High Syndic Marena

There are two stories behind High Syndic Marena: the one she tells people and that her own people promote, and reality. Unfortunately for her, reality is a much harsher mistress. As a former Merchant Factor and “High Syndic” of the Alyina Mercantile League, Marena suffers from massive inferiority complex, combined with delusions of grandeur and a desire to “be oppressed” so she can explain all of her shortcomings.

For all her claims that she never wanted to be a warrior, if one is to look at Marena’s record while in the sibko show she tried as hard as she could at all time but never managed to amount to anything. Her ability to strike deals and make alliances was noted by their Falconer, who recommended her for the Merchant Caste, noting it “was a waste of good Trueborn warrior genes”. Marena petitioned for Clan Sea Fox to join them, which was refused by all those involved, and when the Sea Fox challenged the Jade Falcons for a trial of possession over the scraps of a battle on Sudeten, Marena was included in the deal, as the Falcons wanted to get rid her for her terrible attitude.

Merchant Factor

One thing Marena ended up having was ambition, and this was enough for her to rise to the position of Merchant Factor of the Jade Falcons, as most other merchants were more busy striking “long-lasting deals” with Inner Sphere corporate entities and living the high life it could afford them. Her creation of the vaultships was seen as a clever mean of keeping the Clan’s liquid assets out of the hands of a single merchant, but this angered the local banking establishments and Lloyd’s of New London, who was managing a lot of those assets in the wake of the Clarion Note. Marena, throughout this period, also heavily despised both Jana Pryde and Malvina Hazen for perceived slights and “having ivory white skin” (in a society which doesn’t see skin color as anything other than a basic trait).

High Syndic

With Malvina gone and Marena having control of most of the liquid assets of the Clan, Marena followed the counsel of one of her close friend and confidant, Jean-Baptiste of Clan Sea Fox (at least, from what he claimed) and established the Alyina Mercantile League. Rebuffing Jiyi Chistu’s call to ally their two minor nations into a larger power as she finally got what she wanted: power.

With control over Alyina and some nearby system, Marena imposed her will on the various local governments, along with the production locations with which she broke contracts with other corporate entities, as she took full control of the industrial and commercial institutions. In order to keep control, Marena used a portion of her significant wealth to hire a number of mercenary outfits, including the Lones Wolves and the Tread of Doom.

Collapse

When Khan Stephanie Chistu came to Alyina to reclaim the Falcons assets, Marena rebuffed her like she had done to Jiyi Chistu, knowing her mercenary assets were larger than the one Galaxy the Falcon’s Khan was able to deploy at the time. Unbeknownst to her however was that her previous actions had made a number of corporations rather irate, and that they had pooled their resources to “support the Jade Falcon”. General Anton Paradis of the Pinkerton’s Security Firm, a division of Lloyd’s of New London, directed the joint corporate strike force from Lloyd’s flagship, the Heavy Cruiser Allan Pinkerton. With the destruction of the main planetary garrison of Alyina with an orbital bombardment and Pinkerton sending in Dresden Enforcers, their terror squad, to eliminate the Lone Wolves, Marena attempts to negotiate with Anton Paradis, who brings her to Stephanie Chistu. Marena is executed on the spot as the assets of the Jade Falcons return to their rightful Khan.

What of the VaultShips

The death of Marena and the collapse of the Alyina Mercantile League brought the 5 VaultShips controlled by the High Syndic into the hands of the Khan of the Jade Falcons. Without a strong Merchant Factor on her side, the VaultShip merchant-captains started opposing her to “take over” the remnants of the Mercantile League. Anton Paradis had all the parties sit together on Pinkerton’s flagship, where he clearly laid out the original corporate legal control of the various assets on Alyina and the surrounding worlds, along with the banking cartel’s broken contracts Marena had executed with the creation of the VaultShips.

An agreement came at the end: the liquid assets of the Jade Falcon were to be brought to Terra, where it would be set aside in the Montreal-Morgan Chase and Zurich National bank and reinvested in reparations for the damage dealt by the Battle of Terra, broken contracts repayments and the establishment of the Falcon Central Bank, helmed by the Falcon’s new Merchant Factor, Star Colonel Gerry Buckenburger, as Stephanie no longer trusted the Merchant Caste to manage their own affairs.

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