AN :
next goal is hitting 400 power stones in 24h. To get an extra chapter.
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( 32 BBY )
Seated at the desk in her bedroom, Tan'ya watched the news on her compad with some interest. Events were unfolding almost an entire Galaxy away that had some bearing on her homeworld of Serenno.
At this moment in time, the Trade Federation was attempting to annex the beautiful, forested world of Naboo; first with a naval blockade and now with an army marching through the streets of its capital.
If the Galactic New Network was to be believed, an uprising had occurred. Currently the Queen and her palace militia were holding Nute Gunray, the Viceroy of the Trade Federation, hostage, and had forced him to sign a treaty promising to leave Naboo right away.
There had been a diversionary fighter attack from their local patrol force, and even the indigenous Gungan tribes had coordinated with her forces to do battle with the occupying droid army… with predictable results. A small squadron of fighters without the ability to refuel and rearm was no match for a fleet of carrier ships, and that was to say nothing of the Gungans who didn't even fight with blasters, the poor fools.
It was an awful plan, and Tan'ya was surprised to see even one part of it be successful with the Viceroy taken as a hostage. Unfortunately for the Queen, the Nemoidian was a depreciating asset.
An unpopular, compromise leader chosen enthusiastically by the Board of Directors, Nute Gunray seemed to have failed his way upwards to the top of the Trade Federation. With a blaster pointed at his face, he had immediately caved to Queen Amidala's intimidation and signed whatever she demanded of him. The only problem was she couldn't exactly let him go while she was surrounded by a vast army of droids. The moment Nute left, there was nothing to stop him from tearing up their deal, turning around and taking her hostage instead.
This stalemate had been ongoing for almost forty eight hours now, with the Trade Federation forces gathering around the palace, ready to storm in at any moment. The news cast had a projection of the three dimensional structure of Theed Palace with an army of tiny, ant-like droids forming in imposing, if impractical ranks on all sides, backed up by tanks and squadrons of circling vulture droids.
Tan'ya suspected that from a negotiation standpoint, the Trade Federation still felt they held an incredibly strong hand. Nute Gunray was expendable, and any promises he made were under duress. Right now the Federation's board of directors were in an emergency meeting, and it would probably be hard to convince them that their huge investments in Naboo were worth abandoning for the sake of one easily replaced incompetent.
The Trade Federation was bold and hubristic indeed if it thought it could snatch such a valuable gem from the Republic. With its wealthy, majority human population, Naboo was one of the Galaxy's largest suppliers of plasma fuel for ships and speeders.
Especially when compared to Serenno, Naboo was not a mere backwater supplier of raw materials for luxury goods, but a major source of a valuable and much needed fuel for the entire Republic. To compare the two planet's to nations back on Earth, Serenno was like Rwanda, resource rich and slowly recovering from devastating internal conflict, while Naboo was akin to Saudi Arabia, supplying oil to the US and firmly under its protection.
Tan'ya was certain at this very moment there were Jedi on their way to Naboo to shake some sense into the Trade Federation. If the scalpel failed, the Republic would soon reach for the hammer. No doubt it wouldn't be long until Naboo was free from Trade Federation, unless they could parlay some kind of arrangement with the Senate behind closed doors, which seemed unlikely now that the Senator of Naboo had been elected as Supreme Chancellor. Whatever gamble the Trade Federation had thought to make seemed to have failed.
Well, good for Naboo, but bad for Serenno. Tan'ya suspected that if Serenno was annexed by the Trade Federation, there wouldn't be nearly as much of a fuss. Odo Atz, the corporation that Serenno exported all its lumber to, was already part of the Trade Federation. Serenno didn't even have direct representation in the Senate; being part of the D'Astan Sector, the senator from Axxila voted on the sector's behalf.
Ever since her first days learning to read in this Galaxy, Tan'ya had been concerned about the Trade Federation and its relationship with her new homeworld.
Originally, the Trade Federation was just a private security firm with the goal of securing trade routes for its clients from the pirates and raiders of the Outer Rim. Eventually, the TF secured the vast and lucrative contract to maintain order in the Corporate Sector, which had been established as a tax haven by the Republic for the sake of developing the Outer Rim as a whole. Over time they became the de facto government of the region as they managed defense and mediated internal disputes, and even received official recognition in the Galactic Senate as representatives of the sector.
Historically, in this life and her previous ones, corporations did not make for very good governments. Even in the best run corporation, a certain amount of inefficiency born from complacency and arrogance crept into the ranks of any monopoly overtime, and a megacorporation that ran a world essentially gave itself control over everything. The Trade Federation had monopolistic power over the entire Corporate Sector, and had begun to spread its reach across more and more of the Outer Rim.
At the moment, Serenno was only a client of the Federation, where Naboo had been a debtor. Still, the fact that the Federation was willing to forcefully invade and occupy a Mid Rim world didn't bode well for an Outer Rim backwater. Well, that was being a bit harsh. Serenno was positioned directly over the Perlemian Trade Run, and quite resource rich with a large population in its own right. All it really needed was better economic management, and Tan'ya was sure they could be a flourishing power of the Outer Rim in time.
The problem with that was the Rim's other power, the Hutts. Tan'ya vaguely recalled reading somewhere in her previous lives that a feudal society bore a striking resemblance to an organized crime syndicate. The Hutts simply didn't bother with the distinction.
In ancient history around the origins of the Republic, the Hutts were a fierce, long lived warrior race that used their powerful bulk, shrewd intellect, and utter ruthlessness to conquer and subdue countless other species across a good chunk of the Outer Rim.
Though the empire they formed eventually broke up into countless smaller kingdoms, the approximate borders of Hutt Space hadn't changed for almost twenty five thousand years. Though they did a lot less fighting themselves these days, the Hutt upper class continued in the questionable traditions of their ancestors, using mercenaries and pirates to claw tribute from the poorly defended worlds of the remote Outer Rim.
Essentially, a world like Serenno either paid the Trade Federations security fees, or it gave tribute to the Hutts. Between the two powers, the entire Outer Rim was trapped in a vice. Some of the wealthier worlds like Raxus were able to maintain their own security forces, but even they were feeling the squeeze. The constant threat and pressure of the Hutts was gradually pushing the Tion cluster into the waiting arms of the Trade Federation.
Tan'ya's eyebrows furrowed at that. Actually, that was strange, wasn't it? The Hutts were famously cunning diplomats, well known for their shrewd political acumen. If they were competing with the Trade Federation for control of the Outer Rim, wouldn't the optimal move be to reduce pressure on the Tion Cluster?
The Hutts were incredibly long lived, and so generally felt no desire to risk their necks in open war. They would typically acquire new worlds and clients by raiding their shipping lanes with untraceable mercenaries, and flooding their markets with spices. They would throw their credits around on the world's stock markets, trying to engineer a crash over time, along with other similarly underhanded tactics until their demands were met.
Reading about the situation with Raxus on the holonet, Tan'ya was genuinely surprised to see Hutt warlords gloating, gloating, about the wealth they would claim on that world, while using only a small portion of their usual repertoire of economic warfare tactics. Even with this, the public of Raxus was outraged, pressuring their politicians to do something, anything! They cried, 'Why not just cut a deal with the Trade Federation already and put an end to this madness?'
Then Tan'ya noticed another oddity. Many of the pages she was reading shared the same talking points, despite none of them being associated with the Trade Federation. Every article that she found on the subject contained basically the same arguments, just framed from different sides of the issue.
'Raxus should just face reality, and rent a reasonable fleet from the Federation.'
'The patriotic thing for Raxus to do was invest heavily in defense with Federation ships.'
'Federation ships were more ethical than ones built and crewed locally, because they would only send droids and professional officers who knew the risks to their deaths in battle.'
It took pages of searching, before Tan'ya finally found a single article encouraging Raxus to construct and manage its own defenses, and that was because another author referenced it derisively, and included a link to its page. When Tan'ya tried searching for the article herself, all that came up were criticisms of the article until she got to the third or fourth page.
Feeling curious, she searched for news on her own homeworld, and found almost nothing. A few articles here and there mentioned the world's slow economic recovery, despite its natural resources, but really that was it. There were more than a few locally published outlets that made it to the main page, though.
Still curious, and feeling like she might be pulling at the thread of something larger, Tan'ya tried researching other worlds that sat at the crossroads between Hutta and the Trade Federation, starting with Felucia. It was almost the same story as with Raxus, many articles coming to the same conclusion from different angles. Trying to find an alternate view that offered a different solution took almost half an hour of scrolling through articles.
Tan'ya checked in on a few more Outer Rim worlds that were considered disputed territory, and found basically the same story. She even found a few articles about the rise of piracy in Mandalorian space, extremely critical of the Duchess.
It appeared that whatever force was at work coordinating the narrative against independent powers of the Outer Rim, was just starting to spin into action against Mandalore.
The thought gave her pause.
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