The Polamaras Free-Trade Cartel has its roots on the planet of Hettsia, located in the Finnegan star cluster.  Hettsia is a huge terrestrial planet that is home to over five hundred separate and distinct nations, including about one hundred twenty city-states and a few “anarchy zones” where no government has sway.  The planet has become a popular trading spot, as the immense number of political and apolitical entities that cover its surface took a very liberal approach to the regulation of commerce very early on – minimal regulation, no duties or tariffs on goods moving across borders, few “morality” laws to restrict products, and protectionist-oriented policies concerning the extradition of people or data to other systems.

Where the law does have teeth is the enforcement of contracts, without which no capitalist system can exist.  This legal environment has led to very wealthy local governments (thanks to income and payroll taxes), extremely successful international corporations, and vibrant trades in commodities outlawed in other systems – slavery, prostitution, mind-altering substances, weapons, industrial espionage, stolen goods, genetic engineering, and labor racketeering.  If organized crime could have founded its own paradise, it would have looked like Hettsia.

Since a great deal of money can be made by providing illicit goods and services to those who cannot otherwise obtain them, a large number of the Hettsian corporations do the bulk of their business off-world.  These include mercenary companies, smuggling concerns, pharmaceuticals manufacturers, flesh peddlers, weapons dealers, and many more “niche” corporations that deal in narrowly defined industries. 

The need for ships, then, is extremely high, and especially for those ships that can move cargo to places where it may not necessarily be welcomed by local authorities.  Shipping cartels such as Polamaras can therefore make an excellent living simply by helping other companies smuggle their goods into other star systems.  From small, extremely swift courier boats to blockade runners, Polamaras has a number of solutions to fit the shipping needs of its neighbors.

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Zephyr-class Blockade Runner
The Zephyr is basically a huge engine attached to a cargo block, with small living facilities attached. Designed to move highly valuable cargo to places where stealth and subterfuge are necessary, the Zephyr is equipped with stealth and ECM systems, security teams to resist customs agents, and redundant hyperdrive systems to prevent the ship from being trapped in-system due to its FTL drive being damaged or disabled in battle.

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Zobeir Pasha-class Slave Ship
The Zobeir Pasha is a newer design purchased from the Kerry Shipyards on New Ravenna. Although originally intended to capture pirates, the Polamaras Cartel has outfitted the ship to capture slaves instead. The ship carries ten squads of raiders and assault shuttles, and its particle cannons are designed to hammer a victim into submission quickly enough that the crews will surrender rather than risk destruction.

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Skorpion-class Commerce Raider
The Skorpion was commissioned to answer the call of smaller companies that were being beaten soundly by their larger competitors' economies of scale. Rather than try to outperform their competitors' products in the marketplace, a number of smaller firms have chosen to remove their competitors' products from the marketplace, by destroying or capturing competing transport ships and their cargoes. Polamaras is willing to undertake such missions for a fee, and thus fields the Skorpion-class commerce raider, a specially-commissioned hull from the slips at Mannheim Kraftwerke. Protected not by shields but a sophisticated point-defense system and sporting very heavy firepower and full compliments of drones and marines, if the Skorpion can't capture the enemy ship, it will certainly destroy it.

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Merkur-class Fast Courier
The Merkur-class courier boat is one of the fastest available ships on the free market. Designed and built by the Llamellik Consortium Shipwrights specifically for the Polamaras Cartel, the Merkur has no weaponry on board, but its speed, stealth, cloaking, and point-defense capabilities are generally able to keep the courier out of reach of those who might want whatever data it is transporting. Needless to say, hiring a Merkur is expensive, but given the power of data in a technology-driven universe, it's often well worth it to the customer.

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Thistle-class Mine/Countermine Operations Ship
One request that has been occurring with increasing frequency is that for Polamaras to disrupt shipping lanes, either of rival corporations or after the client company has already used it. To that end, Polamaras bought and refitted a number of older battlecruisers, removing most of the offensive weaponry in exchange for huge racks of semi-intelligent mines, a minesweeping array, and cloaking systems. The result, dubbed the Thistle, is a fast ship that can keep up with most freighters, seeding the shipping lane behind them with mines to prevent a rival company from bringing their goods to the same market through the same route. The Thistle is also able to sweep mines to prevent someone else from doing the same thing to Polamaras's clients.

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Waypoint-class Space Station
While there is little call from clients for stationary space installations, Polamaras marketing studies showed a need for a transfer point, preferably a remote and well-defended transfer point, where smugglers can meet up and hand off goods, engage in some R&R, and refresh themselves for another round of serving those markets which owe their existence to local regulation. The Waypoint-class is a small facility, being only slightly larger than a naval cruiser, but since most cargo transfers happen in deep space anyway, the internal space did not need to be wasted on such. Instead the Waypoint mounts six heavy batteries of meson guns – which leave hulls intact while killing crewmen – and onboard defensive measures. The internal space also houses a number of restaurants, casinos, and a huge brothel able to accommodate three hundred customers at a time. The Polamaras Cartel has deployed two Waypoint stations with plans for a third in the near future.

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Busy Bee-class Light Fighter Carrier
The impetus behind the development of the Busy Bee was the realization that a lot of freighters and cargo vessels carry anti-ship weaponry but few if any carry defenses against fighters; thus, Polamaras stepped in and offered an inexpensive option for those companies seeking to interdict their competitors' shipping. A tiny ship, the Busy Bee is built on a frigate hull, with its offensive weaponry removed and external fighter berths added along the outside of its superstructure. While still armed with light mass drivers for close defense, the Busy Bee is really intended simply to carry its fighters into a system and then withdraw to a safe location.</r>