The Rebels
Fighting the powers that be

The Rebels are a race of humans that developed in much the same way as the other humanoid races. They evolved over a long period of time until reaching this current stage in their evolutionary path. The Rebels are believed to come from the same starsystem as the Evil Empire, where they reportedly lived at a constant state of war with one-another. Although both these races physically evolved in much the same way, they have a radically different social structure. Legend has it that both the Rebels and the Evil Empire were once one and the same race together, but have split in two because of their incompatible social beliefs.

Once split up from the race that would later evolve into the Evil Empire, the Rebel Confederation's social and governmental development was mainly of a much diplomatic and serene nature. This government encouraged the pursuit of freedom and art. It encouraged people to be involved in their government and gave them the right of self determination. In their search for races with similar beliefs, the Rebels visited many worlds and widely spread their view on the universe. Sadly, this did not earn them much respect from other races' governments. Many of the governments did not like the dissension that this was causing on their worlds. Deaf to any and all requests to stop their Rebellious actions, the Rebel Confederation made many enemies.

Finally, the other governments decided it was too much and pledged an alliance to stop the rebels. With their combined resources, knowledge and intelligence, they planned to put an end to these Rebellious actions once and for all. The Evil Empire, which had by then developed into a strictly militaristic social structure, was the perfect tool for this. The result was a long and bloody war, smashing the better part of the Rebel Confederation but never totally defeating them. Although they had developed some level of spacefare capabilities and warfare, the Rebel army was no match for the large Evil Empire. The Rebels were split up into several surviving groups, but never totally eliminated.

Now the remaining Rebel groups back in their home-starsystem are forced to live in hiding, their revenge limited to guerilla actions. They did prove that under pressure people often reach their best preformances, resulting in some very pleasing victories over vastly superiour numbers and firepower. Over the years the Rebels improved their battleships, and through strategical alliances with native races they even learned to build some large battlecarriers. Some other Rebel fractions have chosen to venture out into the galaxy, looking for new systems and cluster to live in and rebuild a society. One of those Fractions has now landed in the Echo Cluster, ready to make a new beginning.

Race advantages
The Rebels, evolved into a race mainly relying on fighter-warfare, can build fighters onboard their ships without the usual price of 100 megacredits. Any Rebel ship with fighterbays and the right combination of minerals and supplies onboard will automatically convert the materials into fighters. During their guerilla days the Rebels developed a way to lure planetary defenseposts, and can not be attacked by planetary defenses. This allows them to safely orbit any planet, as long as there are no enemy ships there.

Race disadvantages
During their history of warfare, the Rebels apparently haven't had to deal with minefields a whole lot. Most of their ships have only a small amount of beams, so they are a bit vulnerable in that department.

Special mission
Used on many planets during their years of guerilla warfare, the Rebels have the ability to perform a Rebel Ground Attack on all colonized planets. This mission is aimed at disrupting the lives of the colonists, destroying minerals, money, supply-units, mineral mines, factories and even part of the colonist population. The remaining colonist population will become more unhappy with each Rebel groundattack, while the natives on the planet become happier with every attack. Apparently the natives don't like to be ruled by some colonist race.

Main battleships
The Rebel shiplist is pretty biased towards launching fighters into battle. The Patriot Class Carrier is a medium-sized warship. It is very effective in battles against small to medium ships and planets, but only has a limited cargospace so has to be refilled often. The main Rebel battleship is the tech 10 Rush Class Heavy Carrier. With it's ten fighterbays and immense cargohold it's a dangerous ship, although not the most dangerous in the cluster. The Iron Lady Class Frigate is the Rebel ship with the highest amount of beams - it has eight of them. However, it is easily captured in combat so it should avoid combat where possible.

Special ships
The Falcon Class Escort has a Hyperjumping device built into the hull, allowing the ship to move up to 360 lightyears through space in one jump. This makes the Falcon excellent for far-away surprise attacks (Rebel Ground Attacks), for setting up distant clusters of planets or to resupply battlegroups in the frontlines.

Gameplay in short
The Rebels are a pretty balanced race to play. Their cheap small and medium ships plus the Falcon, combined with their immunity to planetary attacks and their Rebel Ground Attack give them the option to seriously burden other races early in the game. Later on, when it comes to the real fighting, the Rushes become more important in the Rebel Confederation. With the ability to build fighters onboard their ships and the relative low cost of their spaceships, the Rebels shouldn't have too much trouble to keep their head above water in the ever hostile Echo Cluster.