Corporate Sector Authority

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From the Expanded Universe

The engines of commerce expanded the galaxy on many fronts, as enterprising scouts claimed new territories in the name of vast megacorporations. These businesses fed on exploited planets, growing richer and fatter. They would often chafe under the regulations of the Old Republic, and were able to use their bottomless wells of graft to circumvent laws that restricted their profits.

In a bold experiment meant to free the Republic lawmakers and Corporate moneymakers from their differences, a free-enterprise fiefdom of space was carved out bordering the Aparo and Wyl sectors. This became the Corporate Sector, a section of space governed not by the Republic or the Empire that followed, but instead run by big business.

At its start, the Corporate Sector encompassed only several hundred systems, carefully chosen by the Republic for their lack of native, sentient life. But as the profits began to swell, so did the territory. By the time of the Empire, the Corporate Sector ballooned to include nearly 30,000 stars. According to official documentation, none of these worlds contained any sentient life, but in truth, eleven species were discovered, though this fact was expunged from all records.

The government of the Corporate Sector is the Corporate Sector Authority (CSA), a private corporation in its own right forged by the industrious Baron Tagge. The CSA was granted a charter by the Empire to control that portion of the galaxy. During the height of Palpatine's draconian rule, the CSA was afforded autonomy due to the huge amounts of profits that it funneled into the New Order's coffers. Within its borders, the CSA was hardly better a ruler than the Empire, though many sought refuge there from the Galactic Civil War.

Dozens of contributing companies make up the Corporate Sector Authority, and from their upper management comes the Direx Board, 55 business executive who manage the sector's day-to-day affairs. The Direx Board is headed by the ExO, or the Executive Officer. Other high ranking stations in the CSA's command chain include the Prex (or President), Viceprex, Auditor-General, and the Imperial Advisor that acts as liaison and representative of the Empire's interests.

The CSA has exclusive rights to use the sector's resources as it sees fit. It is not above using slave labor to maximize profits, though such base violations of sentient liberties are done with a modicum of discretion. Entire ecospheres have been ravaged in the hunt for profits, and the CSA callously would move from one world to the next. The lack of internal competition has allowed the CSA to mark up prices on common goods to many times their actual worth. Credits standard and other forms of currency are forbidden: all visitors to the sector must convert their cash to Authority Cash Vouchers or crystalline vertex.

The allure of limitless profits draws many entrepreneurs to the Corporate Sector, but in truth, the majority of the fiefdom's denizens are merely wage-slave drudges, toiling away for the betterment of a faceless corporation while their share is skimmed and "assessed" down to a mere pittance. Citizenship is purchased, and the people of the Corporate Sector are shareholders, which affords them a few rights. Labor relationships are extremely poor, and hazardous working conditions are overlooked if correcting them would cut too deeply into a company's bottom line. One of the biggest crimes in the Corporate Sector is conspiracy to form a union.

Law and order are maintained in the Corporate Sector by the Security Division. The Security Police of the CSA, or Espos, have fostered a reputation for being hardened bullies. They wear brown uniforms, combat armor, and black battle helmets. They are typically armed with blaster rifles and riot guns.

The Security Division also maintains a picket fleet of outdated vessels to patrol Corporate Sector space. Refitted Victory-class Star Destroyers remain the prime component of the Authority's space patrol, though even older vessels such as Marauder corvettes and Invincible-class Dreadnaughts can be found.

During the Galactic Civil War, many of the corporations of CSA developed technologies for the Empire. After the collapse of the New Order, the Corporate Sector tried to remain neutral, and the New Republic was too burdened with establishing a new government to strike a new long-lasting partnership with the commerce-minded fiefdom. During the resurrected Emperor's campaign to retake the core, the Direx Board shrewdly remained uncommitted in the crisis, and sold weaponry to both sides. Now, during the height of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, all communication has been cut off between the Corporate Sector and the rest of the galaxy.

Among the worlds of the Corporate Sector are Ammuud, Bonadan, Roonadan, Etti IV, Kalla, Kail, Kir, Orron III, Duroon, Mytus VII, Gaurick, Rampa, Mall'ordian, Reltooine, Knolstee, Mayro and the Trianii colonies of Fibuli, Ekibo, Pypin and Brochiib.