System for system, you have more credits coming out of the Corporate Sector than other regions of the galaxy. Where you have that much money, you'll get someone trying to cut himself a slice without payin' their dues. Same as anywhere else, you're gonna have Invisible Markets and shadow economies. The Corporate Sector would like to put 'em all out of business.
They do a fairly effective job, all things considered. They don't have the kind of firepower the Empire can throw at nuisances. but they do have weapon scanners, ident checks and who knows what else.
Of course, none of this fuss ever stops the real lowlifes from running their operations there. You have two levels of it: the nomads and the lifers."
Nomads just come for the creds. They have no roots; just greed and an attitude. Like my old pal Zlarb. Come outta nowhere, make the news for a few months and then go somewhere else to spend it. These are just the type of folks the Espos were formed to get and they do a darn fine job of it, I must say.
Lifers don't make those mistakes. Instead, the big time crime in the Sector likes to play it cool. Real cool. No flashy hits in restaurants; nothing like you'll see Hutts up to. Ticking off the Espos is as bad as an idea gets.
The lifers don't mess with the Authority at all. They mess with the people in the Sector, and out of politeness, the Authority looks the other way. The Authority is out to make a profit, so when there's a profit to be made in playing loose with the laws...
-Han Solo
In the Corporate Sector, you won't see robed COMPNOR faithfuls holding torchlit ceremonies, or merciless stormtroopers raiding settlements in search of Rebels. The boot of the Imperial military is distant.
Instead, manicured executives sip spiced wine and plan ever-more exotic vacations. Anxiety-ridden middle overseers plot and backstab each other for meaningless perks and favors. Company goons turn a blind eye to crime and depravity as long as the stock prices hold. Countless workers slave in duct-filled micro-cubicles, all for the greater glory and profit of the Corporate Sector Authority. Far from the Authority towers, scout ships and worldgougers scour the stars, searching for resources to fuel the endlessly churning factories and processing plants.
When you have smugglers running around and getting shot at, there's a market for techs to fix whatever is left. These people are known as outlaw-techs, and they are almost as important to the smuggling "profession" as the galactic underworld. Some techs, such as Shug Ninx and Doc, are as famous as the smugglers themselves.
Smugglers rely on outlaw-techs because they will fix ships without wanting to know how the ships got banged up in the first place. They'll add restricted equipment without pointing out that those new turbolasers or sensors are strictly off-limits for civilian ships. Efficient, capable and very discreet, they can handle just about everything from boosting thrusters to installing heavy duty quad cannons or state of the art sensor jammers. Some outlaw-techs will even arrange falsified ship IDs to throw off overly-curious customs inspectors. The larger tech outfits have teams of specialized engineers, programmers and droids for each subsystem.
It's a dangerous business, and every year some of these tech groups fall victim to Espos or the competition, but there are always new tech outfits ready to replace those careless enough to be put out of business.
To keep themselves safe, many of these groups move frequently among a number of temporary bases to avoid detection. Often, they have an elaborate defense system, including turbolaser emplacements and pirated fighters. Many groups keep a list of reserve base sites so that they can evacuate an old base and set up shop in a new system within days. For their own protection, many outlaw-tech groups have elaborate networks of contacts. Rather than finding the techs directly, prospective customers must go through several preliminary meetings so the techs can check references and make sure the "customers" aren't really Authority or Imperial operatives.
Typical Outlaw-Tech. All stats are 2D except: capital ship repair 4D+2, capital ship weapon repair 4D, space transports repair 6D, starfighter repair 5D, starship weapon repair 5D+2, Move: 10.
Smugglers are the ultimate entrepreneurs. They live and die by big governments that try to restrict trade. Smugglers are the ones who supply desperately needed (or desired) goods, going by the law of supply and demand. Sometimes they make it all sound so noble.
In the Corporate Sector, there's a huge demand for smuggled goods. With high tariffs, taxes and more regulations than the Empire (or so it seems), it's cheaper to hire smugglers to bring in food, medicine, entertainment holos, weapons, spice and just about everything else. There's nearly as many specialties as there are smugglers: spice-haulers, gunrunners, organ-leggers, or even the "rapids runners" of Rampa who smuggle fresh water to the polluted urban world. Whatever their cargo, they face long odds with courage, pluck and a healthy disdain for rules.
Of course, as any smuggler worth his crystalline vertex will tell you, just knowing some of the tricks of the trade won't get you far. You have to know the territory. Not just the navigational hazards and the major trade routes, but the enforcer profile, what gangs run what areas, and who to trust when negotiating a shady deal. It takes skill, experience and a good eye for character.
Many spacers in the Authority try to make a living legally. From what they say in the holobrochures, it sounds like a spacer's paradise. In reality, it's only paradise if your idea of paradise includes long hours of drudge work piloting a franchises freighter or cargo hauler. The fact is, the vast bulk of the Corporate Sector's cargo is handled by its fleet of merchant ships.
The Authority doesn't discourage independent shippers outright; it just prices them out of most markets. Very few cargoes go to independent haulers, and those that do don't pay enough to cover expenses.
There are hundreds of small-time companies who also need transport and this is where the private skipper finds his niche. It's hard to get ahead having to negotiate with eight different traders to get a full cargo to go from one frontier outpost to another halfway across the Sector. However, that's what the independents face. So, naturally, many of them turn to smuggling.
The Authority has tried to control smuggling, but there is so much demand throughout the Sector that the Espos have barely put a dent in the smuggling trade. The pay is too good, the cargo too hot, and the Authority too hated for the smugglers to be stopped.
There are a few things that most species can agree on. One of these is a regard for intelligent life, whatever the form it might take. Just as most civilizations consider unjustified killing murder, most regard slavery as a major crime.
Tragically there have also always been those who felt the call of their own greed supercedes any moral standards. They realized just how much wealth awaited those unencumbered by morality or decency. These despicable beings have been trafficking in sapient misery since the dawn of civilization.
During the height of the Republic, the combined forces of the Jedi Knights and the military worked to drive slavers from the Republic. With the rise of the New Order, other concerns took precedence and slavers began making a comeback. A few slavers always survived because they were protected by wealth and connections in the right places. Some species see it as a mark of prestige to own slaves. Some, like the Hutts, will pay enormous sums to obtain them.
One problem in eliminating slavery was the New Order's policy toward aliens. The Empire showed increasing reluctance to classify newly discovered species as sapient. If a species wasn't sapient, according to Imperial law, forcing them to work against their will was not slavery; it was domestication.
Some clearly sapient species, such as Wookiees and Mon Calamari, were classified as "animals" and thus were not protected from slaving.
Within the Authority, slavery experienced a brief upsurge. That's because the Authority is sometimes willing to overlook its own regulations in order to make a profit. Some execs took advantage of a sloppy system with minimal safeguards and started a slavery ring on the side. Despite Authority connections, the risks for slavers are high, but the rewards are rich enough to keep the trade going.
Criminal organizations in the Corporate Sector have to take a fundamentally different approach than those in the Empire. These groups require discretion and a willingness to deal with the authorities. This has ruled out most of the galaxy's major organizations, like that of Jabba the Hutt. Many criminals in the Empire flaunt their wealth and influence, almost daring the authorities to crack down. In the Corporate Sector, criminals must be quiet and secretive, keeping far from the prying eyes of the media or the Authority.
The Corporate Sector is connected to the Ringali Shell Core Worlds via the Hydian Way. As in the Empire, there are countless types of vehicles in the Corporate Sector. Repulsorlift is the galactic standard for propulsion, and the Corporate Sector has an amazing array of ground and landspeeders, airspeeders, speeder bikes, swoops and other vehicles. Other forms of transportation are used in the Sector as well — vehicles move about on tracks, treads, wheels, rails, and hoverjets, to name only a few of the possibilities.
Like the Empire, the Corporate Sector features a combination of private and public transportation. Private transportation is very common even in the densely populated urban centers. While this causes traffic jams, the mindless obsession with buying vehicles and other goods keep the Sector's economy solvent. In the Sector, not owning a vehicle is a social stigma — a mark of poverty. The Corporate Sector has more privately owned speeders than a dozen other sectors combined and speeder manufacturers play a big role in the economic life of the Sector.
The Sector does have public transportation, but citizens are actively discouraged from using it. The Sector does this by making sure that public shuttles and transports are overcrowded, poorly maintained, and dirty. These forms of transportation are too degrading for the average citizen of an all too self-conscious society.
Visiting citizens make do with rented speeders and hoppers, or if they need to, rely on any one of the innumerable robo-hack and metrotaxi services.
Druckenwell
In the Mid-Rim, Druckenwell is an industrialized, overpopulated urban world run by corporate guilds which have taken great care to reduce pollution and protect the planet's few remaining resources. Since coming under the control of the CSA this has probably changed.
In a place as consumer-oriented as the Corporate Sector, you find a lot of things you don't find most other places. There's a tool for everything.
To maintain its competitive edge, the Authority spends an enormous number of credits on research and development. They're not content to produce a useful knick-knack — they have to worry about things like; marketing' and 'consumer appeal.'
The Authority does a lot of field testing. It takes years for the finished product to hit the market. That's why you see a lot of new things in the Sector — some things will never be released to the larger galactic economy. Of course, new stuff isn't everywhere — the Authority shaves costs anytime it can get away with using older, second-rate goods — but this area of space is where you're most likely to find yourself facing the business end of a new prototype blaster.
-Han Solo