Second in command accessing FoN's affiliation

Alright, so I’ve got a Vaylen FoN’s second in command at the forefront for the campaign we will be running (the two player one never got of the ground, instead we got so inspired we started a four player one :P).

His boss is a Vaylen captain who has the usurper trait allowing him to buy a hammer force. Now the Vaylen FoN will not actually be active on the planet at least until the usurption phase, but his 2iC will be.

So since his 2iC will be commanding his forces in the meantime, is it ok to allow him access to the trait? Letting him get the attendants in his master’s place? He will also buy an affiliation with his master’s hammer forces.

My first reaction is “The second in command is at the forefront of the campaign? Shouldn’t the second in command be the FON?” EDIT: Oops, I missed that you intend to bring the FON to the forefront later.

EDIT: BTW I did something a bit like that only I had the offworld FON communicating with another FON and passing ‘orders’. A generous amount of “Yes” was involved because the on-world FON didn’t know they were dealing with a worm and thought the relationship was more peer based, in fact the on-world thought they were ‘on top’ in the relationship. Although I had to hull a subordinate before I had military presense on-world. Like Luke suggested I just made sure to colour the communications, which incidentally did lead one of the PCs to try intercept those communications. I anticipated that during setup so I had burned with a small tech bonus of special scrambling com gear but likely would have been intercepted anyway if I hadn’t hulled the PC first. :wink:

P.S. In my case one of the PCs was also Hammer so he could take the fight to the FON if he wanted (and bring along some of the PCs). I also used it as an opportunity to colour “Go To Ground” as having the Vaylen putting his fleet on deep space manuevers (and hulling some subordinates as he went :wink: ).

I’m fine with the relationship set up. Make sure that the 2iC pays for a relationship with the FoN. Access that relationship in color and interstitial scenes – show him talking to his commander and requesting resources, etc. Imagine that every time you’re accessing that relationship in those scenes, you’re saying yes to all the requests. Relationship characters provide help when they can, right? You can just say yes all the way down the pipe for that. The key is to show the players what’s going on. That way, you make the 2iC an active villain and you set up the FoN for his phase.

-L

Great, that’s pretty much what I had in mind.

The situation is this:
The Vaylen FoN (who is the only actualy Vaylen FoN) is a great general who has let himself be captured by a psychologist foundation obsessed with finding a genetic cure for the Vaylen, or just make mankind so superior that the Vaylen are no longer a problem. The general wanted to get close to the leader of the faction, who is another FoN for the vaylen side and the superior of one of the characters.

The general has brought a communications device with him that allows him to communicate with his cells on the planet and through them with his 2iC, who is a human space pirate :stuck_out_tongue:

The space pirate along with the leader of the planet’s border patrol forces (who is also a FoN) will be the primary opposition in the infection phase, so I really need the pirate to have access to most of the FoN’s fleet (2d hammer affiliation or so).

Incidentially, how would you burn such a comm device up?

I’m thinking something hideously expensive, like concealed in his crucis (ob 5 to detect with signals, observation and security) and signals tools. So a total of 12 points. 3 resource points right there.