Ixo Syndicate
The Ixo Syndicate is a smuggling ring and transport cartel which has gained effective control of a large number of mining colonies, local logistics infrastructures, and interstellar shipping lines in the Illyria Unaffiliated Zone. The syndicate is based on the planet Pan, where it has subsumed most organs of local government, and specializes in evading import controls on Illyrian bluegem. It has become a symbol of the governmental dysfunction that plagues the IUZ, its decentralized organization and cunning local leadership have allowed it to largely escape attempts at cleaning up the notoriously corrupt bluegem industry of the newly established mining worlds.
The Syndicate emerged from a successful smuggling ring of the same name in 2497, and in 2506 acquired its first stake in a major certified shipping line. By 2513 the Syndicate had begun expanding its operations to include direct control of mining operations, and 2520 began directly interfering in the political affairs of Pan. The Syndicate’s present stature as the dominant force on Pan and a major player in the nearby minor mining colonies was cemented by 2536, and its operations have continued to expand in the years since.
Governance
The Ixo Syndicate has limited central leadership, largely concentrated in its headquarters on Pan. This central office handles the legal considerations and political influence campaigns which have allowed the Syndicate to so effectively subvert local regulation, in addition to providing high-level directives to the major operations controlled by the Syndicate. Most Syndicate activity is controlled by lower-level local bosses who source goods for shipment, coordinate transport, and operate the infrastructure which move goods to market. Competition within the syndicate is fierce, and is one of the major obstacles to the Syndicate’s ongoing expansion and operation efficiency.
Major Operations
The Ixo Syndicate controls a large number of nominally legal ventures and other organizations through which it exercises its influence. The Syndicate owns countless smaller runners, refineries, mining outposts, and small businesses not affiliated with these entities, although these operations do account for a majority of the Syndicate’s activity.
Blue Pearl Line
The Blue Pearl Line is an interstellar freight line which operates a number of ore and container bulkers that services mining worlds under the Syndicate’s influence. Most of the goods handled by the syndicate travel at least some of their journey to interstellar markets aboard Blue Pearl vessels, either as their primary means of shipping or as the means by which smuggled commodities are brought to legal markets. It is common practice for the Syndicate to submit partially loaded bulkers to the full rigors of customs inspections, before transferring more valuable goods aboard via deep-space rendezvous with border-runners before the bulkers arrive at their final destinations.
Pan Municipality Federation
The Pan Municipality Federation (or PMZ) is the official name of planetary government of Pan. Although nominally democratic, a mixture of bribery, intimidation, and other measures have ensured that practically all positions of importance are controlled by members or allies of the Syndicate. This effective control of the planetary government has allowed the Syndicate to entirely sidestep export controls on the planet, further cementing its grip as the dominant exporter on pan, and allowing it a wide range of tools to suppress the activity of its rivals, although under Syndicate influence the crime rate on Oan has skyrocketed.
Steepshore & Ixo City System
The S&ICS is a railroad owned by the Syndicate, which connects the various mining outposts of Pan’s northern hemisphere to its two largest spaceports, and which serve other small settlements in the regions along its main lines. The S&ICS monopoly on rail transit to the planet’s northern regions has been an important factor drawing the area’s mining operations and local authorities into the Syndicate’s fold.
UZ General Extractions Holdings
Unafiliated Zone General Extractions Holdings is the front company used by the Ixo Syndicate for the purposes of mine ownership. General Extractions owns a large fraction of the mines on Pan as well as several smaller operations on surrounding worlds, and is known for its repressive labour policies.
Individuals of Note
The Ixo Syndicate is led by Garik Dahn, a human enforcer who proved instrumental in the Syndicate’s campaign to take control of Pan’s planetary government. He assumed control of the Syndicate after his predecessor’s mysterious death.
Brom Lancaster is a Lashunta who oversees many of the higher-value deals which the Syndicate engages in, directing security for high-value shipments across the Syndicate’s area of operations.
Tallen Hark is an Anazcan lieutenant to Garik. He is a popular representative of the interstellar smugglers that remain a major bloc in Syndicate operations, and is widely known for his distaste of planetside operations.
