SLotH4's Note: After only four months of ignoring this in my to-do list, here is the first chapter of Xabiar's Zann Consortium piece. For those of you unfamiliar with this organization (like myself, prior to reading this), the Zann Consortium was a massively overpowered faction in the "Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption" expansion.
Xabiar is something of a fan.
SotP Addenda - Galactic Underworld, Beneath the Façade
Operation: Corroded Credit – The Zann Consortium
ALLIANCE INTELLIGENCE SERVICE
REQUIRED PERSONNEL AUTHORIZATION: TOP SECRET-GALACTIC
OPERATION ID: ZC04500301 – FINAL REPORT
WARNING: DO NOT READ IF YOU DO NOT HAVE AUTHORIZATION TO VIEW THIS DOCUMENT. UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE TERMINATION OF EMPLOYMENT AND PROSECUTION BY INTERNAL OVERSIGHT
DOCUMENTATION INFORMATION
Operation ID: ZC04500301
Operation Name: Corroded Credit
Operational Division: Organized Crime Observation and Counter-Intelligence
Operation Type(s): Information Acquisition; Penetration; Infiltration; Asset Placement
Document Author: Operation Director Aleena'wari
Document Type: Post-Operation Compilation
Document Iteration: 348
Document Status: Complete
PERSONNEL INFORMATION
Operation Overseer: Aleena'wari, Operation Director
Operation Field Agents/Assets:
- Kimo Perrenoud | Criminal Client Cover
- Qi Qala | Consortium Mercenary Corps Infiltrator
- Zarimirra | Slaver Cover
- Polli'endea | Slave Infiltrator
- Ulina Aalani | Slave Infiltrator
- Allison Monder | Field Interrogator
- Tarsis Windsor | Defiler Infiltrator
- Trejam Salis | Asset Management
- Lional Aeppli | GenoHaradan Asset
Operation Handlers:
- Asia Jaggi | Field Agents Allison Monder & Trejam Salis
- Elan Pox | Field Agents Kimo Perrenoud & Zarimirra
- Mox'eseral | Field Agents Polli'endea & Ulina Aalani
- Rollinar | Field Agent Tarsis Windsor
- Olivia Lars | Field Asset Lional Aeppli
AIS Assets Used:
Note: All assets are unidentified per AIS guidelines for operational reports. For explicit details of specific assets, please request access from AIS Asset Oversight. Please see attached log of each instance of assets used in the course of this operation.
- [23] Unaffiliated Civilian Assets
- [4] Imperial Civilian Assets
- [4] Imperial Military Assets
- [53] Alliance Civilian Assets
- [14] Alliance Administrative Assets
- [23] Criminal Assets
- [18] Hutt Cartel Assets
- [4] Black Sun Assets
- [3] Zann Consortium Assets
- [1] GenoHaradan Asset
- [9] Bounty Hunter Assets
AIS Assets Acquired:
- [4] Alliance Administrative Assets
- [37] Zann Consortium Assets
- [16] Criminal Assets
AIS Assets Lost:
- [17] Alliance Civilian Assets
- [6] Alliance Administrative Assets
- [10] Hutt Cartel Assets
- [4] Bounty Hunter Assets
Operation Field Agent Status:
- Kimo Perrenoud [ACTIVE – RECALLED]
- Qi Qala [ACTIVE – MAINTAINING COVER]
- Zarimirra [ACTIVE – RECALLED]
- Polli'endea [DECEASED – PROTOCOL 4]
- Ulina Aalani [ACTIVE – RECOVERED]
- Allison Monder [ACTIVE – RECALLED]
- Tarsis Windsor [DECEASED – PROTOCOL 4]
- Trejam Salis [ACTIVE – RECALLED]
- Lional Aeppli [ACTIVE – DEEP COVER]
OPERATION INFORMATION
Organization of Focus: The Zann Consortium | Independent
Objective: To gather a sufficient amount of information to achieve a complete and thorough understanding of the structure, capabilities, training, competence, motivations, goals, leadership, and intelligence capabilities of the Zann Consortium, as well as determine the extent of possible corruption of Alliance military, civilian, and administrative institutions and worlds.
Secondary objectives include the insertion of additional assets into the criminal underworld of the Hutt Cartels, Black Sun, and Zann Consortium, as well as a more thorough understanding of the relationship between these criminal organizations. Information on the extent of Zann Consortium corruption on other institutions such as the Fellan Imperium is also desired.
Operation Procedure: Upon commencement of this operation, Operational Director Allena'wari assumed command with the express directive to uncover the extent of Zann Consortium influence and corruption within the Galactic Alliance. The scope of operation CORRODED CREDIT was further expanded as more information about the Consortium came to light, specifically their connections to other criminal syndicates.
Please note that 'Consortium' will be used as shorthand for the Zann Consortium. It is not affiliated in any way with the Hapes Consortium.
This operation was carried out through a series of phases over a six-year period, with a primary focus in the Outer Rim and Alliance territory. Investigations within other groups were also conducted during this timespan, but were not the focus of the operation. Time was needed to establish criminal covers and background, as there are very few high-level criminal assets within the Outer Rim, and the Consortium in particular.
Phase 1A consisted of the initial gathering of information on the Consortium as it related solely to Alliance interests. Utilizing a significant amount of Alliance assets, we were able to determine that the Consortium had a far more extensive stranglehold on certain senators – as well as administrative and business individuals – than we had anticipated.
It became extremely apparent that we were highly ignorant as to the inner workings of the Consortium, and as such, expanded the operational objectives to prioritize the penetration of the organization itself. Focus on Alliance penetration shifted from expose and arrest to evidence gathering and monitoring and penetrating known Consortium rackets and marking compromised individuals for future.
Phase 1B focused on the infiltration of the criminal elements of the Outer Rim. Field Agents Qala, Perrenoud, and Zarimirra were deployed with the express purpose of exploiting the most likely vectors of entry to the Consortium and were supported covertly in sanctioned criminal operations.
This end of initial penetration marked the formal end of Phase 1.
Phase 2A Covert gathering of information on the Consortium and its relationship with other criminal organizations. These field agents proved instrumental to gathering our first solid information on the inner workings of the Consortium. We first found success when Agent Qala was recruited into the Mercenary Corps as a temporary contractor which nonetheless provided us with sufficient insight into the military capabilities and operations of the Consortium.
Agent Zarimirra was achieving similar success and finally began a formal slaving business relationship with Consortium representatives. Agent Perrenoud was also soon approached by Consortium representatives for potential offers. Through all of these infiltrators, we learned a significant amount about the inner workings of Consortium slaving and business operations.
Phase 2B began when this this level of penetration was reached, and to further exploit this opportunity Assets Polli'endea and Aalani were shipped into the Consortium slave operations undercover. While a significant amount of information was able to be acquired from their infiltration, the extent of the methods utilized led to the unfortunate termination of Asset Polli'endea, and Asset Aalani was only able to be recovered after suffering extensive mental and physical trauma.
Throughout this time, we were additionally and covertly locating compromised and affiliated individuals with the Consortium and extracting as much information as possible before subjecting them to mind wipes and in some cases Dimalium Conditioning. Through this, further information about the Consortium naval and military forces was acquired, as well as details on their black market and racket operations.
Intending to observe the Consortium operate in a natural environment, we selected a lesser-known senator to act as bait for the Consortium unknowingly. He was subjected to Dimalium Conditioning and underwent limited memory wipes, and was directed to make subtle criminal actions to attract attention of Consortium observers. This eventually achieved success and over the course of the operation we were able to find out an extensive amount on the clientele and services the Consortium provides.
This marked the end of Phase 2.
Phase 3 consisted of several unforeseen developments and attempts of further penetration. The first attempt was a penetration of the Defiler Program, which at the time was still a large unknown in terms of recruitment and operations. The reasons for this soon became known, but ultimately resulted in the unfortunate loss of Agent Windsor.
With a significant amount of information on Consortium assets and operations catalogued, if not completely penetrated, we shifted focus of examining their relationships to other criminal organizations in the Outer Rim in more significant detail. Their feuds with the Cartels and Black Sun, as well as their bizarre partnership with Tlon Fett's Gra'tua was well-documented.
However, we made the controversial decision to activate agent Aeppli within the GenoHaradan to see if they had any substantial information on the Consortium. This paid off significantly as not only did the GenoHaradan have additional information on the Consortium, they have been actively engaged in a shadow conflict with them for years. Our asset covertly made the GenoHaradan aware of our efforts, and we were able to establish a limited contact without further risk to our asset.
In return for some information and physical assets, they were willing to provide us with enough to complete our understanding of the Consortium and with all operational objectives completed this marked the final end of the operation; the results of which have been compiled in this report.
Operation Outcome: The operation was an unquestionable SUCCESS as all our primary and secondary objectives were achieved, in addition to having a better picture of the current state of the Outer Rim as well as GenoHaradan objectives. Despite the loss of several agents and assets, we gained a significant amount of assets within the Consortium and other criminal organizations, with our other field agents recovered or maintaining their cover should we begin additional operations in the Outer Rim.
Operation Status: COMPLETE
OVERVIEW
I suspect that the average galactic citizen has either never heard of the Zann Consortium, or only knows the barest of details about it. It is remarkably low-key, even the people who should know about it think it's a smaller criminal organization primarily operating in the Outer Rim. They aren't included in the same breath as the Cartels, Black Sun, the Exchange, or even Tlon Fett's Gra'tua.
Yet we all know here that just because an organization is under the radar, it doesn't mean that they don't exert their influence on galactic affairs. Digging into their rivals will find that every major Outer Rim criminal organization is at best concerned about the Consortium, and everyone else is terrified of them. You don't hear about them because the Consortium doesn't operate that way. They work on a much higher level than you might suspect.
Before continuing further, it is important to understand how demented and amoral the Consortium is. I hesitate to ascribe a word such as 'evil' to them, but to consider their operations 'amoral' simply does not go far enough to describe what the Consortium does on a daily basis. They make the hutts look merciful by comparison, which is to say nothing of the more moderate Black Sun.
Their only 'ally' is Tlon Fett, which is more of a reflection on Fett rather than the Consortium, as the Consortium has absolutely no allies, and this goes beyond mere business conflict. The Zann Consortium has no lines they will not cross, absolutely no moral code, and no ultimate loyalty to anyone but themselves. If you can think of the worst crime one can possibly commit, the Zann Consortium has carried it out – and have likely committed far worse than that.
Prior to the commissioning of this investigation, we were largely under the impression that all parties in the Outer Rim were similar, if not the same. We know now that this is not the case. Should the Outer Rim one day need to be dealt with, the Zann Consortium should be the first eliminated.
FOUNDATION AND HISTORY
Pre-Operation Information: Prior to extensive in-depth investigations, we knew that the Zann Consortium was a criminal syndicate founded by Tyber Zann that primarily operated in the Outer Rim. They had a notable amount of high-end military assets, though these were often utilized for protection instead of attack.
Their primary operations focused on slaving and drug distribution, and there was a suspicion that they were attempting to influence lower-level senators and government representatives on a planetary level. There is a known feud with the Hutt Cartels and the Consortium maintains a standing bounty for any dathomirian and rancor corpses, with bonuses paid if they are brought alive or they are of the Nightsisters due to a standing order from Tyber Zann which has been continued by his descendants.
The organization rose around four hundred years ago during the Galactic Civil War when it was founded by Tyber Zann with his business partner and friend Urai Fen – who notably is still alive today. They played a small role in the latter days of the conflict, and are most infamously known for their temporary hijacking of the unfinished Eclipse-class dreadnought and causing a rout of both Rebel Alliance and Imperial forces.
To date, a military operation of this scale and audacity by the Consortium has not been replicated.
Post-Operation Information: There has been a significant amount of information on the history of the Consortium that has been uncovered. This will be broken into sections to better organize the information recovered.
Formation of the Zann Consortium: It appears that Tyber Zann had always been a criminal at heart. In his early years as a teenager, he held a position within the family business which refurbished older Republic and Separatist spacecraft, but grew bored with it, and began running gambling rings on the side. He was eventually discovered, and his father sent him to the Imperial Academy as punishment.
This had the opposite intended effect, as Zann simply began taking advantage of the lax security around the station and unofficially established the Zann Consortium. Some time prior to this, he met Urai Fen and both agreed to work together. Zann managed as much of the business as he could from the Academy, while Urai worked on reinvesting the funds gathered into purchasing mercenaries, equipment, spacecraft, and other goods.
His operation grew large enough that it began attracting the attention of other crime lords and organizations in the galaxy. In particular, Jabba the Hutt, who saw the expanding Consortium as a threat to his own operations, and attempted to sabotage Zann by revealing his operations to the Empire. This was thwarted by Urai, but enough evidence remained that Zann was expelled from Imperial service – which hindered him in the short-term.
Free of the Empire, Zann continued to build the Consortium and ironically entered into a tenuous partnership with Jabba, with neither trusting the other. For close to a year, Zann worked with Jabba while receiving equipment and spacecraft in return for running smaller jobs. Zann supposedly intended to break off the relationship fairly quickly, and had been quietly developing an experimental intelligence arm of agents which we now know were the first-generation 'Defilers.'
These spies informed Zann about an artifact Jabba had purchased – which we know now was a Sith holocron, though Zann and Urai didn't learn this until much later – and intended to take it for himself. Zann and his forces impersonated the Hutt Cartels and took the artifact for themselves, though Zann was captured by Imperials who Jabba had tipped off when he realized he had been betrayed.
Zann spent a short amount of time in the Kessel Mines, though successfully predicted that Jabba would send a bounty hunter to eliminate him – an opening they had anticipated and Urai took advantage of. Together, they broke out of prison while starting a small riot that was eventually put down, though not before both were able to escape.
Free again, though with the Consortium in less than ideal shape, they established two goals – to build the Consortium into a criminal empire to eclipse the Black Sun, and to determine the use of the artifact they now had in their possession.
Hunt for the Emperor's Vaults: It should be made clear that Tyber Zann found the Sith artifact more of a curiosity than something extremely valuable. He knew it had the potential to radically change the fortune of the Consortium, but he nonetheless was not staking everything on it. Instead, he was setting his sights for a much more practical if ambitious target – the personal vaults of the Emperor himself. At the time, he was unaware that the Emperor was a Sith – though it is unlikely it would have dissuaded him.
Using the few resources at his disposal, Zann slowly built up his criminal empire in the Outer Rim. He personally conquered a dozen Cartel planets and was able to extract a truce between the Consortium and Jabba, stating that they wouldn't interfere in the other's operations in return for the same courtesy – as well as the removal of the bounty on Zann's head.
As they continued expanding their operations, they soon found that industrial espionage was the best means of acquiring the most cutting-edge technology and proceeded to use the Defilers to infiltrate, bribe, and intimidate business and government officials within the Rebel Alliance and Empire, while using his military to retain order on his production worlds. Through this, the Consortium was able to develop a small, yet notably advanced fleet that was capable of holding their own against similarly sized Rebel and Imperial fleets.
The notable breakthrough was the absolute corruption of Mandal Hypernautics which, while it had roots in Mandalorian culture, had long since broken away from the isolated Mandalorian Union. Yet they did continue to be on the cutting-edge of spacecraft design, and soon they became the primary shipbuilders of the Consortium, and were the ones who created the infamous Keldabe-class and Aggressor-class battleships.
There was also a breakthrough in the mystery of the artifact, namely that it was based in the Force and only a Force-sensitive could likely unlock it. With few options, Urai suggested seeking out the Nightsisters and the duo planned an infiltration of Dathomir where the Empire had established a presence. They freed a significant portion of the Nightsisters, led a rebellion against the Empire, and ultimately enlisted Silri, the most powerful of the clan, into the Consortium to unlock the artifact.
The alliance between Zann, Urai, and Silri could be best described as strained. Both Urai and Silri were at odds, with the former making multiple threats should she pose a threat to the Consortium and Zann, though Zann himself was notably unconcerned with the possibility of betrayal.
The Consortium continued to develop and expand their operations, now even within the Inner Rim, and there were multiple encounters with Imperial forces in the meantime, with Zann engaging with – and surviving – a trap by Grand Admiral Thrawn, though in the process, he lost the artifact – something that he had anticipated.
Having acquired the location of the Emperor's Archives, where they knew they could find a way to access the Vaults themselves, they were unconcerned with the artifact as Silri had said it was merely a star map of some kind. Her reaction to the loss raised the suspicions of both men, and Zann merely commented that if she ever lied or disobeyed him again, he would work to ensure the ultimate genocide of the Nightsisters and rancors.
With that presumably settled, the trio went on a small undercover mission to Coruscant where they successfully managed to penetrate the Archives, with Silri going off on her own mission to recover the artifact despite express orders to stay put. It is unknown exactly how all of them managed to penetrate so deeply into the Archives, but the absence of the Emperor and capabilities of Urai and Silri likely account for this.
Despite running into Silri in the Archives, they first escaped together with Urai stating she would be dealt with later. However, Zann put that aside temporarily as they now knew where they could access the Vaults – which was unfortunately through the Eclipse. It was a 'Super Star Destroyer' the Empire was in the process of building, so they were forced to wait a short time until the second Death Star was destroyed.
Seizing the chance, Zann led the Consortium in one of the largest battles of the post-Civil War era where he arrived, briefly assisted the Rebels in fighting the Empire, then had teams of engineers and soldiers storm the vital systems of the Eclipse and after some time spent bringing the superlaser it held online, turned it against the Rebels and Empire alike, including destroying the SSD Annihilator, an Executor-class star dreadnought.
When the battle was over, Zann used the Eclipse to access the Vaults of the Emperor and siphoned close to fourteen trillion credits – as well as marking down locations where priceless artifacts and objects were stashed – before Imperial authorities cut his access, but by then, it was far too late. Tyber Zann was now among the wealthiest individuals in the galaxy, and he had no plans of stopping.
The Betrayal of Silri: While Zann and Urai were busy with making major decisions about the future of the Consortium, Silri was planning to capitalize on the knowledge she had gained from the holocron which she had neglected to tell Zann, and made a covert mission to a remote world which housed a vault with soldiers from the Sith Empire of Revan and Malak frozen in carbonite.
As we know now, the only reason that Urai didn't execute her immediately after she defied Zann's orders, or after the Vaults had been accessed, was because Zann wanted to see where she would lead them, since he knew she would not tell him what she had actually learned. He quietly placed trackers on the artifact, her ship, and Silri herself.
So, when Silri found an army of Sith soldiers that she inevitably planned to use against Zann, her revelry was cut short by the sound of Zann clapping as he was flanked by Urai and an army of Defilers. Zann had also placed everyone well within the radius of ysalamiri cages he brought along – a tool he had invested in quite heavily, especially after the death of the Emperor.
In a rage, Silri attacked and was defeated by Urai after a prolonged battle – with Zann watching with amusement. However, Zann forbade Urai from killing her quite yet and simply moved her close to an ysalamiri to ensure she wouldn't be able to use the Force. Zann at first didn't know what to do with the frozen Sith army, as he certainly didn't trust the Sith, nor did he think any soldiers extracted would be reliable.
It is ultimately unknown what Zann did with the frozen Sith army. To date, they have not been spotted in the galaxy at large, and we suspect that they are within the Consortium Vaults today, they were disposed of, or they were sold to other parties. Most evidence suggests they are still in storage, as Zann would likely consider them too risky to sell, and also not want to get rid of a potential resource. This remains a mystery.
However, the punishment for Silri was long and painful, as Zann lived up to his word and returned to Dathomir with his army and murdered her entire clan in front of her, as well as several other nearby ones before feeding her to a starving rancor. Ever since her betrayal, while the Consortium has never invaded Dathomir again, they have standing bounties for the corpses of dathomirians, and pay extra for those alive or Nightsisters – either dead or alive. Bounties are also payed to rancor hunters as well, and the Consortium is responsible for the extinction of Dathomirian and Felucian Rancors which have happened in the past half century.
The Yuuzhan Vong War: In the aftermath that followed, the Consortium was content to sit and observe the fall of the Imperial Remnant and rise of the New Republic, with a significant amount of effort being focused on the corruption of the Senate to serve Zann's interests. The operation itself was more of Zann experimenting with how easily this could be done and what benefits it would give him.
Ironically, the criminal aspects of the Consortium were lessened as Zann – not wanting to squander his fortune – became a heavy investor of dozens of companies, started his own, and transitioned the Consortium into a technically 'cleaner' model where there were barriers of plausible deniability between the Consortium and the less savory elements.
During this period, he also married – ironically – a former Vigo of the Black Sun who had defected to the Consortium several years back. She took a greater role in the Consortium after that point, and gave birth to two sons. While his children were still growing up, the yuuzhan vong invaded and this event proved to be among the most destructive to the Consortium.
The transition to integrating the Consortium so heavily with major businesses across the galaxy meant that as they were hurt, so was the Consortium. The lessened criminal elements made additional streams of revenue tighter, and while it didn't irreversibly cripple the Consortium, it heavily hurt them financially to the point where nearly four trillion credits were irreversibly lost.
It should be noted that the Consortium did participate against the vong, though this was certainly done out of a purely pragmatic need, as the vong weren't exactly as vulnerable to crime and corruption as the New Republic or Empire. A few decades after the vong, Tyber Zann died peacefully and comfortably – quite pleased with all he had accomplished.
And while Urai Fen was still alive, the question of if the Zann Consortium could survive without Tyber Zann was about to be answered.
Decline of the Consortium: Unfortunately, very few of Zann's descendants have been as shrewd, ruthless, or intelligent as he was, and despite guidance from Urai and several of the older Consortium members, had a tendency to do their own thing. The Consortium was in a good place at the time of his death, and this gave many of his children a sense of entitlement and insulation from mistakes.
The Consortium found itself outmaneuvered, exploited, defeated, and on the decline within a century, and the quality of those who were part of the Consortium was rapidly diminishing as it transitioned to something no better organized than a hutt racket, and their reputation was slowly forgotten and they began to be treated as something of a joke by the other criminal syndicates, though if you had asked, Tyber Zann was still considered one of the greatest crime lords in the galaxy.
Urai Fen during this time was torn between respecting that a Zann should always lead the Consortium, and being furious that Tyber's legacy was being destroyed by his ignorant, greedy, and foolish children. When they had originally stolen the money from the vaults, they had split it with Tyber taking half, and Urai taking the other. Unbeknownst to the vast majority – including Urai himself – this appeared to be Zann's contingency in the event of this situation, as Urai still retained his own wealth and could rebuild the Consortium if he so chose.
We don't know if Urai reached this conclusion himself or acted regardless of how Zann would have wanted it, but nearly two hundred years after the death of Tyber Zann, Urai dispatched Torian Zann, his wife, and the entire leadership of the Consortium and took direct command, while sparing Torian's single daughter, and raising her as his own.
Urai Fen Assumes Command: Prior to assuming control of the Consortium, Urai had been planning a means by which the Consortium could be revived. Using parts of his wealth, he prepared to act more openly when he assumed command. Most of the Consortium who were in officer or administrative positions welcomed the change in leadership, and found themselves promoted by Urai as they began the process of rebuilding – again.
Under Urai, the Consortium was less focused on the manipulative aspects of crime that Tyber had been exceptional at, but more on the physical strength of the Consortium and carving out territory in the Outer Rim. While they were often thought of as little better than thugs during this time, under Urai, they had stopped their downward spiral and were beginning to be noticed again – at least in the criminal world.
Urai himself had admitted that he is ultimately a poor manager, one reason he was hesitant to assume command of the Consortium – and only has a mind for more straightforward and linear operations. He is not an economist, motivating speaker, nor had a mind for manipulation. He understands the concepts, but not necessarily the best implementation.
It is perhaps in an attempt to mitigate this that he began investing in a high number of specialized and experimental projects across the galaxy, even as the Consortium began to stabilize. Not all of these investments were wise or beneficial, but a few – such as the investment in kaminoan cloning technology and hiring several dozen of the best geneticists and AI engineers proved to be vital for the Consortium to be turned into what it was today.
Urai was in command of the Consortium for just over a full century, not willing to relinquish the organization to a Zann until it was stable and he had enough personal credits to act as a contingency should this situation happen again. And he instituted a new requirement should he relinquish command – if they did not have his approval, they would not take command of the Consortium.
The first one who Urai willingly stepped aside for was Talia Zann, who is the one largely responsible for the Consortium as it exists today.
Reconfiguration of the Consortium: One might wonder what it is like to grow up in a criminal organization. One thing which appears to be a theme is that there was little connection between the parents and children, as Urai tended to take a heavy role in the development of Zann children after he took command. While he appears to have become more lenient due to Talia, the woman in question was involved in the inner workings of the Consortium from a very young age.
With the blessing and encouragement of Urai, when she reached her late teens, she assumed an undercover identity and acquired academic degrees in political science, criminology, and economics while spending a decade with Coruscant law enforcement. This up-close exposure to the most powerful planet in the galaxy presumably shaped how she planned to utilize the stable, if stagnant, Consortium.
She eventually returned to Urai with a plan. She had been rather fascinated with Tyber and what he had been able to accomplish, and wanted to both return the Consortium to their criminal roots and ensure that they offered something that no one else could provide. Her one criticism of Tyber Zann was that he never distinguished himself from any other crime lord except in size.
The Consortium, in her opinion, had been settling for 'efficiency' and 'stability' over exceptionalism. At their height, they had been competent, but what they did could be interchanged with the Black Sun, Hutt Cartels, or Exchange. They were not special in what they did, and Talia meant to change this.
She and Urai spent five years developing a century-long plan for the Zann Consortium that intended to revolutionize the criminal underworld and firmly establish the Consortium at the absolute top of the pack. It required time, patience, and investments that would not pay off until entire decades later. It was embracing the philosophy of quality over quantity, and the pursuit of each opportunity by any means necessary.
In short, either find something no one has and provide it, or find something already provided and do it better. Simple supply and demand, although you would be surprised just how lazy criminal organizations are. At a certain point, they become a business all to themselves, and part of that business is trying to save as much money for themselves.
The first years into this plan were extremely quiet, as the Consortium was primarily acquiring infrastructure, personnel, and connections before making major moves. The investments into cloning saved significant time, as that was to be a cornerstone of the new Consortium, and due to this, the Consortium was able to begin the design and production of Generation-III Defilers and begin using them in operations two decades later.
Part of the plan involved the creation of an entirely new criminal class, with Talia and Urai carrying this out from the ground up by forming partnerships with minor senators, their associates, business partners, up-and-coming bounty hunters, slavers, and more. The independents who had yet to choose a side. The Consortium carefully invested in making these individuals wealthy and renowned in their particular circles, which, in turn, opened doors the Consortium could now reach into for a degree.
Soon there was talk of the Zann Consortium in very few, but very highly-placed social and criminal circles. There were questions about what they did or could provide. After letting the talk develop for some time, the Consortium formally sent invitations to certain individuals, inviting them to a highly exclusive event, which anyone who received it knew was a high-end black market that the Consortium had established.
Held in one of the suites of the 500 Republica, it was a resounding success for the Zann Consortium as it served as a hub for the wealthy of the galaxy to purchase cutting-edge experimental and illegal equipment, designs, weapons, and schematics. Talia and Urai were in attendance, making sure to socialize with the crowd, and making themselves known to some of the criminal elite of the galaxy for the first time.
This was one of many such events the Consortium managed, and this practice still continues today. Exclusivity and quality became associated with the Consortium, no matter the content itself. A black market may be relatively tame. Much less so when the events revolve around slaves, gladiator matches, and biotech.
The Consortium was not quite known on the streets of the underworlds as it had once been, but that was intended. It was known by those that mattered.
The Kamino Uprising and Beyond: Both Talia and Urai knew that a kaminoan rebellion was coming, and curiously invested very heavily in pre-Uprising kaminoan technology for reasons that will become very apparent later, as well as luring several kaminoan cloning experts to the Consortium. To this day, the Consortium serves as a haven for any kaminoan still alive.
They did not expect the kaminoans to win, yet did expect the galaxy to become a warzone during that period and prepared accordingly. They made sure that their wealthy clients were taken care of and provided whatever they paid for while also taking advantage of the war to hook entire planets on their drugs, funded slavers exorbitant amounts to operate near warzones, and even provided entertainment such as pitting captured Jedi and kaminoan clone soldiers against each other – all of this during the Uprising.
Shortly after the conflict Talia – now fairly old for a human – contracted a rare type of brain cancer which currently has no cure, though how it was actually developed is unknown. Given that there is no previous familial history of it, it's possible it was contracted through dangerous materials she might have handled.
Regardless of the circumstances, she made the voluntary decision to freeze herself in carbonite as a cure is attempted to be developed. Her children, Tyrell and Tora Zann have assumed joint command of the Consortium in the meantime with Urai's approval, and they have thus far continued to follow the plan their mother developed.
PHILOSOPHY AND MINDSET
Customer service.
I suspect that is not the first thing that comes to your mind when you picture a criminal organization, but the Consortium is no ordinary criminal organization. They are in the business of what can best be described as 'luxury' crime, where their primary clientele are not the poor, desperate, addicted, or stupid, but the elite and well-connected.
This is not to say that the Consortium does not exploit the non-wealthy – as their drug and slaving operations prove without a doubt – but that their operations as it relates to the less fortunate are more of a side business – and even then, they are exceptional at keeping a client base, as well as sabotaging their competition.
There is a certain niche that each criminal organization provides the galaxy. The hutts are your cheap and dirty option. Crime is just something that clings to them, and expecting high-quality outside of a few exceptions is more trouble than it is worth, but if you want cheap work or labor, the hutts are who you go to first.
If you want to be a criminal – but don't exactly want to be a criminal – and make some money on the side, the Black Sun is your best choice as they have divested to the point that they are a legitimate security firm in the Outer Rim and their crimes have moved from drug and weapon smuggling to white-collar financial crime and fraud. Not much better, but they are as moderate as you can be for a criminal organization, and appeal to opportunists with money and a twisted moral code, especially since they have all but stopped their slave trade a few decades back.
The Exchange is your typical mixture of hired muscle and slavers. Brutish and destructive, but effective if you know what you're getting into. Cheap and easy to be hired by, if for very dangerous work. There is a reason they are often used as security in the Outer Rim, and your hint is not because of their manners or good looks, but because they're cheap and easy.
Now what kind of criminal is missing here?
The one with standards. The one who isn't going to be satisfied with glitterstim of seventy percent purity, who won't tolerate simple and stupid thugs to hire, who will turn down buying slaves because none of them appeal to their particular tastes. The ones who don't want to carry out deals in back alleyways and shadowy cantinas. The ones who have wealth and are willing to spend it if their desires are catered to.
The high society criminal is who the Consortium caters to. The especially depraved individual who has high standards, is classy and cultured, and who sees absolutely nothing wrong with their criminal actions, yet will shun the lesser criminals for their brutish, unsubtle, and emotional efforts and crimes.
These types of people are above such concerns, anyway. Crime is not just an experience for them, but a lifestyle choice they can afford. Now, these kinds of criminals number only in the thousands, but in the scope of the galaxy, that is more than enough for the Consortium to run a ludicrously wealthy business.
I will give a couple examples to illustrate this, and there will be more throughout the document.
Let us consider for a moment the thousands of illegal gladiator matches that take place across the galaxy, but particularly in the Outer Rim. The blood sport is of interest for many, but it is to this kind of criminal – boring. Half-dead slaves fighting each other or whatever pitiful wildlife is brought in. Amusing to the petty criminals, perhaps, but it is of no interest to those of means.
But then this person hears of an event. One-time only, a recreation of the Battle of Felucia, such an obscure event they may need to look it up to see that it was one of the major battles of the Clone Wars four centuries ago, a slaughter on both sides as they had to contend with wildlife. This is intriguing enough for this person to inquire further, and they learn that not only will a recreation take place, but it will be authentic. With clones and battle droids from that era, untouched, as well as wildlife.
This criminal knows instinctively that this is an unmissable event, and while the buy-in is expensive, consider that the benefits include lodging, exquisite food and drink compatible for all species, even an escort you can specify ahead of time should they so desire. Is the location too far away? No problem! As transportation is provided free of charge, should it be requested.
And do not forget that the event itself will be filled with colleagues and peers, and there would be plenty of time to conduct private business and forge connections should one so desire. What can be done is completely up to the individual, but there should be no mistake that this promises to be an experience unlike any other.
As ironic as it sounds, with the Consortium, you really do get what you pay for. They've developed a clientele that no other criminal organization has or can acquire now, because at this point, no one wants to put up the money to peel away their clients. Especially since these types of criminals are notoriously picky. The Consortium is the only organization that actively caters to these preferences, while everyone else just finds it easier to appeal to the masses.
And even then, the Consortium is encroaching on that as well, particularly in the drug trade. Hutt drugs in particular are highly impure and toxic, but are also widespread and addictive. The solution the Consortium has is to pour money into producing near-pure equivalents of the same drug, specially engineered to ensure that only that drug will satisfy their addiction.
So regular spice won't cut it anymore. They will need to find the Consortium-backed dealer who will be more than happy to sell as much as he wants – for the appropriate price, of course. It is interesting to note that the Consortium actively loses money with the drug trade, but the tradeoff is that they are simultaneously hurting their competition, and they additionally make money through selling in bulk to sanctioned dealers.
I believe this should be a sufficient overview of what the Consortium approach to crime is. We will continue down this hole in more detail in a short while.
LOCATIONS AND BASES OF NOTE
Overview: There are a few bases of operation which are worth pointing out, although the Consortium largely prefers to maintain space stations and uninhabited moons as their primary production points, and also operate in a decentralized environment with safe houses, event locations, and more on a significant number of planets in the Alliance. It is very difficult to pin down 'Consortium Space' since they don't operate on a per-planet scale of influence. Nonetheless, there are some locations of note.
Saleucami: If there is a 'primary' base of operations for the Zann Consortium, it would be on Saleucami, and it is, in fact, one of the planets the Consortium has been able to control since the early days of the organization. It is an extremely arid planet, with the few spots of vegetation long since gone due to the heavy industrialization the Consortium has put the planet through.
It houses the primary shipyards of Mandal Hypernautics who produce the fleet for the Consortium, and on the ground, it is home to kilometers worth of droid factories and production plants. It is quite possibly the most valuable world the Consortium controls, and the Consortium is well aware of this fact.
Security Level: Extremely high, and this is putting it very mildly. The entire War Fleet is here when not on operations, as well as standard Protection Fleet deployments. There are ion and hypervelocity cannons scattered throughout the planet, and the shipyards are similarly protected with a Class-V defense station. Nothing short of a dedicated war fleet will be able to get past it, and on the ground, you will be facing armies of droidekas, Canderous-class assault tanks, as well as constant Defiler sabotage and harassment.
Spaarti: As far as we are aware, this is not the original name of the moon, although it is what the Consortium refers to it as. It also does not have any relation to the Spaarti cloners, although considering what the planet is used for, it's extremely likely that the Consortium uses Spaarti equipment in some of their cloning operations.
If it isn't apparent, Spaarti is primary location of all cloning, genetic editing, and other biometric procedures and experiments. Clones for all purposes are grown here, and there are hundreds of thousands of clones grown at a time. When you understand how the Consortium operates, this is not as extreme as it sounds, but is still a significant amount.
This is also where the Defiler Program is managed, and all Defiler research, training, and engineering is conducted on this moon. Unfortunately, we don't know where Spaarti is located, although there is absolutely zero question that it actually exists.
Security Level: Almost certainly extensive. If nothing else, the headquarters for the Defilers will ensure that whoever attempts to attack it will pay dearly for the privilege. It is also likely that the Consortium has a clone army of some kind hidden within, or additional unknown defenses. However, the greatest defense is the fact that only a few seem to actually know where it is.
Hypori: Another desert planet the Consortium has maintained control over, Hypori is where the majority of drug production and research takes place. The planet is also responsible for producing the many weapons, armor, and equipment utilized by Consortium forces, and is a similarly critical world for anyone wanting to cripple the organization. There is little worth noting about it outside of this.
Security Level: While not as well-protected as Saleucami, Hypori is nonetheless going to be costly to any enemy fleet that attempts to assault it, as it maintains a Protection Fleet and several dozen garrisons on the ground, in addition to a Class-V Consortium station and a strong Defiler presence.
'Slavery Station': While this is unlikely to be the actual designation of the station, it has nonetheless had the moniker attributed to it by Consortium personnel as well as clientele. At the moment, we are unsure if Slavery Station is just a marketplace, or a location where slaves are grown and groomed as well. The only evidence we have suggests that it is a marketplace.
It's been mentioned that the Consortium goes to considerable measures to treat their clients well and in the slave trade it is no exception. It disgusts me to have to use words such as this, but the closest comparison is a zoo with a guided tour. From what we know, the inhabitants of the station can be changed and configured depending on who is arriving and what they are interested in.
Clients coming to buy slaves for labor will be led through a tour that is divided by species, showing wookiees, trandoshans, gamorreans, weequay, humans, and other species that are preferred for manual labor. As they are led through, the slaves will be doing some kind of example illustrating their strength, durability, and so on. Clients are fully allowed to interact with the slaves or put them through tests to ensure that they could perform satisfactorily.
Change the focus from 'labor' to 'sex,' 'combat,' 'engineering,' 'cooking,' and any other subcategory you can think of and this will still apply. More details should be saved for the section discussing Consortium slaving operations, but when people buy slaves from the Consortium, this is the place they come to.
Security Level: No one knows where this station is, as all clients are taken to the station on a Consortium-controlled spacecraft, as well as scanned and searched before boarding. Weapons are allowed, but obviously can't be used against other clients or Consortium soldiers, as the Defilers and Yellow Jackets have no issue executing anyone even thinking of trying to pull something. It is also possible this station moves as well, but we have no way of confirming that for certain, and it is also likely that each route is randomized, as the number of hyperspace jumps vary for each trip.
The Defiler: The Gen-IV Keldabe-class battleship and flagship of Tyrell Zann himself is one of the most dangerous ships of the Consortium fleet. Outfitted with mass drivers, turbolasers, and cutting-edge shield-leeching technology that has continued to be refined, it is more than a match for even a Star Destroyer. It also seems to serve as a mobile base of operations, and travels with a personal fleet to address the shortcomings of the ship itself, even if it does hold a fighter complement.
An interesting thing to note is that it is unknown what the origin of the name for the battleship is. While the obvious answer is that the Defiler is one of the most well-known units in the Consortium, it is not out of the question he named it to recognize his own personal Defiler, Samantha.
Security Level: As mentioned, it has a small escort fleet that travels wherever the Defiler goes, and most of the time, it stays with the War Fleet anyway, so it is unlikely you would be able to surprise him. In the event it was boarded, I suspect that the ship would be crawling with droidekas, Defilers, Yellow Jackets, and possibly seeded with ysalamiri. We don't know, and didn't get a chance to find out.
The Merciless: Adopting the name of the original capital ship of Tyber Zann, the modern incarnation of the Merciless is a Gen-IV Aggressor-class warship, and one of the few models which still exists in the galaxy. It was dubbed a capital ship killer back when it was developed, and the designation still stands today, offset by the extraordinary cost of actually producing one of these things.
The Merciless is commanded by Tora Zann, and she's fairly conservative with it, not daring to leave the War Fleet due to the inherent weaknesses of the Aggressor-class, which is really only good for one thing – destroying capital ships. It is nonetheless a symbol of power, and one Tora seems to enjoy referencing,
Security Level: Since it has so far never left the War Fleet, infiltration is extremely unlikely and has about as good a chance of success as trying to take out the Defiler. And unlike Tyrell, Tora has yet to take the Merciless anywhere else without the War Fleet at her back. The good news is that in the event of a boarding situation, there are likely to be few defenses since so much space is taken up by the two main weapons.