"The Cestus Deception (Steven Barnes)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Barnes Steven)

13:3.7

Baktoid Closes Down Five More Plants

Termin, metalorn-in a statement issued to shareholders, Baktoid Armor
Workshop confirmed that it will close down five more plants in the Inner
Rim and Colonies as a direct result of Republic regulations that have
hindered its battle droid program.

Baktoid plants on Foundry, Ord Cestus, Telti, Balmorra, and Ord
Lith-one will close by month's end. An estimated 12.5 million employees
will be laid off as a result.

Legislation passed by the Senate eight years ago forced the disbanding
of the Trade Federation's security forces, the largest single consumer of
Baktoid's combat automata and vehicles. Further licensing restrictions on
the sale of battle droids made the purchase of such hardware prohibitively
expensive for most of Baktoid's clientele ...


1


For half a millennium Coruscant had glittered, a golden-towered
centerpiece to the Republic's galactic crown. Its bridges and arched
solaria harked back to ages past, when no leader's words seemed too grand,
no skyscraper too spectacular, and titanic civic sprawls boldly proclaimed
the rational mind's conquest of the cosmos.

With the coming of the Clone Wars, some believed such glorious days
were past. Whether the news holes spoke of victory or defeat, it was all too
easy to imagine flaming ships spiraling to their doom beneath distant skies,
the clash of vast armies, the death of uncounted and uncountable dreams. It
was almost impossible not to wonder if one day war's ravening maw might not
envelop this, the Republic's jeweled locus. This was a time when the word
city symbolized not achievement, but vulnerability. Not haven, but havoc.

But despite those fears, Coruscant's billions of citizens kept faith
and continued about their myriad lives. A flock of hook-beaked thrantcills
flew in perfect diamond formation through Coruscant's placid, pale blue
sky. For a hundred thousand standard years they had winged south for the
winter, and might for yet another. Their flat black eyes had watched
civilization force Coruscant's animal life into inexorable retreat. The
planet's former masters now scavenged in
her duracrete canyons, their natural habitats replaced with artificial
marshes and permacrete forests. This, others argued, was a time of marvels
and marvelous beings from a hundred thousand different worlds. This was a
time for optimism, for dreams, and for unbridled ambition. A time of
opportunity, for those with vision to see.