...is this the real life? (Janus)

[Arage Bao]

~Tion Trade Nexus~​

~Tion Hegemony~​

~[member="Darth Janus"]~​

It was a lazy and rather slow evening in the Tion Trade Nexus, evening in the sense that the geo-orbital position the station was locked in was currently in that vague, indescript zone between light and dark which made so many people confused about the actual adjective you had to use to describe the time of day.​

Lord Ovmar sat in his office, in one of the forgotten corners of the Nexus and, as every Sith Lord would attest to, was brooding like the best of them. Though perhaps brooding wasn’t the best way to describe his current state of mind.​

There were plans in motion, there were always plans in motion, but this was about Raxus Prime. Many months ago he had acquired the rights to certain land masses on the planet, rights that allowed him to essentially do whatever he wished to do on his territory. ​

Most of the scoundrels, pirates and Warlords had been cleaned out of the area after Santhe, Ardik and himself had finished off a small droid army and its big Brother from a junkyard, the only thing that rested him to do was to come up with a better way to recycle all the trash on his territory- instead of simply having it all brought to a central recycling facility as had been the plan from the beginning.​

It hadn’t taken him long to realize the potential of the contract he had won during a certain auction, a contract which gave him the opportunity to order a specialized worker droid.​

He had a few plans, but he wondered if Ardik wouldn’t have the key to his problem.​

and so he waited on the illustrious former Emperor to arrive to his office on the Nexus, to start the planning, plotting and eventual takeover of the pla-- I mean, what?​

We aren’t taking over any planets.​

We are simply building a recycling plant.​

Begone!​

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

Well, actually, the last time Ovmar, Ardik, and Santhe had been on Raxus Prime, they had only beat up one junk golem. And it was actually Ovmar and Santhe who handled that, because Ardik had better things to do. Like hide. Then the small droid contingent they had beaten up had been on another planet entirely. So, unfortunately, the vast tracks of Raxus Prime real estate Ovmar had purchased were still crawling with illicit scavengers and ne'er-do-wells. Tough break. He would probably have to actually deal with it if he wanted it to count as an actual development thread.

The doors to Jared's office slid open, revealing the rather mundane visage of Tyrin Ardik, bureaucrat extraordinaire. As per usual, Tyrin was decked out in business attire, only this time instead of a lightsaber, he held a briefcase. Some Sith carried around lightsabers and mystical artifacts of untold power. Tyrin himself preferred something he could keep his paperwork in. Only this time, there were blueprints and schematics that had been drawn up by Hegemonic Automaton's chief designer.

"Alright. I take it this is about the contract you won?"

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Darth Janus"]

The writer of Jared Ovmar didn’t deem it worthy his time to reply to the messages between and on the lines, they would discuss such matters outside the clearly convinced boundaries of inter-characteristic interactions, it was only fair and orderly to do such a thing and weren’t they both pretty lawful evil these days?

Exactly.

Gotta stick to the rules.

The Sith Lord named Jared Ovmar stood up from his seated position and extended his hand, giving his business partner a nod as a welcome, which was followed by an actual welcoming note. Because he was that stipt.

‘Ah, welcome Ardik. Sit, sit. Yes, it’s time we come up with a few ideas, I have some plans going on on Raxus and I will need your expertise, or rather the expertise of your company, to help me with it.’

He seated himself again and then asked.

‘Want a drink, maybe a cigar?’

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

Tyrin shook Jared's hand. It wasn't a particularly inspired handshake. Really, it never was. Many people put a lot of emphasis on handshakes. Tyrin found that kind of thinking to be idiotic. If someone was going to pass up a sale because of a flaccid handshake, or crush the hand of another person in a vain attempt to make a good impression, they weren't worth doing business with anyway. Tyrin seated himself, moving the briefcase to the floor beside his chair for the time being.

"No, thank you." Tyrin replied, not being one for smoking or drinking. Well, maybe he would if [member="Jacen Cavill"] came back from his prolonged absence. Substance abuse was really the only way to cope with his nasueating vapidity.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Darth Janus"]

The Sith Lord’s grip had been firm, manly and to the point, with the infuriating underlining part that it had all been naturally without even considering it. Because that was one thing Ardik was right ‘bout, considering your handshake while doing it is fairly unmanly and just a bit stupid.

‘Alright, to business then.’ he agreed. ‘Raxus Prime is a goldmine, ‘least to people like us who can see through all the trash and waste. Some time ago I bought the rights to a small continent on it, and my men have been busy clearing out the place of hooligans and the like. Construction of a central recycling facility is already on going.’

Then he gestured towards the suitcase.

‘But we need more, I am thinking some kind of droid that can recycle and convert trash on the fly. Got any ideas?’

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

Tyrin blinked. Raxus Prime. Now there was a name he hadn't heard in a long time. At least, he had purposely stopped thinking about it once it fell under the suffocating influence of that fantastic farce of fanatical fools calling themselves Silver Jedi. He shuddered to think what imbecilic "good guy" government reforms they had forced onto the system, but apparently they were mercifully left untouched.

Maybe they would be permitted to live a little longer now.

Then again, it was more likely that was because the Silvers were just ignorant of the entire system. Maybe they still needed to be purged with the mercilessness and impunity that Tyrin would normally only afford Vong, but that was another discussion unrelated to current goings-on.

"Funny you should ask." Tyrin said, bringing the briefcase up on the desk. He opened it, choosing one of many small, circular holographic projectors strapped to the roof of the chest. On the bottom were a series of datapads. Because when you ran two bureaucracies and an intergalactic corporation, you needed a lot of datapads.

He plucked one of the projectors, placing it on the desk. Before Tyrin even closed the brief case and put it back on the floor, it turned itself on. The display brought up a view of a bulky, arachnid-shaped droid. The image rotated, and also displayed to the left of the rotating figure was a text crawl the displayed all relevant information, including dimensions, weight, power supply, and so on.

"This is the AN1, the first and probably only model of the Anu-Series. It's a recycling droid roughly the size of a medium freighter, to be blunt. The droid picks up salvageable trash with a large, underside-mounted tractor beam. It's then put through a molecular furnace, processed, and cubes of durasteel or a similar metal are deposited out the back."

"We haven't built any yet, as I greatly disdained selling models to the lackluster Jedi offshoots loitering on Raxus and no current salvaging clan nearby has the funds necessary to purchase one, much less maintain it. Well, besides you, I now suspect."

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Darth Janus"]

Ah… and there it was.

‘I knew there was a reason I called on you, Ardik. This looks perfect, absolutely… perfect. Productions costs? How many can you make, plating? Give me more details.’

He edged closer to the… edge of his seat, eagerly awaiting the words spoken. It seemed the man was really enthusiastic about this sort of stuff, for whatever reason.

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

"We don't have a fixed price estimate yet. Suffice to say, it shall be expensive." Tyrin admitted. No one was sure of pricing any more these days. The value of a credit varied wildly from place to place. Fortunately, Ord Cestus' lax industrial laws made everything just a little bit cheaper than normal.

"Since it serves no use as a combat droid, the plating is merely thick durasteel. Nothing more. Being that you are the only being I know of presently that can purchase these droids and put them to proper use, these will be produced on a per-order basis. How many do you want?"

The proposed model was much too large to have a dedicated facility all on its own. The legs would need to be produced separately from the chassis, likely at different facilities. Again, given the size, a costly endeavor. There was no way Hegemonic Automaton would enact the burden of keeping production of such a colossal machine in steady supply. Not when the market for it was roughly the size of Jared Ovmar.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Darth Janus"]

Even though one Jared Ovmar was a pretty big market all things considered.

The Sith Lord found himself nodding during Ardik’s story, the thing would be expensive that much was for sure- but probably worth it in the grand scheme of things. Recycling seemed a trivial matter, but done right? It could bring in credits like nobody’s business.

Especially because at the moment few others were actually doing it, ‘least in the big corporate sense of the word. Which meant that only the little leagues were involved, easily pushed out and turned into major profits if anything.

He wrote up a number on a card and pushed it over to Ardik, it wasn’t the full capacity Ovmar was expecting on needing- more the beginning to test out the waters, see if they were as good as Ardik thought they were.

From there they could work further.

‘That work?’

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

Tyrin gingerly retrieved the ambiguously numbered card from the table. Presumably this was a very large number, as the exact number of credits at Ovmar's disposal was also ambiguously numbered. What that Ovmar had a very high net worth and a lot of money to throw around. Under this assumption, the number on the card would reflect this, as well as the fact that the juggernaut of a recycling droid he was about to purchase was also expensive beyond the wildest dreams of the plebeians lurking outside the confines of this office.

"Certainly." Tyrin replied simply, slipping the card into his breast pocket. "I'll have two of them produced and shipped out. Then we'll see what, if anything needs to be adjusted, and then bring in an additional three."

Five humongous droid walkers. Tyrin could see them now, scouring the wastes of Raxus Prime, gobbling up mountains of trash and defecating durasteel. What a sight to behold. What a time to be alive.

"Sound good to you?"

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Darth Janus"]

If this turned out to be successful Ovmar would have to talk to Ardik again to make this a more exclusive deal. Best way to ensure a monopoly was to make sure people didn’t have access to the same tools as you have, ensuring that only you can provide the quality that is needed.

So he nodded.

‘Quite good, Ardik.’

A new thought came up to him just then.

‘If someone approaches Hegemonic Automaton to buy these droids… could you notify me?’

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

"I suppose." Tyrin initially said, but then remembered to find that particular request suspicious. He raised an eyebrow. "Why, do you intend to stop them?"

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Darth Janus"]

His own eyebrow raised itself at that posed question.

'Of course not. An individual has the right to start up an enterprising operation, as much as I have the right to dissuade them from staying individual for very long.’

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

Tyrin blinked. That was an absolutely fantastic answer and a far better one than he would have expected. Were Tyrin not so prideful that he found complimenting Ovmar to be beneath him, he would have recommended the man start signing his business cards with that quote. Or maybe tattoo it across his chest. Whatever the kids were doing these days. Instead he expelled air out of his nose in an amused manner. This was about as emotive as Tyrin could bring himself to be.

"Interesting. Will that be all?"

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Darth Janus"]

An acceptive nod came forward to accept the appreciation that was simply flowing out of Ardik’s essence, it was as clear as sunshine that his words had resonated somewhere deep inside the pitch black cavern which he called a soul.

‘None as of yet, Ardik. Have yourself a pleasant day.’