The Organization

The organization known commonly as 'Karrde's group' or simply 'Talon Karrde' is not yet amung the top ten in the smuggling and trading community. If not the top ten, they are, however, in the top twenty and rising. The band is very low profile, prefering to quietly go about their business and make few waves. Little is known about its confidants, or where they set up base, but some information can be gleened from insider information, offered Out Of Character here. This information is mostly straight out of the information database available to confidants on the MUSH, so it's written in that third person. It also does not include hard data on the group; find that out for yourself IC, if you can.

The Group

Inventory (Ships, etc)

Financial Matters

Information

Prices for Services

The Group

What We Do And What We Don't Do

- We transport things. Things can be cargo, passengers, small vehicles (if possible), weapons, food.

- We sell information. Information, unless its confidentiality has already been paid for (in which case, it's not for sale), has a price. Any information, though the price is up to you. Use your best judgement. Given we sell information, we also seek to collect it. We keep our ears open, are observant, and RP the exchange of what we find with the other members of the group.

- We may serve as secure third party meeting hosts. These are no weapons on the clients, location of our choosing (their choosing is extra) and expensive. But protection is extended to the clients during the arranged times.

- We get involved in business ventures. This means gambling, trading, entertainment, anything to make money.

Which brings us to what we DON'T do...

- We DON'T engage in slaving. This means protection of slavers, transport of slaves or slaving equipment, transporting known slavers, or selling information to slaving groups. Any and all exceptions MUST go through Karrde.

- We DON'T do kidnappings or assassinations. Don't even entertain the idea.

Who We Are

We're a moderate- to large-scale smuggling and information brokering group. We do not have a fancy name. Our trademark, of sorts, is honesty in business. This does not mean we tell everything, we are merely honest in what we choose to tell. If you make a promise in the name of the group, it should be something we can stand by.

However, this also doesn't mean we're 'nice'. The callsign is profit, and what benefits the group, benefits the group's individuals. We're calculating, shrewd, and if it doesn't bring us any gain, we're not interested. (Note, if you personally are interested, you're free to pursue it, but not as a group sanctioned business transaction.) We stand by our people as well, thus, the problems of one member are the problems of the group. Unless a member does something insanely dumb and suicidal, you can be assured of full support if you talk to Karrde and the group about it.

We're also big on communication OOC as well as IC. If you have a problem or issue OOCly with something, tell us, or tell Karrde, and every effort will be made to help. One big key point is: Never feel you can't talk to the group. If it comes to that, then talk to Karrde about it, and he'll help get it resolved. OOC, we're all here to have some fun and kick some ass, and the surest way to ruin that is to let OOC issues cloud up the fun. Every effort will be made to keep the OOC air clear.

For more information, the Thrawn series of books by Zahn are a good guide to the whole mood and feel.

The Group's Inventory

Some equipment is maintained as the group's possession. This does not include things people buy for themselves, with their own pay (See benefits below for more on pay.) Inventory of group-owned items is recorded and tracked online by code. Passwords, location, and other vital information is also available through this database, and each ship is equiped with a wide coded array of internal scanning and security measures.

Wild Karrde. The entry for the ship in The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels explains it best:

The Corellian Action VI is one of many common transport ships-- lumbering, ungainly cargo craft. Stock Action VI Transports are 125 meters long, with a cargo capacity of 90,000 metric tons-- one bulk freighter can carry as much cargo as can nine hundred light freighters. These ships are slow, easily damaged in combat, and completely unarmed, so Imperial and New Republic cargo conveys often must deploy Nebulon-B escort frigates or corvettes to protect them.

The Wild Karrde, by contrast, is _far_ from helpless. It has three turbolasers rated for combat against capital starships, with extra shielding and reinforced hull plating-- the ship is as tough as an Imperial Lancer frigate.

Of course, the canny smuggler realizes that the best way to win a battle is to avoid it in the first place, and the Wild Karrde maintains an incredibly sophisticated sensor shroud system that rivals those found aboard Imperial spy ships. At long range, the Wild Karrde's masking system can hide the ship from casual scans, while at close range this system makes the ship appear to be nothing more than an unarmed, helpless cargo vessel.

The transport's sublight and hyperdrive systems have been completely overhauled. At sublight, the ship is as fast as most Imperial warships, and while almost any fighter could overtake it, it is doubtful that any of them carries the weaponry needed to punch through the armor. The Wild Karrde has a Class One hyperdrive, making it as fast in hyperspace as most starfighters. Karrde's navigation computer is as detailed as those found aboard Imperial Star Destroyers.

What the ship is in the timeframe of the MUSH is up to others to find out. It's a fairly large ship, and is can land, as well as be docked with. Code offers complete records on jump routes for each location.

Starry Ice. A Subpro Ilyrian Gnat, used mainly for trading duties and transport missions. It sports better sensors than normal, and has been installed with shields and better armor.

Sea Flat. A Skipray Blastboat for recon work and jobs that require speed. This ship is equipped with better senors and an ion cannon, aimed to escape and not engage ships.

Financial Matters

The group keeps close tabs on its financial records, as well as conducting economic research and analyzation to gain an edge in trade. A chart is available to employees, showing good prices to buy and sell, as well as a detailed transaction ledger system. A typical transaction listing may look like this:

==============================Transation Log===============================
[Type 'ktrans ' to view details of that transation.]

#..Time Occurred:................Where:................What:...............
1: Tue May 20 13:09:48 1997      Mutanda               Weapon               
2: Tue May 20 11:23:48 1997      Kalla                 Export               
3: Mon May 19 21:32:06 1997      Ord_Trasi             Import               
4: Mon May 19 19:35:28 1997      Athaniss              Export               
5: Mon May 19 17:01:03 1997      Ithor                 Import               
6: Mon May 19 13:30:30 1997      Sluis_Van             Export               
7: Sun May 18 18:27:30 1997      Caspar                Export              

CURRENT GROUP BALANCE: _censored_ credits
===========================================================================

Balance calculation is done automatically when a transaction is entered. The group maintains an account with the Galactic Bank for emergency cash for employees, but otherwise chooses to keep its funds secure in their own way.

"We need information! In formation!"

Besides the usual cargo, the Karrde group trades in information. Of all kinds. Chances are, if the group knows something you would like to know, be prepared to pay for it. Interesting information is also recorded and logged, and available to all employees. Likewise, employees make reports on things they find out, contributing to the pool of information. If a tidbit is sold, whoever heard it first and logged it gets a nice cut of the profit.

Prices for Services

Being decided...