Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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Meeting the Admiral

After putting a call out for Admirals, Tmoxin had received the Mon Calamari's information from her former Admiral in the Hapan Royal Navy where she served a few years ago. She didn't know much about Tesh Aquer except that he was a young and up-and-coming Commander in the MCDF. The message she sent to the Mon Calamari read:

//begin transmission

To: Tesh Aquer
From: Tmoxin Temi

Subject: Red Raven Navy

I'm interested in building a small Navy for the Red Ravens and I have the ships. I'm looking for a savvy, fearless leader to help me round out the armada and help with defense primarily, but head up additional operations should they arise. In return you join the Red Ravens, I put you on the payroll and build a custom warship for you. You may plan the engineering if you wish because I'm aware that nothing compares to a Mon Calamari-designed ship.

//end transmission

She wasn't sure of his political leanings or his cultural tastes so she invited the Admiral to meet her in a specific VIP area of the Dragon Palace Casino on Antecedent, away from the seedier back corners and the showgirls dressing room.

As Tmoxin sat sipping a rather fine vintage of Corellian wine, she perused the latest ship designs from Stargo Enterprises on a holounit. "End prototype presentation," she said and the images disappeared from the holounit. "Practice Quarrenese," she said and suddenly the holoimage of a benevolent-looking Mon Calamari appeared, speaking a greeting in Quarrenese.

[member="Tesh Aquer"]
 
Tesh was mulling over the latest Mon Calamari prototype, a small corvette built for patrol purposes. Fast, maneuverable, and boasting one of the best communication arrays that can be found on a ship of its size, it embodied the Mon Calamari philosophies that stretched back to their inception. His holo dinged softly as he received a transmission. He barely glanced at it, thinking it was probably another question about the building of the prototype. He did a double take as he saw the subject. The sender, [member="Tmoxin Temi"] , he didn't know, but the subject he knew very well. Being a Mon Cal, he was on top of any sort of major criminal organization. His culture hated pirates, smugglers, and slavers to the very fiber of their core. Tesh was a little different. He always dreamed of fighting against the very establishments he worked so hard to protect. Spending his days wasting away at the controls of the Mon Calamari Defense Fleet was his nightmare now. As a kid he'd dreamed of it, but now he knew better. His days were spent watching training exercises and designing new ships and tactics. He longed for the fight, but he never got it. Maybe it was time for him to go to the fight and stop waiting for the fight to come to him.

Checking around to make sure no one was looking, he checked the message. It was a defense job as well, but this was different. He'd be a criminal, the very thought of it putting a grin on his face. Presumably he'd be paid better. After all, he was working a government job. Even the massive income Mon Calamari earned from the ship building industry didn't pad his paycheck at all. A custom warship sounded nice too. He was currently using the standard MC80 as his flagship, and although it could rival a star destroyer in firepower, it was becoming a little run down and uncomfortable. Even so, his specialty didn't lie in enormous ships, but rather in countless small ones. His philosophy was about winning the battles from the bottom up, and that meant making some of the best small ships in the galaxy.

He went through the qualifications of the transmission again. Fearless and savvy, it read. That was him alright. This was pretty much his dream job, but he did have a duty to his planet. If he were to suddenly pack up and leave, it would leave Mon Cal vulnerable to attack, but not for long. They would surely find a replacement for him within a short amount of time. Not as brilliant, perhaps, but a lot less restless.

He responded to the transmission briefly. It read:


//begin transmission
Re: Red Raven Navy:
I would be love to take the job! I will pack what I need and take the next ship I can find to Antecedent. Once I arrive, we can discuss further payments, fleet numbers, and ship design.
~MCDF Admiral Tesh Aquer
//end transmission

Making his way to his quarters, he packed what little he needed for the trip and headed down to the hangar. No one gave him a second glance; he usually visited the hangar on little to no notice. He carefully made his way onto a starfighter and set the coordinates to that of Antecedent. He piloted the starfighter out into the infinite void of space and hit the hyperdrive. With a blink of light he was gone, leaving Mon Calamari behind and heading to Antecedent.
 
Good news, thought Tmoxin. The Admiral sounded very interested.

"Stop Quarrense lessons," she said to her holounit and the voice operated device did as it was told, the disembodied Mon Calamari head disappearing. Pressing some buttons on her datapad she instructed the holounit to bring up the various contracts which the Ravens had with ship manufacturers. Currently Tmoxin had The Gaillard Corporation working on a light cruiser which she herself had decided to pilot. The Hapan officer hadn't tapped into the Krayt Industries arrangement yet and it was about time to do so. She pulled up that specific contract and read the fine print. Surely the Mon Calamari Admiral would be excited about the prospect of building a ship using Isotope-5.

She sipped at her Corellian wine and thought about her next problem. Where to house and how to properly man and service the fleet she was rapidly building? Maybe the Admiral would have some ideas.

[member="Tesh Aquer"]
 
Tesh had made a couple mistakes in leaving so quickly. One of those was not bringing credits for food and drink. However, he was one of the best holochess players on Mon Calamari, and gambling on his skills had paid off. Now, with the remnants of a Seltov Hammer coursing through his veins, he piloted the small starfighter to Antecedent. It was another one of those planetary cities, much like Coruscant. Tesh had only been to Coruscant once, and he had found it confusing and terrifying. Hopefully this wouldn't be the case here.

His instructions told him to go to the Dragon Palace Casino, some sort of multibillion credit resort. He piloted the ship to the nearest port and toom the shuttle over. As he sped through the air, he took a look at the surrounding area. The buildings were absolutely enormous, much larger than any civilian structure on Mon Calamari. When he got to the Dragon Palace, his eyes, already bulging, almost popped out of his head. The place was enormous, not as tall as the other buildings, but sprawling. He could have spent more than a day just exploring the place, but he was ordered to be at the VIP section.

He approached the guard at the door, asking for directions to the VIP center. The guard was quite helpful, simply handing him a map and telling him to "figure it out". And so he did. After a short "detour" through one of the racier parts of the casino, he arrived at the door to the right VIP section. As per Mon Cal custom, he knocked four times in rapid succession and waited for [member="Tmoxin Temi"] to answer
 
"Come in," Tmoxin answered at the rap on the door. When the Mon Calamari entered he would see a large plush area featuring a lone high-roller sabacc table with no players currently playing the game. A lone male Twi'lek bodyguard stood behind the Hapan officer. Tmoxin herself sat at a low table where she had a holounit set up and was cycling through different ship designs. She had a glass of scarlet-colored wine in her hand.

"Thank you for meeting with me on such short notice," she said looking up at Aquer. She didn't rise up to greet him but beckoned him over not necessarily to sit beside her but in a chair nearby. "Do you need anything before we get started. Drinks, food?" A roving serving droid swerved over expectantly.

[member="Tesh Aquer"]
 
Tesh let the door slide open and took a glance around the room briefly. The room was very well-decorated, but he expected nothing else from a casino of this grandeur. A Twi'lek bodyguard was in the room, a disappointment. Even though he was a Mon Cal, he had to admit that female Twi'leks were arguably the most sexually arousing species, maybe behind Zeltrons. He finally let his gaze rest on the woman near the center of the room. She was beautiful, being a Hapan woman and all. He may have been a fish, but he wasn't blind. Even he had to admit that Mon Calamari women were just not very attractive, even if their dorsal fins did have stripes in the right order. Still, this was a purely professional visit, and the concept of a giant salmon hitting on a Hapan woman was disgusting even to him. He snapped back to attention when she spoke, and he tipped his head slightly when she spoke


"Oh, it's no problem at all," he replied. "Actually, a couple crab-stuffed creampuffs would be great right now". The last comment was directed towards the serving droid. The creampuffs were one of his favorite foods and an ancient Mon Calamari delicacy. They were nutritious and sweet, but most importantly, they were filled with live crabs. Hopefully the casino would be able to provide.

"Now, let's talk business. How much will I be payed, and what kind of ships am I working with?" Those were, after all, his biggest concerns about the job. He needed to know what he would be working with and how much he would be working for. Of course, with the way he left Mon Calamari, he wasn't getting that job back any time soon. He would basically have to settle for anything now,

[member="Tmoxin Temi"]
 
When the Mon Cal ordered crab-stuffed creampuffs Tmoxin gagged. She quickly composed herself and barked an order at the Serv-O-Droid who seemed befuddled by the request. "You heard the Admiral." The droid buzzed off to cobble together something that resembled the fishy appetizer.

She smiled at Aquer. "Right down to business. Good." As the Hapan female spoke to him she idly manipulated the 3-D holo models of the ship in front of them both on the table. "As for a salary. Name your price." Even though Tmoxin was once in the Hapan Royal Navy she wasn't sure what high-ranking officers were paid these days.

"The Raven fleet is not large. We have some corvettes, a couple of cruisers and frigates. To my knowledge we have no capital warship. Would that be something you would be interested in commanding? If so, I could have one built specifically for you. Go ahead," she said motioning to the holo models. "Have a glance through some designs."

Tmoxin rose, straightened her blazer and began to pace the room. "There are some problems with having a true Navy fleet for the Ravens though Mr. Aquer." She looked him in the eye and then the other eye.

The Serv-O-Droid came back into the room with a tray of hors-d'oeuvres. They were small pies filled with cooked shrimp which was presumably the best the casino could do with the exotic request.

[member="Tesh Aquer"]
 
Naming his own price? Now that was something he hadn't heard in a long time. This was starting off well. Quickly, he did some math in his had. His old job paid a healthy 300,000 credits a year. A little more would be nice, maybe 400,000 credits? 500,00 would be pushing it a little. "400,000 credits a year," he said. "That's about what I should have been paid as an admiral on Mon Calamari." He was a little frustrated with his prior pay. His service had been excellent, his ethic unmatched, at least then. Plus, the extra 100,000 credits would be a nice cushion. Maybe he could invest in Krayt Industries. That might be profitable.

Hm. Not many large warships. That would be a problem with most other admirals, but Tesh always liked winning the battles from the bottom up and thus had a large amount of experience with corvette and starfighter tactics. In fact, he was writing a book detailing some of his tactics. A capital warship would be nice though. Maybe not as big as an MC80 but much more modern and comfortable. He started flicking through the designs absentmindedly, not really settling on one. "How big of a warship can your people build?" he asked. Although he fought the small battles, he didn't want to be sitting in a frigate against a battlecruiser. Plus, something similar to a Mon Cal design would be perfect.

He was interrupted briefly by the serving droid entering. The hors-d'oeuvres looked tasty, although they weren't crab puffs. He grabbed one and ate it carefully, trying to look professional. [member="Tmoxin Temi"] spoke again, saying "There are some problems with having a true Navy fleet for the Ravens though Mr. Aquer." Problems, huh? He could work with problems. Problems always had solutions. "What kind of problems?" he asked.
 
"Your salary is granted," said Tmoxin. The nonchalance with which she said it was an indication to Aquer of just how wealthy the Crime Syndicate was. She continued to steadily pace the room. The Hapan wasn't frantic but quite focused.

"The problems we are having Mr. Aquer is not that we can't build a large warship. It's where to keep the fleet." She finally stopped and sat down again on the sofa. "It's also about perception. I'm not sure how much you know about the Ravens but we're a criminal organization. We're not a governing body. I'm afraid when we start building hangars here on Antecedent or elsewhere we'll attract unwanted attention." She picked up her wineglass and the bottle next to it and topped up her glass.

"While I want a true Navy, the Red Ravens aren't an organized militia. But at the same time we're not pirates. I want us to be able to defend our assets and that means by air as well."

She sighed. "My problem is one of branding, Admiral. Even within these walls. If you have ideas on how to help me with this, well... I'll make sure the Dragon Palace Casino always has crab-stuffed cream puffs on the menu." She said this knowing it would irritate the poor Head Chef of the casino.

[member="Tesh Aquer"]
 
"Branding? What type of branding issues do you have?" If Tesh had any eyebrows, he would have raised on incredulously. Instead, he simply blinked in surprise. He could understand not wanting to appear like a government or attracting unwanted attention, but the branding? "Do you mean, you're having trouble trying to present it to the public?" he asked. Public relations wasn't really his thing. After all, he did have an entire department for that purpose. Well, he used to. He munched on another hors-d'oeuvres as he mulled it over. A branding issue. Was there any possible way to put a spin on the subject so that it wouldn't appear to be a sort of government-backed military navy? Such as it was, from what he heard from [member="Tmoxin Temi"] . He could probably whip it into shape pretty quickly, but it would mean a lot less sleep than he usually got.

"Maybe you could artificially create a threat? You know, stage some attacks on various shipments so people would ask for some sort of defense? Hire a pirate crew to hit some shipments until people call for some sort of action?" It was really his best idea, and to him it made sense. In fact, he had pulled the stunt himself on Mon Calamari in order to relocate more of the budget. Of course, that was the pirate-hating Mon Cals he was referring to. These people were probably completely different.
 
"I'm sorry, Admiral. I sometimes get ahead of myself," Tmoxin said. How could she explain what she meant to the Mon Cal?

"I'll try to keep it simple. The minute we fly out a capital warship over Antecedent we will have a whole lot of trouble on our hands. So we just need to make it look like a private defense fleet. Even if it's not."

She watched the Admiral eat up the tiny shrimp pies and then listened to his idea of manufacturing a threat. For the most part the Ravens were busy out there creating these threats but he was onto something. "Mr. Aquer, I do like where you're going." She smiled at him. "Yes, I think we can do something like that. But let me sleep on it." She quickly downed half of her new glass of wine.

"In the meantime, I want you to contact Darth Arcanix of Krayt Industries and tell her you are interested in having them build a ship on Makeb using Isotope-5. I can send you more information on the company and our mining operations there. When you decide if you want to design the ship yourself or contract it out to Krayt, just let me know the details and I'll green light the development. And just to be clear, this is your ship." She added a little more firmly: "But at the end of the day, remember who your benefactor is."

She rose and got another glass from a nearby table. Then she sat down and poured the Mon Cal a glass of wine. "Finally, I want you to scout out Makeb for a launch pad location. Big enough to hold our fleet." She emphasized the word "our." "Or maybe you fancy a different planet for the hangar, but it has to be within Raven territory."

"Now to a great partnership," she said and raised her glass to the Admiral for a toast.

[member="Tesh Aquer"]
 
"To a great partnership." Tesh echoed as he raised his glass in return. He took a sip, savoring the wine with what few tastebuds he had. Unfortunately, evolution on his planet did not account for fine wine. "Makeb is fine, and I'll probably let the people at Krayt handle the design. I have never designed a ship using an isotope-5 reactor before, so I don't know its limitations. I'm still going to retain some input on the design though. The closer I can get to Mon Cal ship the better."

He took another sip of his wine as he flicked through the designs again, trying to get any inspiration on the new ship. He found none, and instead turned to the last hors-d'oeuvres. The shrimp, although not quite crab, still tasted great. It was a good thing he didn't creep out his hostess too. Things had started off well with the Red Ravens and he looked to continue that trend in the future.

[member="Tmoxin Temi"]
 

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