USH'S STAR WARS GAME- CAMPAIGN II EPISODE III (RENEGADES)- The Hunters Hunted

"I can promise you safety with the local authorities," Xeth tries. "I've already worked with the authorities to help clear up the Cult problems, and your help would help clear them up as well. They'd be more than happy to protect you."

He stares at you, sizing you up.

"Alright..." he says.

Ok, well done, folks, you have just exposed the distribution point of an ENORMOUS smuggling racket that served most of this area of the Galaxy. You have a little time to question your catch before the locals arrive, as you need to call them in to take care of this. You have bugger all evidence that is admissable but now the secret is out, local security will be able to wrap it up.

You canlt cut any offiical deal with the authorities because they are not entirely sure what you are doing and why you are there and so on, but you can put in a few good words. You can get some info out the security commander first, of course.

Score!

Xeth grins reassuringly.

"Now, we don't have much time before we have to hand this over to the authorities," Xeth says. "Where were these military-grade parts coming from? Who sent them here?"

Ok, to start clearing things up...

The parts come from deeper in the Galaxy; their contact was someone who represented a smuggling ring that didn't have the capacity to supply the whole Galaxy but saw a lot of money going in the Outer Worlds. So to simplify the matter, this contact made a deal by which they offloaded all their gear simply to Alzarius, and then Alzarius could then re-distribute it via use of the merhant fleets that operate around here. By simply doctoring the cargo manifests, they could avoid all the messing around with apying duties and so forth, and could transport all this hi-tech gear (as this is what it was- fetches a good price this far out) without anyone noticing.

Of course, everyone involved in loading would notice, which means just about everyone had to be bribed. But that wasn't hard because everyone out here makes crappy money- he's not lying about the poverty of the manual workers.

"No-one gives a damn what happens this far out," he explains. "The Inner Worlds get all the money and the security, and what do we get? Barely enough to live on, no other jobs going, no way of escape, and psychotic pirates killing us at will. You tell one of those people that they can double their wages and get enough money to guarantee feeding themselves and their family for another month, how many were going to say no? None of them."

As he mentioned before, yes, some of the shipments get hit by the Techno Pirates but that's an occupational hazard in this area- enough gets through to keep them in funds.

Now, with all the smuggled parts being hi-tech goods, Xeth, you are certain that the ultimate suppliers are the Techno Union- that's not an automatic connection but what with everything else... well...

So, can you work out the deal from there?

I'm pretty sure I could.

"Is there a way I could contact this...contact?" Xeth says. "You've all fallen prey to a very nasty plot, I'm afraid. This 'contact' of yours was trying to get parts out to the Cult of Chareaus, but it would be awkward for them to just fly out there. They would have informed them exactly which shipments were carrying what."

Yup! It would have been easy for the Union to simply tell the Cult which shipments they needed to jump on.

Hence, the whole operation is entirely deniable. The Union just has to sell the parts, and they know that they will disappear and fall into the Cult's hands. The human cost- irrelevant, and the Union knows the people here are desperate enough to play ball.

Which gets you irritated with the Senate, Xeth. It is the crappy state of the Republic, doing nothing for worlds like this, that makes the Union's actions possible.

He doesn't know who the contact was, and no-one has seen him in ages anyway. As I told Densk earlier, you're not going to get any Union arrests out of this one; they've set it up too well. As always, they can simply blame someone else. You can't even prove the parts are theirs- they sell all over; they'd just claim anyone could have sold them.

It's the old pattern.

So, another dead end for Xeth?

Not at all.

Because this operation is just a means to an end. This is the most amazingly extravagant way around the fact that Republican laws stop them building droid armies just for the hell of it- no more Naboos.

Well, now they have a means to build more outside the eyes of the Republic. The Cult are gathering the Union's own parts, to get them outside of the law. The armies are building.

But it's no done yet! You can catch them mid-operation this time! IF you are fast enough to trace it.

Oh! That's cheery news!

But how to do that? I know what's going on; the Union drops parts here, parts are shipped, Union informs Cult of shipments, shipments attacked, all parts go to the Cult, which is building the armies for the Union.

Why are they even bothering, I wonder?

That's true. What the hell are they building an army for? They can't invade another Republican world and get away with it, not after Naboo.

For sales to the Outer Rim, perhaps? They could make a profit there.

If they want to sell they can just sell! That's legal!

Cannes pretext for moving droids out here in the first place was sales, if you remember. That can't be their ultimate intent as well.

They could make it seem like the Cult stole the droid shipments and are using them to attack, couldn't they? Even though they are the ones launching the droids, not the Cult?

People would be interested to know how the Cult acquired a droid army id that happened! This whole operation has relied upon no-one being bothered to join the dots. Were it not for the Taloraanian tip-off, you would never have sussed the pattern here either.

If the Cult suddenly starts invading the Republic with droid armies, then other people will piece it together! The Jedi, for a start.

Maybe they don't intend to invade the Republic, then? Maybe push into the Outer Rim?

What the hell is out there? You can't see the logic of it.

Still, find them, you'll find the logic.

Well, I know all the droid shipments are now on Charaeus. Are there possibly some answers to be found there?

No you don't. Best get a grip on the situation again, I think!

Well, the only thing I can think of that a droid army is useful for is either a) invasion (a la Naboo) b) war (a la Geonosis) or c) to settle conflicts. Maybe there is a schism in the Cult and one side wants to remain on top?

After all, Marcus and Vlad are currently looking at a smoking burnt lump of dead Cultists. And the Senate would definitely get on the back of the Union if they were discovered funding 'terrorists.'

This is all true. But I do recommend you backtrack and confirm why what you just said about Charaeus is wrong.