In the Black Wind the Stars Shall Die (Open)

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum had recently left Mustafar for the spacestation in orbit. A new addition, the station was little more than a refueling stop before moving on, however it had a lot of space. He already had two ships in the hangar area, the Fate and his relatively new Dynamic class Freighter. He was preparing for something of a crowd. There would be the usual hanger-ons and others who would come more than likely to simply see the talking droid.

Needless to say Ultimatum was a little bit nervous. He didn't know how many would actually show up. He told himself not to expect a large number, but to prepare for it. He had sent an open message over the HoloNet, making it appear all over the galaxy, as a minor report or something akin to that. The message was to the effect that he was going on a potentially galaxy wide hunt for a little known species. That he needed people, professional hunters and otherwise, to help in his efforts. Further he was willing to pay a ten thousand credits to those that would join him in the hunt. He had given location of the space station, orbiting Mustafar and the offer of free transport to the station if required.

That had been a week ago. Plenty of time and Ultimatum was expecting the first of the people to begin to show themselves. His only fear, though very minute, was that some of the people arriving would mistake the shipyard also orbiting the planet to be the station. Not a bad thing necessarily, he had no problems per-se with that occurring. He just didn't want damage to the massive ship still under repair there.

By most standards the ship probably wasn't that big, only about three hundred meters. It was an old Hammerhead Cruiser that had been kept running by various pirates groups over the years. He had gotten his hands on it through a rapid succession of events that had culminated in his rescue after being kidnapped by the pirates who had control of the small fleet of Old Republic vessels. He had gotten command of the largest vessel and had left the rest behind. Upon actually having a look through the ship he had been surprised that it still ran as well as it did, which wasn't that well. There had been a lot of accumulated damage and little in the way of repairs, most of which had been jury-rigged as the time had required. Ultimatum was still waiting to collect the last few parts he wanted to have the ship completed. The thing had spent months in the shipyard, his droids worked twenty four hour shifts and yet there was still more to be repaired.

Thus he waited, having his droids keep an eye on the signals from his sensor crew, to see if anyone would come. Hopefully, soon would begin his hunt for a Dashade.

 

[Ultimatum]

Over the next few hours Ultimatum watched as spacers and other people began to appear. At first a few small vessels came and then larger transports arrived. Ultimatum was personally surprised at the turn out, he had expected a much smaller audience. There was already almost two hundred people, however he realized that a large portion of them were here for the money and would be of little help in his mission.

It was a motley crew to be sure. Some seemed to be old hands at hunting while others appeared more prepared for smuggling and other illicit dealings. He was surprised that there were so many nonetheless. He had some droids put together a makeshift podium for him to stand upon for when he would address the crowd. He allowed them time to refresh themselves with food brought up from the surface and to used the refreshers before he made a general call for all participants to assemble in the main hangar.

Ultimatum amused thought of how easy it would appear to be able to take down the droid leader right now. He stood a good two feet above the audience and was a plenty big target to make any sort of rifle sufficient to hit him. The people were sticking close enough to keep warm in the naturally cool environment while still attempting to maintain privacy barriers. This would make a shooter very difficult to capture. The advantage he had going for him was the Fate parked nearby in the Hangar. He had told AU that if anyone should trying something silly the droid had the ability to blast the man. Of course the issue with that was that AU was likely to hit a large number of bystanders as well, she was not one to use the most accurate weapon, a rotary cannon.

He waited a moment while holding his hand out for all to be silent. When at last the room seemed to quiet down Ultimatum spoke, increasing his vocabulators volume to make up for distance his voice would have to carry. It sounded as if here speaking through an amplification system. "Greetings organics! It is good to see so many of you here today. I must admit that when I told my men to keep an eye to the sky I half expected no one to show up." There were a couple of sporadic laughs before Ultimatum continued.

"Now the item of this hunt and the reason that I have called so many of you here, is a Dashade. A rare creature that was said to have gone extinct centuries ago. However reports still arise of these strange creatures. I intend on finding one. They are sentient and are most well known for their ability to gain strength and life from devouring Force users." He gave a moment for the people to think about that.

 

[Ultimatum]

"To the end of finding at least one of these beings I have mapped out portions of the galaxy to be searched. Specifically areas that have had reports in the last one hundred years. Also included are systems that have been rumored to have colonies of these creatures. I have sectioned off areas and will be allocating these regions randomly. You will all be part of groups and does not wish to work with their group they must ask to be moved to a different group. Also if the region of space is not to your liking then please let me know and I will see about making adjustments."

He expected the organics to work together, those that did not would simply be left out of the hunt then. Ultimatum believed in working as a group, as a droid that was his natural state. He however did know that some organics did not work together well, so he would have them work on smaller areas by themselves.

He put the commands in as well. They were to search both inhabitable systems and inhospitable planets for colonies. He would have the info packets sent out with the random locations. He looked forward to seeing what they were capable of.

"You all have your destinations, those that are with me please stay here. Regular check ins will be done daily. Those who do not report in will be assumed to have left. Good hunting everyone."

 

[Ultimatum]

An hour later almost everyone was gone. Those that had not were either gearing up or with Ultimatum. He planned on leaving soon, just after making certain that the ships were mostly gone and that Legion had his orders about taking care of the planet while he was gone. He couldn't guess how long it would be, but he assumed anywhere near a week to a month. Obviously he didn't want the planet to fall into anarchy during his absence. The people were pretty good about taking orders from Legion, they had done so in the past and seemed to handle it fairly well.

Ultimatum finished preparing the last of his notes before turning to his group. Again he marveled at how ragtag everyone appeared. He doubted if any of them had a credible job from wherever they had come. However he hoped that they would prove competent enough in this job. He spoke to them, "Alright we have an area in the Outer Rim, specifically in the Unknown Region. We are to go to a an area near the Sith held world of Rakata Prime. Let's go."

The men all jumped onto his freighter, which lifted off along with the Fate. He didn't expect a fight, but one could never be too certain.