IMPORTANT-- info on Daragon, Incorporated

[Andre TholvelCEO]

This is a modified excerpt from a PM I sent Scare. It's not meant to be an exhaustive or even cohesive description of DI. This is just some additional information until I have time to put together something lengthy, but PLEASE read it all before further dealing with DI in Sons of Liberty, just so you have the right concept of DI in your head.

"You'll remember DI is an almost purely capitalist venture. Unlike the PXE and Yaka Empire, two empirical corporate empires, DI does not own significant amounts of planets or space; in fact, it only owns two or three planets, and those are uninhabitable, purchased only out of the necessity for waste disposal, mass warehouse storage, shipyards, etc. Instead, DI retains massive economic influence over most of the galaxy outside the PXE and Yaka, though nobody really knows this because of the countless subsidiaries and plethora of varied products-- as I've said before, DI sells everything from battleships to rubber duckies taped to spatulas. The POINT of all this, is that DI will basically sell anything to anyone, and as such, many DI-made ships are used by other factions, especially planets who wish to hold a small defense force. Many larger factions use DI ships as well, and they're typically found supplementing outposts and less important battles during large conflicts. In fact, oftentimes the majority of backwater outposts or minor skirmishes between large enemy forces are fought largely with Daragon, Incorporated starships.

Basically, what I'm saying is that DI selling ships to the Romulans is not uncommon-- it's mainly unusual in their specific case, however, because empires such as the Romulans often have enough money to build their own fleet. For large conflicts between large forces, such as if the PCG launched a full-scale offensive on the Romulans, DI ships typically wouldn't come into play until later in the war, when both sides started to run low on their own ships and needed some fast, reasonably priced reinforcements for their less important outposts and flanks to bring their own, morale-boosting starships to the front lines.

Keep in mind that DI differs from a mercenary group like the MSI for two reasons: firstly, because they remain neutral in conflicts and often provide ships to both sides, they have never, to this date, "turned" on someone for any reason or amount of money, excepting said "someone" tries to shortchange or cheat DI (such as stealing rental ships instead of returning them, breaking a contract, skipping a payment, etc), and even then, "turning" is typically limited to simply withdrawing all DI ships from that side for the extent of whatever conflict they were being used for. Secondly, except in the case of the SoL, DI ships are almost never manned by DI crews-- rental ships are delivered to their recipients and then manned by the receiving parties themselves. This way, DI retains very little control over who their ships fight, though of course it retains access codes to the ships; DI operates on a code of business ethics, and refuses to interfere through underhanded means with conflicts unrelated to DI itself.

However, it IS highly unusual for DI ships to be given to a group free of charge, and even more unusual for the CEO to take personal interest in a cause, let alone for both the CEO and COO to make personal appearances in such a potentially dangerous area. I did this to get involved in SoL, back when I thought I had time. The off-RP reason I've come up with is that SoL is the lastest "fashionable cause" to support, and DI did it for a PR boost (though, as I believe I've mentioned, DI's subsidiaries-behind-subsidiaries method of business means that maybe a few thousand people in the galaxy know they're buying their silverware from the same company that supports SoL)."

SO YEAH. DI isn't like Yaka or PXE or anyone else like that. It's an independent company run on almost small-business-like principles and methods, with no alliances and all alliances. It is widely held by the public eye to be an innocent and open company, an image it strives for despite the vast networks of subsidiaries protecting it from competitors, and its mysterious CEO, Siriondil Daragon. Nobody should find it strange that DI ships are fighting DI ships, any more than you would find it strange to see two Ford-made cars racing, as DI ships are sort of the "filler" that makes extended wars possible when nationalized starships are going down left and right.

(Basically, in addition to everything else, DI ships are sort of the cop-out to any question as to the realistic possibility of a large faction manning hundreds or thousands of worlds while fighting a long war with persistent reinforcements at the same time; they also allow any small/independent worlds to have planetary defense forces without "magically" coming up with PCG or Romulan or what-have-you Navy ships)