| Coruscant_Journal | Date: Saturday, 05 Jan 2013, 5:53 PM | Message # 1 |
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The Rise (and Fall?) of Alyn Stark
It was once said on the planet Lorrd that Alyn Stark was the most famous person that nobody knows. While this was perhaps true of his early career as a Lord of the Kinyov Provice and the founder and CEO of a small arms company, Vigilance Technologies, Inc., the man's star has since risen with the success of that company, and the name of Alyn Stark is now widely-known in the realms of business and politics, if not the man himself—a man who has become as much reviled as he is beloved. How did this come to be? The Coruscant Journal investigates.
The news headlines tell an incomplete story of Mr. Stark. The success of Vigilance Technologies (now a subsidiary of the umbrella "Stark Defense Conglomerate") is a testament to Stark's strategy of selling specialty products—droid starfighters and slugthrowers, for instance—to niche markets, rather than competing product-to-product with the ancient titans of the defense industry, such as BlasTech and Merr-Sonn. Stark's fame might have ended there, with a tip of the cap from his competitors. A "small fry" on the galactic scene, Stark has, however, become an out-sized player on Lorrd and in the Kanz Sector; a friend of the Moff, he has been talked about as a possible defense minister of Lorrd and even served, briefly, as the planet's Senator.
It is here that the controversy begins. So ubiquitous is he on Lorrd that he has been described as a "conduit worm" in that planet's halls of power, referring to the wire-like creature, impossible to dislodge, that becomes ever larger as it leeches power from an electrical system, contorting itself to fit in every nook and cranny. Only when he was widely-accused of a conflict of interest did Mr. Stark withdraw himself from consideration as Lorrd's defense minister, although, in the recent war between Lorrd and the Auril Union, it was Stark, not the planet's government, that hired privateers on Lorrd's behalf. Even his political adversaries on Lorrd seem oddly in the thrall of Mr. Stark—Roman Lekpin, the planet's long-serving Senator, is the one who recommended that Stark fill in for him while he recovered from recent injuries, despite being a member of an opposing political faction.
"Looking back on that time, I’d have to say it was a success," Stark said in an interview with The Coruscant Journal for this article, reflecting on his tenure in the Senate. "Out of five major pieces of [legislation] proposed, four passed, most with unanimous votes in their favor. I can’t say that I won too many friends in the Senate, unfortunately, but such is life."
While in the Senate, Stark was said to have, in the words of Senator Cambrist (Brentaal), a "cabal of supporters who self-sacrificially defend him at the slightest affront to his reputation or that of his arms company." Among them, Senator Ryuun (Druckenwell) and Senator Domon (Sluis Van), who have proven to be dependable friends of Mr. Stark, and of each other, despite the Stark Defense Conglomerate being a rival of both the Druckenwell and Sluis Van Shipyards.
To be sure, there have been affronts to Mr. Stark's reputation, affronts that are not unfamiliar to the CEOs of arms manufacturers. Senator Terrawin (Alsakan) called him "a genocidal, megalomaniacal, narcissistic egomaniac who wastes the profits of the misery and tears of others with a grandiose and wasteful abandon." Representative Vanden of the Naboo had similar, but rather more tame criticism of Stark when he remarked that "his business model of profiting on both the dealing and healing of wounds is never one I've been comfortable with," referring to the Stark Defense Conglomerate's recent expansion into the medical field with the acquisition of the SynthTech MedTech Corporation.
"There are a number of sources that detract from my work by hurling unfair titles. ‘Merchant of death,’ ‘war lord,’ all manner of unpleasant things because I own a company that sells arms," Stark told The Coruscant Journal. "It is my hope that by branching into the medical industry... it will allow for me to slowly begin shifting focus from weapons to items that save people and improve the quality of life, which is my first and foremost concern."
Nonetheless, controversy continues to follow Stark. A motion was recently proposed in the Senate demanding that he apologize for deaths that his products are alleged to have caused. Even his name, "Stark," is objectionable to some. Raised "Alyn Malos," after his mother's family name, he later assumed the surname of his father, the pirate Iaco Stark, notorious for the "Stark Hyperspace War" between his pirate forces and the Old Republic. Some have called Alyn Stark "unpatriotic" for adopting the name of a man considered by both Republic and Imperial veterans to be a terrorist. Seldom mentioned is the young Alyn Malos' own service in the Old Republic Navy.
"Iaco Stark was a man who lacked integrity and honor in every sense of the word; I never had any qualms about a lack of contact between us. For me, it was as if I had no father," Stark told The Coruscant Journal. "The Stark Hyperspace War took place while I was very young," he added. Asked why it was, then, that he chose to assume his father's name, Stark didn't say.
* * *
No profile of Mr. Stark would be complete without touching upon what Senator Cambrist once called Stark's "foray into vigilantism" on Coruscant, an episode that, perhaps more than any other, has shaped most people's opinions of Stark outside the Kanz Sector. The recent droid uprising in the Imperial City district of Coruscant, instigated by the insane computer scientist Archa Sabis, claimed the lives of many Imperial senators. Lorrd's senator, Roman Lekpin, who was wounded in the uprising, sent a call for assistance to Mr. Stark, who was visiting the planet at the time. According to his version of events, Stark, in his personal starfighter escorted by a squadron of Vigilance Technologies, Inc. droid starfighters, entered an Imperial "no fly zone" over Imperial City in an attempt to rescue Senator Lekpin. He was soon arrested when Imperial TIE fighters forced him to land after his droid fighters purportedly misidentified the TIEs as enemies and opened fire on them in the skies of Coruscant.
Senator Lekpin was rescued by Imperial forces and Stark was later released with no charges brought against him. But as the smoke cleared on Coruscant and the Senate re-convened, Stark was treated with harsh scrutiny. "For Mr. Stark to insert himself into the chaotic events of the droid uprising―accompanied by droid starfighters, no less―is irresponsible in the extreme," Senator Cambrist said at the time, "If anything, Mr. Stark's bravado endangered Senator Lekpin's life, as three squadrons of Imperial ships that could have been rescuing the Senator were instead preoccupied with Mr. Stark's vainglorious antics, antics which contributed to the near-anarchy of that horrible day."
"[Stark] aided and abetted this Archa Sabis, that much is clear," said Senator North (Coruscant), "Why else, during a droid revolt, would he fly into Imperial Center with droid fighters that openly attack Imperial fighters? Were I able to, I would march Mr. Stark before a firing squad for treason."
Mr. Stark's response to the criticism—referring to his critics as "ignorant" and insisting that what he did was "perhaps lawfully wrong" but not "morally wrong"—was referred to as a "half apology" and appeared to anger his critics even further. "It was irresponsible at best and unlawful endangerment at worst. There is no 'perhaps' to the matter," said Senator Kirkwood of the Cygnus Star Empire. "I found the absence of contrition from him offensive to my belief in the rule of law and not of men," Senator Cambrist recalled, "I was rather shocked to hear not a single word of regret or contrition from him."
Mr. Stark is also a licensed bounty hunter, a fact that contributed to the perception of him at the time as a "vigilante." "Bounty hunters are men who capture and often kill people for money," Senator Terrawin remarked, "A man who does this out of necessity I could perhaps understand, [but] one who does so for a hobby is beyond the pale."
"Criminals are found throughout the galaxy. Just because of my position does not mean I cannot go forth and spend my personal time and wealth to apprehend them," Mr. Stark explained to The Coruscant Journal. "I would not feel right if I could not contribute in my own small way." He also said of his involvement in the droid uprising on Coruscant that "if things had gone differently and [Senator Lekpin] had perished, I would not have been able to live with myself knowing I could have done something."
In our interview, Stark mentioned the now-infamous "foray into vigilantism" on Coruscant as one of the foremost misconceptions that people have about him to this day. But, he insists, if he could do it again, he would.
* * *
This hour is one of crisis for Alyn Stark, greater than any he has faced in his career. Expecting a son from his newlywed wife on the one hand, Stark is now faced, on the other hand, with disintegrating public support on Lorrd and the possible crumbling of his Stark Defense Conglomerate--all of this stemming from Lorrd's recent "war" with the Auril Union, a powerful alliance of Tionese militias in the Auril Sector. Though a peace agreement was reached to avoid the worst of the war, a consequence of the agreement has been to leave Lorrd heavily in debt to their would-be conquerors, souring the mood of the people. Mr. Stark is also believed to have spent most, if not all of his fortune on the frantic procurement of guns, tanks, and ships for Lorrd in the war that never was.
Despite this, it was later revealed that Mr. Stark attempted to negotiate a separate peace treaty with the Auril Union to secure the neutrality (and non-participation) of his Kinyov Province in the war, should the war occur. That he pursued such options in secret while promising to defend Lorrd from the Auril Union has enraged many, who have reportedly flooded the offices of Senator Lekpin and other government officials on Lorrd demanding that they condemn Stark for what a front-page editorial in a Lorrd City newspaper referred to as Stark's "self-serving hypocrisy."
"It is apparent now that this war was, to Lord Stark, nothing more than an opportunity to showcase his products in action," the editorial read, "Why else would he dump his company's worthless drones and slugthrowers on Lorrd's armed forces while secretly negotiating a separate peace with our enemy?" The editorial additionally called for "an end to the privileges and praise our government has heaped on this man."
"I would not betray the people of Lorrd," Stark insisted to The Coruscant Journal, "The aforementioned talks themselves were a stall tactic while I worked to safeguard Lorrd... There is little I would not do for my homeworld, even if it must be covert to assure their safety at times." Whether this explanation will satisfy Lorrdians remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, the governing board of GalacticAid, a Lorrd-based charity of which Stark is a founding member, has passed a resolution condemning him for attempting to commandeer the charity's ships to participate in the war and for bringing negative publicity to the charity, and calling on him to resign from the board "in the best interests of GalacticAid and its important work around the galaxy." Similarly, the board of directors of GTU, Inc., a recently-acquired subsidiary of the Stark Defense Conglomerate, has voted in favor of a demerger motion, citing Mr. Stark's "misuse of his authority and misappropriation of company property" as reason for the split.
The shareholders of Lorrd Engineering, a Kol Huro-based manufacturer considered one of Lorrd's planetary industries, of which Stark is the majority shareholder, are rumored to be enraged that Stark handed the valuable designs for the company's Avarice-class warship to its competitor, Druckenwell Shipyards, to build on Lorrd's behalf in preparation for the war. Hieronymous Kuat, the projects manager for the Druckenwell Shipyards, has already stated that Druckenwell might appropriate design elements from the Avarice-class in its future designs.
Where does this leave Alyn Stark? He is a man whose star, so quick to rise, may now be falling, true to the idiom that what goes up must come down. It is perhaps unsurprising that a man so laden with controversy has faced the challenges that he has. More surprising, arguably, is that he has overcome them, thus far. Like Icarus proverbially flying too close to the sun, Stark himself seems to be ultimately responsible for both his successes and his failures, the latter of which he appears reluctant to accept or learn from. Indeed, in Lorrd's war with the Auril Union were many of the same mistakes, repeated anew, that Stark made on Coruscant during the droid uprising—the well-meaning Stark throwing himself headlong into events that are larger than himself, and using (some would say misusing) his position and the property of his ever-expanding company in the process.
Rarely, it seems, is there any malice to his actions. That he seems to be a well-intentioned man makes him more of a tragic figure than the sinister "merchant of death" the Senate has portrayed him as. This time, however, the controversy is not only in the Senate but home on Lorrd, too. If recent history is any indication, Mr. Stark will weather this public relations storm as he has storms past. Whether any lessons will be learned from it, however, and what toll it may take on his career and even the trust of his family and friends, remains to be seen.
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