Patriots' Alliance

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The Patriots' Alliance was a political party, and later rebel organization, during the 26th Century on the colony of Gagarin II. Born out of heavy and overt censorship by the due to the beginning of the, the Alliance gained support from rebel sympathetic intelligentsia, as well as regular people outraged at the censorship the  and the colonial governments were allowing.

The Alliance quickly gained supporters, for a new party, and by the 2520's, had a sizable base of supporters, as well as multiple representatives in the colony's senate. The UNSC, fearing the Alliance would eventually cause the colony to seceded, launched a team of on an operation to decapitate the leadership of the Alliance in 2525. Within a short period of time, all the representatives, as well as the party's chairman, were dead.

However, this power vacuum had the opposite of the UNSC's intended effect. The new leader of the Alliance, Phillip Roberts, withdrew it entirely from politics, and began an incendiary campaign of attempting to rally people to a revolution. Although the UNSC wanted to eliminate Roberts, the looming threat of the forced them to divert their resources.

Around 2526, Roberts acquired a copy of the censored book World In Shadow by James Martel, and, armed with his findings, contacted the United Rebel Front, and expressed his intent to ally with them to take over the colony. For the next five years, Roberts continued to rally people to the cause.

In 2531, the Alliance, allied with the URF on the planet, launched a massive rebellion, quickly seizing control of the capital. With the aid of supporters in the city, the rebels entrenched themselves, ready for a fight against the UNSC. Despite this, the UNSC, with enough resources devoted to the Harvest Campaign, withdrew their troops peacefully.

With the UNSC gone, the Alliance and URF formed a military junta, advised by intellectuals, and wrote up a constitution. In keeping with their original ideals, the Alliance promised no censorship, which was not entirely necessary, as almost all UNSC supporters, fearing for their lives, had fled with the garrison. In 2537, Roberts was assassinated by SPARTAN-III's from Alpha Company during a diplomatic mission to rebel groups on, and Myron Quinn, one of the advisors, took over.

Quinn, more of an intellectual than Roberts, organized the colony through ways that history had proved to be successful. Continuing this for eighteen years, Quinn was forced to delegate control of the Alliance's military forces to the Committee of Colonels when the UNSC returned in 2555. However, the few days of indecision due to Quinn proved to be disastrous, and the UNSC was able to take back the colony within fourteen days. Once victory had been won, the UNSC proceeded to disband the Patriots' Alliance.

Formation
The Patriots' Alliance was formed in 2505 on the colony of Gagarin II, after multiple violent incidents during the 2490's, and the formation of the United Rebel Front in 2501, allowed the, with permission, to begin censorship of possibly incendiary literature that could spark a rebellion of any kind.

The founder of the Alliance, William Klinson, was a former worker, who, after discovering the rampant censorship of literature by ONI, quit his post in disgust in 2504, starting the Alliance a year later in the colony's capital, along with a group of other like-minded citizens.

Growth
Within five years of the group's formation, the number of citizens on the colony who identified themselves as members of the Patriots' Alliance had skyrocketed, both amongst regular people and intelligentsia. As the years went on, the party was able to attain several seats on the planetary representative body. By, the Alliance had become one of the major political parties on the planet, and was looking towards possibly running for the governorship of the colony.

Assassination
However, this major growth in the Alliance also attracted the attention of the Office of Naval Intelligence, who classified the Alliance as a possible threat, and most certainly a pro-independence group. Only two months before the race for the governorship was to start, the Office, fearing the worst if the Alliance won the race, assigned a team of to assassinate high level members of the party.

The SPARTAN's carried out these orders efficiently, eliminating all the major members of the party, including its founder and chairman, William Klinson. Although the populace were suspicious of the fact that so many men had died in such a short period of time, the planetary police concluded no foul play was involved.

Power Vacuum
With the loss of so many high level members of the Alliance in such a short period of time, a power vacuum had appeared, able to be filled by anyone. Within weeks of the men's deaths, an unknown member, Phillip Roberts, came to become the new chairman of the Alliance. Although many were suspicious that so many had come to power so quickly after the deaths of major leaders, Roberts placed the finger of blame upon the UNSC for their deaths. Along with this, he also changed the Alliance's goals radically, from a peaceful political party, to a militarized resistance force. Despite the UNSC's want to eliminate Roberts and his cohorts, with the new threat of the, their resources had become stretched thin, and they were unable to do anything major to halt his actions, allowing him to continue almost completely unimpeded.

Although many of the less radical members of the Alliance left due to Roberts' rhetoric, he was still able to attract a sizable amount of followers, as well as keep the more radical, independence by any means, members of the Alliance supporting him.

Militarization
Also around this time, Roberts, through underground channels, acquired a copy of James Martel's book, World In Shadow, which predicted the diversion of UNSC resources, and how they were most likely to lose the war. Armed with the knowledge from the book, he contacted the United Rebel Front, and expressed his intent to take over the planet, promising them a share of the power in return for their support. After a three week period of diplomatic maneuvering, Roberts was able to earn their support, and with it, began a six year period of militarization on Gagarin II.

Having the URF set up training camps in the frontier, and bring weapons in, Roberts and the Alliance steered recruits towards them until, when the rebels planned to make their attack.

Coup of 2531
The Alliance began its coup on May 6th, 2531, the sixth anniversary of the deaths of the original leaders of the party, during a rally to commemorate them. During the rally, police showed up in case of violence, and Roberts, whose speech was being broadcast across Gagarin Free Radio, incited the crowd to violence, causing them to beat the policemen to death, and proceedingly, using that as a catalyst to incite them further, to armed rebellion. Within hours, the capital, as well as other settlements, became swamped in a quagmire of violence, as colonial forces and police attempted, in vain, to halt the coup.

By May 8th, the rebels had full control of the capital, and had dug in, ready for a protracted, street to street battle. But it never came. The UNSC, without the resources available to put down a full scale rebellion, withdrew their garrison from the planet, leaving it to the control of the Alliance and the URF.

Junta Formation
With the retreat of the UNSC from the colony, the Alliance and URF formed a military junta of men from both organizations, with Roberts at the head of it, along with various members of the intelligentsia as advisors. Although the junta never established a constitution for the government, it did have the power to form militias, as well as various other military related powers. One law, instituted in early 2532, stipulated that each male eighteen and up had to own a firearm in case of the UNSC's return. Along with these powers, the other object set in stone was a complete ban on censorship. However, this was firstly, not needed since almost all UNSC supporters had been run off planet during the coup, and secondly, the junta did prevent off world news from reaching the colony proper. Despite the junta's power, it was still only limited mostly to the larger settlements, with frontier settlements left almost completely autonomous.

Interwar Period (2531-2555)
Between the coup of 2531, and the UNSC's return in 2555, the Alliance had very few issues regarding UNSC sponsored insurgents and other issues. However, in 2537, during a diplomatic mission to the rebels on Mamore, Commandant Roberts was caught in the attack by, and killed during the battle.

Roberts' successor, Myron Quinn, was a member of the intelligentsia advisors, who had blackmailed his way into becoming the leader of the junta. Throughout the next eighteen years, Quinn instituted a number of laws keeping the armed populace's support for him, ensuring that if any other member of the junta killed him, they would most likely be killed in yet another coup.