selvage on schedule

[Johash Baff]

Johash sat in the command room of the large selvage station, the room he suspected was originally the command deck from a Lucrehulk-class separatist battle ship. The ship was now so integrated into the station that from the out side you could see no part of the old war vessel. The large window had now been replaced with screens showing the planate below and camera feeds from all over the station.
The station was in disrepair, over 60% of the smelting and processing areas had been vented due to cracks or in sum sections whole chucks of hull were missing, rendering the facilities next to useless.

Johash shook his head as he thought to himself. This station is falling apart. The man who had been running it before him had barely been keeping up with the demands of the empire. 500 tons of raw materials per day. This wasn’t even half of the stations full capacity to process but with all the damage johash didn’t know if he would be able to keep up with the quota.
He didn’t like being in the pocket of anyone from the empire, but from what he had gathered from the contracts he had obtained with the station, all he had to do was give tribute to the governor daily and he could go about his business freely. The thought of what would happen if he were not make his quota drifted in the back of his mined.

Johash looked up at the screen. Just in time to see one of the droids he had allocated to reaper the less damages part of the station, getting sucked out into space. His head fall into his hands “stupid droids”. The work force that had been left had been completely mad up of droids. Over 3,000 B1 droids. The droids had been originally commissioned for war, johash could only assume his predecessor had salvaged then from the planate below. Considering the droids had all been early B1 models, all connected to a central processor, which was 6 floors below him. He couldn’t believe the dumb witted man he had won the station off was smart enough to tell the different between the early B1’s and the more commonly used B1 from the clone wars. The dumb man must have obtained the droids when he had obtained the station, but now the station was under Johash’s control and he had already advertised for organic workers to start. The repurposed war droids worked hard but having people in command would ultimately save time and money.

A light flickered on the console and a droids voice came over the intercom “sir, your guest is here”. Johash stood and made his way out of the control room. His guest could not be kept waiting, a sith was not someone he wanted to get on the bad side off.

Johash made his way to the hanger. All the trash had been, or was getting pushed to the sides to make the place seem at least a little organized. Looking out into space johahs stood waiting for the arrival of the governor.

 

[Johash Baff]

Tyrin Ardik​

The Lambda shuttle touched down in the hangar quietly. Steam from the engines vented, producing an ominous fog that threatened to engulf Tyrin as he made his way down the exit ramp. Flanked on either side by a BX-series droid commando, the Umbaran cast a look around the hangar, examining his surroundings.

What a mess.

The station looked like it had been lifted out of Raxus Prime itself, but that may have been giving it too much credit. There was trash and refuse pushed up against the walls of the hangar. Someone hadn't had enough time to clean house before Tyrin arrived, but that was fine. From what he had heard, the previous owner was as incompetent as he was slobbish. A good thing Tyrin hadn't gotten to him before he lost the station, otherwise a head would have rolled and this station would have been scuttled. He had half a mind to still do so, but he figured he should give the new proprietor, a mister Johash Baff, a fair shot before bringing the hammer down.

His helmeted gaze eventually settled on Baff, and the Umbaran strode forward to meet him, hand extended for a shake. "Mister Baff, good to meet you. We have much to discuss, I believe."

 

[Johash Baff]

Standing up as straight as he could, Johash nodded and reached out a hand as the masked man approached “welcome governor. I’m pleased you could make it”. This wasn’t the first time Johash had done business with someone who could kill him at any moment but if he was worried it didn’t show as he smiled warmly.

“Sorry for the mess, im doing a lot of repairs and I haven’t gotten around to tidying up”

Waving his hand, Johash indicated a large round door that looked to be of a different design to the rest of the hanger. “follow me governor. i'll give you a tour of the operations, i think you will be impressed”.

 

[Johash Baff]

Johash led the sith through the round door and into a long hallway. The long hallway seemed straight but when looking ahead a slight curve could be seen. doors that led off the main walkway, many of them from other ships and buildings salvaged off the planet. Evan the hallway itself would change, becoming narrower or wider. Most of the time the change was obvious as the material and design became radically different. Other times it was a slow change, all of sudden realizing the hallway was now a dark rectangular walkway rather then a light round tunnel. Johash had gotten so lost and confused the first time he had walked this corridor.
Johash wasn’t lost any more, in the week he had been on the station he now knew most of the ship like the back of his hand. He hobbled down the walk way witch seemed to curve to the right endlessly, the sith and his two bodyguards in toe

Finally johash stopped at a large door and opened it. Immediately in the doorway was a transparent blue wall. “this here is one of the smelting facilities. All the smelting workshops are on the outer side of the station so we can vent all the fumes straight in to space”. Johashs face dropped “the only problem is that because they are on the out side layer of the station, they get damaged if anything hits the station, this one has lost all air presta” looking up at the sith he continues “but the end of next week most off the external damage should be repaired”

 

[Johash Baff]

Tyrin Ardik​

It was difficult for Tyrin to tell if Johash was walking deliberately or lost on his own station, but evidently the elderly businessman was more in tune with his surroundings than his hobbling gait suggested. This station was definitely of a ramshackle sort, it almost reminded him of his own Lucrehulk. That battleship was once the property of a particularly bizarre assortment of pirates and raiders, and their choices in interior decorating had showed for it. In the end, it hadn't been anything that couldn't be cleaned up. This station's refuse piles could certainly be cleared, but it was likely the surreal corridor they just traversed would remain exactly as it had.

"A fair design choice, though I wouldn't worry about anything impacting the station. We take great care to neutralize any rogue asteroids before they come into striking range of Raxus Prime." Tyrin said. The reason for that may or may not have been due to Santhe's shipyards being present near the planet as well. "Next week, hm? You're working very quickly."

 

[Johash Baff]

the old man smiles as he looked up at the sith "you will find im very quick" johash chucked to himself before looking back through the protective shied at the droids repairing the small cracks and holes in the smelting facilities outer wall. many of the cracks seemed to have been caused from the stations unsavoury assortment of parts slowly pulling themselves apart, yet others had clearly been made by battle damage. the system had been for years a centre of crime and even as the scum was weeded out its marks remained.
the scoring witch was obverse to anyone who had seen space damage before, was completely missed by Johash, who had never seen a ship battle. to him a hole was a hole.

"the man who ran the station before me run the station at %100 capacity till it was falling apart" Johash turning again to the masked man, looking up at him as if to look into his eyes. "the station is now running at %60 parent capacity. as long at we maintain %40 the station will keep up with your demands of 500 tons of raw material". the old man smiled as if he had just let loos the punch line of a joke ."i have dedicated %10 to the repair of the station. the station makes raw sheet metal and has all the equipment to repair itself" rolling his eye he continued "an idea that clearly never occurred to my predecessor".

with two hands resting on his walking stick, Johash stairs out the shield again with a satisfied and triumphant look on his wrinkled face. his eyes slightly glazed as he thought of the future and what his station could one day do
"%80 of overall capacity should be 1000 tons per day". the old mans smile fall but his head stayed up strong "the other two smelting facilities like this one which would produce the other %20 are completely destroyed and might never be repaired"

 

[Johash Baff]

Tyrin Ardik​

"Ah, yes, that reminds me. I was meaning to talk to you about your 'tribute' arrangement." Tyrin was aware of the tithe of raw material the previous, interim governor had extracted from the previous owner of the station. Tyrin found such practices to be distasteful and unnecessary, not to mention entirely interferent in the natural, capitalist process. "As a businessman myself, I find the idea of extorting surplus salvage from you solely because of my stature to be inappropriate. The corporate taxes levied by the Imperial government are rather ridiculous as it is; I have no desire to add to that burden."

Tyrin was many things, and an adherent of laissez-faire capitalism was one of them. Tyrin was a social darwinist at heart, like most Sith. Where he differed from the rest of them is that he didn't believe in using his personal power to restrict, oppress, and confine those under him. How could their true potential be realized if he stunted them? He did stand to gain much from the previous tribute arrangement, but there were bigger pictures for him to look at. The more salvage Baff had to himself, the more he could sell. The more he sold, the more money he made. The more money he made, the more workers he could hire. Increased trade traffic from Baff's enterprise was another thing to consider. Tyrin's goal was the enrichment of the Raxus System first and foremost. By extension, he would benefit, and the Empire would grow stronger as a result.

Oh, what a lovely kick Tyrin got out of doing things for purposes other than his own, selfish desires. A folly for most Sith, truly, not being able to see past the bridge of their own nose.

"I ask only one thing of you, Mr. Baff: run this station like any sane businessman. I am of the mindset that your prosperity and success will benefit the denizens of this system. In time, regulatory measures and laws will be put into place on Raxus Prime. Observe them. If you are as wise as I would believe, you will be able to use your station and those laws to your advantage."

 

[Johash Baff]

Clearly working with the sith wasn’t going to be as bad as he had been led to believed. Johash relaxed and stood up straighter. his face suddenly looked at least10 years younger and he smiles as warmly as ever. he had been worried that the sith was going to kill him but so far the sith had shown no sighs of aggression. so johash finally felt safe to lower his guard. the way the man he won the station off had put it, the sith were all ruthless, blood thirsty monsters. but Johash could tell that this man before him was a man of honour.

The old man turned and started walking down the hall again, happily twirling his red cortosis walking stick around in his hand every few steps “come now governor, we stil have much to look at and much more do discuss”

They came to a large room that by the designee and structure was most likely part of the Lucrehulk, which made up the core of the station. The room was the cleanest room they had walked passed so far. It was full of long tables and benches. Sitting up the far end of one of the tables were two Humans and a Besalisk.

Johash stood at the door and faced the sith “this is the rec-room. Those three men came with me from Fondor”
Without saying anything else the old man hobbled on with the sith in toe. through the long winding corridors leading to the command centre.

 

[Johash Baff]

Tyrin Ardik​

Baff seemed pleased with Tyrin's decision, although he scarcely vocalized it. This all figured in very well. Happy subordinates were helpful subordinates, in addition to significantly less likely to sell him out to whatever party for whatever reason. Such notions were beyond most other Sith. Their loss, ultimately. It was often said the meek would inherit the Galaxy. Compared to those brazen, blood-lusting maniacs that often made up the Sith, Tyrin was fairly meek in comparison.

Tyrin continued to follow Johash, he and his guards keeping a slow pace to accommodate the elderly man's hobbling. Eventually they came upon a room that distinctly matched the design of his Lucrehulk, albeit slightly changed. A salvage station composed of salvage. Was there anything more poetic? Johash called it a rec room, occupied by two humans and an alien Tyrin was unfamiliar with. These men had come with Johash from Fondor. Tyrin filed away the fact that Baff had operated in Omega Protectorate space prior to coming here. He opened his mouth to ask what the roles of those three men were, but Baff was already hobbling along well before he could do so. Tyrin furrowed his brow beneath his mask, gave a curt nod of greeting to the men, and followed after.

 

[Johash Baff]

Johahs gestured with his hand as they entered "welcome to the command centre". the old man spoke with such pride as he looked around the rundown messy room. the room was one of the cleanest on the stations but like most rooms, it had never been cleaned, it just hadn't gotten as messy as the others.

the room was empty exempt for 5 B1 droid sitting at terminals around the room. Johash hobbled over and sits in the large curved command chair. after pressing some buttons on the armrest, displays appear on the screens that now are fitted where the view windows had once been. one window sized screen showed a layout of the station, 4 areas had been marked red to indicate a loss of air presta. other screens showed charts of the stations output of raw materials and other numbers and charts related to life-support, cargo capacity, life sign detector, external sensors and temperature. the screen to the right was filtering through profiles of people from all over the empire, some from outside the empire and many from Raxus Prime.

"from here i can watch the hole operation" the old man nodded towards the profiles flashing up on the screen "the first on the new workers will start arriving this week."

 

[Johash Baff]

turning to the masked man and smiling warmly, Johash stood up to his full hight, leaning on his walking stick "this brings us to the end of your tour. i hope it met with your satisfaction governor"

 

[Johash Baff]

Tyrin Ardik​

"Everything checks out on my end." Tyrin said. Aside from the slight state of disrepair and the trash clogging the interior, this station was good to operate. It just needed some finishing touches. Perhaps a little regard to hygiene and a cleanliness. Then again, it wasn't Tyrin's station. So long as it was a benefit and not a burden, the Umbaran could have cared less if half the employees kept keeling over due to sickness.

He gave the control room a look-over. Nothing immediately out of the ordinary here. The readouts on the screen were interesting, especially regarding which parts of the station were currently existing in a vacuum. Tyrin felt little desire to analyze the contents and nitpick any details. For one reason or another, Tyrin did not distrust this innocuous businessman. He simply didn't register as an unpredictable or rogue entity. He just seemed... Reliable, and there.

It was truly depressing that Tyrin could say the same for only a scant few other individuals out of all the people he'd met over the course of his life.

"Any questions for me, Mr. Baff?"

 

[Johash Baff]

the old man strokes his messy gray beard as he glances over the screens "hmm nothing comes to mined"

hobbling back over to the door Johahs turns back to the sith "shell i prepare your shuttle"