Renegade Rodian
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To flesh out an arm of the Helix Syndicate’s operations.
- Image Source: Rodian Head Icon from Wookieepedia
- Role: Junk Cartel
- Links: N/A
- Group Name: Rodian Junk Cartel
- Classification: Criminal Organization, affiliate of the Helix Syndicate
- Headquarters: Raxus Prime, Junklord's Den
- Loyalties: Helix Syndicate
- Group Sigil: A Rodian head over crossed bones.
- Hierarchy: The Rodian Junk Cartel follows a loose hierarchy. At the top is the Junklord, Limbio Roosh, who handles most of the recordkeeping and negotiating stuff. Below him are four captains charged with being his eyes and ears. Below them are a gaggle of Bosses, and under them is everyone else. See the “members” heading for more information.
- Membership: Rodians who fall in with the Junk Cartel typically do so because they don’t have anywhere else to go. They’ve been chased off of Rodia and they’ll probably get bushwhacked by bounty hunters if they show up someplace else. They head to Raxus Prime to “disappear” and join the Junk Cartel for some modicum of protection. There is, after all, strength in numbers… And the Cartel has a secret base they can hide in.
- Doctrines: The Cartel’s chief doctrine is one of self-preservation. These are mostly Rodians fleeing for their lives, so survival is important. The Cartel simply won’t pick fights with anyone they believe to be stronger than them. Beyond that, the Cartel’s philosophy is best describe as “take what you can, don’t give back.” Any small-time scavengers in and around their territory are regularly terrorized, bullied, and extorted by the Cartel.
- Curios: The Rodian-Crossbones symbol is generally painted someplace onto their armor, maybe stitched into their clothes. Beyond that, the Rodian Junk Cartel is too ragtag to have uniformity in anything else.
The Rodian Junk Cartel is led by an orange-skinned Rodian named Limbio Roosh. Limbio is known mostly as a hands-off leader, instead delegating the day-to-day operations of his Cartel to his newly appointed capos: Ceypleskey Fu, Niildopow Preetch, Dalzi Wralnall, and Kreelzaq Jiadee. They’re all Rodians and, with the exception of Dalzi, all men. Limbio himself tends to spend most of his days taking orders from the Helix Syndicate and keeping their newly required books balanced.
Aside from these leaders, has several divisions.
Scabs are the lowest in the Junk Cartel’s pyramid. Unlike the rest of the Cartel, these are the Rodians who do most of the salvage work. They spend their days making forays into the wastes of Raxus Prime, dredging up usable materials and dragging them back to one of their storage facilities. Once there, other scabs will sort out the useful electronics for resale and shipment. Still more scabs will then melt down the usable metals and pack them up for shipment. It’s not very glamorous, but it’s either this or jail. Occasionally, scabs will have their scarier friends kidnap Jawas and other unfortunate scavengers to supplement their workforce as slaves. Occasionally the scabs maintain enough slaves that they become slave drivers themselves instead of laborers.
Busters are strong, fighting Rodians wearing heavy armor and carrying big guns. Previously smaller in number, Busters enjoyed a surge in ranks when the Syndicate dropped a bunch of money on giving the Cartel access to new weapons and armor. Busters either spend their days terrorizing independent scavengers and Jawas who stray too close to their territory, or keeping watch over the Scabs and their slaves to make sure they don’t get too lazy. Busters are particularly adept at fighting in the difficult to navigate terrain of Raxus Prime, making them a formidable force
Movers are the transport guys. They are smugglers who skirt Sith-Imperial law by illegally transporting salvaged materials (generally metals and electronics) off of Raxus Prime. There aren’t more than a few dozen movers in the Cartel, limiting the scope of their operation, but they operate a small fleet of slick freighters easily capable of slipping unnoticed past blockades and evading patrols. The incompetent movers have all been killed in action, leaving only the good ones left.
Bosses are, you guessed it, the guys who boss around Busters and Scabs. There’s not much interesting about them beyond that, except that they tend to have the technological expertise to maintain weapons, armor, equipment, and tools. These are all valuable skills when living on the fringe of society, and since he Scabs and Busters all rely on them to keep their jobs running smoothly, they typically end up in charge.
DESCRIPTION
With guidance and support from the Helix Syndicate, Limbio Roosh has transformed the Rodian Junk Cartel from a petty faction of destitute raiders to a complex, multifaceted criminal operation.
The new order started when the Helix Syndicate tugged along certain strands of contacts they have, prompting Darth Osano to declare the Junk Cartel nominally under the influence of the Eye of Truth. The Junk Cartel would be used by the Eye to destroy unlicensed scavengers operating on Raxus Prime. This is how it is to work in theory, anyway. In practice, things go much differently.
For starters, aside from cursor inspections carried out by Sith Justiciars and Castellans, the Helix Syndicate handles dealing directly with the Rodian Junk Cartel. Illegal scavengers aren’t as frequently destroyed as the Eye of Truth reports, either. Instead they are extorted by the Junk Cartel, or coerced into working for them. In this way, the Junk Cartel has been able to increase its own productivity and area of control on Raxus while maintaining a facade of obedience.
Extorting other scavengers is only done to supplement the Cartel’s resources, however. The Cartel has its own salvaging and scavenging operations that constitute the majority of its output. Everything taken illegally from other operations gets mixed in, becoming laundered and untraceable. Just the way the Helix Syndicate likes it. Some of the scrap metal and recycled materials the Cartel acquires is sold through legal channels, enough to avoid any noticeable wrongdoing. The rest, the majority of it, is sold on the black market to avoid paying Imperial taxes. The Cartel has its own ring of smugglers, called Movers, to handle some of the more lucrative transport jobs.
The less important stuff is contracted out to third-party smugglers the Cartel has been put into contact with by the Helix Syndicate. When captured, these third-party smugglers typically don’t understand the full picture of what they’re getting involved in, rattling off fake names and aliases fed to them by the Syndicate - roads to nowhere.
Black market scrap is considerably cheaper than materials bought elsewhere. Industrial concerns will typically secretly buy from the Junk Cartel in order to flout safety laws, or just avoid paying Sith-Imperial taxes. Many of the Cartel’s customers are located in Sith Empire space, but they have been known to smuggle their goods as far as Geonosis. In exchange for turning a blind eye to the Junk Cartel’s doings, many highly ranked members of the Eye of Truth (particularly [member="Darth Osano"], his Castellans, and his Justiciars) enjoy a number of bribes and kickbacks.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The Rodian Junk Cartel has been an eternal presence on Raxus Prime for what feels like centuries. No one can really trace its history, since no one really thought it was worth recording. It’s gone by several names, through hundreds of leaders, and changed its operating territory dozens of times. Like a venereal disease, no matter how quickly and decisively they appear to have been stamped out, they always end up coming back. They are seemingly as permanent fixture of Raxus Prime as its mounds of garbage.
This most recent iteration can be traced back twelve years ago. Limbio Roosh has been running the show the whole time, a reclusive and bookish Rodian who seems uncharacteristic for the job. Nobody knows how he got to his current spot, but the Rodians seem to tolerate it - mostly because he lets them do more or less as they please and keeps things running smoothly.
The Sith Empire marked the Rodian Junk Cartel for death or absorption when they began making inroads into the Tion Cluster. It was around this time that the Helix Syndicate sent one of its lieutenants to make contact with the Junk Cartel. In return for essentially becoming a subsidiary of the Syndicate, the Helix Syndicate promised to use what influence it had within the Sith to keep them from being destroyed outright. Roosh was not really concerned with the survival of the Cartel seeing as it always came back in the end, but rather his own position and his own fortunes. So he accepted.
With backing from the Syndicate, the Rodian Junk Cartel gained access to much needed weapons and equipment. Additional logistics support enabled them to expand their area of influence dramatically, giving them access to juicier targets and more effective salvaging techniques. In exchange, the Syndicate gets a heavy percentage of the Cartel’s profits, and first dibs on any valuable materials it might come across.
