Antique & Custom Arms Company

## Background

The *Antique & Custom Arms Company* (ACA) is a front organization in the Outside Galaxy secretly run by the House of Royal Intelligence (HRI) through the Re-Acquisition Product Program (APP) and operated by Jod Defense Engineering Shipwrights (JDES) behind the scenes for the HRI. The company was established in the Corporate Sector in 18 BBY.

To the eyes of the Outside Galaxy, the company provides restoration services & customization builds from the ground-up to such legends as the Low Altitude Assault Transport/infantry & Low Altitude Assault Transport/carrier, as well as the All Terrain Tactical Enforcer, Unstable Terrain Artillery Transport, All Terrain Recon Transport, All Terrain Open Transport, and TX-130 Saber-class Fighter Tanks. With the acquisition of HG Historical Armor Productions (HGA) in 9 BBY, these restorations & customizations extended to the Armored Assault Tank, DSD1 Dwarf Spider Droid, and Single Trooper Aerial Platform. Recent adventures to expand the company's profitability include restoration & customization services to recovered *Acclamator*-class Transgalactic Military Assault Ships as of 4 BBY.

The company as a whole is rather successful (it's *Elite*-series being very popular), especially with having bought the rights to the Galactic Republic and later the Confederacy of Independent Systems' vehicles & vessels in question in 11 BBY from Rothana Heavy Engineering & Kuat Drive Yards and Baktoid Armor Workshop in 9 BBY respectfully. The company's *Antique & Armor Quarterly Sales Catalog* is a highly anticipated sales & history research of lost vehicles & vessels and battle analyst & war facts from the Clone Wars released every 4 months; collectors, enthusiasts, and history buffs alike eagerly await the quarterly publication.

While some of their restores & customizations become ownership of authentic clientele, others are bought through other front organizations for the various revolutionaries, freedom fighters, and mercenaries the HRI supports in the Outside Galaxy behind the scenes, as well as being "bought" on paper through ACA and in reality built & assembled in the Kingdom of Jod through Armor Engineering Products.

### **Convenient Cover**

One of ACA's primary functions is to act as a *reason* in the event any Jod Military Forces' assets are found in the Outside Galaxy, helping to explain away uniquely modified, upgraded, and newly built Clone Wars-era vehicles & vessels. They do this by producing the vehicles & vessels for clientele in the Outside Galaxy, helping to disguise the fact that there is a whole modern military in Companion Cresh (Kingdom of Jod) using the machines. With the Clone Wars' vehicles & vessels a more common sight in certain circles within The Galaxy, less suspicion would be given to Jod Military Vehicles being found damaged or destroyed by the Outside Galaxy (this is particular true for Royal Command, who operates in the Outside Galaxy).

### **Education Services**

ACA owns the profitable Antique & Armor Education Services, a company which has a contract with the Corporate Sector Authority, the Centrality, Allied Regions, Induparan Crown Worlds, and the Hapes Consortium for printing historical text books on the Clone Wars for their junior colleges & universities. The company was founded in 10 BBY.

Antique & Armor Education Services was rolled into Antique & Armor Media Holdings in 5 BBY.

### **Media Adventures**

ACA owns several profitable media communication adventures, including Antique & Armor Quarterly Sales Catalogand Antique & Armor Military History Channel. The former was founded in 14 BBY, the latter in 5 BBY.

Both the sales catalog & history channel were rolled into Antique & Armor Media Holdings in 5 BBY.

### **Members Franchise Program**

ACA offers the modestly successful Members Franchise Program, which was launched in 7 BBY.

### **Money Maker**

Aside from the company's financial success & health, roughly 10% of yearly profits in the Outside Galaxy are shipped back to Jod Defense Engineering Shipwrights (JDES), in the cover of raises to company executives at ACA, who in truth are HRI operatives & JDES personnel.

### **Corporate Structure**

Antique & Custom Arms Company is considered the parent company to ACA Armor Sales and Antique & Armor Media Holdings, both of which are considered subsidiaries to Antique & Custom Arms Company. Structurally, the company looks like this:

* **Antique & Custom Arms Company** (parent company)
	+ ACA Armor Sales (subsidiary)
	+ Antique & Armor Media Holdings (subsidiary)
		- Antique & Armor Quarterly Sales Catalog
		- Antique & Armor Military History Channel
		- Antique & Armor Education Services

## Buying the Rights (11 BBY)

Antique & Custom Arms Company purchased the legal rights to the original design (and ability to expand upon, modify, customize, modify, and change at will) of both the Low Altitude Assault Transports (Infantry & Carrier), All Terrain Tactical Enforcer, All Terrain Recon Transport, Unstable Terrain Artillery Transport, All Terrain Open Transport, and the TX-130 Saber-class Fighter Tank from Rothana Heavy Engineering & Kuat Drive Yards in 11 BBY. With Antique's established history of restoring damaged Clone Wars vehicles and both Rothana & Kuat receiving a 15% cut from a restored vehicle's sale since 18 BBY, the push for Antique to acquire a larger---if not all---of the piece of pie in those sales seemed logical to both Rothana & Kuat. With the Galactic Empire's push to rid any last remaining parts of the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order from the new Imperial Military and the public's memory, both Rothana & Kuat knew holding onto the legal rights of two *Republic* designs would only hold them back from favor with Emperor Palpatine and the New Order. Making a deal about the sale of the fabled Assault Transports, Recon Walker, and TX-130 in the media, both Rothana & Kuat made sure to let the public---and most importantly the Emperor---know which side of history they were choosing to be on and that a new Empire had risen from the ashes of a failed Republic. The message was simple: honor the past & dead, but not at the expense of the future & safety of the Empire.

### **Silencing the Competition (9 BBY)**

With the rights purchased and Rothana & Kuat all too eager for the sale and resulting payday from it, Antique moved quickly and purchased similar rights in 9 BBY from Baktoid Armor Workshop with the acquisition of HG Historical Armor Productions (HGA) that same year. HG Historical was a small Corporate Sector company based on the planet of Ammuud and operated by the House of Glayyd. HGA's similar focus on restoration services of Confederacy of Independent Systems' armor (through a similar contract with Baktoid Armor Workshop) including the Armored Assault Tank (AAT), DSD1 Dwarf Spider Droid, and Single Trooper Aerial Platform (STAP), as well as modifications to make the AAT crewed by 4 organics (instead of droids) and the STAP to operate with an organic, made the acquisition a perfect match for the House of Royal Intelligence's goals.

### **Renaming a Subsidiary and it's Greater Benefits (8 BBY)**

The acquisition not only secured the market in the Outside Galaxy for restoration services (aside from a few minor players here & there), but HG Historical Armor Productions was renamed to ACA Armor Sales (CAS) in the Outside Galaxy in 8 BBY, giving Antique & Armor Sales more flexibility to produce the various vehicles they needed under one joint corporate vision and maintain a joint impressive clientele list between ACA & the former HGA. Armor Sales also

This also enabled Antique & Armor Sales to produce the vehicles to enough buyers as to avoid any suspicion of any lost or battle damaged Armor Sales products from the Kingdom of Jod ending up discovered from other parties.

## Growing a Brand (7-4 BBY)

In 7 BBY, Antique kept all restores & restore customization under it's banner name (both Galactic Republic & Confederacy of Independent Systems) and moved all from ground-up productions (see below) under the ACA Armor Sales banner, while retaining corporate oversight of both itself & Armor Sales. In that same year, Antique & Armor Sales jointly launched the *Elite*-series, the series being a modern customization of the older restored Clone Wars vehicles and complete new builds of the beloved vehicles from the ground-up. Additionally, further modifications were offered to clientele for more unique customizations of the beloved classic vehicles.

### ***Elite*-series (7 BBY)**

The *Elite*-series as a whole catered to private military companies, corporate security forces, planetary governments & planetary defense forces, and star system governments in the Outside Galaxy. The series focused on being a modern customization of the older restored Clone Wars vehicles and complete new builds of the beloved vehicles from the ground-up.

Only naturally, several of the *Elite*-series were bought by the various revolutionaries, freedom fighters, and mercenaries the House of Royal Intelligence supported in the Outside Galaxy behind the scenes.

The *Elite*-series included the following products:

* Elite All Terrain Open Transport
* Elite All Terrain Recon Transport
* Elite Armored Assault Tank
* Elite Low Altitude to Orbital Assault Carrier Transport
* Elite Low Altitude to Orbital Assault Infantry Transport
* Elite TX-130 *Saber*-class Fighter Tank
* Elite Single Trooper Aerial Platform

#### **Odd Vehicles Out**

In an attempt to appeal to modern walker design, as well as noticing the limited military appeal when pitted up against early version All Terrain Armored Transports, Antique left out both the All Terrain Tactical Enforcer (AT-TE) & Unstable Terrain Artillery Transport (UT-AT) from the *Elite*-series and instead focused their energies on creating direct replicas of the iconic designs.

In an official news article released to both NewsNet & HoloNet News, Antique explained it's reasoning among military application points of views regarding the AT-TE & UT-AT, stating in effective that they would not endorse an outdated vehicle design in terms of military advances. Continuing, the company added that even with software, hardware, and both armor & weaponry upgrades, a single AT-TE or UT-AT would be a foolish enterprise against the early version All Terrain Armored Transport on a model vs model match-up without adding in trained crews, battlefield environment, or other factors. The company ended with stating that they would not be proxy to a foolish person's death and instead would allow a buyer to determine the vehicle's use from original specifications without upgrades & modifications to fool a buyer into using the AT-TE against superior military vehicles.

The future development of the All Terrain Armored Transport (AT-AT) would only confirmed Antique's stance.

### **Lack of Droids**

It should be noted that---along with the documented troubled history of Droids in the Kingdom of Jod---that the DSD1 Dwarf Spider Droid was not included in the *Elite*-series and would remain as a restoration project only through Antique. Publicly in the Outside Galaxy, Antique released a statement reading---in part---that the company wished to avoid any public panic with building battle droids and rekindling fear & rage that resulted from the Clone Wars' heavy use of killer droids by the Confederacy of Independent Systems.

### **Expanding into Starships (4 BBY)**

In 4 BBY, Antique & Custom Arms Company purchased the legal rights to the original design (and ability to expand upon, modify, customize, modify, and change at will) from Rothana Heavy Engineering for the *Acclamator*-class Transgalactic Military Assault Ship, although the company did only restoration services & customization builds and did not add the starship to the *Elite*-series. The reasons for his are unknown.

## How the "books" worked to avoid suspicion regarding the Kingdom of Jod

In the Outside Galaxy, a variety of front organizations controlled by the House of Royal Intelligence will "buy" individual license productions for each vehicle & vessel desired (with ability to expand upon, modify, customize, modify, and change at will) from the *Elite*-series produced by ACA Armor Sales (ACA does this through it's already offered & legal Members Franchise Program). These licenses effectively act as a franchising business model; 60% of the sales price from ACA Armor Sales is marked off at the sale to the franchisee (the license costing 40% of a full-build from ACA Armor Sales), off-loading the materials & production cost of the vehicle or vessel in question onto the purchaser of the license and off of ACA Armor Sales. Typically, these *Elite*-series Licensed Products are higher priced by about 10% then direct from ACA Armor Sales, but this allows Armor Sales to expand it's reach in the Outside Galaxy and provide *Elite*-series licenses legally within the Kingdom of Jod (for Armor Engineering Products to produce) and create a paper trail to avoid suspicion (this paper trail helps if any damaged or destroyed Jod Military Forces assets are found in the Outside Galaxy, thus helping to avid any "problems").
The House of Royal Intelligence will go as far as creating several small factories around the Outside Galaxy from these front organizations that produce these licensed vehicles & vessels and resells them as an *Elite*-series Licensed product.

### ***Elite*-series in the Outside Galaxy vs Kingdom of Jod**

*Elite*-series vehicles & vessels in the Outside Galaxy verses those in the Kingdom of Jod have two key differences.

#### **Weaponry**

The first is the weapons systems, as vehicles & vessels in the Outside Galaxy are armed with blaster cannons & laser cannons (and other The Galaxy weaponry), while Kingdom of Jod weapons are based off of the principles behind the Red Rock Encased Projectile Type 2 influenced by the Bradley-Hux Ammunition Conversion Program.

#### **Communication Systems**

The second is communication systems, as all Kingdom of Jod vehicles & vessels must be equipped with the 5A1 Military Communication Authorization Package to access the Z-990 V3 Secured Military Communications & Data Network used by the Jod Military Forces.

## Legal Trouble & Public Outcry

Antique has been accused, repeatably, of disturbing war graves in the pursuit of profit with their restoration services for salvaged, recovered, and discovery of battle damaged & lost Clone Wars-era vehicles. While multiple lawsuits have been filed against the company over the years, none have been able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Antique has, indeed, violated any war graves.

In a situation that Antique *might* be at fault, the company has gone to great lengths to avoid disrupting any known war graves, as well as avoiding any recovered or discovery of vehicles that may have government documentation or photo evidence directly linking them to possible war graves. In most cases, however, Antique has covered their tracks very well with ensuring they do their salvage, recovery, and discovery operations out of the view of the public.