Alpha and Omega (Roche)

[Popo]

He'd not been to Roche in a long time. It had been a small number of years, at best, since he'd last seen the system, much less seen the mining facility he owned on one of the asteroids. With the coming projects set for Tenloss to reveal in the near future, he found himself returning to the Roche system for a very important reason.

The newest tank in development, the AAV-M1, was nearing the end of its development within Tenloss R&D. The original design called for thick layers of matrix armor, a type of material designed to protect starships in the far flung past. The problem was that the armor was difficult to install and manufacture to the specifications set by the design parameters. Popo had taken one look at the schematics and plans before realizing that the entire process could be avoided by one simple change. If the design swapped matrix armor for phrik, the manufacturing process became much simpler both in production and assembly.

Popo had taken the initiative and ordered the redesign and altered the chassis somewhat further. Initially a basic hull composed of various sections, he'd replaced the entire chassis with what could only be called an armored bathtub. The design was functional and the prototype, non-phrik vehicle had performed well in trials. As such, it was now up to the retrieval of the phrikite ore to fully organize the changes put in place.

As the shuttle touched down on the mining facilities' landing pad, Popo realized that he was one step closer to achieving the goals set forth by himself. He allowed himself a moment of quiet thought while the pilot powered the transport down and the Hutt took a last sip of the wine in his hand before setting the glass down and moving to the ramp. There was work to be done.

He slid down to the deck plating and met the head foreman of the facility with a polite nod. He knew that usually most people shook hands and other tokens of greeting, but Popo knew there was a distinct difference in size and scale between himself and the human waiting for him. Rather than enveloping the man's arm in his hand, he knew a token gesture was sufficient.

"Mr. Wylst, I'm glad you could meet me in person," rumbled the Hutt as the two made their way towards the facility itself. "I'm sure you're quite busy, though, with the order we've put through. I apologize if I've interrupted anything important for the day."

"Not at all, sir," said the foreman as he pushed his spectacles back up on his nose. In an age where vision correction was simple, quick, and exceptionally cheap the man was a sort of anachronism. Bespectacled and sporting graying hair, the man looked more like an academy professor in work clothes. "We've managed to adjust production towards the new project as requested. In fact, we've been operating at base levels of production simply because the lack of phrikite ore needed by the company, so increasing our output requirements has, if anything, brought the facility up towards maximum output efficiency rather than strain the facility itself."

 

[Popo]

"I'm glad to hear that," responded the Hutt as they entered the facility itself. The entryway was a simple foyer designed less for affluence and more for professionalism in appearance. The floor was simple plasteel designed to appear as ceramic tiles while the walls were composed of more plasteel, though designed to look similar to plaster and painted a neutral beige. The mining foreman nodded once to the secretary sitting behind the simple desk placed in the center rear of the room. She flashed a smile and tapped a few codes on a nearby terminal.

"Thank you, Jantha," the man said cheerfully as the far doors opened, revealing a more utilitarian hallway. As they passed through, the doors sealed behind them. "Jantha is our facility secretary and manages all visitors and customers."

"So I see," Popo stated simply with a nod. "Why the jumpsuit, though, if I might ask?"

"Jantha is... Well, she has a dual role here," Wylst stated as they continued down the hallway. "She is part secretary, part security. When you allocated funding for additional security personnel, she was one of the hires we made. She's a former special forces operative, but also has a great deal of experience with computer systems and, to be honest, she's one hell of a people person. She's a favorite among our more frequent visitors."

"Special forces? I'm assuming you did a background check."

"Of course, sir," the foreman nodded as a pair of large double doors loomed ahead. "She's former Republic Special Warfare and has a great deal of combat specializations and is a computer specialist. I can only assume the people skills came with her training. She's clean, though. She took her papers and walked a few years before she came to us. Bounced about a bit doing some mercenary work before landing a job as a bodyguard for a CEO."

"Any company we know?" the Hutt asked.

"She was a bit vague on the specifics, but said she left because the CEO made her 'uncomfortable' which usually means there was an argument or, possibly, an advance on the CEO's end. I did a bit of digging and found that around the time she left her previous job there was a suspicious death on Taris. CEO of a local business firm fell to his death from a mixture of alcohol and depression that was ruled an accidental suicide."

The Hutt grunted in response, spotting the telltales of what could only have been what the CEO deserved in the end. Truth be told, he was glad the woman was on Tenloss payroll. He doubted she'd sign on to the more militant areas of the company, but having her be the first line of defense on a rather important facility was a reassurance.

"Up here is the work floor, sir," the Foreman stated after a moment more of walking, or in Popo's case, slithering. "We have the first few orders of Phrikite ore ready to smelt and ship out."

"Good. Let's take a look, then."

 

[Popo]

"This is our main floor," the foreman said as the double doors slid open to reveal a large, expansive area.

Industrial movers shifted massive containers of ore back and forth. Here and there workers and droids could be seen among the organized chaos. Some maneuvered vehicles while others directed them. Occasionally someone could be seen taking inventory or giving orders to other workers. Along one side of the facility stood rows of containers, the phrikite ore peeking out from their tops.

"What we're doing is double checking inventory and double checking quality tests," Wylst gestured to a pair of workers and a droid moving down the line of containers. Periodically one of the men would pull a chunk of rock from a container and hand it to the droid. The other man took down notes as the droid bleeped and blurped aloud in binary. "The containers that pass sample testing are shifted towards the other end of the facility to be smelted."

"And the containers that don't?" the Hutt asked out of curiosity.

"We use all of it, it's just a matter of getting the most out of what we have. Whatever doesn't pass the sample testing we place in our secondary and tertiary smelters. They make a lower quality phrik ingot, but we do our best to burn or filter out any impurities. It still functions as normal, however. Per your orders, we've begun separating the majority of the phrikite ore that passes quality testing for use on your new project. Everything else we send to stockpiles and meet the supply quotas."

"And the material that doesn't make the supply quotas?" Popo inquired as they moved through the industrial center. Nearby a pair of workers operated as a team to shift one of the large containers towards the back wall.

"We set aside the best Phrik ingots for projects, both standing and pending, and any current production lines we have that utilize Phrik. Anything else we stockpile to meet quotas. What we have left over after meeting quotas in full, we follow the standard procedures set down for this facility. Which is to say that we ship it to Tenloss facilities for sale directly onto the market, per standing orders."

The Hutt nodded as they kept moving along. Up ahead he spotted more double doors much like the ones they'd just passed through. The pair took a moment to pause in place as an industrial mover puttered by carrying another, smaller container.

"How much has this facility been selling regularly? And how much of the ore is set aside from the main amounts?" the CEO asked.

"We set aside approximately ten percent of our monthly yield for specified projects and current production lines. As for sales, I want to say we place perhaps five to eight percent of our monthly yield on the market for sale through Tenloss outlets. Occasionally we have individuals or groups who come through us directly, but any orders we immediately route through the company for approval before we make any sales from the facility itself."

 

[Popo]

"So, you're essentially capable of filling a small number of projects, maintaining warehouse supply levels, and placing a modest amount of the material on the market for the company's profit," the Hutt stated, simplifying the foreman's detailed report into a basic, single-sentence concept to which the man nodded in agreement. "I like it. I might have you write up a basic outline and see if other similar facilities can't follow suit. If they can, it might just help alleviate upkeep here and there and we can dump the small amount of profit back into the facilities in question."

The doors loomed ever closer and Popo gestured to them with one hand. Nearby, the passing industrial mover set its container down and moved on, searching for the next load of ore to shift.

"I take it the refined ingots are up ahead?" he asked as they drew closer.

"Yes, the ingot stores are next door," the mining foreman confirmed with another nod. "Normally we would move through the smelter buildings, but I know you're more interested in the result rather than the process at this point."

"I do normally prefer to see all aspects of the production line, but in this case my time is limited so heading straight for the final product is probably for the best," the Tenloss CEO admitted as the doors slid open. "This project has eaten up so much time from my usual routine and as this is the last aspect that needs appraisal I'm eager to give the production line the full green light to begin production in full."

The warehouse was lined from one end to the other in shelving units that reached the rather high ceiling. On most shelves stood stacks of metal bars easily two or three meters in length, each pallet organized into a crisscross pattern to ensure each stack was stable and remained in an organized group. Each bar was easily a few inches thick and sported a number series painted along the end of each length.

"This is the storage area we put the ingots in. As you can see, we use the term 'ingots' as a handle for the finished material. From here we load the proper pallets and stacks into the appropriate transports and ship them out to where they need to go. Most of the room is given over to the standard product, but the far back section is where we've been storing the project's supply."

"Excellent," Popo stated with an optimistic nod as they moved towards the section in question. "How much is ready to go right now?"

"We have enough stored for our first monthly quota and probably approximately half or more of the second month's quota. They're stacked and ready to go, we're just waiting for the proper paperwork and transport ships to load them in."

"Very good," the Hutt nodded once more. "And the quality is top notch per requirement? Impurities in the metal can react poorly with the process we'll be using to properly render the raw metal into component parts."

 

[Popo]

"These ingots are as pure as we can get them," the foreman stated as they moved towards the back corner. "I took the liberty of establishing a line of inquiry with Tenloss Research and Development. While they wouldn't give me the details, they did give me the base line percentages needed for a proper reaction between materials in the production process and as such we've been operating by those standards."

"Excellent," Popo remarked as they approached the pallets in question. "That may actually save us some time and energy if we know that the supplies coming in are exactly what we need."

"I aim to please," Wylst said with a wry grin before stepping forward and pulling one of the phrik bars off a pallet stack. He hefted the metal in his hands a moment before holding it out to the Tenloss CEO. Popo paused a moment, but took the metal in turn to inspect it by eye. "My hope is that this might speed up the production time and nudge this tank project along that much further."

The man's last comment caught the Hutt off guard. The project wasn't widely known and had been almost entirely kept under wraps. In fact, he'd made sure that there had been no leaks and that any potential risk of an information leak was minimized as much as possible.

"Apologies, Mr. Wylst, but who said this project was a tank?" Popo asked after a moment, his tone neutral as he hefted the bar in his hands.

"May I be frank, sir?" the foreman asked as he took a seat on the edge of one of the pallets.

"Of course."

"Tenloss has a reputation. We build ships, we build guns, we build droids and odds and ends. The things that give us our reputation, however, are our tanks. We build war machines like no one else and we're overdue for another. Sure, we have the Hotshuh, but its another main battle tank. It's the descendant of the Skocha, but the same role is filled by either one just as easily. The only real difference is the main cannon which has about the same effect. Outside of that, one is on treads and the other is on repulsors."

"I hate to correct you, but the Hotshuh's main cannon is easily more powerful than the Skocha's," the Hutt stated politely to which the foreman only shrugged once.

"It fires a particle beam. A powerful one. Pound for proverbial pound, it outclasses the Skocha's cannon. Versatility and practicality, it's insufficient. Pros and cons weighed, they're about the same. Personally, I'll take a Skocha any day, but that's not really the discussion here."

"And how would you know about the performance capabilities of the Skocha?" Popo asked, his tone only mildly pointed.

Wylst only laughed and rolled up his sleeves. Each arm was festooned with a number of tattoos, the same ones that the more eccentric and gung-ho Republic soldiery tended to sport. After a moment, he tugged one of his pant legs up to the middle of his calf, exposing old scar tissue.

"Got this when my Skocha was hit. One Sith walker, you see. We took out its buddy, but it nailed us before we could take it down, too. Lost my bow gunner and driver and the shot that hit us set the tank on fire. Burned myself good when we all bailed out."

 

[Popo]

"Alderaan?" the Hutt asked after a moment to which Wylst nodded once. "First or second battle?"

"Both," the foreman stated simply as he let his pant leg back down and rolled his sleeves down. "First battle I was attached to the group assaulting the palace, the second group I was more or less in the same place. Anyways, the Hotshuh is a good tank, got to take a look at one or two a couple of years back before I took my papers and walked from the Grand Army, or whatever it was called when I left. Skocha has it beat, though, with the main armament. I once compared the two to hand weapons, once. The Hotshuh... See, it's like a big, two handed hammer. You swing it and you're gonna smash apart whatever you hit so long as it doesn't have armor that can stop the shot. The Skocha is like one of those military picks you see on those anachronistic history shows or maybe in a primitive culture. It might not have the crushing power of a big old hammer, but the pick will punch through most armor it meets. Might not be the most accurate analogy, but its the best one I can come up with. The new tank has a lot of power behind it, but the Skocha can actually apply that firepower regardless of what the target is covered in."

"Your point is noted," the Hutt replied simply. He hadn't expected his top mining foreman to be a former tanker, much less one familiar with his own company's products. The fact that they'd served at the same time in the same place with the same military was beside the point. "The question I have, though, is why you think this project is for an armored vehicle."

"Simple," Wylst said with a shrug. "Tenloss doesn't make weapons out of the material and we have a top notch powered armor suit that uses it, but nothing else. The Mandos are cranking out tanks armored with their miracle metal, beskar, and I'm sure other groups out there are tossing matrix armor and shields and whatever hodgepodge they think will keep it in one piece. Tenloss has never made a tank or armored vehicle using phrik, much less any super special metal material. This would be a first for Tenloss and something to catch the eye of the market, if you want to look at the money flow. If you look at function, though, this much phrik? Its not for suits, unless you somehow managed to figure out how to mass produce body or power armor out of the stuff, but if that were the case you'd just up the standard output rather than require only the best material."

"Go on," Popo said, settling back and taking a 'seat' in the manner of the usual Hutt meeting someone with a keen mind.

"Separate orders, special project, niches to fill, and a specialization in armored vehicles... the dots connect and the lines spell 'Tank' pretty clearly to my mind," the man stated, pushing his glasses back up on his nose.