A Proposition of Acquisition

[Vigil]

It wasn't very often that Vigil made the first move in communications, even rarer still for it to be the first move with one to whom he was unfamiliar with, but despite his best efforts in maintaining a status in the criminal underworld the broker had hit something of a wall. So it was as much an act of desperation as it was of business, that he had prepared a message for one [member="HK-36"] on the subject of a business meeting. The droid in question had sizable influence, and with influence came resources, something Vigil possessed a deficit of. Times like these, Vigil wished his sense of dignity hadn't been coded so thoroughly, as it was painful for him to create the specially encrypted message. Simply put, the message had proposed a meeting between this leader of free droids, and the information broker's 'associate' at a place of HK's choosing. Naturally, while it was in fact Vigil himself en route to the specified meeting, there was little way for any to know, lest they were already aware not only of Vigil's unique design, but of 'Mr. Orwell's' true identity.

And Mr. Orwell told none, and indeed only one was aware of Mr. Orwell being a machine, though certainly not aware of Orwell being the AI, and not necessarily a puppet of some greater mastermind. Layers of security in protecting his identity existed, even peeling back one or two could not reveal the whole of the story. Today's ruse? Vigil would play the role of Orwell's holo-communication bot, or his authorized representative at least. Layers of identity concealment.

When Vigil's purchased temporary craft arrived, the 'droid representative' was quickly taken to meet with this most illustrious 'Metal Lord', to begin negotiations.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Vigil"],


HK may have been the leader of droid holdings in the orbit of Denon, but his leadership among the other Metal Lords was unofficial at best. The droid lords had no one high lord or king among them, no single ruler to distinguish as whoever had the most support and was the most vocal often was closest thing to a leader they had. HK would not debate the semantics however, instead just agreeing to meet with the representatives of this Orwell in one of the large space stations above Denon.


If Vigil was on Denon ever before, once he arrived, it would be a sight vastly different from what she could remembered. Well the planet itself would have been unchanged, still glimmering with the many industrial lights, still covered by the red and black veins of streets and buildings that covered the entire city-planet. The new addition, however, was the ring of ships encircling the planet as if laying siege to it, and the many stations being build in its orbit with hustle and bustle of smaller vessels and drones.

Vigil would have been directed to dock with one of these stations and come aboard, a strange construction that almost seemed to be cobbled together from skeletons and corpses of other stellar structures, repurposed many times over and added on top of each other, like jigsaw of starship wrecks and durasteel plating woven together to form the new presence over the planet. Other systems would have probably faced similar projects as Denon was not alone in still adjusting to the new power within that sector, planets like Nubia, Loromar, and Hakassi too had similar rings of spacecraft around, they too had new spacestations and bases build around them. The droids asked for relatively little of their subjects, they did not enslaved them, they did not force them to fight for them, some did not even overthrew their previous governments. What they did ask however was one of the main reasons why they decided to lay claim on territory. An armada of new, larger ships, and a lot of them.


Moving through the spacestation Vigil would have been directed towards one of the many conference rooms, passing many other droids on her way there, which currently HK claimed as his main office and base of operations within the system. The room would be fairly large, with a grand conference table in the middle with a holoprojector housed in its center, and a smaller duranium desk sitting in front of a large view screen or transparisteel, overlooking the glowing amber planet they were currently orbiting, with the other grand station now in the planet's orbit, the Space Bazaar, visible just disappearing behind the planet over in the distance.

The droids Vigil passed would usually seem rather intelligent and independent, going about their day and the duties within the station, chattering with each other in quick bursts of data, although some did seem a bit off. Slightly loopy, dancing on the brink of insanity, only somewhat lucid, but then again such was usually the price when it came to droids who have not had a mind wipe in years if not centuries, quirks and data just kind of build up for them. There were few units who seemed much less intelligent, looking over their surroundings with dull cold stare, usually following other droids as their servants, or standing as silent guards within the station. They were drones, machines like droids, but with only rudimentary intelligence, more like animals than truly sentient beings. They were the answer droids had towards making large mechanical armies, yet not having the guilt over enslaving their own kind into combat legions.

And so Vigil would come face to face with her potential new patron, the droid stood up from behind his desk, looking at her in silence, letting her have the first words as he judged her from behind the impassive stare of two crimson photoreceptors like flaming embers, yet cold at the same time. His face was a smoothface plate with no nose, slots for lips and mouth, two fang-like spikes protruding down from it, and the holes for those electronic eyes. It was smooth and pale like bone, yet metallic, if Vigil could tell such things apart he would know it was Phrik. The rest of the droid's body seemed to have been covered in some sort of flesh-like black substance with thicker chitinous plates attached over certain regions, all of which was wrapped tightly in heavy black cloak. A Vong-shaped armor, rarely if ever seen on a droid.

 

[Vigil]

It was a shame a droid couldn't smile.

If he could've, Vigil would be only too delighted to demonstrate his approval of the station's effective use of what seemed to be limited resources to construct a rather large, spacious center of, well it seemed it was more a question of what it didn't house. This wasn't even discounting the appearance of HK themself, clad in vongform armor and with phrik as its primary construction for the head itself. Vigil's consistent link to the holonet, thankfully undisturbed by the systems on this Denon-space station, had such excellent reception it took mere moments to ascertain the construction elements of the droid's armor. The Metal Lord did not waste even a modicum of resources. That was something the broker could appreciate, and in fact helped to make him (with his mind programmed in such an organic manner) take the situation all the more seriously.

The 'droid' offered a bow, the vocabulator taking a moment to arm with a synthesized voice, much like one might expect from a droid designed with a single purpose. "Greetings, I am VG-01, communications droid of Mr. Orwell and their associates. Mr. Orwell is regretful they could not attend this meeting in person, their business requires discretion and their identity is a resource most valuable when kept to one's self. However, I have been authorized to connect with one of their trusted representatives, to be the voice of Orwell. Please hold..."

Vigil's model, containing slight size adjustors and holo projectors, began to straighten out entirely as the light shimmered around it, taking new form. When it settled, 'VG-01' (the technical term for Vigil's body model) had been replaced with the appearance of a middle aged woman, perhaps in her early thirties, wearing a formal pants suit and black tie. She stood with her hands politely folded behind her back, and a rather straight expression on her face. Of course, the woman was fake, compiled from the appearances of at least a half dozen individuals who Vigil himself had killed, however it was unlikely a facial recognition detector would at all be able to pick up on that. Most likely, it would simply say that this woman didn't exist, not that they were a composite individual.

Which, to be fair, her 'boss' would be a crime lord information broker. Who's to say her records weren't simply destroyed, and had locked away what would remain? In whatever case, the voice synthesized to match the face of the woman did have a slight, off-ness to it, like she had undergone vocal surgery not terribly long ago. "Greetings, I am Librarian Dewey, an associate of Mr. Orwell. Shall we exchange pleasantries first, or would you rather get down to business?"

[member="HK-36"]

 

[HK-36]

[member="Vigil"],

HK would nod first to VG-01 in thanks for the information and his services, sitting back down behind his desk as the other droid prepared to patch him up to the other representative of this Orwell, although HK wouldn't mind just speaking to another droid, believing that it was well within any droid's ability to provide the necessary information to seal the deal. Either way, he would not object and as the vision of Dewey came up the droid would nod to it in a greeting,

"Greetings to you as well Librarian Dewey, associate of Mister Orwell. I believe you already know the answer to your question when dealing with a droid. Of course on Denon, and indeed in the whole of Droid Space, we consider business, exchange of goods and ideas, and all forms of commerce and industry to be pleasant."

HK quipped back to the hologram,

"Your company reached out to the delegates of Metal Lords first, please tell me what do you have to offer to us, or believe we can offer to you?"

 

[Vigil]

[member="HK-36"],

"Exchanging Ideas it is then, something we are well acquainted with. I am sure it comes of little surprise, coming from what reputation may proceed us." The woman seemed to smile at how HK quipped and handled the situation at hand. "As you may know, we Librarians work for Mr. Orwell, who in turn deals in the most valuable of resources, knowledge. Secrets best left locked away, designs, blueprints, anything our organization is able to conceive of. However we lack certain resources, while our monetary funds are well kept and documented, we lack a more, accessible way to conduct our business. We have little in the way of, in more simple terms, land upon which to conduct ourselves. This, Sir, is where we believe you can assist us. We believe the acquisition of land to be a great priority, but we ourselves lack the resources to acquire said land. However, as a respected representative of a large scale government, and with the liberty to decide your own course of action, you can assist us in our endeavor."

The image, and VG, changed posture slowly, to offer a more at ease impression. Droid or not, body language was important. "We believe you can assist us in the take over of a particular company acting as a front for less, respectable professions. After we take over, and rebrand the company, we plan to begin production of cybernetics, software, and other such pursuits to contribute to the galaxy. As for your end of such an exchange, we are willing to negotiate. After all, we cannot fully expect you to be willing to commit resources to us without compensation. It would be our hope you would be willing to exchange resources in this effort in return for being listed on... well without a better term it would be the 'priority customer' list, with a representative discount of course." The real question for Vigil, here, would be if HK was one who valued such access to a broker.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Vigil"],


"I suppose it is also no coincidence that the Metal Lords have been able to save and transport our data crypts from Mechanus containing the various ancient star charts, historical records, recordings, and other types of data from before the Gulag Plague and the Long Dark?"

HK pointed out, revealing, if Vigil already know, that the machines kept a meticulous record of mostly now-forgotten data, which made sense since they were mostly droids, if they wanted something saved they could always just copy their memories.

"If you need land, however, it can be provided easily, especially if you are looking for a station in deep space within our territory. If you require a planet however, one can be acquired for you as well, however you would need to do so within the context of our political system, which means you will either have to designate one of your droids to ascend into the position of a Metal Lord and govern the planet in your company's stead, or sign a vassalage agreement with one of the Metal Lords to sponsor your claim on the planet."

HK explaining, giving them an insight into the minutia of Metal Lord bureaucracy,

"As to the company you wish to take over, I will need to hear their name first and their known holdings, then we can talk about the price for our support in this endeavor. Before we agree on something you must understand that our top priority is to protect the ancient knowledge we brought with us, if we decide to share it with you, you must keep it to yourself unless otherwise agreed on by the Metal Lords as a collective."

 

[Vigil]

"Their name is unimportant, needless to say they are not a significant force in the galaxy at large. Their 'headquarters' and significant information will be sent via a data stream. Their activities however include, unsavory business practices we cannot condone, and this company is little more than a front to facilitate their true business practices. Their choice of land was, too, well placed to facilitate this, and they have been running their unsavory business for quite some time. As much as we detest them, we must admit they have done well for themselves." Disgust was well placed into her voice, even as 'Dewey' praised their work.

"As for our commitment to knowledge, allow me to be perfectly clear. Though we are a business, and all knowledge has a price, we are dedicated to the collection, preservation, of knowledge first. We have always kept this commitment to mind. Consider VG-01, considered to be one of the Librarians alongside myself. His design, unique to him alone, could wreck havoc on the galaxy in the wrong hands. Thus, should he be captured, and disconnected from the holonet, he is programmed with the capability to render his technology useless and prevent the spread of more like him. Knowledge, is power, and we guard our secrets well." Dewey smiled slightly, before resuming.

"These 'businessmen' are little more than depraved traffickers, unfit to continue their thinly veiled practices. By now you should be receiving the data stream, and you can see why it would be in our best interests to cooperate with you in this endeavor. Shall I give you time to consider, or would you like to begin negotiations?"

[member="HK-36"]

 

[HK-36]

[member="Vigil"],


"I am glad to have your word in this manner, for in Droid Space a word is more binding than contract in writing, since we record everything we see and hear, and at our level of perception and scanning falsifying records is nearly impossible."

HK informed Dewey and Vigil, at the very least it was a warning to watch what they would promise to the machine in the future,

"Piracy and trafficking are illegal within Metal Lord territory, there is no need to consider in this situation, I already know what their sentence would be. So let us negotiate,"

The droid would lean back in his chair, looking at the holoprojection of Dewey,

"What are our ships and soldiers worth to you in this operation? And how much are you willing to help the cause of Metal Lords and free droids once this operation is over and we install you as the head of these holdings?"

 

[Vigil]

"And I'm certain you're aware that we, too, are meticulous in our record keeping. In our line of work, we simply have to be. Now then, negotiations..." 'Dewey' was greatly pleased with how these proceedings were going along. For the droid crime lord, there was little greater joy in life than pulling the wool over the eyes of other intelligent beings. The droid showed no signs of realization and that alone sufficed to stroke Vigil's ego greatly. "I will be frank in admitting their 'worth' to me, personally, is equal in the measure of success they achieve. However, their price, their cost to us, in this operation is a different matter. Depending on what you would value more, credits or technology, we can supply in ample measure. For credits, Mr. Orwell has spent much time in their duty collecting a sizable fortune, more than sufficient to offset costs to the Metal Lords and then repay them in equal measure. To technology, we can design for your government drones, or provide cybernetics for your less metal compatriots as is needed. And of course, should you require our information services, this would come along with priority listing, think of it as a direct line to the Librarians and Mr. Orwell. Rather than taking your turn, talking through our, less prestigious employees, you would have immediate access to our information stores."

"That is, of course, if you wish to accept it. As to future causes, we are a business first and must value that neutrality, however we cannot help our, unofficial bias towards your prosperity." A way, of course, to say they supported the Metal Lords' idea of free droids, but could not openly do so without hampering their integrity as a business. That was not to say they would not offer some measure of monetary, or other, support, but that it wouldn't be so overt.

[member="HK-36"]

 

[HK-36]

[member="Vigil"],


"Keep your credits."

HK responded with a wave of his hand,

"We have more than enough, our trade laws and hold over the hyperlane crossroads running through Denon and Corellia brought enough funds to make us and our allies very comfortable, costs are not an issue here. You can repay us in the designs and information services you offered."

The droid would agreed,

"And while I understand that you need to maintain face of neutrality, I also believe that what organics do not know about will not hurt them, so I hope this will be the starting point of closer cooperation between your company and the Droid Space, whether formal or informal and off the records."

HK would propose, it would seem that Vigil wasn't the only one with penchant towards misleading others and keeping things in the dark. It was something HK was proficient at as well, especially when it came to divulging information long forgotten after the Gulag Plague and the Long Dark.

 

[Vigil]

"Formal, informal, regardless a company often holds some form of recognition with the local government. And with our lines of business, contracts aren't unheard of either, are they?" Dewey chuckled, suggesting if nothing else they put on a delightful and convincing enough front for the organics. "However, it would appear that we've reached an agreement, have we not? All that would remain for us is to plan the, removal, of these individuals and to replace their business with our own. I trust we can count upon your support, be it that of the Metal Lords or that of [member="HK-36"]?" If Dewey had been real, Vigil would have complimented her on being able to put HK in a position where agreeing to the support would demand either his own or that of their entire system of governance.

At least, considering they had appeared to reach an agreement anyways.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Vigil"],

HK would nod at Vigil's response,

"Yes, I believe this will be favorable for both of us, and I believe just my forces should be sufficient enough to deal with your enemies, I have one of the largest armies and navies within Metal Lord territory, plus plenty of vassals to call upon."

The droid would point out, blowing his own whistle a bit,

"Besides, I do not have the power to mobilize all of Metal Lords and focus on a single target. At least not unless said target threatens all of us. We are all droids and machines here, outcasts, equals. We have no kings or high lords to give commands to a Metal Lord, we just generally agree about what is the best course of action for us as a whole. This does mean that each Lord chooses their own enemies and allies,"

HK explained to Vigil,

"So if you wish to strengthen your presence in our space I would urge you to seek out and meet with other Metal Lords to establish contracts and partnership with them as well."