The Exchange (crime syndicate)
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The Exchange is a fictional galaxy-wide criminal organization in the Star Wars universe, featured in the videogame Knights of the Old Republic and its sequel, The Sith Lords.
[edit] Organization
It is unknown whether the Exchange is under the control of a single leader, but its ranks are divided into regional governors who can control a territory as large as a planet, or as small as a city sector. Its reach is extremely widespread, as many interactions in both games suggest a common knowledge of the crime syndicate. Primarily, the Exchange is known by fear- many characters express hesitance when dealing with the organization. In the first Knights of the Old Republic, Mission incorrectly refers to the Exchange as an inter-galactic crime syndicate. Aside from the Yuuzhan Vong 5,000 years later, there are no inter-galactic entities in the Star Wars universe.
[edit] Knights of the Old Republic
One of the more powerful members of the Exchange was Davik Kang, who oversaw the entire crime syndicate's influence on the densely populated urban planet of Taris. Davik Kang was a prime example of the ruthless nature of the Exchange; an unsympathetically cold businessman. Kang resorted to many illegal methods in his operations on Taris, among them were threats, bullying, extortion, murder, and more.
Davik kept Taris under tight control, and little would be successful in undermining the Exchange's business. In Knights of the Old Republic, Revan is able to take on Exchange bounty missions to silence dissenters, kill those who owe money to the Exchange, and put an end to other bounty hunters who interrupt business. Many of these bounties rewarded Revan with dark side points, but acts of defiance against the Exchange, such as dealing with thugs looking for due credits, result in a light side reward. Davik's Exchange is also concerned with the extraction of the rakghoul serum, a much desired cure to the rakghoul disease that would bring in massive revenue if sold by the Exchange, while denying the serum to the poor.
In the events of KotOR, Revan successfully infiltrated Davik's Exchange with the help of Mandalorian Canderous Ordo. With the departure codes to escape the Sith blockade of Taris in hand, Revan and company met with and fought Davik Kang in his hangar. Calo Nord, the infamous bounty hunter under Davik's employ, was with the crime boss as he died in the battle that ensued between him and Revan. Moments later, the entire planet was annihilated by Darth Malak's Sith fleet, and the Exchange presence on Taris was no more.
[edit] Knights of the Old Republic II
In The Sith Lords, the Exchange's presence in the game was larger than that of its predecessor. The Jedi Exile first hears of the Exchange on Peragus Mining Facility, and learns that the organization has placed a large bounty on all remaining Jedi. In the Exile's escape from Peragus, some of the miners attempted to capitalize on the bounty and transfer the unconscious Jedi to the Exchange. There was disagreement with this decision, however, and many felt it unwise to hand the Jedi over to the Exchange.
The Exile first meets with the Exchange on the crippled world of Telos, aboard Citadel Station. The Exchange's arm on the station was controlled by a Quarren named Loppak Slusk, and was referred to as the "Bumani" Exchange. Their grip on Citadel had noticeable differences to that of Davik's on Taris. The Exchange on Telos was less concerned with threatening and bullying the citizens, and more concerned with black market trades and interfering with the restoration plans of both Czerka Corporation and the Ithorian restoration efforts.
With the help of Luxa, Slusk's second in command, the Exile was able to infiltrate the Bumani Exchange, no matter which path, light or dark, was taken. Confronting the crime boss in his office, the Exile was able to let Quarren live, or was able to choose to strike him down. Either way, the Exchange's control over Citadel Station was greatly reduced.
Like Taris, however, the Exchange's rule over Nar Shaddaa was brutal and oppressive. Many veterans from both the Mandalorian War and the Jedi Civil War were forced to settle in the Refugee Sector of Nar Shaddaa, in which they were made into downtrodden by the Exchange's Refugee Sector boss, a Quarren called Visquis. In the same manner of Davik's thugs, Visquis's henchmen threatened and bullied those who owed the Exchange credits- or their lives. The Exile was able to help the oppressed refugees for light side credit, or to help the Exchange's efforts and extend the criminal organization's violent persuasion. In grabbing the attention of the Exchange on Nar Shaddaa, the Exile found that Visquis was just a pawn to a higher power: Goto. Goto had sent numerous bounty hunters in an effort to capture the Exile so that he may ask for the Jedi's help. When discovering that Visquis was attempting to take the Exile for himself, the iron grip of the Exchange closed down on the Quarren.
Goto's power in the Exchange was feared all over Nar Shaddaa, and even beyond the moon of Nal Hutta. He successfully managed to capture all of Vogga the Hutt's freighters in his own ship, enraging the Hutt enough to cause him to put a bounty out for Goto's head. And though he was a powerful figurehead in the Exchange, Goto was less concerned with the crime syndicate itself than the stabilization of the galaxy.
The origin of the crime group is mysterious, and how long it survived after The Sith Lords is equally as unknown, though a dark sided ending foresees that without Goto, the Exchange is eventually thrown off Nar Shaddaa by the true lords of the Smuggler's Moon - the Hutts. Stripped of their power in the center of the Galactic Black Market, the Exchange is reduced to in-fighting between the various crime lords, and eventually collapses.
