Coratal Consortium

## General Overview

The Black Eye Consortium is a collection of races, mercenaries, and black marketeers that believe that it is in their best interests to increase the overall worth of the galaxy via improving the standards of life across the galaxy. Notably, antagonistic factions will reduce this overall worth of the galaxy, which bounties are frequently put up to inflict strikes upon detrimental elements to the cause. This gives them an unusual habit of bad practices turned (mostly) good, as their influence to stabilize the galaxy for net profit will sometimes compel the Consortium's main government to enlist Economic and Humanitarian bounties to failing governments that they can achieve a shared profit with.

This system of bounties and hits can create friction with some governments. Notably, hits may be applied to an individual in a supposedly allied government if said individual has crossed the line. As a pseudo-diplomatic practice, they may list which organisation applied the hit at times, and that only that organization can call it off, since they are contractually obliged to not interfere with the parameters of the bounty. If negotiations must be discussed with faction with one of their individuals having a hit on them, a joint conference will be held, calling the organisation that enacted the hit to the conference as well. The Consortium's main goal here is to be the middleman in order to deflect attention towards the other faction that enacted the bounty to preserve their neutrality.

One of the biggest parts of the Consortium's culture is the "Code of Credit", a directive that literally is a case of "Credit where credit is due". In order to encourage extra cooperation and partnership, even non-Consortium affiliates can accrue bounty collections if they unintentionally fulfil a bounty, having an account made under their name in the form of Whitemail. Should a captain from another assist with a bounty that a Consortium affiliate is working on, the Code of Credit dictates the earnings are to be split between the affiliate and the assisting captain.

They have a long standing practice of taking derelicts from destroyed starships, and towing them to undisclosed locations to begin refurbishing them and combining them with other ship parts (often from different civilisations entirely) to create an amalgamated starship designed known as a "Revenant". Often times, they will manufacture a set of modular struts, bracings, hard-points, and sometimes even hull segments to assist with quickly integrating derelicts into more Revenants.

Rumour has it that they have established an alliance with the Lotli Exodus fleet. A massive bargain was struck between the two factions, as the Consortium pushed forth the idea of using their industrial assets to terraform a suitably uninhabited planet to the Lotli's desires, in exchange for something equally valuable. Realising that their dreams of a new homeworld is becoming true, the Exodus offered their main flagship known as THE Exodus, due to having no need for such a massive ship anymore. The deal was sealed, and terraforming started, with the Consortium encouraging Exodus overseers to direct the parameters of the terraforming process, and the Exodus flagship was converted to a massive mobile drydock for the Consortium, massively streamlining their process of creating and refitting additional ships.

Reasons for the Consortium to become involved:

* An individual has done something for a government to have inflicted a hit upon them
* \* The individual has caused a net reduction of the galaxy's worth to garner the central ire of the Consortium itself (This is generally one of the worse things that can happen)
* A crisis on a planet that the Consortium feels vital for the economy is endangered by a catastrophe, enacting a logistics bounty to scramble affiliates to stabilize the condition of the planet.

Commonwealth captains may end up unintentionally accruing latinum in their name based on their actions, if they unknowingly end up fulfilling a bounty. While Commonwealth captains with black market accounts in their name is extremely questionable, this accumulated latinum can be used to purchase needed equipment that are otherwise difficult to obtain, or simply call in aid from mercenaries in a mission. Further entanglement with the Consortium may yield Commonwealth captains access to additional services.

## Established History

First contact with the Black Eye Consortium occurred in 2419, when the U.S.S. Nemesis was detained during an expedition to the Zeta Quadrant. The Consortium claimed that the Commonwealth's efforts to defeat the Void were disrupting the economic balance of the Black Eye Galaxy.
The Consortium joined the United Commonwealth of Planets in early 2420, after helping the Commonwealth to finally defeat the Void and successfully imprison the "One" at the centre of the Black Eye Galaxy (M64).

## Established Member Species

* Khydallan
* Vexari
* Rokal

## Notes

* The Black Eye Consortium was developed by Lurai Kir & Kirv Goldblade
* The Black Eye Consortium are members of the United Commonwealth of Planets,
* The Black Eye Consortium were first encountered in the U.S.S. Nemesis episode, "*Consortium*" on the *23rd August 2019*