Red Star Alliance

Description
The Red Star Alliance is a confederation of like minded individuals spread throughout the galaxy. The alliance counts among it's member beings Diplomats, Jedi, Smugglers, Traders, Bounty Hunters, and even the occasional governmental leader. The core of the alliance are the mutally benefical relationships that it's members have with each other. When one member needs help they can always count on the others to help them in whatever way they can. It is an arrangemetn that has allowed the Alliance to flourish in the shadows of modern galactic society for an untold number of years.

History
The Beginnings of the Red Star Alliance are murky at best, the earliest recorded evidence of it's existence date back to the golden age of the Old Republic, when the Jedi Order served as keepers of the peace. During that time the Chren Star Cluster was nothing more than a pack of just settled colonies from the Core worlds. There was little in the way of government and pirates and outlaws were rampant in the region often preying on the meekly defended trade convoys that were beginning to trace routes through the Star Cluster. It was during this time that it is believed the RSA, as it has come to be most widely known, first emerged.

The RSA of that time frame was a small group of ship captains, merchants, and tradesmen who had grown weary of the constant harassment of the fringers. They banded together pooling their own resources to give birth to the Alliance. They outfitted a small fleet of light freighters and corvettes with the best weapons and defenses that were available. It only took several attempted raids for the pirates of the region to learn to give the RSA convoys a wide berth or risk the teeth of their guns and fighters. As word spread of the Alliance throughout the cluster more and more beings from all walks of life joined the Alliance, swelling its ranks and it's power in the region. Within a few years of it's formation this loose coalition counted as it's members most of the Cluster's merchants and tradesmen as well a significant portion of it's freighter captains. The wide spread popular support that the Alliance achieved also brought with it a broad based political support in the Cluster's systems. It is during this timeframe that the first record of a system delegating police authority to RSA personnel appears. The Chren Prime system, which as the home base of the Red Star Alliance had quickly become the heart of the Star Cluster, authorized the almost ever present RSA defenders to enforce it�s laws and take on the powers of it's police force.

The act of the Chren Prime government was soon mimicked by the majority of the settlements in the star cluster setting the stage for the RSA to become the unofficial government of the Chren Star Cluster. Outside of the isolation of the star cluster the Old Republic was being torn asunder by the start of the clone wars, though little word of this reached the Chren inhabitants. In the end it was ascendance of the Empire and the influx of refugees from the Old Republic that prompted the people of the Chren Cluster to sit up and take notice. In reaction to this new threat to the freedoms of trade and thought they had enjoyed throughout the Clone Wars the Chren systems banded together and in an overwhelming vote of confidence opened door for the Red Star Alliance to become the overreaching government of the Cluster as a whole. The Alliance, whose members already held a majority of public offices, responded quickly to the referendum, transitioning their governing structures to the new challenges that would face them.

The first order of business was a governmental charter, followed quickly by a transitioning of the Alliance�s paramilitary units into the standing fleet that the fledgling government would need to stave off any encroachment by the Empire. This standing fleet would soon be augmented by vessels fleeing the Empire's iron fisted rule and enhanced by designs provided by several of those refugees. With the energy and promise of the new RSA government burgeoning, it began a building program to strengthen its positions in the cluster. Space defense platforms were raised and orbital shipyards constructed. Orbital hydroponics farms were planned to support the rapidly expanding populations of the Chren systems. In the span of time that it took the Empire to gain control over the majority of what was once the Old Republic the Red Star Alliance had entrenched itself fully in the Chren Cluster. After several failed attempts at taking the Cluster the Empire as was the case with other similar cases resigned from the field of battle and left the Chren Cluster to it�s staunch defenders, instead turning it's attentions to the infant rebellion that would one day lead to destruction.

With the immediate threat of the Empire gone the RSA turned it's resources to other endeavors both scientific and philosophical, this renaissance of lead to significant advances in the scientific fields of astrophysics and the development of a horde of new technologies raising the standard of living well beyond what most of the galaxy's inhabitants at the time knew. The Alliance for the most part being free of the anti-Jedi sentiments that permeated the galaxy also began to delve more into the mysteries of the Force and it�s servants the Jedi, this trend was only accelerated by the elevation of several Force Adepts to the Alliance�s governing council. These leanings along with the Cluster�s history lead the Alliance council to begin covertly supplying the newly formed Rebel Alliance, whose recent victory in the destruction of the Empire�s dreaded Deathstar had given it life, with weapons and humanitarian supplies such as food and advanced medical gear. Along with this direct aide in materials many of the Alliance�s citizens began to actively aide in a covert and sometimes even overt manner, resulting in several running battles between the RSA and the Empire. Many of the Red Star Alliance's historians also believe this support fledgling rebellion had its origins in deeply held beliefs of one of the Council's current members.