A Splendid Little War

[Charley]

So, some folks have chimed in recently that what we could really use in Star Wars was some star wars. As in, bring war back to all the stars.

To springboard off that need, we're considering opening an all-fronts conflict that may have both the Empire, the Alliance, and their proxies fending off threats from one or more Big Bads (no Vong, shut the fuck up Donnie).

The Ssi-Ruuk are certainly an option since we played with them in the Vanguards and never really got a written resolution, but I was also wondering about the Chiss. Is anyone currently putting the Chiss to work in a storyline that would be contradicted by them engaging in a war against the known galaxy? Please let us know. We'd definitely like to get the blue folk involved, but we want all hands on deck.

Thanks in advance.

[Amos Iakona]

I definitely like the idea of the Ssi-Ruuk. They're relatively straight forward, they can potentially be an issue for everyone from Moffs to Captains to smugglers to people going on vacation - and Charley's right, we have some history via Vanguards, so it's picking up a dangling thread.

The Chiss are interesting. Currently, the Alliance is in a tough spot because they're sandwiched between the Empire and the Hutts. The Chiss have the potential to be that same secondary slice of bread for the Empire, so whether they side with the Empire, the Alliance, or stay a third party has ramifications.

We've also got threads dangling about the Tion Cluster, Corellia, Hutt-Alliance relations, groundwork for the New Republic and First Order in our future, etc.

Maybe a "yes and" option would work? Something like the Ssi-Ruuk has the power to be a super simple catalyst that triggers all of the above. The Chiss break their isolation looking for allies in the face of the Ssi-Ruuk threat. Fledgeling First Order types start building their stockpiles and hidden enclaves just in case. Cooperation between the Empire and Alliance lays the groundwork for the New Republic. It might be enough of a kick in the pants to provide that "excuse" that some things need to get rolling?

[Charley]

I like that. Sort of a WW1 way of one little thing leads to a lot of big things.

So, with the current plan I had involving stumbling across some kind of big bad in our midst, it went something like this:

In this thread, the Cizerack are hiring an independent contractor to try and discover new hyperspace lanes to planets that are relatively nearby and known, but currently inaccessible. Whoever goes along eventually gets there, but finds out one or more planets are occupied by an Enemy (possibly the Ssi-Ruuk, possibly another). This is a threat.

Whether this threat leads to the others is a possibility. Maybe the Ssi-Ruuk bases force the Chiss into making contact with the Empire, the Alliance or Both. There are also destabilizing factors in both of those factions that could be courted by these enemies. The Sons of Coruscant, the Martyrs of Fey'Dann, to name a few.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

To the best of my knowledge, Reshmar is our resident Chiss guy. I'll shoot him a message with a link to this thread

[Park Kraken]

The Ssi-Ruuk love using slaves for their entechment. Perhaps an alliance is formed between mutual enemies of the Chiss, the Ssi-Ruuk and the Vagaari? And to add a little military muscle to their alliance, they also enlist the aid of the previously unheard of Duskhan League? It would be a triple front assault between Bakura in the Outer-Rim, various worlds for the slavers, and the core for the Yevetha.

[Park Kraken]

And then the Vagaari send overtures to the Hutts and Thalassians after learning about them from their captured subjects?

[Matatek Sel Vissica]

So the Ssi-Ruuk, Vagaari, and Dushkan League all press, and force the Chiss into some kind of action? I'll have to read up on the Vagaari and Dushkan league, but seems plausible.

[Sadie K'Vesh]

I'm fully on board with having the nasty space dinos make another appearance. I can get a lot of my brain folks involved in various ways (even if it's just acknowledging they aren't "over it" *cough*)

I'd love to see how this effects the Cadets, to be honest since while we've had fun with "Space Hogwarts" (shut up, you've all called it that, don't pretend) - I think it'd be awesome to have a real viable threat to force them into action.

[Two-Blades]

I've not used this Yevethan near as much as I should, so I'd be happy to throw him into the mix if folks are wanting the Yevetha involved. Xenophobic hunters unite!

[Park Kraken]

The Vagaari were slavers in the Unknown Regions and were featured as villains in the novels Outbound Flight and Survivor's Quest.

The Duskhan League (Yevetha) were the primary antagonists in the Black Fleet Trilogy. The question is do they have Black Sword Command or in our timeline do they just have their thrustships? A Super Star Destroyer always adds another degree of danger and excitement.

[Zereth Lancer]

• Also located in uncharted space (granted, it is a large space) is the Guardian homeworld of Leh'ben. It's currently primed for a hostile takeover by the bitter traditionalist Mr. Slate who has been pulling an Attack of the Clones-esque plan and has a massive starship being built privately and unknown to his government. This could develop in two ways with this plot, where the Slate-run war-centered Leh'ben could be an ally to the likes of the Chiss, Ssi-Ruuk, and others; or they could come under attack by those same factions and Slate will bring the starship into play like the second coming and repel the attack; further cementing his control of the planet or laying the seeds for a takeover in the future.

• There are a lot of small to medium baddies in the known galaxy. If a big bad hits somewhere in the galaxy that'll pull a lot of resources into that direction and will create weakness that the smaller baddies can exploit. The Sons of Coruscant, The Droid Liberation Front, The Sith Order, and Tear's Suicide Squad, and any others, could pop out of the woodwork to sow chaos elsewhere in the galaxy. This could create opportunities for non-military characters to step up and be heroes, or run kicking and screaming from the danger.

• Something else to put out is the Kaaren: [ https://theholo.net/forum/showthread.php?57268-Kaaren ] A species I've been developing for awhile who's re-emergence into regular space seemed like too big of an event to do in a regular thread. Perhaps this sort of big picture thing is more suited. The idea would be that they finally fire up their horribly patchworked hyperdrive and shotgun themselves violently out of the Bubble of the Lost to emerge randomly into regular space. Their cobbled together society is very Warhammer 40k Cult of the Machine meets Halo's Covenant. They are xenophobic and believe in machine gods. They've been lost in the Bubble of the Lost for thousands of years, have a rabid slave army, and want to retake a place in the galaxy that they feel that they deserve. They are definitely not a huge threat in themselves. They don't have overwhelming numbers or starships or great technology. They just have a relentless desire to see their desires met. If not a big enough bad on their own, they could always become an ally, or a pawn, to other devious factions such as the Ssi-Ruuk, Chiss, Yavetha, etc.

[Captain Untouchable]

An alliance of alien antagonists is a fascinating idea, but therein may lie the problem. If our goal here is to create opportunities and momentum for the characters we already have, creating some new hotness faction may end up splitting our focus, and pulling us in more directions than we can handle.

The great thing about the Ssi-Ruuk is that they are (from a writing perspective) pretty simple. They're space dinosaurs who want to assimilate everyone: that's the kind of straightforward simplicity that you want from an NPC adversary. Also, since Vanguards established that they were able to get a foothold in the Goridan Reach, they're an adversary that can be anywhere/everywhere without any need for a complicated explanation, or worrying about borders and maps and all that jazz.

Perhaps we could start off with the Ssi-Ruuk as the basic plot hook, and races like the Yevetha, Vaagari, and Chiss can be potential allies or adversaries that the Empire and/or alliance seek out or encounter along the way? That keeps things mostly focused on the core Empire/Alliance war, but we also get to branch out into all of these other possibilities as our narrative radiates outwards.

• There are a lot of small to medium baddies in the known galaxy. If a big bad hits somewhere in the galaxy that'll pull a lot of resources into that direction and will create weakness that the smaller baddies can exploit. The Sons of Coruscant, The Droid Liberation Front, The Sith Order, and Tear's Suicide Squad, and any others, could pop out of the woodwork to sow chaos elsewhere in the galaxy. This could create opportunities for non-military characters to step up and be heroes, or run kicking and screaming from the danger.

Yeah, basically ^ that.

[Park Kraken]

After mulling it over the Yevetha would definitely be one of the ones to take advantage of the distraction rather than engage in an alliance; their consideration of all other races being inferior/infidels would make it far less likely for them to be in an alliance.

I do like the idea of the Vagaari assisting the Ssi-Ruuk in boosting their military power pre-conquest launching through the sale of slaves but once the Ruuk took over their first planet they wouldn't need the Vagaari anymore and might actually turn on them in stride. In that instance if any of the Vagaari were to escape then they would probably try to take advantage of the subsequent conflicts as best they could while trying to stay hidden in the shadows.

[Stela'shlit'nuruodo]

The Chiss would either have to be threatened by or think it will come under threat in the future to attack or take part in a fight against any enemy. That being said they see the Ruuk and Vagaari as constant threats to the Ascendancy. The CEDF would be out watching anything going on in the area and if the situation was right would assist in fighting the Ruuk or Vagaari for sure. The Yevetha would be a different story. Lash has always had a close relationship to The Empire. Mostly with Telan but SInce his departure Lash has been in and out of things mainly dealing with Chiss refugees on Thule. I would be interested in doing some writing if we can work a way for the Chiss to rationally be involved.

[Captain Untouchable]

I feel like there's maybe some interesting potential to connect together the Chiss, the Tion Cluster, the origins of the First Order, and some of the stuff that's been going on with Cloud City / the Greater Javin.

The headquarters of Santhe/Sienar is in the Tion Cluster, which right now is deep in the heart of Alliance territory. That's both embarrassing, and inconvenient, and so they're establishing new footholds in different places. On Cloud City, we're slowly working towards the development of the TIE/D droid fighters as a replacement for the "pilots are disposable" Imperial mentality, now that their recruiting pool/etc is much smaller. Another likely foothold will be out at Jaemus, in the part of the galaxy that becomes the Pentastar Alignment in the EU: Jaemus is already where Galentro Heavy Works builds the Enforcer-class cruiser for Sienar, and "Sienar-Jaemus Fleet Systems" is the name of the company that makes TIE Fighters for the First Order, so there's room for some sort of First Order origin stuff going on there.

Since the Nssis Clawcraft is one of the iconic aspects of Chiss/Imperial cooperation from the EU, perhaps that is another potential foothold/facet as well? Perhaps the Clawcraft is something that is specifically developed in response to our Ssi-Ruuk threat? Having the Chiss and the Empire share technology to develop a new ship isn't as extreme as the Ascendancy committing to military action, but is a situation that could benefit both... and technically, if it was some sort of deal between Santhe/Sienar and the Ascendancy rather than between the Empire and Ascendancy, it avoids becoming any sort of formal military treaty. It's just a business deal, and adds a bit of a bonus corporate intrigue conspiracy type vibe to things, that could potentially be an early step towards an eventual alliance or arrangement down the road.

[Halajiin Rabeak]

Y'all do what you want. I don't see myself getting involved in this. I don't really follow how a large war will bring us together instead of creating a lot of different events going on with a bunch of new focuses, half of which will likely go unresolved (we're bad at finishing threads), so I'll stick to the sidelines and simply be reactionary to elements which might happen to cross my current storyline path, and otherwise proceed as normal.

Not that I'm actually posting, these days... =P

[Captain Untouchable]

We aren't talking about having a large war here.

This idea initially came up because people were feeling a bit stagnant. We've had the cold war for a while, and we've done plenty of reacting and coming to terms with that, but we haven't reached the next "story arc" that is going to help move things forward. We've moved into Season 2, if you like, and the idea is to create some sort of plot hook that is easy for everyone to latch onto, and helps give a common direction/theme rather than stories shambling around in all different directions.

Something like a series of Ssi-Ruuk attacks gives us exactly that. It's a new enemy for pilots on Jovan Station to do missions against, to have briefings on, and to worry about. It's a new threat for the Imperial Knights to focus on, for missions, and training, and other things. It's a big galvanising issue for political characters to talk about. It's a menace to civilians travelling the space lanes. It's something for worlds to get paranoid about. It's a source of fear-mongering to help push forward R&D, and business agendas. You don't have to participate if you don't want to, but for those who do want to participate, it's something that we can work on collectively as a community.

I do like the idea of the Vagaari assisting the Ssi-Ruuk in boosting their military power pre-conquest launching through the sale of slaves but once the Ruuk took over their first planet they wouldn't need the Vagaari anymore and might actually turn on them in stride. In that instance if any of the Vagaari were to escape then they would probably try to take advantage of the subsequent conflicts as best they could while trying to stay hidden in the shadows.

Something to consider here is where/how do we start?

Having the Vagaari involved, or adapting the threat Charley mentioned definitely has a lot of potential for providing context (in a prequel novel/comic sort of way), but in terms if the core plot hook - whatever it ends up being - we probably need something really specific and simple, that we can post about as an OOC mission statement, or title crawl, or whatever. I think one of our struggles in the past has been coming up with a great idea, but then relying on an intro thread to define what actually happened. With the Cold War, Corellia, and things like that, everyone was able to jump in immediately.

The main reason that the Ssi-Ruuk activity in Vanguards was successfully covered up (aside from the fact that the Empire was still in power, and they're really good at hiding atrocities) was because it happened on a bunch of backwaters in the ass end of nowhere. Perhaps what we need as a starting point is some sort of incident on a world that is a little harder to ignore? Maybe one of the Rebel worlds that's still in Imperial space (Ithor, Chandrila, Duros, Devaron, etc) for a bit of added "the Empire didn't do enough to protect them because they're racist" spice? Or, maybe a world that is neither Alliance or Imperial, to frighten neutral worlds into wanting/needing protection - which might help with these Chiss/Yevetha/etc ideas?

[Halajiin Rabeak]

To springboard off that need, we're considering opening an all-fronts conflict that may have both the Empire, the Alliance, and their proxies fending off threats from one or more Big Bads (no Vong, shut the fuck up Donnie)

Dunno, that sounds like having a large war, to me. *shrugs*

[Captain Untouchable]

What Charley means by "all fronts" is "that everyone can get involved in". If you read the rest of the threads, none of the options being discussed are remotely in large war territory.

[Morgan Evanar]

I think we would need to scope this a bit more specifically. I think we're mixing up a bit "All Factions" with "All Fronts".