Somewhere in the Black

[Ronan Nakasla]

Norongachi? He was gone. A long time ago. He was somewhere out there, in the depths of space. It was a lonesome feeling. Nobody else truly could understand him. On top of that, he took the Hand. That meant that Ash spent more time at Sudoka Headquarters than anywhere else, and that means that training was a difficult thing to do. So he meditated a lot more, and he took on roles of CEO more than he took on roles as Sigma. He needed to be able to facilitate his ability and endeavours -- that meant expanding the reaches of Sudoka's scope. He had ambition, and that fueled him. He tapped through Sudoka's databanks. They'd made nothing else new, just sold what he'd invented. Apparently Covenly was a terrible manager. He opened up several sheets of what the facilities were capable of, what Hypori would let him build, and overall what exactly he could do. One thing was certain, he'd need more resources. More money. He'd need to expand. He'd need contracts. He'd need contacts. The list went on and on and on, and he sent out the advertisement.

ATTENTION
Any individual(s) representing a company or companies or organisations interested in dealing with Sudoka Industries, please contact CEO A. Valente at your earliest convenience. We specialise in technology and miscellaneous consumer goods, but are looking to expand beyond that.

That done, Ash needed only to wait to get a call. He wasn't just going to sit and twiddle his thumbs, however. There was more to do, and Sudoka needed both an independent headquarters and someplace for Ash to return to his normal lifestyle. So what was the solution? A space station. A big one. An AI? That would be beautiful, something with more mobility than Emah had. Relays, a private circuit. As much power, that would be a certainty. A necessity. He or She would likely run his entire operations, second only to him. The thought brought back nostalgia, and he quickly set to work designing on papers and notebooks. Sketches, equations, all manner of things. Rhoujen's memories mingled with his own and he was off, his mind racing.

Sudoka Industries and Ash Valente were on their rise.

 

[Ronan Nakasla]

No response so far. That was fine, Sigma guessed. For now. Sooner or later he would need Sudoka to grow. That was no empty desire, that was one-hundred-per-cent fact. Still, he had little time to dawdle about waiting for a response to his ad. These things took time, and in the meantime he had things to do. He stood, and his boots tapped against the metal floor of the company's spire on Hypori. He made his way up to his office, and opened a cabinet that held all manner of projects Rhoujen had been tinkering with back on the Hand. He'd taken them when Salem disappeared. One was the core of an astromech droid that had existed on his personal ship long ago. Nothing fancy to that droid, except that it had been in contact with a certain 3M4H intelligence. It had memory of it, recorded away in that simple droid processor. He took that machine and a large notebook, and headed down to the labs.

He entered, several scientists looking up from their research to view the company owner before returning to their duties, and he took a station for himself to work. He hooked up the droid to the terminal there and set his datapad off to the side in case he received a call for his advertisement. Sudoka may have been a large Tier One but it was a Tier One all the same. It was no mom-and-pop shop, but it wasn't nearly capable of churning out mass quantities of items, unless they were programmes. Programmes were easy to mass produce. Returning his thoughts to the droid, he got to work.

 

[Irys Arist'lar]

To Sudoka Industries, CEO A. Valent,

Hoersch Kessel Driveworks are currently in the process of designing modifications to produce the second generation of a cruiser in the Abrion Navy. Currently we have placed ITTs across a range of commercial frameworks, but are now also reaching out to small enterprises, like yourselves, to see if novel solutions can be developed to some of our problems.

We are tasked with improving the performance of the Scythe-class cruiser. We have already been making changes to engine design, but there is always a hard limitation in terms of available power.

This message has some redacted and declassified high level designs attached. We have tasked all potential suppliers to propose some solutions that could provide power or manpower efficiencies on the vessel, and how your company is best placed to deliver these. The proposals will be reviewed and contracts placed based on our assessment.

HKD
Chief Engineer

[member="Ash Valente"]

 

[EmKay]

Bling! Came the chime from Asher's terminal. His bored, bland expression livened up when he heard that little sound, and he quickly tapped the message from the Hoersch-Kessel engineer. He read through it, and was surprised to find that it rerouted to his old friends in Abrion. He quickly typed out a response,

Thank you for your interest. I'd be very much interested in upgrading your ships, though we would be definitely more an ideas source than a materials provider. Sudoka Industries is far too small to front building a starship. We can design, test, and build prototypes, but please let me be clear that we cannot currently mass-produce ship components... unless they're computer systems, chips, and other less resource-intensive things.

Respectfully,
Asher Valentine, CEO Sudoka Industries

[member="Irys Arist'lar"]

 

[EmKay]

Calling this thread dead. We can redo later, maybe.