Iaco Stark

"You always were a being of grand vision, Stark. Grander, perhaps, than we need."

- Tam Gozon

Iaco Stark was a smuggler and pirate who initiated the Stark Hyperspace War between himself and the Galactic Republic and Trade Federation representatives. After his defeat at the Fifth Battle of Qotile he joined the Commerce Guild.

Biography
Years before the Clone Wars the Republic had known peace for centuries while a few conflicts did burn in scattered patches of the galaxy, none of these conflagrations ever spread into a full-scale war. For this reason, the government came to easily rely on the Jedi Knights, letting its own armies shrink so that the term "Republic military" really described forces cobbled together from sector and systems resources rather than a unified galactic body.

Taking advantage of this complacency was a cunning young pirate named Iaco Stark. The charismatic and bold smuggler maintained a pirate fleet that raided goods and sold them on the underworld market for considerable profit. He was able to undercut the prices of the Trade Federation, and became a folk hero of sorts to other pirates. Under his leadership, a coalition of smugglers, pirates, mercenaries, bounty hunters and assassins emerged in the Outer Rim. Ever seeking out airs of respectability, Stark named this criminal organization the Stark Commercial Combine.

The Jedi and Galactic Republic representatives sought to end Stark's campaigns at a conference on Troiken. Paranoid and power-hungry, Stark unleashed a navicomputer virus that crippled the few military ships the Republic had amassed. This led to the Stark Hyperspace War, the last sizable military conflict before the galaxy would become engulfed in a full-scale war.

Before the war, Stark had amassed a fleet of ships and used them to steal goods from the Outer Rim Territories and then sell them back at inflated prices, but still less than what the Trade Federation set. Stark spearheaded the forming of a coalition of smugglers and pirates, which he called the Stark Commercial Combine.

After the war, he joined the Commerce Guild, where he was serving as a legitimate businessman as of 30 BBY, despite the fact that he was now widely reviled in the Outer Rim.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Republic: The Stark Hyperspace War