Power Play

[Miss Blonde]

New Beginnings

A long awaited appointment was scheduled for the new CEO of Stargo Defense [member="Darth Metus"], an infamous Sith Lord that was to say the least totally badass. So he was invited to the Dragon Palace Casino on Antecedent to discuss and negotiate contracts for his company to set up new factories and use the shipyards in Red Raven territory. It was desperately needed, since the auctioning off of Subach industries the Red Ravens had been falling hard in the military department.

Being a criminal organization they lacked the power of an organized and trained military, however there was another solution to this problem. Droids. Droids could be used in much more ways a human could be, the possibilities were endless of what could be achieved with them. However Patricia had more private things in mind to take care of in this meeting that met her own agenda. Just a few things here and there that would make life safer for her in the Red Ravens, and if need be take the organization as her own.

So sitting back in a private penthouse at the Casino the little blonde official wore a tight red dress that showed a generous amount of bust and leg, a Sith Lord might not be distracted by her looks. But there was also what else she kept by her side, a few billion credits in some briefcases. That would come into play later, but for now she waited in the private room for the arrival of their esteemed guest. She wasn't armed at all, that was probably a mistake. But there was plenty of security around the hotel that could help if things went down.

 

[Malok]

Infamy.

Oftentimes, this particular trait was a direct consequence of one's occupation or choices. It would typically result in the loss of loved ones...but the gain of numerous opportunities. For one who could wield their infamy "correctly", a black reputation could turn into a literal mountain of wealth...or more. Darth Metus considered himself the type that took full advantage of his reputation. Having been hailed as the culprit for the collapse of the Confederacy, the Sith Lord utilized his reputation to inspire fear and encourage cooperation wherever he went.

And sometimes, it afforded his assets the opportunity to grow.

Such was the present, for he had recently acquired ownership of Stargo Defense Enterprises. This corporation had built a marvellous reputation for itself by selling droids and starships to the former bastion of freedom in the South. However, in light of its recent change in leadership, other entities now felt comfortable requesting contracts from the corporation; entities such as the Red Ravens. In all honesty, the Sith Lord knew very little about the criminally-founded nation, but knew a golden opportunity when he saw one.

In fact, preliminary conversations had resulted in his making a special request: the acquisition of a few Droch for his personal study. Now he would see whether or not this request was fulfilled...and if it was, the Ravens would have found themselves a rather powerful friend. That said, Darth Metus made his arrival at the appointed casino without much fanfare. Alone he navigated his way through the vibrant establishment before arriving at the office where negotiations were to take place.

He knocked once, for the sake of being courteous, before admitting himself within.

First impressions were everything in the Galaxy, and what the Sith Lord saw caused him to loft a brow. Obviously here was a woman who wasn't afraid to utilize her assets in attempts to make business deals; which, oddly enough, reminded the Sith of one Danger Arceneau of the South. Regardless, the hooded man remained such and stepped closer to the desk; pausing in order to procure his datapad and hold it aloft.

"You must be Patricia." he began, "Let's get down to it. Time is of the essence."

[member="Patricia Susan Garter"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Darth Metus"]

Patricia sat on the opposite end of a small dinner table that looked like it could comfortably sit a family of four, the boxy design of the table had various Atrisian dragons carved into the wood and it looked rather expensive. When the sith walked in she looked up at him and the tiny five foot two agent laid her eyes upon the viscous looking Sith Lord she honestly wanted to shoot him in the leg and beat him half way to death. She had lost nearly everything to the sith, her family on Zektros, her men on Manaan, the only thing she had left was her Daughter Erika and she was just beginning the pregnancy with her son Kincaid. Hopefully the sith didn't sense that and make a comment, it would make her skin crawl.

Behind her there were a few billion credits and two large sacks of creepy crawling creatures inside two bags, and besides that were two jars of sticky slimy eggs. She looked to the Sith Lord and gave a cheerful smile that came with years of practice then spoke.

"I am Patricia. You must be Lord Metus, it's a pleasure to meet you. So yes let's get down to brass tax." She said in a serious voice

"You are aware of my special request. I want a fail safe that will give me control over new droids and the ability to detonate ships if need be. Now this will of course be untraceable back to you or your company. The ravens will allow you to build factories on Antecedent, Via, Barab, and Makeb you may take your pick of what worlds you please. You may also use the current ship yards for your products. Do you wish to say anything before we continue?" She asked nicely

 

[Malok]

As the initial glances took place, the Sith Lord began to feel something emanate from the woman. Now, while it was a considerably poor business practice to invade the minds of one's clients, it was perfectly acceptible to acknowledge when their emotions were bleeding into the very atmosphere. Lofting a brow, Darth Metus simply hearkened to the chaotic symphony produced by Patricia. Angst. Sorrow. Pain. Anger. All these and more characterized her as she looked upon the Sith Lord.

Now, Darth Metus was no phyciatrist...but he could tell that this woman had no particular affection for him. Whether this was because of his being a Sith or otherwise, he has no idea...and afforded her the courtesy of not wreaking havoc upon her mind to find out.

Instead, the Sith Lord simply relaxed his stance and input his datapad's passcode. Once unlocked, he then navigated the device until the first of a few blueprints were revealed. This one was a Droid concept drawn up by a design team assigned to the Red Ravens contract. Beforehand, basic information regarding the nation was afforded to Stargo Defense Enterprises so that the design teams could conceive Droids that would be of tactical use for the client. This was essential, for it ensured that the standing army would take full advantage of the home field.

"Yes, I am well aware of your special request." he began, placing the datapad on the desk so that Patricia could review the design. "And it is as simple as this: as you are the representative of the Red Ravens, we shall look upon your order as if it were fully sanctioned by the whole of your government. Discretion, therefore, will be paramount and deniability will be afforded to both Stargo Defense Enterprises and yourself."

With that said, the Sith Lord moved onto indicating certain aspects of the Droid model that warranted being highlighted. "Now then, I would like to discuss the specifics of the facilities my corporation will be permitted to build inside Red Ravens territory...after I show you the Droid model we conceived specicially for your nation. We call it the SDE-RR1: "Rogue" Battle Droid. Upon analysis of the information you provided us before this meeting, we concluded that urban and guerilla warfare would be some of the more prominant challenges your government would face. As opposed to creating a standard battle Droid, we devised one that would excel in breaching, close quarters, etc. These are perfect for acting as bodyguards, enforcers, or whatever you see fit."

"Now then, is there anything additionally that you would like incorporated into the design?"


[member="Patricia Susan Garter"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Darth Metus"]

"Of course, I want Stargo to maintain innocence throughout the process. I have no disgressions against your terms to fulfill the request." The sith wasn't hard to reason with, he had very reasonable set of conditions for Stargo and himself. He did have to protect his company from any ravens who decided it was a good idea to take advantage or move on Stargo. She just wanted to be able to have this failsafe if the Ravens ever decided she was a liability. In the criminal world you could never be too careful or cautious and wielding a droid army with an iron fist certainly helped.

Moving on to the next few items on the list the main battle droids that were to be designed for Red Ravens, they looked and sounded well enough and Patricia had only one request. She wasn't an engineer or designer of any kind. She was sure the droids functioned fine but her request was to be more the sake of convenience in fighting what seemed to be one of the biggest problems on the battlefield. Force users, they were a pain in the side of droid using armies for hundreds of years that even harkened back to the clone wars. And a big problem with them was blaster rifles, while a blaster was great and had better ammo capacity than a slug thrower it was still the best method of fighting force users in terms of traditional easy to mass produce weapons.

"Yes, I do. These droids need to be outfitted with slug throwers not blasters as their main weaponry and of course for the sake of slicers they need their memory banks wiped when destroyed. We encounter a lot of force users and slicers and we want to be prepared for any such occasion. Other than that your company is free to stake out land on any Red Raven planet that isn't Teth. Rakghouls have become a problem on that planet and it would be in the best interest to keep your employees. Our president Cryax Bane would not wish to get involved with the messy details of contracts. And me, as long as you do not harm innocent workers or civilians I don't care what you build for your factories. You have creative control." She said with a little smile, honestly she really did not care about the Sith's factories. She had her job to do and when it was done she would leave this place, she only hoped that the Sith here did not have his own secret agenda.

"We are criminals Lord Metus, we don't mind letting you stake out whatever land you wish."

 

[Malok]

Due to the nature of the Ravens, the Sith Lord honestly did not anticipate such a priority to be placed upon combating wielders of the Force. In fact, if memory served correctly, "criminal" organizations were often left to their own devices. The only time that, in recent history, such a nation had come under attack was when the Galactic Republic and her allies struck out against the Black Sun Syndicate in response to an act of war. Nonetheless, when a customer made a request, it was in the best interests of the corporation to see it fulfilled.

"I can understand the priority placed on combating Force wielders." Metus began. "However, I do not think that slug throwers are the way to go in this day and age. While it is true that they have proven effective in overpowering lightsaber combatants in the past, the Force sensitives of the present are...significantly more resourceful. We live in an Era where stars can be conjured on the field of battle...and so I suggest a different route. My corporation has been working alongside the denizens of Geonosis for quite some time now. As such, we have the unique advantage of being intimately familiar with sonic weaponry. This particular type of armament takes away the advantage of a lightsaber and works in an area of effect. Thus, one unit can potentially damage several force wielders before being destroyed. I believe that a new rifle variant of this technology can be drafted in order to fill this need; if you allow. Otherwise, we would be more than happy to build for you slugthrowers."

Having said this piece on the matter of the droids, it was time to touch on the matter of locations. "While Stargo Defense Enterprises greatly appreciates the momentous freedom you have afforded, we have limited our selections to worlds that would only be positively impacted by our presence. We do not seek to blemish the natural beauty of worlds known for their awe; nor do we seek to intrude where the natives will only see us as a threat. For that reason, we have selected Antecedent as our site for constructing an orbital shipyard and a factory."

"For one, the world is the definition of a metropolis, meaning that its citizens shall benefit immensely from the new job opportunities. Furthermore, we feel that Antecedent would benefit greatly from the presence of a modernized, naval force due to its being your capital. If this is agreeable than I will begin drafting construction plans as soon as possible."

[member="Patricia Susan Garter"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Darth Metus"]

Patricia mulled over his offer for a few moments, while sonic weapons were nice and all they weren't much in the way of accuracy and range. And while blasters were nice and had a decent range they were still not as good as physical projectile that could hit with better kinetic force and pierce plate armor that seemed to be all the rage these days. But blasters were a bit less reliable when it came to humid biomes, but had great amounts of ammo. But Patricia knew that slug throwers were probably a good net to go with but sonic weapons were also good when it came to force users. So she decided to compromise with the man since he did have very good points.

"I suppose the customer isn't always right. But I would like you create a line of sonic pistols as secondaries for our droids. But I do want them to be equipped with slug throwers regardless as a primary. We've had a lot of would be Jedi and sith come to our territory and raise hell. So this is important to us that our droids can have accurate weapons that they can use effectively." Patricia said and began to root through a manilla folder for zoning contracts and shipyard permits and rights for antecedent. She had brought them for just about every world in the ravens space.

Taking the contract out it basically went over standard practices, zoning laws, permits, license to do business all in the name of Stargo industries. It was about five pages worth of paperwork that required signatures. Patricia had already signed and made sure president bane had done the same. She took the papers and gave them to the Sith Lord. Afterwards she got on her data logger and sent the digital versions to his communicator.

"Just sign and initial and this bad boy is ready." She said with a Colgate smile afterwards

 

[Malok]

With his professional opinion noted, the order made by the Red Ravens was altered only ever so slightly. A new line of slugthrowers would have to be developed, one that could compete with those cluttering the Galactic market, in order to best accommodate the wishes of the nation. Furthermore, the design teams back at Stargo would have their hands full; for there had yet to be a miniaturized version of a sonic rifle developed as of yet. However, despite the challenges, the Sith Lord was confident that his corporation could easily fulfill the terms of the contract. After all, satisfaction is guaranteed.

"It shall be so." he began, making a few notes on his datapad. "As a review, your Droid units will be of average height, programmed with infantry, guerilla, and urban warfare as priority, and will be equipped with slugthrowers and sonic pistols in order to effectively combat force users. We can easily accommodate this order and have prototypes at your door in...about a month. If those meet your standards, then mass production will begin immediately after."

With that said, the time now came for contracts to be reviewed and signed. The Sith Lord pulled up onto his datapad a relatively simple agreement outlining the details of the order...minus the failsafe of course. That would be off the record, due to it being a personal agreement between Patricia and Darth Metus. "I'll just need you to sign here. This is simply a review of your order and a commitment to, of course, pay for the services rendered. You'll find that the fail safe was not mentioned, but that is in the spirit of discretion. I trust that my compensation has been acquired, yes?" As the words escaped Darth Metus' lips, he set the datapad onto the desk so that he might procure the contract from Patricia.

He did not sign right away, but instead took his time reading through the five pages. It was pretty standard content, consisting of zoning permits and whatnot, but one could never be too careful when signing a contract. Fine print was the bane of numerous companies, but it would not be the culprit of Stargo's demise. Upon seeing that all was on the up and up, the Sith Lord scrawled his signature and initials where necessary before returning the contract to the desk. "And with that, we are officially in business!"

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Darth Metus"]

Patricia gave the Sith Lord a genuine smile as she crossed her legs in her seat and took the paperwork from him. Looking over the forms one at a time giving each form a methodical read through, it wasn't that she didn't trust the Sith Lord. Well actually she didn't trust the Sith Lord at all, he was a freaking Sith Lord after all. It was like taking a cat bird shopping, it was just something you didn't do. So she scanned through all the paperwork and after a few minutes of silence she finished up the order review and nodded.

"Everything looks to be in order. So congratulation Lord Metus, you have yourself some ship yards and a new factory." Patricia smiled and gave the form her John Hancock on the secondary line

Reaching into her little red purse she pulled out a stamp gun and pressed it down on the primary line giving the signature of President Bane. She was authorized to handle this transaction and so she was able to put his signature on it as his executive assistant in office. She looked up to Metus and gave him back the forms. They were in business now and hopefully the man could provide what she needed from him. But as for his more secret payment she had to give him those creepy ass bugs he wanted so bad. There was no telling what he wanted with them but she honestly tried not to think about it too much. They were here in the room and she would make sure he got them.

"Your payment is here, in the closet behind me. Two security bags and two jars of eggs kept in a dark and humid cooler to keep them alive. It's been a pleasure" she said still being as polite as possible.

 

[Malok]

"The pleasure is all mine." said the Sith Lord.

Now that all the business had been conducted, it was time for Darth Metus to make his departure. The design teams needed to be informed of the new contract, and he also had a new project to embark upon. The creepy-crawling-insects that the Red Raven had procured would prove instrumental in a rather ambitious concept that the Sith had floating about in his noggin. As such, with a parting bow, Darth Metus excused himself so that he might procure the security bags and jars.

Once in his possession, he made his way out of the office and back onto his personal vessel...with a noticeable pep on his step along the way.