[i][center][color=fff79a]It is an era of strife and tyranny within the galaxy. For sixteen years a new order has slowly been imposing itself over the crumbling remains of democracy. The Empire as it is called, headed by the former Supreme Chancellor employs an iron fist and ruthless propaganda in order to keep control over an increasingly dissatisfied populace. While mere ripples for now, as fewer and fewer senators remain in opposition the shadows stir with rumors of credible dissent. Nowhere is this more prevalent than the Outer Rim. For millennia the region had operated as barely an extension of the Old Republic, belonging to it in name only for many sectors and others less so. Here among the darkened star lanes, at the very edges of the galaxy has many a rebellion been born, and it is here where empires have died.

Within the shadows of Imperial rule people gather to whisper of such things. Some are the expected, troublemakers even under the Republic's more lax view of order in the Outer Rim. Bounty hunters, assassins, smugglers and more besides. They have had the run of the edges of the galaxy for millenia, and while credits still grease the palms of officials everywhere, it is harder to do business when the Empire feels it necessary to exert their will through fleets of starships on patrol. Common scum, criminals and various gangs see this as not just breaking with the tradition of looking the other way, but a threat to their existence. It is not just the scum and villainy though, as citizens of all professions and station feel the boot of the Empire against the backs of their necks. In the dark spaces where once only the more criminal element gathered, now dissent festers and grows.

It is in one of those dark spaces in particular where a gathering of all kinds has come together. For on a planet broken away from its stellar moorings, a great festival is being held. Killers of both the legal and otherwise come to share their stories of the last year, shoulder to shoulder with spice-dealers and smugglers. Traders of every ware chart the dangerous and shifting hyperlanes to the Dark Harbor to buy and sell at Anchorage. A thousand starships from the smallest snub-fighters to relics of bygone eras at high-anchor disgorge their crews to the myriad cantinas to celebrate and prepare for the great game. For it is here that they will find glory, credits and for some a way to escape their troubles, so long as they pay...[/color]

[h2][color=fff79a]The Harbor's Due[/color][/h2][/center][/i]