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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. TACTICS AND DOCTRINE
Spectrum has rewritten the book on what is considered appropriate terrorist-handling doctrine. They come in quiet and quick and leave the same way. The terrorists never know what hit them, but that doesn't matter - Spectrum rarely takes prisoners. Every member of Spectrum is taught "shoot to kill" - because a terrorist will usually try to take out as many hostages as he can (either with a gun, melee weapon, or grenade). Thanks to this rule - and the incredible aim of Spectrum team members - there are many fewer terrorists in the galaxy today. As far as what is considered standard tactics for Spectrum, they essentially use regular SpecForces tactics with a touch of Infiltrator and some unique twists. Instead of having to go in without intelligence, Spectrum teams are almost always fully aware of what the situation is and are already planning strategies light-years before they hit their target. (See WEG's Rules of Engagement: Rebel SpecForces for details). TEAM 23
Team 23 is typical of a Spectrum group. They are currently located on Contruum, a planet which is in the midst of political upheaval. The planetary government of Contruum has lost support, with the result of everything degenerating into anarchy and chaos. Contruum has become the "Coreward Tatooine", which is not a phrase prized by the "legitimate" government. The New Republic has tried to bring a halt to the problem, but all of its available forces have been tied up in the Borderlands. Since Contruum doesn't supply anything major to the galactic government, it is rather low on the NR's priority list. This has caused extreme amounts of headaches in the Council, but nothing can be done. However, NRI (probably due to the influence of General Airen Cracken, whose homeworld is Contruum) has requested a Spectrum team be sent to try and deal with some of the more serious problems until a NR naval squadron can arrive to arrest the criminals and restore proper government. TEAM 23: MEMBERS
Team 23 has the standard number of personnel - 8 members and one leader. However, they also have a temporary member from the Contruum Planetary Security Police's elite Rebel Avenger group. This woman, Tyla Heveryt, knows many people and towns all over Contruum and has extensive contacts throughout the Fringe. Since Team 23 has no guarantee of pickup, they are equipped to stay out in a survival situation for as long as possible, if necessary. Since it would be useless to try and describe each member of Team 23 altogether, a short capsule will follow each member's stats. The following stats represent typical Spectrum personnel, and can be used with little or no tweaking. Like the rest of Team 23, Cresp "Crispy" Totrill had to accept a rank and pay reduction in order to join Spectrum. Unlike most of the other members, however, he is not pleased about it. Lt. Totrill has had a chip on his shoulder about one thing or another ever since he joined the Army. When he was reduced in rank from Sergeant Major down to First Sergeant (due to a mistyped coordinate which killed several soldiers when the artillery was called in), the only thing that kept him in the Alliance was his devotion to duty and his morals. Now, he's been demoted to Staff Sergeant to serve as a commander of a Spectrum team. While it pleases him to be in a position of authority, he's often rather grumpy and gives his troops a hard time, usually putting them on triple-KP duty. Crispy is 1.6 meters tall with a crop of brown hair. He has striking green eyes and is soft-spoken, but can put an edge into both if needed. To his fellow soldiers, Crispy is an excellent soldier and an incredible martial arts expert - he has a Class 13 J'trai rating, and is a Grandmaster of Quarterstaffs in the Sorias Sector. Although Crispy does have a seemingly eternal bad attitude, once he's in battle, it fades away fast.
Lyn "Crazy" Doverstone is the kind of person you might see in an all-out bar brawl - that is, if she was a man. Team 23's expert sniper is indeed a woman, and a ravishing one at that. Rumor has it that she once went out on three successful dates all on the same night. All of Team 23 denies this, especially Lyn. Lyn got her nickname when she was involved in an Infiltrator mission on Seswen. An Imperial guard had spotted her on the ceiling, and just before he was about to call for reinforcements, she kicked him in the groin and threw two knives into his stomach and throat. As the trooper died gurgling, someone muttered the word "crazy" - hence her nickname. She deserves this name and reputation. She has a shot/kill ratio of over 95%. That's the highest ratio in the history of the New Republic. "She makes those slugs dance, I tell ya," says a fellow Team 23 member. Crazy is about 1.5 meters tall with short red hair. She is slender and would make an excellent dancing girl - but you didn't hear that from us. Crazy has brown eyes and an easy-going outlook on life - the complete opposite of Crispy's hardlined, by-the-book style of living. Just remember - she's THE best sniper in the Republic, and no one has passed her by yet.
Other members of Team 23 include Sgt. Arrkholar, a Wookiee hunter/tracker who worked with Special Operations; 2nd Lt. Seibe Devrawa, the liason to Team 23 with Contruum; Corp. Daan Be'tall, a Duro demolitions expert, formerly in a Urban Combat Specialist squad; Corp. Minet Domkrawski, the team's heavy weapons specialist (he carries a medium repeating blaster); and Pvt. Yuust Shor, a former corpsman with the Alderaanian Third Home Regiment. (More will be added as time permits.) TEAM 23: SITUATION
Team 23 is currently involved in direct assaults on urban and suburban-held areas on Contruum, specifically around the populated areas of Union City, Cracken City, and the their respective suburbs. There are massive amounts of streetfighting, and the local NR troops and Contruum security forces have been unable to fight the terrorism and crime head-on. Tactics used are as shown in Field Manual 15: SpecForces Handbook. CONCLUSION
While Spectrum is seen by many in the Senate as being overrated and overfunded, it persists because of the success it has in the things which don't make the nightly holonews. However, nearly all Team members take pride in what they are a part of, whether they receive a medal or not. Since many of the actual victories that Spectrum teams have to be filed as Classified and Secret, they truly are the unsung heroes of the New Republic. |
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