TKO: Hyperspace Highway (Aaris express way)

[Bryce Bantam]

[member="Audren Sykes"] | [member="HK-36"] | [member="Neldar Poska"] | [member="Gir Quee"] | [member="Cathul Thuku"] | [member="Xalus"] | [member="Sor-Jan Xantha"] |

Planned "Aaris Express way"

Spoiler

Bryce sat in one of the many new shiny offices of the KS1 Arbiter Station. A gift from Hoersch-Kessel Driveworks it was to be the new linchpin in his grand scheme to unite the Outback and grow the peace and prosperity they were looking to build for the embattled people of the region. Not mention make a few credits on the side to help fund the underground...

For as long as this area has been populated, hyperspace travel has been slow at best and often happened by the dangers that present themselves in this remote region of space. To aid in this issue Bryce had the idea to begin to shorten the travel times from world to world with a piece of tech that originally help them liberate the region. With a more numerous supply of hyperspace boosters, Bryce was to use them to cut more direct paths for smaller ships to use.

The only issue was now how, and here is where the gathering delegation came into play. Without the assets to pay to have stations build for them, outside contractors had been sourced to bid on the project. With the planets not being the most wealth of worlds financing and other arrangements would need to be made. However with the generous share of toll income and trade tariffs they could offer in exchange Bryce was sure some type of arrangement could be reached.

So now he waited while the delegate arrived, knowing each would be led in turn to the main conference room. There they would be greeted by some of the more eye-catching Twi'leks of Kal'shebbol. Dressed in proper business attire they would entertain the guests till Bryce arrived and laid out the needs for each system. They would be offered free drinks from the fully stocked bar, as well as a host of fine foods to snack on. All of this was done to hopefully grease the wheels and allow a favorable deal to be struck, if not to both parties then at least the outback. If successful, by the end of this day, a contract would be in place for both Aaris III and Grandle Ott.

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir felt a deep restlessness within him as he trod down the Java's ramp onto the hangar deck. His droid, a roughly humanoid model clad in glossy black plating, followed him down the ramp before Gir tapped a button on his comlink, causing the light freighter's ramp to rise. As the ramp rose up to become flush with the hull, he became aware of the eyes of those watching him. most quickly turned their gaze away: it wasn't too unusual to see a man and a droid exit a tramp freighter. But two sets of eyes lingered on him. Gir's gaze fell on them, and they appeared to change their attention elsewhere. I wonder who they are...then again, that may be a question I don't want to know....Shaking those thoughts from his head, Gir began to stroll through the corridors with his droid in tow. His eyes absent-mindly wandered among the station's denizens and its various sights, but his mind was elsewhere. Even as his body walked through KS1 Arbiter, his mind wandered through another space station. One that might one day sit in orbit around Aaris III or Grandle Ott if he played his cards right. The duo eventually reached the designated doorway to the conference, causing Gir to remove his worn duster coat and reveal the neatly tailored business suit underneath it.

"Thrix, can you store this for me please?" said Gir, offering the duster coat to the droid.

"Of course, Mister Quee."

The droid reached out to grab the coat before neatly folding it to store in the his central compartment. With that done, guided by [member="Bryce Bantam"]'s twi'lekk attendants, the two slipped into the conference room to wait for the arrival of the other guests.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Bryce Bantam"], [member="Gir Quee"],

The droid would be led into the conference room shortly after Gir, clad in his Omega Pyre armor, with the black cloak flowing behind him. He came to the meeting with his frigate, The Siege Tower, docked in the orbit, filled with the orbital construction drones his Guild of Hammers made. As well as few crates of latest weaponry he was hoping to sell, after all during his latest meeting with Siobhan, HK promised her that he will talk to Bryce,

"I will contact that Bantham fellow when we will launch production of the weapons and let you know if I will be able to bend him over and seduce him."

So there he was, in the board room in all his armored, Phrik glory, he carried no weapons on him for once, after all in a pinch he could always use his own hardy body as a weapon, plus he trusted the Outback enough to not suspect them of setting up a trap during a business meeting. He would nod to Bryce and Gir,

"Hey, how is it going?"

The droid greeted them casually.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

Even though Cathul's business led her to go to the edge of the galaxy all at once, she still had a business to run. Her predecessor at the helm of the corporation already made some inroads in Kathol territory, on Arcadia-N-30. But her business was mostly planetside unlike, say, Lucerne Labs. Real estate brokerage, development and land reclamation were her playthings, but the last one was clearly planetside. Instinctive Astrogation Control was just fine for those long trips where multiple jumps are necessary: each mistake can be repaired at the next jump, by another application of IAC. But Cathul knew that, for all her computational power, she still can make some mistakes sometimes, and then a few detours could be acceptable, knowing she would use IAC for just one jump at a time, without any need for Force-comprehension whatsoever. She knew she had more computational power in her head than most non-Omwati or Givin Jedi, but plotting a course from Shawken back to Aaris would require many jumps, and would she collapse under her own computational power? After the last jump, that which led her to Malastare, she decided to rest for a bit and begin construction of a homestead on that planet. But, after the first few jumps [from Malastare] she was reminded of how increased computational ability would help her chain-target Electric Judgment the way she did back on Athos IV.

"Your Grace, are you sure? The Kathol Outback is part of Wild Space" M-6PO told her.

"Yes, there is business to be made in that area of space. For now only Pergitor, Kal'shebbol, Karideph and Arcadia-N-30 have GMLS access: Aaris will get another KO world into the GMLS fold"

[member="HK-36"] [member="Gir Quee"] [member="Bryce Bantam"]

 

[Bryce Bantam]

Bryce looked over the three that had gathered, a good start but if this enterprise was to take off as he was hoping it would they may need to have a few more bids. He picked up a datapad and looked over the roster, Mr Quee, Ms Thuku and well that heavily armored HK unit are here. Who are we missing?

Mr [member="Audren Sykes"] , Mr [member="Neldar Poska"] , Mr [member="Xalus"] and that lover of good music Mr [member="Sor-Jan Xantha"] . Well, they should be here shortly I would think, best to give them a little moe time before we begin. Till then Bryce stepped out into the room and began mixing and mingling with three that were there. Looking to buy a little time before the event began.

"Hello all."

 

[Neldar Poska]

[member="Bryce Bantam"]


Neldar was just a haor late, but he tried to be here earlier. He had a fit with the pilot of his transport. He didn't want to bring one of his personal ships because they weren't really... Personal. Bunch of warships and freighters, not much in travel or luxury, so he found it cheaper to use a personal transport for hirer than spend his own fuel and pay for his own greedy pilots. After the transport docked and let Neldar off, he headed straight for the bar with a big smile on his face. Behind him, a protocol droid came with him. Rented and suggested by the representatives of Golan Arms because Neldar had a horribly broken Basic.

"Bottle, yes, please, haha!" Neldar didn't expect free alcohol, but he was not upset. "Uh, any, yes, yes!" he responded as the bartender asked what kind he wanted. After the exchange, he turned and leaned against the bar, chugging the drink a little. Unfortunately, he didn't dress 'neat and tidy,' he's hardly to blame, though, his muscle and bone density was twice or almost three times the size of an average human, making him a hulking Vodran. So he had to wear his custom crafted standard armor - a chest piece and leg plates all secured to leather and straps. It was at least decent and covered him.

The protocol dtoid slowly approached Neldar and spoke up, "Sir, the Transports and the Fleet Tender have arrived and are standing by." Neldar looked up and nodded in a groan after he finished chugging, half the bottle remaining. He has one of the highest alcohol tolerances, but that's not exactly a good thing. As he noticed the man he was supposed to speak to show himself, he stood up, gesturing the protocol droid to follow as he walked over to Bryce. A simple greeting gesture of tilting the bottle at Bryce as a hello was all he gave, unless Bryce wanted to shake his hand, which Neldar's hand was almost the size as a humans head

 

[Cathul Thuku]

Understandably, Cathul was still reeling in from repeated use of Instinctive Astrogation Control, but knowing very clearly how much of an expenditure in what she called "computational power", or neural activity, Force-healing requires, she feels she needs to calm her brain down before she can use Force-healing to relieve her headaches. Even so, that was paradoxical: she would need to increase her mental activity to remove it. She knew that if she used too much brainpower too quickly, her brain would fry or worse, she would get a seizure. That would be no good at all: no one would want a Force-user on a seizure and, from what she knew, sometimes seizures of that sort would lead to the dark side. But she was immediately reminded of an alternate means when she picked up a few thoughts of alcohol from elsewhere around her position. She feels compelled to use Force-alcohol since she feels that drinking magicked alcohol would allow everyone to drink; while her own mental activity will increase by similar amounts to that of Force-heal, she would convert the content of these muja fruit juice bottles into something akin to wine.

"Give me a few bottles of muja fruit juice please: two or three will probably suffice"

"What is it now?"

"Space magic: I'm a space witch like a few more of the guests"

Officially, in terms of Force-denominations, she was just that: a Witch. But, in practice, she was almost as much a Jedi as she was a Witch. Jedi, most of the time, lacked the physico-chemical knowledge to use Art of the Small properly, let alone the way she did. Sith, on the other hand, oftentimes did no effort at understanding just how AotS is used: the possibilities were infinite, but could understand what they used it for just fine. As she began to fermentate the muja fruit juice, one bottle at a time... her headaches came back.

[member="Bryce Bantam"] [member="Neldar Poska"] [member="HK-36"] [member="Gir Quee"]

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir watched as the other guests filtered into the room. The first one appeared to a droid made in the visage of a particularly notorious batch of ancient assassin droids. Yet he realized that this one had taken some of the practices of organic beings, which caused him to remember seeing the very same droid at another previous business conference on the opposite end of the galaxy. Perhaps he is someone to get to know just for that reason alone...Gir strode over to stand next to the droid even as the other's filtered in. He strode over to stand near [member="HK-36"] and offered an outstretched hand for a handshake along with a faint smile as he responded to the droid's inquiry.

"I am well. And yourself? I think that we've seen each other in passing before," started the blonde man, "I am Gir Quee, CEO of Lucerne Labs."

Even as he did so, he became aware of an unusual alien who appeared to be involved in the shipping business, and a twi'lekk who claimed to be an adherent of some Force-using tradition. Well, even if the Labs doesn't win the bid, this should be a worthwhile for the experience alone...

[member="Bryce Bantam"] | [member="Neldar Poska"] | [member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Bryce Bantam"] | [member="Neldar Poska"] | [member="Cathul Thuku"]

A bird waddled into the room a few moments after [member="HK-36"].

Behind him was his eternal bodyguard Vnut and to each side two svelte twi'leks escorting him in. They did not have enough plumage to truly raise his attention, though. He made a point to round the table and hop onto the edge of the seat's back, resting there and observing the various proceedings.

Some might have assumed that he was simply the pet of Vnut, his ursine bodyguard, yet the droid would know the truth. For the droid had met him once already.

"Ah, my friends, hello.​

Thank you for this warm welcome.​

All is well here, yes?"​

Those peculiar eyes settled on the droid again. He was completely aware that his birdness was freaking the droid out and it did not cease to amuse him.​

"Far from the wedding,​

I find you here, metal man.​

No tentacles though.​

That is my dear hope.​

It was quite unpleasant, yes.​

This will go smoother."​

Then the Thirriken Lord ceased his talk and simply rested easily on his seat, humming gently to the tune of Vnut's heavy breathing.​

 

[Cathul Thuku]

Once the muja fruit juice has been fermentated using Force-alcohol, Cathul got around and poured one glass apiece into all the guests' glasses, as if she was some valet after having fermentated the muja fruit juice using the Force. After that, she drank the first glass in an attempt to calm her mind down because she still feels that her mind was working too hard for her own good. She never had a chance to see a Thirriken in person. A space peacock. Clearly the presence of the dark side was strong in the Thirriken but she knows better than to engage said Thirriken, either with lightsabers or with magic, so she had to introduce herself to all the guests, beginning with Mr. Quee. But her reason for even being here has to do with other areas of business than the construction of the Aaris Expressway proper. Hopefully her end will be quickly over and dealt with. The beskar-clad witch left, as a measure of courtesy, the helmet onboard her ship.

"I am Cathul Thuku, of IGR Brokerage. We wish to install an office here on Aaris and provide Aaris residents access to property listings acros the galaxy, and conversely, off-worlders access to Aaris properties"

[member="Bryce Bantam"] [member="Gir Quee"] [member="Neldar Poska"] [member="HK-36"] [member="Tai Fa"]

 

[Audren Sykes]

The trip had been going normally through Alliance space. The navigator, however, had apparently miscalculated by a fraction on a portion of the course. In hyperspace, such fractions were rather important, and the Tarlanc had been rudely yanked from hyperspace. Fortunately for the frigate, there hadn't been pirates waiting, nor did the ship find itself splashed against any of the countless dangers of the void. No, they'd simply run up against a gravity well and been pulled back into realspace.

The transition had been jarring, and several hours earlier than expected. The damage to the ship hadn't come from the abrupt transition, but rather from the carelessness of some of the crew that had left items unsecured. Consoles and control lines had been damaged and repairs were needed before the vessel could resume travels. It was just a matter of a couple hours' delay, but that delay put everything behind schedule, which made Audren run late for the meeting. That would likely effect profits, which this trip was largely about. So he'd had a discussion with the captain, and the captain had a discussion with the navigator. The navigator was pulled off of active duty...if he performed admirably he had a chance of getting back onto the bridge crew. He was lucky he wouldn't be put off the ship at their next stop.

Finally though, the vessel was at its destination. The frigate moved into orbit at a respectful distance and the Sephi shuttled over to the station. From the hangar he was led into the conference room, a rather brightly-lit affair. Many of those present were Twi'lek, dressed in business attire, but there were several others present as well. He recognized two of them from another meeting, the CEO from Lucerne Labs and the droid with a sense of humor from the Guild of Hammers. More than one person present was Force-sensitive, including some sort of bird. All of this was taken in on the short walk to the open bar, where something mild was chosen - a glass, rather than the bottle or bottles that several others seemed to have. Business meeting, after all.

[member="Bryce Bantam"] | [member="Gir Quee"] | [member=HK-36] | [member="Cathul Thuku"] | [member="Neldar Poska"] | [member="Tai Fa"]

 

[Neldar Poska]

[member="Audren Sykes"] | [member="Bryce Bantam"] | [member="Gir Quee"] | [member="HK-36"] | [member="Cathul Thuku"] | [member="Tai Fa"]


"Hello all!" Neldar said in his loud, deep and broken Galactic Basic. "Neldar speak bad, but Neldar bring droid to speak for Neldar Huttese." He paused, taking a breath before taking another drink of the bottle and gasp from the chug. <Neldar isn't here to bid anything, or buy anything, Neldar here to negotiate and see what he can do for Bryce>

"Greetings all," the droid chirped. "Neldar here, owner and operator of Golan Arms, would like to state he will not be participating in the event or auction that is currently being held. Neldar comes bearing gifts of resources he no longer has use of, but is sure they will do good for the construction project. The ships that are currently in orbit have brought over three-hundred thousand metric tons of resources and components for use. Some are scrapped pieces, some are unused raw materials. Neldar is here to offer negotiations to Bryce, as Neldar has a large work force that is willing to assist, but not for free."


Neldar chuckled and shook his head speaking a little loudly before the droid translated again, "Neldar wishes to apologize, as he doesn't want to seem like he has something of great value over the other guests. Neldar has done a favor with the supplies, and like his business has done before, will later ask those favors be paid. Favors are sometimes easier than credits, as this event seems to be in need of. Bryce... " the droid took attention to Bryce Bantam," Neldar is willing to speak further once the event has ended, if you wish. He would rather be respectful to your choice, thank you."

Neldar started to speak up, but he felt a little sick. His large hand clutched the center of his torso as his Kalduu became unnerved. The Kalduu sensed the dark side, actively looking at the other guests minds while communicating to Neldar. "Eeh... Neldar need air..." he said as he turned to take a few steps ftom the group. The Kalduu disliked any dark sense because Neldar deared them, so it was the Kalduus way of warning Neldar

 

[Bryce Bantam]

It had turned out to be a very good turn out, well over the number of potential partners that had hoped for. Looking over to one of the Twi'lek attendants Bryce motioned for an attention chime to be struck. As the bell rang out a few notes the crowd seemed to take notice and Bryce stood forward.

"Good day everyone, on behalf of the outback I would like to welcome you to our fair system and think you for the great distances I'm sure you needed to travel. As I hope you are aware we are here today to bring, safe, speedy, and hopefully profitable travel to this region of space that has for so long suffered from dangerous hyperspace lanes and piracy."

"To begin this mission we need to begin to build outposts. Working station that will able to support ship traffic, repair, and the logistics one would expect from a proper trade route. With that said we look today to begin what is being called the "Aaris III" expressway. What you will be bidding on is the construction of two stations, each located in orbits above their host planet, and the related services needed to run these stations."

Bryce motioned to an attendant to engage the hollow screen and begin the presentation.

"The first station is to be built above the planet Aaris III. An Oceanic world who's land mass is covered in thick forests and high mountain ranges. As the native population is not industrial in nature this station will need to be able to support space born mining operations to collect raw materials from the surrounding system and labor will need to be sourced and brought in for the construction. One of the conditions the people of Aaris III have placed on us is that this must not be an ugly, cold, industrial facility but rather one that reflects the planet if orbits. So a good amount of the commercial space must be clean, light, and if possible support greenery native to the planet below. The are looking for this to be an extension of the planet rather than a metallic eyesore. Other specifications are the station must be over 2000m, and have the ability to defend itself from minor pirate attacks. This will still be a civilian station. Compensation offered for this station is 2 million up front, then 30% of all tolls collected for the first 5 years, then 2% after that for the remaining life of the station. Builder will also own 40% of the commercial space and will be able to sell or rent that however they wish for the life of the station"

"The other station to be bid upon is that wich will be above Grandle Ott. This planet was once a trade hub for the region and wishes to become one again. As such they have commissioned a bid for a much larger station, one that is not only a trade hub, but an attraction for the region. Now that type of attraction is up to you but they want it to be big. Something that will make folks want to come to Grandle Ott to see it. So imagination is quite welcome on this bid. Other specs for the build are as follows. A civilian station of at ease 5000m, both building materials, and labor must be sourced locally, they want this station to help drive their economic recovery as well. Defenses must be in line with a station of its' size and they want a premium put of docking capacity, the more the better. Compensation is 25 million at beginning of the project and another 75 million at its' completion. Builder will also get 25% of all trade tariffs collected at the station for the first twenty years."

Bryce let the two bids sit on the projection screens behind him as he finished talking.

"OK so those are the two scopes needed, now before we get to the submission process do any of you have any questions?"

[member="Neldar Poska"] | [member="Audren Sykes"] | [member="Cathul Thuku"] | [member="Tai Fa"] | [member="Gir Quee"] | @HK-36

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"If there are favors that any of you wish to obtain from IGR, in terms of construction or land reclamation, you may state your desired location and the nature of its usage now" she told the other guests.

IGR became more than a boring old real estate brokerage, even though Ugohr founded the company with that intent. He might have been honorable in his real estate dealings, but here Cathul was clearly taking the corporation in a direction other than and realty was just the bait - hopefully she won't do a bait-and-switch, which is, to her, a very dark-sider kind of thing to do. After her attempts on Azure, Gala, Athos IV and Kriselist (in chronological order), what was now called the Pride of Malastare - and pushed her to commence construction of some McMansion on Malastare for her personal use - real estate brokerage was now secondary to construction and land reclamation to both her and the corporation. She was willing to do some favors for other bidders even if said bidders failed in their bids to build the Aaris Express Way: after all, these prior major contracts were able to secure IGR financially.

"The Jedi in me likes to think that honesty is good business practice, and we shall not impose unfair terms for repaying said favors. Favors are sometimes preferred to credits, we all accept as much. But my specialty as a builder is planetside more so than orbital, so please keep that in mind if you have favors to ask us. Nevertheless we can take care of the living areas"

[member="Bryce Bantam"] [member="Gir Quee"] [member="Audren Sykes"] [member="HK-36"] [member="Neldar Poska"] [member="Tai Fa"]

 

[HK-36]

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

The droid was more or less just looking around the area, scanning the other patrons, able to notice Cathul's alcoholic hijinks with his sensitive sensors but more or less ignroing it and letting her do her thing, although he did calculate the chances of her close relations looking to hire a bounty hunter for the inevitable intervention.

[member="Gir Quee"],

Either way, even if HK would want to approach the Twi'Lek and make a quip regarding the use of Force to create an alcohol he would not be able to, as Gir approached him soon enough and spoke,

"I am well. And yourself? I think that we've seen each other in passing before, I am Gir Quee, CEO of Lucerne Labs."

THe machine nodded to him, his sensors observing the soft smile, calculating whether it was a pleasantry or a gesture of attempt to initiate romance with HK,

"Sustaining maximum efficiency and staying free of rust."

That was pretty much the droid equivalent of doing alright,

"Yes, my memory banks confirm we attended previous meetings such as this one at the same time before. I am Hunter Killer Series 36, Unit 1, most organics refer to me as their Iron Knight, I am the current First Lord Baron of Abregado-Rae, as such I control its industrial complex, including the Guild of Hammers."

HK returned the gesture by introducing himself,

[member="Tai Fa"],

The droid's attention was quickly captured by the space-peacock that followed in behind him, with an ursine body guard apparently, funny thing shortly before HK went into his latest slumber he managed to arm a species of ursine warriors with his shatterguns and graphite armor, as well as a couple of space-prostitutes.

"Far from the wedding,​

I find you here, metal man.​

No tentacles though.​

That is my dear hope.​

It was quite unpleasant, yes.​

This will go smoother."​

​

The droid-​

​

Ahem- the droid watched in silence as Tai Fa spoke in rhymes, paying half attention to the bird as meanwhile HK had a flashback to one of his walks through Abregado plains. It was a peaceful and sunny day on the calm planet, the droid walked through one of its numerous grassy steppes, as suddenly the avian Magru charged him seemingly out of nowhere and speared his metal body on its long, sharp beak. The large bird lifted the droid up and shook him around in the air for a good hour before losing interest.​

​

When Fa stopped talking there was a moment of silence as droid slowly reached down to his side, where he normally would have a shattergun pistol holstered, before realizing he left most of his weapons, save the lightsaber, on his ship before coming to the meeting,​

​

"Yes, good to see you too."​

​

HK finally spoke up, when he calculated there was no way to take out the bird and claiming that he startled the droid so his protocols kicked in involuntarily, once again overlooking that he had at least two sets of weapons built into his body.​

​

[member="Audren Sykes"],​

​

Space Legolas was there too, that was pretty cool. Once HK's sensors would pick up on Audren's presence and the two would make eye contact the machine would nod to him in a greeting, recognizing the man from previous meetings.​

​

[member="Neldar Poska"],​

​

The machine calculated that Neldar's behavior was slightly suspicious but he didn't thought much of it. Organics got often sick and threw up, they were funny with their digestive systems like that, plus there wasn't enough time for the droid to scan Neldar with everyone else distracting the machine, and even if he wanted to follow Neldar and look into it, there was no time.​

​

[member="Bryce Bantam"],​

​

Their host finally took the stage, speaking up to present the bids, the opportunities for their companies to shine, HK rose his hand,​

​

"I can take Aaris 3, I have experience in construction of low gravity mining stations, it would not be difficult to translate that into a void station. I also have my own construction force in form of my droids, they are able to collect and mine materials as well. And my company, with cooperation from Firemane, excels at creating strong defensive positions, no pirate will dare to come close to a station that bares guns with Abregado insignia on them. If they do, I will find them and strangle the life out of them personally with my cold, metal hands."​

​

Plus building a smaller station would be a good way for HK to start things going, use this as a precursor for what he wants to build in orbit of Abregado, and that 40% of commercial space sure sounded nice, it could be the foothold in K.O. space for him and Firemane that they were looking for.​

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir carefully considered the two bid contracts put forth by [member="Bryce Bantam"]. Each of the offers were intriguing in their own ways, from a purely economic standpoint. The Aaris III project appeared to encourage long-term investment into the world by the builder, with along with the relatively low buy-in plan, suggested that it was aimed at attracting a long-term business partner to the region. Though in many ways, the use of tariff sharing at Grandle Ott served a similar function. The builder of that station wouldn't have quite the real estate options that the first station had, but at the same time, it wouldn't require any additional management or resources that would be required by owning part of the station. It was an economic model that was probably closer aligned to Lucerne Labs main business model, though Aaris III did seem particularly attractive as a location option for Lucerne Biological Systems because of the world's fauna.

Yet Lucerne Labs didn't have the resources to spread to bid for both projects and maintain its current ventures. The revelation that [member="HK-36"] appeared most interested in the Aaris III station helped narrow down Gir's decision to focus on the Grandle Ott station. He made a mental note to talk to the hunter killer droid about renting space on that station if the Guild of Hammers won that bid. As the same droid finished his speech, Gir rose up.

"I don't have any particular questions about the project," started Gir, "my corporation is mostly interested in building the station above Grandle Ott, but this is a large undertaking for us. I would like to extend a welcome to other corporate partners interested in teaming up for us for this project for the bidding process. Lucerne Labs is a well-established shipwright, but there are areas such as electronic security, habitual design, and other areas where we would welcome other corporation involvement as either co-bidders as a corporate consortium to complete this projector, or direct as sub-contractors to Lucerne Labs. Thank you all for your time and attention."

Gir quickly sat back down. He always found such forced speeches awkward at best, yet such actions were necessities in order to thrive financially. Now to see if anyone will team up with us...

[member="Cathul Thuku"] | [member="Neldar Poska"] | [member="Audren Sykes"] | [member="Tai Fa"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

If the builder of the Aaris III station gets 40% of the commercial space, how much of the remaining 60% could be used for a realty office? she thought. Because Cathul is under no illusion that she will be able to do more than fitting out the station, internal decoration. She then turned to face [member="Bryce Bantam"] and making an outrageously uncommon proposal that all too many overlook: insurance policies! Something that big ought to have a proper insurance policy. Several attendees will be surprised at what she has to offer regarding the new stuff she has to sell, so long as they're talking about organic guests: she wasn't sure whether [member="HK-36"] will actually feel surprise. We will need more space than initially because we will now sell insurance as well as realty in our allocated space, she thought. That new move would further solidify their position among the Alliance financial fixtures, and even the galactic financial fixtures outside of banking.

"IGR will be able to do what is called in the shipbuilding world... fitting out. That is, we will be of use once the main spaceframe is at a rather advanced stage and then we can outfit the living and commercial space on each station in accordance to its occupants' wishes. If you have any decoration requests, please make them. In addition, we would also like to make a bid for these stations' insurance policies: stations that big in Wild Space will require insurance policies as appropriate. Also, if we can lease some space in either station, we would use our space to both sell real estate and insurance policies"

[member="Gir Quee"] [member="Neldar Poska"] [member="Audren Sykes"] [member="Tai Fa"]

 

[Dunames Lopez]

Dunames would finally return the assigned Tunroth neophyte back to its homebase, after that mishap from Xal 3 that caused the Ultima to have a Ren neophyte posted onboard and who fethed up to the point of having the ship stranded in the Red Nebula for a while before making it back to Dosuun, where he was dropped off. She has to hide the fact that Star Tours is headquartered in First Order space for a moment, so she removed that bullet point in the transponder prior to reverting from hyperspace over the KS1 Arbiter station. When Dunames showed up in station, despite not *quite* being a guest corporation to the extent the others were, she feels that she still had something to offer to the project, given the expertise they built over Xal 3 for similar projects, using the very ship that was used over Xal 3 to ferry parts used to build three massive orbital drydocks: the Ultima. Called Resurgent, Imperator and Victory in accordance to the classes these drydocks were designed for.

"Hello everyone, I'm Dunames Lopez, from Star Tours. Based on our ability to ferry large amounts of components at once, as demonstrated on Xal 3 with the use of a 2000m-long ship capable of ferrying millions of tons of components and materials, Star Tours can readily help ship in the components required for building both stations, and also provide 36 tugs when in use for that project. In addition, we can help the Grandle Ott station reach the standards of luxury and entertainment of the Wheel or the Hologram Fun World, perhaps both at once"

[member="Bryce Bantam"] [member="Gir Quee"] [member="HK-36"] [member="Neldar Poska"] [member="Audren Sykes"] [member="Tai Fa"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Gir Quee"] | [member="Bryce Bantam"]

Lord Fa listened carefully to all that was said, before pondering about the options laid out for him.

In truth Fa Holdings had enough capital in place for one investment in total. No more, no less, this meant choosing between the one above Aaris III or the other one centered around Grandle Ott. It wasn't a difficult decision to make at the end- mostly because, while it was amusing to startle the [member="HK-36"] droid, it wouldn't be good business practice to try and work with one so jumpy as that one.

It would probably be far too uncomfortable.

This left Ott and it was the right choice as well. Gir was an unknown quantity, yet, he seemed a nuanced humanoid who wasn't all to greedy and willing to admit where his company was unable to perform at top performance.

A rare trait, as far as the Thirriken had experienced.

​

"Gandle Oot for me.​

Much experience I have.​

In diplomacy.​

​

There can be options.​

To talk and work together.​

Two fine perspectives.​

​

They can achieve more.​

Local cooperation.​

Yes, yes, I like this."​

​

It might have been amusing, if not for the deadly serious look and tone of the inflection.​

​

In truth, Fa Holdings had a lot of experience with working with the locals, with business and establishing trade. That was what their company was about, at the end of the day-- forming a common ground with the locals, ensure they had a decent size of the pie and cut them in at every turn.​

​

This way everyone was happy and Fa's investment was safe.​

 

[Bryce Bantam]

Bryce listed to all the proposals carefully, nodding in acknowledgement as each representative spoke in turn. Finally, he looked over to his Twi'lek assistant and motioned for her to provide him with the specially crafted datapads.

"To prevent tampering and other foolishness I will be handing out specially encrypted data pads. In them is a review of the bids I have spoken on, a list of buyers demands and contact they offer. There is also a place for you to upload your station plans, and each is biometrically encoded. Once you activate it only you and I will be able to access the data. Please review the information one more time, contact whoever you need to complete the bid and turn them back into me. From there I will take them to the buyers and they will decide who to award the bid too. Any questions? "

[member="Tai Fa"] | [member="Dunames Lopez"] | [member="Gir Quee"] | [member="HK-36"] | [member="Audren Sykes"] | [member="Neldar Poska"]

Spoiler

RP this next part however you like, but as far as the bids. Please using the station template in the factory, craft a station sub and PM it directly to me. I will then take it to the faction and let the members vote on which one they like. (This will be a blind vote meaning I will not show who created each). Once the voting is done we will award faction contacts and also ask you to put your creation in the factory for final approval from the judges. Any questions please PM me or RP them out here IC'ly. Thanks again for wanting to play with us!