Trade Mission to Geonosis (ORC, attn: CIS, and also openish)

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

GOLBAH CITY
GEONOSIS

From the waterworld of Drexel, the Coalition's easternmost stronghold, Geonosis was a stone's throw away. Mara hadn't flown anything particularly long-range, just a Peregrine-class bulk freighter with room for the whole trade mission and their wares. Even so, she hadn't needed to recalculate the route, let alone stop for gas. A nice straightforward trip, all things considered.

The getting here, anyway. Now came the buying and the selling and the competing and the handshaking. Maybe even a little sightseeing too.

The freighter had landed in the Hub, Golbah City's trade sector:

Spoiler

The Hub | Trade Sector - The third major sector of Golbah City is actually the first place any visitor sees first. Known as "The Hub", this sector is the commercial center of the metropolis. Here, visitors set foot within the city by means of the local Starport and connected lightrail system. The Hub features practically anything the average person could want: dining options, shops galore, upscale housing, temporary lodgings - the list goes on and on! The Hub has earned its reputation of being "the sector that never sleeps", for if one can dream it, the Trade Sector has it.

She'd rented open-air space for the delegation's members to show their wares and get shown: a pop-up market of sorts. A good spot to build relationships with one's neighbours one transaction at a time.

 

[Ugohr Poof]

After that second set of auctions, in which he attempted to score a bargain by bidding a meal on one of the lots, Ugohr flew to Geonosis with, in the cargo hold of his personal ship, the very food truck and the Bardottan executive chef he decided to use on a tour to market the Phu pho, realizing that Geonosians may react differently to that sort of food vs non-Geonosians, and, of course, not assuming that the success they scored on Balamak may be reproduced on Geonosis. Once he arrived near the outskirts of Golbah City, he hoped the populace won't react too negatively as he drove the food truck to the makeshift market [member="Mara Merrill-Valkner"] was, in fact, setting up for the ORC and its allies to take part in. This time around, since he would be led to think that the supplies to cook pho and whatnot would be in much shorter supply on Geonosis, he had enough stock to make several batches of pho and of other items, too. Like Skor cakes, steak-frites, salads and other stuff. He had a whole fridge-freezer combo of all that stuff. All those ingredients ready to be used in serving customers, Geonosians or not.

"Yousa want some pho? Freshly cooked"

 

[Hylocereus]

Hylo for his part followed his wife and did his duty. Which was of course getting in the way as much as helping. He had a number of plants, herbs, and fruits prepared for every purchase of starship components.Because everyone deserved some nice foliage and festooning the little open air market meant that it popped drawing attention to them. Then Hylo put on the finishing touches a sign with lettering painted bright green, 'Welcome to the Bizarre Bazaar!"

Several men and women walked by and Hylo waved the sign about. "Welcome," he called to the various people on the streets as they set up shop. . "Plants and ship parts," Hylo called out. "For every purchase of top of the line ship components we will also give you a potted plant!"

Okay that wasn't the greatest selling point in the galaxy, but you know he was doing what he could.


[member="Mara Merrill-Valkner"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Ugohr Poof"] [member="Hylocereus"]

Between hawking components and coordinating the last bits of setup, a nice bowl of pho sounded sadly impractical. The Gungan's food truck also offered fries, though, and she got a packet of those with extra napkins. Fry grease could do abominable things to electronics, not to mention pamphlets. After a brief and furious snacking session, she saved half for Hylo and got back to work.

Work meant shoving pamphlets and potted plant promises in people's faces. It also meant calling up the nearest repair shops and asking about their supply chains. Golbah City had a bustling starport, and that entailed plenty of overhauls and repairs and upgrades. Why not get something brand-name at the same price as generic?

 

[Ugohr Poof]

So [member="Mara Merrill-Valkner"] bought a large serving of fries for both her and @Hylocereus. No biggie: he didn't expect the populace of Geonosis to be the same as a restaurant market as would be the case on Balamak, or even Durkteel. True, everything on that menu would be exotic to Geonosians, especially since their diets relied on some other stuff like fungi or orray meat. Hopefully these Geonosians would actually find anything on that menu, never mind everything, edible, but even then he knew that, on natively-inhabited species, the success or failure of a restaurant depended on whether the food sold at a restaurant was, in fact, edible to the locals. If a menu was, in fact, partially edible to the locals, then the local marketing plan and sales mix would have to focus on the edible portion. But unlike Balamak, where he last used the food truck, this time around, it was more of a market for the steak which, to Geonosians, tasted like orray meat even though it was actually made from nerf meat. And rare was the single largest ordered doneness for those Geonosians...

 

[Not Ordo]

He watched as the strange people moved around. His orange eyes flicked from face to face as he took in the various beings he knew next to nothing about. With a shrug he hiked a well used duffle bag higher on one broad shoulder and walked toward the stand and dropped the duffle on an empty space.

The streets were dusty and he could see small clouds puff into existance under peoples quick moving feet. The air filled his broad nostrils and they flared as the myriad scents mingled in his slow plodding thoughts. He saw the woman he had come with, Mara something, and gave a tusk filled polite smile. It still felt wrong being off Taris. Something about the familiar, no matter how bad, was missed as he listened to the din of voices each battling to be heard over the others.

He sighed internally.

With slow careful hands he opened the bag and pulled out small arms and gizmos, most of which he didn't know how to use, and set them out to be viewed. Last was a small disk which he activated and set on the stand. The holographic words that glowed above it simply said 'Gib's second hand stuff' and nothing more.

He straightened and waved at folks as they passed before he pulled a small tin of jerky from the bag and began to munch the dried salted meat calmly. He had no idea what he was doing but he knew he was doing it and that had to count for something.


[member="Mara Merrill-Valkner"] [member="Ugohr Poof"] [member="Hylocereus"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Hylocereus"] [member="Ugohr Poof"] @Gib

"Y'know, Hylo, I'm starting to think we've under-advertised. I'm not seeing turnout. I think it's time to kick it up a notch. And that means money."

As a rule, she didn't use her inheritance to fund MVSE -- the goal was to make it stand on its own two feet. But even after singlehandedly financing a good chunk of Coruscant's post-liberation repair and a private war, she had plenty of pocket change.

Item of business the first: securing more of those excellent fries, not just for her but for her absent employees. She sent Pizza Hutt a letter of interest to provide tasty multicultural nibbles to MVSE's headquarters on Zonju V. Contract negotiators would do the heavy lifting. (OOC/ Consider this one contract with one company. Enjoy.)

Item of business the second: picking through the excellent unlabeled tidbits at 'Gib's Second Hand Stuff.' She returned the proprietor's tusky smile and shelled out slightly too many wupiupi for what might - might - be a chunk of laminanium. The memory metal oozed listlessly around the quantum fibre. She plopped it in a bag. Laminanium was a funky thing, decently tough, capable of patching up its own holes even after serious impact. It had been designed to repair itself after taking a few dozen thud bug hits. For her purposes, in the thud-bug-devoid environment of space, laminanium would come in real handy for patching holes in ships. Expensive as feth, but better than most alternatives.

Item of business the third: sorting through local Geonosian businesses and seeing who to invite. The trade mission was here to buy, not just sell, after all.

 

[Ugohr Poof]

"Wesa taken yoursa offer on principle"

Multicultural nibbles? Disen a wide umbrella term meanin some quantities from da whole selection of merchandise issa bought from usen by MVSE, he thought, upon receiving a letter of interest from [member="Mara Merrill-Valkner"] and, with it, Merrill-Valkner Systems Engineering, which was also another firm that even took part in the trade mission. More like a memorandum of understanding, with the actual amounts of each of those... multicultural nibbles that were going to be specified in the actual contract, with the delivery point being Zonju V. And yet the effects of the under-advertisement, or rather, near-complete lack of advertisement, were clear: the only nibbles sold here were steak and fries, with no pho whatsoever being sold, probably due to the hot weather in Golbah City. So he had no choice but to eat a bowl of pho himself, with breaded fish: Gungans loved their fish regardless of how it was prepared. He hoped the supplies of pho were still going to last a while, and so did the Bardottan, who also ate pho while seeing the traffic to the food truck dwindling.

 

[Hylocereus]

[member="Mara Merrill-Valkner"]

"Yes dear," Hylo said vacantly while he read the Datapad. There was only 40,000 more words to go, give or take, until he finished his manual on Hyperspace navigational equipment. After he'd move onto simple life support systems and then.... Hylo's face paled a bit as he looked next to his chair at the stack of starship manuals, each thicker in content than the last. Still it was for Mara he needed to learn, maybe take a correspondence class with her dad to get some practical experience.

Then he realized the vacant way in which he'd spoken to his wife and looked up from the Manual with a smile. He'd chosen this particular manual because it was one of the first things him and Mara had done. Instinctive navigation. He only found plant filled planets, and jungle worlds, and dead ends. "I could always take my top off and dance around? Poof pheromones everywhere. Grab attention." The smile grew larger as he looked up at Mara from his reading. "Did you know that the there is a species the Purrgil who can naturally move through hyperspace with entirely biological means? According to..." Hylo dug through the various literature before picking up a pad, ".. this right here." He handed the pad to Mara, "Some people theorize that's how beings came up with the original hyperdrives." Hylo gave a few firm nods. "The more I learn the more I can support you in the future. So don't worry about the business Mara., I'll be able to pull my weight soon enough." And then he glanced at the manuals and a shiver ran up his spine.

 

[Alessandra Creed]

​

Location: The Hub
Tags: [member="Hylocereus"] | [member="Ugohr Poof"] | [member="Mara Merrill-Valkner"] | [member="Gib"]

The naturally curvy form of the Minister of Commerce wove through the crowd that had convened in the trade sector. The Hub was a place she frequented, if nothing more, to ensure that the merchants behaved themselves. On occasion there could be a scuffle, but, for the most part, business was booming and the people seemed to be enjoying the almost favorable weather. Ruby lips had settled in an unassumingly tantalizing pout while dark-lit eyes slid from store-front to store-front. The colors, sights, and sounds were almost overwhelming for visitors that had just stepped from their dreary starships.

More than anything, Alessandra thought that some of the shops reminded her of a bazaar. At her side stood a newer member of the Confederacy. He was tall with deep brown hair and eyes of a similar shade. [member="Rylan Kordel"]. He was strong, physically, and more than capable of watching her back in a crowd. There was an edge of something about him that seemed a little distrustful, however, the young minister did not question it. Everyone had a past they’d rather not talk about. Everyone had a past that left them just a little bit broken. A little bit scarred.

It was basically a requirement to be a part of this nation. Damage.

Alessandra Creed smiled at those she passed, clad in a long asymmetrical black dress, comprised of muslin material. It was light, cut at an angle that exposed her legs, and gave her freedom of movement. She dressed very, very carefully for Genosian weather. It was hot. She wasn’t used to such brutal aridity, not when her homeworld felt like a paradise in comparison, and certainly not when most things were covered in a fine layer of dust.

“Thank you for coming along…”, the caramel-skinned woman spoke to Rylan, flashing him a fathomless smile, that swept toward her eyes. Every bit of her seemed to be enjoying the liveliness of the Hub. The Confederacy was a nation of droids. It was impersonal to her, despite the fact that she preferred it in the workplace. Every so often she simply missed people. “The Vicelord would prefer that the Ministers not travel the streets on busy days like this alone. There are a lot of people. A lot of strangers.”

There were secondhand booths, food stalls, and even a deal for planets and ship parts. She had to laugh. This had definitely been worth the venture out of the capital buildings. Alessandra wandered from area to area, curious, and observant. She liked seeing economy thrive and the Hub was the best place to do that.

“How are you enjoying Geonosis Mr. Kordel?”

Idle chatter was idle chatter. She was genuinely curious about her escort, however, she had long ago learned that making small talk was an art form. She could befriend a Hutt if need be.

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Golbah city, Geonosis. Scherezade was hardly a fan. Sure, the capital of the Confederacy had its uses, and this was a place she had been told time and time again she could come to for training and obtaining some resources, and that was indeed what she was doing. But this was not a place she came to for fun. And Force, she needed a wee bit of that.

The young Sithling found herself wandering through the stalls, her dozen Czerka knives hidden across her body, her slugpistol resting lazily against her hip. To be frank, it wasn't much of the inventory of the sellers that had peaked her interest that day - it was the array of different species standing behind them. She was just about to call it a day and head back to her ship when her eyes fell on [member="Ugohr Poof"].

It wasn't his wares that interested her, but more rather the fact that he was a Gungan. Her brain began to jump from thought to thought and idea to idea, and eventually she just decided to walk up to him. There were a few more people around ([member="Mara Merrill-Valkner"] & [member="Hylocereus"]). But for the moment, they did not interest her.

 

[Rylan Kordel]

Location: The Hub
Tags: [member="Alessandra Creed"]

While not exactly the work he had planned on when joining the Confederacy, Rylan was at least glad to have found something inside of his wheel house when Ms. Creed had requested his presence on her little tour through the Hub. While he was certain that it would be uneventful, he none the less came prepared for conflict, a modified DL-44 blaster strapped to his right hip, a Z6 riot control baton on his left hip, a westar-34 pistol on chest and a pair of czerka fighting knives over lapped on the back of his belt, his outfit lightweight and suitable for the environment, though it pegged him for what he was, a soldier.

His eyes traveled over the crowds, mind jumping from scenario to scenario on how to protect the minister if the worst case scenario happened, then he snapped too at her words, and tried to smile a little, "You're welcome Ms. Creed. It's the least I can do..." he also nodded at her words about the vicelord and his wishes, something he could understand. As they walked, he glanced at the woman, taking note of the small details, and how she presented herself, he wondered how someone like her, had landed herself out in these territories and what drew her attention to him, after all, he was only a soldier and an untested member of this Confederacy.

"Uh... ahem" he cleared his throat "It's different, at least from the last time I spent time here. The people seem... happy?"

 

[La'Ca Cavataio]

((Short but sweet'ish))

La’Ca never been on Geonosis before. This was going to be fun for her. Skipping through the trade sector, the desert felt a bit like the Great Desert of Dathomir. Some past training was done there. The Morte Clan wanted their witches prepare for all sorts of environments. However, this was a city in the desert, so the heat would easily build from the amount of structures absorbing and reflecting the heat. Therefore, she dressed sort for the heat.

Really though, she had no clue what she was doing or what going on… yet.

 

[Ugohr Poof]

What sold well after he received the MOU from [member="Mara Merrill-Valkner"] was ice cream which, for the Geonosian populace, was treated as a nutritional curio. With some customers around, the Bardottan was a little perplexed, expecting to sell them pho, but instead selling other foodstuff to them: they ate the only bowls of pho they managed to sell or otherwise consume. With [member="Alessandra Creed"], @La'Ca Cavataio and [member="Rylan Kordel"] around, the Gungan had to watch himself and also watch for them in the Force for signs that they were actually going to eat from the truck. The next customer in line ([member="Scherezade deWinter"]) was now at the kitchen counter and the Gungan was a little perplexed: most of the other customers that stood in line for the food truck were going in for the food and not for him as a person. That, even though few Geonosians even met Gungans before. Yet the Gungan cook couldn't help but feel that the human girl was there for another reason, probably treating him as a curio, much as the other customers seemed to treat ice cream and pho:

"May mesa take yoursa order?"

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

"You're a Gungan," Scherezare said as the Gungan asked if he could take her order. It wasn't really a direct reply, more of a statement. Her green eyes went wide and she gave him a genuine smile (at least, she assumed it was a him, since she couldn't come up with what a female Gungan was supposed to look like). She didn't even care about where she was standing. All she knew was that she had some very pressing questions to ask. "Have you been to Naboo?"

[member="Ugohr Poof"]

 

[Garith Darkhold]

Maybe it was just to clear his mind. Garith walked through the Golbah city streets. The shift of life had taken the Kashi Elder to an uncertain path. Confusion was the role he was left in. What should be easy decisions seemed more complicated then they should be.

Walking along thing got more confusing for Garith. Stopping in the middle of the street he looked at La’Ca Cavataio. The large armored man features tightened. A riddle a series of emotion cane over the man, feelings of sadness, joy, anger! Garith was stunned and even more confusion was brought on.

The woman looked like someone he knew once. The woman looked like a a relative of Natalie and his daughter Effera, the pain of their loss was still there after all these years. Garith turned away from the sight of the woman and ducked into a cantina that was close to his left. He needed a drink and needed it now!



@La'Ca Cavataio

 

[Joy]

Trade route between Geonosis and Drexel. . .

A lone ship, bigger than a gunship but smaller than a corvette, steadily laid out a row of empion mines designed to pull unsuspecting vessels out of hyperspace. Like a Corellian Bear trap, but without all the blood.

Ben Brijj, captain of the vessel, hummed an old space shanty while he worked.

“Hmm hmm hmm and a bottle of rum.”

[member="Mara Merrill-Valkner"]

 

[Ugohr Poof]

"If yousa may ex-squeeze mesa, mesa have a more troublesome customer" he told the Bardottan chef before getting out of the truck.

So shesa not orderin anything? Not dat shesa bad, just dat perhaps shesa more interesten in mesa as a person, he thought, while [member="Scherezade deWinter"]'s question about Naboo was conjuring him some memories. He could definitely say yes, but he didn't feel it was proper to talk about his past as a part-time realtor, where his last sale on Naboo has been a one-acre plot of land in Rellias, near the city's golf course. In fact the non-Gungans that lived in this city accused the Gungan administration of levying extortionary title taxes right around the time the sale was closed, while no such complaints were filed in other Gungan surface cities, never mind underwater cities such as Otoh Gunga. But then again he had to be mindful of what he could and could not tell her about when and why he went to Naboo. The Gungan decided to let another prep cook take over the cashier while traffic seemed to remain limited, while deciding that the information he was to disclose the human girl was going to be equally limited. But he had to have at least the courtesy to introduce himself.

"Oh yes, yousa bet mesa went to Naboo. Last mesa was on Naboo, itsa was for da coronation of da current Queen. And mesa Ugohr Poof. Yousa?"

 

[Mishel Kryze]

Mishel had set her ships down somewhere in Golbah City.

Her belt today was that of a craftsman, utility vest and a pair of flight pants with the Corellian blood stripe, hair down past her shoulders. The twenty-something year old woman pushed her way through the crowd, the Force called her to this city on this day. And as she closed her eyes she focused on it, and felt something, someone - familiar. But unfamiliar at the same time, she paid it no mind and turned to find [member="Mara Merrill-Valkner"], she had arrived late as part of the Coalition's efforts to expand their reaches. She ran a hand through her hair, eyes scanned the bustling trade district she spotted the Gungan with no issue - the brute was easily spotted in this crowd. The person by the Gungan seemed to be in a bit of shock, but Mishel pressed onward passing them both by and spotted [member="Hylocereus"] first before seeing Mara.

"Anything good so far?" She asked and then realized the woman probably didn't know her from manners. "Names Mishel, think I worked with ... your dad?"

She narrowed her gaze, as she only knew Mara by name and not face. "If things don't pan out here, I'm thinking about going exploring around the planet, wanna come with?"

The Force called at her again, directing her but she waved it off as one does a fly. What she couldn't have known was that there in the Hub, was her sister [member="Alessandra Creed"].

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

"Yeah, yeah," the Sithling replied. Sure, she'd been on Naboo. She'd also hated it, but that was not the point. Her time on Naboo had magically been entirely devoid of meeting Gungans, and now that she had one who was willing to talk to her, ti was worth more than almost anything. "I need to ask you a few questions about Gungans," she said. Her voice was elevated, excited. It was clear that she was bubbly and giddy about it all. She almost held his hand when the next string of questions came out, without any pause in the middle to breathe, "how do Gungans feel about stink bombs? Like, what if the lake they're in smells really bad, like rotten sewage, but inside the water itself? Does it get into your bubbles? Which water temperatures can Gungans and the bubbles survive? Like, if I had a miniature Gungan and I put him in a kettle, when would the water get too hot for him to remain there?"

The smile on her face was wide, excited - childlike. The thought of whether or not this Gungan before her knew what he was dealing with her never once crossed her mind.

[member="Ugohr Poof"]