Event one: The Empiror orders the destruction of the Guruptu. This mission includes Tree(hybrid), Vasator (Terran), and Mehldar (psych). Meanwhile this is what is going in in the galaxy. The remanats of the Taltoninan empire have been slowly rebuilding in their sector. They now have a force large enough to start making raids on small Imperium colonies. Their new homeworld is based in a hidden area in an inner sector system. (Note any night pictures here will need a very high star density with rather largish stars) Their objective is to slowly acquire materials and personel to retake the galaxy. They can do this by take resource rich systems and freeing slaves, etc. They want to work slowly for now.

There is a time travel project being run by the Imperium. This project includes the Gilgamesh, which is the most powerful ship ever built. This project is top secret, and the objective is to send the Gilgamesh back in time to attack the Taltonian homeworld, thereby starting the Taltonian war. What the Imperium doesn't know is that the project leader has bigger and better plans for the project. He wishes to use this project to put himself on the empiror's throne.

The Black Valkery are begining to become a real threat to the Imperium. Nolonger just a small band of rebels, they are well trained and well armed and they now are looking to start taking and holding systems. They start small and get bigger. By the time the game starts, they have taken several systems in out laying sectors, and are planning a push to take a whole sector. They move from there to taking important sectors, and then toseizing the Imperium out right. (assuming they are not destroyed first) Add to this the Mega-corps. When the Imperium was founded the Emperor rewarded certain corporations which had supported him with funding before he came to power. In return, the corporations were given special protected and tax free status. These corporation were; Alartan-Jermail, Vantech, Rolonco, and Freman Shipping Lines. These corporations were able to parley there special status into powerful monopolies. Fierce rivalry developed between these corporations. As long as the Imperium was not directly affected by the corporate wars, they did nothing to interfere. As a result, each of these corporations built up their own security and espionage forces. Into this foray comes the independent traders union (ITU). These are freighter pilots and traders, and merchants who have decided for various reasons, that they are not doing business with the mega-corps any longer. The ITU attracted some honest business men, but it also attracted pirates, smugglers, and of course, the Black Valkery. This basically turned the ITU into a black-market organization. Because of Imperial disapproval of mercenaries, the ITU is the only place mercs can purchase equipment.Each of them is vying for total control, and none of them are afraid to use what ever means to accomplish their goal. They areengaged in sabotage and espionage again their competition. There will be a chance that eachof these Mega-corps will lend covert help to the Black Valkery as they become more sucessful, and if they manage to take the resource rich sector, all of the Mega-corps will make some contact with them. As they make further gains, they will have even more contact. The ITU will also have a part to play in all this. As the Mega-corps start to get friendly with the Black Valkery, ITU will try to discredit the Mega-corps. A big branch in all this is the interaction of the Black Valkery and the Taltonians. How do they interact? do they co-operate, or do they fight each other and the Imperium, or do they just ignore each other? The player will need to have some say in this(assuming the player is a rebel.) The events for the first part of the game a mostly set. Rebel and Merc players will start the same way, with randomly generated mission to prove themselves. The Imp player will be fit into other planetary supression type missions, with a few guard this important convoy/prisoner/supply depot type missions. after a few missions, then we start to see the following develop. The Imperium is consolidating its hold on its military. There have been a rash of defections and desertions, and they are implementing a policy to insure that this does not happen again. They embark on a number of campains to punish defectors and the planets that hide them. The Mega-corps have also embarked on a campain to eliminate ITU and pirate activities in the inner sectors. They have also requested and obtained Imperium help in this matter. Mean while, the Black Valkery are ready to take a whole sector. They Target the Aranth sector. It is remote and of little interest to the Imperium, and the Black Valkery already have a number of bases in the sector. The assualt on hte sector begins with a basic scouting run into a system which will be used as a staging area. There are both pirates and Taltonians in this system, but no Imps. The progress of teh invasion goes as follows; several supply raids to destroy/steal Imp supplies, siezing key jumpgates, several raids on key troop/ship concentrations in repair dock/R&R type settings, and lastly seizing key systems in the sector. The Imperium forces will likely fall back to the sector capitol for a final battle. It should be noted that Imperium forces will be generally better trained and equiped than the black Valkery, thus the Rebels will need a about a 2:1 or better advantage to have a good chance of victory. In this case the Black Valkery will be concentrating their forces, and will have at least a 5:1 advantage. If they join with the Taltonains the advantage in the Aranth sector jumps to 10:1 or better. In other words, Even if a rebel player fails every mission he is assigned, there is not way the Rebels can lose, because the Imps will not be willing to send enough forces to save it. After this sector is in Rebel hands, The rebel will then engage in a two pronged effort. First there will be the covert ops prong. This includes such things as diplomatic missions to gain allies, and intel missions to sabotage command and control infrastructure free prisoners and gain info about Imp strengths and weaknesses. The second prog is a series of hit and run missions designed to sap Imp strength. These would include missions to destroy or capture Imperium ships and equipment at nabal bases supply depots and repair docks. The Imperium is begining to see the Rebels as a real threat for the first time. At this point they will start expending effort to find out what the rebels are doing. This would include things like missions to capture rebels, effort to scout out rebel bases, and small scale missions against rebel outpost and supply sources, as well as missions against systems with rebel sympathies. They will also begin to finance mission against the rebels in to Aranth sector(i.e. hiring pirates and mercenaries to attack the sector) They are a bit too spread out to be willing to use their own military to atack it themselves. The Imperium will also begin the gathering and training of a sizable force designed to be a quick strike/quick reaction force to deal with the Rebels when and where ever they appear. The Imperium is still arrogant and they still see the rebels as only a nuisance and not a threat to their survival. The end results of the preceding missions will do little more than deterime the strength of the forces each side will have in the next big conflict. Mission failures by the Rebel player will result in the delay of teh next phase,(i.e. they will need to do more missions) until the Black Valkery leaders are convinced that they have enough forces for a major showdown. The recuiting of teh Taltonina remnants will be a top priority for them in the diplomatic missions. A possible set of Imp missions might be to sour the relationship between the Taltonians and the rebel so no alliance is formed. If this is accomplished, then a new senario for the following show-down must be developed, and the rebels will take longer to gather the needed forces for athe showdown. The new show down would need to be in the resource rich sector and until then the Rebels will do more ship destruction/stealing sabotage/subverting Imp officer type mission until they are strong enough. Anyway, assuming that the BV and the Taltonians are together, then this is how the big confrontation will develop. First will be a number of raids mission by mostly Taltonian forces(augmented by other forces but most Taltonian) These would be comerse raids, Planetary raids, Naval patrol ambushes, raids on military bases and such. There will be many kinds of these and the play should be free to pick and choose what type of mission he or she wants. The player will have about four of these types of missions. Next will be the missions to plant false info, free slaves, then capture Imps to get info. Next will be counter espionage missions. The raid missions will accomplish their purpose even if the mission objectives are not met. Any failure in a planting false info raid will have a chance of reducing the number of Imp forces which are sent to deal with the BV Taltonian forces. Failure in counter-espionage missions will have a tendency to alert the Imp to the possiblity of a trap being set. If the Imps get enough info about it, they will send a very large force. This is the only way the Imps would be able to resonably win the confrontation. The rebel player should be faced here with the option of betreying the Rebels to the Imperium. This would result in the Imp sending a massive force. This is designed as a trap with massive force being used against the Imps. Their normal responce will be to send a large force, but one which the combined BV Taltonian fleets can farily easily defeat. A larger Imp force will be able to make the outcome uncertain, hence the combat missions will become very important. A massive Imp force would have a clear advantage. Last comes the actual battle. The battle should be broken into 3(or more) missions:
1)Intial contact
2)Critical taget elimination (this could actually be more than one mission)
3)mop up

These mission will depend on the type of force the Imps send. A rebel loss here eliminates any significant contribution by the Taltoninas in the future, and will result in the Imps persuing the BV vigorusly. A major Rebel victory will likely mean hte the Mega-corps will begin to make some secret overtures to the BV, while as that happens, the ITU will start a campain to discredit the Mega-corps. The rebel player will need to try to capture as many ships as he can, but if they can not be capture quickly to destroy them. The idea is to aguement their own forces while eliminating as many Imp ships as possible, thus ruducing the Imperium's ablity to reinforce any future targets. The Imperium player will have the primary gaol of crushing all resistance, but once the battle is joined, his supiriors may give the orders to retreat. This will mean that control of the jump gates will be critical to both sides.

An Imperium victory in the above battle will result in an all out campain to crush the rebels. The first step is to retake the Aranth sector, and that would be followed by a systematic elimination of all rebel held systems. A decisive Imp victory would doom the rebelion. A marginal Imp victory would most likely doom the rebelion, depending on the number of rebel ships that manage to escape. With a force large enough to hold the Aranth sector, they might have a chance. The rebel strategy would be to steal and destroy as many Imp shipyards as possible. The missions would be mostly sabotage, but with a few stealing missions. They would also be attempting to sabotage ships in service as well or subvert the crews. They would be forced to be a bit more of a terrorist outfit in this case. If they managed to then becaome strong enought, they would need to engineer another showdown, which they would need to win. If they won, they coulld then continue with the seizing of the resource rich sector.

If the Rebels are sucessful, the Imperium will not have a viable quick reaction force, and will be forced to start a major military build up. This will mean that the Mega-corps will be running many gather resourses type missions and many deliver military supplies. It will also mean that shipyards will be at working as fast as they can. The rebels realized that they must work quickly. They have an advantage now, but ina few months the Imperium will regain that advantage as they get new ships and train new crews. They also need resources in vast amounts. The resource rich sector then becomes a critical next step, but they must move quickly. The invasion must also be completed quickly. If the Imperium is given time, they could bring in reinforcements from other sectors(but they would weaken the defences of those sectors). The rebels first step in the planning of an invation would be to stage raids on other sector to cuase the Imps be uncertain where the next move would come. This would be followed by attacks on supply convoys and shipyards to further weaken the Imps.The first step in the actual invasion would be to seize the critical jump-gates in the sector. The next step is to divide the forces not left at jump-gates into two forces which will each seize one naval base and two administrative centers. Once this is done, then the sector is theirs after a few mop-up operations. Failure to take any of these six targets will allow then to construct a jump-gate and allow Imp reinforcements to enter at will. If the sector is taken, then the Rebels will begin to build ships at maximum rate. This will lead to next set of missions. Having taken this sector, it is clear that the rebelion has a good chance of taking over, so here the Mega-corps really begin to get friendly with the rebels. The ITU will push to have itself installed as the only authorized traders under teh new regeime. ITU hired mercs will be pushing to find any dirt they can on any of the mega-corps. Mega-corp mercs will be trying to discredit other mega-corps and the ITU. At this point both sides will be looking for ways to knock the other side out. There will be a number of missions to assasinate key members of each side. If the Imps are able to assasinate key members of the BV it will have little lasting effect, but might slow them down a little. On the other hand, if the Empiror or the cheif of the secret police are killed, then there will likely be considerable disruption on hte Imp side, and if the Empiroe is killed, it is likely the the Imps will have much in fighting for a short period of time. Any assasination mission against the Empiror would need to be made extremely difficult. There will also be efforts to subvert high ranking members of the Imperium's military.

If the Imperium manages to launch a sucessful counter-attack and push the rebels out of the resourse rich sector, then the Rebels will need to regroup, and the Empiror will be a major target. The rebels will need ships and lots of them quickly. They will likely be a bit desperate, and will go to extremes in order to get ships. the Imps will try to find and destroy the rebels ASAP pushing while the rebels are down. If the Taltoninas were not allied with the BV, this would be a wonderful time for them to push out and take over. If the Imps mount a counter attack that fails, they will be extremely vulnerable, and will be forced to pull most of their forces back to the Imperial home sector, leaving the rest of the galaxy open to therebels. If teh rebels are victoriuos, they will embark on a campain to take the capitol sector. They start with raids to cut-off the sector, then the start to attack the fringes of the sector. Next they gather forces and seize key jump-gate. Next the seize key naval bases and ship yards, then they take the capitol system of the Imperium and try to capture the Empiror and his officals for trial.

The time travel project will be handled a bit differently. It is most likely to be encountered by a mercenary player, and may be encounter at any time after the mercenary player has estabolished a reputation for himself. There will be a certain mission that he can take to learn about the time travel project. If he doesn't accept this mission, it goes away after say two or three chances at it and there after there will be no other chances to learn about it. The Rebel and Imp player will also have a smaller chance of learning about this project. Once they learn about the project, they can choose to persue it when they want unless they are the rebel player. the rebel player, once he reports his findings about this project will have the matter taken out of his hands. If he chooses not to report the project, he will be free to persue it when ever he likes. To persue the project, the player must first build up a sizable force, explore the area around the project, then attack the project site.

The last bit of the update is as follows. I am enclosing the general outline for the mercenary player(pretty much regardless of race) Now here is the basic outline of branches for the Mercenary character. He can choose to take missions only from one mega-corp, or from all of them. He can also work with or even for the ITU. Along those lines he can use the ITU as a way to get into the Black Valkery movement.

I would suggest about 15-25 possible missions here. These missions will be to build up a reputation for Tree. You could have a bar where he can go to select missions and he can choose his missions. The player will need to complete say 5-10 missions successfully in order to build up funds and a reputation. For the merc character I would suggest a number of missions be available and that the player then be able to choose which mission he wishes to take. Initially the mission will be unimportant and small, then increase in importance/profitability as the character gets more experience. The basic types of mission would be:

1)Guard/attack a space freighter convoy. (space fighter missions)
2)guard/attack a warehouse/factory to steal/destroy stuff (mech/airplane missions)
3)espionage missions (mostly of the shooter kind, but could be mech also, and maybe even a spaceship/fly in to the ship and then do a shooter mission then fly out type mission)

As the merc gains a rep, particularly if he does a lot for one party, he will be trusted, and put on more important missions. He will be given the option of stealing from one of the Mega-corps to supply himself/ the rebels or what ever. of course if he does that he will not longer be welcome by the mega-corp he stole from, and if he supplies the ITU or rebels, none of the mega-corps will hire him again. We could also add a trigger mission which if he accepts he will learn about the time-travel project, but if he doesn't take it he never learns about it. After a minimum of 15 to a max of 25 missions, he can start to go in one direction or another(i.e. imp, rebel or even Taltonian, or just a pirate) and the missions should start to effect the galaxy as a whole. At this point the merc may decide to join one side or the other. after mission 15, the option to be involved in the action in the fighting in the Aranth(I also called this the remote sector) sector. I still think that the characters actions in this conflict could do little more than make the loss less severe for the Imperium. after about 20 misions there will be a lull in the Black Valkery-Imperium battles, but possible Taltonian connections could pop up here. I am assuming that the Black Valkery and Taltonians will work together. The Taltonians not joining the Black Valkery will be a option saved on for the Rebel player(because the player will decide the outcome of that only if he is a rebel. If the player has no say in the matter I determine the outcome) Next comes the real pivot point in this line this is the big battle between the Imperium and the Black Valkery/Taltonians. I see the players actions in this engagement as being able to start effecting the flow of the game ina major ways from here. If teh player has serious rebel leanings, then the game should basically play out like the rebel player from here, with teh type of assignment being different, but the plot being basically the same. The big difference here would be the pirate option. If he choses to be a pirate, then most of the events will continue as per the rebel option, but the type of missions the player takes will not be directly related to the war. player has Imperial leanings, the battle will be taken to the Black Valkery and the Taltonians. The last option for the player is to involve himself with one of the Mega-corps. He will then be involved in corporate espionage/sabotage, protection of convoys for pirate, etc. (missions like a new weapon/ship is being tested in a battle by a rival Corp. the jobs is to sabotage the weapon/ship to discredit the rival corp. The Player could also take more of an ITU bent as well.