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Main | Content Index
SPECTRUM
by Darth Bedar - See more by this author
Source: Original
Last updated on 22 March 2001.
Era
Era: New Republic
Alignment
Alignment: New Republic

ELITE COUNTERTERRORIST UNIT: SPECTRUM

The Battle of Endor was a victory like none other. The Emperor was destroyed, as was his henchman, Darth Vader; the Empire was in disarray; the Alliance was no longer under the yoke of oppression. They were free to do what their namesake said: restore the Republic. One month after their victory, they did. It was called the New Republic.

That was 4 years ago. Today, the New Republic is far from what many thought it would really be like - constant border wars, political infighting, corruption, and terrorism. The latter is the most critical. The Empire, though depleted to less than 1/3 of its previous territory, is still waging battles on us, both direct and indirect. Through recent intelligence, it is known that the Empire is using terrorists to strike at the civilian populace of the galaxy. Whether Imperial agents are doing this or other forces are at work here is not the question - more and more formerly loyal planets are starting to defect to the Empire out of fear. This must be stopped, and the Empire's terrorism crushed, using any means necessary.


HISTORY AND ORGANIZATION

Spectrum was formed approximately 4 years after the Battle of Endor. Because of growing concern in the Senate because of terrorism, and the utter failure to try and contain these terrorists with local police and militia forces, NR Intelligence (NRI) decided to form several dozen teams with special ops training to deal with situations such as these. Since security was paramount, these groups were (and still are) "black" - their funding, supplies, and existence was denied. Officially, this organization doesn't even exist.

These groups are codenamed "Spectrum" due to the fact that they are located throughout the galaxy. They are usually assigned one team to a sector, but each team is usually involved with one campaign or another on a specific world, and many sectors do not have Spectrum teams due to the fact that they have local security forces that can handle what threats they do have without trouble.

Some Spectrum team members contend that Spectrum really means SPECial Teams wReaking Utter Mayhem, but that is strictly unofficial. Each team is also given a code number ranging from one to fifty. There was a Spectrum Team Zero, but that team has recently gone into a deep cover operation, and doesn't exist, officially OR unofficially.

Their primary task is to supplement local security forces, SpecForces, or sector law enforcement when they can't handle certain terrorist activities. They are used in many different environments, including underwater, on starships/space stations, and even in the vacuum of space itself. They are trained for these tasks which other forces can't easily take on. However, in order to be more familiar with a given region, Spectrum teams usually accept a temporary liason from local forces. These liasons are typically from a region's elite defense force, or are otherwise specially trained in counterterrorism.

Members for Spectrum teams are handpicked as casualties allow more and more people to join. Most of the team members come from SpecForces, though others come from provincial fast-response police forces, Imperial commando units, and even SpecOps teams. Some members have secrets which they avoided revealing by joining Spectrum.

The leader of the Spectrum organization is called Spectrum Alpha. His identity is one of the most closely guarded secrets in the New Republic. Spectrum Alpha has a series of 5 subordinates, known as Spectrum Beta, Gamma, Delta, Eta, and Omega, each being in command of a section - intelligence, logistics, personnel, support, and training.

Each team is organized the exact same way - one leader and 8 members in the team, each specializing in a different area (e.g. demolitions, sharpshooting, forced computer entry, hostage negotiation, etc.). Each team also has a non-combat medical technician on hand.

All members of the team are issued blaster pistols, even the medic, but other weaponry depends on the individual team members - they can have custom designed bolt-action slugthrowers, high-powered blasters, or even electromagnetic railguns. This is to guarantee familiarity with their weapon, and not force them to relearn a new weapon. Most units, however, tend to go with an automatic slugthrower rifle with silencer as their weapon of choice.


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User: [ format for printing | hide comments ] Admin: [ edit | delete ]




Micah - D20
20 March 2001, 03:52 pm EST

i love the story, but stats for the new star wars system would be nice.

[Admin: Conversions for this document are low priority at this point. Look for them eventually.]



This message edited on 22 March 2001, 07:17 am by the administration.
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Geoff Cassell - Great stuff
22 March 2001, 07:11 am EST

This is a wonderful idea, Armage. I'd love to see stats for a sample team and a story behind them, only because I know you'd do a more than superb job, keep up the good work!

[Admin (Armage): This is definitely on my to-do list, as I think that Spectrum is a great jumping-off point for players.]

This message edited on 22 March 2001, 07:11 am by the administration.
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Rondo - Good stuff
22 March 2001, 02:11 pm EST

Good stuff here, but just a couple suggestions from a former operator.

First, odd team sizes are always a bad thing. Keep the numbers even so everybody has a "buddy" to watch out for. The team sizes would be more appropriate at 8 including the leader.

Second, team members who are medics are NOT non-combatants. You can afford to do that in a 50 man infantry unit but small team warfare demands EVERYONE is a combatant. You did get the specialized team member functions right though. =)

Third, while it's always dark and mysterious in modern spec warfare fiction, there is no such thing as something so "black" that it doesn't exist "officially OR unofficially." Basically, if your group is THAT black, nobody knows about you but you. And what the hell good is that? Somebody on the outside HAS to know who and where you are or what good is logistics? Not to mention coordination with local forces as you mentioned.

Anyway, I don't mean to criticize your good effort here. I just think a couple "reality checks" would do your article good. Keep up the good work.
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Rondo - Hmmm, bad formatting
22 March 2001, 02:13 pm EST

Seems the carriage returns in my message didn't make it through above. Sorry about that.
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Drew - Spectrum
22 March 2001, 07:07 pm EST

Great story Armage!!!! When I start my Rebellion Era Campaign or New Republic Era....sorry...I will definitely use these guys!! Think you could supply some generic members to the tram for the D20 system???
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Poxyboggard - SPECTRUM article
22 March 2001, 08:37 pm EST

Enticing, to say the least. But, would they were in D20 stats. Also, is there any particular group that they are trying to stop, like James Bond's SPECTRE, or are they just freelancers like the IMF forces?

Also, some snippets and a clue about training and recruitment. If so many people are being let in because of casualties, then everyone and their Grandma probably knows about this... and a group that loses too many, well that's just not profitable in the normal military mind. Also, any specific missions that would illustrate?

Nice though, very cool, indeed.
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Ran Targas - Great for Empire not New Republic
26 March 2001, 01:01 pm EST

SPECTRUM is the kind of organization developed by COMPNOR or Imperial Intelligence to combat the Rebellion not by the New Republic to support it. It doesn't seem a fit with the New Republic and their policy of free and open government. The Alliance didn't sanction bombing embassies or assasinating Imperial officials, why would they turn around and use Tarkin-esque tactics to solve problems now. Counter-intelligence is more than combat teams in black pajamas; I can see the New Republic building a huge intelligence gathering apparatus as a tool for supporting diplomacy, but not for covert squads of trained killers. Again, great idea but I'm not sure of its neccesity.
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Professor Tiberius - Enemies?
9 May 2001, 12:22 am EST

I think the idea of an anti-terrorist squad is great! I'm all for stealing from Clancy; his works are too good not to. However, if there were some enemies for these guys, it'd be great. It hasn't been dealt with in the Star Wars universe at all.
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