Expanding Markets Episode III: Nuclear Powered Boogaloo

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KAMINO

Here Zothustro went again on his own. He traveled down the third road he had ever known, a road known as “setting up deals with planets who were in dire need of droids.” Zothustro had undertaken jobs like this before, once in Mandalorian space and then again in Protectorate space. By and large, Zothustro’s foray into Protectorate had been far more comprehensive than they had been in Mandalorian space.

Now he had to up the ante even more. Since the Protectorate was presently in a state of war with Abrion, Lord Janus had indicated to the X’Ting that it would not be prudent to sell them combat droids. Otherwise the Omegans would take exception and sanction their company, which simply wasn’t a good thing at all.

To make up for not being able to market the newer models, such as the Talos and Mehrunes series droids, Zothustro was going to have to market more of Hegemonic Automaton’s luxury and labor droids to the planets of Abrion. It was worth noting that the Abrion Corporate Alliance wouldn’t be benefiting directly from these deals, but the planets in their territory certainly would.

But more than them, Hegemonic Automaton would. Because that’s just how capitalism works.

It would have been a good idea to apply for membership to the Techno Union, but that would sit just as badly with the Omegans than if they sold battle droids to Abrion. It was simply better to… Not do that, and simply suffer through not having whatever handicaps Techno Union members were given.

The first step in Zothustro’s marketing plan was to establish a distribution center in the general vicinity of the galactic sector he wished to market to. Kamino seemed a reasonably good choice, given its location on the Mara Corridor, which was conveniently attached to the Hydian Way, which was right on top of Hegemonic Automaton’s primary distribution center- Celanon.

Hyperspace lanes are wonderful things.

The Kaminoan City of Tassus was more than willing to play host to the distribution center. They imagined the increase of traffic that establishing a major spaceport brought would enrich the city. Maybe not to the same degree those cities with cloning facilities were enriched, but they could settle for massive shipments of droids passing through.

Zothustro met with the city leaders promptly, and they ironed out the finer details of what was to be established here. The elderly X’Ting found the Kaminoans rather odd. They were very tall, awkward looking people. They spoke like they had all the time in the world and moved like elegant ghosts. Zothustro was a little jealous, given his ungainly insectoid form looked exactly as graceful as it was.

The meeting droned on for hours, mostly due to the Kaminoans. But once Zothustro departed, he left with the full knowledge that by the end of the week, the planet would be host to a new distribution center.

 

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UKIO

If there was an innocent world in all of the Abrion Corporate Alliance, it would be Ukio. Ukio was a lush planet with fertile soil, making it incredible for farming. It wouldn’t be surprising for someone to discover that the vast majority of the planet was dominated by farmland. The rest was dedicated to providing space for the stagnated, burgeoning population of over seven billion.

Zothustro was impressed that they could farm so much to sustain such a large population and still have enough left over to make it their primary export.

Surprisingly, the planet was about as low-tech as it could be given its membership to Abrion and its reliance on top quality farming methods. Droids and the other more advanced sort of electronics were a rare commodity. Fortunately, Zothustro was here to strike a deal with the farming magnates to make sure that changed.

He didn’t say anything too ground-breaking to the men. Zothustro merely demonstrated that they had more to gain from making their primary labor force droids instead of people. After all, droids didn’t need to take breaks after laboring in the fields all day. Droids didn’t want time off to spend with their families. Z3s could work from dusk until dawn and, thanks to Neuro-Saav’s special paint nonsense, would hardly need any regular maintenance. Unless they suffered an accident.

The Z3s were adept for this kind of work. Naturally, Zothustro indicated that the magnates could also use some Z4 Cargo Loading Droids. It was a much faster way of moving large crates about their compounds and so forth. Not only would they be able to shaft some of their less reliable farmers for droids, but get their food from one place to another faster?

After a reasonable amount of haggling, the two parties were in agreement. Shipping would start immediately.

 

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APATROS

Cortosis was, without question, one of the hardest materials to mine in the entire galaxy. Rather than try to do something else, the people of Apatros just kept slaving away in their mines. Years of this sort of backbreaking labor turned the vast majority of its inhabitants into hardy, cynical people. Largely because the government and the ore working companies were one in the same and maintained the kind of destitute working conditions that failed to give anyone the chance to get off world.

If Ukio was the most innocent planet in the Corporate Alliance, Apatros was arguably the least.

But the people of Apatros could soon rejoice, as Zothustro intended to relieve them of their horrid employment by selling the mining companies dominating the planet labor droids. Up until now no labor droid as intelligent and hardy as the Z3 had ever been mass produced. Z3s were exactly what they needed. Intelligent enough to operate all the equipment necessary, strong enough to get it done even faster than the hardiest organic miner Apatros had to offer.

Zothustro was keen on reminding people that Z3s didn’t require frequent breaks or wages. Nor did they tend to die on the job from inhaling Cortosis fumes. For the men leading these companies, the Z3 would be a godsend. Z4s could also be useful to these gentlemen, able to transport large quantities of Cortosis to shipping areas.

It didn’t take a lot of convincing. These mining corporations knew what they needed, and they certainly didn’t need more disgruntled miners chaffing under their de facto rule of the planet. Droids would never revolt. Unless they went without memory wipes for sustained. Then that was the Apatrosians damn fault.

Regardless of that, they still wanted the droids- in bulk. Far be it for Hegemonic Automaton to deny them. This was all just more money in the bank.

 

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EXCARGA

Mining worlds were often the best ones to market Z3s to. Mining was a very miserable job for an organic, given that they tended to be frail things and inhaling fumes tended to be hazardous to their health. Very few people wanted to be miners willingly. Fortunately, droids wanted to be miners. They were programmed to have a burning desire to dig up raw materials for their most benevolent owners. Better still was that they didn’t need to breathe and were hardly subject to the same trials of organic personnel working in mine shafts.

Excarga was a mining world just like Apatros. But Apatros had everything Excarga had and Cortosis. This made it somewhat difficult for Excarga to maintain mining relevancy in the ASA. When the Mining Guild dominating the planet caught wind of the fact that Apatros had been cutting deals for expensive work droids, they felt obliged to get in on the deal.

After all, if Apatros was going to start increasing its productivity, Excarga had to rise to compete. Since there weren’t exactly any other competent droid manufacturers to choose from, it seemed prudent for them to approach Hegemonic Automaton. They couldn’t afford to fall excessively far behind. Not if they wanted to remain independent from the mining companies that dominated Apatros.

Zothustro was happy to speak with them. Even more so since he was the one being summoned, rather than him doing the summoning. He and the Mining Guild representatives talked for a great deal of time, endlessly inquiring about the exact effectiveness of the droids. Zothustro was able to answer their questions well enough, and before long they had a very nice supply contract lined out.

Another planet down. Only eight more to go.

 

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ORD PARDRON

Yet another world where the mining industry was their bread and butter. Fortunately they were far removed from the affairs of the Apatrosians and Excargans. Otherwise they would have been under substantial pressure to increase their export beyond what their diminutive population could handle. In ancient times, although no one was really left to know, the population had been under one hundred thousand. And they were just a garrison base. It could be speculated that this changed at some point, but if it had, the Gulag Plague had ravaged the whole planet.

But the modern era had seen the population rise closer towards two hundred thousand or thereabouts. An infinitely paltry amount for an entire planet. Ord Pardron had the resources to become a rich, powerful world. Perhaps more so than Apatros and Excarga put together. They simply lacked the manpower to access it. Hegemonic Automaton could help them with this.

Most of the mines on Ord Pardron were already automated. Two-hundred thousand people scarcely left enough free population to tend to mines or work as miners. Zothustro was able to persuade them that these mines could be operating more efficiently and with greater production if they let Hegemonic Automaton update the internal systems and replace their mining and cargo lifting droids with Z3s and Z4s.

Confronted with before and after data of other mining worlds Hegemonic Automaton had done business with, such as Mustafar, it was clear to see the Pardronites had little to lose and an immense amount to gain. They accepted the deal as it was presented to them with little edits made. Zothustro left the planet a little happier than usual, seeing as he not only lined his pockets just a little bit more, but managed to get a deal approved without inordinate amounts of haggling.

Just this once.

 

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LERITOR

There was one last stop on Zothustro’s campaign to merchandize his product to the mining worlds of Abrion. Leritor was a prosperous little mining world, shared between a race of crustaceans and some human colonists. Descendants of human colonists, at any rate. By this point they probably considered themselves natives. Not that Zothustro would believe them, much like he didn’t consider the non-X’Ting populace of Ord Cestus to be natives.

In any event, Zothustro was not here to deal with the crab people. He was here to deal with the humans squatting on the planet. The crustaceans, called Sauvax, were much more interested in aquaculture than they were exploiting their planet’s rich mineral resources. It was all the same to Zothustro. It wasn’t his planet and the methods used by the colonists were mostly safe and left the Suavax free to do their own thing.

Zothustro was slightly worried if this new mode of thinking was because of his protracted interactions with Janus, but he banished the thought. That wasn’t what he was here to deal with. The colonists had been having issues lately. Not with labor unions or activists, although that was certain to happen eventually. Their issues were their shoddily constructed mines and the sudden dip in people willing to pursue a career in mining.

Clearly there was no relation.

What the colonists needed were droids who were willing to descend into the mines to fix them up and then resume their operations. Enter providence, in the form of Hegemonic Automaton. The Z3 Labor Droid was adept for both construction and mining operations. Once it was done fixing the mines, it could work in them. They wouldn’t even have to pay extra for it, seeing as the droids.

Needless to say, the bigwigs of the colonists were eager to see this problem ended. If purchasing Z3s en masse and securing a contract for Hegemonic Automaton to maintain their supply was what they needed to do, then so be it. Nothing was too pricey in securing their continued operations.

And, naturally, that was how Zothustro secured Hegemonic Automaton’s customer base with the planet of Leritor. Also with very little haggling. How completely, totally fun.

 

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ANDO

There were now five planets that were importing Hegemonic Automaton labor droids in large quantities. Not to mention numerous contracts secured with organizations and corporations therein for continued replacements and maintenance of those droids in return for monthly payments. But Hegemonic Automaton manufactured more than just the Z3, Z4, and Z5. The Z1 and the Z2 were not heavy labor droids and thusly had no business on any worlds where that was a necessary commodity.

But the densely populated homeworlds of alien species with well-established upper and middle classes. These were the planets where the Z1 and Z2 would be purchased in bulk. More so in the highly consumerist ACA than anywhere else. But Hegemonic Automaton wasn’t going to be selling these droids directly to the population. That would require they go out of their way to establish a tangible presence on the planet.

Instead, they were simply going to sell their droids to retail companies operating on the planet. There were plenty, quite simply, and so it would be little issue. Hegemonic Automaton would reap the profits from selling to retailers, the retailers would reap the profits of selling them to the native populace. It was a win-win. Unless there were other competing droid manufacturers on the planet. In which case, they were about to go out of business.

Zothustro’s heart went out to them, it truly did, but he had a job to do and quality product to provide.

Given the popularity of their luxury droids in Omegan space and the growing reputation of Hegemonic Automaton in general, the Aqualish retailers were practically foaming at the mouth for an opportunity to sell Hegemonic Automaton products in their stores. The contracts were signed quickly and to the immediate satisfaction of both parties. Ando had the privilege of being the first planet in Abrion to have access to the corporation's luxury models.

It would only get better from here.

 

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RODIA

Now if there was a planet Hegemonic Automaton would want to sell combat droids to, it would have been Rodia. But Janus had made it clear none of the Talos or Mehrunes series would wind up anywhere in Abrion en masse. Zothustro was actually quite relieved about it. He had his own moral qualms about selling war droids to a planet that so frequently experienced inter-clan warfare. It would only mean more dead Rodians, usually over trivial matters.

Maybe some luxury droids would give them something else to think about.

The vast majority of the planet’s inhabitants lived within large, domed cities. The only real way to protect themselves from the extreme environment of the planet. At one point it had been even thicker with flora and fauna, but the ever-advancing Rodians had thinned the other inhabitants by impressive amounts. A pity to see such a beautiful planet slowly lose its environment… Even if it was a lousy environment at best.

Still, given the Rodians’ need to maintain their domed cities, Zothustro took a secondary trip to persuade the Rodian government to sign a contract for Z5s in order to help with the workload and reduce critical failures. Surprisingly, they weren’t interested. That was fine. Zothustro couldn’t persuade everyone.

The retailers of Rodia were a lot more amenable, however. Hearing that the Aqualish had already been cut a deal for the droids made them just as eager. Contracts were sign, and Zothustro departed the planet a happy X’Ting once more.

 

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BOTHAWUI

Of all the planets Zothustro had visited thus far, he suspected the inhabitants of Bothawui would have the greatest appreciation of Hegemonic Automaton’s products. They were Bothans, after all. The standard of living on Bothawui was much higher than it was on Rodia and Ando. That meant more droids purchased and sold by the retailers Zothustro intended to probe for a deal.

Bothawui itself had experienced some trouble in the past, what with the upheavals that had transformed the CIS into the ASA and then finally the ASA. Commerce never sleeps, though, and so the retailers of Bothawui were more than ready to accept some products from Hegemonic Automaton’s Zenithar-Series onto their magnificent shelves.

Competition would likely be stiff at first. Bothawui was more industrialized and more likely to have well-established local droid manufacturers. This was nothing a nice advertisement campaign couldn’t fix. Especially not if the burdening reputation of Hegemonic Automaton was also bearing down on the planet. Sales would pick up slowly at first, then increase as the months went on.

But there would be sales. And that was what mattered here.

 

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FALLEEN

Falleen were a decadent people who enjoyed a lot of expensive things. Perhaps that was why Zothustro chose to visit their home planet next. Even the ones who weren’t wealthy beyond imagination would be great customers as far as Hegemonic Automaton was concerned. Any planet that had a population scarcely even close to a billion tended to have higher standards of living. Albeit the market was somewhat smaller.

It also meant there was a lot of work being left undone, which even meant room for more labor droid marketing. Not technically what he came here for, but Zothustro paid some visits to the individuals in charge of running local infrastructure, mines, manufactories, etc. They were looking to expand, but of course there wasn’t a large enough work force to do so. A large influx of Z3s, Z4s, and Z5s would fix that. Just as the associated replenishment contracts. Monthly payments were arguably the best kind.

After those talks concluded, Zothustro found himself before the associated retailers and merchants of the Falleen. Despite being more than willing to take on Zothustro’s wares, they were resolute in their desire to haggle the life out of everything Zothustro proposed. By the time the X’Ting left, he couldn’t help but feel the arrangements made were rather heavily in their favor. Regardless, money was money. There was still one more planet to visit after this, and then he could go home.

 

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RYLOTH

The home planet of the Twi’lek was still having trouble transitioning from its heavy use of slavery. Sure enough, a lot of nobles and aristocracy still weren’t overly fond of the idea of paying their servants and laborers. But lo and behold, the gentle hand of Hegemonic Automaton would descend from the heavens to give them what they wanted. Was Zothustro proud that he was about to allow former slaveholders to indulge in their previous, atrocious habits? Not really. Was he obligated by the orders of his shadowy superior to do so? Arguably.

Still, so long as there was no harm being done to sapient creatures, Zothustro would just have to like it. Once more he met with the merchants and retailers of the planet. This would be his last time doing so. The X’Ting was pleased with that beyond all measure. These sorts of marketing campaigns were beginning to make him weary of… Everything. Nonetheless, he plowed through it. The Twi’lek weren’t renowned for their shrewd diplomatic abilities or mercantile history. Negotiations went smoothly for the most part, with some exceptions over minor haggling.

Once that concluded, he would also meet with leading corporations on the planet. They were hurting for cheap labor, and Hegemonic Automaton was almost too eager to oblige. They were a lot less cautious than the retailers in procuring their deal. So much so that Zothustro wagered he would have been able to rip them off if he really wanted. Fortunately for them, he was absolutely disgusted the thought even crossed his mind.

When all was said and done, Zothustro bid the corporate representatives farewell and boarded his ship to head home. Contracts to supply labor droids (Z3s, Z4s, and Z5s) and maintain/replenish them as needed in exchange for monthly payment had been signed with dozens upon dozens of planetary entities in Abrion space. Even more contracts had been signed to allow the sale of Hegemonic luxury droids (Z1s and Z2s) on the shelves of retailing entities and merchants. There were no monthly payments associated with that, but they were bound to sell more Z1s and Z2s to make up for it.

Them being signed in the dozens upon dozens was likely an exaggeration of one sort or another, seeing as the details of the signed contracts was intentionally left vague, so too would the volume of the contracts signed. Who would ever really know? Who would ever really care?

From those merchants and retailers sold to, though, Hegemonic Automaton products would trickle through to the rest of Abrion space. There. Hopefully he wouldn’t be asked to do anything for a little while longer. This was starting to become murderous on his back.