Pre-note: I've been privately told that this story is a little bit intimidating. To that I say, buck up! Learn something new~ enjoy the knowledge, and then come challenge me about it! Fight your reactionary self that prevents you from learning new and interesting facts!
Welcome back to the world of Science Fantasy! Today we wrap up the creation of the Solar Research Council on Evocar with the reunification of Nar Shaddaa and the the tendrils of business and finance extending into the barbarian space that was the old Hutt Cartel.
Shameless plug, I talk about this in more detail, and fill in some of the blanks on my YouTube channel (link in the subreddit). Betas for my writing, as well as original philosophical work, are always up one writing cycle earlier (currently 4 days) on my subreddit at r/MinimalistMusings/ (Note the capitalization.)
Remember: "Peace is bad for interest rates."
The Rise of the Solar Research Council
With the accidental leak of the equality data, the integration processed accelerated as ever more population defected into the SRC half, resulting in a complete integration of the Moon within another century.
That is not to say there was no physical challenge to the SRC-backed open sectors. When it became apparent that their citizens (extortion targets) were abandoning their homes for the SRC sectors en-masse, many regional powerblocks came together in an attack to drive off the perceived Hegemon. After a brutal series of skirmishes across the frontier of SRC space, the two sides found themselves in a stalemate. While SRC had much less physical troops and military power on the moon, the sector itself was rich enough in resources, industry, and manpower that it was fairly easily defensible.
However, the stalemate would not last. By this time, basically everyone on the moon was already dependent on the agricultural trading companies running as subsidiaries of the SRC. Open hostilities were met with across-the-board boycotts of everything from basic rations to high-quality wine, leaving the local warlords not only with the problem of feeding their own troops, but also the luxuries they've come to rely on themselves.
With Nar Shaddaa, and indeed all of former Hutt space, having cycled far out of the Galactic Trade Networks, establishing new trade routes to feed hundreds of thousands of mercenaries was an impossibility that quickly dawned on the last bastions of resistance. Soon bickering within the coalition led to mass defections among the front-line soldiers, with the contagion spreading to entire smaller outfits.
Contrary to everyone's expectations, including those of the corporate gangs themselves, the SRC did not simply put them into battle against their old allies. Instead, whatever could be salvaged from their previous operations was taken, and the members themselves offered entry- to mid-tier positions across various SRC-corporations matching their previous expertise. This obvious plan to divide the newcomers was taken, mostly, with good grace.
Perhaps more importantly, the news that defectors were not turned around to march against their former allies only hastened the attrition rate. Within a year, the last holdouts were peacefully welcomed into the unified, newly established Nar Shaddaa government.
And thus, a hundred years after the SRC first reached out to Nar Shaddaa, the planetary system was once again a thriving ecosystem; each was an equal partner in the newly expanded SRC. The environment and natural beauty of Evocar slowly recovered from the rigours of Hutt occupation, tended with a scientific mindfulness led by the SRC, providing a base for research, and growth. The great Universities that led the founding of the SRC had established campuses all across the planet, specializing even further as the knowledge accumulated through rehabilitating an entire planet led to untold breakthroughs in electronics, terraforming, and engineering.
Nar Shaddaa itself was undergoing a transformational change, *the app* was instrumental in aligning the interests of the citizens and the SRC in the fundamental clean-up of the entire city-moon. Across all of Nar Shaddaa, the SRC offered micro-payments and micro-loans through *the app* as part of state *policy.* Using this method, and transparent data sharing between the government and the locals, average citizens benefited from helping to clean and improve their own environment. Many citizens and small businesses who were already part of *the app* took advantage of the micro-loans provided by the SRC to expand, or to take up a new venture.
This grassroot stimulus proved to be exceptionally effective. Not only did the extremely *local* incentive to clean up provide a better environment for the citizens, the revitalization helped to provide room for more businesses to grow. The data provided by the aggregate loans and grants also gave the SRC a full picture of the quality of infrastructure on Nar Shaddaa. This allowed the central committee to allocate supplementary spending to bring the poorer sectors of the moon closer to the average.
All together, the combination between the grassroots movement, and data-driven top-down investment helped pivot Nar Shaddaa from a smuggler's heaven into a thriving trade hub. With Evocar and Nar Shaddaa in political alignment, the SRC quickly annexed, economically, the rest of the system, bringing the various mining outfits, colonies, and space stations in line. This brought peace to the system for the first time in millennia, and created a new unified government that offered a ray of stability and hope in the dark edge of the Galaxy. One built on a reputation of rule-of-law and equal competition.
This reputation soon spread throughout the local cluster, where systems after system, rife with infighting since the collapse of the Cartel, sought the stability that was imposed by the SRC. Within fifty years, the SRC was invited and had expanded territorially to the closest neighbouring five systems. In these core systems, the SRC's focus remained as it was on Nar Shaddaa, a drive for the rule of law, and shared prosperity. And just as it was in the home system, competitors saw the success of the SRC methods, and slowly adopted them to remain competitive with SRC-backed corporations. As the rule of law began to permeate society, violent crime, and criminal organizations were pushed out of their positions of power, making room for a vibrant business community which focused on sustainable profits.
This was so effective that the SRC Central Committee had to create an 'associate' status for more systems that were clamouring to join the SRC sphere. Since the big Trading Companies had essentially entered government, they were an extension of Diplomatic Policy. While this did not stop them from actively engaging in trade with organizations outside of official SRC space, the Central Committee was aware that it ran the risk of spreading out the limited governing capacity of the nascent SRC too thin.
Therefore, while the official diplomatic apparatus was focused on the slow, economic integration of the initial five neighbouring systems, associate status essentially marked these systems for the next wave of expansion. Carefully chosen, the status also meant that these systems had the benefit of being the first to be studied when companies within the SRC sought areas of expansion. Akin to the initial contact between the Trading Companies and Nar Shaddaa before the unification of Evocar, these unofficial forays served more than profit-seeking. The goal was both to gather intelligence on the system, to understand the locals better, and to plant those initial seeds for future economic and legal union.
Two hundred years after the confederation on Evocar, the SRC was the undisputed leader in its little sector of the former Hutt space. The relative peace of the twenty systems that were part of the SRC contrasted heavily to the surrounding space where barbarism and exploitation were rampant. The nascent country was kept busy diplomatically, as the surrounding warlords started to look enviously at the prosperity and richness of the worlds that had been embraced by the council.
In between Hutts looking to reclaim their territories, PMCs that have turned to piracy, and every little grunt with a messiah complex, the Central Committee was forced into difficult decisions across its frontier. While the peace was kept with a vigorous defensive policing force, the pressure starting to be exerted against core SRC space was becoming worrisome. Finally, with the threat becoming too great, a reluctant SRC finally approved its first full defensive fleet.