The Corporate Conglomerate of nearly a hundred business into one unified and structured organization which was said to have links back to the intergalactic institution known as the Trade Federation before the Clone Wars which saw the destruction of said Trade Federation at the conclusion of the intergalactic conflict. But before than the Mekkei Conglomerate was nomadic ever moving mega armada of ships which plied trade lanes from sector to sector pick up goods in one place in bulk from their factories only to sell them at sectors which had the highest demand for such goods. Such way was a hard one as the Mekkei Merchant Fleet swelled to at sometimes thousands of starships registered to the conglomerates name. Eventually a home base of operation for the Outer Rim would be needed to facility easier operations in the more remote sectors than was in the more established Mid-Rim or Core Worlds.
While the Mekkei Merchant Fleets were a familiar sight in the Outer Rim, the trips to the Aphelion System always drew large amounts of Republic Credits for the difficulty in navigating the asteroid field laden Grey Nebula to arrive in the much more calm Aphelion System. As the Mekkei brought in exoctic and rare goods from the Galaxy which the Noble Households has difficulty obtaining without paying a premium. The Noble Household merchants themselves balked in protestation over how they were being cut out of their own people. As the Mekkei would often undercut the Noble Houses merchants within mere moments of arriving. For centuries both sides would agree on trade terms only for them to be torn up a few decades later and a new trade treaty signed. As the Mekkei would be called greedy and spineless by the Noble Households and the Mekkei would often threatening to embargo the Noble Households for such insults led to both side sending many idle threats at each other until cooler heads prevailed and tensions cooled down for sometime. All of this would eventually change when the Noble Households went about exiling one of the families from the Noble Houses for spreading what they thought was the inflammatory teachings of a long dead Searhusian native scholar known as Xiphos. The Iacton family which was granted colonization of the planet Searhus plus almost all of its tens of thousands retainers and serfs all converted to this newly christened philosophy. Was going to be crushed by the Circle of Paladins and its bio-construct Companions.
With the entirety of the Xiphos, undertaking a pilgrimage to the Iacton held land on Aphelion Prime. The first Supreme Intelligence called upon the Mekkei Conglomerate to honor its past treaties with the newly erected Cult. In a vast shocking declaration the Mekkei accept such pact and terms as Mekkei Merchant ships would help transport pilgrims in exchange for all their worldly belongings besides the most basic essentials. The Supreme Intelligence than offered the Mekkei access to its powerful medical technology in exchange for the construction of a massive arcology now known as the Ziggurat. The offer was accepted as a massive army onto itself of Mekkei construction droids and workers began building the massive arcology on the Iacton grounds all the while. The Mekkei Merchant Security Fleet arrived in system the armada of warships and flights of starfighters under orders that if the Noble Houses would intervene on behalf of the Xiphos. The same could be said about the Ground Security Forces of the Mekkei as the deployed from the Security Fleets ships onto Aphelion Prime to guarantee the security of the Xiphos. Much to the anger of the Noble Houses who had no choice but to accept that terms given to them.
With the ever expanding business in the Aphelion System with the Noble Households still and the newly branded Xiphos Cult. The nomadic armada of Mekkei Conglomerate ships would need orbital facilities for refit and repair due to the heavy traffic that they brought to the system. A permanent anchorage would need to be established along with security forces and maintenance branches. As the Mekkei scouted for a new base they began construction of several orbitals around Aphelion II, Aphelion Prime, Oshur and Searhus. Along with bringing an entire vast asteroid mining operation plus refining facilities which churned out resources at a rate that even the Molecular Furnaces of the Noble Households of House Deizal and those of the ship board factories of the Mekkei could barely keep up with the raw material being harvested.
Within only the span of three years Mekkei Conglomerate had created a brand new city and orbital anchorage to support its mercantile gains in the system. With such rapid expansion the Mekkei once more began to settle more and more of it industry and merchant capacity into the city of Devron. Along with the construction of massive industrial complex on Aphelion II and Searhus allowed to churn out bulk goods for the people of the Aphelion system and the Maab Sector beyond even more cheaply than it did importing them with its vast armada of cargo ships.
Two Powers, One System
Less than pleased with the newly arrived house guests in the Aphelion System the Noble Households could not do much besides play along with the merchants ever increasing business front as they soon found these new competitors to the Aphelion System different. Not bound by honor or blood heritage they only cared about two things credits and customers. A almost completely foreign concepts to the upper echelons of the Noble Households. Unable to deter the expansion of the Mekkei the Noble Households played along with the merchants demands of the Mekkei willingly. Though behind the backs of the conglomerate the Noble Households plotted and schemed dozens of ways rid themselves of the now increasing menace. None of these would come to fruition though as the risk of a system wide war would be to great until the swirling rumors of the Trade Federation blockade of Naboo kicked off what would become the opening overture to the Clone Wars.
Hostile Takeover
In the conclusion of the Trade Federations defeat at Naboo, and the formation of the Confederacy of Independent Systems in the Outer Rim backed up by legions of battle droids and fleets of hastily repurposed merchant ships alongside with secretly built warships the CIS had plunged the Republic into a full fledged intergalactic war. Their intergalactic allies the Trade Federation set their designs on the Aphelion System with its vast raw resources to fuel the massive war effort and with the assistance of the Mekkei they would rule this system with impunity. As on such a black day the hyperspace lanes filled with a full war fleet of CIS warships and full fledged invasion force inside the cargo holds. Greeting them was the bulk of the Mekkei Merchant Security Fleet amassed in the shadow of the gas giant Aphelion Majoris. With both combined fleets they set to blockade all major planets of the Aphelion System into capitulation for Mekkei administration under the CIS banner. As Noble Households attempted to resist by springing well laid plans and schemes amongst them. The last of the Noble Households Companions and Paladins found themselves hopelessly outmatched by the soulless legions of battle droids and armada of starships the CIS and Mekkei brought to bear against them. While on the other hand the Xiphos continued to go about their business as per usual not heeding much change to the way things operated for them. For the time being the Noble Households where bottled up unable to do anything about the Mekkei takeover of the Aphelion System.
For two galactic standard years the Mekkei and its CIS backers held onto the Aphelion System. Only the timely arrival of the Grand Army of the Republic in the nearby systems in the Maab sector drew enough CIS forces away that the Mekkei where left with only a token force to hold the Aphelion system. It was than the Noble Household issued thru secret channels a secret decree. For rescuing the blockaded and besieged houses an entire planet would be given to those willing to the answer the call to arms. Two powers answered the call the first being the Hutts Cartels unleashing an entire fleet and armada of Ganks Cadres into the system to reclaim it as their after losing it tens of thousands of years ago to the mythical Star Spider. The other a massive assembled mercenary army under the banner of the Logos Mercenary Assembly Organization arrived and immediately began a wide sweeping space and planetary campaign to liberate each world from the Mekkei and CIS occupation.
Unfortunately the CIS-Mekkei defenders proved much tougher to crack than in theory as their legions of battle droids ground the Hutt Invasion forces into submission and in space the two fleets where eventually driven off by the arrival of the Grand Army of the Republic. While the fighting between the Logos Mercenaries, the Mekkei with its CIS allies, and the Noble Households continued in the system for months. Both sides inflicting terrible losses onto each other while the Logos wrestled control of Searhus from the CIS-Mekkei the Noble Households were still unable to break the blockade and siege of Aphelion II after break free at Aphelion Prime. It was only the timely arrival of the Grand Army of the Republic that helped throwback the CIS forces that resides on Aphelion II as the Republic Navy did battle in orbit. Unbeknownst to the GAR and even the Noble Households. The CIS were building a prototype weapon that was said to be able to destroy planets. And as the Mekkei Security Forces surrendered to the overwhelming firepower of the GAR the remaining CIS battle droids and their commanders enacted the most serious of plans they activated a prototype weapon that burned all living things on Aphelion II to ash and even its atmosphere did not survive such a blast. Dismayed by such unparalleled destruction of an entire planet the Mekkei Conglomerate formally ended hostilities with the Noble Houses and Republic.
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