Private Hearing - The Use of Privateers

[Kamon Vondiranach]

"That is a fools response. You poke a sleeping beast with a stick and it will certainly bite. If you leave it be it may do nothing at all. There is always a risk of it attacking for no reason, but you should not antagonize it into doing so. Otherwise your Republic will fail much faster than anticipated."

Never awaken a sleeping giant. Let it sleep.

 

[Jack Sparrow]

Jack sighed. "If I may repeat myself, as perhaps you were distracted during the opening statement I made and asked everyone to pay particular attention to: Privateers will be commissioned with raiding enemy cargo ships, supply bases and factories as well as similar targets owned by corporations associated with said enemies. If we have no enemies, we need use no privateers. Savvy? Where am I losing you?"

 

[Khyros Sunblade]

Khyros raised his eyebrows at the tones of people in the room. He looked at each of the speakers as they spoke, making sure to both be and appear attentive as they spoke, as was respectful, and thus, his way.

"I need to disagree with some points and agree with others. Yes, we are currently weak, as is evident in certain systems claiming secession. As if being alone were somehow better." He looked around the room, for once letting his inner feelings rise to the surface, then wash it over with his professional mask. "Those matters are not why we are here, so I apologize for the digression. We are weak, and that means the One Sith will be coming. It is not an if, only a when. It has always only been a when." He paused and took a sip of water. "The Galactic Alliance is proving to be a thorn in their side, and there are reports of internal strife, but we are their age old enemy. Using our regular forces to strike into their space stretches us thin and makes it less likely that we will be able to mount a successful defense when they go on the offensive again. Supplying resistance cells behind enemy lines costs money, money that we now have to use to refurbish our services within the Republic due to our previous services have had several key models of droids removed despite trade agreements and payments for services. We are also facing a significant tariff for materiel from another of our member worlds. I have also seen reports that a portion of our forces have not reported in in since Eshan has fortified their system." As he spoke these words he looked directly at Faith and then Janira. "These facts coming on the heels of other economic downfalls that the Republic has had recently comes down to the fact that we do not have the disposable capital to be outfitting resistance cells. What the privateer option gives us is both a way to harass the enemy without having to risk our regular forces, gives us revenue to support resistance cells, and gives us another avenue of intelligence and counterintelligence. If we have another form of revenue or a way to reclaim the Republics property without senseless bloodshed I am very willing to hear it. However, at the moment I have heard nothing but how this shouldn't be and no other options. Business as usual isn't going to work. It is how people like Lasedri and Hadrix got into power and annihilated our Republic."

Khyros leaned back in his seat, he hadn't truly meant to say that much, but on review he felt strongly that it was needed. No longer could the Senate be idle while the galaxy went to hell. The Republic needed solidarity and purpose, it needed to be able to hurt the enemy and retain a viable defense. He reached forward and sipped from his water again, then set it down, watching his fellow Senators and guest.

[member="Faith Balor-Organa"] | [member="Janira Fenni"] | [member="Suravi"] | [member="jack sparrow"] | [member="Auru Taff"]

 

[Jack Sparrow]

What I've been saying since the campaign stump, yet the moment I try to make good on it I'm greeted with political constipation, thought Jack, but kept his peace. He'd already spoken enough. Let the others have their say. An informal poll had shown he had enough support to pass the bill; perhaps more would see the logic if it came from someone's mouth other than his own. He did tend towards the verbose, though he saw this as a virtue rather than a flaw.

[member="Khyros Sunblade"] | [member="Faith Balor-Organa"] | [member="Janira Fenni"] | [member="Suravi"] | [member="Auru Taff"]

 

[Eugen Aker]

"On the contrary, Chancellor, I think you are grossly underestimating the risks. The Mandalorians have been emboldened by our blundering at Roche, and the Sith would love nothing more than to quell infighting by having us on the table again as an active external threat. Not to mention this Corporate Alliance that's on the rise as result of the actions of the previous Chancellor. There's a good chance that the merchant ships you would like to target would belong to some member of that organization. We'd be needlessly putting a mark on ourselves by engaging in activities that you just acknowledged would actually be insignificant on a strategic level. In ten seconds, Kiribi generates more revenue than your band of privateers could ever hope to match in a century's worth of plundering."

"To believe that all of the privateers would be able to conduct their raids without a hitch is pure fantasy. You may get some easy picks in from the beginning, but then the Sith or whoever else you would like to target would step up their patrols. They would undoubtedly use their own intelligence services and underworld contacts to make probes and ascertain the identity of the privateers. Despite your faith in your associates, in good conscience as Senator, I cannot trust some hired guns to keep their mouth shut. You seem to forget how successful the One Sith have been in placing their agents in high positions within the Republic, and the Jedi Order."

She glanced over at [member="Faith Balor-Organa"] at as she spoke of spies.

"It's the only a matter of time before we're caught red-handed, and then what? Chancellor, I'm seeing now that you like to play games, but you've said nothing to make me believe that you're actually prepared to handle the inevitable fallout. Never make a gamble without having contingencies set in place. What do you have planned if the Mandalorians continue their incursions, or if the Sith break the cease-fire as result of terrorism by the Republic?"

"Humor me, though. At this time, who exactly do you have in mind to conduct these raids?"

[spoilers]
[member="Janira Fenni"]
[member="Jack Sparrow"]
[member="Thalia Kaia"]
[member="Khyros Sunblade"]
[member="Auru Taff"]
[/spoilers]

 

[Jack Sparrow]

Jack spread his hands. "No one," he answered truthfully. "This is firmly ensconced in the the debate process. Haven't given the specifics any more thought than knowing who would know should this proposal pass. I have, in all fairness, and to the surprise of no one, I'd wager, had contact in the past with certain parties who I think would prove sufficient to the task, but since we're still in the words portion, I didn't see any reason to get anyone's hopes up."

[member="Suravi"]

 

[Khyros Sunblade]

"Senator Suravi, the people of Kiribi, like all lawful citizens of the Republic, pay taxes. These taxes are what we use to fund our yearly budgets. If you are stating that the people of Kiribi would like to give over more of their revenue to pay for resistance cells and repopulating our lost forces, both military and medical, that we have lost, then that is another matter. However, utilizing privateers to fund such resistance cells would cost the economy of the Republic nothing." He leaned forward, putting his arms on the table and steepling his fingers. "Tell me, aside from stirring up people who would already be our enemies, what real objection do you have?"

[member="Faith Balor-Organa"] | [member="Janira Fenni"] | [member="Suravi"] | [member="jack sparrow"] | [member="Auru Taff"]

 

[Nick Sept]

Nick had sat and reameind quiet, and listened. Btu screw it, sometimes you needed to speak truth to power. "The real objection," he said calmly, "Is that the authorization of new military force, right after our old one went off the deep end, with the passage of no reforms, makes us look both like feckless half-wits. We've jsut had members of our own miltary command be accused of war crimes. As a former veteran of two campaigns, I'd like to put this down simply: The people don't trust us. They are going to readily continue accusing us of corruption if the people in our employ, or in this case, the people we presume as allies, " He continued, standing up slowly, "The men and women we choose to ally ourselves with at this point will mold our public perception. If there's no enforcement to keep these privateers honest, then we will not, and should not, be entrusting them with any privileges of legality. So, Chancellor, if I may be so bold," he began calmly. "What measures will be taken to make sure that the aforementioned privateers hold to a code of engagement? Or are we going to be hands-off and just hope that it works?" Not that it worked on Cartao, but he'd make that point later.


He sat back down, waiting for an answer. Was he the only person who noticed the protests, the secessionist movements? Delicacy was needed, and he really wasn't all that delicate.




[member="Khyros Sunblade"] [member="Jack Sparrow"] [member="Suravi"] [member="Auru Taff"] [member="Janira Fenni"] [member="Thalia Kaia"][member="Faith Balor-Organa"]

 

[Khyros Sunblade]

Khyros turned his attention to Senator Sept.

"In the proviso the Chancellor set out it was stated that as a stipulation for the letter of marque the Republic maintains the right to put an observer on the ship. Such an observer would be precisely the measure to ensure they maintain the rules of engagement."

[member="Faith Balor-Organa"] | [member="Janira Fenni"] | [member="Suravi"] | [member="jack sparrow"] | [member="Auru Taff"]

 

[Eugen Aker]

"Senator Sunblade, thank you for the lesson on government funding, now I'll give you one. You and Chancellor Sparrow are operating under the rosy assumption that we can trust criminals to keep up the end of the bargain to the letter, when they have no motivation to do so. First off, we would have trust them to be up front about the value of all the plunder they collected on a raid. Those numbers will be fudged. What's the percentage that being floated around right now? 50%? Hmm, if I was a privateer, then why not renege on the deal and blackmail the Republic into accepting a lower percentage of the reported value (which again, will probably be fudged)? Then if we don't play by their rules, they just let it slip with the documentation. These criminals aren't going to care if they're revealed in the process, they'll just slink back to whence they came. The Sith and the others may even reward them for tattling."

"Now we add another dimension in having to monitor these privateers to make sure that they adhere to a certain set of Rules of Engagement. There's also the fact that we have to provide them with havens now. Contrary to your claim, this will not cost the Republic "nothing", as we would have expend precious resources to keep these privateers in line and safe. Resources means...credits. So then let's eliminate the middlemen, and use the resources that would be wasted on this endeavour to directly support resistance groups. It's not even like we have to start from scratch, as there are several groups already active that we can support. At least one was so well off that they even offered to help provide humanitarian aid with us to impoverished planets."

"Senator, my issue with this whole plan is that we simply can't afford to antagonise anyone right now. We're losing on all fronts, and if the embarrassment of Roche has not made that clear, then I don't know how else to convince you. We need to use all use the time we have now to regroup. The Chancellor has failed to outline a plan of action besides the desire to have us go commit terrorism abroad. He had failed to offer anything in the way of contingencies in the likely instance of failure. This whole proposal is based of a dated concept, when we have modern mechanisms in place to achieve the same ends while offering us plausible deniability. We already have operatives in the intelligence department handling the very sorts of agents that the Chancellor desires. Work through them. That's what we pay taxes for, right?"

"Now I understand the desire to finally strike at enemies and reverse our losses, but this is not the way to proceed. I urge caution and refocus on our effort of cleaning up house."


[member="Khyros Sunblade"]
[member="Jack Sparrow"]
[member="Janira Fenni"]

 

[Khyros Sunblade]

"Senator Suravi, you have had a habit of making gross assumptions without basis in fact, and I would kindly ask you to stop. The error you made was right in the beginning of your last statement. The privateers would have ample reason to abide by the rules stipulated because it would mean a steady income and legitimacy. Any privateers who do not deal honestly once given the letter of marque would get black listed and shot from the sky the moment they entered Republic space." Khyros was sitting upright, his face a completely impassive mask, and his hands resting on the table before him. His voice was hard and emotionless. "Another fact of the matter is that these privateers would pay for lodging and docking rights like any other merchant ship, thereby providing another source of revenue and costing us little. Their safety would be assured in the fact that they are within our borders, guarded by our military men and women. As for the rest of your suggestion, let us take a look at it. Ali Hadrix rose through the ranks to become Supreme Commander from within the ranks of our current intelligence establishment. The debacle of Roche was at the hands of this same Hadrix, so no, Ms. Suravi, I would not currently trust our intelligence establishment to be able to handle setting up and aiding resistance cells without expansive review. Finally, the buzz word of terrorism is not appropriate here. The targets for privateer forces would be military and commercial in nature, not civilian. The One Sith, I should remind you, nationalized commercial assets, making both Military and Commercial targets both be governmental entities. We would not be employing them to commit atrocities, we would not be employing them to frighten the populace in enemy states, so please stop with the grand standing." He paused for a sip of water, then finished his statements for the time being. "If you would like to let us know where the capital for operational costs of setting up and supporting resistance cells is to come from, then by all means tell us. As it is, our current budget has us in a deep deficit and I, for one, do not like spending money that isn't there."

[member="Faith Balor-Organa"] | [member="Janira Fenni"] | [member="Suravi"] | [member="jack sparrow"] | [member="Auru Taff"]

 

[Faith Organa]

Faith had been quiet, she looked from one face to another. "No one trusts us. They look at the Republic and see criminals. As much as privateers seem like an answer, in my opinion it would only further ingrain the image that the Republic is nothing more than criminals employing criminals."

Faith set the datapad down. "You want more spies out there, well I've lost a bunch of spies this year they were killed trying to get the information that was needed."

Faith laid her hands flat on the table. "We don't have a lot of funding, we never did. WE are in worse shape now than we were a year ago. Except now it is it seems worse, leaders of the Republic having gone off the deep end, creating more problems. And here we sit, once again trying to find a way to survive before the Sith, or the Mandalorians decide they've had enough"

She sighed, "I noticed we've lost two Senators this week to resignations" So now what..she thought as she looked around.

[member="Khyros Sunblade"] [member="Suravi"] [member="Nick Sept"] [member="Jack Sparrow"] [member="Janira Fenni"]

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

"If I may interject, I also side with senator Organa. These are desperate times for the republic. But I have a suggestion, why don't we call in the jedi order? How much more harm could it cause us?"

Thalia states as she looks at the rest of the senators gathered before her

[member="Faith Balor-Organa"]
[member="Khyros Sunblade"]
[member="Suravi"]

 

[Eugen Aker]

"What income? As you have it now, it's the privateers doing all the work and taking the risk, while we take an exorbitant percentage of plunder. The only benefit to working with us is the promise of safe haven, but as recent events have shown, we can't even protect ourselves at this point. It is only the infighting of the Sith, and the diminished state of the Mandalorians that is saving us right now. I wouldn't take that bet, but then show me someone who would."

"Dress up these raids however you want, but they will be seen as acts of aggression on our part. In the past, when we were being harassed like the Chancellor proposes now, we would launch entire armadas into enemy territory as retaliation. Now, if the Republic was willing to do that when we were at a point of strength, why don't you believe that Sith wouldn't do the same? There has never been a time where the Sith had held back on using overwhelming force to crush their enemies. We've felt this first hand at even the smallest of operations. The Mandalorians seized Roche on the mere suspicion that their interests were at risk, then declared war on us after being affronted by one of our impulsive officers trying to play hardball. They will come for us if we attack them, and we're not ready for that."

"Speaking of assumptions, I see that you're already counting the credits before we - no the privateers - have earned them. As I've stated before, the amounts of revenue that a small operation like this would net us is miniscule at best. This is assuming that every raid was a success, and there were no losses on the part of the privateers. At worst, it costs us."

"I'm just having a hard time believing that we're really that credit-strapped when I see all these shiny new dreadnaughts and fighters continuously rolling out of the shipyards, and clone armies just being able to be seemingly conjured out of nowhere. I'm going to have to disagree with you on the topic of the budget. We can always reallocate the budget, raise taxes, sell bonds, engage in more debt spending, take out loans, etc. We have so many other, more sound and responsible options for financing the war effort."

"I seriously can't believe you would even support this proposal when you can't even trust our intelligence department. An operation like this would require their cooperation in coordinating with the privateers. How are we going to run this operation when we don't even trust ourselves to do it?"

Suravi was beginning to grow exasperated with her peers. They were just brushing off the risks when the Republic was in a state of complete disarray. Minister Balor-Organa had just reported the resignation of two more Senators, both in the same week. The Republic should have been bending over backwards not to tick off their enemies. And as Senator Sept had stated, this whole privateer business was beneath the Republic. This was setting up to be another public relations nightmare to shake the faith in the Republic.

"Senator Sunblade, we're just going back and forth on this right now, and it doesn't look like either of us are going to budge on our positions. So for now, I would like to adjourn this hearing. I want to revisit this discussion in one week with concrete plans from Chancellor Sparrow. I want targets, contingency plans, revenue projections, and a list of potential candidates along with dossiers for each one."

"I'll leave you with an alternate plan to consider. Establishing relations with the Mandalorians and allowing them to launch incursions from Republic space. If nothing else, the Mandalorians make for excellent raiders. They have the discipline to respect our Rules of Engagement. Even if the Sith did figure out what was going on, they would be less hesitant to attack if we were both working together again. That leaves us playing the the Mandalorians and Sith against each other instead of us antagonizing them both with the use of privateers."

She gave a respectful nod, then rose from her seat to leave. They could continue talking if they liked, but she had no reason to stick around with her objective complete. Now it was back to more pressing issues.

"Minister Balor-Organa, could you join me in my office for a chat? The Kiribian government is looking to secure some mineral deals with Alderaan."

[member="Faith Balor-Organa"]
[member="Khyros Sunblade"]
[member="Jack Sparrow"]
[member="Nick Sept"]
[member="Janira Fenni"]

 

[Khyros Sunblade]

"Senator Suravi, you are acting very much like you are the Chancellor, rather than our colleague from Kashyyk. You may have called this meeting, but you are not the elected leader and I would like you to show at least a little bit of the decorum a Senator is supposed to have and not make grandiose statements and then flee." Khyros said in a booming voice as he stood to his full height. The hubris of his colleague had gotten to be enough. He then continued in a normal voice. "You make statements about debt spending, raising taxes, selling bonds, taking out loans, and reallocating the budget. I would like to tackle those points, ignoring the privateer issue at the moment. Debt spending and raising taxes for efforts that would have to be clandestine in nature are two of the best ways to have all of our governments recall us. I doubt the citizens of Kiribi would appreciate their representative suggesting that we do such in the current state of our economy. Reallocating the budget means that other projects get put on the backburner. Which ones would you like to strip of funds, education? Infrastructure? Defense? Bonds would be fine, if anyone would buy them, but taking out loans would require a galactic level institution being willing to loan to us. If we can't even convince our planets that we'll be around to pay our debts, why would a bank? But go, flee. We have accomplished nothing in this meeting that you yourself called. It seems like your only objective here was to try to browbeat our Chancellor into accepting your way of thinking. You don't want us to use privateers. Fine. When we return, you need to have a plan that outlines where you would get the capital to enable these resistance cells. If you say loan, find us an institution. If it's raising taxes, show us polling data. If it is Bonds, tell us at what rate of interest for the buyers."

Khyros then sat back down, but did not break eye contact with Suravi. His face was impassive, emotionless again. He laid his arms on the arms of his chair and leaned back a little. He was here to discuss issues, and so long as any Senator remained who was willing to discuss them, he would remain as well.

[member="Faith Balor-Organa"] | [member="Janira Fenni"] | [member="Suravi"] | [member="jack sparrow"] | [member="Auru Taff"]

 

[Jack Sparrow]

"[member="Thalia Kaia"], I am attempting to contact the Jedi Order, a Jedi Ord--some Jedi Order, in an attempt to improve relations and find some compatibility. This, however, is about signing privateers, who work in a completely different environment." He smiled at Thalia, glad that she was offering productive input.

 

[Eugen Aker]

Senator Sunblade still had some things to say, so she turned at the door to address him one last time.

"I'm not acting like the Chancellor, but as a responsible Senator. It's our job to grill the Chancellor on such an audacious plan that threatens the very existence of the Republic. I know it's been the style of most of the Senate to remain...passive...as previous Chancellors and even Commanders were allowed to run amok with little oversight, as recently as Roche, but that time is over. The Senate is the supreme authority of the Republic, the Chancellor serves at our pleasure."

"You're creating a false dichotomy here, making it seem like we do all or nothing. Redirecting the funds from the production a few new X-Wings would be enough funding for what you want for a decade. The poor Admirals would still get their big toys of redundant capital ships. Honestly, the resistance cells active don't really need funding, but could use intelligence and a little expertise from our military."

"The economy of Kiribi is fine at least, it was made to be more resilient after the fall of the Galactic Alliance. We survived the catastrophe of the Gulag Plague, and the Netherwold Crisis. The contraction of the Republic is nothing by comparison. Nothing but a hindrance."

Sunblade wanted to talk about luxuries of bloated domestic spending at a time with the Republic should have been rationing. Some of these people were totally out of touch. She quietly sighed as she left the room.

((Exit, thanks everyone. <3))

[member="Khyros Sunblade"]