The Regalis Switch

The events of the Regalis Switch are still fresh in the minds of the public and will undoubtedly remain so for sometime in the future as many an honest trader learned either by his own or others experience the value of using a middle. The events also triggered a war of words between Black Sun , the Gree Trade Authority and Viskor News Network as well as causing tensions to flare temporarily between the Galactic Empire and it's fellow Imperial Union member Black Sun. One event triggered this, a simple scam gone horribly awry.

The Scam

A new trader burst onto the Galactic Market. His name was Henry Farlander. He claimed to have acquired numerous rare ships and other such goods which were highly prized by numerous traders. These ships included an A-Wing Interceptor and a BFF-1 Bulk Freighter. He offered these goods to the public at very reasonable prices. Numerous traders were very interested in these wares. Among them were Imperial citizens Neria Derycke and Draven Diesel. Farlander attempted to scam them both on the A Wing, which he did not truly own. Derycke was too cautious to take the bait, but Farlander caught Diesel in his net, along with Vosh Kildarn Dex Sehrin and Tazak Morgu among others. Up to this point the scam had been fairly uncomplicated and unpolitical. It was after the completion of the scam that things began to unravel.

Fallout

Within a day of the scam being completed, Henry Farlander was dead. A known member of Black Sun, Vandal Archibald stepped forward, claiming to have killed him. Archibald was on the board of Regalis Engineering, which is how this affair earned its name. Archibald claimed that a member of the New Republic Horatius Solomon had funded Farlander and that it was Solomon who had sold him the ship Farlander was on, allowing Archibald to execute Farlander for his crimes against the Imperial Union citizens. This caused the New Republic to immediately denounce and strip Solomon of his citizenship. However, the excellent detective work of Kyota Navic began to cause Archibald's story to unravel. The true story was far more complicated. It was not Solomon who had funded Farlander's scams. It was Archibald. Archibald had used Farlander as his scamming proxy, then foisted the blame on a Black Sun operative loyal to new Dark Prince Jeor Knight in Solomon. It would appear that Archibald's loyalties were tied to former Dark Prince Alexander von Ismay and his adviser Kathlen Stewart who had recently been expelled from Black Sun for the theft of assets entrusted to them by the Family Council. News reports were contradictory at the time, but it was believed that some of these assets were Imperial technology, entrusted to Black Sun by the Galactic Empire. It had apparently been Archibald's plan to enrich himself, and cause tension between Black Sun and the Galactic Empire at the same time to benefit von Ismay in his power struggle with Knight.

Naturally the Galactic Empire reacted sternly to the scamming of one of it's citizens by a Black Sun family member. While Diesel's items were recovered and returned to him, Archibald was still free. That also quickly changed, as his loyalty to von Ismay and scamming of fellow members of the Imperial Union were damaging to Black Sun. He was arrested, tried for treason, and executed by another former Dark Prince Banquo Knox. Speculation was rampant at the time that Black Sun expedited the death of Archibald to placate the anger coming from the Imperial throne. It is more likely that it was his loyalty to von Ismay was what cost Archibald his life, as the war of words between von Ismay's followers and Knight himself was raging white hot and undoubtedly Knight did not wish to have a von Ismay loyalist in his ranks. Thus he used Archibald's scam as an excuse to rid himself of a potential thorn in his side.

War of Words

Three Galactic News Service news events were posted in the space of twenty four hours in regard to the Regalis Switch. It lit up every social media feed, due to the twisted and complicated nature it took and the rumors of instability in Black Sun. Viskor News kept the fire white hot against the new Black Sun leadership, undoubtedly due to the secret financial backing they received from von Ismay and his followers. Black Sun itself responded once with an official statement condemning Viskor and the actions of Archibald. However, a former member of Black Sun which von Ismay had driven from the ranks, Tomas O`Cuinn, the chief executive officer of Gree Trade Authority, also responded, echoing support for the new Black Sun leadership and slamming von Ismay as an addled drug addicted failure of a leader, run by his subordinates. Whether these accusations were true was left to the public to determine as Viskor, now largely seen as von Ismay's propaganda mill, did not respond, nor was there any official statement from the Galactic Empire regarding the matter which had ensnared one of their first citizens. This brought an end to the Regalis Switch, an event which riveted the galaxies attention for a full week, with incessant news coverage and political ramifications to go along with it.