From Thorns And Roses

[Aneya Maev]

SULLUST
SCNN General Headquarters
Conference Centre

---

NPCS USED: Xander Brand | Corina Hackett

"We have been doing fine, my dears," Xander opened the meeting. It was not a usual meeting, mainly because it took place very early in the morning, as well as because there was nobody besides the three there. Not a single other editor, reporter or anybody at all. Only the three leaders of the company.

"You clearly have something to tell us, so why don't you get right into that?" Corina said, holding a cup of coffee in her hand, obviously a little bit too tired for her liking. Sullust Entertainment's editor-in-chief's day typically started a lot later in the day, so she was not used to attending meetings so early. It was only half past seven, so there was no other way for her to stay awake than to drink a lot of energy drinks and coffee.

However, Aneya had a much easier time staying awake. She woke up pretty early every day, just to study a little bit, do some research and just try to learn something new before going to work. Even though she loved her job as a journalist, she did still want to study as much as she possibly could.

"Yes, I do have something to tell you." The man's voice sounded promising. He was not in a bad mood, which was a really good indication. At least it meant that nothing was going to ruin the workers' mood that day with bad news. "I have noticed the Galactic Alliance has grown really huge and we just can't keep up like this anymore."

"What do you mean with that?" Aneya asked, taking a sip of her coffee as well. It was like a thing the Sullust Central News Network had. None of the employees there drank tea or cacao or anything other than coffee, really. Yes, water was also drank, but no morning was started without a good cup of coffee.

"We have to do something about our regional headquarters," Xander replied. "The ones we currently have are doing their jobs well, but we must change something. They are hardly managing all the information they get and it would be just easier to have one more regional headquarter."

"Xander, backtrack a little bit," Corina said, not quite understanding anything the man said. "You want to open one more headquarter? Are you like... sure about that?"

 

[Aneya Maev]

"Relatively," the man replied. Since he was clearly the only person in the company that had actual say over the organisation of the corporation, none of the decisions he made were to be argued about. Discussed, maybe; but never argued. He was sure he wanted to open one more regional headquarter, meaning they would also have to divide their regions up a little bit.

A map of the Galactic Alliance appeared on the screen behind the man. It was one of the only meeting chambers of the conference centre to have such a screen with the map on it. There really wasn't a reason for other chambers to have such maps, though.

"The Alliance has a really crazy shape, like you can see," he said, making a circle around the faction border with his mild laser. Where the hell had he gotten that from, really? Both Corina and Aneya were sure they hadn't seen the laser anywhere around the man before. Or maybe it was just because they were too tired to focus on details.

"Yes, so you want to change the positioning of our regions?" Corina asked. She looked at all the sectors the faction controlled. She had to note that none of the two regions the Alliance was currently divided into really made the company justice. The southern half of it was overpopulated while the northern part was really sparsely populated. She could pretty much see where the man was headed now.

"Yes. But not only change the positioning, but to create a third region," the man spoke, pointing his laser at the western parts of the Alliance. "The Western Region with Porchello as its headquarters."

"Porchello? It's like... right at the border of the Alliance," Aneya commented. "I mean, sure we can have Elrood and Bestine as our regional headquarters, but... these two don't really have any enemies around them either. However, if we open an office on Porchello, it's right next to First Order space."

"So?" Xander had to ask.

"They're our greatest enemies, Xander."

 

[Aneya Maev]

"Aneya, I'm pretty sure the Galactic Alliance has secured the borders well, especially so near to the First Order," Corina spoke, both trying to calm the woman down and to make her shut up at the same time. The editor-in-chief of Sullust Entertainment was tired and thus really grumpy about everything that morning. She took a sip of her coffee and then looked at the map again.

"Yes," Xander agreed. "I've done some research and I believe it is the best possible place to go. All of our other regional headquarters are at the borders as well, so that would go great with the style we have." He took a sip of his own coffee. It was actually weird to have all three of the high-ranking officials together. Most of the time they were all scattered around the Alliance space, either staying in one of their headquarters or flying towards another one. They were always moving around because of the huge amount of work they had to do.

For that one week, though, all three of them were supposed to stay in the headquarters to discuss the future of the corporation without any hassle. All of the meetings were supposed to take place early in the morning because, let's face it, none of them would have had the time to discuss these things any other time. Aneya and Corina were both editor-in-chiefs and Xander was the CEO, so their days were packed with meetings and other activities of great importance.

"Alright, and if you have already made the decision, why bother to talk to us about it?" Aneya just had to ask. She didn't really see the point in that at the moment, mainly because judging by the way he talked, he was not there to ask for their opinions about the matter. He had some other plans. Xander always had plans -- Aneya had come to understand that during the time they'd worked together.

"Well, I am kind of thinking about changing the functions all of our regional headquarters. The one on Bestine would serve as the office of Sullust Daily and the one on Elrood would be the home to Sullust Entertainment," Xander spoke.

"And the one on Porchello?" Corina asked.

Xander smiled slyly at that question.

 

[Aneya Maev]

"Sullust Business," Aneya responded blankly. "I've heard you talking about it. I even think I know who you will appoint as the editor-in-chief of that." She didn't sound too happy about the new newspaper. Mostly because she knew the editor-in-chief would be taken from her team. And she was not happy with the person he'd picked at all. He was one of the most valuable people of her editorial, which was most likely the reason why Xander decided to appoint him to that position.

"I had to do that, Aneya, you know that," Xander said. He knew the girl held all of her employees very close to her and had a really good relationship with all of them, but he knew there was nobody else he could pick. People from the Sullust Entertainment team were not used to writing about serious news. They were all about the yellow papers. So there were only two ways this could have gone -- either take an employee from Sullust Daily or just hire a new one. And the former one was definitely an easier option, especially considering the fact that the corporation was still young.

"I would have just preferred if you'd decided to talk to me about it before making any new decisions," Aneya said, her tone clearly showing her upset. "I can't just let a member of my editorial go and start his own newspaper. Well, OK, I can, but that is only my or his decision to make. Not yours."

"Ooh, the tension," Corina was starting to get excited. Even though she was tired, she could feel the drama around her. And like people often said, wherever Corina was, there was destined to be drama. That is, even if the woman was not the cause of such drama. Just the aura seemed to go along with her all the time. Such was the life of the editor-in-chief of a celebrity newspaper.

"Aneya, I did not make this decision easily. I had to ache my heart about it for long, but there is no better option at the moment. You know he is a valuable trustworthy person and we need that in a person working on such an important position," Xander tried to clam his business partner down. "I am sure you will be able to find a new employee to fill the void."

Corina interrupted the talks.

"Mister CEO, what about the Sullust office? Are you just gonna use it for maintaining the company on your own? Rest in it like a boss, just spend your days playing card games?" the woman asked.

"Pretty much."

 

[Aneya Maev]

"What really bothers me is the funds we need to get this new office built," Xander spoke. "I thought about it for a good while until I came up with a plan." A slide appeared on the screen, showing several different graphs. At first, the two editor-in-chiefs couldn't really tell what the graphs meant, so they needed a while to process all of that. However, when they did understand what they meant, hell broke loose.

"You karking sithspit, I karking quit," Corina said, standing up from her seat and facing the CEO with the angriest look she'd ever given. "Why the kark do you think you can take an employee away from Aneya and then strip both of the newspapers' funding? I karking despise you."

Xander hadn't expected such a reaction at all, even though he should have. His eyes turned to Aneya who was still silent and mad at the man. Seeing the graphs had made her only angrier, he could tell. But there was seriously no other way he could have gotten money to make the office. And they really needed the new headquarters.

"Corina," Xander said, his voice calm and soothing. "It's temporary. The company will soon earn it all back, even more than twice. And then you can get more funds than before. You just have to make it through these few months."

"Of course it's easy for you to say. You don't have to pay your karking editors anything. All you do is sit around and act like a boss, only paying the two editor-in-chiefs money while we two stay up at nights trying to gather enough money to provide a decent salary for our employees," the woman couldn't calm down. "If by the end of this project I don't get the money back at least thrice, I'll say 'adios' and I'll be out of here."

Corina truly was not afraid of saying exactly what she felt inside. Aneya really loved her for such an ability. She would have never managed to say anything like that, which was also the reason why she was assigned as the editor-in-chief of the more serious newspaper.

"You will get it back."

---

 

[Aneya Maev]

PORCHELLO
SCNN Western Region HQ Building Site
Temporary Conference Centre

---

NPCS USED: Corina Hackett | Wystan Cartwright

It was not usual that the three editor-in-chiefs of the Sullust Central News Network's newspapers had a meeting together without the presence of the CEO Xander Brand himself, but that day was different. Xander was away on Sullust while the three had gathered on Porchello, in the temporary conference centre, to hold a meeting.

Wystan needed a lot of advice on how to be the most efficient editor-in-chief he could be. And that was a part of the reason why all of the three were gathered there. But it was by no means the only reason.

"To be honest, I wouldn't say things have been going smoothly for me," Corina said as she took a sip of her grava berry flavoured Siechel MineralWater. "The editorial doesn't have much money to spend, so we have to set more and more limits on what we can do and what we can't. It's kind of heartbreaking, I have to say."

The woman would have definitely enjoyed a good old whiskey, but she was at work, so that was out of question.

"Yes, I have to agree. Sullust Daily just isn't the same right now," Aneya noted. "I really want this office to be ready so that we could get the money back. I mean, we have had to leave so many good news out of our newspapers because of the lack of money we have. Not only that, but I also had to lower the salaries of my workers. Yes, lower."

"I have a question, though. Why doesn't Xander pay all of the employees with the company's funds?" Wystan asked. It really was a valid question because in most editorials the pay came from the above. But things were different in SCNN. He looked at the two women, not knowing which of the two would answer his question.

"Look, if we knew that, we would tell you," Corina said, trying not to delve deep into the reasoning. "Xander has far more stuff to do for the betterment of the corporation, so he can't really be bothered to pay anything to people lower than us three."

Oh what a mystery Xander's finances were. Sometimes Aneya really hoped the SCNN would get themselves a Chief Financial Officer soon.

 

[Aneya Maev]

"Huh, it's like our finances are the most messed up ever, but we won't get into trouble because we are the media?" Wystan laughed, after which he would sip his drink as well. It felt weird for him to hang out in the upper circle. Before that, he'd been just a simple editor in Sullust Daily. Now he was in control of one of the three most important newspapers in the Galactic Alliance.

Well, now he could at least tell his mother that getting a business degree was not a waste of time and money. Because in reality, Xander hadn't picked Wsytan randomly. He was the only editor in the whole SCNN who had a degree in business. And what better way to use his knowledge than to give him the editor-in-chief position of Sullust Business.

Just like every new newspaper, it had difficult times, scratching the surface and trying to find what they were good at and what they needed to advance on. It'd been working a few months and Wystan could tell the most difficult part was to get a really good editorial to work for him. The influx of great journalists from the Galactic Republic to the Galactic Alliance could have been cleverly used.

But there was one problem -- SCNN was not the only news network.

"Tell me, Wystan, what plans have you for this office? Any pieces of architecture you've had a say on so far?" Corina asked. Now that all three editorials worked in different offices, all of the three editor-in-chiefs had had the opportunity to spice up their little environments. Wsytan, however, was still waiting for his office to be made.

So obviously he could ponder about the ideas he had.

"A few times. I mostly just wanna get over it and start working in my office. It could be decorated later on if I really wanted to turn it into something more fancy," the man replied.

"True. Very true."

 

[Aneya Maev]

Aneya opened the latest issue of the new newspaper Sullust Business and let her eyes take a few glances here and there. She was not the most knowledgeable person when it came to business, but she sure loved the newspaper. The girl couldn't tell how good Wystan was as a leader, but she sure knew he was good as a journalist, which of course had ended up with the newspaper being amazing.

"But you have to design your meeting room yourself," Aneya said while turning her eyes back on the man. "For example, Xander's meeting chamber records everything spoken inside it. Corina's room has the direct contact with every major celebrity in Galactic Alliance. My room can deploy SCNN's forces."

"Oh," Wystan was surprised. Such information was only revealed to the highest ranking people in the company and never to the lower ranking people. That was also the reason why the three leaders' meeting rooms could only be opened using special keycards. Now Wystan would have such a room himself. "What options do I have?" he asked.

"Well, seeing how you're working in the fields of business, you could have a screen that shows all major economic graphs in live," Corina said. She didn't know much about business, but she did have a lot of imagination. Her own office was incredibly well designed, looking luxurious due to all the golden furniture and statues inside. It was nothing like he shy offices Xander and Aneya had.

Wystan would get to decorate his own office as well, when the building was done. Judging by how the man was not one to decorate anything fancily, it was most likely going to be a rather blank room.

"Hmm," he muttered.

"You should talk to the engineers about it. I am sure they could work something out with you," Aneya noted. Of course they wouldn't give it any crazy features like they'd given Xander, but they could have some inventive ideas on how to design the meeting chamber. Honestly, none of the other rooms had any chance against the CEO's meeting chamber. All the recording technology, screens, broadcast technology and crazy lightning had been worked into the room itself, so people who had no knowledge of those things would not even know the room had such features. None of them were visible unless the man pressed the right buttons.

"Alright, sounds like a plan," the man said.

 

[Aneya Maev]

Corina looked at the building site. It was going to be an interesting structure, nothing like the other offices. She kind of liked the strange weirdness its architecture had, but she wouldn't have wanted to work in such a place herself. She loved luxury, so she would not move to some Porchello to work in a place which didn't suite her needs whatsoever.

"Isn't it odd that all of our newspapers have the name Sullust in it, but none of the offices are on the planet?" Wystan interrupted the woman's thoughts. Aneya took a sip of the cold water and cleared her throat. The man had a point and the women couldn't deny it.

"Well, yeah, but they still have the most publication on Sullust. We won't just change our names because of our offices not being located in the capital. I mean, seriously, we are an Alliance-wide publication, so it doesn't matter where we are located," Corina spoke. Life was easy for her -- all famous celebrities were on Elrood, not on any other planet the faction had. So it was easy for her to do her job away from the capital.

However, things weren't as easy for Aneya and Wystan. They were heavily affected by the works of Sullust and the distance just wasn't the best.

"Wystan," Aneya said, "what about SCNN's equipment. Do you want something that we have in our hands?" She was, of course, talking about the few ships and drones they had. Xander had given Aneya the permission to buy some more of such stuff if she first talked to him about them. And to be honest, he couldn't really be bothered by finances anyway. So all technology they had was in Aneya's hands.

"A ship would be nice," the man said. "Me thinks I don't need much else. Only a ship to fly around the galaxy and stuff." That was true. The newspaper mainly published news about the business world, not about the events of the galaxy, meaning they didn't have to have drones flying around places.

"Yes, but the point is, how many hangars have you in the project?"

That was the reason why the woman even started talking about the ships. If there weren't hangars for ships, the headquarters couldn't have any ships of their own.

 

[Aneya Maev]

Wystan didn't answer.

"Let's just hope things go smoothly, OK?" Corina suggested, obviously not wanting to deal with the stuff she was not supposed to deal with. If architects hadn't come up with the thought that they would need hangars, then it was their fault, not SCNN's. Because they told the builders exactly what they needed. Xander was pretty good at doing that.

"So when is this supposed to be done?" Aneya asked, sipping her water. It was a particularly warm day that day, so the three had brought a ton of water bottles to the meeting. It was mostly just a 'let's hang out' type of a meeting, so the atmosphere was friendly.

"I hear it should take a few more months before we can move in. But even after that, they have some work to do. Only the office part is being made right now, but the conference centre and everything else will take more time," Wystan answered the question. "I will have to have business meetings in my own office during that time, but I do believe the building team will work on the conference centre next."

Aneya nodded in understanding.

"Do you know what I think? I absolutely love the conference centre," Corina said. "Like, who else would have a whole separate building for such stuff? I literally hold all my meetings there."

"That's exactly what you're supposed to do."

"Yeah, I know, but... still. It's a nice touch."