The Godless Mercantile Nexus of
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Colonial Musical Chairs

Isla Vista began its history as a provincial colony of Santa Barbara. They had a distinct culture, different from Santa Barbara. They also had a very serious crime problem, stemming from the well entrenched organized crime organization, called the Syndicate.

During negotiations for a free trade agreement between Santa Barbara and The Grendels, it was decided to sell the colony to the Grendels, to further bind the two nations to each other diplomatically. Mawaar was named as the first premier of their new colonial holding. The agreement meant that Santa Barbara would continue to maintain their substantial military bases on Isla Vista and that they would share the defence of the colony with the Grendels. The lack of available retail space provided initial problems for the Grendels that were solved when they began aggressively seizing assets of the Syndicate.

Premier Mawaar's most pressing task was to tackle the Syndicate, complicated by the fact that they had to moderate handle the human population delicately, with Santa Barbara looking over their shoulder. The colonial government passed a series of laws against organized crime, backed up by new colonial security resources. The Grendels brought in a large number of police forces from the Indomitable Borderlands, along with substantial numbers of armoured vehicles and helicopters. During the early days of street fighting, Premier Mawaar brought in Kill Pack special forces into the urban warfare against the Syndicate. The Borderland Intelligence Bureau was employed to spy against enemies of the state, making extensive use of local informers and human agents from Alien City.

Premier Mawaar also pressed the Corporate Ministry for outside assets, getting help from the Foreign Ministry to bring in special crime units from Sketch (a nation peopled by humans). Sunshine Rehabilitation Facilities were constructed, specifically to house criminals associated with gangs or the Syndicate. Contrary to their name, getting sentenced to a Sunshine Rehabilitation Facility had nothing to do with rehabilitation or ever seeing sunshine again. All prisoners were kept in isolation to put pressure on them from the authority and give no chance of fellow gang members influencing them. They were places to be thrown away in, where your only contact was with Grendel guards and Sketch interrogators.

After the fall of Santa Barbara, the Grendels were able to take over extensive lands that had previously been Santa Barbara military bases. With a surplus of land now available to them, the colonial government turned some of the military bases into hunting preserves for the recreation of the Grendels. Other new land allotments were sold to Grendel and foreign corporations. Combined with the seizure of Syndicate assets, there was suddenly more room for foreign corporations to move into the crowded urban landscape of Isla Vista. Free trade agreements with Hunter A Bettik and other Wysterian superpowers, included provisions for them to be allowed to move into the corporate arena of Isla Vista. The fall of Santa Barbara also resulted in a number of orphaned corporations and financial institutions in Isla Vista, who overnight became the head offices of their stricken parent offices. Some continued on with business as usual, some folded, and others were taken over by well financed members of the Grendel canine corporate (like the Utopian Mining Corporation). Without the political concerns of upsetting relations with Santa Barbara, the Grendel's colonial government was able to bring their full force to bear against the Syndicate. The Syndicate were unprepared for the scope of operations against them and were crushed. Few were able to escape the grasp of their new colonial masters. Colonial Security were forced to remain vigilant against though, to prevent anyone from trying to fill the vacuum caused by the destruction of the Syndicate.

Premier Mawaar was careful to balance his all out assault on organized crime with reforms that would rejuvenate the economy and local culture, to create positive links between the lawful populace and the colonial government. To promote sports and culture, Isla Vista was allowed to send their own team to the Winter Olympics in New Felix, where the ski team won gold. They were also allowed to enter their boxers in the Wysterian Boxing Club. Isla Vista was further honoured by naming one of their citizens an alternate governor, to represent the Grendels at the Wysterian Economic Group, in recognition of the economic successes in Isla Vista. The Grendels also created the Tiger Battalion, a human battle group with Grendel officers and senior non-commissioned officers.

After the financial institution of Cathedral Capital very nearly drove the Isla Vistan economy into the ground, by over extending themselves in high risk investments, the Grendel Banking Federation stepped in and seized the largest human bank in Isla Vista. The GBF temporarily suspended CC banking operations during their investigation, during which only a handful of bank employees were shot and one uncooperative banking officer thrown to his death, through a shot out high rise office window. Cathedral Capital's highest officers were put on trial for crimes against the economy and executed by the colonial government. Thereafter, the Grendel Banking Federation remained in control of Cathedral Capital and worked to increase investor confidence in the market.

There was recent unrest in Isla Vista, when the Grendel Mafia worked with a local business leader, the CEO of the fake charity: Wysterians Helping Wysterians. They attempted to force out the colonial government and give the Grendel Mafia the chance to set up shop there. Protests were organized and violent incidents were staged for the benefit of the international media. The Isla Vista Revolutionary Army was little more than a handful of young agitators that printed pamphlets, made content for websites, but who also occasionally planted bombs in government buildings. One of their bombers, a lance corporal in the Tiger Battalion, blew himself up in his barracks, which were largely deserted at the time. The investigation into the conspiracy against the colonial government led as far away as a media mogul in Equus and the Grendel Mafia, now working out of the unrecognized Grendel colony of Cabaal.

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