Unknown Identities

[Rick Kaloo]

Empty Space - Outer Rim Territories - 15:03 GST

As the conflicts between the great powers of the galaxy intensified, few worlds became safe places for businesspersons of diverse backgrounds to meet. Therefore, extra measures have to be taken to avoid conflict. Even if it means bringing the meeting vessel to the middle of nowhere.

Inside a small, long room near the bridge of a recently business-converted (just imagine offices instead of medical bays) Pelta-II medical frigate, Rick waited for the woman he would be working with today. The truth was, Rick knew nothing about the woman. He didn't know her hair color, shade of skin species, personality, or alignment. In fact, the only thing he knew about her was that she was an executive in another business who came to him with a deal, starships for money.

As long as the woman wasn't a murderous business tyrant, the deal would go along as planned, even if it was a little bit tense.

[member="Natalie LaForte"]

 

[Natalie LaForte]

Accompanied by: Carina LaForte

"I'm so glad you're finally realizing that working with me is better than trying to usurp my total and complete control over this intergalactic trading conglomerate!"

"What's up with the passive aggressive tone dude? I couldn't give a flying kark about your company." Carina was looking at her nails occasionally biting them as she did most days.

"Sorry I've been on edge recently, you know, nearly being assassinated."

Natalie ran her hands through her hair before opening the door into the business room to see [member="Rick Kaloo"]. A Mon Calamari. Interesting. Immediately, she walked over to greet him with a handshake, her sister simply standing at the exit. Anybody could clearly tell she was here as security over actually acting as a negotiator.

"Hello! Rick Kaloo I assume? Natalie LaForte, CEO of the IMF, and my sister, Carina LaForte, a shareholder. I'm assuming you got my e-mail correctly seeing you wanted a follow up but I'll just re-iterate what I wanted in there. We're looking for a supplier for IMF's commercial hauling fleet, that being mostly non-combatant warships with a few escort ships. I'm assuming you can provide just that?"

Natalie would go to sit down and smile at the man, Carina scoffing very quietly not to disturb the two. She didn't like seeing Natalie turn into a schmoozer given she knew this isn't how any reasonable person would speak outside of trying to get a good deal, not that she was against a bargain but her tone changed to the point of being overly kind and overly happy, something Carina hadn't seen happy naturally for years.

 

[Rick Kaloo]

Suddenly, two women entered the room, one of which introduced herself as [member="Natalie LaForte"] and offered a handshake, which he took with his own hand.

"Nice to meet you, Natalie LaForte. And your sister, of course." added Rick.

Rick walked over to the chair the furthest from the door which the women walked in from and sat down, grabbing a nearby holoprojector, which was currently disabled.

"Indeed, we can provide both of your requests. While all our ships are armed, most of them can be easily converted into decent transport vessels. Also, we have a wide variety of corvette to frigate sized vessels that can serve as escorts." Rick replied.

Rick placed the holoprojector he had in his hands in front of him on the table. It was about the size of a small plate, and slightly under an inch thick, and entirely light gray except for three black buttons facing Rick. He pressed the leftmost of them, and a light-blue image of a corvette appeared, with a basic description above its frame.

"The Essex-class starfighter killer was the first vessel ever created by Ne-Cal. Cheap to produce, agile, and strong against small craft such as starfighters and freighters, it is a perfect escort vessel. Also, here are our other warship and starfighter models." Rick continued.

Clicking on the center button, new images began appearing on the screen, including a heavily armed missile corvette, a versatile scouting ship, and a lightly-armed but nimble interceptor.

"These are some vessels that I thought would be the best suited for your requests, but we have other supplies if nessecary." stated Rick.

 

[Natalie LaForte]

Natalie inquisitively stared at the holoprojector while taking a mental note of each of the classes of ship. Needless to say, she was impressed with the quality of those shown, even based on appearance alone the vessels looked stunning, certainly better than whatever her own company had produced in the past. That's probably why specialized dealers would always out-do the one-size-fits-all approach of the big box retailers, which is what could best describe IMF. Though then again, perhaps it was just because he was a Mon Calamari, a race well known for their dedication to ship building over the years.

"The one's presented look fine, particularly the Essex-Class. Also, would it be possible to get some of the models we're currently sitting on? It looks like it will fit the bill of what I'm looking to do just nicely. Though I know everything comes with a price, Mr. Kaloo, what are you looking for for say, 2 corvettes, 2 missile corvettes and 2 of whatever we're currently sitting on?"

Natalie's datapad would materalize in her hands as she looked over what would appear to be some finances, double checking that she wasn't going to single handedly spend her negotiating budget for the year in a single purchase. Not that it really mattered, given she usually self regulated spending and could simply add more from the primary business account.

"Oh also, would you by chance have any dedicated freighters? While the models shown fit what we're looking for we're looking for something that can, pardon my colloquial language here, carry a lot of goods." Natalie smiling and laughing ever so slightly.

Carina scoffed once more, rolling her eyes and mentally imitating the laugh. Natalie peered back, her eyes narrowing slightly while feigning simply rubbing her neck.

"Sorry, my necks been awfully sore as of late."

[member="Rick Kaloo"]

 

[Rick Kaloo]

"We can definitely get you the listed corvettes, likely within a month or less. As for the ship we're on right now, it's standard configuration is a medical frigate but it can be easily modular and it can be converted without much issue. After all, this vessel was converted into a business ship only a week ago." Rick responded.

Rick took out a second, smaller, two-inch tall holoprojector that was very similar to the first except that its buttons were much smaller and more numerous, with numbers on them. It was quite similar to a calculator. Clicking on a button on the right corner, eight sets of blue 0s rose from the projector. He rapidly typed in some numbers and variables, until the numbers 23,927,192 came up.

"Unfortunately, we lack dedicated freighters. But like I said, this class of ship is very modular and can store a large amount of cargo. We are planning to start production of dedicated freighters soon, and through some further dealings, I could provide some of the first models to your company without charge." replied Rick.

"As for the pricing, I'll round it to 23,900,000 credits for your requested vessels. Less than a fifth the cost of an Imperial Star Destroyer. The freighter dealings will cost a little bit more, with the overall price being 26,000,000 credits." "Would you like to continue with this?" Rick added.

[member="Natalie LaForte"]

 

[Natalie LaForte]

"That's actually quite.. cheap for starships. Yes that'll do fine."

Even Natalie was surprised that Rick had given them such a fair price. She knew herself that she could easily market a medical ship such as the Pelta-II for something like a few million a piece, hyping up each of the features to the maximum to give the illusion of quality and that the amenities were provided. Of course, the quality was always up to scratch, her scratch. She's sure a regulatory commission would have shut her down months ago for false advertising though operating on several planets at a time made it difficult to ever be contacted.

"Of course I'm assuming that's with a warranty. I do like things to be... guaranteed before I purchase them, Mr Kaloo."

She chuckled but was also deadly serious with intention. She had been ratted out before with such cheap bargains only for the ship to break down a month later and the manufacturer going bankrupt with absolutely no obligation to fix it for her, ultimately ending up in draining more credits to get the thing to a salvage yard than she had spent on purchasing it.

Carina looked down to her own datapad, knowing she'd have to be the one to modify the medical ship in order to haul goods around.

[member="Rick Kaloo"]

 

[Rick Kaloo]

Sorry, irl events

"Yes, it actually doesn't take much materials to produce most of our vessels. They don't have any super expensive features, so while they are relatively lightly armored, they make up for it in armament, speed, and agility. Also, all of the purchased vessels are unmodified stock, and it would take some more credits to convert them." Rick responded.

Rick was also a honest businessman, and wouldn't normally give too much praise to features and mess with the faith his associates had in him. It was becoming increasingly pressuring to push bargains further as times became more intense, but Rick still put customer appeasement first.

"Oh, yes. I know what you mean, I've heard stories of dishonest businessmen selling 'quality' ships to customers only to have them break down a few weeks later and the business trying to excuse themselves out of fixing it. We have an insurance policy that prevents that from happening. If you want a refund on any of our vessels, as long as you take it back within a standard week, you'll get a 95% price-back guarantee." he recited, having have said a similar thing to many other concerned customers.

"Otherwise, our insurance like most other insurances. For a standard year, we will pay for two-thirds of any damages to the vessel, from dislocated wires to hull breaches. However, we do not replace destroyed ships. It may seem a bit cruel, but this teaches our customers to be more responsible with their vessels. he added.

[member="Natalie LaForte"]

 

[Natalie LaForte]

While Natalie didn't necessarily agree with the insurance policy, she wasn't going to be outspoken and cause an argument in the man's own vessel, lest she want to be shot into the stars faster than you can say 'My insurance policies are better than yours'

"Well, if that is all I suppose I'll have the credits transferred." Nodding to Carina "I'll have my ships within a week or so? I'll send my sister with a crew to collect them."

Carina rolled her eyes back in disappointment. She always believed she was being given these meaningless tasks that served no other purpose than for her sister to annoy her. The real reason she was invited was because Natalie required another executive's signature for any purchase to be made under the company's name and she knew nobody else bar Carina would do it, given the others were far too confident in the vessels IMF produced that were really meant for nothing other than stock use rather than be specialized.

[member="Rick Kaloo"]

 

[Rick Kaloo]

"It's a deal then. Let me know in the future if you want a longer-lasting insurance coverage, it can be increased to a total of five years for 400,000 credits per year for the purchased corvettes. For the medical frigates, 650,000 credits per additional year. Our ships will be here in your requested time frame, ready for usage." Rick concluded.

Rick turned off the holoprojectors in front of him on the table and pushed them aside to the left. He then reached out to the right, grabbing four neatly stacked pieces of paper.

"Well then, goodbye. Or, you can stay here and watch me fill out company taxes." he joked.

[member="Natalie LaForte"]

 

[Natalie LaForte]

"You may be surprised to hear that would be a lot more interesting than going to a bi-annual company holiday dinner."

​Natalie sighed at the thought of having to eat cheap buffet food for the next 2 hours and schmooze with people she was at best acquaintances with. Carina sighed almost in unison, herself forgetting that this event was being hosted.

"Until next time, Mr Kaloo."

Natalie waved and then strutted out of the room with her sister walking closely behind, her hands in her pocket and her back slouched.

[member="Rick Kaloo"]