We have three SpecForce chars at the minute:

Regulus Starborn - Special Forces (Colonel)
Kyran O'Hurn - Special Forces (Gunnery Sgt)
Charlotte Tur'enne - Special Forces (Junior Lieutenant)

:) More is always good tho.

[Captain Untouchable]

That makes four with my guy (Capt. John Glayde) thrown in, then. Are there any Rebel-sympathetic smugglers, mercenaries and so forth on the books at all? Renegade Squadron was made up of all kinds of people from all walks of life, so that'd be a potential precedent for those guys, if they want in.

Is there an official leader of SpecForce at the moment? Anything that got set up would probably need them to sign off on it. Or maybe - if we had a more Special Forces leaning - Intelligence would want to be involved somehow?

[Maxx Elgrin]

The most awesomness of Rebel supporting smugglers is now present :cool:

[Captain Untouchable]

Yay - not only will we be able to blow up our enemies, but we'll be able to seduce them all as well. ;)

[Dasquian Belargic]

There is no official SpecForce leader at the minute.

I'm sure there are smuggler/mercenary characters out there who have some kind of grudge against the Empire. I have two characters myself with such leanings :mischief

[Karl Valten]

The Office of the Inquisitoriate has a massage for such nefarious individuals who impede on the sanctity and order of our civilization:











Bring it!

[Captain Untouchable]

A massage for us? That's aweful kind of you! :mneh

[Dasquian Belargic]

Believe me, you don't want a massage from that man...

*shudders*

[Karl Valten]

-hugs Dasquian-

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey buuuuudddddddddyyyy, how's it going?!

[John Glayde]

To steal numerous phrases from the IM conversation I just had, would it be worth us randomly banding people together for a thread to see if it works before we actually set anything up? Probably better to test before throwing up something solid; we'll have a better idea of whether it'll stand or flop that way.

We can see if the characters jive, see if there's gonna be enough going on to keep all of us entertained, see if we wind up with too many of one type of person and not enough of another... that sort of thing.

Maybe a covert op to get pictures of Tarkin in the shower, or something? :mischief

[Kyran O'Hurn]

I do believe that Mr. Glayde has something there...

Not sure what, but a trial is definitely a good plan.

Maybe a recruiting type thread where, whoever is going to be putting this team together goes out and starts to put together his team, kind of in the vein of SWAT when he's putting together the team.

[Miranda Tarkin]

Maybe a covert op to get pictures of Tarkin in the shower, or something? :mischief

Hey!! :mad

[Captain Untouchable]

I do believe that Mr. Glayde has something there...

Not sure what, but a trial is definitely a good plan.

Maybe a recruiting type thread where, whoever is going to be putting this team together goes out and starts to put together his team, kind of in the vein of SWAT when he's putting together the team.

I think it's probably Herpies. Don't worry though: I had all my other accounts tested, and they're clean.

I like that idea - a la SWAT we could throw in a few minor training exercises (and socialising sessions at the bar) before we do anything "important"; while our SpecForce people obviously know what they're doing, getting any smugglers used to how we do things would probably take a little doing.

Who are we going to have running / setting up this thing? Glayde is a Captain, so he can lead in the field if no one else wants to, but it might be worth having someone more senior to act as a handler / commander for the unit as a whole.

If anyone else wants to set up / offer up an alternative though, I have no problem with that. :)

[Charlotte Tur'enne]

Maybe a covert op to get pictures of Tarkin in the shower, or something? :mischief

ewww :|

Uhh, just getting back into town, got your message regarding all this such stuff. Might have to see if this charcter would mesh well with that sort of thing. Would keep her active at least!

[Captain Untouchable]

Well, you and your sneaky Infiltrator-type ways are more than welcome. ;)

Assuming Captain <del>Awesome</del> Elgrin is willing to get his coat dirty and pitch in (and counting Selinica, if you're still interested Miri), we're starting to clock up towards a reasonable number of people. :)

What sort of skill sets are we looking at so far? Glayde is a former Scout Trooper, Jump Trooper and Storm Commando; he's part of 4th Regiment too, so he's a generic "Commando" type, really. What about Kyran - what's his pre-Pathfinders background? Do we have anyone with demolitions, sniping, heavy weapons or slicing skills? If not, does anyone want to set up someone new? (Hint hint :mischief)

Also, any thoughts on the kind of premise (and plot) for our tester mission? Recon? A rescue? An Intel / SpecOps mission, while everyone else is busy / washing their hair?

[Selinica Miriya]

You bet I'm still in.

[Charlotte Tur'enne]

*raises hand* got the sniper bit down. :p Though I think I gotta fight Ky for the title? ha ha.

Urhm, as far as tester mission, I'm game for whatever...bit baindead on the ideas right now. Will have to see what rattles around up there in the next day or so. Maybe tomorrow after I toss some caffeine in me.

[Kyran O'Hurn]

Ky's a career soldier. Hadn't really thought out his background a whole lot, but could easily see him having been a trouble maker in his past and being one of those people who are given the "prison or the military" choice...

Anyway, he's a sniper by training, but he can easily operate as part of a fire team. Basically a weapons expert. Not much in the explosives realm, with the exception of grenades though. Or slicing for that matter...

[Captain Untouchable]

You two aren't going to bicker if you're left on a rooftop together, are you? (Or anything else, for that matter...)

Alrighty; Kyran gets first pick out of the 'big gun box', then. :mneh Any Imperial involvement for either of you, or are you more local militia / planetary military type people?

[Maxx Elgrin]

Long as there's whiskey, a cheap holo, and a broad, I'm in :mneh

[Captain Untouchable]

That's easy to arrange - congratulations, Selinica; you just got promoted to Unit Broad. ;)

[Maxx Elgrin]

sniff sniff

I'm one happy man :p

[Charlotte Tur'enne]

Any Imperial involvement for either of you, or are you more local militia / planetary military type people?

No Imperial experience here. Local Corellian military, small pocket resistance type until scooped up by the Rebellion.


As for the bickering...
I think I'll hold my comment. ;)

[Kyran O'Hurn]

Like I said haven't really thought much on the background of Ky, but probably no Imp connection. Local militia type.

*looks at Charley*

Yes you bite thy tongue...


Oooooooooooooo... big gun box? I think I like this plan already...

[Selinica Miriya]

Broad? :|

Watch out for me beating your ass with a big stick. I'll show you the broad amount of bruises I can give ya. :lol

[Captain Untouchable]

Would you prefer 'Squad Floozie' instead? :mneh

Given the mix of people we've got so far, I reckon our best bet at this point would be either some sort of "special" reconnaissance mission, or a covert-ish strike mission like the mission to Endor in ROTJ. That suits a relatively small unit size (although we can always throw in NPCs and what not to boost the numbers); it should suit the mix of characters that we have; plus we've got the Endor precedent for it being SpecForce that goes rather than Intel or SpecOps.

In terms of transport, I'm sure we can sort out something between Selinica and Maxx. I think Sel has a YT-2400, which is probably a little less distinctive than the Nubian thing that Maxx flies; I'll let you two argue over what actually happens there.

Some sort of inchargey-type person to give us our orders and what not would still be useful though - who is our best bet, now that Beardy Belargic got himself all locked up?

[Aaron Belargic]

You could always ask Grace. She just loves bossing people around ;)

[Grace Van-Derveld]

... I do not. That's why Dasquian did it. I hate being in charge of ...

:: waves hand reluctantly ::

Everything

:mneh

[Oran Jsorra]

Figured I'd throw in a quick alt to the mix: Corporal Oran Jsorra, our Tech Support guy. He's a generic communications / slicer / tech-fiddling guy, who'll probably spend most of his time sat out of the way in relative safety, unless o'course we desperately need him out in the field to work his techno magic on something.

[Serasai Onashi]

I'm ready for this thing to get started. Unless you want to pay me for sitting around. That's good too. *smirk*

[Kyran O'Hurn]

I think the first thing we need to do is figure out, at least IC who is running the show.

We figure out who the highest ranking member who wants to be a part of this is?

[Sogan Dalgas]

...That would be me. Colonel Dalgas; I'll be pushing to set the group up.

[Captain Untouchable]

After numerous conversations over instant messenger, it looks like we've pretty much got a structure sorted out. For the initial mission, 'normal' will pretty much be out of the window (information to follow on that in a later post, when I get the final thumbs-up). However, in the long term we're looking at a three-tier command structure:

Colonel Sogan Dalgas
Dalgas is the officer at SpecForce Command who is responsible for us and our missions. He'll provide us with all the information and intelligence we need prior to going into action, and will ensure we have the appropriate equipment, resources, and support. He's the guy that hires us and fires us, and gives us a good yelling at whenever we screw up. He's also the main proponant of our unit at SpecCom - our initial mission will be a "one off", but if the concept works it'll be Dalgas pushing for our unit to be made official. At this point, it isn't entirely clear if we will be the Colonel's only responsibility, or just one of several units he supervises. For want of better terminology, for now I'll be referring to Dalgas as the Commanding Officer.

Captain Maxx Elgrin
Elgrin is the Captain of the Severus, who works as a sort of roaming agent on behalf of the Rebel Alliance. He's what I'm calling the Field Commander at the minute: the officer who is in charge of running the operations assigned to us by Colonel Dalgas. He'll be the guy sat at the other end of the comlink, directing the various aspects of the unit into action... unless of course everything goes cataclysmically wrong, and he has to storm in with the rest of the guys and save our collective asses. He'll also "command" whatever ship transports us to the site: it might be the Severus, or it might be something bigger / clunkier / less conspicuous; it'll probably vary from mission to mission.

Captain John Glayde
We aren't always going to be moving around in a tactical blob on missions, but that sort of thing will happen from time to time. When we are lumped together as a squad, Glayde will be the Squad Leader. If any snap on-the-spot decisions need to be made, he'll be the one to make them. He'll also probably end up working with Elgrin with the whole planning side of things as Second-in-Command.

[Kyran O'Hurn]

I had a thought when I read that... and it's simply that I think we need to have a system somewhat similar to the Rogue Squadron and other units such as that where everyone is assigned a number.

The reason I say that is that if this goes full blown to something like 12 members, then we are probably looking at a very unique group of individuals, where there are individuals with the same rank or no rank at all.

To me this is more an IC thing, like if the unit gets ambushed and the top 3 members get taken out it's about who's next. Or makes it simple to figure out who goes with who if the squad splits into multiple teams.


Just a thought...

[Captain Untouchable]

Assigning numbers to pilots in Rogue Squadron is more to do with helping the pilots to remain anonymous in combat: if surnames start flying around over open channels, there's a risk of reprisals against their families. Its the same reason that they have vocal distortion on the communications frequencies.

The number doesn't actually correspond with authority or seniority: it's their position in formation. For example: Rogue 1, Rogue 5 and Rogue 9 are the leaders of 1 Flight, 2 Flight and 3 Flight respectively. Rogue 1 is also the Squadron Leader, so has the callsign Rogue Leader. Rogue 4 isn't more senior than Rogue 5; in fact, the inverse is true. Rogue 4 isn't senior to Rogue 6 either: they're both "pilots", rather than Flight Leaders, or whatever.

At this point, we don't have too much of a problem with regards to rank. In terms of SpecForce / Alliance authority, we've got a fairly clear hierarchy:

#1 - Colonel Sogan Dalgas
#2 - Captain Maxx Elgrin
#3 - Captain John Glayde
#4 - Lieutenant Serasai Onashi
#5 - Jr. Lieutenant Charlotte Tur'enne
#6 - Gunnery Sergeant Kyran O'Hurn
#7 - Corporal Oran Jsorra
#8 - Selinica Miriya

At the minute we don't have any duplication of pay grade (although the Navy Captain and Army Captain might get confusing :x). If we did end up with two Gunnery Sergeants, then presumably O'Hurn would have the authority in that situation: that's when how long you've been part of the unit would come into play.

That said, callsigns aren't a bad idea: we'd presumably need them for the same reasons Rogue Squadron does - remaining anonymous and what not. We don't really have a "formation" though: maybe we should dish a callsign out on a mission-by-mission basis, depending on what job people are assigned to? Or maybe a number, but based on the order in which they were appointed to the unit? ("Zero" for Dalgas, "One" for Elgrin, "Two" for Glayde, "Eight" for the next new person regardless of rank?)

And on a similar note, what are we going to call our unit? Are we happy using "Renegade Squadron", a la Han Solo's unit, or do we want to come up with a better name - "Dorn Force" maybe? (Dorn being the Aurebesh equivalent of Delta?) Or "Dawn Force", as a slight deviation?

[Dasquian Belargic]

#5 - Jr. Lieutenant Serasai Onashi

I'm guessing you meant Charlotte here.

All looks pretty cool though. If you'd like any involvement from Colonel Starborn, let me know.

[Serasai Onashi]

#4 - Lieutenant Serasai Onashi
#5 - Jr. Lieutenant Serasai Onashi

Perhaps we could have it as Onashi would be 1st Lieutenant, and Tur'enne would be 2nd Lieutenant? I think they break the rank up that way, but military things like that aren't my forté.

[Charlotte Tur'enne]

Yep. Jr., 2nd...same thing.

As for name of the squad, Dorn Force has a nice ring to it. Renegade Squadron eh...we could go with that as sort of a "tribute" or continuation, but isn't hitting me quite the same. (then again, this coming from before I had coffee so lord knows I can't think of anything right now)

[Kyran O'Hurn]

I think the problem is partially that there are two ranking systems being used here...

Technically an Jr Lt or Lt (JG) - Junior Grade in the navy is the equivalent to an Army 1st Lt.

Just like the Navy Captain is actually the equivelent to the Army Colonel.

Anyway that's beside the point...

I'm fine with Dorn Force. Sounds weird at first, but it grows on you.

[Captain Untouchable]

Yeah - I did mean Charlotte. Typo. >_<

The whole rank issue is somewhat confusing. We discussed it here (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?t=18259) a while back, but expanded research complicates things somewhat. Just taking the Lieutenant example, I believe that Star Wars generally (aside from Star Wars Galaxies) used the British Army nomenclature, where a First Lieutenant was referred to simply as a "Lieutenant". The grade below was still referred to as a Second Lieutenant, but there is also evidence in Star Wars to support the use of Junior Lieutenant (as an Army rank); the seemingly corresponding Senior Lieutenant however (a Russian rank) was used by the Navy.

There's also the issue where, in the Starfighter Corps at least, where an SF Major is senior to an SF Commander. That makes an SF Commander equivalent to a Navy Lt. Commander and an Army Major; an SF Major is equivalent to a Navy Commander and an Army Lt. Colonel. Thus, a SF Major outranks an Army Major, while a Navy Commander outranks an SF Major. Confusing, huh?

Since there are more of us involved in SpecForce than there were when I initially brought up the topic, I'll throw up my thoughts in a new thread so that we can try and hash something out - all parties willing, of course!

As for the problems of having Army and Navy ranks together, I don't think that's really going to cause us too much of a problem. At the moment, the only equivalency is between the Colonel and the Captain. In that instance, their positions dictate who is superior: the Colonel is higher up in the organisation's command structure, so he's the one giving the orders.

If we ever find ourselves in a situation where the rank equivalancies could potentially cause problems, I think it'd probably just be a case of ensuring we have an up-to-date list, organised in order of priority / authority, on the forums, the wiki, or wherever. I guess its a "We'll jump off that bridge when we come to it" sort of answer!

[Kyran O'Hurn]

I agree that it's not a big deal... I'm just a little anal that way, sometimes. Focus on those kinda small details when they don't really matter.

Did have an idea for how we could make things make sense but it's kinda one of those thigns that I'll write down and file away for a later date if it ever becomes neccissary... I think now it's good enough and we don't have to worry about it getting too confusing unless we start getting a bunch of people and it becomes an issue.

[Captain Untouchable]

No worries; anal would be my middle name if my parents had known what I'd grow up into after I was born. ;) As long as we have a list somewhere of who is allowed to boss around who, we should be alright, I think.

Dorn Force, or Dorn Commandos? The Katarn Commandos (later Page's Commandos) is an alternative EU SpecForce unit; they featured a mix of Pathfinders, Infiltrators, Rangers and what-not, similar to us. Or maybe Dorn Force Commandos?

[Tear]

No worries; anal would be my middle name if my parents had known what I'd grow up into after I was born. ;) As long as we have a list somewhere of who is allowed to boss around who, we should be alright, I think.

Dorn Force, or Dorn Commandos? The Katarn Commandos (later Page's Commandos) is an alternative EU SpecForce unit; they featured a mix of Pathfinders, Infiltrators, Rangers and what-not, similar to us. Or maybe Dorn Force Commandos?

How about Cannon Fodder?:rolleyes

[Julian Davitt]

Dorns. Dorn Company or something like that, making it the fourth company that Colonel Dalgas oversees (for now; it may become demanding enough that his other responsibilities are given to someone else). Shortened to Dorns as a colloquial way of saying: You're in Dorn Company.

Howzat?

[John Glayde]

"Company" implies a relatively sizeable military unit to me. Depending on the sizes of the Platoons from which the Company is made, and the role, you could be looking at anything from fifty to a few hundred troops.

I'd prefer a title that didn't imply we were part of a particular unit-size category. But that's just personal preference; I'm happy go to with the majority consensus. *shrug*

I'm working up the introductory post that will set us up for our first mission; once I've finished that I'll post the thread link and a brief summery for y'all.

[Captain Untouchable]

Okay guys: details for our first mission, as promised.

We'll be joining this (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?t=18207) active thread. We've just arrived in orbit of Baraboo: a self-governed waterworld where the Archduchess and heir to the throne has supposedly died (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?t=18165). Baraboo is ruled by two opposed houses, who alternate between leadership. The Alliance has uncovered information that suggests that the Archduchess - leader of the Rebel-sympathetic house - is in fact still alive, and being held captive. Her "death", and presumably the deaths of her parents were engineered by the Empire, in order to ensure that the Imperial-friendly government remains in office.

Maxx Elgrin has already been dispatched to Baraboo before us; he'll be acting as our contact when we arrive. He'll have been trying to determine possible locations where the Archduchess might be held. We will be responsible for conducting reconnaissance on that location, and for putting together (and carrying out) a workable rescue operation.

Because this is our first mission and all, Colonel Dalgas will be present as the Field Commander (the role that Elgrin will eventually fill), so he'll be in charge of the mission itself; everyone else will just be doing as instructed at this point.

There's an opportunity at this point for doing some posting to introduce people while we're still on the ship: assuming we have no protests, I'm happy to hold off on a posting order until we actually get planet-side and have decided who is doing what.


Edit: new rank discussion doodad is here (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?t=19089) if you wanna take a look and chip in with your ideas.

[John Glayde]

Sorry for leaving things unattended guys; I've had one of those distracting stints of real life the last couple of months, and I'm afraid I neglected things a tad.

I've thrown up a reply on the Dutchess thread, so lets see if we can't get things rolling again. he landing site is on an island, so we'll be either in the landspeeder version of a bus, or in separate taxis - I'll leave it up to whoever posts first to decide which is which. We'll focus on bonding for now, since the main section of the plot is in the hands of Maxx Elgrin at the minute: once we know what's going on there, we'll look at getting some actual action happening.

[Captain Untouchable]

We seem to have run out of momentum. No need to be pointing fingers; I think we've just got too many people involved, and with everyone having their own little real life dilemmas, things have just sorta fallen by the wayside a little.

Do people still want to try and keep pushing forward with the plan, or shall we let it rest for now so that your characters are free to go off and get involved with other bits and pieces instead? I don't mind either way; I'll leave it up to you guys. :)

[Charlotte Tur'enne]

I'm still game if everyone else is, heck even if it ends up being a "smaller" group I'm still up for it.

Yeah...lack of coffee in my system is preventing me from being able to say much more than "yes!" right now. lol

[Xavier Synik]

I'm still in for wahtever...

[Elias Akasha]

Is it worth us trying to do something smaller-scale without being tangled up with so many other people - start a new thread and dive into the action nice and quick, so that we can just get on with stuff as we intend it to be?

There's a lot of other variables in the current thread; maybe if we come up with something to focus just the SpecForce people initially, so we can find our feet without having to worry about the other guys and dolls who are involved?

[Miranda Tarkin]

If you wanted Maxx in on this still, I wouldn't be opposed

[Emelie Shadowstar]

Is it worth us trying to do something smaller-scale without being tangled up with so many other people - start a new thread and dive into the action nice and quick, so that we can just get on with stuff as we intend it to be?

There's a lot of other variables in the current thread; maybe if we come up with something to focus just the SpecForce people initially, so we can find our feet without having to worry about the other guys and dolls who are involved?

Hmm...something smaller scale might work just for those who would really like to do another thread with the group... really like the thread we have going as the "intro" to the squad but yeah, does seem to be a little large scale. Maybe a second thread, something a bit smaller, more of a "quick and dirty" mission would be good just to keep the lil group's creativeness flowing so we don't grind to a complete halt on this? :)

[Captain Untouchable]

That's pretty much what I was thinking; something that we can just turn up and *do*, rather than having to worry about to much of the groundwork, fitting in with the plot lines for other people, etc.

The usual generic "Special Forces" missions usually center around rescuing/killing a specific individual, or retrieving/destroying an item or information. We've got Maxx, who'll be arriving before the rest of us to do a little surveillance and be our "man on scene" when we arrive; because Tur'enne is an infiltration specialist, it probably makes sense for us to land on a populated Imperial planet, with some kind of secure military facility which we then infiltrate to find our guy/intelligence/whatever.

Maybe Doldur: raiding the Imperial facility there to dredge up some dirt on the Empress from the time when she was Moff there (trying to find out about the attack from Signs and Portents, Dani?), or something like that? A jaunt into the Corporate Sector to dig up information on the new XO / Moff they have over there? Any other Imperial plot lines we could tie ourselves in with? Or would we be better off keeping it a little more simple for the initial thread - generic mission, generic planet, generic objective?

[Captain Untouchable]

So... are we just catering for Maxx, Glayde, Tur'enne and O'Hurn if we do a new thread? Anyone else - SpecForce, Intel, or otherwise - want in?

[Serasai Onashi]

If it wouldn't harm the thread, I'd like to throw Onashi in it as well. I'm finding myself with more time to peruse the internet lately, and should make it somewhat productive.

[Captain Untouchable]

Can't see a problem with that... we could use someone to drag down the overwhelming awesomeness of the group. ;)

Since Maxx is our man on the ground, I'll get together and come up with a start / context type thing over the next couple of days: if you have any specific requests / ideas / suggestions / input / whatever, then speak now or forever hold your peace!