It was in exactly this area- Alzarius would have been the main potential buyer.
It would have been very hard indeed to shift it all out to Charaeus without the Alzarians noticing, which is part of the evidence as to why this base must exist, but I am afraid it doesn't help you find it.
The nature of the lost shipments are a piece of evidence you can look at, thanks to your contacts.
Well, you have the info on datapad.
Subject to all the legal restrictions that the Union is having to work with, other than the sample units (like the ones you have seen before used for demonstrations), the bulk of the armies on offer were not in a fully usable form, and could not be until sale was agreed, which it never was.
You also note with interest that, as the Union is a wholesaler and doesn't deal with planets directly, the shipments were all being carried by the Trade Federation.
Basically, you couldn't do anywhere near as much as you would like with just these parts. A lot of the more boring technical parts simply are not there, without which much of the gear would stop working pretty quickly.
Well, to be clear, what you fought last mission was a division; the offered shipments to this area is several armies, each of which would be several divisions.
The droids themselves- as is one of the main plus points of battle droids- are very simple and would probably work just fine; it's all the other stuff an army needs where it would go wrong- the power transmitters, the heavy gear, the comms equipment, and so forth. A large amount of the necessary equipment was not in the vanished shipments.
But in your opinion, the agricultural gear would a. be totally useless and b. they would need so MUCH gear like that, it would make no sense to steal the relatively small amount on this ship compared to the much larger amount they would get from a dedicated cargo ship- and agricultural parts are not a rare cargo.
Right then! Well, certainly uo have had plenty of time to be doing all this whilst the thread has lingered...
... and some 30 minutes later, then... yes! You do indeed have a pattern. All of their recent strikes have been specifically on sophisticated technical spares- not unusual, as it is the Cult's normal activity, but coupled with the list you have from Gralus, you can construct a picture where the Cult are filling in the gaps. They are filling them in rather accurately as well- they always seem to know thr right ships to attack.
Which leaves the Orion Phoenix as the odd one out.
I was worried you would say that.
Does the pattern of attacks occur near any certain planets?
And perhaps the Orion Phoenix was a slip up; they were expecting a massive haul, but misinterpreted their information...which, I'm curious as to how they know which ships to attack...and turned out finding a ship like the Orion Phoenix. Not wanting to walk away with nothing, they continued their attack anyway.
No pattern near planets I am afraid- the pattern is simply around the hyperspace lanes.
And their planning is VERY specific. They even attacked the ship in precisely the right place to finish it as soon as possible., they waited in place here to attack the ship when it stopped to re-naviagte its journey... if so much planning bagged the wrong ship, you would be very surprised.
I was hoping another character would co-operate on the attack analysis, but Renegade manpower is a bit down right now, and I think the ones with the other useful skills left.
Because looking at all these figures over the night, Xeth, you suddenly aren't sure.
About 1/3rd of the attacks from the Cult have been on exactly what you thought it was- spare parts that might complete the shipment.
But now you look closely, the other things they stole... they don't work. They keep stealing entire shipments of stuff which just is not directly useful. From one cargo ship they stole a huge consignment of ship-to-ship sensor gear, for large capital ships. You were thinking of this being used for an army- but the Cult doesn't HAVE any such ships. You were thinking of a Trade Federation navy, but of course, the Feds sell the robot armies, not the huge ships they come in.
And now you think about it, those ships would have all the components they need anyway. So regardless, that theft was useless.
Here's another one. Perceptual relays for robotics. If there is one thing the droids certainly have already, it is the ability to see. Spare parts perhaps? That doesn't sit right with you.
Stabliser gears for tracked vehicles. Important parts for a war machine. But not for one bought from the Feds, who don't USE tracked vehicles, they use repulsorlift hover stuff.
Atmospheric re-breathers? You learned earlier that the Cult warriors are surgically adapted to survive even in vacuum, and why would robots need re-breathers?
Every single piece of gear stolen on these lists are not suspicious in of themselves, because, like these agricultural parts, it is all technical gear that has a function, and everyone knows the Techno-pirates steal technical gear.
But you know they are working to a more specific purpose now, and these pointless raids that don't advance their military objective at all seem very odd to you.
And it so happens that every single one of these raids for gear that wouldn't help... was on a ship that launched from Alzarius.
Well, the tractor parts aren't. Not all of them necessarily have military connections- in fact, the parts that you are sure were definitely taken for that purpose, the one third that fit the pattern perfectly, all are simply generic technical parts, like Staedler links.
Alzarius would have been the central world trying to be sold to as they are the biggest and richest around here.