Resources of the Republicans

[Dunia]

In the revised and expanded Sourcebook 1, we learn that the Republicans have the following:

Apart from unmentioned stuff from other manufacturers, the Reps have managed to produce the following:
Chromium Guardsman Mk III: 1248
Little Brother 2496 (813 in use)
Golden Eagle: 212

Light Ops Armor: 432
Republican Infantry Armor 1440
Patriot R-22 Max-Ion Pistol 1440
Patriot LSR-R52 Laser Rifle 3168
Fire-eagle PR-10 Plasma Rifle 576
Liberty PBR-20 Particle Beam Rifle 176


Personnel:
* We also know that they have gotten: 448 volonteers from old republican families of which 132 are skilled Power Armor families, and 14 are Glitterboy Pilots
* The Director have hundreds assassins, deep ops spies, top flight espionage agents who serve him directly
* to be able to hack into ARCHIE while he slept and to enter the factory facilities, the republicans must have a score of good computer guys/technicans/commando trained persons.
* They have operatives in Old Bones and appearingly in all major governments in NA.
* They are filling their ranks with another 600 adventurers to man their MK IIIs

So my questions are:
* how do you guys see the Republicans?
* how big are their resources?
* approximately how many are they?
* what other resoures do they have?
* And how deep into the CS/Lazlo/FQ/New Lazlo and MercTown government have they managed to place agents?
* What do they think of hiring D-Bees, mages, psionics, psi-stalkers? would they let these become full members of teh republicans?


I am unsure and try to write down all info I can find in books about them, do the republicans get mentioned in any Rifter?

[taalismn]

The Republicans have probably taken the Coalition's model for registering and screening psychics to heart, so they likely have a similar, if less extensive, policy for using psychics. The same for magic users(hell, some of the original programs that led to the Vanguard might have been Republican-instigated!)...But, seeing how the magic user program failed to yield conclusive(and fast) results in turning the tide in Humanity's favor, the use of mages has fallen out of favor with the Republicans, especially when the limits of magic use become obvious(and they can't use the mages to simply abracadabra ARCHIE-3 into obediance). So any mages they use are either well-vetted and well-entrenched(been working for the Cause for generations), or are hired on a case-by-case basis, don't-ask-questions, and shoot-after-the-mission's-complete-if-the-guy-got-too-curious-for-everybody's-good.

[keir451]

I see the Republicans as slightly misguided in their approach for dealing w/ Archie and the Coalition. By hacking him thay're making him even more paranoid and suspicious of them. What they should try and do is make along term effort to befriend Archie; the 1st step in this should be to get rid of the Director and put Col. Copper in charge. She might actually stand a chance at convincing Archie to stop hunting them and perhaps help them again.
Secondly they need to stop trying to subvert the CS and instead move to the West coast and create a new gov't that opposes the Coalition.
Their resources are extremely limited due to the fact that they are attempting to work covertly,(they aren't able to manufacture large quantities of equipment due to havint to hack Archie) if they moved to the West coast they'd have access to all the West coast ruins and the potential resources of at least the state of California. This would allow them to actually start building up a serious infrastructure that they could use to oppose the CS.
Ther probably have spies that serve as secretaries to Officers or Politicians in the CS hierarchy (as well as some soldiers), this way they can get accurate info about the day to day operations w/out being noticed as "out of place".
With the numbers given for PA troops alone they have about (plus or minus) 3,600 PA troops and perhaps a few thousand more ground soldiers? It's hard to tell as that info isn't readily available.
Other than that you've listed all the resources they "officially" have the rest is up to GM fiat. For example; I make some serious alterations to them in my games I, #1) get rid of the Director, 2) have them use Archie to produce modular factory parts so they can build their own factory facilties w/out having to hack Archie again and again, 3) I move them out of the East coast region. This serves two purposes: it gets them away from Archie and the Splugorth and allows them to really get down to the business of rebuilding anew. I also make changes to the Little Brother units, replacing the laser wand w/ the Wilks 1000 laser cannon for better firepower and I ditch the Golden Eagle and have them producing their own variant of the CS's new SAMAS units (the CS's units have better armor, firepower and speed vs the Golden Eagle).

[taalismn]

Also, they'd definitely want to infiltrate Bandito Arms, since they're already producing their own SAMAS models...Since the Republican SAMAS lacks laser-ablative chrome, they're better off going for the EW capabilities the Sidewinder SAMAS offers. Another reason to move West.

[grandmaster z0b]

I see the Republicans as the classic "shadow government" you hear about in conspiracy theories. They have their fingers in every pie, and sometimes are controlling those pies (for want of a better analogy).

Most of the agents they have are probably double agents who work for another organisation or government like the CS, and are using the resources of that organisation rather than those of the Republicans. Most of the resources listed above are new resources recently made in Factory 7 (if my memory serves me correctly) and are being stockpiled for use.

In the end many of those serving them wouldn't have any idea who their actual benefactor was. Many adventurers and mercenaries would be on missions for them, thinking their boss was a independent operative, who after a lot of research may discover that they actually work for the CS or FQ or something and never realise that they are actually a double agent for the Republicans. In this scenario they would happily use d-bees and magic users, however as far as those who are actually in the inner sanctum I would say humans only, but they could not have survived very long without some very powerful mind melters. In fact in the world of Rifts it's hard to think of how any espionage agent would survive very long without at least having Mind Block. Perhaps the Republicans use (or even invented) the CS Psionic tech listed in Psycape, that way they could give those agents without psi-powers the Psi-Blocker Implant to prevent their true identity being discovered.

[Mechanurgist]

Shadow government is exactly what they are. Why do all the hard work of establishing a new nation-state (which might take you 100 years) when you can go and take over someone else's right now? They want the Coalition States for themselves, for both utilitarian and ideological reasons. The utility of the CS is much greater than if they had to set up a competing state, war with the CS and even if they eventually triumphed the waste of men and materiel would be enormous. To the Republicans the CS as it is incorporated is an affront to their beliefs and traditions, and needs to reformed. That requires secrecy, infiltration and conversion, not total war.