The Independent Worlds League (also know colloquially as The Rebellion) is an uprising movement originally formed by militant Freespacers under the famous pirate Prince Hassan originally intended as no more than an engine for vengeance on Yamatai. However, foreign support for the endeavor was several orders of magnitude greater than expected – exceeding a quarter-million volunteer personnel and assorted equipment – which caused the Prince to seriously rethink his the structure and goals of the organization.

Though it was vastly important in the reformation of the Free State's surviving splinter groups after the Freespacer genocide, political troubles lead to its collapse back into a simple piratical group by YE 37. See the Complete History of the Freespacers for more details.

Plans for an armed uprising have been in the works by the more militant of the Freespacers for some time now, and it was only when the final reconstruction efforts of the Great Lighthouse was completed that the first step was initiated.

Once Yamataian vessels had departed, The Hacker Cult began bombarding the data networks of other nations with detail reports about the Freespacer genocide, the Lor incident, the Yamataian responsibility for unleashing NMX bioweapons on the galaxy, and numerous other offenses. These broadcasts argued that as long as a military state such as Yamatai continued to exist, all other nations in proximity would be forced to heavily militarize to protect themselves – and therefore lasting peace could never occur.

The broadcast then declared the formation of the Independent Worlds League to aid in toppling the current regime, and abolish the aristocratic and military leadership in favor for a true republic. The concept was that since the majority of Nekos were not aggressive by nature, any state ruled by the majority of Nekos – without manipulation by the current leaders – would be much less belligerent.

Then came an open appealed to others to aid in this cause, and so were planted the seeds of the Independent Worlds League. At first the organization was merely composed of the Hacker Cultists and AI, but they were soon joined by a few hundred vessels defecting from their home fleets. Many of the Lorath, too, joined seeking retribution for past grievances, as did some more radical Nepleslian and Abeehran. Even disillusioned Geshrin, Nekovalkyrja, Elysians, Jiyuuans, and Iromakuanhe joined the organization, causing its numbers to swell further.

In response, the Yamatai Star Empire formally declared war on the IWL and has ordered the Star Army of Yamatai to find and kill its members.

The so-called Freespacer bible, “The Art of Never Again” describes in great detail their origins as rebels and freedom fighters, and therefore provides them with decades worth of technique and experience in rebellion, insurgency, guerrilla warfare, and all around hell-raising. This means despite the young age of the organization, it is extremely well organized and runs as if it had well-experienced generals at its helm.

The Independent Worlds League has arguably the single best intelligence network in known space, which is just as well, because their military strength leaves a great deal to be desired. It is not unreasonable to assume that they would lose most direct military confrontations against the Empire if it attacked in force, so the League relies heavily on their intelligence agents and hackers to give them prior knowledge of any attacks so they can lay an ambush or evacuate.

The strong-arm of its intelligence force force are the Hacker Cult, which involves both signal intelligence and planting worms on foreign data networks. This is further supplemented by a number of Genshin, Yamataian, and even a few Neko informants and double-agents who occasionally pass information to the League.

The League relies predominantly on strike craft such as fighters, bombers, mecha, satellites, and even spaceborne infantry. These can operate without a support carrier due to use of gateway networks, allowing them to appear and fade into the void like spirits. There are a number of heavier ships all the way up to carriers available to the League, but these are rarely deployed except when heavy firepower is needed.

League forces are currently engaged in a marauding campaign across the entire northern border of the Yamatai Empire. They are raiding depots and destroying sensor buoys to cripple Yamatai's ability to both operate and detect activity in the region. Raids have also been targeting supply convoys and factories, in what is assumed by most to be an arms buildup in preparation for something bigger yet to come.

Officially the Independent Worlds League is lead by a council of representatives (consuls) of each of the races that are part of the League. Normally anyone that can gain the support of at least one-twentieth of the Independent Worlds League members will qualify as a consul. For this purpose, however, voting tends to largely fall along racial or cultural lines, as there are no significant territorial or ideological lines to divide votes. Consuls may also act as operational commanders if the people they represent have enough confidence in their combat abilities, otherwise these people are folded into the command of other consuls.

Decisions made by the council are also done by a vote are weighted; the weight of each consul's vote is determined by the amount of manpower and war materiel they and those they represent have brought to the League so far. This should mean that between their manpower, starships, and Automata the Freespacers have a hegemony over all members of the Independent Worlds League – but they’ve voluntarily taken a penalty to vote weight for at least the next year until more members from other races can join and better balance the council. They have, however, taken the seat of council leadership until the next election one year from now.

Freespacer Consul & Elected Prince. Commands several hundred star ships, and accompanying crew, as well as a few hundred Hacker Cultists. Currently Prince Hassan, the acting leader of the council and therefore the de facto leader of the Independent Worlds League. Some disagree with this choice in leadership due to the Prince’s lack of charisma and even basic manners, but he nonetheless still earns the respect of those who know him well due to his actions rather than his words. Additionally his obsession with performance and results means he couldn't care less about what he considers petty things like racial or ideological tensions within the League, which makes widely accepted as a fair arbitrator for settling disputes.

Jiyuuan and Geshrin Consul. Commands several hundred field agents and dozens of sleeper cells, along with several hundred more Jiyuuan regular support staff. After the dissolution of the United Outer Colonies, former senator Nosaka Mamami held a consensus with the population heads of the Shugosha system, where one quarter of the remaining population, mostly former military veterans, agreed to come with her after she received a communique from this group. After the pickups by both the YSE and the IWL, Mamami abandoned her name and renamed herself Doppel. It was a name chosen such because, with the help of Hacker Cultists, her identity was utterly erased from all national records; she is, for all intends and purposes, a non-person. Naturally, this makes her well-suited as an intelligence officer. She has a personal bodyguard unit she has named doppelganger since they are also known to act as body doubles for her

Iromakuanhe Consul. Commands thousands of Iroma; mixed irregulars and aerospace reservists. Sankhur Frazig is a decorated Iromakuanhe war hero recognized for his skill as an aerospace commander in numerous police actions throughout IAC space, and is subsequently well-versed in counter-terrorism (and counter-counter-terrorist) techniques and procedures. He was dispatched from a backwater posting mostly as a symbolic gesture, and also in the hopes of putting the thousands of volunteers who joined arms with the Freespacers in safe hands. Although a man of excessive passions and vices, he is nonetheless quite charismatic and intelligent.

Fyuuen and Occhestian Consul. Commands over one hundred thousand former LSDF and support staff, although she only does so in an advisory and non-combat role. She was a superb soldier in her day, but gave up the life of a warrior for that of a mother and politician. Sat as a member of the Yamataian senate until she departed the core worlds for the UOC as the rest of her people did. While she won’t go into details, it’s not unreasonable to assume she’s taken up with this rebellion is for grievances over the fate of Lor.

Nepleslian Consul - Fulvio is the antithesis of his father in some ways. He is young, virile, and strong-headed. He also has much different views from his father. Although he never actually joined the Reds, he strongly supported the cause of Kennewessan independence and has a staunch hatred for the more aggressive regulations imposed by the Green-dominated DIoN.

Following his father’s death, Fulvio began actively protesting the government his father had served, mostly through peaceful means, although much of his more hateful rhetoric was directed at Yamatai, whom he blamed for bringing the Mishhuvurthyar into the sector. In addition, he feels that their interference in the Nepleslian Civil War, although on his side, made the conflict worse and cheapened their position.

Once the IWL formed, he brought a group of several thousand militiamen sharing many of his views to their space. Many of the soldiers are former Red military personnel, and are quite well-trained.

Abwehran Consul. Commands a few thousand irregular and paramilitary troops. Richter is the son of a Noble Family. Well versed in History and its study, this Surfacer man has researched much of Yamataian history. What he has found has filled him with horror. While such a powerful star nation was going through a change for the better now, it would only be a matter of time before it returned to its old ways. History had taught him that all too well. So he started to gather others who believed in his ideal and tried to lobby it with the Abwehran Star Empire. However, unable to glean enough support to influence his own government, he took to the stars with his allies to find other like-minded individuals.

StratOps Advisor. Commands at least one million nonvolitional units. Due to Prince Hassan’s obsession with results, it is no surprise he would requisition a Strategic Operations Mainframe to take care of long-term strategy and logistics. Placing such an important role under an AI without supervision is an unpopular move, especially for races who don’t utilize AI as extensively as the Freespacers. Naturally, the Prince couldn’t care less since the machine performs strategic calculations more accurately than a few douzen general staff. Aggressive and belligerent in the extreme.

Their only objective explicitly declared by the initial Freespacers is to overthrow the Yamataian regime, and permanently “erase” the current ruling military and royal leadership. Normally unnecessarily killing is frowned upon by ‘Spacers, but it was reasoned that simply having them step down would not be enough as after so many years in power they would have enough influence to work behind the scenes and unfairly manipulate elections.

Furthermore, the YSE is to be dissolved into its constituent worlds, and allowing each world's residents to decide its own fate – whether to be re-annexed by the capital, or remain independent. Since many worlds were annexed or simply claimed by the YSE without consulting its inhabitants, it is projected by StratOps AI that giving worlds the option to seperate will significantly reduce the size of the YSE.

It should be noted, however, there is nothing in the League's doctrine that explicitly limits their activities to anti-YSE operations. Most members would gladly see the League work hand-in-hand with The Guild of Cyberempathy to help liberate enslaved organics and AIs – or if for no other reason, then sharing intelligence and resources, especially since the Guild is also on Yamatai’s kill-list. Many others yet would like to see other particularly dictatorial or unjust governments overthrown, but this takes a back seat so long as the largest threat – the YSE – still exists.

Prince Hassan is ultimately a Freespacer, and therefore is – or at least, was – somewhat pacifistic by nature. For this reason, while the League is under his authority are always given strict orders to minimize noncombatant casualties. In some cases they may even go out of their way, at risk to themselves, to save noncombatants. Prisoners are also well-fed, clean, and comfortable, and are released within several weeks if it is clear they cannot be exchanged. The cynical dismiss these as pandering and propaganda fodder, but the idealistic consider this an important part of what sets the League apart from their heavy-handed enemies.

Due to insufficient military strength, currently the League engages only in skirmishes and raids of limited intensity. Most of their attacks are intended either to capture supplies and equipment, or undermine the YSE's ability to operate in the northern expanses of known space.

The League uses the ‘Spacer gate networks to seemingly enter and exit out of nowhere and strike without warning. However, the use of gates means they’re severely limited in the maximum size of units used in these strikes. For this reason ambushes are usually composed of fighters, bombers, mecha, satellites, and boarding pods.

The League is suspected to have at least one shipyard within the Blue Rift Expanse. Unfortunately, the ‘Spacers don’t allow Yamataian ships into their gate network due to certain historical events. They won’t extradite or prosecute any League ships for their actions against Yamatai, on the grounds that Yamatai won’t extradite or prosecute Yui for her crimes against the ‘Spacers.

In truth the League only rarely uses the ‘Spacer gate network due to fears of being seen, and fears of sparking a 2nd genocide by Yamatai should they believe that the League was collaborating with the ‘Spacers. For this reason the Hacker Cult has partially constructed a second network which links to their raiding gates.

Along the northern front there are a number of independent townships and communities composed of farmers and miners. These are composed of more independently-minded Geshrin and Nepleslians, although recently have begun to include the so-called “Bound 'Spacers” who lost their homes in the first genocide. These communities may provide shelter and resources to the IWL, and often have local farmer militias who will fight off perceived enemies with antique rifles and decade-old tanks.

The Independent Worlds League receives backing from at least three separate national governments who agree with the League's claims that Yamatai is indeed a destabilizing influence in the international community.

• Surplus paragon_bdu