Star Wars: Light Empire

Chapter 15: The Exotic Arms Dealer

One month later, the command deck of the Pathfinder felt less like the bridge of a freighter and more like the nerve center of a small corporation. They sat in a stable, high orbit over Atrivis-7, a silent, powerful guardian in the system they now effectively controlled. Below them, their fleet of automated haulers moved like a diligent convoy, executing the dozens of shipping contracts Kaelen Orso had secured with his newfound diplomatic immunity.

Valerius leaned back in the captain's chair, feet up on the console, monitoring the fleet's flawless progress. "I gotta admit, Kaelen," he said with a satisfied grunt, "you were right. This is a hell of a lot easier than dodging pirates. The Trade Guild is honoring the governor's decree. This whole sector is our private shipping lane."

Kaelen, standing by the main holotank and reviewing a trade proposal, gave a thin, professional smile. "Predictability is the cornerstone of any stable enterprise, Captain. Our profit margins are lower per individual run, but our quarterly volume is unprecedented. We've achieved security."

Jax, nursing a cup of caf, looked at the calm, orderly display of their success. The numbers were good. Their position was strong. And it was already starting to feel like a cage.

'Stable is good. Secure is good,' he thought, a familiar restlessness stirring within him. 'But it's still just shipping. We're still moving other people's boxes from one place to another. The real money isn't in the shipping. It's in owning the product.'

"It is stable," Jax agreed, his voice drawing the attention of both his partners. "And now that we have a secure base of operations and the political cover that comes with it, it's time to leverage that stability into real growth."

He walked to the holotank. "Sev, bring up analysis file Gamma-9: The Bryx Conflict."

The display shifted, showing a neighboring sector boiling with tension. Troop movements, fleet deployments, and inflammatory news reports filled the hologram.

Valerius swung his feet off the console. "Whoa, kid. I thought we were done with that kind of risk. We've got a good thing going here, why go looking for a war?"

"We're not looking for a war," Jax said, his voice quiet but firm. "We're looking for a new market. An exclusive one." He zoomed in on the technological readouts for the two opposing factions. "The Bryx Freedom Alliance has the resources and the manpower, but they're using last-generation fighters and outdated blaster cannons. The Cinder-Corvus Combine will roll right over them in a conventional fight."

Kaelen stepped closer, his diplomat's eyes gleaming with strategic understanding. "But if a third party," he mused, "were to introduce superior, unknown technology to the Alliance…"

"Exactly," Jax said, locking eyes with him. "We become their exclusive technology provider. We don't just sell them weapons; we sell them ships and gear that no one in this galaxy has ever seen before. Technology that can't be countered because it's never been studied." He looked from Kaelen to Valerius. "Our profit margin won't be thirty percent. It will be three thousand percent."

Valerius stared, the sheer audacity of the plan taking his breath away. It was a leap from shipping into the realm of kingmaking.

Jax's gaze settled on his diplomat. "Kaelen, can you get us a meeting with the leadership of the Bryx Alliance?"

A slow, confident smile spread across Kaelen's face. "Jax," he said. "After our success with Governor Thorne, and with the kind of leverage you're proposing… I believe they will be the ones asking for a meeting with us."

The meeting took place in the sterile, soundproofed conference room aboard the Pathfinder. The choice of venue was deliberate—it projected power, security, and control. On one side of the polished chrome table sat Jax, Valerius, and Kaelen. On the other sat a single woman, her face a mask of hardened resolve. This was Shaela Marr, the reluctant leader of the Bryx Freedom Alliance. She was not a politician; she was a former mining foreman whose toughness and integrity had thrust her into a role she never wanted.

"Chairwoman Marr," Kaelen began, his voice smooth and diplomatic. "We appreciate you agreeing to this meeting. As my initial message explained, my associates and I represent a private enterprise with unique logistical and… procurement capabilities. We understand the difficulties you are facing with the Cinder-Corvus Combine."

Shaela Marr's gaze was like granite. "Difficulties, Mr. Orso? The Combine is strip-mining our homes and executing anyone who resists with a private army they call 'corporate security.' I don't need a diplomat. I need warships and weapons." She leaned forward, her eyes narrowing. "Your envoy claimed you could provide something… different. I'm listening, but my patience is thin."

Jax took this as his cue. He gestured to the room's holoprojector. "We can't provide you with a fleet of Republic cruisers, Chairwoman. But we can offer you something better." His voice was quiet, but it commanded the room. "A surgical scalpel to defeat their blunt instrument."

An image shimmered to life above the table. It was a starfighter, but unlike any design they had ever seen. It was sleek and angular, a predator built around a massive bank of engines, with a distinctive tri-wing configuration. It was aggressive, raw, and looked impossibly fast.

Valerius himself stared, impressed. He'd never seen anything like it.

"This," Jax said, "is a 'Viper-class' interceptor. It's faster, more maneuverable, and has a higher thrust-to-mass ratio than anything the Combine fields. Its kinetic energy weapons don't have the effective range of their turbolasers, but in a close-quarters dogfight, they're devastating." He looked directly at Marr. "A single squadron of these, flown by your best pilots, won't just challenge their fleet. It will tear it apart from the inside out before their targeting computers can even get a lock."

Shaela Marr stared at the hologram, her tough exterior momentarily cracking to reveal a flicker of desperate hope. "I've never seen a design like it. Where… where does it come from?"

"Our procurement methods are proprietary," Jax said smoothly. "What matters is that we can deliver them. Twelve of them, fully equipped, along with maintenance schematics your engineers can understand. And we can deliver them exclusively to you."

'The hook is set,' Jax thought. 'Now, the price.' He had spent hours with Sev, modeling the economic potential of the Bryx sector. The number he was about to propose was audacious.

"We are not asking for credits," he said, seeing a flash of surprise on Marr's face. "Payment for this technology, for the victory it will ensure, will be in resources. We require the exclusive rights to purchase fifty percent of all Aurodium-trace cortosis ore mined in the entire Bryx sector for the next twenty years, at a fixed, pre-negotiated rate well below market value."

The room went silent. Jax had not just asked for a payment. He had asked for a foundational piece of her people's entire economy for the next two decades.

Shaela Marr stared at the hologram of the Viper, the weapon that could save her people, then at the calm, unblinking eyes of the young man who was offering it. She was being offered salvation, but the price was to chain her people's future to the ambitions of this mysterious, impossibly powerful company.

The silence in the conference room was as heavy and absolute as deep space. Shaela Marr stared at the hologram of the Viper fighter, her face an unreadable mask of stone. Her two aides shifted uncomfortably behind her. Jax had made his offer. He had laid a kingdom at her feet and asked for half the harvest for a generation.

"That's not a price," she finally said, her voice low and hard. "That's a leash. Twenty years is a lifetime. You wouldn't just be our supplier; you'd own us."

Before Jax could respond, Kaelen Orso stepped forward, his expression one of smooth, professional understanding. "Chairwoman, if I may," he began, his tone respectful. "It is not a leash. It is an anchor. An exclusive, long-term partnership ensures that our interests are permanently aligned with yours. Your victory becomes our victory. Your prosperity becomes our prosperity. We would be financially motivated to ensure your mining operations are the most efficient and secure in the sector. The Cinder-Corvus Combine, on the other hand, is only motivated to liquidate your assets, including your people."

Jax added the final, brutal point. "The Combine will give you no such terms," he said. "They will take one hundred percent of your ore, and they will give your people graves in return. I am offering you the weapons to guarantee your survival. All I ask in return is a share of the wealth you will keep because of them."

The logic was cold, simple, and undeniable. Shaela Marr looked at her aides, who could offer no counter-argument. She then looked back across the table at the three men who represented this impossible company: the weary, cautious veteran captain; the brilliant, silver-tongued diplomat; and the young, unnervingly confident leader who spoke of impossible technology as if it were simple hardware. She saw a complete, formidable organization.

She gave a single, heavy nod. "Draw up the contract, Mr. Orso," she said, her voice filled with the weight of her decision. "We have a deal."

Kaelen smiled, producing a datapad where the terms were already waiting. Signatures were exchanged. The pact was sealed. The war had just been funded.

"So," Shaela Marr said, her business-like tone returning as she stood up. "Your proprietary technology. How long until your factories can produce the first units for delivery?" There was still a hint of skepticism in her voice. She had signed a deal for a miracle, but she had not yet seen one.

Jax smiled. "The first shipment is already here, Chairwoman."

He nodded to the AI. "Sev, open Hangar Bay Two and display the feed on the main screen."

The large viewscreen on the conference room wall, which had been showing a serene starscape, switched to a live camera feed of the adjacent hangar bay. It was cavernous and empty. Marr and her aides looked at the screen, confused.

As they watched, the air in the center of the empty hangar began to shimmer. A low hum filled the conference room. Three sleek, angular Viper fighters faded into existence out of thin air, settling silently onto their landing struts. They were real, solid, and deadly.

The three members of the Bryx Alliance stared, their mouths agape, at the impossible sight on the screen. Valerius just shook his head, a look of weary amazement on his face. Kaelen allowed himself a small, satisfied smile.

The deal was struck, and a provincial war in a forgotten sector was about to be set ablaze with technology from another reality. But far away, in the gleaming towers of Coruscant, the ripples of this impossible transaction had already reached the boardrooms of the powerful Trade Guild. And they did not go unnoticed.