Entry Twelve – Days after Geonosis, Seventy-Five
There has been an important legislative development, something that, to my chagrin, I seem to have played a direct role in enacting. The Supreme Chancellor's Office has passed a set of rules that drastically expands the number and scope of the Coruscant Guard, a unit of clones previously used only to secure military bases and guard prisoners of war. However, it appears that a string of incidents here on Coruscant has convinced the chancellor that a fully militarized police force is necessary for the capital's wartime security. I have to admit that the confrontation I precipitated between the Ayae Militia and the Yellows is specifically mentioned among the legal justifications. Despite this, the current orders do not yet call for the deployment of these troops to the underworld. I suspect there are not yet enough clones with the requisite special training available.
I'm not sure what I think of this move, beyond confusion. Certainly there is a need for resources here on Coruscant, I do not question that, but is not the need greater on far away battlefields? No amount of military police will spare Coruscant unrest if the supply situation is not resolved. Perhaps these specially trained clones are unsuited to other purposes? If so, why create them at all? I see no specific reason to have clones patrol the streets. Surely the CSF can hire more officers or commission more droids. It seems a curious set of wartime priorities to fill every role with clones critically needed on the front lines.
I passed this news on to Major Kayi, partly as a warning. I suspect these clones will be far less accommodating of independent private militaries than the local police. Perhaps telling the Ayae is an act of disloyalty, no doubt their weaponry is illegal for private citizen possession, but it feels correct. They are Republic citizens, for all that they place little value on that privilege, and they have fought to defend their homes. That is more than most have done.
Hopefully the Ayae and others like them can avoid outside attention. I can only imagine that if the clones should attempt to try to clean the Bucket out in force it will be a hideous bloodbath. The syndicates would surely fight, and though they cannot match the firepower or training of a true army, they know this place and in building to building combat the toll would be brutal. Even one without training such as I can see it. Considering that the Chancellor openly seeks an alliance with the Hutt Clan I strongly doubt he intends such over-zealous action, but as this war grinds on I fear many things may change.
The Chancellor is an unusual figure. He is surprisingly popular, at least compared to my expectations, here. The people of the Bucket treat the Senate as naught but an object of mockery and the butt of crude jests, but Palpatine himself seems to have garnered a measure of respect. Perhaps it is the anti-corruption message he has long stressed, though whatever impact it has had elsewhere the underworld seems completely unchanged. I struggle to imagine another reason. Surely the residents of this artificial landscape have little in common with a rich nobleman from an idyllic world in the Mid Rim. All in all I find the matter curious, but I confess that the overall politics of the Bucket are exceedingly complex and well beyond my grasp.
This is not by any means a united region, but factional lines do not take shape in obvious fashion. The artificially imposed geography of levels and sectors that dominates the maps in the official databases matters little to the average resident. Instead it is other bonds that form networks independent of physical infrastructure in a three-dimensional space: species, language, labor unions, and even sports teams all appear to hold a great deal of sway over local loyalties, far more than any political affiliation. Morne has told me that the various syndicates control the labor unions and guilds, excepting the government bureaucracy – that one they simply purchase as needed – and therefore those organizations serve as a proxy for their influence. I have already learned that the Pyke Syndicate controls the all-important Maintenance and Sanitation Workers Union (the MSWU, which has caused development of a strange set of idioms centered around a presumably apocryphal figure known as 'Ms. Wu'), as a number of my patients who acquired their fungal infestation from work in the air-exchange systems sported tattoos signifying this affiliation.
The syndicate influence extends to sports as well. They seem to control many of the underground and dubiously legal sports such as pit fighting and swoop racing outright, and each syndicate openly sponsors its own team of doomed souls to participate in the horrifying snuff game known as Huttball. However, a number of the more aboveboard and popular sports such as football seem to have the power to resist such influence and their fan networks represent legions of support spread across many neighborhoods. I confess to finding it all very confusing.
Notes
The events Nema refers to in the opening paragraph are those related in "Dr. Nema and the Assassin in Yellow." That event is particularly significant because Nema used her authority (borrowed from Master Rancisis of the High Council) to order an independent militia unit into action. Palpatine very much does not want that to become a trend, as it would jeopardize the viability of Order 66.
I've snuck in a brief mention of Huttball here, which should be familiar to any SWTOR players. While there's no evidence that the game continued to exist outside of the Cold War Era, it seems like such a simple and effective concept that it would carry on in underground areas everywhere.