Alliance Military Cooperation Stuff

[Captain Untouchable]

The Alliance military is a bit of a weird beast at the moment. Back when we were a rebellion, everyone pitched in and we had a giant melting pot of a military; but since becoming the Alliance of Free Planets quite a lot of our member militaries want to retain their sovereignty. A fair few ideas have come up, but I've lost track of who I spoke to about what, so I figured, why not throw it all in a thread?

Some of the bigger pieces of the puzzle -


Bothan Council
Because Bothawui allied with the Galactic Empire rather than being subjugated by it, they didn't benefit from a huge amount of Imperial protection and so relied on the Bothan Defense Force (fighters and frigates mostly) to patrol and defend the sector. When Bothawui was liberated, many of those assets were "appropriated" by the Alliance Navy (including the Challenger); now they are the Alliance capital, the Bothans would quite like their stuff back. Also, the Bothan SpyNet is technically still an asset of the Bothan Council rather than Alliance Intelligence, which creates a whole other set of problems.

Cizerack Pride
The Cizerack Trade Fleet and it's galleons is a force geared towards ensuring that Cizerack convoys and their cargo reach their destinations safely, as well as policing the Cizerack space lanes for smugglers. The Jaanni'sarri (Marines) has a heavy bias towards fending off boarding parties, as well as boarding operations and customs inspections. Because all the men in the military are symbolically married to the Pride Mother, their loyalty is always going to be to the Pride before the Alliance.

Commander Jorrun Cyer from the Alliance military is currently serving as an exchange officer aboard one of the Pride's galleons.

Contruum
A pretty significant world, and the location of some strategically important shipyards, Contruum probably has a fair few Imperial ships kicking about who remained loyal to their homeworld rather than the Galactic Empire. Potentially they're less loyal to their leader than the Imperials from the Gordian Reach, so we might end up seeing ex-Imperial ships with full crews of ex-Imperials find their way into parts of the Alliance military. The planet Azure would also fall under the protection of those ex-Imperials; their planetary defense force was known as the Garde d'Azure.

Elrood Sector
Not as big and fancy as somewhere like the Bothan Sector or the Hapes Cluster, Elrood is none the less a planet that has strong enough ties to neighbouring worlds that they can pretty much be regarded as a single political blob. The Elrood Sector Fleet may well continue to exist in some form; and the Cult of Those Who Redeem (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Cult_of_Those_Who_Redeem) might yield SpecForce with some new recruits and training officers.

Gordian Reach
When the Gordian Reach was signed over to the Alliance of Free Planets, the Moff and many of his underlings mysteriously disappeared. General Kelvin Stark then pledged the loyalty of himself and the Imperials under his command (several ships, a legion of Stormtroopers, and Jorvan Station), in return for being made a Senator. His ships and soldiers are loyal to him, making integration into the larger Alliance military a little tricky.

Hapes Consortium
The Hapans are isolationist, and paranoid. As a result, the Royal Hapan Navy is one of the most formidable defensive fleets in the galaxy. They're especially good at patrolling borders and interdicting pilots, but they aren't overly fond of actually being outside the comfort of the Hapes Cluster. Defending nearby Onderon may be, at this point, one of the few outings they're prepared to make.

Captain Camile Saccard of the Royal Hapan Navy will be joining the crew of the Novgorod as an exchange officer soon.

Lantillies
More or less neutral during the galactic civil war, Lantillies was defended by the Lantillian Planetary Security Forces. The Lantillian ShipWrights were a subsidiary of the Tagge Corporation but, in the same way that the Empire ousted Koensayr-Meorrrei from Koensayr and appropriated the assets, the Alliance can presumably do the same. Also, Lantillies is hope to the Lantillian Spacers' Guild, an Alliance-aligned competitor of the Corellian Merchants' Guild: not a military per se, but potentially an important ally when it comes to enforcing customs laws, preventing smuggling, and dealing with the Alliance's logistics problems.

Mon Calamari
During the rebellion the Mon Calamari went all-in with their military, and now it's an inseparable part of the Alliance Navy. However, the Quarren now have a much bigger say in how things are run: they might not want their stuff back the way the Bothan Council does, but the Quarren will presumably want more authority over and representation to break the Mon Calamari monopoly over their military assets.

I'm 90% sure the Quarren are going to start producing starships again, so some old Clone Wars / Separatist designs may come back into service, possibly under Quarren captains.

Royal House of Naboo
Because Naboo has enjoyed Republic and Imperial protection for so long, the Royal Naboo Security Force exists primarily to protect the planet itself, rather than defending the surrounding sector. However, the warrior culture of the Gungans represents one of the largest "trained" forces outside the Alliance military. The Alliance has no "army": if we needed to fight an invasion or a war, we might have to turn to groups like the Gungans and their bombad Generals.

Sluis Van Congregate
The shipyards at Sluis Van were built by Rendili StarDrive in antiquity, but have churned out ships for the Separatists and the Imperials in the meantime. That industry is nationalised the same way that the Mon Calamari Shipyards are; and the Sluissi are also "all-in" with their support of the Alliance Navy. They'll be trying to get in on the Mon Calamari starship monopoly, perhaps with our incarnations of the Endurance (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Endurance-class_fleet_carrier) and Nebula-class (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Nebula-class_Star_Destroyer)?

Sullustan Council / SoroSuub Corporation
Sullust has a weird situation where shareholders of the SoroSuub Corporation are allowed to vote in elections for the Sullustan Council: effectively, SoroSuub owns the government. SoroSuub built and maintained the Sullustan Home Guard, which is responsible not just for defending Sullust itself, but also Sullustan colonies and any SoroSuub assets/facilities further afield. The Commodore of the Sullustan Home Guard slots in beneath the Admiral of the Fifth Fleet as far as defending the region is concerned, but the Alliance Navy and SoroSuub's interests aren't necessarily always aligned.

I'm sure there are more, but those are certainly the ones that spring to mind skimming down the list of Senators.

Ideas we have tossed around so far -


Alien squadrons on the Challenger. Vansen Tyree's flagship, which is part of the force protecting the capital, holds in excess of 400 fighters. One idea was to have the Cizerack, Hapans, Naboo, etc send pilots and iconic fighters to fill up the Challenger: partly as a ceremonial thing, but also to give Alliance pilots the opportunity to learn to fly fighters they haven't had access before. This might eventually lead to more racial diversity in units like Rogue Group, etc.
Defenders of the Capital. The Bothan Defense Force defends Bothawui (with help from Admiral Tyree and the Fourth Fleet); it might be symbolic if members of the Alliance donate a ship / crew / etc to be part of either the Bothan Defense Fleet and/or the Fourth Fleet.
Task Force 42. Part of said Fourth Fleet, TF42 is already a motley assortment of ships. In addition to the Alliance commanders already there, at least three Nova-class cruisers from Hapes and a few Cizerack ships will be working together doing things like hunting pirates. The more diversity, the better.
The Novgorod. The ship already has a Cizerack Captain, and after the Dan Crisis it will be gaining a Hapan XO, and possibly a Quarren medic (Zoidberg!). We've talked about swapping her A-Wings for Miy'til fighters and Cizerack boarding craft, and having various races tinker with the ship, adding or improving systems so that she becomes a bit of a prototype for everything. Having a Bothan intelligence officer, a Sluissi engineer, a Sullustan cook... this way we get to see the culture clash on a personal level, not just a political one.
Research & Development. In Marriages of Convenience (http://theholo.net/forum/showthread.php?55305-Marriages-of-Convenience) we're setting the scene for the K-Wing (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/BTL-S8_K-wing_assault_starfighter) to be developed; and we've added Cizerack influences to make it feel more nested in our universe. We/I'd like to do something similar with the E-Wing and the V-Wing as well; and it'd be cool to see other EU designs show up but with a SW-Fans twist: Mon Calamari and Quarren cooperating on new designs; Sluissi and Sullustans coming up with stuff together; etc.
Sharing Special Knowledge. SpecForce is the Alliance's elite, and they have a broad spectrum of specialised units. Perhaps some would benefit from expert training / input / recruits from other races? Might the 1st Division Marines benefit from Jaanni'saari tactics or equipment? Could the Mon Calamari, Quarrens, and Gungans help train a Navy SEALS type unit? Are Wookiee bowcasters, Gungan bombs, Dresselian projectile rifles, and other such race-specific technologies worth putting into mass production?

[Charley]

Sounds really well thought out. I'm trying hard to think of anything to add.

With regard to the Jaanni'saari, I'm not sure if there are any special tactics they'd bring to the fold. They're effectively the Stormtroopers of the Pride, even down to their personal allegiance to the autocrat and even the body armor they wear is the same blastoid shell (albeit they wear HUD visors rather than enclosed helmets). The main benefit they have is that they're big and strong, and they can field heavier weapons than an average human could. Their service rifle is on par with an E-Web repeater, and they would probably also have vibro gauntlets (ie, Predator). That being said, their lot is pretty much mainstay infantry, which would cover mainstay ground attack, boarding action, and garrison details, among raw labor for stuff like corps of engineers works in peacetime. If the Pride employs any serious combat specialist with special education or training (artillery, mobile armor, recon or special forces) these needs would be filled by professional soldiers with advanced education (ie, women).

[Vansen Tyree]

The Jaanni'saari do have the advantage of Cizerack boarding craft, which if memory serves are pretty spiffy. The fact that they have readily accessible bladed weapons means their tactics are different to Stormtroopers: more akin to tearing through a ship a la Commander Sheppard than the kind of crouching in corridors tactics that Stormtroopers have. Their mentality and mindset is presumably different because of their culture, and also because of their role: the Alliance is presumably new to boarding ships for the purpose of inspecting their cargo, which might require a different approach than would be used for storming a ship to seize it and blow it up.

Also, it's entirely possible that there's some company or what have you of Jaanni'saari who have been assigned to SpecForce command; maybe like the symbolic fighter squadrons, maybe with something more practical in mind. Heck, there might just be a Cizerack version of R Lee Ermey who is there to be an instructor at SpecForce Academy. :uhoh

They don't have to be special in and of themselves, necessarily: the fact that they're Cizerack is (from an integration/cooperation standpoint) as special as they need to be.

[Taataani Meorrrei]

Ugh, a Cizeri drill instructor would be horrible. "We'rre gonna be herre all njight untjil each of jyou bench prresssess two hundrred kjilogrramss"

[Vansen Tyree]

How tall arre jyou, Prrjivate? :mischief

[Reshmar]

More or less your talking about letting planets and corporations have private armies. Thats great and all but such things need regulation. Each separate entity should still be answerable to Alliance High Command and the Senate. Integrating forces into the Alliance military is not really needed at a basic level. Most military forces are trained and posted in their system as far as "grunts" go. We are not a group of peoples fighting for the liberation of one world at a time now. In the rebellion days races would bond together in the fight for a single sector or system or world. Now its more about Defending your sector, system or world.

Now The Marines, Pathfinders, and Specforce would be a motley mix. Trained together on training worlds but in peace time they would be fewer in number so even the once "Elite" forces would now be uber elite meaning less of it than before and the exsisting force being more or less sufficiant for now.

The majority of what I see going on will be done by Customs Enforcement so its more of a law enforcement branch. With all these worlds now policing their own system it would help for parties knowledgeable in boarding and picket operations even interdiction actions against pirates and such train system law enforcment. I would imagine there being a nice profit in it.

Fleet wise mixing groups is more about keeping people happy. They know their people are embeded in the group and wont just go on a shooting spree against them. Fleet is more about the Space bewteen the planets. We are at peace, we do not need a frigate guarding every world now. Most of our cruisers will be mothballed, most of our frigates sent to work alone as patrol command vessels joined by corvettes. There will be alot of money in vette and smaller patrol vessels I am sure. Fleet would spread its forces out to cover a greater area and anything bigger than a frigate would most likely be huddeled at fleet yards and maintained in case the empire changes its mind but not activly being used. I am both sad and happy because I always said I just wanted to do small corvette battles lol. So ships like Novgorod are perfect for this new era in the Alliance.

For a project to work on The Sacheen or Corona would be good and with CEC kinda out on the wrong side ot the boarder the Warrior and Ranger Gunships are a must. Later the Endurance/nebula would be good A ship that can do anything is a good idea and the Endurance is basiclly a modern day carrier that can be tasked to do any mission with a small escort force protecting it. A single Enduracne could carry out operations for an entire sub sector. Lanch fighter operations backed up by vette and gunships for heavy suppot and really never leave its basic position.

anyway just thoughts I have about this. In the end mixing things up is a good idea but not on a big scale. what we really need is a Coast Guard/boarder patrol kinda force.

[Vansen Tyree]

I don't think it's so much a matter of "letting". Certain planets and private corporations have private armies already, whether we like it or not. We can't argue against that either, as sovereign defense forces are one of the basic Republic freedoms that set us apart from the Empire.

The problem is that not all of them do. Some planets have spent so long under the protection of the Empire that they don't have the resources to defend themselves and their nearest boarder, nor do they have the finances to buy those resources. Whether a planet needs defenses is secondary to whether or not the public and politicians think they need defenses and thus want them. Also, bear in mind that the Alliance fleets are small, mobile forces designed for guerilla tactics and raiding missions, not vast defensive forces. The largest area we've ever had to hold before is a couple of sectors: we now have dozens. We could pretend that the Alliance has conveniently magicked the necessary resources and forces out of thin air... or we could put effort in to make it seem like the Alliance is struggling, like we're having to contend with a big horrible mishmash that doesn't work properly, and reap the benefits of having interesting/complex stuff to write about for the foreseeable future.

Easy/simple options are boring. Complicated/messy options are fun.

[Reshmar]

That makes sense, and I agree that most of the worlds now in our borders will be new at defending themselves. But again I feel its more of a place for a civil force maybe supported by military. I would imagine many of the former freedom fighters who worked to create the Alliance are now retired from being a rebel. Maybe some of these type have moved into private security. That would not be a bad way to go. Having private security firms pop up since the Alliance armed forces are so weak. Still I would like some sort of Coast guard type force created to deal with more domestic things outside the Fleet. not saying fleet will not be there just as a supporting force not so much the primary group. Maybe boarder rangers, or something like that. An elite law enforcement group created to patrol and enforce commerce, and private maters.

[Vansen Tyree]

So, something more akin to how the Sector Rangers were pre-reset: patrolling/policing space lanes, etc?

Hypothetically I could see something like that working from a coastguard / law enforcement angle (counter-smuggling, etc) as part of Alliance Security's role. When we set that up in a couple of thread's time (with Dasquian Belargic as Director) it'll be to deal with these kind of internal shenanigans: our coastguard, FBI, etc.

My reservation is that we might be shooting ourselves in the foot a bit. Customs inspections, intercepting smugglers, and patrolling the space lanes for pirates is the vast majority of the kind of space combat that is left for us at the moment. A civil organization taking care of that may be more palatable from a political perspective, but from a roleplaying perspective will we be taking roleplaying opportunities away from the characters we have, and giving them to characters that don't exist yet?

Perhaps something akin to a Grand Theft Auto hierarchy would make better sense? Alliance Security has small/fast ships - "patrol cars" - that deal with smugglers/etc that only have one or two stars. However, if the chase escalates or the situation is severe, the number of stars increases and the military gets called in... be it Alliance Fleet, Cizerack Fleet, Hapan Fleet, or whatever else is close/convenient. A civil agency / Alliance Security is still taking point, but all of the military characters we already have established don't get sliced out of the equation.

[Reshmar]

That is what I'm envisioning. We have around 100 sectors now more I think, so with the most likely trillions of people we have to keep safe there is always going to be some sort of crime going on. Bringing sector rangers back is good. For pirates that are just using fighters and small transports they can deal with but for large pirate and crime organizations the military will have to be involved. We would not want to send sector rangers in a patrol picket up against say A stolen imperial prison ship with support.

[Rurrick Grov]

My dear Admiral: sending anything against a stolen prison ship would be most unwise. ;)

I like it! Though, we'll have to wait for Jenny to wake up, since Alliance Security is gonna be her thing and such. :uhoh

[Reshmar]

Ill throw rocks at it and dent it up real good.