Not So Fast

[Geneviève Lasedri]

A surge in interest in certain ECHO Esprit products by certain members had raised several red flags at the desk of Geneviève Lasedri, and she did not like red flags in the least. Neither did she like making personal appearances.

A team of cyber investigators had done their best to profile each of the interested parties, and even more red flags popped up. For one, there was a supposed Sith Lord--Nautolan--who had garnered quite the attention with the Republic, having committed acts of terror against civilians, thereby revealing himself to the galaxy. There would have been no chance in the sun that Lasedri would have allowed this man to even be touched by any of her people with a ten-meter pole had she not been able to consolidate this procedure with the other three in question.

Then there was the particularly shady one with the scruff. Nothing clear and solid had come up on his dealings, but there was quite a history of borderline activities. Actually, having such an extensive and extensively vague history like that could not be good. Tip-toes were required with this fellow.

The female member had little to note about them, historically. She had kept relatively off the radar; seemed to be a smuggler type. But it was always the quiet ones. The fact that she somehow needed the devices ordered was suspicious in multiple ways.

The final member of the group under scrutiny had the cleanest background in comparison to the others--quite a hero with some, it would seem. His role in a prior Rebellion was well-known throughout the Holonet, and his residence in the Levantine sectors was comforting in some way. But most people do not easily agree to meetings with the unsavory types unless they are imbued with confidence--or they are not quite the squeaky-clean characters they claim to be. He would either be the rock, or he would be the one to fear the most.

On to the show. Location: Lianna.

A neutral negotiating agent--twi'lek; tukian; male--had been hired to work with ECHO Esprit and keep prying eyes off their operations. Lasedri was not interested in allowing anyone to know who exactly controlled this company. His ear implant had been programmed with an extra receptive frequency for him to take orders from the owner via Grizzki, EE's starship tech specialist--as well as allow the small ECHO Esprit committee to listen in on the conversation.

Entering the dimly lit room, the middleman set a datapad on the table and glanced over his company. He sighed as his eyes came across Nautolan, but said nothing of it. "We're ready to begin?" he mumbled, then coughed to clear out his throat. Raising his head to raise his eyebrows and feign a smile at all four attendees, he repeated in almost gameshow host fashion, "We are ready to begin?"

[member="Jorus Merrill"], [member="Darth Odium"], [member="Jared Ovmar"], [member="Skye Mertaal"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

Jorus took a long look around the room.

"I think there's been a scheduling error," he said quietly. "When I said we, I meant I'd intended to meet with your rep along with Chloe Blake and the rest of my folks you turned down on background check -- you missed some major and squeaky-clean opportunities there, by the way. But if we're here because you want to pitch to a group, I'm guessing the four of us can oblige. Ovmar here is known to me; we've worked together on extragalactic exploration. But he and his company have nothing to do with me. The lady here -- I think I shot her on Kashyyyk a few years back. And you," he said, glancing at Odium with eyes narrowed, "you I know only by reputation."

His gaze settled on the middleman. "Bottom line, friend, we all speak for ourselves here. I don't envy you that, but my guess is you've got enough sales experience to pitch up the middle in hopes at least a couple of us are still seriously interested in what your company's offering. So let's have the pitch. How does your Sprite compare, tactically, to the gear from Santhe, Silk, and Mandal Hypernautics, or even a basic false telesponder with a workaround?"

 

[Skye Mertaal]

[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Geneviève Lasedri"] [member="Ember Rekali"] [member="Jared Ovmar"] [member="Darth Odium"]

He remembered that, Skye would muse with a slash of irritation. With Lix rounds nonetheless. That hadn't been her proudest moment.

Stiffly, she'd cross her heavily Beskar'gam gauntleted arms over her chest. And waited. Granted, the impatience was growing, steadily so.

So much so that even Deagan wouldn't need to focus on her to tell right off the bat.

 

[Deagan Hunt]

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

"Eassy there, Major." the words would be spoken low, out of the corner of his mouth for [member="Skye Mertaal"] to only hear. She was starting to shoot up like a lifeday tree in his empathic senses, and [member="Jorus Merrill"] wasn't far behind.

The scruffy faced rascal of a Zeltron stood beside the Red Blade, one coral tinted hand running through the blue black locks of his hair. A stray forelock would fall over his brow, just as he'd shine the middleman with a rakish grin, giving a half shrug as if to say... Sorry mate, man's got a point.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"] [member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Skye Mertaal"] [member="Darth Odium"]

While the others talked and grew impatient the Sith Lord, not Sith Lord was satisfied by letting Jorus Merrill do his introduction for him- everything the man in front of ‘em needed to know was already known to him, the rest wasn’t important, the rest wasn’t relevant.

He sat, pondering the sales agent, the man had a strange vibe coming off of him. Techno-technical, if Ovmar was reading it right.

Some men needed more justification, some men… needed a casus belli.

The Ovmar was simply bored.

So he blinked and as he blinked the world shifted, with the shift came new understanding and new feeds.

 

[Darth Odium]

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"] [member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Skye Mertaal"] [member="Deagan Hunt"] [member="Jared Ovmar"]

Odium looked behind him then to his sides before he pointed a large green finger at himself and mouthed "me?" to Jorus. He had not expected to be in a group of people it was a pleasant surprise however. He smiled at the twi'lek and adjusted his satchel to sit on his lap and reached inside and rummaged around for a moment like an old woman with a too large purse before he looked up at Ovmar and smiled. He closed his bag and nodded to the Twi'lek that he was ready.

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

"Well, then. I gather you all know each others' names?" The twi'lek pursed his lips and shrugged, finding this galaxy to be growing smaller by the day. Seems like everyone knows everyone else. "I'm Ngils'tek, representative for this company. If you don't know its name, then you probably aren't supposed to be here." His gaze met [member="Deagan Hunt"], but he said nothing. There had not exactly been a rule about bringing companions along. He offered his hand to each of the attendees, though rather hesitant as he came around to the Nautolan.

"Before I answer your question, Mister..." He glanced at his datapad. "...Merrill, we have some ground rules." He frowned as he read through the list of miscellaneous items. "Basically, no communications devices of any sort are allowed during this session--that includes beacons; trackers of any kind. Though, we'll provide you with a recording. There are datachips plugged in at each of your seats which you may unlink at any time if you wish to leave. You're entitled to a complete transcript up until--but not after--you leave." Blah blah. Someone liked their rules.

"Now!" He pulled up a holo image to be projected from his datapad, holding specs for the product being discussed. "You're all here because you have indicated interest in purchasing the Copycat: Sprite model, a very advanced starfighter component that, quite honestly, seems like it could help someone cause a lot of damage. Therefore, it's best to keep this out of the wrong hands." Ngils'tek had no real interest in the device being pitched, but his eyes reflexively glanced at the Nautolan for a second. Probably hands like yours.

"As for your inquiry, Mister Merrill, no one else has this sort of thing on the market. And, judging by the fact that all... five of you are present, I'm assuming you realize this as well." He paused to offer a businessman smile at the man as he received some info through his implant. "The fact is that Silk has bought into our baseline version of this. And Mandal Hypernautics--their products are less about tip-toeing and more about reactive defense--and for much larger vessels, I might add." Hopefully he was doing this right. No one had yelled inside his ear yet.

[member="Jorus Merrill"], [member="Skye Mertaal"], [member="Jared Ovmar"], [member="Darth Odium"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"] [member="Darth Odium"] [member="Deagan Hunt"] [member="Skye Mertaal"] [member="Jared Ovmar"]

"Silk snaps up rights to anything halfway interesting. Maybe they use it, maybe they don't." Jorus shrugged, scratching his leg by the thigh holster. "Let me be frank, friend. My interest in your product is offhand. I agreed to this meeting because you think more of your product than I do, and that tickled my curiosity. Well, maybe not you personally," he amended, cybernetic eyes taking in the infrared patterns of a middleman who couldn't really care less. "Now either you're overvaluing your stuff, or there's something to it beyond the obvious, and I'm inclined to hearing what that might be. But when I'm asking you for a pitch...you follow? Pitch.

"And it's Captain Merrill, friend." He'd had other titles -- General, Master, former CEO and founder of the corporation that had created the most direct mega-hyperlane between Ceres and Lianna -- but captaincy meant the most to his identity, and remained relevant when everything else fell away.

 

[Skye Mertaal]

So while that was going into play -- this was about the time Skye was paning that cybernetic ocular patch round the room. She knew Deagan, Jorus... But the other two?

Huh.

Commence scanning of relevant data. Needless to say, she was half paying attention to Merrill and said would be pitcher of the Echo product line.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"] [member="Skye Mertaal"] [member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Darth Odium"]

The Sith Lord briefly met Skye’s eye and winked, before going back apparently listening to the conversation between the Cap’ and the representative.

For a moment Ovmar considered mentioning that he probably could buy this company with the pocket change he had currently on him- that seemed unwise after deliberating on the thought for a while.

Some of these ruffians seemed rather unkempt, last thing he wanted was to get robbed.

His mental ears perked up as he continued to listen to the words spoken and the works unspoken, the fact that the twi’lek was using a communication device while the rest of the group was disallowed the usage of it wasn’t missed on the Sith Lord.

Irony, thy name is whatever this company is called.

...he really had to get an assistant.

 

[Darth Odium]

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"] [member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Skye Mertaal"] [member="Jared Ovmar"]

Odium pulled an......apple from his bag and took a bite as he watched the twi'lek and crept a tendril of force energy toward him tugging at his life with a split second of force drain, just enough to be felt.

"I was planning to put your device on a ship and flit about the galaxy killing people that call themselves Sith." he said brazzenly via a vocabulator pressed to his throat. "But since I've been able to see who else wanted one and they've seen me there is little point in pretending it's someone else is there?"

 

[Jorus Merrill]

After a long silence, Jorus stood with a grunt, detaching the chip from the seat. "Well, think I've seen what I need to see. Cheers, folks."

He adjourned.

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

Ngils'tek was slightly perturbed and a little flustered by the sudden removal of [member="Jorus Merrill"]. He had not even gotten down to the details yet, and a member of ECHO Esprit would be making an appearance via holocomm presently. What was most strange was how one could simply leave without the conversation attaining much substance after traveling here to take in the product offerings.

Oh well. Business was not for the faint of heart. The twi'lek middleman shook it off and resumed his presentation, looking over his audience of four and taking in the bit of dry commentary given by the Nautolan. "Well, supposing you are all still interested... I shall continue?" That was his job, of course--selling this stuff. He zoomed in on some of holographic displays of specs. "The Sprite model is the latest in the lineup of the Copycat series.

"What you may be wondering, first off, is why would you add these to your ship for such a price." He switched the projection to that of a mock HUD display. "IFF tags are a necessity in times of war--or times of peace, honestly. If you're familiar with aerospace combat--or any combat at all--you will be aware that it can be quite difficult to discern whether the man or machine in the distance is friend or foe. IFF helps to avoid that confusion, and therefore, avoid unnecessary allied casualties at the hands of your own people.

"What the Copycat line has succeeded in doing is tricking the sensors that are used to identify the IFF tags. If your enemy does not know you are the enemy, then he is most vulnerable. And, at this point in war technology, most exchanges of fire happen outside of visual identification range, meaning one can strike before the enemy knows what hit them." He cleared his throat, voice a little shaky as it dawned on him that he had lost one of the safer customers, and the visitors seemed a little unbalanced. Still, he continued, almost to the point at which he would defer to the ECHO employee. "What the previous models failed to do was keep the 'good guys' from shooting themselves in the same circumstances. With Sprite, allied forces will be able to remain allied, and know it."

[member="Darth Odium"], [member="Jared Ovmar"], [member="Skye Mertaal"], [member="Deagan Hunt"]

 

[Skye Mertaal]

[member="Jorus Merrill"] was not the only one impatient. This was taking too long. Off went the chip from her seat, and Deagan was one to quickly jump on after her.

"Whoa, there. hey!" he would utter with a half attempt at soothing her over. It didn't work. Then again, when had it ever really with the Major?

The woman had a mind of her own ever since their tenure in the old Rebel Alliance. Granted, both of them had that past hidden well.

"Sorry mate," Deagan would say with a shrug, leaving his chip behind before following Skye out.