"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"]