https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1jL8A20H_k
OUTER RIMREMOTE SYSTEM
Life was full of happy coincidences.
With the expensive equipment that had been purchased from Theed Hangar, Helix Syndicate had taken to another form of contract work. Planetary governments and private corporations were always looking for more mineral deposits to exploit, more tibanna gas to harvest. They lacked the equipment necessary to fund their own prospecting. Since the Helix Syndicate had its foot in other industries, they could do it for a lesser cost and generate better results faster than their competition. Such was the benefit of a diversified portfolio. The Syndicate’s prospecting crews currently lacked the experience their rivals had, but once those companies collapsed and the grizzled veterans were looking for work again…
Well, chances were they wouldn’t be going to another small potatoes firm. But that’s not the previously mentioned coincidence.
During a routine scanning operation on a remote system, the Helix Syndicate found something far more valuable than any simple mineral deposit. They found a pirate shadowport, constructed into a derelict worldcraft, a habitation sphere. Maleagant wagered that it must have been built sometime before (or perhaps even during?) the Gulag Plague, since no definitive records could be found detailing its construction. A large logo had been painted on the side, but it was unrecognizable. Some government that had briefly existed during the Golden Age, maybe. It didn’t matter how they got there or why, just that the Helix Syndicate had found them. And now they had scanned and identified them as one of the most prolific pirate dynasties in the sector.
Maleagant was reasonable, so he offered to keep their location secret and suppress any chances of its discovery in exchange for bi-yearly tribute. The pirates declined, so instead a mercenary fleet had been chartered and the pirates were cleared out with extreme prejudice. Many lives were lost in the orbital battle, and many more were lost when the Helix Syndicate’s Shock Troopers stormed the worldcraft and took it over. Block by block. Level by level. Centimeter by centimeter. The fighting had taken weeks, but as the inaugural battle for the recently created Shock Troopers, it was sufficiently titanic. All of that had taken place a few months ago and the Helix Syndicate now sat on this worldcraft without the foggiest idea of what to do with it.
Recently, Thengil Ri’Shajirr had spoken of converting a similar structure into an intergalactic hunting reserve. Terraforming it, shipping in animals, and catering to the richest hunting enthusiasts in the galaxy. Illegally, one might add, so also tax free. A sufficiently ambitious undertaking. Ri’Shajirr wanted to rent it from an old, middling company called Darkwater. Maleagant dissuaded him, telling the Cathar that he could find a better deal elsewhere.
And by better deal, he nominally meant “pay me instead.”
To oversee construction, a Cardan I-class Space Station had been towed into the system. It was in his office there that Maleagant anticipated the momentary arrival of Lord Fa. Unfortunately, Maleagant lacked the resources to refurbish and rebuild this worldcraft independently. [member="Tai Fa"] had a reputation for tackling immense projects in record time. If he were able to shoulder some of the cost, the project would become executable, and soon enough they would both be making money off of Thengil’s operation.