(Takeover Of Sarapin)

In the conference room of the Fresian headquarters of the Fegal Companies two men were having a long exchange of thoughts about the companies’ current state. These men were Karus and Mardar, the first a excecutive in the fegal industry as the other was the head of the scientific branch that were behind most development of products. It seemed like a slumber had descended upon the Fegal companies, the number of exports had dropped, some budget cuts had to made as other galactic competitors had began to push them out of the market and most concerning the CEO was nowhere to be found. There were many rumours flying around of his whereabouts, some said he was working on some black op project yet those had never stopped him from leading the company. Besides the dug was no scientist, he merely understood the basic idea and how effective the inventions of the scientific branch were in order to judge were they useful. Some say that the dug had a nervous breakdown beneath the cold surface and had fled to some of his planets to hide away, to clear his head or just to mix it up more with ale. Many would have liked to believe that, but rarely had Fegal given into pressure even with most of his branch leaders opposing some of his orders. Of course as the CEO was nowhere to be found and all that had certain contacts with him, said that he was on important business, the way to the throne was clear for someone. Not to mention high ranking officers in the Fegal merchant fleet had planned to gather the whole support of the fleet in order to takeover the company by force.

Uneasy rumours of corporate takeover had spread around the building and some in the higher ladders of the company had begun to wonder, if they could take control. But like many other doors of opportunity this one was slammed into the face of the power hungry usurpers as the Baal-class star destroyer, Sentenced arrived above Fresia. Rac himself sat quietly on the bridge watching at the metropolis planet down below, it was not quite what he had expected yet he had left some order to keep things running. Apparently some heads would have to roll in order to enforce his commands all tough not literally speaking, but few well chosen words might be enough. He had decided to leave the company behind for a while to enjoy life; he had taken a quiet life of travelling trough imperial, commonwealth and coalition space. Such travels certainly had its risks as who knew what such galactic powers would do in order to wipe out his companies. Yet in exchange he had studied everything closer besides the enjoying life, all tough he cold have learned it all while leading the company, but Rac believed in experiencing things by himself. Otherwise life tended to be dull unless you actually did something yourself, this partly came from his former life style of smuggling and travelling the galaxy. Yet as a `valuable resource` to the union, Rac was allowed to have his fun for sometime until he received a message, which gave a clear image of what he was expected to do.

“Play time is over, pack your bags puppet, and get your ass back to leading the companies and start making results”

Those were not the exact words, but the message was the same in the end and all tough Rac was allowed to run his company how he liked, but even his authority had limits. The Union kept insisting that it was all up to the board members to run their business yet it was quite clear they would not allow them to foolishly destroy their own creation. After all what belonged to them, belonged to the union in a way or so Rac thought it to be. Truth be told, Rac found it rather amusing that the union actually cared for his whereabouts as he was always replaceable, they could always install someone in head of his corporation all tough it might turn out as a messy business. Something that the union disliked greatly as, no wonder, it was a shadowy organization that stayed back allowing it’s puppets work as their front and Rac had proved to be efficient whenever he wanted to be. Rac guessed that this was his small vacation that the chairman had allowed until putting him back into order as compared to the rate he had worked in the past, Rac had a great deal to upgrade in his performance, if he wished to keep his `superiors` happy. Rac snapped out of his thoughts as a droid servant reported that the landing craft was fuelled and ready to go; sluggishly Rac turned his comfortable and weirdly shaped hover chair around to make his exit. He found his way down the turbo lift into the hangar swarming with mechanic droids, fighters and equipment, in the middle awaited Rac`s shuttle. Unlike always the pilot did not greet him for it was no human in control of the shuttle, Rac had grown frequently concerned about his own safety and had began to rely more on droids than humans. Humans were numerous, they stomped the ground everywhere in the galaxy and were always hungry for power, after all they were only out for themselves yet so was Rac.

The shuttle descended onto the familiar roof building that Rac had come to walk back and forth from time to time as he either entered or left the building this way. While on his way to the elevator and riding it, Rac opened up a com link to his secretary and snarled between his teeth as there was no answer. He is gone for a certain period of time and everything goes to hell, simply wonderful, but what could you expect from incompetent human underlings? They certainly were a horde of a workforce, but not good for much on their own or that depended on the person really, but mainly they were all worthless. Rac hovered trough the hallway and everyone he passed stopped to look at him, but as Rac arrived to the conference room where he was about to assemble a meeting he found two of them already there. Karus and Mardar turned to stare at him as he hovered past them, it seemed that they had not been expecting him to return or they had been interrupted at a bad moment. Rac stopped at the other head of the table and began preparing something on the table system that included a holocron. Silence descended upon the room as Rac calmly kept checking the system and seemed not to care, if there was anyone with him in the room. The two humans seemed paralyzed and did not say a word, Rac did not seem to acknowledge their presence yet the two human wanted some sort of an answer that would allow them to leave the room.

“You may leave and return tomorrow along with the rest of the board gentlemen, we matters to discuss and I am going to bring up the idle state of this company in, which it has fallen during my absence”

Rac said with his eyes still on the screen, Karus and Mardar simply nodded understanding that Rac was not at all pleased that he would have to grab the leash in order to keep his underlings in order. As the two left the room Rac opened up the latest reports of his companies fairing in everything, the failure to compete had forced budget cuts and that effected employees, who were not all that happy about it. This idle state that Rac had allowed his company to fall in was not acceptable, he would not accept it and those who had to suffer from it did not accept it. Rac would have to wake up his corporation in order to get things back on track and possibly an expansion of the corporation obviously would not hurt at all. An expansion worthy enough to assure his own underlings and the union that he was not faltering.

"Do I look like one who shepard’s stupid bantha`s across the burning sands of Tatooine?"

Rac asked out loud as the final board member sat down to the table, this board was only a formality position for all of them as they were only responsible for certain sectors and reporting on them to Rac. Thus Rac made all the decisions all tough he did hear out the suggestions of the board members, but rarely considered them to be of any value to him. Yet this did not offend the board members as they were paid well to do their own duties in the head of their own branches thus they did not find too many complaints. The question that was presented to them was quite obvious; did they really lack the initiative to keep things going without Fegal?

"Apparently I do to you because it seems that my corporation is getting dragged trough the mud and with enough time it would be thrown out of the market. The incompetence and lack of initiative in the higher ladder of my corporation has been now revealed to me. Truthfully speaking... I find it to be my fault..."

Rac spoke with slight anger in his voice, but his voice turned into muttering during his last sentence and he could almost hear the board members sigh from relief. Yet nothing was perfect, so it didn’t mean that small scare tactics were not in order to straighten up the organization of corporation. Rac turned to the board before him on the table and began going trough reports that had been sent to his office.

"Yet that does not mean there is room for improvement... Karus, to justify your budget cuts in the industry sector I must let you go now, your services were not needed for too long, but I am glad that they are no longer needed. You did an awful job really during my short absence; you cut the production and salaries at first due to so called expenses.

Then you decided to fire around 300 employees’s because machines would did a better job than they did? And you did not even bother to direct to another sector of the company? How do you expect we have been keeping ourselves a good public image? By keeping people employed, by securing their futures and the future of their families. That is what the average human or alien wants, but if you dump them outside like a trash they will become bitter and angry towards our companies. Alienating our citizens and workers is not the answers, we make compromises so that everyone can be happy and live about their life as our corporations grows, making more and more profit. As my first act after this meeting I am going to find a list of the fired employees and employ them back to the Fegal Companies and I am going to tell them that the prick that fired them has been kicked out. At least that should make them forget about their firing…"

In his head Rac imagined the board members sucking air in as, if to take back their sighs of relief and smirked as Karus had a confused look on his face. The policy of punishing one was always better than punishing a thousand while letting one man get away with it all tough Rac had to admit machines made a better job sometimes. Yet that was not the point, citizens of Fegal planets had to have a positive view of the companies so that no resistance groups or protestors would not come into play to ruin it all. It was not a utopia, a perfect society, but would it not be better that people almost believed it was? A society where everyone could receive proper treatment, an education, a job, a family and a safe future. Thousands in the galaxy lacked all that and what, if the Fegal citizen believed they had all that right there? They would remain happy, in line and no questions would be asked as meanwhile Fegal would be allowed to expand his business empire not to mention practice his more shadowy business behind the scenes. Karus pushed himself up taking support from the desk before walking out with a bitter face and threw a murderous glance towards Rac before leaving the room. No more that you would have expected from an ambitious man who only made profit for the company in his own name and took small slices from between without his employer’s permission.

In any case the rest of the board members seemed worried enough whether they had job well enough to earn their keep and place within the service of the company, but there was a small hope that this was just a warning so they all could improve their act. Indeed it seemed that when their master had appeared behind them with a whip in his hand, they were more than eager to act and that also had worked on Rac. Funny how he passed the pain to them that was put on him, but he guessed the union was expecting him to do so to improve the corporation’s current standing. Rac calmly crossed his fingers into a prayer and leaned onto the table, eyeing up all the board members.

“Consider yourselves spared, but warned. Do not conduct rash and foolish actions, in every public question you must consult me and if I find your ideas stupid I will fire you so do not bother bringing foolish ideas to me. I intend to get my corporation running and flourishing again, growing at a speed that it was before and most of all complete my ultimate goal that I am going to share with you”

Rac said with calm voice as he opened a holocron that appeared in the middle of the table, it showed the core worlds and every different power controlling the planets. Those that were neutral were not marked with colours and the view began to zoom in at a planet at the edge of the empire border. As the picture zoomed in it showed a planet with rugged and harsh surface, a planet filled with volcanic activity, it was very much like Mustafar on the outer rim for example. Rac leaned back in his chair holding his finger tips together.

“This is the planet Sarapin, which currently stands at the very edge of the empire yet has managed to stay away from it perhaps due to empire’s unwillingness to expand or for some other reason. Whatever it might be I know one thing, it is a planet with important significance to the core worlds and that reason is energy. In a brief history check up it was a major energy source for the republic and it was of course fought over in the clone wars, after that it remained a major source of energy for the imperial worlds. Thus you realise my intentions, I intend to gain this certain planet and its energy production capabilities in order to make my industries self sufficient in energy, not to mention use it as a new weapon in the market.

But why am I sharing this vision with you gentlemen? Should I not be doing this one my own as I have before and keep it to myself? No because I am simply stating this now that you come to realise that now that I am back, I will keep a short leash on all of you as it all fell on you to handle when I was gone and you failed me. Thus… I guess the comparison of a Shepard herding stupid banthas across the deserts is quite fitting… now beat it, I need privacy.”

The board rose quietly as Rac turned his chair to face the window behind him, he quietly stared at the world where he had found his first factory and laid the foundations of his company. Here he had met Omega Thrax who had recruited him to the union and here he had for the first time thrown down a planetary government. Rac guessed that he could have done it before, but he had been a coward as he had not felt backed up by anyone and he only received the confidence when the union came along with their big promises. From there on he had started to act out independently and had created a small business power in the core worlds, but he wondered what would be it’s fate as it stood dangerously close to the empire, but then again who didn’t? Actually he had come to realise that organizations like the GLF was what he needed in order to keep eyes off his modest company that held no greater power. And all this time he had come to think of Brutus Nogoth as a pest that resided itself within the union and got away with useless atrocities that only gained some attention nothing less. Yet when he would achieve his dream of almost complete core world domination then he could move on with a stronger power base and make an impact in the galaxy, but those were dreams that were to be fulfilled and with the union he would.

Rac already in advance, before the meeting, sent a number of offers to anyone who had shares on the facilities upon Sarapin. Of course these were first hand offers and would satisfy those who would have small shares, for the rest it was harassment in order to test how they would react to the situation. Those who would start acting instantly in order to figure out Fegal`s interests might have to be persuaded in another way, the rest who would stay back could be probably bought with a bigger sum of money. Yet Rac had no intentions of paying vast amounts of money all tough the unions support did grant him a lot of resources from, which to draw upon if needed sometime, but Rac would simply buy out what he could and conduct an armed corporate takeover of the facilities. Smaller companies could be silenced easily and assassination was only a push of a button away, but the future and it’s twist were bound to stay unpredictable thus these plans would have to be changed from time to time in the worst case scenario.

Rac turned close the holocron hovering in the centre of the table and gazed at planet image for a while before shutting it down, one more piece rock floating in space along with its resources and facilities would be his. When would someone put a stop to his ambitions by stepping in the way and forcing him to stop? Not anytime soon it seemed for now.

If you are seen as a saint and are given all the freedom to do whatever you wish, would you not want to act like the devil behind the scenes? The abuse of power was so common throughout the galaxy; some did so openly and suppressed their foes by force or simple fear as where others did so in secret. That seemed to be one significant difference between the union and the empire, both now bordering Sarapin all tough only the empire was known for what it truly was. But nonetheless the devil that used blunt force as his instrument was as colossal as ever and had spread its influence all around the galaxy. Rac did not wish to think about it, but his companies seemed and actually were like an insignificant worm besides the giant’s feet. Not even the union could forever guarantee his safety unless the empire would be weakened dramatically by some other galactic power or the union itself would grow stronger than the empire, which seemed unimaginable. The beeping sound of the computer panel next to Rac snapped him out of his thoughts and forced him to return to the matter at hand. As predicted most, if not all of the minor share holders had sold their shares to Rac in an instant as they had been offered a reasonable amount of credits, but those that had placed more than few credits were refusing his offers. These were the people who had placed their hopes, dreams and fortunes on the line when investing in the energy company and they were already being dealt with. Too bad that one being with more power and money could easily crush those dreams in order to progress his ambitions, but was that now how the galaxy worked? The strong triumphed over the weak, always? Most likely and that was why the weak hid, avoided the unwanted attention of the strong and tried to grow in shadows in order to rise as a giant. But such a rise would come as a stun to everyone as none might see it coming nor prepare for it, until it was too late to stop the new power from taking its place.

Rac believed that he would have to stay quiet and not attract any attention from the great galactic forces, boasting at any stage would be dangerous and ignoring the fact that no one would miss him, if he was gone. He was all alone in this galaxy and he would have to place his trust in certain amounts as he saw fit on others. As much as he wished to rely and trust the union, he was not guaranteed as it was clearly obvious that the chairman had gathered a wide cast network of puppets to serve his own ends. To fund whatever he planned and to have control over planets in secret, not to mention he would never have to take the blame for anything it seemed and none would even discover that it was he in charge of it all. The galaxy seemed to work in many ways due to the different factors and people shaping it, thus adapting to your environment was the key to survive and thrive, but rarely any of those that did made it to the top. That was why Rac wasn’t aiming for the top, but to survive and stay in power as the rest of the galaxy would go on about their lives and fight amongst each others. What was the union’s ultimate goal was a question that most likely bothered many of the board members, but no one never dared to ask it and no wonder for death could be quicker than anyone would think. Quietly Rac raised his gaze as his office door was swung open and in the door way stood a man wearing a fine business suit, but it and his face were in dirty. Rac did not recognize the man at all, in fact he could have swore that he had never seen him in his whole life and that he was not supposed to even be there. Obviously there was something alarmingly wrong as someone in the hallway gazed at the man with slight horror, but seemed to blocking the view for Rac.

“Who might you be rushing into my office without an appointment and to rudely interrupt my work? Didn’t my security stop you when you were obviously not supposed to be here?” Rac asked with a raised eyebrow as he had suddenly a nervous feeling, call it instinct.

At that moment the man moved aside from the door revealing a security man with his neck pierced by a blade and his blood flowing to the floor, Rac was suddenly slightly stunned by the sight and that was all the man needed to approach him. This was most unusual situation for Rac and it seemed like a harsh wake up call, but this time it was deadly as the blade weapon in the man’s hand was going for Rac`s heart. Rac quickly hovered aside, dodging the blade and all tough he would not have wanted to acknowledge it, he was frightened at that moment. Everything he had could have been taken from him in an instant, but there was a relief included as he heard the heavy sound of metal feet hitting the floor rapidly. The security droids were on their way and would eliminate this mad man, apparently the man held some grudge against him all tough he did not know why, but he wouldn’t have to go too far to guess. The blade approached again and this time Rac slipped out of his chair, dropping to the floor as he realised that it was not fast enough for him to escape the room. The blade hit the chair sending it backwards into the wall with a large dent in it and Rac turned to make his escape, but the man reacted far more quickly than Rac and lunged himself at the smaller dug.

Rac would have never thought that he would have ever again gotten into a situation like this as it had been somewhat common when he had been a smuggler, whether it was with a thug or target he had mainly been forced to rely on his blaster and weapons. Yet Rac had given up that life and had become to depend on others, thus now when forced to fight this unknown madman in his very own office he felt helpless. Rac rolled aside to his two strong back feet to avoid being crushed, but tripped on his back in the process, leaving him vulnerable. Just as the man rose to stare at Rac, who stared back at the man, there was a clicking sound of a blaster being armed. The barrel of the blaster was pointed at the man who gazed at the droids who opened fire at that moment dropping the man down in a second. After that they stood down and collected the man’s weapon, Rac with a relief went to check up on his chair as it apparently had received some damage, but he had not seen it. A grin rose to his face as it would probably need some repairs to make it into the right shape again, but otherwise it seemed to work fine. Rac ordered the droids to immediately get to check the man from the citizen register as it seemed certain that this man had been from his planets, if not from one of his companies. As the droids cleaned up the mess that the incident had created Rac sat down in his chair and checked the results of his increased offers to those that had refused his first offer. Now only a small portion had given into his offer, which left Rac with almost half of the shares yet that was not enough. Rac wanted all of it and there was a way of making this happen, Rac opened a control panel and accessed his droids control options. With the push of a button a signal was sent trough a few transmitters that would boost it to reach another planet, Vulpter where a small number droids were activated. These droids would receive order to go to Sarapin and simply cause a number of accidents so that the production of the facilities there would have to stop production. This meant a cease to the activity and perhaps more people would be persuaded to sell as they might realise that Fegal was behind it, but they could never prove it as the droids would reduce themselves to ashes by working as bombs themselves.

Industrial sabotage was always reliable weapon as long as the droids would not be caught, but in any case the droids were designed not to leave behind any evidence that they had any connection to the Fegal Companies. With this in process Rac turned to examine the body that still laid in his office, Rac took a deep sigh before examining the body closer as the droid was currently running a check up on the man. Rac was shocked by the sudden threat to his life, but had first taken care of business as usual to appear strong and unshaken. Under the surface though he was shaking, this was not just some random mad man, this was planned, but poorly executed assassination attempt with no intention of making it out alive. Rac had probably destroyed the man’s life in order to gain something and to make other people happy, the downside of punishing one man, which made Rac wonder would Karus ever think of attempting something like this? Probably not, but as the thought of Karus made Rac think of another person, which was an alien in head of the security on Fresia. Rac guessed that he could put the blame on him and he would have to improve the security of his offices radically, if things like these were allowed to happen. The droid suddenly made a sound as it had confirmed the identity of the human and showed his records of a small datapad that it handed it Rac. The man had been Holom Mortel, a former politician, a foreign minister actually and businessman here on Fresia who had made a huge profit by take advantage of his position. This made Rac confused for had he not wiped out the whole government in one massive explosion? Apparently not yet this man had not spoken against Fegal, but had actually come to work in his company all he had lost everything because of Rac`s elimination of competitors. It seemed that he had been away during the time of explosion, which would explain a lot. It was unclear whether he enlisted to work for Rac to get revenge on him or to simply earn his living, perhaps both and eventually it had drove him mad enough to plan something like this. The fact that he was a Fegal employee allowed him to access the building without care all tough he did not have the security clearing to the higher floors.

Rac would have to see to it that there were no former bitter rivals in his own companies who could harm him like Mortel here had tried to. Rac gave the datapad back to the droid and order them to clean his office as meanwhile he would sit down to wait for the results from Sarapin. Yet as Rac watched the body being carried away he wondered how many lives he had stomped in order to make his own better? How many people would wish to have the same chance? He did not even want to think of it, but in the wake of this assault he had come to realise how weak he himself was. He was no longer a smuggler/thug, but a businessman who had to rely on others to protect him that made him realise how pitiful he was. To be always self sufficient in everything would have been ideal, but Rac on the long run couldn`t protect himself even, if he tried to. In the end he had not come far from being a smuggler, the only difference was that instead of a small sum of credits and a blaster was that he carried around a huge amount of credits.

- - - - -

At the end of the day Rac was still in his office, now watching the news from the core worlds and only waiting for a major incident he had planned to appear. Rac quietly scratched the loose skin that hanged around his neck with a nervous glance in his eyes as he gazed at the screen left to him showing the shares of the energy company. Then Rac`s attention fixed on the screen displaying the news.

“…. There has been a number of `accidents` in the facilities on the planet Sarapin, the reason for these accidents is unknown, but they appeared in the form of explosions and there has been no new information as of late. The company states it’s concern for the employee’s safety in the facilities as the body count has already reached 18 and is apparently still growing as the reason of the accidents are being solved.

Some speculate these so called accidents to be a terrorist act or industrial sabotage…”

Rac calmly smiled as he turned his eyes to the screen displaying his shares of the company that began to grow steadily, all those deaths were required to persuade the share holders that selling was the best option. Now that Rac held the majority he could takeover, repair the damages and start producing energy for his own industries, then selling what would be left over to the highest bidder in the core worlds.

“Really what a shame…”

Rac muttered to himself as he gazed at the screens and the closed them with the push of a button.