The Smuggler's Association, the SA or just the Association for short, is exactly what the name says. A simple consortium of smugglers who don't even try to pretend they're otherwise operating in a loose group for increased security and profits in these troubled times. The Association started in some rundown cantina on some world no one cares about on the Outer Rim when a few individuals in the less-than-legitimate delivery business realized that they could get more credits if they gave each other tips on jobs they might not be able to do themselves. Since then it's grown into a more formal (at least by the standards of a group that started out in a cantina) outfit, able to post a listing of smuggling jobs people need done to the smugglers within the group.
Of course legitimate freight jobs are also available, but those don't pay nearly as well. Occasionally larger tasks will be undertaken by the Smuggler's Association, such as trying to break a planetary blockade, or establish a new warehouse facility as a safe place for smugglers to keep their goods. Compared to a lot of organizations out there though, the SA isn't really the most structured. There's a few basic tenets, but no ridiculous codes or secret protocol. It's not out to conquer the galaxy, or spread a certain ideology. It is a simple association of smugglers looking to make credits who'd like a steady source of work that doesn't put them under the heel of the Hutts, and gives them a nice place to lay low when the law is on them.
What the Association Does
The Association does just about everything related to the movement of goods. They own warehouses and docking bays which allow those that fly under their banner to more easily move between worlds, and gives them a refuge if they need to lay low. The most common thing they do is to act as a middleman between someone who needs cargo moved, and an intrepid pilot who's willing to do the moving. These jobs are often listed, and handed out on a first come-first serve basis. For more difficult jobs, the Association allows smugglers to get in touch with one another. If someone with another ship is needed, the SA is there with plenty of people willing to lend a hand - for a reasonable percentage of course. Everything from organizing freighter convoys through more difficult areas of space, to breaking through blockades can be done through the Association. Another thing it does is to allow for the passage of information. Not just in the sense of messages to be carried covertly, but in the sense of being able to tell your fellow outlaws what's going on where. If there's increased security at a planet, if a blockade's gone up somewhere, if the lawman has figured out a common smuggling trick, and things of that nature.
The SA also maintains its own stock of ships that can be loaned out on as needed basis. Some of these ships are actively flown by a member of the Association for Smuggling business. Unlike regular members, who might fly their own ships, these Captains are responsible for the administration of the Association, and handle most of the minimal bureaucratic work needed to run the Association.
Policies and Goals
By and large, the Smuggler's Association doesn't have a lot of policies that might interfere with how smugglers in the Association go about their business. They don't charge any fees for members, save for a small percentage of the credits a smuggler might get doing a job gained through the SA. The only strict rules are as follows.
1. Do not steal from other members of the Association
In the context of the Association, theft means that if another smuggler has taken a job on, a member of the SA won't try do it to get the money before they can. Likewise they won't steal from their cargo, their ship, poach crew members, or anything of that nature. Little things like stealing a drink, are really below the notice of the Association, and there certainly isn't a rule against stealing from those outside the Association.
2. Do not sellout the Association, or Association members
Should be a no brainer, but if there's one thing the galaxy has in abundance it's criminally stupid traitors. The Smuggler's Association would rather that its members not sellout other members of the Association to the authorities, or the organization as a whole. Duh.
3. Respect the Blacklist
The Blacklist is a list of people, or in some rarer cases organizations, which members of the Association will agree to not do business with. The reasoning for a name being added is usually refusing to pay upon delivery of goods, but might go beyond that. Aside from refusing to pay, doing something incredibly stupid is the next most common way of getting on the Blacklist. The list is decided by a vote among the ship's captains in the Association, but anyone can recommend a name be added.
Violating any of these rules is grounds for immediate removal from the Association, and if you happen to rack up some damage to the Association (like say killing people and destroying things) you can count on having a bounty put on your head. Other than that, there isn't much to it. The group is a loose organization, not especially concerned with what its members are up to thanks to the generally disorganized state of the Association. No one in the SA is in the SA to further the Association in and of itself. They're in it because the Association is a means to an end, and by providing that means the Association grows. There's no philosophy to be spread, right or wrong way of doing things, or any that other crap.
By and large the Smuggler's Association is an apolitical organization. Jedi, Sith, Senators. Doesn't really matter to them, save for the fact that they could all be paying customers. The Association doesn't actively pursue the destruction of any group in particular, although they're naturally very much against pirates, and very much against taxes and customs. Anyone with an active planetary blockade and pirates are the most likely groups for the Association to initiate combat against on a large scale of their own volition. Otherwise the Association just prefers to keep making money, and let its members do whatever they want. If some don't want to work with Jedi for example, that's fine. There's nothing binding them to take on a job involving Jedi. Law enforcement isn't really considered an enemy, so much as it is simply a risk that comes with the job. The Association has a number of credits set aside to get a member out of prison, by whatever means are most convenient. Which usually means paying someone, somewhere, off. Law enforcement in its pure state might be their enemy, but the good old corrupt variant is the Association's best friend.
On the other side of the coin, the Association doesn't really do "allies" either. They don't want any corporation trying to back them or be their sole provider, and they certainly have no interest in getting entangled in other people's problems. In fact attempting to cozy up to the Association is about the best way to make sure they never trust you. Smuggling is a profession that breeds paranoia after all, and anyone that wants to be BFF's with the SA is obviously only looking for leverage over the Association. Allies, and enemies, aren't things that smuggler's in general are interested in. Moving things from point A to be point B and getting credits for doing so are what smuggler's are interested in.
Organization
The Association isn't really all that well organized. It tends to be more decentralized, with no set seat of power, no single leader, and as described above not a lot in the way of rules. The only distinction between those in Association are between Captains, and Members.
Captains are the ones responsible for the Association. They fly a ship bought and paid for by SA, and are expected to handle the grunt work of keeping the Association working in return for that, and tend to hold more of a stake in the Association than the average member. Together, the Captains, form the leadership of the Smuggler's Association, voting on just about anything. Responsibilities are usually handed to whomever wants them, and regularly rotate. A meeting of the Captains usually takes place in the back room of some cantina somewhere, and is usually scheduled to happen at the last meeting. In general it's the job of Captains to actively lookout for the interest of the Association, and in emergency situations (such as a surprise attack) authority rests on the Captain who has been with the SA the longest, unless they cede it to someone else.
Members are pretty much everyone else in the Association. The regular smugglers who own their own ship, or have one on a temporary loan from the Association, the engineers, the pilots, the medics, and everyone else. Everyone has the same level of access to docking bays, bar tabs, and job listings, and there's no preference for Captains over Members in any of these things. The only thing Members don't do really is set Association policy, or have to worry about the day to day running of things. There's no set guidelines for a member becoming a Captain. The only requirement to do so is that they must have enough credits to purchase a ship of equal value to a Trillium and give this money to the Association as a "pay in". If a Member wants to be one they will ask for a current Captain to vouch for them, and the entire Captain's Council will vote on the matter. As long as over half vote yes, then you're a Captain. It's as simple as that.
Recruitment
Joining the Smuggler's Association is relatively straightforward. You have to know someone in the Association who can vouch for you, and then all you have to do is not be a moron. Being a smuggler is a plus, but not necessary. There's always a need for muscle, medics, and technicians after all. There are certainly members who don't really do smuggling jobs, but offer their services as security or slicers for a cut of the credits for that do them. Generally it's hard to find anyone in the Association that's particularly young, unless they're a family member of someone in the SA. After being accepted a new member of the Association will be given papers identifying them as a member of Outer Rim Freight, the legitimate face that the Association operates behind. It might only be a piece of paper, but it at least provides them legit reasons for visiting systems and getting by customs.
16 year old Force-users who think both Light and Dark are wrong, with godlike piloting skills, excellent combat techniques, and an overly tragic history, need not apply.
OOC Note: Outside of a core group of members who will be on the roster from the beginning, there will be NO recruitment of characters on an Out-Of-Character basis. Where it says a member must vouch for you it basically means you have to do a thread with us before we let you in, and obviously something like shooting at us means we aren't likely to vouch for you, and in return accept the character. There will be a signup to keep track, but NO one who signs up without doing these things IC will be accepted. I don't care about numbers, I care about the story.
OOC Intent
The Smuggler's Association exists to provide an outlet for the alternative criminal types, a main faction for which doesn't exist. People who aren't really the bounty hunter, go out and fight, types but more in line with the classic scoundrel more worried about their own pocket book than anything else, but at the same time more down and dirty than the more corporate types. Essentially this is a faction for the blue-collar criminals, and in function it's a union of sorts that lets them get a leg up over the competition. What the faction does is to facilitate smuggling activities, providing these sorts of PC's with activities, and helping to organize things bigger than individual initiatives between a few members could do. The ultimate goal of the faction is to make money and expand, any other raison d'être would be against the main intent. Whatever aspirations the faction may have are dependent on IC activities, conflict that may generate as result of the Association's activities, and where the writing takes things.
Roster
Captains
Andrena Solus
Members
Dyson Chanzot
Bahati Rhen
Elohim
Nova Rigil Starcry
Keid Pyethell
Mathis Aeron
Lola Day
Dana Hunt
History
The Smuggler's Association isn't an exceptionally old organization with a lot of interesting historical facts behind it. It was founded in a rundown bar on Iego around a decade ago, and stayed there for most of the early years. For the most part it was simply back room meetings between smugglers who exchanged tips, job information, and occasionally some of its number ran together in convoys through dangerous parts of space. With war brewing on the borders of the Republic there was certainly profit, and safety, in numbers. Attempts to sellout the organization were made on a regular basis, but it wasn't really well organized enough for these efforts to amount to much, as any smuggler in it simply fled, met up with old contacts on some other world, and eventually they were back in business in another bar on another planet.
The Association only grew into what it today after breaking through a corporate blockade of Jabiim. Serving as a structure through which to organize the effort, the successful breakthrough made rich men and women out of those who lived, and with a portion of each share going to the SA itself, the Association expanded greatly. There weren't any moral quibbles over price gouging which meant that the smugglers who took part were able to charge exorbitant fees for what amounted to some food and water. Some of the participants retired, others went on to give the Smuggler's Association the shape it has today, and most lost every credit they made gambling somewhere.
Situated near the Border Alliance, and the coming conflict, smugglers with the Association are poised to make even greater profits as things escalate out of control.
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