JEDI HoloNet

Only five years ago a Holonews report concluded that the levels of homelessness on Coruscant were reaching levels never before recorded in Republic census data. That number has now been surpassed.

Outside of the Republic’s core, an average of 3.8% of the Republic’s population now declare themselves in extreme poverty across planets. The worst case, the industrial planet of Contruum, hosts a homeless population of 8.5%. In other words, almost 1/10 people on Contruum have no active living address and, without that, lack the basic necessities of living.

Homeless citizen Lana Me’n of Contruum told Holonews that:

“Not only do I feel abandoned, I feel completely lost. Me and me kids are just lost down ‘ere. Most nights we shack up with the other squatters – and sure, we all have jobs, but that don’t mean we have somewhere to live. What we earn we need for livin’, we’ve got no way of puttin’ down ’nuffin on a rent, or a house even. Worst parts is, I grew up with a house. It wasn’t much but compared to now it was like we were billionaires. Where ‘ave all the houses gone?”

Holonews spoke with economic analyst Bannun Krimgar at the Institute of Social Sciences, who had this to say:

“What is crucial to understand here is that the patterns of homelessness are not something exogenous to the economy, they are a direct consequence of economic action. What creates homelessness? Wages haven’t been depreciating – sure, some of the fatcats talk about hard work and how the poor ‘deserve’ it since they can’t manage their money, but it doesn’t change the fact that things have just been getting more expensive. What we call real wages, the actual spending power of the worker, has been crippled by a constant increase in the price of living and goods. Not inflation per se, no, but little expenses.

The real danger of homelessness is that it isn’t magic, it can happen to literally anyone just from a string of terrible events. Let’s say your last living relative dies that you were close with, like a brother or a mother. So you haven’t got a support network – which is a surprising amount of people anyway. Then, maybe your rent goes up a little bit. All of a sudden you break your hand. Can’t afford a doctor? Well then you’re working with a bit of a handicap. So you start slowing down in work. Sure, they can’t fire you for your injury, but they can make your life harder – and believe me, they’ll be breathing down your neck just looking for the opportunity to get rid of you. Then your airspeeder breaks down and you can’t get to work anymore, it’s not like you have the money for it. Then you’re late on your rent. And before you know it, you’re out on the streets.

This is happening to families everywhere on an unprecedented scale. What’s causing it, you might be asking? The economy, plain and simple. Those in control of the economy, business and political leaders, are making it harder and harder to live in this Republic as things are becoming more and more expensive with less and less support.”

Protests erupt across the Republic as a three-year community service sentence has been given to Senator Arkanus of Pantora, found guilty of illegally spending 13,000,000 credits of state funds.

Senator Arkanus, who was a leading figure of the senate’s anti-corruption league during the Galactic Recession, has since been in a five-year battle with the Supreme Court of the Galactic Republic over multiple allegations of bribery, abuse of powers and fraud.

The Supreme Court justified its sentence with the following statement: ”

“The Supreme Court has acted on this matter according to the legal definitions of existing codes of conduct, while taking into consideration the character and good that Senator Arkanus has provided for not only his community, but the community of the Republic.”

Critics of the Supreme Court, such as ex-governor Laa’ken Ruun, describe the sentence as “a disgusting misuse of justice… symbolic of the heart of corruption in our Republic”. Lord Ruun himself currently undergoing investigation for allegations of war crimes during the Vohai Civil War by the Supreme Court’s investigative body.

However, critics outside of the political sphere of the Republic seem outraged by the disparity of sentencing charges by the Republic’s legal code. Holonews spoke with Coruscant lawyer Grangram Bibblesman, a criminal lawyer that has “fought tooth and nail” for “far less egregious crimes”, but his defendants have often received far greater penalties.

“Believe me, my clients have stole nowhere near 13 million credits, and they rarely get away with no prison time. This is inequality before the law, plain and simple. It’s telling that, because of the ‘sensitivity’ of the case, the transcripts won’t be released for another twenty years! All I want to know is just how many of those judges were close friends of Senator Arkanus, hm?”

In the criminal underworld of the Republic, figures lurk every street corner. Violence is not uncommon as disagreements can quickly turn into shootouts. But despite the senate’s clamping down on illegal arms ownership, the intergalactic arms trade remains strong.

By far, Coruscant is the single largest hive of criminal activity in the Republic save for the Outer Rim. In 372 ABY, the senate passed legislation which would ban legal non-government arms sales on Coruscant in an attempt to clamp down on their illegal usage. Since then, the number of non-Republic arms used as evidence in court cases has more than quadrupled. In the last four cycles 100,412 weapons charges were decided by judges – most of which applied to repeating offenders. Of those repeating offenders, 46% were under the age of twenty.

“For most kids here, they either know someone in their family that is part of a gang or have a parent that is working for one.” Holonews spoke with Jamine La’men, leader of Coruscant’s 23rd level ‘Youth Hostels’, a charity which provides housing for young men and women who have been either kicked out of their homes by abusive parents or have lost their homes. Coruscant’s 23rd level has one of the highest numbers of petty theft of all other levels. “It’s not the same everywhere and they know that – but it’s a culture that just grows from a young age here. After the recession, social services started shutting down and kids didn’t know what to do with themselves. None of them are bad, no, but they don’t have the right support to find legitimate work, and go with what’s easy and what seems exciting at the time.”

“Blasters are more common than a hot meal in Resnik”, Jamine told Holonews. Resnik is the derogatory Vohaian name for ‘Little World’, a set of streets on the 23rd level. The gangs of Resnik are known for being involved with the illegal arms trade, mostly from Hutt origins. It is home to a population of Twi’lek and Rodian immigrant communities who fled during the Vohai Civil War, most illegally. The community has been faced with abuse since their arrival in Coruscant, anti-Vohaian demonstrations became increasingly common until the Republic’s Security Forces (RSF) stationed a permanent garrison in the heart of the community, one of the largest single garrison forces in the sector.

Jamine La’men tells us of the story of some of the young adults she has seen pass through her hostel, one in particular named ‘K’. K’s parents were illegal gang workers that had been sucked into the system since they were unable to find other work, until K’s parents were killed in a shootout between their own gang and a Wookiee gang of the 24th level. Unable to find work, K is now serving a life sentence for armed robbery and triple homicide.

But most of these gangs are sponsored by interplanetary crime syndicates, either as part of larger criminal organisations or part of the same purchasing networks. The most prolific of these remain the Hutt Cartel, which supply the majority of illegal substances and arms to criminal organisations within the Republic. Next to suppliers within the Hutt Cartel, the Killik Territories and Fel Empire remain the largest suppliers of weapons used by criminal organisations in the Republic.

NUMBER OF ILLEGALLY-OWNED BLASTERS SEIZED BY MANUFACTURER 395-398 ABY (1000s)

Hutt Cartel: 1469

The Republic: 1384

Killik Territories: 702

Fel Empire: 688

The Chiss Ascendency: 213

Bothan Authority: 198

The Rutan Crime Syndicate: 51

The Fel Empire’s diplomat to the Republic, Kammun Gran, was outraged by the insinuation of Holonews. “The fight against galactic gangs is one that must unite governments, not assign blame. Every government in the galaxy has a moral responsibility to clamp down on the illegal selling of their manufacturers’ arms.” The head of the RSF echoed the sentiments of Kammun Gran, adding: “This fight is a plague on our society, but there is a long history of neglect that needs to be owned up to.”

“We wish someone would really care”, Jamine said with tears in her eyes. “At a point, you just have to not think about it and get on. We want to care, but sometimes we have to turn people away – young people who are desperately in need of help – but they would endanger our community with their presence. Those are the ones that break my heart.”

Back to you, Lynda.

GRANDMASTER OF THE JEDI IN INTENSIVE CARE

Galactic Holonews has just received word from an inside source that Grandmaster of the Jedi Order, Don’roq, has been admitted to intensive care under the Circle of Healers of Ossus. Though we are not in possession of all of the facts as of yet, we can confirm that he has fallen unconscious and is being transported into an intensive care facility within the temple as we speak. The overwhelming speculation is that this condition has followed cycles of failing to heal from wounds he sustained during the strike team operation he led into the heart of the Spectral Force.

The 150-year-old Whiphid has had a long history of serving the galaxy; from his time as a member of the Galactic Alliance’s division of Jedi healers during The Attrition Wars, to being elected to the position of Grandmaster of the Jedi Order in 361 ABY. His almost fourty year tenure has overseen the growth of the Jedi Order back into its former glory as the guardians of justice and peace from the disastrous ashes of the Imperium Wars. The Jedi, the Republic and the whole Galaxy has been shaped by his guidance.

All the staff at Holonews will pray for a speedy recovery of the Grandmaster, and we are sure that the entire galaxy is with us in that prayer.

And now, a message from the Grandmaster of the Jedi Order, Don’roq.

For those unaware, our Order has gone through a most tumultuous time. We, as have the galaxy, been engaged with a threat the likes of which has not been seen before. Nevertheless, we Jedi have prevailed and brought this galaxy to a much safer place.

Our Jedi researchers, led by our strongest divisions that for security reasons will remain anonymous, uncovered the nature of an alien element, only recently discovered to exist in the galaxy. We have thus described it as the ‘Spectral Force’. This element, otherwise more commonly referred to as ‘the Void’, is a substance that feeds off the life energies of the Force – that which gives a Jedi their power – and disturbs its very essence to a point unrecognizable.

This element metastasized and, eventually, took hold of a force-sensitive individual. It is at this point that the threat I speak of began, as the notorious ‘Lost Star Children’, who were led astray by this unknown and unregistered force user. This individual, financed through personal connections, sought to use the Lost Star children to create his own dangerous cult. However, before this could reach fruition, myself and a strike team of Jedi took out this individual before he could be a greater harm to the galaxy. The only two Lost Star children to not be returned to their families are Esta Bowing and Koyso Chewai’in, who have tragically lost their lives in the fight against this evil.

As far as we are aware, those areas affected by this malignant taint will slowly heal back to life, but we have no way of telling how long this will take – or if they will ever truly be as they once were.

Let it be known that this could not have been completed if not for the valiant efforts by other factions of the Force. The Imperial Knights, Zeison Sha, Iron Knights, Matukai, Baran Do and others were instrumental in their support, many of which lost their lives – just as we have, during this painful process. Through it all, we have forged a new path of unity and strength – but let us not forget all that we have lost. Myself and the Order would ask the brave members of the galaxy to a one minute silence for those the galaxy has lost tomorrow morning at 11:00 Galactic Time, so that we may reflect and meditate on all that we hold sacred.