Deal With The Devil

[Ayden Cater]

Ayden saw many things, things beyond what his station as Lord Protector would give him insight of. Ties to information older than a generation. He had his sources, his ways of learning things that many would want to keep hidden. What was more curious were his motives, but he kept those to himself.

Already, the ripples were moving. Ayden knew, more than anyone else still living, the dangers of crossing Danger. That suited him. He needed a catalyst, a push that would make his offer undeniable. And so, Ayden sent out a message. It went through its channels, it crossed hands as needed, but in a short period of time it would come to reside in the inbox of a certain woman. It did not matter what she chose to call herself, it arrived just fine. The message was clear enough.

Your time is limited.

Meet me on Corellia to discuss the future of your company.

[member="Enigma"]

 

[Onrai]

Traditionally, Circe did not go to the Omega Protectorate for anything. The Protectorate weren't exactly well known for treating the woman and her company nicely. But with Danger's threat and the knowledge that little if anything would be done by the ACA to help, it was time to come to the person she least expected to get help from - Ayden Cater.

Her arrival on Corellia would likely be expected. The Veratus-class shuttle she used for personal transport between planets would launch from the Cyracuse-class Drone Carrier. Once it landed, she would walk to the meeting point. Whether under guard or not, she intended to make sure that this business proceeded in the direction that was ultimately best for her and for her company.

It was time to talk.

[member="Ayden Cater"]

 

[Ayden Cater]

Someone would call him mad for attempting to deal with the likes of Circe Savan. Others would call him a fool. Still others would want to have his head for it. It didn't matter. His reasons were his own. All that mattered was that she arrived, and arrive she did. Ayden had the shuttle watched and scanned from the moment it entered the system to the moment it landed. Eyes were kept on her from the moment she stepped off the shuttle and would keep on her until she left the planet. Generosity did not mean carelessness after all.

When she arrived, she was afforded the same hospitality that every one who visited the Lord Protector was. Her guards were stern, but polite. There was no hostility in their movements or thoughts, and the receptionist smiled at the woman and told her to wait just a moment while she got ahold of the Lord Protector. After a moment, she was led back to the office where she would find two glasses out and a bottle of whiskey. When the doors shut, Ayden pressed a button on the console that activated a sound proof field and com links were jammed. It was just the two of them.

"I must confess, Miss Savan; there was a part of me that didn't think you'd come." He smiled genially while pouring himself a glass and setting the bottle down. She could choose to pour herself a drink or not. "You seem to have a habit of making enemies. Your latest exploits have apparently garnered the ire of Miss Danger Arceneau." He chuckled to himself as he swirled his glass. "A dangerous woman to have angry at you."

"What do you intend to do about it?" Ayden turned abruptly and fixed Circe with an unflinching stare. "I'd ask if you realized the magnitude of the danger you face, but the fact that you are here in my office say that you are already aware. So what do you intend to do?"

[member="Enigma"]

 

[Onrai]

[member="Ayden Cater"]

Circe twitched a bit in her seat. She felt as though she were staring at fate itself - someone who, at the motion of a hand, could have her hauled off and executed, her company destroyed and reduced to rubble. Then again, with the current situation, Jared would likely do such with Arceneau's assistance any day now.

"I typically come to suicide meetings only when completely drained." Emotionally - not Force-wise, of course. "Danger Arceneau. The last time I had to deal with her was regarding cloning tanks on Kamino. She stole a clone I intended to take and raise as a daughter... Her and that bastard infochant spreading lies about me." She poured her glass to the brim and swiftly moved it to her lips, not letting a single drop fall. "But enough about past relationships."

She looked back up at the Lord Protector. "What can I do? My company has hardly been fully rebuilt since Weedkiller. The only thing I could see Subach doing is arming each and every factory to the brim. You know - using the produced tech and stockpiling it for the inevitable attack by Arceneau lackeys. Even then, I'd likely lose a tremendous amount of material."

Pausing, she gave him a glance from her glistening green globes. "You have a suggestion?"

 

[Ayden Cater]

He snorted and shook his head dismissively. "It's that sort of thinking that got you into trouble in the first place. You think you're in control, that you have all the power and money you could need. Miss Savan, you are a tiny fish in a very big pond. You could go bankrupt ten times over, a hundred times over, arming every factory you have and you'd still not come close to comparing to the funds Arceneau Trade Company could sink into a similar endeavor. And they wouldn't go bankrupt for their trouble."

Ayden threw back his second glass of whiskey and poured a third. "The question is not what am I suggesting but what are you willing to live with. As it stands, you've probably got three months before you've got trade coalitions, bounty hunters, and every John Doe that loves to blow things up for no other reason than they can to come knocking on your door. Subach Innes will never survive that kind of attack. You know this. So what do you do?" Gone was the third glass and down went the fourth.

"You stop doing what you've been doing. For the last year Subach has floundered. You're constantly having to move because every backwater wanna-be Empire falls over after a month of trying to play with the big boys. They make the same mistakes you've been making. They make little waves and the big fish come swimmin'. The question is not what you do. The question is what can -I- do."

[member="Enigma"]

 

[Onrai]

[member="Ayden Cater"]

She paused. "I would still fight. Better to die on your feet than live on your knees, after all - and knowing Miss Arceneau and her style of doing things, she wouldn't give me knees to live on." A likely true statement, though Circe had no knowledge of the plans Danger was planning. "I do not surrender so easily."

The Lord Protector then brought up the menagerie of sources Subach could likely find enemies approaching from. "The company has already survived one death blow, Ser Ayden. Operation Weedkiller was intended by Isley Verd to be what wiped Subach off the map forever - he failed, even with the might of two entire factions supporting his foolish crusade." She smiled, remembering how Isley's fortunes had turned into naught but utter failure.

Then he brought up what he could do. "Subach has been more than willing to make sales to any faction or organization that approaches us. However, due to our previous work for the defunct Sith Empire, the Republic and Fringe have formed blacklists - which conveniently ignore Sienar, the company that provided well more than what was requested starship-wise."

She paused once more. "But I digress... Why did you not simply chain me up and ship me to Balmorra like the Lady Protector intended to do? Do you wish... To discuss business?"

[member="Ayden Cater"]

 

[Ayden Cater]

[member="Enigma"]

Ayden stared flatly at the woman and shook his head. "You find yourself the beneficiary of luck and think it cunning. Even now, at the edge of oblivion, you still think you have some control. No, Circe, I am not here to discuss 'business'. Your business decisions have led to ruination and condemnation across sectors. No. I'm here to tell you what you're going to do if you intend on Subach Innes surviving the year."

"To start, you're going to give me a fifty percent controlling share in Subach. After that, you're going to be severing all existing contracts with outside entities and every factory will be shutdown and sold off to pay for moving Subach Innes wholesale into Protectorate space." There was absolutely no hint of amusement in his voice. He was being one hundred percent serious. "You'll get contracts within the Protectorate and I will do for Subach what has not been done to date; put it on level with the likes of Corellian Engineering, Kuat Drive Yards, and perhaps eventually even Arceneau Trade Company."

"Of course, you could say no. But I think we both know that you have nowhere else left to go, no tricks left to pull. It's this or obliteration." He put the glass down and handed a pad to the woman that contained all the finer points on the contract. "Are you willing to make a deal with the devil to save your company"

 

[Onrai]

Reading the contract over, she nodded, finding the terms satisfactory. "Yes."

And with that, she figured business was done. It was now up to her and Ayden to agree - or else Subach was doomed.

[member="Ayden Cater"]

 

[Ayden Cater]

Ayden smiled and took the pad from her. He looked it over for a second before inserting it into a dock and uploading it to a remote server. "Excellent. Then there are a few things that we'll need to do. First off, Subach's name will need to be changed. There is a litany of misdeeds and transgressions attached to it that will need to be taken of. We have neither the time or funds with Subach, and I don't particularly have the inclination at the moment, to fight lengthy legal battles to save Subach's name; the name will have to go."

He moved back to his desk and immediately started making orders. "I'm sending out orders to every Subach factory and datacenter. They will be forwarding all proprietary data, schematics, and every shred of intellectual data and transactions that the company has produced. I'm also compiling a public notice right now declaring the public closing of Subach Innes under an assumed identity. This will give us more time to make the necessary moves. In the meantime, once I get all of the data and proprietary assets that I need, the factories will be left out for the wolves to have their hunk of flesh."

A second datapad was procured and handed over to Circe. "Every non-classified, non-military industrial world in Protectorate space. I'm quite insane to be doing this for you, but not that insane. Start picking worlds to put factories on."

[member="Enigma"]

 

[Onrai]

"Abregado-Rae. Nubia. Sullust. Thyferra. Sluis Van." The worlds she chose were located on well-defended worlds for a reason - she didn't want anyone, or anything, trying to mess with her territory, business-wise. "Those worlds offer me the best chance of survival - the last thing I need or desire is to have more mayhem and chaos occur on an Omega world not well protected."

[member="Ayden Cater"]

 

[Ayden Cater]

[member="Enigma"]

​The console beeped behind him, signifying that the necessary data had been transmitted and secured. "Roland, see to it that every line of data is scanned, copied, and analyzed." Orders were already in place to have the necessary parts removed from the factories and put into a maze of transport transfers. It would take weeks, perhaps months for anyone to crack the obfuscation that had been laid down.

On a second console, Ayden was reaching out amongst his contacts to figure out the timetable he was playing within. Already there were reports of initial bounties being put out. It would only be hours, perhaps a day or two if they were lucky, for the first attacks to happen. This wasn't too far from what he had planned. If Danger had not been the one offended, perhaps they could have had more time to move move over. This would have to do.

"Roland, make sure no datapoints connect us to these data transfers." Dozens of worlds along the Outer Rim suffered minor technical issues as relays were blown. Damage wasn't major, but it did end up corrupting or destroying logs of data transfers for the last two weeks. In the meantime, Ayden went over her list and shook his head. "You've picked five high-profile worlds to try and set up shop on. That's obvious. Very obvious. Unless you think the Protectorate is suddenly incapable of defending its own borders, there's no need to try and force your way onto these worlds.

Sullust already has SoroSuub on it. They won't appreciate competition, so that's off. Nubia for much the same reason. Sluis Van would make for a good site to set up on. They've got a lot of infrastructure already in place. That can be the headquarters for this successor corporation. Abregado-Rae will enjoy more business so they'll happily have us, though Thyferra might be troublesome. I'll need to meet with the Vratix to see if they would mind if a military contractor set up factories there.

So we'll start by setting up facilities on Sluis Van and Abregado-Rae. I suggest Malastare and Dentaal as secondary sites for production facilities."

On his console, away from prying eyes, Ayden brought up a data file and looked it over. So small a thing... He double checked his information and quietly sent a message off to [member="Danger Arceneau"]

I believe you were looking for this.

It wasn't the full file, but there was enough there to prove that he had access to it. That should get her attention.

 

[Onrai]

"Very well." She continued. "I would like to put in an option for facilities at Druckenwell once the situation there is more stable." She chose I continue along with her workig with Ayden, hoping things would be good.