"Ohohohohohohohohohohohohohoh!!!!!!! Why, we have nothing but a bulk cargo of trade goods: raw grains and fabrics. OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!!"
The bored voice of the customs official which had crackled over the comlink was now alert and suspicious. "On a sensor shielded hull? Pelagia's Dawn, stand by to receive customs inspection."
Naga's voice was cut off mid-laugh as the sleepy customs ship pulled out of parking orbit around the nav point and headed toward the waddling bulk freighter. While there was no regular traffic here in the lightly settled areas of the Empire too few customs ships existed to check all of the cargo freighters going in and out of all of these systems. That was why they did quick queries to check which ships they would inspect, looking for anything suspicious to clue them off onto smugglers and other catches.
Naga had a personality that screamed suspicious, and a bulk freighter, even if it was loaded with cheap bulk goods, was a rich prize for them to seize if the customs officers found (or planted) any contraband aboard.
The customs ship, of a size near a stock light freighter, had actually been classed a light cruiser by some petty bureaucrat obviously trying to make up for personal inadequacies. The ship was almost a shuttle, and merited cruiser status less than the Tapani ship matched a frigate. The tiny speck of the customs vessel pulled up alongside the massive bulk freighter and matched velocity, then mated their airlocks. With a hiss of air seals going into place the customs craft nestled against the much bigger vessel's side, and moments later the airlock door opened, revealing two customs officers in crisp, grey uniforms.
"By Imperial Order 496-9, we are searching your ship. Do you have any objections?" If the freighter's crew did, that objection was enough to impound their vessel.
"Not at all, kind sir." A lovely, well-endowed woman in an elaborate, full-length silk dress of an extremely expensive cut and style gave them a cunning smile.
"We shall begin in the forward compartments." The lead officer declared crisply.
"Actually, I think the contraband is this way." The woman pointed to the other direction. "We ship so many prepackaged containers for all sorts of companies, and I think one of the ones in the rear hold might carry stolen artwork."
The officers were electrified. Stolen artwork was not unusual, yet a cache seized could make an officer's career. "We'll start there, then." They set off, walking some dozen paces, then turning a corner...
...facing over a dozen wookies surrounding them and a thousand boarding droids all in ranks behind them with the woman suddenly revealed to be a Jedi with active lightsaber. Just at the same time a concealed turret, installed for just this purpose, shot the immobile customs ship with an ion bolt, disabling it, and a concealed docking bay opened with tractor beams activating as airlock seals disengaged from the bulk freighter's side automatically.
The customs ship disappeared into the bulk freighter's cavernous hold, where it joined some dozens of others of their class of supposed light cruisers, some supposed frigates that were even smaller (and matched frigate class only about as well as an X-wing does), and some corvettes that were actually corvette sized.
In all, over sixty customs ships lay in that hold, with their crews languishing in brigs installed in the bulk freighter's hold.
Naga's personality was such she made a terrible spy, and she wasn't much better as an administrator of industry, either. Actually, she was without considerable talent in many of their peaceful endeavors. So Ranma gave her this job, for which she was admirably well suited:
Go ye out and collect customs vessels.
Then he'd arranged the whole setup for her. Because acting suspicious and laying traps to ensnare others both suited her ideally, she did very well at her job. She was studying on the side to bring up her abilities in other areas to fulfill her promise to Ranko and earn a more permanent place at Ranma's side.
Still, Naga's project wasn't hers alone. She was the one it had been designed for, and the only Jedi doing this. But all of the bulk freighters they'd captured on piracy raids were out here on similar missions, stopping back in to drop off their hauls with regular container ships put to use as normal shipping firms out in the galaxy.
Even with the garrison bases as spaceports, their reclaimed Trade Fed ships were so much better suited to dealing cargo among their own hidden worlds that Ranma had succumbed to reason and put all of their captured cargo vessels back among the trade routes of the rest of the galaxy. Records had been created, paperwork forged, and regular freight lines using secondhand ships were now plying the galaxy, all staffed by those loyal to the Jedi and serving their cause.
The steady income of a commercial transport fleet or four was doing alot to take care of their money woes, too.
One small example of additional service being done on the sly was picking up captured cargoes and ships on the sly, meeting with freighters on Naga's mission who'd drop off their hauls of stolen vessels for eventual transfer to the Jedi. Naga's Navy (as they were called) then returned to fishing for customs ships again, the supply network allowing them to do so in areas far removed from the Jedi's hidden sectors. The shipping tree would eventual bring all those captures secretly home to where the Jedi could make use of them.
Captured customs ships also had the equipment and necessary materials for producing tax stamps and inspection certificates, allowing a freighter fleet so supplied to skip out on loads of diplomatic hassles and even skip some taxes, fines and fees.
This increases profits greatly. The Empire taxes greedily.
Considered as the shuttles their size and capabilities classed them as, rather than the proud and inaccurate statements of Imperial Bureaucracy, the customs cruiser and frigate really weren't that bad. Their speed, armor, cargo and weapons all compared well against stock light freighters, and there were uses for ships of that size. The customs corvette actually had use as a corvette, and those weren't terrible to have, either.
Taking those away from the Empire meant two things, with a third kind of tagging along for the ride. First, was that the Empire would have to divert funds to replace the stolen ships, and second was that Ranma was building a fleet of armed cargo shuttles and corvettes at next to no price to him. Third, tagging along, was that it diminished Imperial Customs forces, and waiting for the Empire to replace their losses they collected that much less in taxes, impounded so much less contraband (whether actual illegal goods or just something that caught a custom inspector's eye), and seized fewer starships.
All of those cost the Empire money, and money lost to replace them, and meant just a trickle less for those massive projects at the other end of the pipes that caused the Rebels so much trouble. Like, for example, Death Stars, although actually what it would mean was a few less Star Destroyers, at most. The Empire was so hugely bloated not even a project like this did more than scratch them.
But that didn't make the Rebels any less grateful for the ships. Masquerading as customs, in the appropriate vessels, they could smuggle Jedi or other operatives across the galaxy under perfect concealment, and did so.
It also nicely complimented their order of battle, rounding out shuttle and corvette forces that they were so reluctant to build themselves, and hard to find in reject yards. None so good were to be had this easily by any other source. And customs ships actually shuffled cargo better than the light freighters they so often haunted in the space lanes, so did a great deal to soften the rough edges of the Rebel's home shipping force. They named the reclassed light cruiser the Peregrine Armored Shuttle, the misclassed frigate as their Saberdart Courier Boat, and the customs corvette (after a small refit to add fleet combat cabilities and hangars for a fighter squadron for increased escort functions) as the Buckler Corvette.
Turning the Empire's shipyards over to building shuttles for them wasn't a bad idea. But the real elegance was the Empire didn't know they were doing that when they churned out replacement customs craft.
It also siphoned off men, and even your worst 10% always still amount to 10% of your total force. Those men required training for their duties, and weren't always as easy to replace as stolen ships. Plus, the Empire used a shocking amount of unwilling conscripts for enlisted ranks. Even with a rudimentary deprogramming available on the other side you got a percentage of those men able and willing to serve you instead.
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Lionheart
(Posted Thu, 27 May 2004 22:28)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.