Expanding Taanab

[Laira Darkhold]

Orders for the Arbiter Combat helmet had sky rocketed since hitting the market, and the small portion of the main facility on Taanab dedicated to producing the helmet couldn’t keep up with the demand for the helmet. It wasn’t anything particularly special, just a more advanced, more fleshed out helmet system incorporating numerous scanners and sensors that most helmets simply went without. Benji and I had simply decided to expand the Taanab location by purchasing another nearby facility and dedicating it to gear produced by ArmaTech, such as the helmet, and other, future endeavors. I didn’t much like this planet, but it was smack in the center of the known galaxy and was fairly well protected by the Republic. Since it was so far from the border of Sith allied space, and my recent positive dealings with the Mandalorians, I figured that here my factories would be relatively safe. Carida had already been selected as the dedicated vehicle foundry, so it felt right to expand Taanab’s production facility heavily. Start with one factory, then another, then another, each for their own dedicated purpose until an entire city of workers were needed simply to supply my factories and foundries with labor.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Benji and I arrived on Taanab together aboard the Cutting Edge, a stock model shuttle we owned to transport the both of us around without having the guns or smuggling compartments that were featured on my personal ship, the Dragon. The trip was fairly easy, no rough bumps, no hiccups, and no attacks to speak of, which was good seeing as the Cutting Edge wasn’t tricked out at all and couldn’t survive a full on raid or attack. That is why it was best keeping to friendly space. I maintained my armor, still wearing the Phrik set, as I had not had time to customize the Beskar that the Mandalorians, specifically MandalHypernautics had given me for my work on Mandalore. It was good armor, just I hadn’t gotten around to fixing it up the way I wanted. Especially considering how heavy it was. Benji came dressed in formal business attire, as always when he ventured out from the headquarters on Jabiim. He preferred the shop there. It was just a research and development department where he could tinker and work alone. As we walked through the streets we approached the facility adjacent to ours, the one we were interested in. Currently it was closed and the workers were out for the night. Next to it the night shifts of our facility were arriving. Work was scarce here right now, following the collapse of many small businesses during the Netherworld rapture.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I turned to face Benji, “I think the people here wouldn’t mind more work, especially seeing their unemployment rates are so high. Maybe we should consider opening two new facilities, seeing as the one we own can’t keep up with blaster weapon demands as it stands.” I said conversationally. He thought about my proposal for a moment.

When he turned to reply I could tell he was in disagreement. “Start with one dedicated to mass producing the additional gear we create, then we can always spread out the production of blaster weapons. The more factories we have working to pump out product the better. I think specialized factories are the way to go myself. Produce the product from the ground up, all in house. I know that once we branch out to bigger stuff we won’t be able to do that but for these small things, we need to remain centralized.” He said, providing quite a bit of sound wisdom. He was a better businessman than me anyway, so it wasn’t surprising.

I nodded in agreement, “Agreed, we keep production tight, only spread out to other territories as production demands require. We could always open a dedicated facility on the capitol world of each faction we make deals with to handle their output, and keep Taanab for open market.” I said. It wasn’t a bad plan; it would just require work and time.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

He pondered this idea for a moment and then turned, motioning for me to follow him back to the hotel we were staying at. “I like that idea. It spreads us out enough to where losing one world won’t collapse us, but allows most of our products to be centralized and secure. Not bad Draco, when did you have time to study up economics?” He said, complimenting me and poking fun at me at the same time.

I chuckled a little bit, “You know I have been doing research on business management for the past couple of months. I must have picked some of it up somewhere along the way, you old man. You can teach a young dog all sorts of tricks, you know.” I teased back. He was a smart man, but I was figuring stuff out as I went, and that was good enough for now. “We could always call in Lucerne to help get set up here as well.” I said, hoping that our long standing cooperation with the company meant they would help put us on the map a little better.

Benji spoke up in rejection, “I don’t like the idea of becoming dependent on them. I don’t mind their help, or helping them, I just want to remain autonomous as best as I can.” He said, a fair argument especially considering he had worked for Balmorran Arms for much of his life.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

We arrived back at the hotel in a matter of moments and went to our separate rooms. In the morning we had a meeting at the facility we wanted to purchase, and after that we had a meeting with our own employee, Maxwell. He was currently in charge of just the one facility, but he was soon to get a promotion. We figured we could trust him to run all of our operations on the planet. Especially considering how well he had managed the one factory. In ran like clockwork and we never heard anything but good news. Either he was a cheat and cooked the books, or he was as efficient and worthy of the job as he had said he was. I leaned on the latter, seeing as quarterly profits were beyond what had been expected and no money I could see had gone missing.

When morning came, Benji and I had a liessurely breakfast in the dining hall of the nice hotel, keeping track of time and discussing future projects loosely. I had a lot of ideas I wanted pushed into production, but I needed him to keep me sane, to keep me grounded about this kinds of projects.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Benji and I left the hotel with only a little time to spare to get to the meeting. ArmaTech wasn’t as small as it had been when we had first purchased the other factory, and we wanted to purchase this one, as well as purchase the additional equipment we needed without having to lay off any workers. In fact we simply wanted to hire more. The current owners had the factory working ten galactic standard hours a day, and we wanted to keep the factory running all day, every day. It was ambitious, like most of our plans. We knew that continuing to expand would put us on the radar a lot quicker than we had hoped, but then again, we didn’t really mind. Other than the Sith and their allies we didn’t have any enemies, and pretty much anyone who wanted something, all they had to do was ask, and ArmaTech would probably help.

We walked up to the facility and were lead to a waiting room. “Seems familiar doesn’t it, Benji?” I said, noting how similar in layout the building was to the one we owned adjacent to it. We knew they were not owned by the same company, but no doubt they had been built by the same one. “We should check out all the other facilities on this road, they might all be the same layout.” I said, still expecting future expansion.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

He looked around the room, and noted that we had come in exactly like we would have at our facility. “I think you are right. They must have all belonged to some other company a while back, before we even started. It looks like they abandoned their facilities here and sold them in pieces to whoever was willing to pay for them. I would like to own the whole set one day soon, myself.” He mused. He was planning something and I hadn’t quite figured out what he wanted. “There must be a planetary headquarters building nearby if this was all built for one company, perhaps we should look into all that.” He suggested. Not a bad plan considering we intended Taanab to fuel our open market production. We would need all the space we could find if we continued to advance our product line as much as we had.

I nodded looking at the secretary. She could tell what two men like us were here for. There weren’t many possibilities. Either we were strong arming our way to get something, or we were doing a hostile takeover, and she thought her job was on the line. She was trying to act as comfortable as she could, but I could see the worry in her movements. Being the secretary she probably knew what our meeting was about.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Every few moments as Benji and I sat waiting, she would walk over and ask us if we needed anything. She brought us water and offered us other drinks without being asked, and even offered to get us something to eat if we needed it. “We are fine, sweetheart,” I responded with a smile, trying my best to put her at ease. Again we had no intention of firing anyone, but we couldn’t just say that. We hadn’t even entered into negotiations with the current owners, and they might not take kindly to her sucking up to us before a deal is struck.

Benji however was another thing, he graciously accepted her offer, “I would love a glass of ale if there is any,” He said. She nodded and hurried off, heels clicking against the floor, to make his drink before her employers were ready for us. When she returned, I decided to put her mind at ease by mentioning to Benji he had been seeking a clerk or secretary.

“Don’t you still need a clerk for the Research and Development division?” I asked, knowing the answer. He glanced at me and cut me a sarcastic smirk, understanding what I was doing.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

“Yes, we haven’t hired one for the headquarters yet because we haven’t found a good one worth hiring yet.” He responded. It was true, but at least it let her attempt to prove she could do the job. She acted like she had not heard and handed him his drink before returning to sit down at her desk. She was pretty sure if she impressed us there would be work for her to do, but really Benji didn’t need a secretary. We rarely had visitors and when we did, we preferred to meet with them ourselves rather than leave them waiting in a reception room. Leaving someone more important than you in a waiting room was a poor tactic to attempt to make yourself feel more important. It was something I noted, and adjusted my thinking. Someone was getting fired once we bought this place. The people holding an impromptu meeting and making us wait. With Maxwell running the show, hiring new more efficient management wouldn’t be difficult, and wouldn’t be a problem Benji and I even had to bother with. Minutes continued to tick by and our appointment came and went, they were already five minutes late before the intercom on the secretary’s desk buzzed and a voice came over the channel.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

“Are our guests from ArmaTech here yet Cindi?” the voice asked. We knew full well she had alerted them to our arrival fifteen minutes ago, this was just an attempt, and a poor one at that, to cover up their rudeness at making us wait in a reception area, and not a conference room where we could sit in privacy. She looked up at us, and could tell we knew the game that was being played in front of us.

“Yes sir,” she said politely and softly, “They have been waiting.” She finished, knowing she would be berated somewhat to attempt to sell the ruse. And as if on cue, the voice returned, more harshly this time.

“Well send them in. I told you to alert us when they arrived.” The voice said. We had seen her alert them to our arrival, and even if they had been unaware it was still rude to have her open the door for us, sending us in like he was not only more important, but the one that held the reigns to the show we were on. She stood quickly and hurried to the door, having to take short steps because of her heels and skirt. She opened the door with a smile, “Right this way gentlemen.”

 

[Laira Darkhold]

As we entered the room we saw two human males in their mid-thirties and one in his mid-twenties. He was probably the owner and the others were his lackeys that actually ran the business. I hated spoiled rich kids like this. As the young one opened his mouth the familiar voice echoed from it. “Hello gentlemen, sorry about the wait. I think we can move straight to business.” He said, in a smooth tone. “I believe you were talking about contracting our company to produce your wares, correct?” He asked, knowing he was completely wrong, but then again he probably thought he was in charge of this transaction.

“Yes, and we were looking to invest in your small company. We had hoped to purchase twenty percent of your holdings as part of the contract in order to show good faith, and allow us representation on your board of directors, you of course maintaining majority control.” Benji said. He knew that the men in this room controlled sixty percent total of the company, and they didn’t know we had purchased the other forty percent through dummy corporations or investment banks under the radar. Even if they undersold us to eleven percent we would own the majority and be able to boot them out of control, or squander the percentage we owned and pick up the pieces later.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The young man looked to his compatriots. They combined owned only eight percent, he owned the other fifty two. If we wanted twenty it would be coming from him, and he wasn’t going to sell that much. We knew it, he knew it. But we only needed eleven percent to bust him with it. Once we owned the majority as private investors we could sell the facility to ArmaTech. It wasn’t completely legal, but we had the benefit of government contracting, which often meant the law was more lax for us. In eons past companies had been allowed Senate representation and even allowed to pass legislature. What we were doing was far less shady than that. “We can go that high based on what you intend for our company to do. We can twelve. Three from each of them, six from me,” He explained, fully intending on purchasing five percent later today from individual stock holders. We had prepared for this though. Although the records showed dozens of small time holders, the actual owners were just us.

Benji spoke up, after perusing their numbers. Their numbers were down for the most part but not so bad they weren’t worth taking over. “I can do twelve, with the option to expand in the future,” He replied, smiles appearing on the other men’s faces. Loosing most of their holdings would be rough, but selling high was a good plan any day.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

We signed paperwork, lots of paperwork, with Benji going through each and every one with a fine tooth comb before the deal was finalized. Benji personally purchasing all of the stock and shares of the small one shop operation. Their factory was going to look good with our logo on it. “Alright, that just about covers it mister Idiro, you are the proud owner of twelve percent of Taanab Processing.” The young man said as his credits arrived through bank wired. He was smiling, knowing that he just sold his stock twenty percent above market.

“Thank you, but your math is very wrong. I am the proud owner of fifty two percent of Taanab Processing.” Benji said with a wicked smile crossing his face. The young man’s face fell from beaming with delight at having made money to royally pissed off. “And my first order of business is to sell all of our land holdings and facilities to ArmaTech Combat Systems.” He pulled another contract from the briefcase and he and I signed it quietly without waiting for any response. “There you are Mister Vereen. What do you think you will do with your new factory?” he asked, knowing he would have just as much to do with the decision making process.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I looked around the room. “First I will offer jobs to all current factory workers finding themselves without a place to work. Then I will retool the whole factory to produce what I want, how I want, for as long as I want. Oh but before that, I’m firing this jackass and his cronies so my new management team will have office space.” I said, pointing at the young man and smiling wryly, so happy I had gotten my revenge on these guys so quickly. “I can hire more workers once management gets set up in here in the next few days. Clear out your offices. This place is mine and you have thirty days before you get evicted by Republic forces.” It was a fair threat, no doubt I could rally up some troops if I needed to, but the security staff they had hired no longer had jobs with them. Or at least in thirty days they wouldn’t. The only downfall to this plan was no Benji owned fifty two percent of a worthless company, and I had to wait for these guys to leave before I could fully hire new people. That said, I could begin production right away, as they had signed a contract for me to use their warehouse that was valid for one year and required a majority shareholder vote to overturn, something Benji wasn’t about to do.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Within a few weeks management, led by Maxwell had set up the factory and had it running at peak efficiency, at least peak given the area and facilities he had to work with. He had settled into his new position as ArmaTech Planetary Administrator very nicely and enjoyed the substantial pay raise. Soon we hoped to expand even further, as there were still three more facilities on that road alone that we had our eyes on. Now that we had increased the size of our production capabilities we could begin fulfilling the orders we had for the helmet. Several private military groups were interested and had to be denied based on higher priority orders, and now Republic Special Forces were becoming interested in equipping their commandos with our gear, even more so given the large number of special operations groups that were being formed like an intelligence organization and a specialized commando unit. Even still, making the Arbiter the new baseline helmet for ArmaTech produced armor was important. The enhanced sensors that went into it made it a necessity in small operations, even if it lost much of its effectiveness in larger battles. By the end of the month Maxwell had reworked the facility, and the original to make up for the mass of additional workers and space he had at his disposal. He also began putting pressure on the other three facilities so that it would be easier to purchase them when we inevitably returned.