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Creative Destruction: A Clone Wars Banking Clan Quest

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[X]Lobbying: After all, when facing Senator Palpatine one does need lobbyists who can deal with the rougher side of Coruscant. And there are rumors of Death Watch bombings being prepped, aided and abetted by the Corellian drug smuggling groups. Mitigates Deadlocking.
 
[X]Sentient Resources: The fact of the matter is that having unsavory contacts can often help when it comes to running ops against dirty members of the Banking Clan. The clones are one such tool, and a useful one so long as it's used sparingly. The kicker, though, isn't that. The fact that we can leverage one or two high profile incidents to polarize things between Core and Mid-Rim are the main focus here. Forget rendition, we need to politicize the Corellian drug pipeline's existence. Mitigates Polaroid.
 
mouli said:
(1) Due to two sidestories and very good shitposting, @CthuluWasRight gets one OOC question. It can be asking about plot threads or asking about what factions are being based on, and I will reserve the right to obfuscate to avoid spoiling things.
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I knew frying my brain by being Terminally Online would pay off someday! YEAH BABY! LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
 
[X]Sentient Resources: The fact of the matter is that having unsavory contacts can often help when it comes to running ops against dirty members of the Banking Clan. The clones are one such tool, and a useful one so long as it's used sparingly. The kicker, though, isn't that. The fact that we can leverage one or two high profile incidents to polarize things between Core and Mid-Rim are the main focus here. Forget rendition, we need to politicize the Corellian drug pipeline's existence. Mitigates Polaroid.

Really happy to have found this quest. And Palpatine hitting the dance floor disguised as a Sith was a genius move
 
Votes are called.
Scheduled vote count started by mouli on Aug 2, 2021 at 5:26 PM, finished with 36 posts and 24 votes.
  • [X]Lobbying: After all, when facing Senator Palpatine one does need lobbyists who can deal with the rougher side of Coruscant. And there are rumors of Death Watch bombings being prepped, aided and abetted by the Corellian drug smuggling groups. Mitigates Deadlocking.
    [X]Sentient Resources: The fact of the matter is that having unsavory contacts can often help when it comes to running ops against dirty members of the Banking Clan. The clones are one such tool, and a useful one so long as it's used sparingly. The kicker, though, isn't that. The fact that we can leverage one or two high profile incidents to polarize things between Core and Mid-Rim are the main focus here. Forget rendition, we need to politicize the Corellian drug pipeline's existence. Mitigates Polaroid.
    [X] Financials: Evidence can always be dug up on the Outer Rim for things like fraud, use of slave labor and paying off gangs. That can always come in handy when we're dealing with lawsuits from Mid-Rim worlds backed by the Trade Federation and we're dealing with Trade Federation-allied corporations. Mitigates Taking the Offensive.
    [X]Lobbying
    [x] []Lobbying: After all, when facing Senator Palpatine one does need lobbyists who can deal with the rougher side of Coruscant. And there are rumors of Death Watch bombings being prepped, aided and abetted by the Corellian drug smuggling groups. Mitigates Deadlocking.
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Turn Results Part I: The Muun
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    • Turn Results Part I: The Muun​

    [Extraordinary Rendition: 22]
    [Polaroid: 23]
    [Deadlocking: Nat 1, Blunted]

    Muunilist,
    31 BBY

    Headaches are painful little things, always sitting just behind your forehead and throbbing away like some ancient with a hammer was banging away on an anvil right there. You know you get these damn migraines when stressed, but then you can't really avoid the stress right now, can you? Director Fina Sell, head of Banking Clan Legal, and therefore the one who has to deal with the entire clusterfuck that was the court-system strategy to sideline reform. A little part of you says that this is actually good, your job prospects aside. You squish it again. As always. A deep breath, a look down the long table at the dozen or so regional chiefs all called here for a roasting, and a moment to close your eyes and compose yourself. Conference rooms are built for that bland, corporate, calming ambience, all pale glass and plastics with soft, rich lighting – in this case, it doesn't help your stress very much. "Alright, then. You people," A nod at the others seated along the table, "-are the heads of Legal for every region under Operation Lockdown. Our initial plan was to pre-empt regional changes in law by every little planetary central bank by filing cases in the Republic judiciary, make it so that planetary financials are overruled by the courts at the galactic level." You take a deep breath, pausing for a moment. Eyes turn to you from eleven Muun and a single Corellian, every single one of them well aware of the next bit. Still, "That strategy will no longer work going forward. People, we have a problem."

    "It was always in doubt." Arnis Insam looks down the table at every one of the Muun there, the sole Corellian – the sole non-Muun – in the room and knowing it. "I objected to this tactic from the beginning – it will only serve to congeal opposition at the galactic level and prevent compromise at the planetary level."

    "Which was what we had planned." Director Johm Seaner runs the Coruscant arm of IGBC Legal, and his derisive glare at his Corellian comrade in the Kessel Run underlines the disdain the Muun have for most non-Muun in the banking sector. "The strategy was to polarize political discourse in the galaxy and stall reform. We can then move things piecemeal and make 'concessions'. We cannot do that with every little planetary government. We needed to freeze things there and force it up into the light. Into the Senate."

    You rap the table with your knuckle, interrupting what is by now an old argument. If Insam wasn't so vehement about his opposition you're pretty sure the Muun wouldn't push back, but it's a bit late for that now. Your headache drums against your forehead as you speak, reminding you that you need a break but you're not getting one anytime soon. "That is irrelevant. Changes in the situation on the ground have made it unviable and that is what I am coming to. Directions handed down at the Board and C-Suite level are not to be debated here and now, am I understood?"
    You get reluctant nods. Fina Sell, former activist lawyer, dominating the boardroom. It brings a thin, sharp smile to your face. A life made of irony, that's you.

    You gesture at a holographic comm-link, the gesture making it come to life as a foot-tall miniature blue figurine. A human. "This is Senior Analyst Remir Seyas, Sentient Resources. Corporate Intelligence." You get a faint glare from the hologram for that, the human turning back to give you an aggrieved look. Not as if you're putting your legal teams on the line and not telling them what they're dealing with. "He has some information that we should be listening to. The situation on the ground has changed."

    Seyas blinks once, high-fidelity holocom showing every motion of the miniature figure, and then picks up from where you left off with smooth aplomb. "Thank you for the introduction, Director Sell. As you might have conjectured, I am here because Corporate Intel and the Sentient Resources monitoring teams have found some facts on the ground that necessitate a change in tactics." He waves a hand, and three more holograms leap to life on the table from its internal projectors. Three humans, two women and one man, all of them the sort of weary middle-aged look that someone in IGBC middle management sort of acquires once they hit their promotion ceiling and begin to tread water to stay in place. "These are Mosecli Racher," The leftmost figure, a slight human female wrapped in robes reminiscent of the Outer Rim is briefly highlighted. "-her comrade Marnoa Hilcros, apparently from the same planet and the same university," The second woman is highlighted, this one in a sharp suit in the height of Mid-Rim fashion, "-and then the opportunist, Colchai Fortiles." The man is a tall, thin figure whose hologram frowns out at the conference table, severe and thin and projecting middle-managerial frustration. You've seen the type. There's a lot of non-Muun in the IGBC with that expression.
    The assorted Muun of the Legal team are staring at the figures and the Sentient Resources consultant with a polite interest reminiscent of a trip to the zoo, while the Corellian, Insam, has a distant look in his eyes. No doubt thinking what you were, about non-Muun and the Banking Clan.

    "You may ask," says Remir Seyas, smiling avuncularly at the table with the plump face of a jolly nice uncle, "What do three humans and Sentient Resources' black arm have to do with the strategies of IGBC Legal?" With the legal actions of the Banking Clan, is the unstated meaning of the question. It's answered a moment later, the human's smile not fading – his eyes however, turn cold. Or so you think, as he turns to you for a moment and winks before turning to brief the table full of lawyers. "These are three whistleblowers who acted as intel analysts for the planning of your legal strategy and how it tied in with the relevant PR campaign for polarizing public opinions. They have had objections to it for quite some time." He frowns for a moment, genuinely puzzled, "Moral considerations, apparently. Can't imagine why." Utterly honest, and every inch the moral vacuum that you can expect from an SR flack. You note that the lawyers are gazing at him with a mix of interest and extreme wariness.
    That's the way to go, people.

    Brel Dinard's nasal voice cuts through the air for a moment, the Muun in charge of one of the Mid-Rim regional divisions. She's a hard charger but you know she has her ethics – you hired her and you interviewed her, and you don't think the IGBC has changed her that much. "Whistleblowers who've decided that information should be public? Specifically information under NDA?"

    "Indeed." Seyas nods at her, smile gone and utterly serious. "You may ask, of course, why not simply go through the courts for this? After all, we have the right of it with the NDAs."

    "The sensitivity." Insam has the right of it here, his eyes looking at the consultant's hologram as if seeing something distasteful. "We can't really tell the Republic or its law enforcement what's in there and we can't risk it getting out. Mass social engineering on this scale is what everyone does, but quietly."

    "Exactly." The voice is hoarse and sounds utterly tired, and through your headache it takes a moment for you to realize that's you speaking. "We cannot risk this getting out, and the three of them have already made contact with Senator Palpatine to blow this wide open. Just as the Banking Clan is clogging up the courts with cases that claim to seek safety and stall 'dangerous legislation'." Your tone turns wry for those last two words, old emotions bubbling up from somewhere deep inside where you buried them long long ago.

    "So what can we do?" The question comes from three Muun at the same time, a chorus of voices from regional HQs as far apart as the Outer Rim, Coruscant and Naboo. Johm Seaner takes over from his Rimward compatriots, looking around the table with the bags under his eyes and wrinkles in his dome highlighted by the ambient lighting. Stress again. "We can't exactly change course now, we've made our initial arguments in almost all of these cases. We can start to drop them, but that means risking consequences from the judiciary. Frivolous lawsuits, dropped as fast as they began."

    You just nod at him, it's a decent point and not one that you can evade. Bitterness rises in your gut. You know how this is going to go. "We know what the Senator is likely to do. He isn't about to use this to assert planetary sovereignty and help the little central banks. He'll blow this wide open once we win the cases or bog down. He wants the Chancellery, he wants galactic power. He won't give some snivelling little planetary banker an out. He'll make it so they have no choice but to stand with him, and then he'll make us look like the villain there."

    "Rats are most dangerous when cornered," says Seyas, and you silently agree with the florid human talking at the table through hologram and comlink. "Sheev wants us to back everyone into a corner and then makes them side against us instead of standing aside."

    Jin Daill of the Mandalore Region Mid-Rim desk pipes up with the expected question, nodding from around the table by the more...ethically flexible...of the legal team underscoring it. "Why not pay them off? Or see if we have any dirt on them? That usually works."

    Remir Seyas shrugs, reply honestly puzzled. "They're ideological. They apparently aren't in it for money, and any hint of it was rebuffed before they went on the run to the Senator on Coruscant. We haven't been able to make contact since. If they want peace they can have it, but they have to come to us." And you don't think they will. Nobody wants to meet a Sentient Resources strike team from the wrong end, after all. Seyas on the other hand sounds injured. "They seem to doubt our sincerity here, and we really do want this papered over painlessly. But they seem to have grown a spine. Racher and Hilcros even sent a letter to their managerial team later on, saying they were doing this because of our role in the colonial bond crisis." Pity they didn't grow that spine to report on the Outer Rim Desk when it stoked that bubble, you think. That would've saved everyone some trouble and made the Naboo crisis so much easier.

    Insam says as much, and Seyas just shakes his head. "Either way, that is irrelevant. We have forewarning of their intentions thanks to a well-placed wiretap, and we have their IDs. All that's left is to find them and sew this thing up. I'm informing Legal because this requires authorization, acting against former or recently released employees of the Banking Clan in an extralegal action."

    "You want rendition." The Coruscant team's director states the obvious, and Ramir Seyas just nods. You swallow for a moment. You knew where this was going.

    His voice, to give the soulless apparatchik credit, is suitably solemn. No false joviality here. "We want rendition. Knock them out, non-lethal, and rendition to the Outer Rim. We have friends with the right sort of penal laws there. Use enhanced techniques to enforce compliance. They come back once things are decided politically, and they come back spiced up and penniless like they went on a massive bender." He looks back at you, "At this point, Director Sell, stakes are high enough that I have to formally request Legal to authorize extreme measures."

    There doesn't seem to be an alternative. Brel Dinard looks at you from the table's far end, her eyes neutral. Not a trace of the horror you expected, not a single objection to make. Maybe the IGBC does change you. You take a long moment, weighing the blackened remains of your morality, and make a choice. "Do it. Authorized."

    AN: Part 1 of 3 or so, for the first bits of things. Discussion and engagement keeps me writing, even if we're a bit of a small thread here.
     
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    • mouli said:
    His voice, to give the soulless apparatchik credit, is suitably solemn. No false joviality here. "We want rendition. Knock them out, non-lethal, and rendition to the Outer Rim. We have friends with the right sort of penal laws there. Use enhanced techniques to enforce compliance. They come back once things are decided politically, and they come back spiced up and penniless like they went on a massive bender." He looks back at you, "At this point, Director Sell, stakes are high enough that I have to formally request Legal to authorize extreme measures."
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    Honestly at that point putting a blaster to their heads and pulling the trigger is the more merciful option.

    You're essentially turning them into a homeless crackhead with no hope of rehabilitation and with their lives completely destroyed.
     
    andrewopk said:
    Thank god for the assimilation roll I guess?

    That's uh, not a new development.
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    Nah, I know that. The villain tag has been up for awhile, but I felt this needs to be reiterated. One moment, the Director says they'll falsely be painted as villians, and the next, they're planning to imprison people until this situation blows over; which could be indefinitely.
     
    Well we are basically at war right now, and in war you're usually forced to make tough decisions. Whether or not those choices are justified or not depends on who wins.
     
    Likely so. We are definitely not the good guys in here.
     
    Well, I did say earlier that we'd already had a Villain Moment when we corrupted Republic Audit. Anyway, chin up. We might be bastards, but we're still playing against Palpatine, albeit unwittingly, which makes us the lesser evil. Admittedly, the fact that objective good is also in the ring still clouds the issue somewhat, but still, swings and roundabouts.

    And hey, with these rolls, we're near-guaranteed to fuck up so horribly that there's no way we actually do this consequence-free! Karma will still be satisfied!
     
    How would the main character here that seems to be competent deal with Darth Maul hunting him, and randomly killing IGBC members , to avoid suffering the fate of a earlier incarnation of the Black Suns who Darth Maul Singlehandedly destroyed in the comics or novels?
     
    We're evil but not in the "torture and murder for fun" sense, or not comically evil, like Palps. We don't do evil for the sake of evil, we do it because we want to achieve our goals. Morality, while still there to a degree, is taking a backseat. Which is nice. It's neat to be going for the "villain with principles" angle in a quest for once.
    Edit: nevermind the principles part, thought I was tabbed into the Thrawn quest. Point still stands about being evil but not of the "murder and torture for kicks and giggles" variety.
     
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    I mean, we're effectively amoral here. No good. No bad. Just business.
     
    There's no need for mental gymnastics, the IGBC in its current state is bad. It's just the lesser of the baddies that are currently extant in the Republic.

    If Palpy suddenly decided to offer an alliance with The Bank, one that would more or less guarantee a free hand in financial affairs, wouldn't the IGBC take it?

    Other than player intervention, I don't see a reason why the The Bank wouldn't.
     
    Seriously how would the IGBC and the main character deal with a Darth Vader type enemy hero being sent to destroy them martial wise, if theoretically Darth Sidious himself personally arrives with a lightsaber on Muun main head quarters where the main character is working, knowing that Sidous or any force sensitive lackey is one man army?
     
    wildwill said:
    There is no possible defense. If we have forewarning we could probably get some jedi to protect us, kinda like padme.
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    Lets say its a surprise attack, and Sidous in his OOC moment is homicidallly insane and, the MC knows IC that Sidious is as strong as a jedi? The MC being a CEO is in the highest floor of the Muun Head quarters, while Sidious is somewhere in the 2nd floor when MC became alerted to the attack, What would the playerbase do? Take this moment to expose Sidious identity?, Take this moment to kill him? and the moment Sidious attack the MC has already contacted the Jedi who will arrived in 2 hours, the GM being generous has allowed write ins as while Sidous is literally throwing his greatest asset at the IGBC (himself), he has also exposed himself vulnerably, so what plans would the playerbase make while using IC knowledge? while using OOC knowledge?
     
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