This announcement now being broadcast from the Imperial taskforce.
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"Citizens of our glorious Empire! Unfortunately the situation on Lanzar has reached the critical point, a possibility that Commisariat has warned about. During a political meeting with one of Osokan leaders, Imperial Commisar Esgabath was treacherously ambushed, without any warning or reason, and it was only for the excellent reaction of the Imperial military that he managed to barely escape with his life. Yet Imperial soldiers protecting him were ruthlessly slaughtered, not only by the warriors of the devious Lodge, but it seems that general population of the city has started the riot against any Imperial presence. Instead of loyal Imperial citizens, we now see the bloodshirty savages that this race was always famous for, the barbarians that have been always causing fear and mayhem to the Galaxy- faint hope that it would change is now non-existant.
The Osokan authorities and the so-called "Guildmaster" Drakkon have apparently done nothing to protect the life of the direct representative of Galactic Emperor and stop the mob from spreading violence and bloodshed. Indeed, the fact that the large amount of Osokans were armed with advanced firearms is extremelly suspicious itself, as Imperial Taskforce was involved in tracking the illegal weapon smuggling to the planet, and now those weapons are being used against the Empire itself! It seems that Drakkon might have been trying to mislead the respected members of the Senate Commision, that were honestly giving their best efforts to bring the world of Lanzar back into Imperial Order, while Drakkon and the Guilds were preparing for war - indeed, the immediate response of the current Lanzar goverment to this situation was the raising of orbital shield, manifesting their willingness and readiness for war against the Imperial Order. And the matter of suspected Rebel Terrorist presence on this world cannot be overlooked, as they would love nothing else but to challenge Empire`s efforts to bring peace and stability to Lanzar, and the murder of Imperial Commisar would be a great testimony to their cause of chaos and anarchy! Their involvement shall be dully investigated.
Such a mockery of Imperial Authority, and authority of the Senate itself shall not remain unpunished! The Commisariat, acting on the authority of the Emperor, as empowered by the emergency legislation of the Senate, is issuing an Executive Decree number 1189/B, authorizing the military operation to restore peace and order to Lanzar by any means necessary. The legal jurisdiction shall be transferred to the military under the supervision of Commisariat in the light of the extreme emergency situation.
Drakkon and his so-called "goverment" are now given the last chance to show their willingness to comply with Imperial Order. The gates of the Lanzar City are to be immediately opened to the Imperial Army peacekeeping forces aproaching it, and full aid is to be given to their efforts to disarm the hostile elements, determine and prosecute those responsible for inciting the riots and the attempt to murder the Commisar, as well as further measures to stabilize the situation.
If Drakkon`s goverment doesn`t respond with immediate and unconditional compliance with those demands and cooperation with the efforts of Imperial Taskforce, that would allow for limiting the unnecessary violence and loss of lives, the Army will engage in full-scale military operation, in order to overthrow Drakkon from his position of power- an arrest warrant shall be immediately issued, and he shall stand trial for all his present and past crimes; as well as to dispose of any organized resistance.
Further measures to solve the issues of Lanzar will be then looked upon. It seems that the extremally violent and hostile tendencies of Osokan culture will be never removed without outside effort- certainly the citizens of Lanzar must fully understand that the consequences of their defiance to the Imperial Order will not be tolerated to the extent that it was under old goverment. Certainly the Guilds must be again disbanded, as their previous restoration clearly shows us that Osokans seem to be unable to learn on their errors, and hope that their violent culture could remain unchanged and become the part of the wider galactic community was false- this chance, given by Emperor in his gratitude, was clearly rejected. The Osokan society has to undergo significant changes, and it is likely that wide-scale re-education programme is necessary for Osokans to understand their place in Imperial Order.
But one thing remains beyond any doubt- Imperial Military and Administration, under the wise guidance of His Majesty the Emperor , guarantees its willingness and determination to ensure by any means that the world of Lanzar and its inhabitants will never again become a threat to peace and order in the galaxy, and safety of Imperial citizens, as it happened many times in the past, and now again with such atrocities as massive smuggling of the most lethal lifeforms. All those that put themselves beyond the greater good of Empire and its secure society shall learn that their punishment will be swift and fully adequate to their crimes, and at the end we shall have .... PEACE... on Lanzar."
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This fairly much concludes the political part of the story, so as Rebels, we have to look now at how well things have gone with either messing up the Imperial mission, or building meaningful links with the lanzar authorities.
...
Ok, that hasn't gone very well. The Imperials have out-manoeuvred you politically, and you guys have seemed more hostile to Drakkon than helpful. They'll accept your help but they don't particularly care for your cause; you have given them little reason to. Most of your exaltations to him have been based around "Do this or WE are in trouble" with little reference to why he should care about galactic politics when his planet is about to burn.
The ultimate win here would have in fact been for Lanzar to join the Rebel Alliance. This is not going to happen. Drakkon simply now refuses all contact with the Imperials.
(Damn. It never once occured to me to try to recruit Lanzar. Wow. Although I do raise a feeble argument that Galahad did try to get Drakkon to see why he should care about galactic politics, but I do so half-heartedly. I think we missed the mark at almost every turn, I know I for one had the wrong perspective in amny occasions about what the objective should be at most of the points along the way. I wonder if there's anything we can pull out of this? Or is it really all over, the final battle a formallity?
Hopefully, if we get to another episode, we will have learned. That would actually be interesting from a story point of view. We certainly are a rag-tag bunch of Rebels, who hardly gelled into an efficient force. If we can manage to do that next round, it will at least be an interesting story point.)
Well damn, we lose the political field. I do have to hand it to the Commissar, and I'm not going to be harsh on Galahad. I think we really had an issue of not really thinking of things or not thinking things through. We could have gotten in touch with tons of Lodge Captains and gotten their cooperation and resources and so on. Instead, one of them decided to try something incriminating...
Not so much his fault as ours. We should have known; they are Osokans, after all. It's obvious that they'd want to kill our enemy, as if it would help.
In any case, time for war! Eerin is ready to sink his halberd into some stormtrooper armor...
So far we've got all armed Osokans lining the walls of the City...
We only got the Gungan stuff back from Vormax, right? He still has all our explosives and sniper rifles and whatnot?
I think we should line the entrance to the gates with mines, assuming the stormtroopers might get in...
Well, I'm sorry to everyone that I failed the political mission. I didn't exactly give it my all, or anything, so I'm not going to say I did. 😛 Still, I could have saved you all a lot of trouble a great deal of the time.
Galahad will Warfare roll on Eerin's idea of lining the entrances to the City with mines...?
And could the Gungan light catapult things be set up on the wall? The larger projectiles could be useful for disabling AT-STs.
The catapults would be useless anywhere other than the walls.
Lining the entrance with mines- you really want to do that to something important the Imperials are going to be firing at?
ALL your stuff is back. Vormax only held onto some of Drakkon's stuff.
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Yes indeed Drakkon didn't seem an easy sell on Galactic importance, but two things there:
1. Like I say, not much effort was made as to why he should care when his whole planet is at risk.
2. If this was the hippy planet of the happy care bears, it would hardly have been much of a struggle. You weren't meant to give up just because it turns out Osokans are quite grumpy people.
You really should have pushed the point that this is not the first time it has happened, tried to explain about how morally wrong the Empire is (very tricky that bit but worth a try), and perhaps most importantly of all, explained how Drakkon and Lanzar could actually have some Galactic lasting effect- something that people would never forget.
There were also humanitarian angles. Going to pitch this one now because no-one really seemed to think much about it- did anyone consider using your various influences to get people out of here? Galahad could have used his political and homeworld influence to start, say, bussing out all the kids. When played off-line, the Rebels offered to find Drakkon a safe place to rule his people in exile if things went badly.
Just any number of things to show your good faith to the Osokans, rather than looking like a bunch of opportunists.
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But we're not done with all this quite yet.
The riots have got worse throughout the city. Kyle, you've gone out to the balcony to have a look.
This isn't a battle, it is a slaughter. The stormtroopers are surrendering.