Private Acquisitions

[Felix Thawne]

Ersal

"Your mother, nor your father, would approve of this." Not for the first time today Kiran reiterated the point of parental disapproval, perhaps hoping that repetition would be enough to drive it into place. The stalwart bodyguard was a fearsome fighter, a grand confidant, and truthfully everything one could want in an adviser. Felix was quite grateful to have him along, but the trouble was he hardly ever took no for an answer.

Unfortunately for him, this was going to have to be one of those rare times. "Send for Nikolas, or Maya or even Teslyn. They're more suite-"

Felix raised a hand to silence the other man. The gesture was rude, but Felix twisted his wrist and pointed towards the ship slowly banking through the upper-clouds of Lisha. Both of their eyes flickering to the old HWK-290 cutting through the upper atmosphere and heading towards the landing pad in front of them. Turbolasers tracked it for a short moment before clearance codes were passed through, and the vessel slowly began to settle down.

"I know they would be more helpful in certain aspects of this job." Felix was not ignorant to the capabilities of his siblings. All of them had their specific talents, all of them had their specific duties. That was the way Mother and Father had set up the Cartel. Each one of their children handled a different aspect of the business. Some were better at the more...violent aspects of their endeavors, while others stuck to the boardroom.

Ordinarily he was the latter, but for this, that wouldn't quite work.

"Unfortunately, as you know, they are all otherwise engaged with their own projects." Resurgence was not a simple task, and the Cartel could no longer be stalled. "And waiting a week isn't an option. We need that data."

Kiran grumbled something. "Besides, that's why we have our outside Contractor."

Felix perhaps expected more objection, but the bodyguard quieted himself as the ship's landing struts touched down with a heavy rattling of mechanical stirrups.

Originally this operation had been meant to be a simple Cartel lead thing, using the Runners or Executioners, but as his siblings folded out into the Galaxy even Coratanni's ever expansive resources had begun to stretch thin. It had only been through a bit of luck that Kara had found another route. A simple message, a request even, from an unexpected source.They'd asked for information. A simple trace, really, but one that turned out to not be so simple. Kara had passed on the task to Nayella, and Nayella had let word slip to him.

And Felix had seen the opportunity.

A quick negotiation, and their contact was offered the promise of their demand with only a small price to pay in return; aid in a simple acquisition.

 

[Hedda Vosk]

It was a transaction.

Nothing more, nothing less. The exchange of information for an acquisition, which, all things considered, was a transaction made for Hedda Vosk. Her father's work for her was a series of acquisitions: ancient texts, unwilling geneticists, failed test subjects and, of course, holocrons. It was her bread and butter, and therefore not up for debate despite how vague the details were.

The only variable was that this was not a part of her father's work; it was her own.

Hedda had been transparent with him, delivered the report on Dantooine and expressed her desire to pursue VOSK, E., much to his initial disapproval. There were terms, of course. The pursuit wasn't to interfere with her work, which, by extension, was his work. Every movement she made was to be documented and then reviewed by him. And lastly, it was to be funded out of her own allocation. Which made the transactional nature of the day considerably more preferable.

Her father's reticence to pursue his greatest mistake still baffled her. More than for a sense of pride, there was a woman out there in the galaxy who sat unopposed as a loose end and a marker of failure.

She did not broach the subject of why he did not care. Perhaps she should have.

As she descended the ramp of VB-4, she considered Ersal's paradox. From her reading, it was a city built upon crime, and yet paradoxically both safe and stable. Credits flowed, as did spice and people, and with it the economy flourished, all in spite of its more obscure nature, at least as far as planetary guides went. Lish, as a gas giant, was hardly a premier destination on anybody's bucket list.

She was dressed the same way she always did, in black. Her father had never been one for the more esoteric Sith designs; robes were cumbersome, with long, dragging sleeves that seemed to exist only to be shrugged off dramatically and marked as a future expense. Her coat was more suited to that of a physician, with the neck high and closed, and her pale hair was already pulled back into an orderly bun. Strapped across her chest was her field kit, the bag sitting comfortably at her hip, while the opposite hip did not bother to hide the presence of her lightsaber hilt clipped in place.

Darth Vollend did not hide who, or what, she was.

She took both of the men in, amber eyes appraising their physical natures, as only seemed wise in such circumstances with such people of questionable repute, before stopping short of them both. "Hedda Vosk," she spoke in introduction, plain and to the point. "I presume that you have been awaiting my arrival, yes?"