Sector Force/Legends

A Sector Force, or SecForce, was the largest military organizational unit used by the Alliance to Restore the Republic's military forces. Semi-autonomous from the rest of the Rebel Alliance, Sector Forces were charged with resisting the forces of the Galactic Empire in their home sectors.

Unlike the similarly named Sector Armies of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Imperial Army, or the Sector Fleets of the Imperial Navy, the role and organization of a Sector Force varied widely. Some were powerful forces, with fully equipped planetary forces supported by a fleet of combat starships. Others had little more than a few thousand part-time guerrillas planetside, with almost negligible space forces.

Sector Forces within the Alliance

Unlike the mobile forces of the Alliance Fleet, Alliance Special Forces, and Alliance Special Operations, Sector Forces conducted operations against the Galactic Empire's interests in a single sector. The local nature of their missions meant that their leaders were usually drawn from local resistance forces as well. Sector Forces maintained a precarious balance in their home sectors: the Empire could easily crush a Sector Force which was too weak, but a strong resistance could just attract additional Imperial attention to a sector.

The Sector Forces of the Rebel Alliance were coordinated by and subordinate to Sector Command, or SecCom, one of the largest branches of Alliance High Command. While the Alliance Charter gave Chief of State Mon Mothma control over every department in Alliance High Command, Sector Command rarely interfered with a Sector Force's internal affairs. In general, they restricted their activities to operating the communications network which passed directives from Alliance High Command down to Sector Force leaders, who would then be allowed to decide how their activities could support those directives. For crucial operations, however, Sector Command would send a Command Group to act as liaisons with a Sector Force, or even take temporary control of the operations in the sector.

If a Sector Force's leadership turned out to be corrupt, completely inept, or compromised by Imperial agents, Sector Command would have to deal with the problem. In some cases, they would take over the Sector Force and reorganize the command structure. More often, however, the Alliance would simply stop supporting the Sector Force with intelligence, supplies, weapons, or personnel. After the Sector Force collapsed, the Alliance would start a new one from scratch. This procedure was hard on the rank-and-file soldiers and resistance cells in the sector, but the Alliance could rarely justify the resources necessary for a power struggle against a theoretically allied military organization.

The greater Alliance also supported Sector Forces with their own assets. New Sector Forces were loaned Special Forces units and Sector Command officers assigned to help train and lead troops until their own officer corps was developed. Starfighter wings and other forces could also be assigned to particular sectors: sometimes on short-term missions, and sometimes as long-term assignments. These forces would sometimes answer to both the Sector Force leadership and the Alliance High Command.

Internal Organization

The Alliance had thousands of Sector Forces. Each Sector Force usually began with existing organized resistance forces whose leadership agreed to be bound by treaty to the Rebel Alliance. Due to the variety of Sector Forces, no standard order of battle existed, and it was difficult to describe any of them as even "typical" in their organization. Rebel historian Arhul Hextrophon, however, once described the Atrivis Sector Force as a useful model.

The Rebel Alliance in Atrivis sector began as the Atrivis Resistance Group, itself an alliance between the Fest Resistance Group and the Mantooine Liberators. The two highest-ranking leaders of the Atrivis Sector Force, Travia Chan and Loom Carplin, were part of the leadership of those two forces.

Alliance High Command also assigned two high-ranking officers to Atrivis sector. One, Wing Commander Varth, led a starfighter wing under the joint command of the Sector Force and Starfighter Command. Another, General Kryll, commanded the Outer Rim Communications Center, but this was strictly speaking an asset of Sector Command rather than the Atrivis Sector Force. The Alliance also assigned Special Forces officers to train resistance fighters, an advisory unit from Sector Command, and support personnel for the starfighter wing.

Most of the Sector Force's combat assets were ground forces. The two largest planetary forces were on Fest and Mantooine, though the sector's other inhabited planets hosted many smaller ground units. These units battled the forces of the Empire and Imperial-allied planetary governments, primarily through guerrilla warfare and sabotage. Like many Sector Forces, however, Atrivis sector had negligible space combat assets beyond the starfighter wing.

Atrivis Sector Force, like many Sector Forces, organized its other departments and commands much like a miniature version of the greater Alliance. The Sector Force as a whole maintained a small, but effective intelligence branch, which had a role similar to Alliance Intelligence's role in the Rebellion as a whole. Similarly, their Ordnance and Support branch, responsible for supplying, transporting, and providing other services for the sector's combat ground units, was analogous to the Alliance's Ordnance and Supply and Support Services.

Sources

• The Rebel Alliance Sourcebook
• Galaxy Guide 9: Fragments from the Rim
• The Rebel Alliance Sourcebook, Second Edition
• "Rebel Privateers!" — Star Wars Adventure Journal 2
• Star Wars Miniatures Battles Companion
• Flashpoint! Brak Sector
• "Rebel Privateers!" — The Best of the Star Wars Adventure Journal, Issues 1-4 (Reprint)
• The Essential Guide to Warfare
• Strongholds of Resistance

Notes and references

In other languages

• español