[GZG] Requesting a little help with a background (Revolt on Antares!)

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I think I mentioned when I first joined this list, one of the things
that
got me to pull the trigger on the great GZG 15mm stuff was a desire to
emulate the old TSR minigame "Revolt on Antares."  I'm not going to go
really in-depth in expanding the wonderfully sketchy background listed
in
that game's teeny rulebook, but I would like to have a brief explanation
of
what went down for my gaming buddies who've graciously agreed to run
some of
these games with me.  And there lies my problem... I've got one big plot
issue that I need to make sure I've got a good solid reason for, and I'd
like to bounce it off you all.	Basically, the original game presumes a
few
basic things:

1) Planet with stone-age indigenes and a few Precursor/Progenitor-style
relics is colonized by Earthlings; these original colonists eventually
stabilize into a seven large feudal houses (presumably centered around
control of these artifacts, as each house gets one in the original game)
whose rulers all have wierd psi powers (NB: this is why I love stuff
from
this era of gaming!)

2) Overall rule of Terran space is in the hands of the traditional
crumbling
Terran Empire; on Antares 9 the representative of the Empire (the Terran
Consul) has military forces with higher tech than the locals; the Terran
detachment is probably between 1.5-2x as strong as any single house

3) At the start of play, some of the colonial Houses rise up in revolt
against Terran authority; the indigenes and the other houses throw in
with
the Terrans

4) minor amounts of reinforcement can come in throughout the game, in
the
form of off-planet mercs or a rather nebulously-defined process of
replacing
a factions original chits (the locals can replace about 80% of their
troops
over the game, the Terrans have enough to completely replace their
losses
once)

Now, here's my mental block: I'm trying to figure out a backstory to
explain
why the Terrans (crumbling empire or not) don't just smother the planet
with
reinforcements (we assume no orbital bombardment for a seperate
handwave,
although I could work it into the big explanation too).  I've been
working
on a few ideas, I'll throw them out here, but I could really use some
feedback on what I've got, or new ideas as well.  The game (with the
exception of the recruited mercs, and the variant game where aliens
invade)
is all planetbound, so there's no real explanation about how
interstellar
travel works in the setting.  Ideas:

1) mass interstellar travel requires some sort of stargate/wormhole
thing;
control over this network is what makes the Empire the Empire.	The
question
is why don't the Terrans just swarm through this thing...
1a) assuming the above, the Terran Consul pulls the plug on the gate.  I
need help with a solid reason why he'd do this, however, as it seems to
me
he's got more to gain by keeping it open for reinforcements/retreat. 
Maybe
the Empire is so weak that the rebellion would spread like wildfire? 
Maybe
the gates all share a main hub, and it's SOP that if a world goes
renegade
the consul has to pull it out of the web so they don't rampage all over
the
place?
1b) again assuming the above about interstellar travel, the Rebels blow
up
the gate to prevent Impy reinforcements.  More straightforward, but it
presumes a certain degree of incompetence on the part of the Consul,
which
I'm not sure I like

Both of these have the benefit of allowing a big, plot-important moment;
either when the Terran Consul solemnly invokes his vow and disentangles
the
quantum kajiggers that run the thing, or when the rebels bravely nuke
the
thing

2) travel is by some more 'traditional' 80's sci-fi warp or jump drives,
with travel times to Antares being prohibitive, or at least long enough
to
be less of a military consideration and more of a 'what do we do in a
century if/when the Terran reinforcements arrive.'  The mercs are all
local
to this part of space and have been doing spot-work on the unstable
planet
already, so when full-on war breaks out they're all in orbit taking bids
via
radio.	The downside of this one is that there's no big 'OMG' moment;
the
upside is that it's probably more faithful to the 80's vibe of the
setting.

Thoughts/feedback - again, either on these ideas, or if you've got some
oddball notion of your own.  Again, I'm not trying to write a whole
entire
background (not yet, at least), but I'd like to have the big picture
figured
out so that if I gin up a campaign setting out of this it will be at
least
internally consistent.	Thanks in advance!