Alliance Militia

The Alliance believes strongly in independent sovereignty, and a key component of that sovereignty is independent military power, a feature of the Federation violated only once, a violation that caused the rise of the Empire. Each member world has the right to its own defensive force, called a Militia. In fact, the Senate sees a militia not as a right but as a duty, and typically sanctions worlds that leave their defense to the rest of the Alliance. One reason the Alliance has survived as long as it has is because a blaster lurks behind every blade of grass.




Because the Alliance tasks each world with its own defense, they naturally tailor their forces to the unique needs of their world and culture. They equip them with locally produced arms, they armor them with gear best suited to their local terrains, and they use strategies best suited to their own needs. Broadly, these can be broken into three categories:

• Hard: Hard militias practice trench warfare and make extensive use of static fortifications. These militias tend to operate on worlds that have extremely vital locations, like key industrial facilities, major capitals, or domed cities. They place these key points under planetary shields, to protect from orbital bombardment and to force the enemy to attack on foot, and then ring them with extensive fortifications, mine-fields, trenches and embanked cannons, daring the Empire to come at them.

• Mobile: Mobile militias practice defense in depth and rapid reaction forces. They have no specific locations that they value above another, and can scatter defensive installations and supply points all across the planet. They have heavily mechanized forces that can move quickly, allowing them to man local installations and fight off an imperial attack, and then retreat when the fight turns too hot, to another set of installations, forcing the invader to stretch his lines and to be in too many places at once, at which point the mobile force gathers itself and makes a counter attack at the weakened line.

• Deceptive: Deceptive militias have no single point on their planet worth protecting and often have terrain that precludes the design of extensive defensive infrastructure. Instead, when attacked, their militias melt into the terrain, which itself can act as a defense, or into the population. In both cases, they harass the invaders, sabotaging his efforts, sniping his officers, and reporting the results back to the Empire. They defend their world by making it too costly to hold, and tend to blur the line between military action and insurgency.

Many militias blend and combine the strategies above, creating their own unique defense force. This makes coordination across the Alliance tricky, with each planet used to fighting in its own way. Even so, some worlds produce more effective militias than others, and some focus on working well with the others. When the Alliance as a whole needs to go on the offensive, the Senate might appoint a High Marshal to govern the military effort, and he might call upon local militias to support him.

The Alliance Senate has no direct control over these forces, though naturally they have a great deal of indirect control. When the Alliance wages war, it appoints a central authority (always an aristocrat) to oversee the coordination of all forces involved and issues a call to arms of its constituents. These nobles usually just call together their own forces, but they sometimes draw upon militias. In such case, whatever ships the militia has links up with the rest of the fleet, and cavernous troop transports land to bring those forces aboard.

Militia Agendas

The key, central role of a Militia is the defense of its world. The typical militia man acts in reserve. He works at a normal job day by day and resides with his family, but keeps arms at home and shows up for regular training, and receives a meager supplement to his salary from the planetary government. Militias typically lack money (The Senate offers little money to poor worlds for their own self-defense, and actively pushes wealthy worlds to keep their militias limited, to encourage dependence on aristocratic Regulars), and so must find ways to keep their defenses strong on a shoe-string budget, though they might find some backer (such as petitioning a major corporation for assistance), or try to subordinating their world to a noble for access to additional budget. Should a call to arms go out, they might go off world, usually on the transport of a noble whose titles and domains are associated with their particular world.

• For a world rather far from the War against the Empire, low budgets paired with increasingly strict training regimens has dissuaded most youths from joining the local militia. The planet looks for some way to boost it: perhaps a nobleman can swing by for a whirlwind patriotic tour, or perhaps they can arrange for their militia to participate in some off-world battle (ideally one certain of victory) to lend their faltering militia a bit of glory to inspire the locals.

• When you arm a bunch of common men scattered across a planet, a few of them are bound to get some weird ideas. After the Alliance Senate passed an unpopular ordinance, some of the more remote militia men have decided to protest the law by barricading themselves up and unilaterally declaring the law illegal. The soldiers need to be gently talked down, or the law altered to see to their demands. Or, of course, the planetary government can crack down on them, but given the popularity of the militia and the unpopularity of the law (as well as the planetary government’s relative inability to do anything about a senate law), that might create a dangerous reaction that might threaten to rip the world from the grasp of the Alliance...

• The Empire? Here? This remote world hasn’t seen action in years and has grown complacent. Can the people be rallied in time to fend off the attack? The planetary militia needs to alert the Alliance to their peril, whip their soldiers into shape and mount as rapid a defense as they can while they hold out for reinforcement!

Alliance Militia as Opposition.

Militia informality usually means they lack consistent security protocols. They often leave garages unlocked, or openly talk about their plans in bars, or fail to bar their bases to friends they just met, etc. On the other hand, their informality means that they rarely keep detailed records, they tend to keep weapons at home and might even keep their combat vehicles locked up in their garage at home. They tend to be deeply connected to the populace, who usually see what they do as a patriotic duty. Thus, most populations have few people willing to betray the local militia, and their decentralized nature means that it’s hard to sabotage their weapons or vehicles, or to kill too many of them at a time with a bomb. They’re often BAD -0 to BAD -2 when it comes to security.

Serving in a Militia

Military Ranks

Rank	Militia
6	Brigadier
5	Commander
4	Captain
3	Lieutenant
2	Sergeant
1	Corporal
0	Private

Militia men never exceed rank 6, as they remain a planetary force, always subordinate to higher forces in major, interstellar operations. They tend to follow conventional military ranks, with basic soldiers as privates, with a squad (~10 men) headed by a corporal or sergeant, with a platoon (~50 men) led by a lieutenant, a company (~250 men) led by a captain, regiments (~1000 men) led by commander, and the planetary armies lead by Brigadiers, who answer, ultimately, to the planetary government. However, militia are one of the few places where non-noble military men can gain high (rank 4+) positions, which means that militia often have surprisingly talented leadership!

Favors of the Alliance Milia

Entry Clearance (Pulling Rank p 13): Militia tend to have armories and training grounds that one can access.

Consultation and Specialists (Pulling Rank p 15): the Alliance Military can offer Contacts with skills like Administration, Intelligence Analysis, Leadership, Strategy and Tactics, representing military attaches or military advisors. They're usually between Skill 15 and 18.

Gear (Pulling Rank 16): Militia men usually need to provide their own gear, though a planetary government might provide some standard equipment. What equipment is available changes from world to world!

Treatment (Pulling Rank 17): All forms of the Alliance Military care about their soldiers, so provide hospital facilities for its wounded veterans.

Muscle (Pulling Rank 19): If a fellow soldier needs some unofficial support, troops can temporarily set aside their weapons to help. Militia tend to excel at this, often being strong, burly men even on their off hours. The result is 5-10 BAD 2 to 5 characters without major military hardware (Typically just their fists or some clubs, neurolash batons, etc).

The Cavalry (Pulling Rank 19): When the Alliance gets serious, it sends in the hard hitters. It will send a full platoon of troopers (BAD 2), between 10-15 elite troopers (BAD 5) or 5-10 fighters for a space-based request.

Character Considerations

Requirements: Characters serving in a Militia must have a minimum of Wealth (Struggling) [-5], Military Rank 0 [0], and Duty (9 or less or 12 or less, Extremely Hazardous) [-10 to -15].

A militia as a patron is worth 20 points, and -20 points as an enemy.