Witty Title Redacted [Trotter Garon]

[HK-36]

((Fun Fact: "Trotter" was the initial name John Tolkien chose for a character who would later on become Strider also known as Aragorn in his Lord of the Rings Trilogy))

@[member="Strider Garon"], @[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"],

Abregado-Rae, Relative Northern Edge of Protectorate Space,

Capital City Spaceport,


Another day, another destiny,

HK would find himself waiting with the welcoming committee by one of the protected landing pads of Abregado-Rae's Capital City Spaceport, him, his droid honor guards, few other representatives of the local government, not all of them machines like their head of state, and Siobhan Kerrigan who decided to intrude on the meeting to seduce a few secretaries most likely as well as attempt to negotiate with Mandalorian representative, or representatives, on part of Firemane she represented, after all her and HK had a long history of cooperation both on personal level and business level.


"I wonder why the Mandalorians are so willing to seek us out that they are coming to me."

The droid muttered to Sio, glancing to her, or to one of his other representatives if she was busy bedding some poor lass,

"I did not even mentioned Firemane's possible involvement and they could always go straight to Hatter for Protectorate business."

He would look ahead into the sky to watch the arriving shuttle, no doubt the Mandalorian party they were expecting,

"Either they are getting desperate."

The machine would look to whomever he was speaking with at that,

"Or they are planning something big."

Once more he would move his head to look at the sky,

"Or both."

HK would shrug.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="HK-36"], @[member="Strider Garon"]


"Going straight to 'Hatter' for Protectorate business would be pretty futile because that would require him to actually attend to his country's business instead of speechifying," Siobhan spoke, the contempt she felt for the man all too evident in her voice.


"Firemane did business with the Mandalorians way back. When everything looked like they'd be the new top dog to take on the Republic and Ordo was Field Marshal. Before getting possessed by the Dark Lord," she spoke thoughtfully. She had been very angry when she had heard about what had happened on Coruscant and the man's apparent betrayal, though then she had not known that he had been a pawn in the game of the vile darklord of the One Sith.


"Anyhow, I imagine they'll have another go at the Sith. They killed two Mandalores, you don't let that go unavenged. As the Mandalorians say, long memory short fuse. Hopefully they won't be charging Coruscant or Alderaan as their first move." She took a deep drag from her cigarette, savouring the nicotine, whilst her long leather coat billowed behind in the wind. To be specific it was the Kerrigan Coat made out of the leather hide of Lotek'k, though the fear-inducing aspect had been switched off, though admittedly it would not work on a droid anyway and a Mandalorian Field Marshal did not scare easily either.

 

[Strider Garon]

The shuttle was actually piloted by Strider Garon himself. The old warrior as of late as made a point of not needing to be catered to by a honor guard or other silly forms of entourage. He was here on a mission, a mission he could complete on his own for he had the word of Mand'alor and that is all he ever needed for this task.

The transport would touch down on the designated platform where there was a welcoming party awaiting for his arrival. "Ossiks!" The old man would swear with in the confines of the ship. They probably were awaiting for the Mand'alor himself. Hopefully they were not to offended that it was just an old warrior coming to play diplomat.

A few buttons on the command console were pressed and the ship slowly turned itself off and the rear loading ramp would unfold to exposing the innards of the ship to the party below. Strider would march down the ramp, his helmet attached to his tac belt while his long wild black hair would flap about in unison with his golden shoulder cape, a rank symbol of Field Marshal. Hes saunter down the ramp he picked up on Siohban's figure, he recognized the woman. They had a few crossings but to Strider's misfortune they had never had the time to get to know each other personally. Especially to the old man's misfortune, she had curves that the mando could sink his teeth into with a athletic build that could take a round or two out of him. Such a perv he was.......

Once in range he noticed a robot was in the lead of the formation before him. He has heard of HK-36 and it still amazed the Mandalorian warrior that a droid could rise to such prominence. Then again what made the droid any better the flesh and bone? it seemed the living through out history had proven over and over again that they could not handle power.

He would give the attractive warrioress a nod greeting, but not before his eyes did a quick once over her.

"I am Field Marshal Strider Garon" He would introduce himself to the robot. yup, it was still wierd to the old man but it seemed he would have no choice but to accept the fact that droids were probably going to rule the galaxy. "I am here on official Mandalorian business. Do you have a secure place we can talk?"

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] [member="HK-36"]

 

[HK-36]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"], [member="Strider Garon"],


"Well they took some of ours as well, and Mandalorians may have a good memory, but droids have photographic one."

The machine quipped to Siobhan before quieting down as the ramp of the ship lowered and Strider's old form moved through the threshold,

"Hound of Keldabe, welcome to Abregado-Rae, where under my soulless watch all beings are held equal, whether they like it or not."

HK would greet Strider, seemingly doing his homework well enough to identify him- did he just oogle Siobhan?! Well unfortunately for him she seemed to be more into girls than lads, and unfortunately for HK as well as he did not often took form of a female.

"How is Keldabe, by the way? Last time I was there I brought RC 212 in chains for detonating that nuclear bomb by the city during the Siege."

He would look back to his bodyguards at his question of a secure place to speak,

"The whole bloody planet is secure, we have a mechanical secret police watching for criminals and enemy agents around the clock, makes things easier because most Sith need to sleep-"

HK looked back to Strider again,

"We do not."

He paused slightly to let that sink in before continuing,

"But if you would like, we can talk about business in my office, traditional hover gondola is waiting to transport us outside of the spaceport."

The machine would motion to a door in the back of the landing pad room quarter they were in, stepping aside so that Strider could join him and Sio in walking out. At the gesture his 4 droid honor guards would separate into two groups in unison, two on left side of the path, two on the right, it was easy to synchronize their movement when they were capable into reaching what was basically a hive mind.

Strider would be able to notice the honor guards wore the same cloaks and armor as HK did, the main difference was the droid had his medals and commendations, the Honor guards did not but they had their masks on. Of course the same height and width, general shape the droids shared would most likely betray that his Honor Guards were in fact just copies of him. Made things easier when one of them fell in battle, as another could just take his place.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Strider Garon"], [member="HK-36"]


"Yes, I remember. Kaelin tortured Tegs almost to death when she was Lady Protector, forcing her to step down. Years later Shadow sent an agent to try and kill her, but she gunned the queen down. One of the many reasons I'm going to bash his skull to pieces, not to mention the whole getting spaced thing. And Mia was my friend," Siobhan said.


She quite deliberately did not mention Cira being killed on Coruscant. Or Vong-formed, though she did not know about the latter anyway. Suffice to say, she was rather disillusioned and did not see her as the great icon the Protectorate claimed she was. Referring to Tegaea as Lady Protector was deliberate as well.


Anyhow their guest had arrived. Presumably Strider Garon and Siobhan had one thing in common: They both liked oggling hot chicks a lot! Unfortunately for him, she had zero interest in men and as a matter of fact was terribly sexist. In other words, she was of the men should be enslaved and castrated disposition. He was right about the fact that she was hot as hell though. The girls loved her voluptuous pillows!


Somewhat puerile boob jokes aside, Siobhan kept her thoughts about female supremacy and the true place of manlings to herself for now. "Yes, the planet is safe thanks to its moderaretely paranoid mechanical overlord. Safe for Ropos especially," Siobhan joked. That said, being the proud sort she did feel a bit annoyed about HK being addressed first!


"Pleasure to meet you, Field Marshal. I'll be representing Firemane Industries. Abregado-Rae Guild of Hammers is one of our partners and subsidiaries," she spoke to Strider before boarding the gondola. Naturally HK's clones weren't far. The joke was that someday the entire planet of Abregado-Rae would be filled with his clones. Then the people would never be without their mechanical overlord for even a moment!

 

[Strider Garon]

Strider Garon had a healthy case of paranoia. It helped him stay alive this long though luck and his vigorous sexual appetite properly aided in the tedious task. "I would prefer it just being us and.... Siobhan. I don't trust much anymore these days" The old man would declare to the two indicating he would prefer the private room.

The fierce woman needed not to introduce herself. Strider was very well away of her and who and want she represented. He liked keeping tabs on allies and those that have had productive encounters with the Mandalorians. ITs a large galaxy out there but one never knew how fast it all could collapse and when friends in certain places could be the difference of life or death. He was also very aware of her disciplined taste in woman though he had to admit, there had been a few times he had fantasied in being the first to convert her to men properly. Or at least just for the moments he would like her to be. "Trust me, the pleasure is all mine again!" He would nod once more towards her. He would of extended his hand but the rumors of her man hate he did not know if he would get the limb back or not.

Strider would fall in with the entarouge and follow HK and Siobhan to the private room. Now if anyone knew Strider at all he wasn't one to beat around the bush and usually fired from the hip point blank. The moment the door would close he would begin.

"I have set in motion a Campaign against the One Sith" That could of been news to the OP or not, nobody really new how intensive their contacts were. "We have learned from the past that our tactics of bull rushing the Sith in head on combat has been futile. Though my people are grand warriors we have to adopt another way of doing warfare. We need to whittle them down piece by piece but we know that we cannot do that without having proper support........ with out ALL the support we can get." He would let that sink in, just in case such was not news to them.

"What I am going to ask of both of you will draw you into a war that I believe will suck the entire galaxy into it. And rightfully so, the One Sith are a disease that needs to be eradicated and the Mandalorians can't do it alone. Its not just our responsibility to do so"


[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] [member="HK-36"]

 

[HK-36]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"], [member="Strider Garon"],


And so they would board the said gondola, apparently either sitting in awkward silence or talking about something nonsensical like Ropos that was not worth mentioning, and soon enough they were by the Seat of Observer, the head governmental building, they would exit the gondola by the mountain of steps that led to the door at the top, after that exercise they would take a lift inside the building to the top and so after that journey they were in HK's public office with a great view from top of the Seat of Observer. And now they would be free to continue their conversation.

"Well that is good, another full assault on Alderaan without cooperation with other factions or much preparation and I would have come over there to Keldabe or Republic's Command personally and knock some sense into commanders myself."

The droid quipped, moving to seat behind his ironwood desk, letting the other two have a seat in the elegant chairs in front of the said desk.

"It is not like the Sith are not already after us, me and Siobhan aided both your kin and Republic in combat against the Sith, we are already as much part of this war as you."


The machine would lean back in his chair,

"But your kin also have an outstanding balance with me. You see before the Siege of Keldabe I made a deal with Mandalorian Monroe, I offered her my services, and she accepted, in return I wanted access to your archives, especially blueprints for Basilisk War Droid, and shipment of Mandalorian Iron to make armor for myself. She agreed and I fought against the Sith, the battle was victorious but your Mandalore did not pay me back."

HK would lean in towards Strider against his desk,

"I have reminded of this debt to Mandalore Horak and Mandalore Skirata, both of them have still failed to pay me back although I have lend my services to you time and time again. If you want me to officially support you, you have to finally fulfill Mandalore Monroe's promise."

The droid would lean back,

"I will make it easier even, I want a shipment of Mandalorian Iron, just one, and a Basilisk War droid, not blueprints for it, just already crafted war droid and a crate of your iron, if your kin will grant me this I will consider their debt to me paid. I have recording of the initial deal if you wish to see it for yourself."


He would motion to Siobhan then,

"Kerrigan knows that I command some of the most skilled and extraordinary weapon makers around this Galaxy, my weapons and droids can be quite troublesome to Vong and Sith, she has seen them in action, she saw the whips I make, she saw the spears which can pierce Phrik, Beskar, or Ultrachrome armor my soldiers wield, she heard the thunder of our guns, mowing down any enemy who would dare to stand before us, rotary cannons, mass drivers, shatterguns and bolt guns."

With his hand he would gesture then to Strider,

"I am willing to trade them with you, I am willing to send soldiers trained with them to you, as well as make some more for you, it will relief your own weapon makers, let them focus on other things, while giving you access to new toys, there is something very special we are putting together with Sio."
He would look to his partner, referencing the exoskeleton walker they were working on,

"And on the side I was making chainsaw swords forged from special alloy, designed to shred Vonduum crab armor."

HK quipped, looking back to Strider.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Strider Garon"], [member="HK-36"]


Siobhan agreed that bull-rushing the AAA worlds of the One Sith was not smart, hence why it was good that the Mandalorians were planning a new approach instead of going for another round of Isonzo Offensives, but made no comment about it since the point had already been made. Personally she was tempted to believe that it would be best to just BDZ Alderaan since it had been turned into Vong Paradise.



"The One Sith - and any Sith alive - are a plague in the Galaxy. I spent most of my life fighting Sith and I recently fought at Alderaan. And an ancient Sith Lord tried to kill my wife and me, so I'm already in it," she said bluntly.


"So I can say that Firemane would be very willing to aid you in wiping them out, for an appropriate price. I imagine you're already familiar with our stock, though it has expanded recently. I know the Mandalorians have their own defences, but we have defence turrets and planetary defence turbolaser cannons, along with turrets firing homing missiles, that could be of use fortifying your world. I believe a battery of our cannons was already used in the fortification of Mandalore. Likewise we can deliver bolters in large quantities, our premiere anti-forcer weapon for which we recently made a new anti-personnel explosive round that can pierce all except the heaviest forms of armour, and bolt pistols that fire it, even concealable hold-out bolters that have the firepower of a bolter in miniaturised form."


She paused for a moment before continuing. "Likewise heavy assault tanks and artillery and a-a tanks. There's also a limited stock of Sith weapons we captured during the old Empire's fall. Indestructible Sith chainswords that can resist lightsabres and absorb lightning, Gorgon web rifles designed to capture force-users, metal-eating insect grenades that eat through personal armour and electro-magnetic mines. Most recently Firemane designed a new, heavy-hitting naval torpedo system created for use by a bomber with devastating effect against capital ships devoid of shields."


She took a sip from her glass of water before speaking up again. "All design we're using ourselves to defend Kaeshana. We'd be very willing to open our stocks for you and can arrange things such as training and such. Firemane maintains its own intelligence service and its chief is...very competent, so we'd be open to an exchange of intelligence on Sith." Oh, and said intelligence chief, [member="Mirien Valdier"], was dabbling in darkside alchemy to among other things create toys to say protect you against Sith mind rape and do cool darkside things, but she kept that part out for now!


"Credits work just fine as compensation, but if possible we'd like to trade for beskar."

 

[Strider Garon]

There wasn't much to contemplate. Strider was going to need the OP and their associates to to wage a successful campaign against the One Sith. He looked at both HK and Siobhan stoically and unwavering in a emotionless sea. Inside he was very happy with the deal, it was easy to make friends with those that have the similar enemy. "Done and Done!' Such simple words to accept such an alliance, but what more was there to say on acceptance. Was the old man to bounce around like an ape or get all giggity like a school girl? No, this was the business of war and the three of them just had agreed to aid each other in a scheme against on the galaxy's most feared faction.

The Mandalorians and the Omega Protectorate have had a long standing friendship and today such a friendship paid off. Now it was time to get to work. "Your shipments shall come at the end of the week" Now he waited to see if HK and Siobhan wanted such in written contract or a contract of honor was good enough.

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] [member="HK-36"]

 

[HK-36]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"], [member="Strider Garon"],


"Well-"

The droid leaned back in his seat,

"That was surprisingly easy."


Taking out a datapad from his desk he would move it over to Strider,

"This is the manifesto of the weapons Abregado manufactures, let me know if you like anything here and we can set up a trading agreement, what we can spare we well give to you for your forces, we only ask you cover production cost and grant us small profit so that we may continue to develop. Of course quantities of equipment we make are limited, we are only one planet after all."

The droid nodded, manifesto could be seen right here,

"Protectorate refuses to support our designs due to the mass destruction most of them cause, but should Mandalorians decide to invest into my company, I would be able to expand production of the weapons you are interested in, meaning I will be able to send more armaments your way."

The machine nodded before passing another datapad to Strider, on this one would be described plans for weapons made from Beskar, including modern war axes, greatswords, and bolts for bowcasters.

"We also have some plans for weaponry made from Beskar based on smelting techniques we developed, of course one problem is, we have no Beskar here. Should you be willing to work out long-term shipments of Beskar with us for each of these products, we are willing to share with your kin their production and cuts of the profits. The investition will pay itself back and once again, you will have more weapons."

He nodded, offering more weapon deals to Mandalorians,

"Then there is our personnel, I have my soldiers who are willing to fight come the chance for it, and I recently took patronage of our Military Intelligence and Combined Operations bureau, perhaps we could work something out and hold joint covert operations?"

Once more the machine would nodded because this writer likes to nod, before looking to his busty friend,

"Sio, any more deals you would like to offer or elaborate on?"

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Strider Garon"], [member="HK-36"]



"The word of honour of a Mandalorian Field Marshal is enough for me," Siobhan said jovially regarding the question of whether they needed this in writing. Besides the fact that Mandalorians were big on honour, one imagined that HK could replay the conversation if needed.



That said she passed over a datapad that contained the inventory of what Firemane presently had available on the market. "Firemane has plans for designs it would like to use the beskar for, but we obviously do not have the knowledge to make weapons, armour and so on out of beskar. So if we can arrange for longer-term shipments, my intentions is for us to receive the beskar and draw up the blueprints, then when we have a design take it to the Mandalorians so that they can produce it. We would obviously share the tech and you'd get a cut of the profits. And naturally nothing would end up in the hands of Sith because we hate them."


From Siobhan's perspective this was also less controversial since no one outside of Mandalorian space was supposed to know how to smelt beskar, make stuff out of it and so forth. She might have become a member of the Mandalorians of sorts after aiding Ordo and crew in rescuing Mia from Nemene Talith's dungeon, but in many ways she was still a foreigner, certainly not the formal member of a clan, and not at all an armoursmith.

 

[Strider Garon]

Strider took both lists from the two and looked upon them with his old snarled face "I will have to get back to you on what equipment the mandalorians would like from these lists" He would reply with his deep toned resonating voice "For now, we just require military aid and intelligence services. Oh! And on the note of beskar, it is a limited resource and the shipments will not be extensive" The old man informed. It was true, the mandalorians beskar ore was not a unlimited renewable resource. Hence why it fetched a high price and was always in demand from those that could afford it. Today, the price of the iron was military allegiance. "I hope you both understand that" All Strider could think and hope for was that the pay off will be worth the price. Only time will tell.......

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] [member="HK-36"]

 

[HK-36]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"], [member="Strider Garon"],


The machine nodded,

"I perfectly understand, at least one steady deal for Beskar is essential to me. You see I am making a new series of bowcasters, I have found a Wookiee willing to cooperate with me for proper payment, and due to my planet's recent history with railguns-"

He referred to the many shattergun-based weapons Gados have made on him after he has given them a shattergun rifle to reverse-engineer,

"I can make it even stronger. I need Beskar for special armor-piercing bolts, you see I can use Phrik but it is very light, and in this case that is a good thing, Beskar can be light as well but it does not have to be without sacrificing its hardened structure, the heavier these bolts are to a point the harder they hit."

HK explained,

"And with a weapon like that, not only any personal armor the Sith have would not stand a chance against our soldiers, their vehicles and starfighters would have a hard time as well. I would be willing to send a portion of production of both these bowcasters and bolts to your soldiers to help your war efforts, it would come in two sizes, normal made for Wookiees and large beings or to be mounted on vehicles, and a smaller one for more common human soldiers. Other than that I wanted to make war axes and large greatswords, I need heavier material for the same reason as I need for the bolts, and while I can settle for lesser metal, when I make a weapon I try to make it the deadliest it can be."

The machine added before asking,

"Other than that, would you be willing to create cooperation between our special agents to enhance our efforts against the Sith?"

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="HK-36"], [member="Strider Garon"]



Siobhan nodded. This writer, understanding the value and rarity of beskar, mainly wanted it for a small number of tech subs that would probably only be semi-unique or limited production at most. In other words, nothing as grand as say making a tank out of beskar or equipping a company with beskar toys.



"I understand perfectly. Beskar's rare, very valuable and for your people to use foremost, I'm not asking for massive shipments. Just enough for some rare equipment, such as armour and some weapons. I'd also be willing to discuss long-term deals for phrik if we reach agreement. ARGH and Firemane have some new designs in the pipeline that are being tested and will soon be put on the market, such as a portable version of a rotary shattercannon," she responded smoothly. The weapon was not on the market yet since it was going through the final stages of testing, but the datapad she had given Strider would contain a brief description of it.


"Likewise sharing of intelligence, joint training exercises, say on anti-force user techniques, are possible. On another note, I understand MandalTech has a medical subsidiary, MandalMedical, led by Master [member="Rianna be Ar'klim"]. Firemane has a number of talented healers at its disposal, namely Eldorai healers and the renowned Jedi Master [member="Coryth Elaris"], a healer of impressive ability and power. If your people agree, I am sure we could arrange for some of our people to aid yours and pass on their knowledge, perhaps even arrange for healers on the Firemane payroll to provide assistance to your wounded. Especially since the Sith are in such a habit to deploy Force-based toxins, something Master Elaris is extremely knowledgeable about, and Vong-forming viruses. Perhaps we could even work together to create countermeasures and cures."