Q:

Do we have strong evidence that Tayla started working for someone else when she moved to Sherwood (or does it serve a purpose to say that she does)? I think it's plausibly part of her activities working for Lynch that she got moved. Maybe she moved up in the organization?

A:

I don't think so. Tayla definitely has some business association with Lynch. She's sort of a liason between pirates and mob. Lynch is hopelessly addicted to Brilliance. She provides it. And she buys weapons from him for the pirates.

The reason for her moving, I think, is that Lynch is defeated. His territory gets taken over. He probably spent a fortune to pay for so many mercs to throw a blockade of Palan. He saw an opportunity like no other, chose to throw all his eggs into that basket, and lost. His cousin Regis is probably in custody, and Regis knows too much about his dealings, so he probably fears getting arrested.

He's a broken man, hiding in an ugly mining base, in an asteroid field, in Pyrenees; like a pirate. He tries to get 100k credits from you for a hacking job, just so he can buy more brilliance. Would you picture him back in New Cons trying to get 100k from you? No, he was super rich and powerful; wouldn't stoop down to such low level deals. He used to control multiple corporations, cargo fleets, an underground arms market… Now he has to swallow pride and try to get 100k out of a lowly privateer, to be able to afford the next fix of brillance.

So Tayla moved to better pastures. Tuck pirate base, because whoever took Lynch's territory probably got their own contact at Oakham. Unfortunately we don't know who the other players are. But there were extra missions that never made it into the game.

Four missions for Lynch…

One of which was to attack Merchant Guild vessels serving a Lynch competitor named Damien Lang, in the food business.

And the last mission being to attack ships in Hyades, belonging to another Lynch competitor in the tungsten ore business.

And we know that Lynch's biggest competitor, in the arms business, is Menesch.

Come to think of it, it's only logical that it would be Menesch that takes over Lynch's territory. Otherwise it would not affect his arms dealing; and if his arms dealing business was intact, Tayla wouldn't be moving to Sherwood…

Maybe Tayla is simply out of a job, and being a pirate, chooses a pirate place where she can start a new life, as far from Menesch as possible.

On the other hand, there may be other reasons for Tayla's move. In that mission you do, helping her move, she has a cargo for you to take to Tuck that is “personal stuff”, and “no contraband”. Later the Kilrathi are interested in whatever she's keeping at Tuck, and they blockade the routes into Sherwood. Remember Goodin sends you to clean out New Caledonia and Regallis?

In one of those two missions, you encounter a big force at Capella as well. Well, Tayla installs a special compartment in your ship, early in the game, and has the subtlety of moving the artifact for you into that compartment. I wouldn'd imagine for a moment that she'd miss the opportunity to take a holo of it. Which is what everybody else wants, really, The information in it, never mind the material it's made of.

Somehow, I think, her personal stuff IS the holo, among other things.

Remember, only the player and the Steltek know there's nothing more to steal from Delta Prime. She figures she could sell the holo to Confed, so she emails Goodin, but then a mandarin at Perry informs the kats?

Just speculation, of course …

Tayla is not the hardest character to read, but nor is she an open book. At first she appears to be a minion of Lynch, but she isn't. Lynch is hooked on brilliance, and she's his supplier. This becomes evident after Lynch is defeated by Menesch ¹⁾ and goes into hiding. Tayla, whose base of operations was originally Pentonville, in Oakham, goes to (probably returns to) Sherbrook ²⁾. From there, she continues to ship brilliance to Lynch, and probably for free ³⁾.

Who does she work for? Probably Lang; –Lynch's main competitor before Menesch's invasion. We could further hypothesize that Lang services the Tuck's pirate brotherhood, just as Lynch services the Pentonville brotherhood.

What was she doing in New Detroit?

New Detroit is controlled by Lynch. She was there on a mission to make a deal with Lynch. Possibly Lang extending a peace invitation to Lynch; –to share the steltek map; to join forces against Menesch; or both. Lynch probably likes her too much to make it too easy for her, and temporarily recruits her to manage some of his business.

Notice that all characters you meet in New Detroit are there on special missions: Sandoval, Tayla, Monte…

Monte was probably on New Detroit to try and succeed where Tayla hadn't.

Which brings us back to Tayla: Her references are good for Monte; which means that she probably knows Monte. They are both young, good-looking and secretive. We can take for granted that he knows her, as he's a specialist on Gemini's secret organizations; but in truth they probably know each other well. Do they work together, perhaps? Let's see…

Why would Tayla continue to send brilliance to Lynch after his empire's fall, and presumably for free? ⁴⁾ And she says your shipment made [him] happy. Why is she so concerned for his happiness? If Lynch is no longer a power broker, nor has any money; the only value to her is either personal feelings for him (I doubt it) or information he possesses. The latter is also alluded to in that he boasts of his access to information. But why does Tayla care for information… unless she does, that is? So, she would seem to be in the same line of business as Monte.

I say Tayla and Monte are both double-agents. Make that triple agents: They work for ConFleet Intelligence. They met there and married. And have since been working “together” (hardly ever seeing each other). Monte presents himself as an independent to the likes of the Retro informant. Tayla makes a career in piracy as a cover.