Corrosion and Cortosis

[Cylus Jest]

Cylus struggled out of the shuttle he'd come in as he grew accustomed to the air. His mask would filter any impurities for long enough to sustain his visit.
All in all, purchasing a new starship and bribing the port people of Bespin to give him a far off and private platform was becoming quite expensive.
But he was offered Cortosis, and he planned very much on collecting.

It took him a moment to scroll through his contacts before coming to [member="Verd Skirata"] whom he called rapidly
"Verd, I'm on Bespin with a starship, bring the goods please."
The simple message would hopefully bring the man soon, this place reeked of air. Not that that was a bad thing, he breathed air but Bespin air was bad for you or something at least that's what he had heard.

Waiting would take a while, for all he knew Verd was off, fighting Jedi or something.
In other words, what he wanted to be doing. Jedi were good sport anytime.

Not that he cared for sport, but even without feelings there was some slight inclination towards blood and the seeking of it.

Oh well, he was becoming more accepting of hks peculiar position and at the sa e time more defiant of it. He wanted to feel...feel something.
What made men was not their flesh and bones and minds. It was their capacity to feel, wasn't it?

That meant Cylus wasn't a man however which was impossible, because strange literary devices aside he was a sentient male organism. Born and raised on Coruscant.

In a way, the Jedi shared similarities to him. They were all birthed, all had an upbringing of some sort and now all delved into combat against forces which opposed their government and homes. In effect they were just acrobatic soldiers with laser swords.

He wasn't sure if he should feel a similarity and thus some form of common sympathy or if he was supposed to nearly vomit at the repulsive scent of the word Jedi.

Only time would tell. And speaking of time, where in the world was Verd?

 

[Verd Skirata]

Verd Had recently gotten a prosthetic arm since his recent encounter with three sith lords. He knew that [member="Cylus Jest"] would probably have the ship they had discussed by now, and since he hadn't had time to go down into the mines to get the Cortosis, he knew he was getting behind.He had paid for the use of one section the mine for Two full weeks, a week and 5 days ago, and this would be his last chance to get anything out of the mines for a while. At least the renting of the section of the mine had allotted him the use of four mining droids. Though he should have sent them down to collect the ore a lot sooner.

Descending into the mines was an ordeal in and of itself, as it took nearly 30 minutes to get to the level of the section he had paid for. The Droids he had with him in the cargo speeder went to work. using hydrolic jacks to bust the ore up, then deposit the raw material into a cubic meter durasteel container. The progress was slow, but worth while. His comlink beeped, somehow functioning all the way down here, he played the message stating, "Verd, I'm on Bespin with a starship, bring the goods please." and cursed. The man was already here. He opened communications and said, "Its going to be about an hour and a half till I can meet you with the ore, Sorry for the inconvinience, but I'll explain why I'm so late when we meet up." He turned back to his droids and turning off his com, yelled "work faster you buckets of bolts!"

 

[Cylus Jest]

An hour and a half. He had said an hour and a half hadn't he? A pierce of irritation rose in Cylus chest, disappearing the moment he realized he was feeling emotion.
That was sort of normal. His emotions weren't completely absent. Just extremely dulled, that twinge of irritation would probably be rage in a normal man.

Still, it was a long waiting time for something that should have been done already. Maybe Verd had run into technical problems, the type that involved rocks getting stuck in servos.

Or maybe he was out there hunting and had simply forgotten. Either way it was an inconvenience at the least. Maybe he would grab a drink...No, he didn't know who owned Bespin and he didn't really care to fimd out.

Maybe he'd mull over future plans...from inside the shuttle. And wait away the time for [member="Verd Skirata"] to show up.

He turned to the shuttle...if you could call it that. It was some sort of Lombda class thing, but it was rusted and looked fairly...terrible.

No matter, Cylus strolled up the ramp and pou ded the shut button as he took a seat. Near the cockpit sat a an Undying trooper.

Those guys still had no formal place of training. He'd look imto that as soon as he had the funds. He also needed to look into One Sith real estate. He had been sketching out plans for a Mansion of sorts from which to operate.
Not a regular mansion though, one complete with hidden passages, wild animals, and a barracks for the Undying.

And he simply needed to invite his closer associates for dinner, they would be delighted...except the ones he forced to come. Oh well, too bad.

 

[Verd Skirata]

Verd had been ceaselessly yelling at the droids for a few hours to get the work done, seeing them go one speed only enfuriated him. One of the droids turned towards him and paused before displaying through a holoscreen that it's hydrolic Jack had been broken. cursing, he waved the droid away, or thought that he did when a blaster bolt came flying out of his new mechanical arm destroying the droid's repulsor lift system. he swore again, and kicked the droid away, waiting for the other three to finish piling up the ore in the container.

While the droids had finished filling up the container, Verd tweaked the craft's engines allowing him to travel up to 66% faster in the craft. Looking up from his work, he saw the capped container of ore being loaded by the three doids. He looked at his watch, and realized it had only taken the droids 30 minutes to do the work, which was completely unexpected. He hopped in the craft, and securing the cargo, floored the craft far beyond it's regulators had ever allowed it to go before, and not stopping at the top of the shaft, he pushed the rig even faster to the spaceport. It would be only half the time he thought it would be to get the ore to [member="Cylus Jest"]. Comming the man once more, he gave the positive news to the man, and arranged for a place to meet to solicit his goods.

 

[Cylus Jest]

Waiting wasn't very productive, of course Cylus wasn't too worried about the 'fun' aspects of waiting around, he was more inclined to think of the wasted productivity. Didn't Verd have nearly a week to have mined all of the Cortosis. Couldn't he have flown out here yesterday or the day before or anytime instead of having to take all of his time by coming here right now.

Another mild twinge of annoyance flared in Cylus' chest, he caught it this time, holding it there for a few more seconds before it fizzled out and died. At the least, Verd was letting him feel something. It was hard to make himself feel, but he was quite alright with it when he did. He wanted to feel...and yet he saw the tactical advantages to not being able to. After all, he would feel nearly no guilt over destroying a civilian target and that sort of guiltlessness was what made him a more valuable asset of the One Sith.

He spun to face the Undying trooper sitting in the pilot's seat of his shuttle...watching him, examining him. Neither of them said anything, and the Undying refused to look Cylus directly in the eyes. Of course neither of them could actually see each other's eyes past the Plague Masks they all wore. It was a sign of respect not to look a superior in the eyes and Cylus accepted this. The Undying were trained to act a bit like he did, to hold no fear...to break their moral obligations to society in an attempt at creating beings who acted like he did.

Sure, the Undying could never be exactly like he was, they did still feel emotions and he was sure that they occasionally went out to relax and grab drinks together. But they weren't like most stormtroopers either, they were quieter most of the time...they didn't show threat by speaking, but by body language. It was better that way, it would let fear click subconsciously as opposed to having the fear need to be recognized as a threat.

Verd was a bounty hunter or something like that wasn't he? He was a Mandalorian to say the least, that much could be observed neatly by his name and the way he conducted himself. Cylus liked to watch people like that, he was quite analytical in retrospect...when one felt no attachment to something he could notice all the attachments held by anything else. Or maybe he was just being too philosophical, Verd like himself fought and killed occasionally. However Verd also had access to items forged of Beskar and...apparently Cortosis as well.

Which to bring his mind back around like a slingshot was why he was here, he blinked himself out of concentration standing as he stepped back out of the shuttle and glanced around before activating the comlink.
"[member="Verd Skirata"] where are you?"

 

[Verd Skirata]

Verd was about 30 seconds out from the hangar, when he had gotten the comlink transmission.

"Verd Skirata where are you?"

He quickly repllied "I'm right outside the hangar, be there in a second." Then concentrated on flying the speeder type hauler as efficiently as he could into the hangar. He cut the throttle by half,before he came into the hangar, and entered at an angle, spinning the hauler around 180 degrees and slammed the throttle forward for a full second to counteract the speeder's speed and then shut the machine down. Hopping out of the speeder, he walked over to [member="Cylus Jest"] and held out his hand for the man to shake. His entire left arm was now one huge phrik cybernetic arm, which he had opted not to cover with his armor, allowing it to shine it's silvery sheen. "Sorry, i haven't gotten around to the mining yet, I have been recovering from a fairly large assortment of major wounds." He said indicating his new arm, as if it didn't stand out enough already on its own. "I would have had the crate of ore ready by now if it weren't for the droids malfunctioning droids, and the fact that I had been in intensive care until 5 days ago." He respectfully told the other person hoping he would be more understanding.

Glancing at the starship behind the client that he had made a deal with and asked, "Is that the ship I had asked for, or is the ship not here yet?" He looked at the man and then asked one more question. "What model ship am I getting for this crate of Cortosis?"

 

[Cylus Jest]

Cylus watched as the ship soared down onto the platform and did a rapid 180. It looked for a moment like it might crash, but Verd was a fair pilot and it landed steadily on the platform. He stood there, hands clasped behind his back as he adjusted the hat he wore.

Onto the platform strolled [member="Verd Skirata"] in all of his Mandalorian glory. He thought he could see the crate of Cortosis somewhere behind him, but simply shook his head and turned to face Verd, nodding his head once in greeting as the man neared.

The fellow then began to spew some sort of dialogue that Cylus could honestly care nothing about, but was forced to listen to all the same. Something about how he had been in intensive care because his arm had been chopped off or something like that and how he had been there for five days and how he would have mined sooner but he was being lazy because he was in care the past five days and how his major wounds had been quite bad and...it was long and boring.

Cylus just sort of nodded on, listening to the dribble that poured out of the man's mouth like a waterfall pours into a reserve of water. It flowed forth even though he was giving no response other than his head bobbing up and down. He might as well be respectful, the fellow was bringing him Cortosis after all.

And then finally, as if the waterfall had been dammed up, the flow of speech slowed and stopped. Cylus nodded once more, a bit more forcefully to indicate that he was definitely listening to all that the man had said and agreed completely. Then he heard the question about the ship behind him which was of course his own shuttle.

Cylus shook his head once as he turned his gaze back onto Verd. "I have it ready to come down, allow me to call it. If you'd be so kind as to unload the Cortosis."

He waited a moment before spinning about and stepping away a few steps as he spoke into his comlink
"Alright, bring down the Crux freighter, carefully and at the arranged landing place."

Downwards descended the freighter, it had been designed by Mandalorians he believed. He hadn't actually taken part in the transaction, instead sending along a courier with enough credits to purchase the thing. It seemed like a fair ship, but it's value was not matching to the Cortosis in his opinion.

Out of the Crux freighter stepped an Undying pilot who promptly stepped over to the shuttle and entered it.
"There is your ship, Verd." He spoke quietly, trying to steal a glance at the Cortosis.

 

[Verd Skirata]

"That's an AP-89 Crux-Class Heavy Freighter which is more than I thought I'd be getting for the cortosis." Verd said, admiring the ship quickly before he turned back to unload the crate. of course he had lied about the last part. As if he would ever settle for anything less than heavy freighter class. He unloaded the cubic meter durasteel container, and popped the seal on the lid. "Don't ever touch this stuff with your bare hands until it gets refined, or it'll poison you severely, almost lethally." He commented to [member="Cylus Jest"] so that he knew what he was handling. He showed the man the contents using his prosthetic to move the cortosis around to show that the full cubic meter was in the crate. He thought it would be best if the other man knew he wasn't being short changed.

"Do you have the title, and codes for the ship with you?" Verd asked hoping the man had legitimately bought the ship, if not there might be a few complications for him to have to overcome, but it would all work out eventually, and he had said he would take the ship either legally or by other methods."Let me know if you like what you see here. Heck I might even buy one of those vibroblades from you if you're willing to sell them." He added on just to show his confidence in the blades that were to be made, though he really wasn't joking about the buying of the final product.

 

[Cylus Jest]

Cylus nodded as the fellow seemed to gawk at the AP-89 Crux Heavy Freighter. He was ninety percent sure that the man would have wanted a ship like this, but it was always good for your assumptions to have paid off. He paid close attention to the instructions that were given him about the Cortosis, he hadn't actually known that it would kill him on skin contact, but he was perfectly satisfied with knowing such a thing. His mind briefly wandered as it considered turning Cortosis into an aerosol and then launching that at opponents...probably not nearly as effective or easily produced as he'd hope. He dismissed the idea.

Instead he focused on what [member="Verd Skirata"] was asking next in correlation with the Crux Freighter. He had asked whether the title and codes for the ship were with him, obviously he meant to know if Cylus had stolen the ship or not...he had not, it was purchased rightfully and at a fairly high price given his current salary. Instead of saying so, he simply gestured towards the ship "The codes as well as the title are inside, stuffed into one of the multiple compartments." At least that's where they were last time he checked.

"I am satisfied with the products you have brought...we'll keep a line open for future developments on the idea of purchasing one of the final products." He wouldn't be too upset about selling one of the final products, the only thing that would be a bit bad would be that someone else in the galaxy would have a weapon the exact same as his own. And if people were running around with his weapon, then they'd eventually learn how to counter it, which simply wouldn't do. However...he supposed people would learn countering eventually on their own and that he was running low on credits more so than stupid opponents.

"Would you mind instructing the droids to move the crate to my shuttle?" He asked as he watched the machines in the distance

 

[Verd Skirata]

"Good" Verd said thankful that he wouldn't have any random people coming after him for their ship. He had indicated that he would accept it any way it had been obtained, but he would definitely be glad not to have to go through the trouble of changing transponder codes and paint jobs to hide the vessel from its previous owner. "Of course, If you need any more, Just give me a call, and we can negotiate a price worthy of the amount you are looking for." He paused before adding on, "and It should be completely mined by the time you reached the drop-off point." He wasn't all that pleased with his delivery of the product, but it couldn't be helped in this case, and it had in the end turned out alright.

"Hey you! Get this crate loaded on [member="Cylus Jest"]'s Ship!" Verd hollered to the droids, who had to follow orders and obliged without protest. Oh how he loved droids, they never argue with you, and they don't talk back. If only some people were more like droids the galaxy would be a better place. Or so he thought, Droids were the perfect subservient beings and he loved them for it. "It has been a pleasure doing business with you! Verd said to the man, and held out his right hand towards the man to shake, before getting back into his recently modified speeder, and drove over to his new ship, This transaction was so worth it, and there was not much that could have gone better , at least in his mind he was set.