Governor's Gambit - Star Wars SI into Imperial Governor

[OrderedOrb]

Hi there folks! Wanted to step away from Las for a second, get some alt-povs up and dive a little into some of the different stuff. Thorne was kinda hard to write at first, but I read through Vectors Set by TheCapybara, which is incredible, and got some good ideas on how the prose works. They write about the political tension, games and general vibe of the ISB and upper echelons of the Imperial Military so well it's scary.

Also, because I don't really know how it works, how do conventional militaries adapt to a dense jungle environment? Cause I doubt the Imperial Army, or even the Stormtroopers are fit for such a dense battlefield. There won't be a war per se, but conflict is expected at one point or another and I want to understand how that might go down better before I get to writing it. Any ideas or info is greatly appreciated.

As always, feedback and commentary is appreciated.

Thanks for reading!

-Freefaller

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Something to keep in mind is that the Empire has assets a modern military like ours doesn't. A frigate or cruiser sized starship is easily big enough to function as a forward base and the natives really wouldn't have the firepower to do anything about it. And that's if the Empire doesn't deploy bombers or strafing style air support. There are also mobile bases that they can basically fly onto the planet from the atmosphere, like the one you showed on Edin while hunting down those.... Shriekers I think they were called? Heavier vehicles should probably be avoided in all that jungle, they'd be easy targets and it'd be like Endor all over again with new Ewoks. So it'll probably default to infantry with close air cover.

 

[SotF]

Something to keep in mind is that the Empire has assets a modern military like ours doesn't. A frigate or cruiser sized starship is easily big enough to function as a forward base and the natives really wouldn't have the firepower to do anything about it. And that's if the Empire doesn't deploy bombers or strafing style air support. There are also mobile bases that they can basically fly onto the planet from the atmosphere, like the one you showed on Edin while hunting down those.... Shriekers I think they were called? Heavier vehicles should probably be avoided in all that jungle, they'd be easy targets and it'd be like Endor all over again with new Ewoks. So it'll probably default to infantry with close air cover.

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With Legends stuff, most Star Destroyers have a deployable bases as well which are pre-fabricated and easily assembled on site

 

[UndeadLord22]

Wait until he reaches Grand Moff by sheer competence ( and imposter syndrome), it will be hilarious when his mother has to take orders from him.

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MC pulling a Tanya

 

[Zoolimar]

Star wars has forcefeields, though. If they have some sort of steralization field, perhaps....

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Problem is the few known deposits with minerals that allowed for small scale shields were exhausted somewhere during the Old Republic and Sith Empire days. Thousands of years ago. You can still build them using synthetic stuff but the prices for infantry scale shields are frankly astronomic. For example a droideka that are like 30% shield generator by volume (not something an infantry guy can lug around) cost over 20k credits. While a Tie Fighter costs 60k and equipment of a stormtrooper is 5-6k.

So realistically any sterilization fields can only be installed either on large vehicles or actual bases. Which would be prime targets for bombs, missiles and sabotage. But something Empire has and did use.

 

[bloodyparty]

Also, because I don't really know how it works, how do conventional militaries adapt to a dense jungle environment? Cause I doubt the Imperial Army, or even the Stormtroopers are fit for such a dense battlefield. There won't be a war per se, but conflict is expected at one point or another and I want to understand how that might go down better before I get to writing it. Any ideas or info is greatly appreciated.

Click to shrink...

You can take a look at this, from the Star Wars Battlefront 2 game (2005 version, crazy good)
It's the intro to the mission on Felucia, which is as much of a jungle hellhole as it gets:

- YouTube

Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.

m.youtube.com

Someone did an edit of it here:

- YouTube

Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.

m.youtube.com

 

[AldariSiradla]

Oh poor las, if he actually gets made moff i think hes gonna cry. Like alot.

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Las, Las, Las Mola! HERO OF THE EMPIRE!

 

[Yacov]

City-planners foresaw this outcome, and planned the district around it. As the district grew, an Imperial building, a sharp spire of brutalist authority was built in the center of the district, watching over the markets and docking a few LAAT/le's just in case.

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Ooo, the police gunship variants. Those things are awesome. Now that Minda has Rothana's industry, those things are probably going to become a lot more common.

Like the market place, it sported an incredible rate of growth, attributed to an abundance of resources and an open immigration policy that focused on drawing immigrants here for manual labor.

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I mean when you start with only tens of thousands of people, trying to establish that base level of manpower is kind of a requirement.

The system grew and grew, infrastructure projects allowing for more growth, leading to a rare amount of prosperity in a sector so devoid of it.

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Ah yes, educated investing in infrastructure in the Outer Rim rather than yet another vanity project. Truly a rare sight.

What was truly odd, however, was the morale of the people. Thorne had seen many different populaces throughout his 15 years as an agent. The slave revolts, the valleys filled with slums and more. Oftentimes, the prosperity was either already there, or manufactured through suffering.

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The fact that all those examples are negative shows the places Thorne gets sent to. Yet it makes sense the ISB would get sent to the problem areas.

Yet, here, the Empire was popular. Stormtroopers were not avoided in the streets, and people cheered when large Imperial ships flew by the city. An investigation into the populace revealed a loyalty score of 78%. Far higher than average.

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A reminder the ISB tended to be fairly honest, if not pessimistic in its internal reports. If Minda's 78% is considered high, my guess is a lot of places had under 50% or worse.

Turning away from the window, he addressed the Major who had been standing at attention for the past 3 minutes and 12 seconds. He had been aware of his arrival for some time, but let the man wait. Patience was a virtue, and showcased the resolve needed to be a part of Thorne's operations. Those who could not wait would fall as quickly as they acted.

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And people wonder why the regular military doesn't like the ISB.

That was quick. Too quick. It had only been two weeks. This far exceeded normal operation times. Sloppiness? Maybe, but inconsistent with the previous attack. Not enough data.

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The Scarred Hand does not have Rebel Alliance support, so it is likely they don't have the resources or support to wait for another perfect chance. Also they are fanatics, and fanatics don't like waiting after a defeat.

They would likely pull from Rolling Greens now that they had been caught trying to get in. The fact that they didn't use droids this time around was odd. Why risk limited personnel? Regardless, they wanted destruction.

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Again all the droids they had were probably just the ones they could stuff in their ships' holds. Once they blow through that, they can't replenish now that they are running dry.

Still, it was nice to have an NCO's club. Not as nice as the Officers Lounge, but it was a step above the regular mess hall.

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The Officers Lounge has multiple flavors of Dessert Cubes. With imbedables even. The decadence.

So, the princess was not set to marry another clan of a few hundred, but a nation of nearly half a million souls.

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Remember the last unofficial population estimate of Minda put them around 500,000 permanent residents? This planet has that number in a single nation.

How did the Republic/Empire miss this!? Oh right no one cares about the Outer Rim.

Okay Las, just try to make this integration into the Galactic Empire smooth. Aim for getting the nobles' approval. Maybe bribe the industry leaders with tech and new markets. For political leader maybe wave the possibility of declaring Minda-2 a protectorate as an incentive to talk. Above all, try to avoid getting them declared non-sentient by the Empire.

Also, because I don't really know how it works, how do conventional militaries adapt to a dense jungle environment? Cause I doubt the Imperial Army, or even the Stormtroopers are fit for such a dense battlefield. There won't be a war per se, but conflict is expected at one point or another and I want to understand how that might go down better before I get to writing it. Any ideas or info is greatly appreciated.

Click to shrink...

Carriers and gunships. Carriers don't need to worry as much about their relatively low armor and firepower given Minda-2's low tech. All that hanger space will allow for minimal interaction with Minda-2's jungle and so the least amount of maintenance. Maybe Shal Mola could move her Star Destroyer here for a time.

The small fleet of gunships to allow for maximum mobility for Imperial forces. Minda is already sporting LAATs so ramping up production for Minda-2's forces should be doable. Maybe a few air superiority fighters for keeping the air griblies off the gunship's tails.

For ground buildings, focus could primarily be geared towards infantry and airpower. Larger emphasis on airfields and hospitals. Large ground fortifications to keep the ground griblies out. You aren't going to be invading the jungle, just maintain Imperial presence.

For ground forces, aim for quality rather than quantity. You don't need to conquer every small tribe of a couple hundred at this stage. Mass invasions are liable to devolve into a logistical nightmare.

Instead go for a large amount of strike teams. Aim for attacking and controlling key targets around the world via rapid air assaults. This planet has cities, controlling them controls the majority of the planet's population and production.

If you want a good picture, think the aliens invading Earth in X-Com. Air superiority, minimal ground forces number under 100 per combat unit max, and establishing bases to promote influence and submission.

 

[SirAlmond]

Oh poor las, if he actually gets made moff i think hes gonna cry. Like alot.

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He forgot one of the golden rules of bureaucracy, good work always gets rewarded with more work.

 

[ThedudeManBro]

Wait until he reaches Grand Moff by sheer competence ( and imposter syndrome), it will be hilarious when his mother has to take orders from him.

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Watch Palpatine pulling a Sheev and finagling things so he becomes Emperor.

Why? Because it's funny, someone has to keep the house standing before he somehow returns, and it's REALLY funny.

 

[Vengeful-Astartes]

I take back my comment about having the agent having an accident. I quite liked his pov in this chapter.

His thoughts and reasoning around Las and his efficiency is just great. I didn't even think of him being promoted to a position of greater power and the greater risk and paperwork that would accompany that promotion.

It would be perfect and hilarious for him to advance by sheer competence and efficiency.

Could almost see him forced to learn how to survive as a Moff or Grand Moff. Being ruthlessly, aggressively effective in combating corruption and slavery in order to maximise growth and productivity.

Maybe even catch Vaders eye once he climbs high enough. Could see him being given more and more work as a result of his successes despite him just wanting to stay under the rader.

 

[Yacov]

His thoughts and reasoning around Las and his efficiency is just great. I didn't even think of him being promoted to a position of greater power and the greater risk and paperwork that would accompany that promotion.

It would be perfect and hilarious for him to advance by sheer competence and efficiency.

Could almost see him forced to learn how to survive as a Moff or Grand Moff. Being ruthlessly, aggressively effective in combating corruption and slavery in order to maximise growth and productivity.

Click to shrink...

The issue with Las becoming Moff of the Myto Sector is that he will be pressured to enact his policies sector wide. That whole banning slavery and anti-monopoly thing are fairly easily doable on a frontier world, and a crime ridden cesspool.

Once you start doing it across a whole sector? That's when you run into problems. You start running afoul of the larger criminal gangs, Governors whose political agendas you just uprooted like a potted plant, political and lobbying groups who have spent centuries doing things a certain way, Imperial projects you start delaying in the transition, etc.

The sheer ingrained inertia is going to require a titanic amount of force, politics, and paperwork to slog through. Never mind doing while maintaining Imperial quotas. Growth and (outgoing) taxes tend to chaff against each other, especially when said taxes go towards another Death Star as a money sink.

 

[Mistroz]

Excellent chapter.

 

[The Returned]

Raise the Wedding banners!!! Our Governor is going to marry a princess to prevent an hostile nation in his sector!!

 

[TheHoneyPot]

Also, because I don't really know how it works, how do conventional militaries adapt to a dense jungle environment? Cause I doubt the Imperial Army, or even the Stormtroopers are fit for such a dense battlefield. There won't be a war per se, but conflict is expected at one point or another and I want to understand how that might go down better before I get to writing it. Any ideas or info is greatly appreciated.

Click to shrink...

In short? They don't not really. Jungle Warfare always comes down to guerilla warfare where you can walk right past eachother without realising it...

I recommend looking at the Brazilians and Indians for jungle warfare. Tough you might find american plans for the pacific to be highly valuable as well, due to the modernisation efforts and plans.

Spoiler: Basic summary of Jungle Warfare

View: %5BURL%5Dhttps://youtu.be/g3mS_ToE6Os?feature=shared[/URL]

Spoiler: What US Army basic J looks like

View: https://youtu.be/OwBYPgBK_OA?feature=shared

To see where things are headed in terms of changes to doctrine and tech that are relevant to jungle warfare as well as other environments from a US perspective, I highly recommend these two channels:

Spoiler: Cappy Army

https://youtube.com/@chriscappy?feature=shared

Spoiler: Task and Purpose

https://youtube.com/@taskandpurpose?feature=shared

These two channels are my go to channels to stay on top of developments as they tend to show how said developments might look like. I highly recommend recent videos regarding the pacific. Such as how the marines are currently adapting for potential conflict there.

Personally, I think in terms of star wars, you'd best have numerous LAAT's, that do most of the logistics, and aerial recon droids that can mayhaps with luck spot enemy activity as they fly between the jungle floor and its canopy....

Maybe just bomb the jungle from orbit to clear out and resupply areas, and if possible equipt the Storm Troopers for CQB. As the first video mentioned, its gonna be footwork and tediously slow at that.

Another option is to just mass gas the jungle, or burn it down, because honestly, the Jungle is the number one place where a lesser force gets a near equal playingfield. You shouldnt even want to think about having to send your troops in there in conflict with people who make it their home...

Ideally, you'd have Jungle Warfare Specialists from the empire, or the ablity to call them in. If you can only get a few, have them set up a Jungle training course right away.

 

[Watching]

He needed to be his best after all. The Governor was set to arrive soon, and his battalion would be escorting the delegation.

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Sounds like he's about to walk right into another assassination attempt soon while the ISB are distracted

 

[RedDeadShyguy]

The issue with Las becoming Moff of the Myto Sector is that he will be pressured to enact his policies sector wide. That whole banning slavery and anti-monopoly thing are fairly easily doable on a frontier world, and a crime ridden cesspool.

Once you start doing it across a whole sector? That's when you run into problems. You start running afoul of the larger criminal gangs, Governors whose political agendas you just uprooted like a potted plant, political and lobbying groups who have spent centuries doing things a certain way, Imperial projects you start delaying in the transition, etc.

The sheer ingrained inertia is going to require a titanic amount of force, politics, and paperwork to slog through. Never mind doing while maintaining Imperial quotas. Growth and (outgoing) taxes tend to chaff against each other, especially when said taxes go towards another Death Star as a money sink.

Click to shrink...

This is why it might be best to keep Las on a governor level, at best with two or three systems, some people put out the best they have at a very certain level, Las in all honesty is one of them, that and it'll lead to the old issue marvel and dc fics tend to have where they start off on a street level and spiral out of control.

 

[Abba is the best]

A reminder the ISB tended to be fairly honest, if not pessimistic in its internal reports. If Minda's 78% is considered high, my guess is a lot of places had under 50% or worse.

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Honestly try find any nation with a 78% agreement with their government, (wherein the statistics are not purposely being manipulated) the number is actually very good even by our standards, much less a fascistic empire.

Also historically you only need 10% of a population to be completely loyal to you to control the other 90, at least in the case of more agrarian societies where those 10% are given high quality weapons, armor and training.

The outer rim is ironically enough mostly made up of planets with population centers that are similar to bronze age and iron age population centers In terms of size at least, and as well in terms of mostly focusing on agrarian development. This inherently makes it so the empire doesn't need too many forces to control a population, just a strong cadre of soldiers and a relatively small portion of the local population as collaborators, Think the Normans in England for a good historical example of a small force of like 10,000 soldiers taking over a population of aproximately 2,000,000.

sure there are colonies that are only mines in star wars but those are not the majority of the ocupied planets controled by the empire.

I take back my comment about having the agent having an accident. I quite liked his pov in this chapter.

His thoughts and reasoning around Las and his efficiency is just great. I didn't even think of him being promoted to a position of greater power and the greater risk and paperwork that would accompany that promotion.

It would be perfect and hilarious for him to advance by sheer competence and efficiency.

Could almost see him forced to learn how to survive as a Moff or Grand Moff. Being ruthlessly, aggressively effective in combating corruption and slavery in order to maximise growth and productivity.

Maybe even catch Vaders eye once he climbs high enough. Could see him being given more and more work as a result of his successes despite him just wanting to stay under the rader.

Click to shrink...

Ahh the horror of having to do paperwork for darth vader would be hilarious to read.

The issue with Las becoming Moff of the Myto Sector is that he will be pressured to enact his policies sector wide. That whole banning slavery and anti-monopoly thing are fairly easily doable on a frontier world, and a crime ridden cesspool.

Once you start doing it across a whole sector? That's when you run into problems. You start running afoul of the larger criminal gangs, Governors whose political agendas you just uprooted like a potted plant, political and lobbying groups who have spent centuries doing things a certain way, Imperial projects you start delaying in the transition, etc.

The sheer ingrained inertia is going to require a titanic amount of force, politics, and paperwork to slog through. Never mind doing while maintaining Imperial quotas. Growth and (outgoing) taxes tend to chaff against each other, especially when said taxes go towards another Death Star as a money sink.

Click to shrink...

Yea, the work nessesary would be too great for him to do alone and he would need a far larger powerbase to even think of taking over. To be fair he could simply use the position to enact a limited development plan across only the planets on the main hyperspace trade routes which if im remembering the map of the sector right (i honestly couldnt find it after looking for afew minuites in order to check) is like 3 routes leading from the capital outwards, with 2 of those going outside of the sector.

by effectively replacing those in power on the most economically powerful sectors and successfully enacting his development policies there, he could create a system that benefits those that align with him enough that the corrupt systems that are run by the traditional imperials would chose to conform In order to benefit.

The only unfortunate aspect of this is that it would only work if he has a large enough powerbase and manpower pool already trained up and loyal to him in order to start the whole thing, which as far as we can see now he doesn't have yet.

Perhaps in afew years he could manage it after afew years of graduates from minda's booming educational systems (depending on how many years a traditional navy, army or likewise officer and troops take respectively), or if he gets political and economic support from factions within the empire. I think one of the EU books mentioned the Ithorians being very politically active in environmental and economical development schemes for outer rim planets even during the empire's reign had a very strong political and economic presence through the core. In the end, I think i agree though that he simply doesn't have the resources or current contacts to achive meaningful changes without outside support.

It also doesn't help that due to the outer rim running like it has for millennia, the current status quo is what everyone is used to and will take far longer to change without a strong impetus for it. Minda succeeded specifically because it benefited from an authoritarian control of the goverment and economy, a heavy migration changing population averages and rapid industrialisation causing a rapid societal shift in the majority of the population, compounded with the constant low levels of propaganda ensuring that the immigration is full of the type of people that want change and are willing to accept risks in order to get it (which historically doesn't make up the majority of humans).

Overall the mindan economic miracle is simlly not something easily replicated on a system wide scale without far too many prerequisites that Las simply doesn't have acess to.

Though the economic depression (or at least shocks) that the destruction of the death star is likely to cause may have some benefits for a more limited development plan in regards to the brain gain (far less well known term for the opposite of a brain drain) that will push more educated immigrants from the core to move to a rapidly developing world on the outer rim.

It's funny in a way that the pip boy knockoffs will work as the most helpful longterm advertisement for immigration than anything las could have done normally. I could see it as working kind of like how the lord of the rings movies worked for tourism in New Zealand, exept for engineers and programmers and those kinds of fields rather than tourism obviously.

 

[Sonifri]

Ideally, you'd have Jungle Warfare Specialists from the empire, or the ablity to call them in. If you can only get a few, have them set up a Jungle training course right away.

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This being Star Wars, I just have to assume that there are species native to jungle environments, ones that actually enjoy it because they evolved that way. It would make sense to form a small mercenary company that hires soldiers from jungle species just for this one planet.

 

[TheHoneyPot]

This being Star Wars, I just have to assume that there are species native to jungle environments, ones that actually enjoy it because they evolved that way. It would make sense to form a small mercenary company that hires soldiers from jungle species just for this one planet.

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That would certainly help, especially if they got militairy jungle warfare training ontop of that.

That said, I imagine theres going to be as many differences as simularities between jungles on vastly different worlds. They'd still need time to aclimatise and study up. The native race calling the jungle home will remain at an enormous advantage, especially as they actually know the lay of the land in a way they wont.

I hope for the mc he finds common ground with the natives, or atleast some of them, because if he needs to send his regular storm troopers into the jungle, into conflict... he's gonna have a lot of casualties.

 

[vtkun]

thanks for the chapter