Quote:

The Sirius Revolutionary Voice

Basic Information:

Faction name: The Sirius Revolutionary Voice, the SRV, or more commonly known as the Mensheviks.
Faction IFF/ID: Freelancer IFF, Freelancer ID.
Faction tagging system: One does not exist. Tags are obvious, and we must blend in with the proletariats to survive.

Background Story:

The Sirius Revolutionary Voice, SRV, or more commonly known as the Mensheviks, is a miniscule faction that believes in the teachings of Karl Marx. Mensheviks were a faction of the Russian Revolution movement that emerged in 1903 after the split of the Social Democratic Party. The Mensheviks were the minority, whilst their opposition, the Bolsheviks, were the majority.

The Mensheviks believed in Marxism, which stated that the fall of Capitalism was inevitable and that it would be replaced by a Communist state. Their aim was to educate the workers and the peasants to form a revolutionary consciousness amongst them. The Bolsheviks believed that a small group of revolutionaries should rise up and take power, then educate the workers and peasants in Communism later.

The group was outlawed in 1921 and individual leaders were believed to have died or gone underground. But, as few believed, the group had not been completely wiped out.

Karl Marx, the man who created Marxism and gave the Mensheviks their views.

During the years of the Alliance - Coalition war, the group made a surprising return to the theatre. It is not known how the group had survived the two hundred years of silence. They moved into Alliance territory and spread the revolutionary talk amongst the workers. Many spies were turned over to the Alliance where they were executed, but even more were successful in their work.

They also had spies in the Coalition, and several high-ranking positions were filled with their operatives. These officers were able to enlist new Mensheviks into the Coalition and their influence quickly grew.

They had planned to overthrow the leaders of the Coalition and replace it with their own men. Then they would educate the workers of the Alliance in Communist ideology until they rose up and took the Capitalist regime out and replaced it with a new, better Communist state. But once they learned of the Alliance plan to leave in Sleeper Ships, their plans quickly changed.

Their officers on the inside managed to send their operatives in and take places on the Sleeper Ships. They were disguised to the Coalition, and the success of the disguise meant that fifty-eight snuck onto the Sleeper Ships.

There were thirty aboard the Hispania, eight aboard the Rheinland, four aboard the Liberty, four aboard the Bretonia and four aboard the Kusari. The fate of the final eight is not known. They were agents on the Gallia, but no word was received about their status. The Gallia was discovered only weeks before the launch, and the frenzy of panic in this meant that valuable agents did not make it aboard any of the six Sleeper ships. It was assumed the Gallia had been destroyed, but when the house was revealed in 817A.S. that theory was put to rest, being replaced by the theory that they had died without passing on their views. But it has yet to be proved.

The Hispania. SCRA pilots visit this wreck as a test, but most Mensheviks see it as the carrier of their beliefs to the Sirius Sector.

The agents joined the SCRA and continued to keep their disguises. But eventually, after hundreds of years of the teachings being passed down, suspicion was evident amongst the leaders of the Coalition's army. They did not know how their cover had been blown, but they knew they had to flee.

Their beliefs meant the SCRA would kill them if they had enough of a hunch about their ideas of Marxism. Their numbers were now approximately two thousand, they could not all escape.

But they tried anyway. It was later revealed a spy had been amongst the spies, and had been gathering names for the Army to execute. The Coalition had been expecting an escape, and had prepared. Hundreds of the Mensheviks died whilst trying to escape Planet Volgograd. Hundreds more died in their ships when Zvezdny Gorodok sent forth an entire Red Squadron to shoot them down like the flies the Coalition now saw them as.

But, as had been previously shown, some survived. Successfully escaping Omega-52, the sixty that had escaped fled to Planet New Berlin in the various ships they now piloted. Ten were shot down by Coalition ships chasing the group, but when they entered the trade lane system the Coalition pilots quickly pulled back.

Now on Planet New Berlin, the remaining Mensheviks thought their situation through. They were few in numbers, with only a few million credits and civilian ships they found on Volgograd and were able to steal. Most of which were hunks of metal barely worthy of avoiding the scrap yard.

They decided on three objectives their group would always be sworn to. One, to educate the workers of the galaxy in the teachings of Marxism. Two, to inevitably lead a revolution that would replace the Capitalist regime and replace it with a new Communist state. And three, to stop the SCRA from completely their revolution and taking control of the galaxy.

They saw the SCRA as Bolsheviks. They may not be the 1900 businessmen opposed against a Czarist regime, but they were Bolsheviks. They were trying to force a revolution using the teachings of Karl Marx as their weapon. But they were the opposite of Marxism.

The Sirius Revolutionary Voice was formed, but it was only the beginning of the Menshevik's new campaign.

Faction roster:

• Character name - Forum name - Ship
  
• Julius Martov - The Sandvich Thief - Starflier
  
• Dean Shepherd - Maj. Sovok - Starblazer
  

Diplomatic Status (In their eyes, not particularly in the listed factions eyes):
No Menshevik ships are to attack any ships, no matter what they show up as on the diplomatic status.
Allies:

• Other Marxist followers.
  

Friendlies:

• The workers of Sirius (Anyone in civilian organisations).
  
• House police and military low ranking officers (Still in the position to be taught about the inevitable fall of their system, they are more likely to join the fight against capitalims then their high ranking brethren).
  

Neutrals:

• None.
  

Unfriendlies:

• None.
  

Hostile/War:

• Capitalism supporters.
  
• House police and military high ranking officers (Benefitting greatly from the capitalist regime).
  
• Pirates (Stealing from those who earned their money fairly. The Mensheviks are sickened by pirates).
  
• Leninist followers (Their beliefs, although for a communist regime, are the opposite of Marxism. The SCRA are a prime example of Leninist followers).
  

Ship list:
(These stats have been taken from the Wiki)

• Name - Weapons - Cargo - Hull - NB/SB - Price - Notes
  
• Starflier - 3/0 - 20 - 1,100 - 10 - $12,400 - Civilian; starting ship
  
• Startracker - 3/0 - 30 - 1,800 - 15 - $35,020 - Civilian
  
• Civilian Shuttle - 4/0 - 35 - 1,900 - 17 - $45,420 - Civilian
  
• Basalt - 4/1 - 30 - 2,600 - 18 - $72,160 - Civilian LF with a torpedo mount
  
• Starblazer - 4/0 - 35 - 3,100 - 35 - $179,770 - Civilian
  
• Hawk - 4/0 - 45 - 3,300 - 26 - $196,370 - Civilian
  

There would be Freighters, but no Civilian ones are in the budget. Basicly only MkI Civilian Light Fighters are available to us.

Fund monitor:

This is a role-play scheme designed to limit the growth of the faction. When the remaining Mensheviks escaped from Volgograd (in role-play) they had very limited funds. They would survive at first with the credits they had, but over time their funding would grow desperately low. Therefore when the funding is desperately low the faction leader(s) will look for other communist factions to search for funds.

Original funds: $28,737,945
Funding member (Julius Martov): $400,000
Funding member (Dean Shepherd): $400,000

Funds remaining: $27,937,945

• No ships more than, say, 400,000 credits.
  
• Weak weapons, but strong enough to defend against NPC fighters.
  
• Bad equipment (weak shields, bad scanners, terrible thrusters). All to keep to the budget.
  
  More small facts, I haven't written anything serious up yet:
  
  
  
• Freelancer IFF, Freelancer ID.
  
• No tag so no power-gamers can hunt us down easily.
  
• A broad ZoI, most of Sirius really.
  
• No PVP, ONLY in self defence. This faction is supposed to have extremely limited resources, so even losing a Humpback would be a knife in the leg to them.
  

Quote: The Mensheviks used to do that, but many were handed over to the Czar's secret police (the Okhrana) and, well, banished or killed.

' Wrote:Many Bolsheviks were Ohrana agents... just like there was only one true Bolshevik in high council of party in Moscow - other were Ohrana agents...

Quote:SCRA follows The Doctrine of Lenin-Trotsky-Guevara

Quote:Mienshevik follows Luxenburgianism?

Quote:BTW hear of Botzler here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBmE2bABqTs
that could be usefull later

' Wrote:Hmm, I've never heard of Luxemburgism (found the spelling in Wikipedia) before, can you explain it?

Quote:United Forever in Friendship and labour....