Imperial/Alliance Diplomatic Shenanigans

[Rossos Atrapes]

So a while back there was a big push for the Empire and the Alliance and Jedi and Imperial Knights to get together and have a series of threads discussing various points of interest that had come up due to the Treaty and all that. Unfortunately, it hasn't started yet.

So maybe we can get the ball rolling? Atrapes really wants to have these talks, to get a face-to-face conversation with the Jedi, and measure the Senators and leaders of the Alliance.

So my idea is this, I guess:

We figure out the big issues that the people involved want to talk about, and we see who would want to be involved in them. Set up some threads where people RP it out piecemeal instead of all at once so it won't get too big and stall under its own weight. Maybe call the series "Jovan Diplomatic Talks: (Your Title Here)" so we have a clear idea of what threads are going on in them and people can read other Jovan threads to keep abreast of the talks at large? Senators and Moffs and chancellors and executors and Military folks and Intelligence folks and Imperial business peeps and such can shmooze and carry on while the talks are going on.

Let's get this worked out, guys! Great political intrigue stories await!

So I know Atrapes wants to discuss things with the Jedi and whatever the Alliance has in terms of a Foreign Relations Committee or something like that. What other issues are there that the Alliance and Empire have to talk about? Who would be interested and willing to make this happen?

[Tear]

I'm down to sit in a conference room. If anyone wants the Empires Executor for tea and crumpets.

[Captain Untouchable]

I wouldn't mind doing some Mandalore stuff in amongst this - maybe some Zeltros stuff too, if Sarah and Dee are up for it. Mandalore is neutral space surrounded on all sides by the Empire, while Zeltros is basically in the Neutral Zone. Could even throw in my Santhe/Sienar guy to represent the Tion Cluster (surrounded on all sides by the Alliance), and some Jedi representation... do a bit of a meeting about free passage / freedom of movement across the border / economic and trade opportunities for small/independent groups affected by the treaty, etc.

I'd be happy to bring Ceto along as an advocate for trade and commerce. Given how things are in TFA, it could be cool to have Ceto and Taataani interact - the beginnings of their political career together and such. There's probably a case for Delgado to go as well, to talk about insurgent movements and such... might be a chance for a first meeting with Salem Ave? Alllll the TFA groundwork.

I'm guessing there's scope for non-political interaction too... throw some pilots/etc into a strip club or whatever, and see how long before someone gets shanked? I have sone ex-Imperials (both new and old) on the Alliance/Jovan side of things, so I'm sure one of them has an old colleague who wants to yell traitor! and then attack them with a stun baton...

[Damien Kantrael]

A tense meeting of faction leaders you say? It would be a shame if anything were to happen to it...

[Miranda Tarkin]

I'm down to sit in a conference room. If anyone wants the Empires Executor for tea and crumpets.

Long as they're bloodied.

I think it would be best to work out talking points first that can be discussed at the table. For example, Miranda and Salem are discussing the issue of nonaligned Force Users in Imperial Space. The Alliance is there on good faith.

Trade discussion seems like the biggest one that Jace brings up?

[Captain Untouchable]

I think travel is probably the bigger / more fundemental issue.

We kinda need a lack of trade to make our stories work. Cloud City needs companies saying "I can't get to my factories/offices/etc in Alliance space, I'd better build a new one". The fact that the Alliance can't get Industrial Automaton astromechs from Nubia is the main reason Taataani Meorrei and friends are developing fighters without astro droids. There's lots of stuff just starting out on Jovan, Cloud City, and elsewhere that kinda relies on that whole... it's nigh impossible to cross the border idea. If we go and start discussing full fledged trade, we're potentially gonna trip up a lot of story before it finds it's feet.

If we focus on travel though, that's more of a first step. We can cement the idea that you can only cross the border at certain places, we can work out what kind of papers/passports/etc people need to avoid getting arrested, we can talk about refugees wanting to relocate because "I don't want to live in the Alliance" or what have you, and we can crack open the border just enough so that smugglers and individuals can start getting through, but while still keeping the metaphorical wall between the two halves of the galaxy.

There might be some trade talks as part of that - for stuff like bacta in particular - but opening trade fully at this stage is probably counter productive. Not that we can't talk about it at the negotiating table, we just probably need to make sure we get nowhere with it.


Speaking of at this stage - do we want to use this summit to mark the start of 11 ABY? Kind of a one year later vibe as far as the treaty/starkillers/etc.

[Tear]

This actually might be good opportunity to start Tear's/The Empire's diplomatic engagements with the Chiss. Pursuing trade and weapons agreements. If anyone has a Chiss diplomat or envoy they want to write.

[Vince]

So we have:

Tear, Atrapes, Ceto and Delgado so far for Imperials,

And maybe Taataani, Tell Cho and Jace has some people for the Alliance side of things.

The big issue that seems to need to be discussed is Travel between the Alliance and the Empire; the Imperial Knights want to discuss the Jedi.

Is that right for what we have so far?

[Maggewetok]

I can't see a galactic border being so tight that smugglers can't find paths between star systems and trade routes, so opportunities for trade aren't going to end completely. What I do see is major trade routes being patrolled as well as crossroad systems which would limit trade to those areas. Neither navy is big enough for that, so most of our negotiations would be to keep those local system fleets active enough to uphold that sort of plan. The Corporate Sector would be the biggest group to appease in that scenario and they could even slow production of major military contracts saying there's all sorts of union disputes, shortage of materiel, pirates that they're dealing with, etc. just to be a thorn in the Imperial and Alliance's sides.

If this Alliance agent could help out in any way, I'm up for it.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I already have Salem in dialogue with Miranda so I'm happy to be involved in other talks

I'm pretty sure one of my Ciz chars is also the Alliance minister for trade...

I can throw Gallus or Sanya into the pot from the imperial side of things

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Serena is happy to come along to these talks, and we can bring a couple other Jedi. I wouldn't want to risk (or clog up the thread) with more than three. I doubt we'd bring/risk anyone lower than a Knight and we certainly don't want to bring the entire Council along to be killed or kidnapped, but three Jedi should be enough, I think.

[Pierce Tondry]

If these talks do occur, I'm going to have a pretty ridiculous request.

[Akilah]

This Imperial agent can also assist in one of the other threads.

[Miranda Tarkin]

If these talks do occur, I'm going to have a pretty ridiculous request.

No. You're not king of the Universe


If Rossos wants, I'm sure Jen and I can figure out a way for the Knights to join in discussions about Force users. Miranda has already mentioned widening their jurisdiction.

My new senator could be involved with trade discussions on the Alliance side as her homeworld is a huge exporter of agriculture.

Grace could also help with travel security talks.

Just thoughts

I like how many different aspects of this idea can work out with different factions and issues the galaxy has.

[Vince]

I can't see a galactic border being so tight that smugglers can't find paths between star systems and trade routes, so opportunities for trade aren't going to end completely. What I do see is major trade routes being patrolled as well as crossroad systems which would limit trade to those areas. Neither navy is big enough for that, so most of our negotiations would be to keep those local system fleets active enough to uphold that sort of plan. The Corporate Sector would be the biggest group to appease in that scenario and they could even slow production of major military contracts saying there's all sorts of union disputes, shortage of materiel, pirates that they're dealing with, etc. just to be a thorn in the Imperial and Alliance's sides.

If this Alliance agent could help out in any way, I'm up for it.

I don't think the idea is that the borders are sealed so much as there is no legitimate travel between the two so anyone caught in Alliance space with Imperial credentials could face a hard time and vice versa. This would simply set up a system and places where travel is allow and can be monitored by the powers that be.

Serena is happy to come along to these talks, and we can bring a couple other Jedi. I wouldn't want to risk (or clog up the thread) with more than three. I doubt we'd bring/risk anyone lower than a Knight and we certainly don't want to bring the entire Council along to be killed or kidnapped, but three Jedi should be enough, I think.

There'll be more than one thread, so we could have Padawans there just not involved in the talks, and Jedi involved in multiple threads as they are needed. Imperial Cadets and Jedi Padawans meeting and talking could be a cool thread.

If Rossos wants, I'm sure Jen and I can figure out a way for the Knights to join in discussions about Force users. Miranda has already mentioned widening their jurisdiction.

My new senator could be involved with trade discussions on the Alliance side as her homeworld is a huge exporter of agriculture.

Grace could also help with travel security talks.

Just thoughts

I like how many different aspects of this idea can work out with different factions and issues the galaxy has.

That could work nicely. Tie those into the these talks maybe too to make a more formal law or agreement on it.

[Ilias Nytrau]

Knights? I'll be there with Inkara Liet if we're there.

Trade? Ordon Trozky, as the heir of the largest shipper in the known galaxy, could be there. That's another Imperial for you.

And I'm sure I'll have Sindy in here, somewhere, in her new role.

[Morgan Evanar]

This has a lot of possibility for subthreads and weird alliances that won't get in the way of talks themselves.

Like an unlikely people jointly stopping an assassination attempt. We could keep threads small and more agile that way while the big one can keep moving.

Personally this would be a good opportunity to dust off some of my other characters.

[Pierce Tondry]

No. You're not king of the Universe

http://i.imgur.com/RtIcvpT.gif

[Adonis Inirial]

I don't think the idea is that the borders are sealed so much as there is no legitimate travel between the two so anyone caught in Alliance space with Imperial credentials could face a hard time and vice versa. This would simply set up a system and places where travel is allow and can be monitored by the powers that be.

Pretty much this, yeah.

Smugglers can probably sneak across the border if they want to - they're smugglers, so they don't particularly care if it's legal or not. It's more a problem for the people who are trying to get across the border legitimately... the space equivalent of TSA and border/customs. They might not necessarily be able to stop you at "the border" (because you were in hyperspace at the time), but they will be able to do inspections/etc when you arrive at an actual planet to deliver stuff. Plus, there's kind of a statistics game in play - I'm sure Imperial and Alliance Intelligence will be calculating the "most likely" routes/locations for ships trying to sneak over the boarder, and will have interdictor ambushes set up - just like the Empire has being doing with smugglers and rebels for years.

There's also (this is where trade stuff creeps in) the space equivalent of the FBI monitoring who buys certain controlled substances / fertilizer / etc that can be adapted for nefarious purposes. One possible line item for this sort of discussion might be R4 droids from Industrial Automaton. On paper, they are "agromech" droids, designed to be used by farmers/colonists/etc, and therefore a resource that would be pretty useful for the Alliance's building efforts... but they can also be used / modified for use in an X-Wing, so it's not something the Imperials would want freely sold, and the Alliance can't really engage in the kind of illegal acquisition of such things that it used to in ye olden days.

Bacta/etc is another good one as well. Thyferra (the planet where most bacta comes from) is firmly inside Imperial space. There is however Maanan which produces kolto (slightly less good) which sits in neutral space between the Alliance and the Empire, though it's currently under Alliance protection/stewardship as per a recent thread. There's going to be a medical conference on Maanan soon as well (just waiting for Dee to stop being sick so we can get that started), so it's definitely a sort of... current "thing". Having some of the trade-related delegates talk about an Imperial "bacta tax" on exports that is trying to underhandedly bankrupt the Alliance into being able to treat it's patients might be cool.

There'll be more than one thread, so we could have Padawans there just not involved in the talks, and Jedi involved in multiple threads as they are needed. Imperial Cadets and Jedi Padawans meeting and talking could be a cool thread.

How "public" are we going to make the talks? Jovan Station already has a pretty healthy civilian population and a lot of travellers/etc. If we're having this summit take place on the station, and if we don't plan to sorta... clear the station of all it's civilian inhabitants, then having non-delegate people at the summit is probably something worth embracing.

We could even make a sort of world's fair thing going on in the background. While the politicians are having their meetings/etc behind closed doors, maybe merchants / etc from across the Empire and Alliance are showing up to sell their wares. Some dude from Corellia who has a whole freighter full of Corellian brandy that they're selling to Alliance officers who can't get it any more, Cizerack and Bothan merchants selling fine silks, SoroSuub offering a spare parts service for freighter types who can't readily get them elsewhere, etc.

Or maybe that kind of stuff isn't even happening on the station itself, but rather out in the "parking lot" outside the station? A bunch of freighters floating around with shuttles of shoppers going back and forth... something that's an absolute security nightmare for the officers on Jovan, but that doesn't necessarily present an overt threat to the summit's security. Kinda like back in Season 1 of Battlestar Galactica, where the Vice President nominations were happening on Cloud 9, and only a handful of civilians were allowed to show up to the actual quorum itself, but there were ships/etc all around full of people paying attention to what was going on.

[Hobgoblin]

Or maybe that kind of stuff isn't even happening on the station itself, but rather out in the "parking lot" outside the station?

It'd be the biggest flea market and tailgate party the station will have ever seen!