Striking a Lianna-class Deal

[Terras Zordok]

[member="Sasha Santhe"]

Terras was rather excited. It wasn't everyday that he had a good business strategy he could pursue. But today, well today he was a man with a plan. And he was more than eager to get his lucrative trade going as soon as possible. Unfortunately, doing so would require spacious, and certainly pricy, starships. Hence, it was at early afternoon that day when the Twi'lek business entrepreneur found himself standing near the landing dock at the lawn of his mansion on Ryloth, awaiting the arrival of a certain individual: the Majority Shareholder of the Santhe Corporation.

Four of his scantily-clad Twi'lek female consorts were lined up behind Terras with their heads bowed in servitude as they awaited the arrival of their precious guest. Certainly, the Techno Union in occupying Ryloth had banned chattel slavery, but Terras found a just as affordable alternative: wage slavery. Dressed in his usual fancy brown tunic, the corpulent Twi'lek male clasped his hands together as he pondered upon the product that he sought: the Sienar Fleet Systems's Lianna-class Starliner which would prove quite useful in serving his business. Although he didn't have the finances yet to secure full payment for purchasing any more than two or three of the starliners, Terras was hoping that the corporation could offer him a good lease deal so that he could operate more of their starships as quickly as possible.

 

[Sasha Santhe]

Sasha arrived in person. Sasha never came to things like these in person. This was small potatos. And yet here she was landing at the lawn of a mansion. Well at least the man owned a decent home, and was clearly important given the scantily clad women around him. Sasha had considered bringing a gaggle of gawking near naked men with her just for good measure. She knew how twi’leks were. But still this man was important, kind of. He had some sort of connection within the Trade Federation and while Sasha had been absent from the group for awhile she was still a member and did business, especially centered on Hypori.

The small luxuriously appointed Santhe Challenger landed on the lawn and descended its ramp. Sasha put on her famous holovid smile that made her popular with the tabloids. She reinvented herself from socialite party girl to respected businesswoman with an edge…. it was perfect.

“Hello?” she called as she went down the ramp. “[member="Terras Zordok"] it is a pleasure to meet you." She extended her hand to him.

 

[Terras Zordok]

[member="Sasha Santhe"]

Terras greeted the woman warmly, taking her extended hand and shaking it vigorously. "Ah, the pleasure is all entirely mine, beautiful miss." the fat purple man said with a welcoming smile. He looked her up and down, before looking back at her ship and admiring its design. "It was truly kind of you to take time out of your busy schedule and visit me here in person. I am sure that we can strike a fruitful deal!" he said.

He then gently gestured her to walk with him into his estate, while his servants trailed from behind. "You see, I am looking to start a... space cruise line, if you would. So I am quite interested in your Lianna-class Starliner. I was wondering if you could offer me a lease deal on couple of those ships." he began. In truth, he was possibly more interested in Oasis-class Luxury Cruise Ship, but he decided it would be financially prudent to start off with less extravagant ships. After all, he had yet to determine the passenger demand for certain routes, hence needed more time to research.

"You see, a concern I first had was with regarding your luxury-class design for the starliner. I understand that the passenger capacity is 20 people for the luxury-class. I was wondering how many 'service attendants' I could have onboard, in addition to the passengers and flight crew?" he said, motioning at the Twi'lek girls he owned. "I wanted a good, minimum of 2:3 client to service attendant ratio."

 

[Sasha Santhe]

Sasha looked at the man and gave him a nod. “wait staff and servants are in not included in the passenger list, but they do exist. For the numbers you’re talking about though you’d probably have to convert four rooms to further crew quarters.” Sasha stopped and thought about it. “Or two if you simply hot bunk the staff. Each member takes a turn in a bed when its their turn to sleep and so on.” Sasha found a beverage and took a sip.

“Now as to your request for a lease. Of course I would do it, but I’ll advise you against it. Leasing is stupid. You don’t own the ship, so if something happens you can’t even sell it for equity. In addition there is always a chance of an accident or something else which renders the ship inoperable buuut you’d still be paying the lease. Leasing is dumb (OOC Seriously leasing is rarely worth it. Like with new open end leases on cars it's okay but in the long term it's better to buy.) But I tell you what. What I’ll do is sell the ships on a generous payment plan. No interest, we are of course friends afterall. And I’ll even allow you to use Santhe yards for repairs and refit at cost until you can find appropriate port facilities and hire technicians of your own. Of if you’re happy with our services you can, of course, just contract directly with us. We have competitive pricing I assure you.”

[member="Terras Zordok"]

 

[Terras Zordok]

[member="Sasha Santhe"]

As Terras listened carefully to the offer, he clasped his hands together rather excitedly. Today could go even better than he planned, quite possibly. "That would be quite delightful, and quite generous of you to make that offer." the Twi'lek said, stroking his chin thoughtfully with the oversized hand of his. "You see, I was trying to obtain the greatest number of ships in the shortest period of time for the least amount of initial payments. As you probably know, the nature of my luxury-transportation business scheme dictates that I utilize at least a couple of ships rather than just a single one."

Soon, Terras had led his guest into his estate's meeting room where he invited her to take a seat in the chair facing his own. "And so, I certainly am pleased that those accomodations for extra servants can be made. I am thinking of converting two rooms and using them to hot bunk the staff as you have suggested. Now... if you could tell me, miss, based on the generous payment deal you offer me, just about how many of those lovely starliners of yours I can realistically purchase at this time?" he asked quite eagerly.

 

[Sasha Santhe]

Sasha looked over the Twi'lek. [member="Terras Zordok"] seemed a decent sort, he wasn't making demands or asking for sole access to one of her goods or trying to rip her off like so many other people have throughout her history as a businesswoman. "How many do you need? A dozen? Two Dozen? I can see the writing on the wall. Transportation makes money, plain and simple. You're going to make profit. If you need more ships we just extend the payment plan to stretch the money out and get you the ships you require. By doing so you'll have more operational ships and more profit from which to pay me back for your purchase." She nodded over at the rotund Twi'lek.

"More than the amount of craft you want to purchase I'm more concerned with your routes. I'd suggest added security perhaps even a fighter escort if you intend to cross certain boarders. Not to mention there is a lot of empty space in the void. I can recommend Dark Water security, [member="Hion the Herglic"] is an excellent businesswhale and his people may be relied upon." Sasha smiled and rolled her drink around in her hand taking another sip of its content. "And in a galaxy such as this that my friend is among the rarest of commodities.

 

[Terras Zordok]

[member="Sasha Santhe"]

Terras found himself grinning widely at the number Miss Santhe proposed for his initial order of the starliners. "Ah, two dozen would be simply superb." Indeed transportation business could make some good profit, and that was exactly what the portly Twi'lek man intended to do. He planned on then re-investing new profits to purchase bigger, even more spacious cruise-liners that were on the open-market, like the ones offered by Santhe Corporation. "It would be delightful if we could arrange for the extension of payments across the two dozen ships and I promise I'll fully pay them all off in a timely fashion." he stated.

The purple businessman then stroked his chin thoughtfully at the mention of the possibility of employing security escorts. "Yes, the security of our clients are of utmost interest. I will consider hiring Dark Water security, as you have suggested. But as of initially, I plan on running my routes to and from planets within the sphere of the Techno Union, which Ryloth is a part of. Ofcourse, in order to reach out to the wider market outside the territories of the Techno Union, I shall have to get some fighter escorts. So... you will offer me a payment plan for two dozen starliners?" he said, excitedly.

 

[Sasha Santhe]

Sasha smiled back at the man who seemed excited for his two dozen ships. "Of course, two dozen wouldn't be a problem in the least. Sasha wondered how [member="Danger Arceneau"] dealt with her trade Empire Sasha could hardly guess. Actually no, she could guess. Danger had a ton of Minions. A TON of minions. Sasha frowned. She needed minions. "And of course as you need more you'll be able to purchase them. You're credit is good and once you start turning a profit I'm sure you'll business with expand."

[member="Terras Zordok"]