First Reply “Yes, we have a permit…” (Still open)

[Captain Antio Way’lurr]

Location: Red Nebula

​

Ship: Modified Rectifier Heavy Cruiser named Verdict

• Composite lasers replaced with NNJ-40 ION cannons, optimized for stunning.
• Big Cat lasers replaced with heavy duty Harpoon and Towcable turrets.
• Hangar: one squadron of outdated surplus B-wings (two seated).
  • Aft cockpit turret is substituted with a Harpoon and Towcable for towing purposes.

---

"I bet you're all wondering why I've gathered you here this evening?" Announced the Devaronian chief of staff. Clusters of crewmen of various races had gathered lazily around the horned man as he stood on a plasteel crate. The forward hangar bay was largely empty, save for one old B-wing fighter that was torn apart with a litany of diagnostic leads sticking out of it. The rest of the fighters were out on a patrol sweep. The massive, thick bay doors behind the crew chief were shut with a jagged line separating the top and bottom half. A mag-con field shimmered as a redundant safety measure, lightly distorting the rusty streaks trailing down from the partition line.

There was a growing silence as vacant expressions patiently waited for their speaker to complete his intro. Finally, after he figured he had their full attention, he continued, "so, bad news; the Pod of whales got away, no one is getting paid today."

The crowd stirred only marginally, with mostly confused expressions as a handful of them looked to each other with silent inquiries. No one really took the crew chief seriously. They knew him as something of a joker, and he was famous for making dramatic entrances. But they also all knew when he was drawing attention to an important issue, and only a select few would have the clout to follow up with a question.

An old wookie, a mechanic that had a reputation for being a good mentor, chimed in with warbling growl that carried an inquisitive tone.

"Woah, you win a prize with that one! I didn't even notice the fighters were missing!" The devaronian mimed an animated gesture of looking around, trying to find the "missing fighters". The expressions of the crowd went from confusion to mild annoyance. Lune, the Devaronian chief of staff, decided to start zeroing in on the issue, "well, I'm glad someone was paying attention around here. Congratulations, you're the only one getting paid!" There was an obvious dark edge to his tone that denoted his lack of sincerity. Finally, he decided that was enough foreplay and that it was time to get to business, "look, I know you guys are all on contract, but this is getting ridiculous. We didn't hire you guys to sit around in a blasé state of mind all of the bloody time. I mean, it happens… a lot. I get it. And we pay you well to do it! But this ship is becoming an embarrassment. The rust on this bay door is the first thing people see when they come on board, and everything after that is worse. We have tools all over the place, guys taking naps in weird places, and this fighter has been getting diagnosed for the past week. Like, are we trying to make a career out of that thing?" As he pointed to the disassembled B-wing, a few chuckles came from parts of the crowd that were far away from the hangar techs. The hangar techs just stood there, scowling in silence.

"look guys, we've been at this site for almost a month. Between you and me, the Captain is getting antsy waiting for these whales to break formation. The permit still hasn't come through, and we're gonna have to start 'having a lot of accidents' with the whales if we're ever gonna get a return on this job. You guys are getting paid well, so getting this place cleaned up will help his state of mind, and our bonuses will be bigger." A few nods rippled through the congregation, so he proceeded, pleased, "ok, so I want crew chiefs to put together details. I want this door buffed and painted. I'm tired of looking at it. And that fighter is getting fixed! It only had an outage on the starboard targetting Lazer and I can't figure out why you guys are taking so long to finish it. And I want some proactivity from you. If you see something, own it, fix it, and report it. Get permits from the office if you see anything mechanical, but for the love of the Gods, please stop clearing off storage shelves for naps! This is getting out of hand."

---

The next day​

Captain Way'lurr quietly watched the holodisplay as his eleven fighters took turns doing probing flybys on the pod of whales. His other two senior bridge managers stood with him in equally clean white uniforms, customarily white, and trimmed with ornate gold tassels to denote civillian officers of military origins. They had served with him a long time, having left the Elysium navy together when they decided to get into commercial hunting.

The manager on his left finally spoke up, "Lune says the boys are 'coming-to' now. I guess it didn't take much to get them to snap out of their funk. They were just bored. This crew isn't too bad, honestly."

Antio nodded, "I didn't think it would be that bad. Our guild rep is a pretty good recruiter. It's not like we're a military ship anymore. If you let civilian contractors get some controlled 'chill' time, they tend to do well when it's action time. They had a day to get cleaned up, and they are putting the last panels back on that B-wing right now. I think we're as ready as we're going to get."

"Strike while the iron is hot," murmured the officer on his right, "are you sure you're not going to wait for the permit? I know the chances are slim that…"

"I know, Breve. I normally would wait, but we need to get this job done. We have a client contract to start in two weeks, and I already don't like how little time we have left for the refit. I've got friends who can set up a retroactive permit, as long as we can make it look like an accident."

"I still don get what's taking so long for this permit. We did submit it earlier this year, right?" Said Carvahan on Antio's left.

"I submitted the forms myself," Antio explained patiently for the hundredth time, "You know I did. Our old officer wasn't there, and there was some young Twi'lekk girl working. I should have asked for another rep in hindsight."

Breve elbowed him lightly in the ribs, "you were distracted by that young pretty face. It's understandable."

"Not true!" Antio denied jokingly with a dry tone, "we Dorneans can't stand skinny tail-heads! You take that back, pervert!"

Both Breve and Carvahan laughed. Breve opened his mouth to prod his captain further when the comms officer spoke up, "a small group of Purgils are breaking off to chase the B-wings, sir. The squadron leader says they seem mad this time, and committed. We have our opening!"

"All hands to your stations! General quarters!" Antio announced loudly, springing into action. Klaxons rang throughout the old cruiser and lights dimmed to General Quarters Red in areas where crews were scrambling to their assigned stations. Being civilians, they would take longer to get to full readiness than militarily trained personnel, but for their purposes, this was good enough.

"Have the fighters draw the purgil further away from the main pod. Once all division chiefs have reported full readiness, bring the Verdict on a heading straight for the ones in pursuit and bring the ion canons to bear on those whales. We'll get them stunned and speared, and have tractor beam operators watch for runners."

"Are we going for the old 'self defence' gimmick, sir?" Asked Carvahan.

"As long as no one else is here to witness what we're doing, the permit office only has our word to go by. Let's hope that our luck favours us today."

---

Discord username: burtch1

 

[Augustina 'Gussy' Nargath]

​

Location: Red Nebula
Equipment: Tyrant II Missile Cruiser, Callsign: EES Angron, 1 squadron of Peltast II Interceptors
Tag: Captain Antio Way’lurr

​

If space wasn't a vacuum, one could hear the roaring thunder of a ship snapping out of hyperspace at an obviously inconvenient moment and most certainly in an unusual way, for as it struck out of the boundaries of hyperspace, the bow of this ship almost slammed against the pod of whales, whose behavior was not of any concern towards the one commanding the ship that had just made what could only be described as an accidental, emergency jump.

Debris floated around the ship and obviously there were some coolant leaks, not to mention the fact that one of the hangar bays had been blown open, littering the surrounding space with crates full of material that should have been brought to the Eternal Empire...which could be clearly seen by the symbols and lettering on those crates, if not the ship itself, which carried the imperial colorscheme with gusto. A smaller, but still visible emblem could be seen above the ruined hangarbay denoted this ship as being under the command of a Commodore and an aristocrat at that.

"Gods...can't this ship do anything right?" Holding herself upright against the safety rails within the ship's bridge, the Commanding officer of the EES Angron let out a combination of a deep sigh and a burly grunt, both garbled and twisted by the respirator worn by her. Commodore Augustina Nargath was in a foul mood, more or less the usual, but with this being the third time the Angron managed to simply 'boot' itself out of hyperspace, she clearly was having none of it. "A simple supply run, no big worries...those bastards from the high admiralty..."

"Sir?" One of the ensigns looked up from their position, which was basically half splayed, across their own seating position, nearly having been flung into their own command pod due to the abrupt shock of the ship stopping in its tracks without any warning.

"What?!" Course, and somewhat brutish, the Commodore responded with a snarl towards the ensign.

"It seems we're not alone, the sensors are picking up on...Purrgils...it seems," The ensign seemed to be confused and turned her attention towards the second most senior officer aboard the ship, Lieutenant Damar, who was the chief communications officer and second in command on board of the ship ever since the Commodore had kicked out her last second in command on grounds of being... 'a bootlicking bastard who'd stick his nose up the admiralty's biggest brown spot.'

"It's possible these whales were responsible for the...oh," The lieutenant walked over towards the commodore, reaching out to her with a small datapad, which showed that the sensors were picking up something wholly unexpected...an old ship...maybe not as old as the Angron, but the difference wouldn't be too great. "It's... a Rectifier Heavy Cruiser...haven't seen those in quite a while."

"Undoubtedly...what would bring such a ship here...the whales?" Trying to have some sort of clear view through the transparisteel viewport of the bridge, the Commordore let out another sigh, before taking in a deep breath soon after, holding said breath in as she straightened herself out, dusted off her uniform and looked at the bridge crew. "Ensigns Hal and Cyon, try and see what the damage is, communicate with the engine bay and the mechanics. Sergeant Mills, go to Hangar bay 1, give me a tally on how many of the old Peltast II's we got left that are still capable to launch after this disaster. Lieutenant Damar, try and see whether or not we can hail that ship..."

Walking over to what essentially was the captain's chair of the ship, Augustina reached for the internal relay, opening a commlink with her personal code, which allowed it to be sent through each and every intercom within the ship. "All of you who are wounded, report to the med bay, those who are only a bit shaken...get off of your asses, assess the immediate damage and for the love of the empress... get this ship back up and running. I want all weapons systems that have not been compromised set into manual mode, have the engineers check on the ZEUS, just to make sure it is still functional."

Turning her attention back to Damar, the Commodore let out a soft, though twisted sounding chuckle through her respirator. "How are we coming along with hailing these... strangers?"

 

[Captain Antio Way’lurr]

Location: Red Nebula

​

Ship: Modified Rectifier Heavy Cruiser named Verdict

• Composite lasers replaced with RX-200 ION cannons, optimized for stunning.
• Big Cat lasers replaced with heavy duty Harpoon and Towcable turrets.
• Hangar: one squadron of outdated surplus B-wings (two seated).
  • Aft cockpit turret is substituted with a Harpoon and Towcable for towing purposes.

---

"Hold your fire… hold your fire…" Chief of Staff Lune ordered his gunners remotely from the forward fire control station. He was standing over the shoulder of the man who was actually supposed to be running this post. There were several 2D monitors in front of them both, displaying a litany of information coming from multiple sources. Target tracking data, updates from the bridge officers, weapons diagnostic readings, and much more information was streaming in. Lune knew how to run the guns on the Verdict from this station and he felt the urge to take control of this part of the operation. The original gunnery chief was clearly annoyed with the Devaronian Chief of Staff for stepping on his toes and snubbing his role today.

The argument had already taken place. Logic had been a wasted effort by the Gunnery Chief. Lune had won through sheer stubbornness. Lune was here to stay.

The purrgil pod was getting much closer now as the Verdict closed the distance. Firing too soon would give too many of the massive whales ample time to escape. The whales were faster than the Verdict when travelling at full speed, and the only thing that was allowing the cruiser to keep up was their complacency. The closer Verdict was to the pod at the time when the shooting started, the more Purrgil they could stun before they could escape to hyperspace. The more Purgil they nabbed, the more they got paid.

"Ok, that's it," murmured Lune as the purrgil neared the outer edge of the desired range. The mutinied Gunnery Chief simply said nothing with his arms crossed.

"Ok boys, watch for the final command from the bridge. The moment they give the order, I wan-"

Just then, a massive cruiser-sized warship snapped into existence in the middle of the main pod, "FETH OFF!!!"

The sudden arrival of the massive metal structure startled every last purgil in the main herd and they scattered at speeds that would have ripped the Verdict in half. The section of the pod that they had been chasing had detected the disturbance experienced by their brethren and had scattered as equally abruptly. Within seconds, the purgil became impossible to track and were disappearing into to hyperspace.

The only crewman on board Verdict that was smiling was the Gunnery Crew Chief, as he watched Chief Lune throw a temper tantrum and storm off to go break something.

---

On the Bridge​

"Eternal Empire… I haven't heard seen their flag in a long time." Observed Breve.

Captain Antio Way'lurr gave his senior manager a look of incredulity as their revenue stream could still be seen jumping into hyperspace one-by-one. "Oh, good! I'm glad that your mind has been put at ease on that!"

"Oh, no sir! I was just saying that…" Breve trailed off awkwardly mid sentence as the rest of the staff looked at him with a reflection of their Captain's irritation on their own faces. They were all feeling the sting as their paycheques were just reduced to a flaccid base rate. No one wanted to hear a stupid observation at this time.

Antio looked out of the viewport and saw that his squadron of B-wings - a distant cluster of prickly dots - had been left in the void like a stood-up date. With the purgil gone, the eleven fighters had nothing to herd. Antio figured it was time to put them to work, "Contact the leader of Wrangler Squadron! Get him to set up perimeters around that cruiser's hangar bays! Bring the Verdict up beside her and bear all heavy Ion cannons on her from our port side! Lock down that cruiser! And I want sensor sweeps of the surrounding area! Watch for hyperspace egress!"

There was a bit of lag time amongst his crew, as they were not all militarily trained, and for those who were, it had been a while. Then, it collectively dawned on them what was going on.

The Tyrant II Missile Cruiser could be a threat!

"You think they're here to attack us, sir?" Carvahan asked, a little worried. He was ex-military, like Antio, but he knew that the crew was not ideally qualified for combat action.

"No," Antio answered simply, "look more carefully at her."

Carvahan and Breve exchanged looks and then went to the viewport as the Verdict closed in to stand seemingly barrel-to-barrel with the Angron. As the distance rapidly closed, details of damage, scattered debris, and leaking fluids could be seen with their naked eyes.

"She's been wounded!" Exclaimed the sensor systems chief!

"How did you see that before our sensors, Skipper?" Asked Breve.

"Well, we're not running a combat mission crew for a hunting expedition, so our sensor staff isn't prepared for that. But my Dornean eyes can see pretty good out here. But now that we're closer I don't see any burn scoring."

"You were worried that they were being chased." Carvahan summarised, clearly a little impressed with Antio's quick thinking.

"I'm also worried about the condition of that cruiser. In it's state, it's an exploding hazard, and their own crew could be in danger" Antio explained further.

Then the light came on inside of Breve's head this time, "you're hoping to use the ION cannons to isolate their power source in case they're about to explode!"

"We don't know if they're an enemy, an ally, or a victim. But having Ion cannons trained on them is good for everyone. Comms! Have they tried hailing us yet?!"

The chief comms operator pulled her headset off of one ear and replied, "they literally just tried us. Standard hailing, with an Eternal Empire IFF. Response?"

"Tell them that they have just compromised a commercial hunting operation and that they owe us credits. Then ask them if they need any help…"

Breve shifted nervously before adding, "also, maybe add that we have our Ion cannons aimed at them to help isolate any reactors that might be overloading, in case there's a chain reaction."

Antio gave him a short nod of approval.

 

[Augustina 'Gussy' Nargath]

​

Location: Red Nebula
Equipment: Tyrant II Missile Cruiser
Tag: Captain Antio Way’lurr

​

"Status report gentlemen," The Commodore looked out of the transparisteel viewports of the command deck, tapping against the window when a crate filled with ordinance floated across the other side of the window. They had been deactivated for transportation, but still...it was quite the loss for the crew to see large parts of their cargo and their on board ordinances floating around like debris. To make matters worse, at first glance it began to look like the Rectifier Cruiser was closing in on the wounded and battered Angron, not exactly the welcome party Augustina had hoped for.

"We've rebooted the ZEUS, it is currently doing a diagnostics run," Lieutenant Damar relayed the current status, looking at his datapad to list off the good and the bad news. "The engine bay has not been ruptured or compromised, but the cooling system is leaking fluids and as the ZEUS is doing the diagnostics run, it can't adjust the tilt we're in, we're maintaining stability with our thrusters, but if the leak isn't repaired soon, the F.A.R. might overheat."

"A reactor that has been decoupled from the engines and is slowly overheating," The commodore let out a deep sigh through her respirator mask, raising her left hand to rub at the red lenses of the gogles covering her eyes. "And I suspect with the ZEUS doing its diagnostics...this goddamn barge is nothing but a sitting duck?"

"Ensigns Hal and Cyon have also reported that hangarbay two has a rupture...they've tried to restart the shielding, but with ZEUS in its diagnostics...

"Yes yes, I get it lieutenant...nothing works,"

"Surprisingly the life support system is still up and running, so is the articifial gravity...well as long as the reactor doesn't overheat at least," The lieutenant let out a soft chuckle in amusement to his own remark, only to grow quiet immediately when the Commodore looked straight at him...or at least that was what he thought she did, considering he couldn't actually see her eyes anyway. "Hrmm... Well, on a positive note... Ensign Cyon did report that of the two wings of Peltasts in the Hangar bays, at least one compliment of them is still capable of sortying if you wish for them to do so."

"No...don't make any moves that could be seen as offensive," Augustina turned her gaze towards one of the consoles, which seemed to be relaying a message rather than giving the message in vocoded form. "Commercial hunting operation?"

"It could be that these are Whale hunters...some people do pay good money for Purrgils, especially for males," Lieutenant Damar sat down at the console and awaited the Commodore's command. "Should we perhaps give them a bone sort of speak...I mean, the Ion canons they have may shortcircuit the F.A.R. and avoid a meltdown...but also shut down or fry the ZEUS..."

"You only need to tell them what I dictate," The commodore seemed to scrape her through for a moment, clearing it, despite the fact the respirator more or less did that job for her. "This is Commodore Augustina Nargath of the Eternal Fleet, commander of the EES Angron and the Visari recon fleet. While attempting a hyperjump, our systems were crucially damaged by incorrect maintainance of the F.A.R., as such we have been thrown out of hyperspace and this resulted in the current status of this vessel. Reimbursement for lost wages and bounty can be discussed and terms can be made. Keeping all frequencies open."

Tapping Lieutenant Damar on the shoulder, the Commodore nodded towards the exit. "You go and help out the rest with the diagnostics and check up on doctor Vale in the med bay just in case, give me a count on the wounded when you've been cleared."

With Damar leaving the bridge, the Commodore sat down at the console her second in command had been seated at earlier, removing the thick, padded gloves on her hands in order to reveal a pair of slender, yet still somewhat firm looking hands with shortly manicured nails and a white, pale skin. Calmly she typed in an additional message, just to make sure that these...whalers would understand their position and hers. "Tell your crew that any and all ordinance salvaged outside of the Angron may be taken as part of the compensation for lost wages, I am certain that these may earn you a pretty penny on the market. Hangar bay 2 is fully open and can be utilized as a meeting point after we've removed the debris...is this...satisfactory?"

 

[Captain Antio Way’lurr]

Location: Red Nebula

​

Ship: Modified Rectifier Heavy Cruiser named Verdict

• Composite lasers replaced with RX-200 ION cannons, optimized for stunning.
• Big Cat lasers replaced with heavy duty Harpoon and Towcable turrets.
• Hangar: one squadron of outdated surplus B-wings (two seated).
  • Aft cockpit turret is substituted with a Harpoon and Towcable for towing purposes.

---

"This is Commodore Augustina Nargath of the Eternal Fleet, commander of the EES Angron and the Visari recon fleet. While attempting a hyperjump, our systems were crucially damaged by incorrect maintainance of the F.A.R., as such we have been thrown out of hyperspace and this resulted in the current status of this vessel. Reimbursement for lost wages and bounty can be discussed and terms can be made. Keeping all frequencies open."

Antio, Breve and Carvahan were shoulder-to-shoulder, crouching over the vid-screen to read Captain Augustina 'Gussy' Nargath 's message. When they were done, Breve stepped back and stretched dramatically, "weeeell that solves all of our problems. Looks like we'll get paid anyways!"

"Unlikely," Antio muttered, "this is most likely turning into a rescue operation, so I doubt that we'll get full reimbursement. Rescue jobs are paid out based on the value of the ones being rescued and not necessarily on the value of the assets used to do the rescuing. And we can't just bill our services to a client on this. It's all about what it's worth to them that their rears were saved. That's why professional rescuers run smaller outfits to keep their overhead low."

"That, and our buyer for the whales is going to be miffed right off." Added Carvahan, "We may not actually owe them any money for this, but angry clients tend to 'burn space lanes' for future business."

Breve seemed undeterred by Antio and Carvahan's complaints. He gestured towards the Eternal Empire emblem on the side of the Angron, "So, we lose one fethy client and, maaaaybe we gain a better one? These imperials have lots of money. We may have gained a chance to get an in with them over this."

"Yeah, because that'll look good," snorted Carvahan sarcastically, "we failed our old buyers for the whales and pursued a government client? Surely lots of people are going to want to do business with us then…"

"We already lost our whaling client, Carv." Countered Breve, "at this point, we gotta find the radium lining, here."

Antio closed his bulgy Dornean eyes in resignation and nodded, "Breve is right. There's never any benefit in thinking backwards. The only way is forwards. Breve, if we get a chance, do you think you can lead the negotiations?" Out of his two senior managers, Breve had the best chances of winning over new clients.

Breve nodded enthusiastically, "I'm your man, Captain."

Just then, the consol beside them chimed again, and a message scrawled onto the screen again:

"Tell your crew that any and all ordinance salvaged outside of the Angron may be taken as part of the compensation for lost wages, I am certain that these may earn you a pretty penny on the market. Hangar bay 2 is fully open and can be utilized as a meeting point after we've removed the debris...is this...satisfactory?"

Alarmed, Antio's eyes shot out the viewport and he squinted with his superior pinniped vision to look at the floating crates around the Angron. Sure enough, he could just make out the details of ordnance crates and free-floating warheads.

Surely, those warheads were disabled for transit, so they shouldn't be a risk, but in an incident such as this, nothing could be guaranteed. Without much more thought, he quickly depressed the button for recording voice-to-text dictation and began speaking his response, "Commodor Nargath, this is Captain Antio Way'lurr. Your offer is most generous, thank you. However, the safety of your crew must come first," he quickly shot Breve a subtle wink, "I apologize for my innitial reaction earlier. With your permission, I'd like to tow your ship out of the debris field and - if you'll have us - get some of my people over there to start rendering aid as quickly as possible. I'm sure that both your people and mine can agree on not wanting to work in a literal minefield."

He let go of the button and the message automatically sent. Carvahan shook his head incredulously, but his voice sounded like resignation, "let's just remember to grab those warheads when we're actually done here…"

 

[Augustina 'Gussy' Nargath]

​

Location: Red Nebula
Equipment: Tyrant II Missile Cruiser, 1 squadron of Peltast II Class Interceptors
Tag: Captain Antio Way’lurr

​

"Your actions are worth my notice, Captain Way'lurr," The Commodore had to refrain herself from letting out a chuckle, considering she found it somewhat interesting that someone would apologize for what essentially was a cautious decision and in her own opinion the correct one given the circumstances. She had after all apparently managed to make them lose their quarry, something rather obvious when one sees a ship following a pod of whales. "Though the Angron may look like she's in rough shape, she has been through worse. She's a rustbucket, but she is mine... though I appreciate your efforts in safeguarding your crew in case of disaster, I can assure you that at best she might need a check up in the engine bay and a few tears might need some patching...not to mention we need to unbolt that damn hangar door so it can close damn it... my apologies..."

For a moment the connection grew cold, as Augustina was distracted by one of the ensigns and her second in command lieutenant Damar entering the bridge. They both seemed to be rather relaxed, which given the situation would have looked unnatural for any other person, but in this case, it was a pair of impervium-balled members of the Eternal Empire's navy, if there was nothing to worry about, nothing would be worried about.

"Report."

"We've made a tally of our wounded, divided in critically wounded and lightly wounded," Ensign Hal spoke up after Lieutenant Damar nodded to him to speak up first. "Of the two-hundred aboard, sixteen were critically wounded and have been brought to the medbay, these include our chief engineer and two of the senior engineers, one member of the bridgecrew, and two of our pilots."

"And the lightly wounded?"

"About two dozen people with bumps and bruises, though Warrant officer Humb has twised his knee pretty badly," The Ensign continued, nodding respectfully towards Lieutenant Damar to give his report.

"Vale as expected is being a tightass, sir," The lieutenant laughed, expecting the Commodore to do the same, only to notice that she didn't. "My apologies sir, Doctor Vale is currently tending to the critically wounded to the best of his abilities... Good news is that the Z.E.U.S. has run its diagnostics and is booting up again, which means we'll know truly how bad or how good the siatuation is shortly."

"Right...that is some good news," Turning her attention back to the console, Augustina pressed the button to open up the channel again. "Captain Way'lurr. It seems that we would indeed appreciate your help in towing us out of the debris area... the onboard AI has run its diagnostics and the severity of the damage will be known in a few minutes. If possible, do keep your lines open so we can monitor the situation from both of our positions and avoid any disastrous actions."

 

[Captain Antio Way’lurr]

Location: Red Nebula

​

Ship: Modified Rectifier Heavy Cruiser named Verdict

• Composite lasers replaced with NNJ-40 ION canons, optimized for stunning.
• Big Cat lasers replaced with heavy duty Harpoon and Towcable turrets.
• Hangar: one squadron of outdated surplus B-wings (two seated).
  • Aft cockpit turret is substituted with a Harpoon and Towcable for towing purposes.

---

"We have a hit!" Announced the harpoon gun operator. Lune's eyes followed the towcable line that spiralled loosely from the gun barrel all the way forward-and-across to the Angron's ventral hangar bay door. The gunner seemed pleased with his accuracy, and grinned at the Devaronian Chief of Staff in seeking approval. Lune grunted flatly in response, then moved on.

He tapped his Commlink, which was channeled to an NCO on board the Angron, "alright, I'm good on my end. Are you ready?"

The Commlink crackled before the clipped military voice of an Eternal Empire NCO came back over the line, "the line is secure on our end, Chief. Go ahead and put some light tension on it and be ready to stop when I give the signal."

"Got it. Drawing in the line slowly" Lune began drawing circles in the air in front of him repeatedly in a counter clockwise motion, signaling to the towcable operator to "winch-in" the line slowly. The motor inside of the spool mechanism whined softly as it began to reel the cable in, straightening out the loose spirals into a tight, straight line. As the spirals finally stretched out, Lune slowed the rotation of his finger to indicate that the operator that he needed to slow the motor down. The motor quieted down and Lune listened carefully for the NCO on the Angron to order a stop.

"HOLD!" the voice came abruptly over the comm and Lune closed his hand into a rigid fist. The towcable operator responded to the signal, letting go of the spool trigger and slapped a safety lock button, holding the line from unspooling from the tension. A loud clank sound echoed above them, indicating that the mechanism was locked down.

"Ok, Angron. Let us know when you're ready." Lune said over the Commlink.

The clipped military voice came back over the comm, "it won't be long. Most of the bolts are loosened already. We just have to remove the last couple key ones and then you can start pulling."

"Roger that. Let us know when you're ready" Lune repeated.

"Will do." And the Commlink clicked in response to the Eternal Empire NCO shutting his comm down to deal with his own crew.

While they waited, Lune checked the diagnostic data feed on the tractor beams and repulsors that were holding the two cruisers together in space. Towing the other cruiser had gone off without a hitch, and now the floating field of drifting ordnance was safely behind both of them. The Eternal Navy crew had been seemingly impressed with the towcable operators on board the Verdict, and after the move was finished, additional requests for aid had been made. For the sake of secure support between both ships, there had been talk of docking both ships together umbilically. However, it seemed like it was too… intimate for such a fresh acquaintance. Having crews move freely between two ships from different backgrounds was probably not good for anyone. The compromise had been to use a combination of tractor beams and repulsorlifts to hold the ships together at a safe, but secure arms reach. It wasn't as solid as an umbilical hold, but it was strong enough.

"Looks like the captain is heading out, Chief" observed one of the operator's assistant techs. Lune looked forward to see the tiny shape of a ratty old B-wing lumbering out from the hangar bay to take Captain Way'lurr and Breve to negotiate with Augustina 'Gussy' Nargath .

"Whyyyy…" Chief Lune moaned in dispair, "why are there panels still missing from that stupid B-wing!"

"Oh, that is embarrassing," the gun operator commented in kind.

"I'm talking to the guild rep after this," Lune griped out loud, "I've had enough of those sub-contractors we got for the hangar crew. Those guys are done!"

"Oh, nobody likes them anyways." Affirmed the gunner, "their rates are way too high, and their hiring conditions were ridiculous. For all the stuff they asked for, our fighters should be getting chromium plating and SLAM upgrades. Like, how are they still in business with the kind of work they do?"

Lune recognized the complaints of the gunner as sentiments that were unanimously accepted by the crew as a whole. He grunted his grim acknowledgement. It was settled. Those sub-contractors were done.

As the two-seater B-wing cleared the hangar bay, it suddenly accelerated to the Angron's other remaining hangar bay. As if to punctuate his decision to fire the sub-contractors, the sudden acceleration knocked something off of the b-wing that tumbled away into the void of space. Gods, I hope that the condition of that b-wing doesn't give Commodor Augustina 'Gussy' Nargath a bad impression of Captain Way'lurr and Breve when they arrive.

"Chief Lune, come in." Came the voice of the Eternal NCO over the commlink.

"Go-for Chief. Go ahead." Replied Lune after he tapped his commlink.

"All bolts are out. Go ahead and give her all you got. Let's see if we can finally close this door…"

 

[Augustina 'Gussy' Nargath]

​

Location: Red Nebula
Equipment: Tyrant II Missile Cruiser
Tag: Captain Antio Way’lurr

"Chief Petty officer Wallis reports the towing cables have been secured," Lieutenant Damar reported to the Commodore, who once again found herself staring into space, continuing to brood over the inadequacies of her superiors. It wasn't always like that, but ever since the Eternal Empire had retreated to its original borders in order to avoid total collapse, there were certain...issues. Service to the empire wasn't rewarded like it used to be and either they had absolute putzes running the admiralty, or they dropped completely unknown and untested people in high ranking positions. Even if they claimed this to be on merrit, merrit was only a valid excuse when those people could actually show something for it. "Ma'am, just off the record here, but you are not to blame for this mishap... the Angron is an old vessel...she..."

"Zip it Lieutenant Damar, " The Commordore sighed as she turned towards her second in command, a chuckle leaving her lips and the sound of it being transferred through her respirator. "She is still an imperial vessel and though she is old, she is also venerable and has survived way more than you or I."

With a rather brisk pace, the Commodore finally left the bridge, walking through plasteel covered walkways and corridors, saluting all who weren't to busy with the routine checks and their own injuries. Gussy was headed for the Hangar bays, because she could feel how her vessel, HER Angron was being towed by the unexpected help and she knew they'd be asking for a fair compensation, even with the promise of the ordinances being theirs, there was no telling on what they'd want exactly. Money wasn't exactly an issue, not to Commodore Nargath at least, considering the relative rarity of the name, people were quick to understand that she was technically also part of the aristocracy, perhaps not on Kalidan, but certainly in the Seswenna sector, where her family held not just the keys to the system itself, but to a corporate powerhouse that had seen quite the resurgance as of late.

"Chief Petty Officer Wallis, how's she holding?" Arriving at the hangar bays, Commordore Nargath inspected the towing cables and the reinforcements at which they had been attached.

"The ersteel aint budging, Ma'am...she's holding fine," Wallis reported, his moustache bristling as he took in a deep breath in order to properly salute his commanding officer. "It also seems the Zeus has been returning most of the systems online. We still can't unbolt bay doors three and four, but baydoors one and two are fine, the shielding's at minimum strength to allow ships to pass at the moment...should that be adjusted?"

"No, it's fine...we're expecting company anyway and..." For a moment, Gussy stopped talking, noticing a B wing in a rather ratty shape speeding up towards them, she could even swear she saw part of the B-wing's plating veer off into space when it accelerated. "Sheesh...The Angron may have had some malfunctions and needs some repairs in frequent meassure...but what they're flying is just ancient by all means...how on earth doesn't that thing just implode. The ones running those are either complete and utter fools or..."

"A bunch of idjets right up your alley, ma'am," Lieutenant Damar spoke up as he arrived in the hangar bay as well, holding his datapad and showing a cautious, thinly veiled smile. "I've brought all the information we could find on this Antonio Way..."

"Captain."

"Excuse me ma'am?"

"This person identified himself with rank and we should show the courtesy, even without them being physically present to refer to them with the rank and title they have chosen to make themselves known with," The Commodore waved with her hand, motioning that there would be no further discussion as she reached for the datapad. "Someone who acts this professionally either has been a whaler for god knows how long and has been in contact with many military vessels...or they were military themselves and...yes, seems I'm right. Keep the shield on low density for the B wing, ready the safety net just in case and call our mechanics over...they might need some...patching, even moreso than we do."

Bracing herself, the Commodore would wait and see whether or not she would have to jump aside, but nonetheless, she'd await the arrival of her vessel's savior. No matter how he arrived though, she'd keep it professional and would simply adress him like she'd adress any other visitor.

"Welcome aboard the EES Angron, Captain Way'lurr"

 

[Captain Antio Way’lurr]

Location: Red Nebula

​

Ship: Modified Rectifier Heavy Cruiser named Verdict

• Composite lasers replaced with NNJ-40 ION canons, optimized for stunning.
• Big Cat lasers replaced with heavy duty Harpoon and Towcable turrets.
• Hangar: one squadron of outdated surplus B-wings (two seated).
  • Aft cockpit turret is substituted with a Harpoon and Towcable for towing purposes.

---

The old B-wing slid through the mag-con field and then settled on to its repulsorlifts. It slowly lowered to the deck and, surprisingly, settled down without impacting the floor harshly. Engines wound down and the vibrations in the ship ceased as Breve shut everything down to cool off.

"This is embarrassing," Antio groaned as he slid off his helmet and put his captain's cap back on.

"She actually handled pretty good, despite her appearance," chimed Breve, "there was never anything wrong with the engines, or so I was told. They just needed to fix the targeting on one of the S-foils."

"Yes, and that was weeks ago and they still didn't get the panels back on."

"I know, I know," Breve said. The perpetual state of this B-wing was an exhausted topic by now on the Verdict. Everyone was tired of hearing about it. He pulled a lever, opening the canopy, and both men stepped out of the little fighter.

Antio took a moment to look around the hangar. There were cables attached to the heavy door that ran all the way back to the Verdict's aft turrets. Beyond the mag-con shield, the other remaining eleven B-wings could be seen making trips back and forth between the drifting ordnance and the Verdict's hangar bay as they dragged back their prizes. Antio had been tempted to retask one of the much better looking fighters in his compliment to take him to this meeting, but he hadn't wanted to cut in on any of his pilot's bonuses. Now that he was seeing how clean and professional the Eternal Navy crew persons were, he was a little embarrassed and regretted not getting a better looking fighter.

He had other means of presenting himself as a professional, however. He saw a masked woman that was a few centimetres taller than he was dressed. She was dressed in a black officer's uniform. Next to her was a man, fully uniformed, albeit less ornate and unmasked. Likely, one of her senior officers, Antio noted. And to her other side was a man in a much humbler uniform, similar to the crew persons working in the hangar, and donning a thick moustache.

The moustache caused Antio to look around at the other crew members and he noted how cleanly shaven they all were. In contrast, his own crew back on the Verdict were prone to having tattoos and beards, as they were mostly hired hands, and not military personnel. Seeing the Eternal Empire servicemen and women so clean and professional made him a bit nostalgic for his time in the Elysium Empire Navy and he couldn't help but smile.

"Breve," he said to his colleague, "let's give them a bit of a show."

Breve suddenly summoned his clipped military tone from his own past years of service and said "Aye, Captain!" knowing what Captain Way'lurr meant.

Then, without any cue, the two men snapped to attention in unison and then wheeled to face their hosts. They then marched in-step towards Augustina 'Gussy' Nargath and her companions. Their crisp movements made them appear as competent military officers, despite their clean-white civilian uniforms. As per most galactic military customs, the stomped to a halt in front of their hosts at a perfectly respectful distance and stood at attention. Then, they saluted.

Only, they didn't salute their hosts directly.

Instead, they had both turned their heads towards the Eternal Empire flag on the far bulkhead and they held their salutes for a good couple breaths to show their respectful deference to the nation Augustina 'Gussy' Nargath served. Then, as one, they snapped their saluting hands back to their sides, turned their heads back to Augustina 'Gussy' Nargath and snapped their hands back up into a second salute, all in one smooth motion.

Antio spoke in a loud, clipped military tone, "Commodor Nargath! I am Captain Antio Way'Lurr of the Heavy Cruiser, Verdict! This is my assistant, Vladicus Breve! Thank you for agreeing to meet us! Permission to come onboard The Angron?"

Everything that Antio and Breve had done was usually universally recognized as a military parade of respect. Most cultures in the galaxy observed the custom of asking for permission to come on board a ship that one was visiting. However, saluting the flag of another ship was an advanced expression of reverence that usually only highly regarded
militaries would recognize. Antio seriously hoped that Augustina 'Gussy' Nargath was impressed with his practice in military customs…

 

[Augustina 'Gussy' Nargath]

​

Location: Red Nebula
Equipment: Tyrant II Missile Cruiser
Tag: Captain Antio Way’lurr

Perhaps rather surprising to Captain Antio Way’lurr and his subordinate, was the fact that the Commodore was sort of tilting her head and seemed to be somewhat inquisitive. The fact that both saluted the emblems of the Eternal Empire first rather than her did at the very least make it quite clear that they at the very least respected the empire, as they were technically not even mandated to salute anything or anyone. With a chuckle escaping through her respirator, the Commodore nodded her head ever so slightly and looked at her second in command for a bit. "I reckon they have some deference to the empire, not a bad start when it comes to a polite and friendly meeting with those who have been reponsible for sort of cleaning up our mess."

The lieutenant simply nodded at the Commodore's comment, leaning towards the somewhat hairy NCO next to him, asking if this was a good thing or not. The NCO simply shrugged and pointed at the Commodore walking towards the guests, showing no aggression or anger in her steps, making it clear she was really in a rather good mood when it came to her guests.

"Gentlemen...you are our guests and our saviors in this rather awkward situation," The Commodore clapped her hands together as she straightened herself a again. "You are without a doubt welcome aboard the EES-Angron, captain, and so are you...mr. Breve?"

She waited to see if he would correct her and state a rank as well, just like the man he accompanied, but even if he did not do so, it was quite clear from the gruffness that both exuded in spades, that they had seen their fair share of military practices. Letting out a sigh, the Commodore motioned her second in command lieutenant Damar to approach as well. "Lieutenant Damar here has the cargo manifestos, that way you can have a better view on the value of the ordinances you have aqcuired through our deal. I would also like to point out that since it does now seem you are all out of work...how is your military training...are you all rusty or have you had ample experience as hunters?"

 

[Captain Antio Way’lurr]

Perhaps rather surprising to Captain Antio Way’lurr Captain Antio Way’lurr and his subordinate, was the fact that the Commodore was sort of tilting her head and seemed to be somewhat inquisitive.

Antio and Breve struggled to stand there and hold their salutes in the air while they waited for an acknowledgment of some kind. Antio resisted the urge to break his posture and look to his subordinate and instead opted to whisper out of the corner of his mouth, "was she impressed, or not?"

"I don't know," Breve whispered back, "maybe they don't recognize our customs?"

"It's possible… it can't hurt that we saluted their flag, though, right?"

"Mmhrmmhrmm?"

"Gentlemen...you are our guests and our saviors in this rather awkward situation," The Commodore clapped her hands together as she straightened herself a again. "You are without a doubt welcome aboard the EES-Angron, captain, and so are you...mr. Breve?"

With that, both men dropped their salutes. Antio was a tad disappointed that Augustina 'Gussy' Nargath hadn't returned the salute, but had instead greeted them warmly in a rather informal manner. Perhaps she was returning the show of respect in an informal way to acknowledge their status as civillian spacers? It was possible.

Breve addressed her question himself, "'mister' is sufficiently appropriate, ma'am. I used to be a Lieutenant back when I served in the old navy, but that was a long time ago. We're just profiteering civillians now."

"Lieutenant Damar here has the cargo manifestos, that way you can have a better view on the value of the ordinances you have aqcuired through our deal. I would also like to point out that since it does now seem you are all out of work...how is your military training...are you all rusty or have you had ample experience as hunters?"

At that, Antio and Breve both broke their discipline and looked at each other. Antio cocked a quilled Dornean eyebrow and Breve immediately replied with an enthusiastic waggling of his own thick, bushy human eyebrows. This was already going extremely well. Commodore Nargath was leading the conversation towards the exact direction they were wanting to go without any prompting at all. However, a thought occurred to Antio, maybe this is a little too easy...

He narrowed his thick Dornean eyelids at Breve as a warning to watch his lead, and then proceeded to speak to Augustina 'Gussy' Nargath "We appreciate your efforts to compensate us for our losses. And I trust that the ordinance used by the Eternal Empire Navy is of the highest quality. I'm sure that we'll be able to cover many of our losses. But by returning to our backers empty handed, we will likely lose that client for good."

"That being said," Breve interjected tactfully to steer Antio's point into a more optimistic direction, "if you are asking about our resume, we are very well equipped to handle military contracts. Most of our permanent employees are ex-military in some manner or another, and for the rest, we hire sub-contractors with varying levels of expertise as needed for specific mission requirements as they arise."

Antio felt the need to be forward with Augustina 'Gussy' Nargath about their nature, so he added, "we still practice military methodology in many ways, but since we are a civillian outfit, our crew discipline is driven by monetary motivation, rather than loyalty or devotion."

"We like to think that we've gotten pretty pretty good this style of management." Reinforced Breve.

Just then, a vent port on the old b-wing hissed behind them and they both stiffened. Now would be the absolute worst time for it to fall apart…

"So," Antio added as he struggled to disguise his nervousness and draw attention away from the fighter, "I take it you're looking for a contractor then?"

 

[Augustina 'Gussy' Nargath]

​

Location: Red Nebula
Equipment: Tyrant II Missile Cruiser
Tag: Captain Antio Way’lurr

For a moment, Lieutenant Damar and Chief Petty Officer Wallis looked at eachother, their backs stiffening in sort of preparation to what they expected to be a loud and very angered Commodore, but rather than that happening, the Commodore simply reached for the two pads in her lieutenant's hand and yoinked them out of his hands, handing them over to the two guests. "Let's see... grenades and missiles from the Nargath and Zanareth Umbrella Corporation, Crates with tins of DSI rounds from the Nargath and Zanareth Umbrella Corporation..."

Tilting her head a bit backwards, the Commodore shocked both Lieutenant Damar and Chief Petty Officer Wallis by slowly removing her goggles and her respirator, revealing herself in her natural self, no additions to alter her voice or remove her personal identity for the sake of being simply the Commodore. Augustina took in a deep breath, followed by an equally deep sigh... a slight wheeze could be heard, a result from her respiratory issues, which become more apparent without the respirator. Still though, as she spoke without her respirator, a voice filled with eloquence and confidence could be heard, one that even without the respirator's harsh vocoder still held an air of great authority...for she was after all, a Nargath.

"Captain Way'lurr, Lieutenant Breve... I am Commodore Augustina Nargath, member of the Eriaduan House Nargath," Reaching out with her hand towards Lieutenant Damar, she clearly moyioned him to give her his personal datapad, utilizing the small device to access the holonet, yet halfway through her tapping and ticking on the device with her fingers...she looked up at the two guests with a smile and a somewhat inquisitive look. "Do we have a set number of credits these backers were expecting to get from this...hunting deal with you?"

Laughing at the fact that the two were so straight forward as to be clear on the fact that after their time as private citizens and entrepeneurs, their crew discipline would be found through monetary gains rather than loyalty and devotion. "I would like to think there is nothing wrong with the desire to gain both money and the means to increase one's own wealth...it's only natural. I will admit I do like this candor you are displaying...but do tell me, what is...on average your own income and that of your crewmates?"

 

[Captain Antio Way’lurr]

Antio watched as the woman removed her mask and revealed her face. Between her fine features and laboured breath, there was an obvious fragility to her demeanour. Being a Dornean, he had always found humans to be more fragile-looking and brittle compared to members of his own race. He didn't judge humans as such, though, as many of the best fighters he had ever met were human and deserved every respect that a Dornean warrior could ever earn. Still, Commodore Augustina 'Gussy' Nargath had an exceptionally delicate appearance, which surprised even him. Her posture and speech were of a stark contrast to her image, being so comfortable with command and eloquence. She presence even stood above her subordinates, whom themselves embodied the perfect image of imperial strength and power. The contrast between her appearance and her personal demeanour seemed to enhance the air of command that she maintained rather than diminishing it.

Like, as if something so trivial as a physical ailment would only make her stronger.

"Captain Way'lurr, Lieutenant Breve... I am Commodore Augustina Nargath, member of the Eriaduan House Nargath,"

Antio thought he could see Breve's chest puff out at the sound of being called a Lieutenant. Antio genuinely admired how she was able to have that effect on his own subordinate so easily.

"Do we have a set number of credits these backers were expecting to get from this...hunting deal with you?"

"Um," Breve tried to reply, but he was visibly blushing and struggled to contain his embarrassment.

Antio took over, saving his friend, "Like I said, Commodore, the ordnance you've given us should be enough to pay back the financial losses we incurred, and our backers as well, but I should have been clearer. Our backers were expecting whale corpses, and their clients were expecting their merchandise as well. Credits will certainly keep all of the involved parties from pursuing recourse, but a lack of the promised merchandise will ruin our standing with these particular clients."

"In other words," Breve interjected, having quickly recovered, and clearly eager to contribute, "We likely won't need more credits. We are in need of a new client." He spread his hands towards the three Eternal Officers, implying that they were potential prospects.

"I would like to think there is nothing wrong with the desire to gain both money and the means to increase one's own wealth...it's only natural. I will admit I do like this candor you are displaying...but do tell me, what is...on average your own income and that of your crewmates?"

"This is starting to sound like a negotiation," commented Breve with cautious enthusiasm.

Antio nodded at his friend, then said to Augustina 'Gussy' Nargath , "well, the sub-contractor portions of my crew negotiate their wages with my procurement department, and I could go on forever about the litany of nuances that affect their wages. But the members of my staff that maintain permanent positions are paid twenty percent above the average spacer salary that would be normally earned in Wildspace. I mean, nobody out here can keep up with the Core these days, but nobody out here is getting a job in the core anytime soon anyways. However, that's just their starting wages, and we have a wage scaling system that can get our entry level employees all the way up to a fifty percent wage increase over time. Then there's various management positions, specialization rates, and bonus structures, etcetera. At the top, managers salaries are three times the average wages you would find in Wildspace, and they start focusing more on dividends and private stock options."

"But," Breve began to clarify, "that's just salaries. The real money is in the performance bonuses. The more revenue we make on a job, the more we payout to our employees in bonuses. It's scaled based on their performance reviews, but even the weakest performers tend to value their bonuses over their salary rates."

"So, we pay our people well, and they perform well." Antio concluded.

He briefly wondered how boring their spleal on employee wages was to their hosts…

We really should have a promotional holo vid for these things… he thought to himself. A less dry presentation might help to avoid detracting future clients…

 

[Augustina 'Gussy' Nargath]

​

Location: Red Nebula
Equipment: Tyrant II Missile Cruiser
Tag: Captain Antio Way’lurr

"Hmm," Tilting her head a bit to the side, the Commodore displayed a somewhat devious grin, as she felt rather amused by the captain's explanation on the way his crew worked, lived and got paid, all the while finding his secondant to be rather good in reading her intentions. "Well, as I said...I am a Nargath, a member of the noble Marquisate of Eriadu and the majority shareholders of the N&Z Umbrella Corporation which operates to the far corners of the galaxy. If you or your man fear loss of monetary gains or personal wealth by becoming part of my unit."

Turning towards Lieutenant Damar, the Commodore coughed a bit and let out a slightly unbecoming wheeze, before she regained her bearings and motioned her second in command to come forth. "Lieutenant, what are the average wages of the Core's NCO's?"

"I believe generally the pay for a warrant officer hovers between thirty-five thousand and ninety-five thousand credits on a yearly basis, not counting in the bonuses for performance," The Lieutenant quickly responded the numbers as if it was something they prided themselves in.

"And what are the general NCO wages within the empire?"

"Ranging from Forty-six to Onehundred-forty thousand, Ma'am," Beating his chest, Lieutenant Damar was glad she hadn't asked the wages for those of his and her rank...because those might have even shown how ridiculous the pay could become without bonuses for those faithfully serving the empire.

"The Eternal empire's wages are much higher because of our self sustainability and the backing of several large corporations that know the empire has vast reserves of goods and services neglected by the current major factions," The commodore seemed to have an air of intense pride and seemed genuinely pleased with the fact that the captain and his subordinate based their findings on monetary gains on the average wages of the core, which had been slipping for quite some time due to the turmoil at their very midst. "These numbers as was stated, are without counting in bonuses and those are plenty. While in wartime the idea is to have a rapid response fleet, our duties and our additional funds as we speak are to securly transport goods, salvage old shipyards or wrecks from either Eternal Empire space or in contract to one of our corporate backers. The bonuses through these actions can practically double your wage or even triple it."

Gussy let out a chuckle, hoping that the captain would find her following retort rather amusing. "The Empire pays well, so our soldiers perform well."

 

[Captain Antio Way’lurr]

"Well well well, then," said Breve with a big face-splitting grin, "A daughter of one of the houses of Eriadu, eh? I think you have our full attention now. Let's talk about…"

"Can you give us a moment, please?" Antio interrupted Breve, addressing Augustina 'Gussy' Nargath . This time, it was Antio's turn to catch on to what was going on. He then tugged at Breve's sleeve and pulled him back out of earshot, "you know what's happened here, right? They're trying to hire us."

"Yeah that's what we wanted, right? A new client?" Breve furrowed his bushy eyebrows in confusion.

Antio raised his quilled eyebrows intensely, "no, Breve. Think about what she's saying. She's talking about our personal wages."

Suddenly, the light came on inside Breve's eyes. "Oh."

"Yeah. We still have a business to run. A business that still needs to grow. I don't think we're ready to give that up yet."

Breve nodded thoughtfully, and took a moment to think while rubbing his bearded chin. Then he looked back up at Antio, "I have an idea. We can go sub-contracting as a staffing provider. I've got a friend that's done this before. We can make mad cash without hardly any overhead."

This time, it was Antio's turn to be confused, "but what about the ship? If we assume the role of a staffing contractor, they probably won't want to rent our old ratty cruiser?"

"Let me take the lead, Captain. I know what I'm doing." Breve grinned confidently.

"You sure?" Antio asked, nervously.

Breve simply nodded and strode back over to Augustina 'Gussy' Nargath and her officers, "We like where this is going, but we'd like to keep the Way'lurr Expiditions company intact. So… here are our terms:

"One," Breve held up a finger, "We can offer our staff and expertise as a service, but our personnel would remain as employees of our organization.

"Two," Breve held up a second finger, "we would require a retainer contract so that both parties are legally protected. You probably don't want us taking on other contracts that pose a direct conflict of interest with you for the duration of our agreement, and we wouldn't want you to drop our contract on a whim. The lawyers can sort out the fine print, of course.

"And three," this time, Breve didn't raise a finger, but instead shot a quick grin at Antio before proceeding, "We would like to include access to proprietary military technology of the Eternal Empire Navy for the purpose of upgrading our warship. This would include allowing us to retain possession of our ship under the the Way'lurr Expeditions company, with a formal agreement to protect your confidencial information."

Antio was genuinely impressed with Breve's foresight. Being an independent contractor, Antio and his procurement department had experienced difficulties buying modern technology for the Verdict. The old cruiser was running on outdated systems which limited their ability to accept combat contracts. Antio was pretty sure that the Commodore Augustina 'Gussy' Nargath wouldn't give them anything overly confidential, but even the more basic items in the Eternal Arsenal would be an improvement over what they had. And if things went well, they could gain enough trust to gain access to higher levels of technology in the future. It spelled of investment in the future if the relationship went well.

"And if you throw in a private birth for the Verdict at an Eternal Shipyard, we'll get our legal departments drafting documents immediately." Antio added.

 

[Augustina 'Gussy' Nargath]

​

Location: Red Nebula
Equipment: Tyrant II Missile Cruiser
Tag: Captain Antio Way’lurr

It was rather unusual to see the captain's second in command taking the dornean apart and having what seemed to be a momentary discussion, while they had taken a step back, the Commodore was still capable of at least hearing part of their conversation, showing a somewhat duplicitous smile as her own cogs were working in order to get what she wanted. These men had shown the capacity to plan, to execute that plan and to have the strength of character to do what had to be done without much problems or effort, showing a well-oiled and tight knitted organization many fleets and armies could only dream of.

As soon as the two seemed to have gotten to the crux of their conversation, Augustina was rather surprised to suddenly have Breve as her conversational sparring partner rather than the captain himself, already making a mental note that if she had to compare this man to anyone, it would be her own second in command who also had this habbit of being way more knowledgeable on things than she had expected.

"Hmmm," Having listened calmly to everything Breve said and the occasional interjection made by the captain, Augustina seemed to carefully mull over the details, holding up her hand to turn towards her own staff in order to discuss the proposals given by Breve and the captain.

"They do make a fair point on their company's future," Lieutenant Damar calmly stated, pointing out that the commodore herself did not completely relinquish her own influence within the Nargath family either when she exchanged the ESDF for the Eternal Empire. "Though...if you could contact your nephew, you might be able to wipe that argument off of the table in no time."

"What would you have me do, tell my nephew to buy them out? That's just a low blow, no?" The commodore shook her head, trying to grasp the idea a bit. "That won't go well if something like that would be proposed."

"Not buying them out persay...but perhaps a contractual agreement that could benefit both parties," The lieutenant nodded towards the two guests and smiled gently. "If a large part of their crew would be more willing to go for instable, but possibly larger paychecks, they are more likely to follow that line of work. The STS can expand their operations and take over the general duties of that company and in the meantime it wouldn't be that unusual that the party whose company has been bought out would find themselves as a boardmember of the new parent company."

"You do have a point, Tertius is looking for people that can run proper operations," The commodore sighed and shook her head. "We'd still have to get at least those two into a committing role though, wouldn't offering a board position be detrimental to this end?"

"Most of our generals, admiralty and overseers have some capacity within the Eternal Empire's own companies...heck, even the Empress herself has a hand in the HPI consortium," The lieutenant smiled and nodded towards the two guests. "WE can meet them halfway, propose a compromise that would feel like both parties have won and we all get exactly what we want and more. It's worth a shot."

"True...true...though I understand that you and Breve would be really a pain in my ass if both of you are like this...I bet the captain would feel the same," Chuckling a bit, the Commodore turned her attention back towards the two guests and cleared her throat, ready to start her own offensive in regards to these negotiations.

"One, I understand you feel obligations to your company and wish to see it flourish," Augustina straightened her back and her face slowly came to form into a more stern and cold pokerface. "That is why I could perhaps propose an alternative. I could contact my nephew to set up a meeting with you guys, allowing you to perhaps discuss a business proposal in which Way'lurr expeditions would be wholly bought out by the N&Z Umbrella Corporation, while you would retain the leadership functions you maintain now, you could also find yourself as a boardmember of the N&Z itself in this way, those among your crew who would prefer the more lucrative, but less secure payments of the expeditions would in that case simply be rehired and remain in their job as employees of said company, while those who may prefer a stable and secure payment with the added benefits that come with being part of the Eternal Empire's navy, would be hired on the spot as part of a semi contractual partner."

Nodding towards Lieutenant Damar, the commodore continued. "Writing up a retainer contract would indeed be the most prudent step, though do remember that when we utilize a contract as such, you won't have any standing within the Eternal Empire's navy beyond my personal sphere of influence, which would mean that though you may hold the ranks detailed within the contract within my own fleet, they would be equated to civilian auxiliary ranks when you are adressed by personel outside of my fleet. That is after all the risk of retaining a status as contractor...If you are fine with such a contractual agreement, I will not prevent you from taking that choice."

"As for proprietary Eternal Empire technology...that lies outside of my control," Gussy shrugged her shoulders, with both Havisham and Damar nodding in agreement, it wasn't a lie. As contractors they'd have some, but very limited access to the Eternal Empire's technology, as contractors would be seen as nothing but glorified mercenaries. "But if you would be willing to agree to the compromise of having those who wish to join the navy officially do so and have the N&Z buy you out. You'd be able to have both, since your company would as such have access to the products of both the N&Z AND the Eternal Empire...which should not be a bad deal alltogether, no?"