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Disaster relief organizations

parmasson

SOC-14 1K
IYTU do you have an organization that fulfills the role that the Red Cross does in our world? I was trying to think up some names but none stand out. Anybody have a suggestion they are willing to share.

Here are mine
Interstellar Aid Society (NGO)
Imperial Organization for Disaster Relief (Run by the Imperial Navy)
Scout Service Aid and Relief Corps (Scouts)
 
Those are great ideas, Parmasson. Something sorely missing from Traveller I found in FTL:2448 and that's the EMR Crew (Emergency Medical and Rescue). Now, how do we incorporate them into Prior History? We need to have a term before college with us out being SpaceHippy-ish? Don't forget RiftPeace and the Zhodani Aid Society (where they know what happened before you do).

Dameon
 
Except for the biggest, high profile disasters I can see a branch of the scouts carrying out most of the day to day grunt work. They are loosely organized, pragmatic, lack extensive "boot camps" and are one of the few Imperial organs of government not specifically intended to blow things up. In addition I think that having a unit of disaster relief scouts on your world will be viewed differently from having a few regiments of imperial marines mucking about. One looks like an aid effort the other may look like an invasion. Since the scouts are the information backbone of the 3I they already possess a vast intelligence network that would help pinpoint trouble spots and could organize the logistics of a planet-wide relief effort.

As for working it into the existing history . . .
They were always there taking risks, helping the needy and never getting any real credit for it. Some admiral with a shiny uniform takes all the credit for "restoring stability" and saving untold numbers of lives while on the ground it is the scout core repairing water filters and delivering medi-scanners to local doctors.

The NGO version would not have the reach or scope (except for the TAS) that would make an organization empire wide. IMO
 
Hmmmm Good post topic, citizen Parmsson!

The Red Cross, IMTU still exists, as does the Red Crescent for areas of the Imperium's Solomani ethnicity;

The Church of the Stellar Divinty [CoSD] also maintains through various sects their myriad of relief services and a few hospital ships.

Recently seen in the EPIC Adventure Merc Cruiser, a starmerc vessel 'Promise Keepers' that specialize in rapid response relief using that 600dton ship design.

An Imperial disaster relief Corps [IDRC] wouldn't be something amiss for the Imperium. Small states would rely on their own versions of said, I would think, as well as church [select your own here] sponsored non profit groups.

Good ideas!
 
For the big disasters, as well as those en route to becomming big disasters, I tend to use the Imperial Ministry of Health and Sophont Services. They're patterned on the World Health Organization in terms of prevention and 'elevating health and saftey standards' (i.e. tracking down the source of virii, stopping plagues before they get too far along). But I gave them a darker side, for those times when things like 'Space Ebola' or bioweapons threaten. A few carefully modified vessels that move in and are capable of 'sanitizing' a site should things get that far. Attached to these ships are a few platoons of 'Medical Heavy Support Personnel' (Read also Marines and their ilk) to make sure that everyone who can get off the planet that either needs to or has to does.

The PCs have learned that when the HSS advisors and doctors pull out, and the big blue ships start moving in, its time to run. Leave the cargo, leave the money, leave the passengers behind no matter how much they're willing to pay.

So far, the HSS Operations Group Epsilon has only been called out and used once in the past century. But everyone in the frontier/scout medical community understands that they're out there, just in case.

As for dealing with disaster recovery, I tend to use the IISS to go in and act as advisors to the local governments. They tend to serve in the organizational and distribution networks. More like the Peace Corps and Red Cross than anything else.
 
I would think things are organized on a mostly sector/subsector level. Anything above that would take so long to respond that it would all be over but the toe-tagging.

CoSD, yeah. Maybe some other organizations that have religious/philosophical/karmic reasons for doing it. How about TAS? With their reach and resources, they might fund a foundation or side-organization for disaster relief. How about SEMA - Sector Emergency Management Agency? And, the first words out of their mouths could be, "We're from the government, and we're here to help."
 
Yeah, what ever it is need to be close by and in good contact with all of the systems they can be so a subsector organization would be most effective.

I like the Heavy Medical Support units. I can see them with modified PGMPs set to something like a "shotgun" mode for cleaning up an area. IMTU we have one red zone planet that is a huge plague reservoir that is under quarantine by the navy. A military space station, 1.5 million mines and a couple squadrons of patrol cruisers keep it more or less closed off.

No quarantine is perfect …
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The IISS also has a Colonial Support and Assistance Office that helps fledgling colonies establish decent public health services

I see the TAS being helpful to certain people. You are a member stuck on a planet where plague is breaking out. They send a hired "Special Assistance Services" (S.A.S.) group to get you out fast. Hmmm . . . I smell a plot!
 
Originally posted by Parmasson:
IYTU do you have an organization that fulfills the role that the Red Cross does in our world? I was trying to think up some names but none stand out. Anybody have a suggestion they are willing to share.
IMTU most Imperial political units (systems, worlds, or nations) have their own version of the Red Cross. They're all called <Political Unit> .Red <Something>. So you'd have e.g. the Regina Red Cross, the Efate Red Crescent, the Forboldn Red Circle, and the Knorbes Red Candle. There's also an unbrella organization called the Interstellar Red Symbol. Its own symbol is the six most frequent symbols used by its member organizations arranged in a circle.

On Regina I also have a private organization called "Medics Where They're Needed" that sends out medics and supplies to various places where people need medical help. (Of course, that would just be one of many such organizations).


Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
rancke@diku.dk
------------
In my opinion it ought to go without saying that if you work in another person's universe, he and anyone else authorized to work in said universe is implicitly permitted to use your work as background material. But I know it doesn't, so I hereby give my permission for Marc Miller and anyone else authorized to work in the Traveller Universe to use the above as background material.
 
Interesting, I had always played that the Marines played that role. There is a Harry Harrison story that deals with this very topic written at the height of the conflict in South East Asia.

But, if I had, I would merely steal from 2300AD Foundations and throw in a few more Vilani (although, the Bureaux/Megacorps are pretty good of taking care of their workers) and Sylean for good measure.

Wasn't it documentated somewhere that Terran Doctors from the Maoist Medicins Sans Frontiers help out during the Plague of Duskir?
 
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