Wilson Port, Tewanta - 3305-08-03 08:19 AM, Galactic Standard Time
Commander Austin Graves sat in his new office reviewing the current state of the Official Tewanta Order faction's affairs. He'd moved in to this office about a week ago after being evicted from his old one when The Buurian Protectorate took over Wilson Port. It was about the same size as his old office and was on the outer edge of the station, about as far from the axis of station's rotation as was possible, so there was decent artificial gravity. In fact that aspect was better than his old office. Everything functioned well, and he even had an exterior window, just like his old office. However, his old office was on the same facet of the station as the "mailslot", the entrance for spaceships. He used to be able to see every single ship that entered and left the station, if he had wanted to. This new office was on the opposite side of the station, facing away from the planet. The view was mostly of Tewanta A, the system's main star. As the star was only twelve light seconds away, that was mostly a view of bright light and heat. Because of that, he mostly kept the blast shutters closed over his office's window. He might as well have an office in the depths of the station.
As he had predicted, the civil war against The Buurian Protectorate had gone very badly. The Order's forces had been crushed. One of the Colonels of Central Command had even suggested that the failures in the war were down to his lack of belief in The Order. Unfortunately for that colonel, his Anaconda was pulled out of supercruise by a privateer named CMDR Yaga-Shura, and torn apart less than a minute afterwards. There were a lot of incidents like that during the war: independent pilots, aiding The Buurian Protectorate. They'd issued millions in bounties on CMDR Yaga-Shura alone. It was all over in three days and the bounties paid off anonymously at Interstellar Factors offices. The remaining Colonels had gone into hiding, and he had been left in charge of affairs in Tewanta, just as other Commanders had been left in charge in Chu I and BD+47 2267.
His own position was, if anything, better since the war had ended. The hand over of power was civilized. There were a few pockets of resistance, but The Buurian Protectorate moved quickly and efficiently. Some of the more sadistic enforcers and commissars were beaten to death by mobs, but they were thugs, and not particularly useful ones at that, so he wouldn't miss them. The commissars were disarmed and disbanded which made his own execution for some imagined political faux pas much less likely. He hadn't realized how tense it had made him until the threat had gone. The station was doing well. There wasn't much crime. Piracy was way down, for example. The Buurian Protectorate had an effective system security force and were still being supported by some Buur Pit independent CMDRs, in particular CMDR Reno Solis. The economy was booming. Trade was up. CMDR Spike.rog, CMDR Bob48, and CMDR Petrenus were mining large quantities of the most valuable minerals. He was grudgingly impressed. If only The Buurian Protectorate weren't such annoying eco-hippies.
There was no sign of the assassin he had hired. He hadn't suffered any consequences from that particular black ops action and the longer things went the less likely has was to. It still bothered him a little bit that the assassin had been neutralized so effectively. While it was possible the assassin had just taken his retainer and run, it was unlikely given the man's reputation. Also, given what the assassin had done to the surveillance system, it was more likely he was neutralized by the opposition. He just wished he knew how. It might make the other black ops he had planned be more likely to succeed.
An example of this was the resistance network that he was directing support towards. It was very hands off: he just made sure that some supplies, weapons, ship parts, etc. went missing and ended up in the hands of some young ex-commissars and ex-enforcers. He had quietly arranged for these individuals to have their service records erased and decent cover stories created for them. There were no direct ties back to him or Official Tewanta Order. He just hoped that they could cause a bit of trouble. They resistance group were calling themselves Tewantan Warriors of Elder Righteousness Platoon. The opposition psyops would have a lot of fun with the acronym, but it was a hands off operation so there wasn't much he could do about it.
One partially positive thing had happened: he had figured out at least part of how The Buurain Protectorate were financing themselves. They had a streaming holo-vid service that they were syndicating to numerous entertainment corporations in the Empire. Apparently, billions of citizens in the Empire's industrial systems were willing to pay about a credit a year to see holo-vids of the buurboons on Black Wildwood Ranch. The service was a hit in LTT 9605, Menusha, HIP 113430, Aluriates, and Nukama, among others. When one of the buurboons, named Derek, went missing, viewers started spontaneous donation drives to finance the search. This gave Commander Graves a target at least. He had directed black ops raids to be carried out on Black Wildwood Ranch. So far, none of the raids had succeeded, but it was a tangible target and gave his men something to keep them motivated. If, some day, they did succeed, then that would be a huge financial blow to The Buurian Protectorate.
The Buurian Protectorate were diversifying, though. His intelligence officers were telling him of a network of financial futures and deals centering around exploration surveys and scientific studies carried out by The Prime. Who this mysterious figure was, his agents were not able to determine, but the deals ran to billions of credits. That was enough to finance expansion into Chu I and was a real worry. He had planners working out how this individual could be found and stopped.
His office's purpose was to extract revenge for the recent humiliations inflicted on The Order and it was definitely open for business. He would work to disrupt The Buurian Protectorate as much as he could. Gaining control of a station from the Tewanta Company would be a good start. It helped that they hated The Buurian Protectrate as much as The Order did. They didn't regard The Order as their main threat anymore. When they did again, it would be too late and The Order would have control of their facilities. With a proper refinery his forces would make more profit from the solid, if mundane, mining operations that the had. It wasn't much, but it was a solid base to build on. An increase in the system's piracy levels would make the population realize they needed a stronger government with more of a focus on law and order. He could definitely arrange for more piracy. Time to get to work.