Inquiring About Inquisition [Sarge]

[HK-36]

[member="Sarge Potteiger"],


The first private meeting HK would have conducted as the new Lord Protector would be with Sarge, the equally venerated, hated, and feared veteran of Protectorate and Lord Commander of the Inquisition. Or Lord Colonel, whichever title he preferred. Venerated for he was one of the most skilled assassins and fighters Protectorate had, hated for he could be an ass often, and feared for he had the tendency to creep up on people and watch from the shadows.


Either way, HK has send a message to Sarge a day or two before asking him for this meeting to give the man heads-up and keeping in mind that he could have other engagements with his Inquisition that could keep his time spare. Either way, Sarge would be requested to come to Protector's office, what used to be Cira's office before, a room and how to get there he would know quite well. Of course since the droid took the office there was a bit of remodeling done, by a large window at the end of the room opposite to the door there was now a throne sculpted from metal on a circular platform which allowed it to rotate while keeping it firm on the floor.

Before the throne was a desk made from ironwood, datapads and filmsy sheets of paper rested on it, reports and other notifications for the Protector. In one corner there was a basket woven from reeds found on Abregadoo, padded with velvet cushions, three Ropos would be slipping in it, pets of the current Protector, and a few paintings made by the machine would hang on the walls, most notable a portrait of Cira, portrait of Tegaea, and portrait of Ayden at the time of keeping the Protector's office, a homage to his predecessors of sorts.


When Sarge would enter the room he would find an HK droid sitting in the throne, writing data into one of the datapads, four more droids would be standing in each corner silently, unmoving, grey cloaks hanging off of their armored soldiers, they were HK models as well.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

If there was one thing Sarge did not want at this point in his life, it was a meeting in Cira's old office with [member="HK-36"]. He'd avoided the office when Tegea was in charge, he'd avoided it when Ayden was in charge. Apparently he wasn't getting the option this time. Seemed the new boss wanted to bring home the fact that he was, in fact, the new boss. Tegs had left him alone and Ayden had always either come to Sarge or met him elsewhere.

Should the truth be of concern to Sarge, and it usually was, he would likely admit to being perturbed by the idea of losing his privilege. After all, through most of his tenure in the Protectorate he'd wound up with whatever funding and support he'd needed.

HK was a droid. He didn't conform to human standards of communication; even if he was a reasonable facsimile. So Sarge stepped into the office, halberd held parallel to the flooring in his massive right gauntlet, helmet tucked under the left. In doing so, the massive bulk of his inbuilt gauntlet-bolter stuck out in an all too noticeable manner. His head might have appeared comically small set between the shoulders of his armor, but instead a great hood of metal and cables rose above him, crackling with residual energy.

It was this mantle that allowed him a better connection to the Force.

Outside, as he shut the door behind him, two armored fingers in bright blue turned and stood sentinel in the hallway outside, despite the other security that may be present.

"What do you want." The man says gruffly. That was Sarge, through and through. Blunt and to the point. His void black eyes were locked squarely on HK, noticeably only in that they seemed to be avoiding the paintings - although they'd certainly picked up on whatever was armed in the room by now.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Sarge Potteiger"],


"Hello, Sarge."

The droid answered back, finishing whatever he was inputting in the datapad before pushing it away, his guards were no more armed than him really, Sarge could see a pistol holstered at their belts, most likely a shattergun since the droid did head a weapon manufacturing company strongly based on Verpine tech, and a nondescript lightsaber hilt.

"I have been reading reports on your Inquistion."

The machine begun,

"And I do like the idea of purging the Vong and Sith for obvious reasons. What I was even more interested in was creating a division to support and train our Force using population. However that would require you to open up recruitment to less experienced soldiers who are just learning ways of the Force and play part of a babysitter in some regard, be more public. Due to nature of your Inquisition I will not force this change on you if you disagree, I can always talk to Jensaarai and give them more support to grow them into that institution, you are my first choice because I calculate you would have higher loyalty rate to Protectorate and its people rather than them, the Jensaarai commander has some second ties outside our territory I believe."

He would explain about some of his plans,

"I also think you deserve promotion after your long service. I want to remove you from the Protectorate Army ranking and name you the Lord General of Inquisition. Of course you will still have seniority and command over Army during battles but officially you will be in separate division of the Inquisition. I want to also define your Inquisition's rank structure, so let me know if you follow the Pyre, the Army's, or your a rank structure different from both drafted by you."

The machine offered then,

"How is the Inquisition on equipment and weaponry? Anything you could use or develop for them?"

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

Sarge gave the droid a hard look, and if anything he was feeling rather ornery after being asked to train Force Users. The vast majority of Force Users couldn't stay away from the Dark Side if their lives depended on it, and once you drank deep of that side of the Force, there was no going back. "I am not here to play babysitter." He says bluntly, "But if there is someone with a mentality that suits our needs, I may be so inclined as to pass them over to the Sergeant for martial training before teaching them how to use the Force."

That was probably the best HK would be getting out of the man. Sarge didn't know how to 'train.' At best, he knew how to throw people to the wolves and supervise their failures. "I won't be diluting our pool of warriors by accepting everyone who can move a lamp with their mind." Still, he was conflicted. HK had a point. The warriors under his command were almost fanatically loyal to the Protectorate.

There was a benefit in that, given the Protectorate's harsh stance against the Sith.

"But I will make a compromise. I will set them on their path to an adequate understanding of the Force, our nation and our people... and then they will be released back into whichever branch they are assigned to serve." In this way, he could make sure that any idiot who could move a lamp didn't decide they needed to start rearranging the organs of people they didn't like.

The man pulled in a breath, gaze not wavering from [member="HK-36']. "We follow a very basic rank structure. We have a squad, they have no rank other than what the men choose to call each other - which is usually Brother. Leading our squads are our Sergeants, and at the head of each company - a total of 100 warriors -stands a Captain. There are ten squads per company, of which we have 4 at the moment."

"We have several projects in motion for the time being." He adds, as if that was all the information necessary.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Sarge Potteiger"],


"Well Force knows even I would not trust you with a babi."

The droid quipped at Sarge refusing to be a babysitter, but then he listened in silence as Sarge offered the terms of his compromise,

"That sounds perfect, Sarge, thanks I appreciate it."


As he explained structure of the Inquisition the machine nodded, his hand placed over a datapad as fingers moved silently inputting the text to take note of it as for some reason official roster lacked the information, most likely due to secrecy that surrounds the Inquisition.

"Sounds straight-forward enough."

HK nodded before continuing,


"If you could relay reports on these projects to me later on I would like to have a look at them, especially if you could use more funds for it. I can also send you shipments of weapons Abregado makes very shortly, I still hold position of C.E.O. for Guild of Hammers."

He would pick up one of the datapads, opening up the Guild of Hammers manifesto on it, seen here, and offering it to Sarge,

"I believe you would especially find our Rotary Cannons and Miniguns based off of Shatterguns especially interesting, as well as handheld Mass Drivers and Electro Cestus. We should be able to supply four hundred soldiers rather easily, Iron Company was about the same size when Guild of Hammers started supplying them, they had a bit of expansion with introduction of more droid soldiers who use our equipment."

It was in that reasoning why the droid and writer thought that it would not be that much of a stretch if Inquisition wanted to use the weapons, even though most were only in Minor production, besides Firemane could always help out in making more.

"We are also working on a special Dwarf Personal Walker with Firemane as we call it. It is a mix between a walker and a mechanical exoskeleton. It has stout walker legs controlled with pedals you see, while the arms bearing armaments are controlled directly by movements of the pilot's arms. Sockets offer much customization, making it rather versatile, we recently developed new armor plates for it. I think you may like that as well."

The Walkers in questions were still being developed and they were to be submitted soon once Bolter MK 3 would be put forward by joined efforts of Firemane and Abregado, it was very much so a rip-off of WH40k Dreadnoughts.


"I also want you to take a seat on the Small Council as my military adviser and Lord General of Inquisition should you accept the promotion I offered to you."

HK leaned back in his iron throne.

"You were with Pyre longer than me and you have proven that you care for Protectorate many times over. You are an ass, Sarge, and I may not exactly like you, I do not suspect you like me either, but I respect you and your opinion. I want you to have a say in how things go with the Protectorate and help me shape the next generation of our leaders."

The machine offered then,

"I may be very old and hard to kill with the methods and exploitations I learned over the years, but I am not immortal. I want to go into slumber in upcoming years, disappear either in the Tomb World of my kin and sleep with them or in underground catacombs on Abregado I had built for my volunteer deactivation. I want my chapter as Protector to be brief but memorable, a chapter of changes and reforms that will see us prosper for years to come, and I want you to play part in it, Sarge, let me know what your opinions are and give an advice when I ask for it."

He would gesture to Sarge then,

"Would you accept?"

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

"We are looking to strap some armor plating to our current pattern of armor to bulk it up, bring it more in line with my own. These squads will form either a breakwater or a beachhead, depending on their armament. There are other ideas floating around. Provided you leave the normal sources of funding open, we should be fine." He gives a very faint bow of his head, listening to the droid speak. "I will review your weapons, and see if we can't put them to use."

There is a pause as he continues to listen. "I will accept." He says finally, not one for huge ceremony or overt gratitude.

"I will, however, likely need your input on designing a flagship for my men, and I will need a large caliber mass driver cannon to strap to the top of a dropship."

[member="HK-36"]

 

[HK-36]

[member="Sarge Potteiger"],


The droid nodded,

"The armor plating we made for the walker can be used in personal armor, it is a Graphite mesh reinforcing plates made from Duraplast, Durasteel, or Duranium, you will see more of its specifications in the manifesto about the equipment we make, see if you could use that."

After later points he would nod again,

"Glad to hear it, Lord General, I can send Incom your way to cooperate with you in designing the said flagship, as to mass drivers, we were going to upgrade our current ones into larger caliber, vehicle mounted variants and huge planetary defense cannons, I believe that should do the trick once we finish designing it. There is a catch, however."


HK would take one of his datapads opening up the reports there,

"Intelligence reports from Coruscant and Alderaan battles suggest that Lady Protector Cira may be Vong-formed now, I believe you are already aware-"

The droid would look up to Sarge,

"- I will give you whatever you need, whatever you will ask for, in exchange I want you to find her and bring her back so we can save her and cure her. When I will step back I will not worry who could take charge of Protectorate as there would be Lady Protector to replace me. If any Sith or Vong will stand in your path- burn them. And once she is safe, I want you to find the one who did it to her, and I want you to cut off his limbs, leave him helpless but alive. If they love changing forms of others, let us change their form in return. I want his brain and nervous system to be transplanted and installed into a G0nk droid vessel, shape him into a droid. Perhaps he will form some empathy once he knows what it is like to feel nothing but a cold metal tomb."

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

Sarge stared for long, long moments at [member="HK-36"]. "She is recovering on Corellia."

 

[HK-36]

[member="Sarge Potteiger"],


"See this is the kind of things that happen when droids are not in charge of everyone-"

The droid spoke back at that as he looked at one of the datapads with the reports,

"The paperwork I inherited, it is, it is-"

He would look back to Sarge before finishing with a quip,

"Well it is just a bloody awful mess."


He would flip the datapad before pushing it away and leaning back on his throne,

"I will speak to Cira myself then, see what her state of mind is and discuss a few things, plus with her disappearing on and off the public would be probably rather confused, especially since this is the second time she supposedly perished but now it turns out she was turned into a Vong."

The machine would emit a sigh,

"Bloody PR nightmare if you ask me but I can work it out, if I was able to get a droid accepted as a ruler of major galactic power, I will be able to do this as well."


He would pat another datapad then, leaning back to the desk to check something,

"But, now that I do not need you to enact my vengeance, I would want you to lead our reinforcement efforts in helping Republic and Mandalorians fight against the Vong and Sith, you will be given Expeditionary Forces to support your Inquisition. I would do it myself but I can not exactly rush into combat right now."

HK would look up to Sarge at that again,

"Do you accept, Lord General?"

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

"You're asking me to do my job." Sarge says dryly. "If you ask me if I accept doing my job one more time, this will get marginally unpleasant. Are we done here?" Real ray of sunshine, he was.

[member="HK-36"]

 

[HK-36]

[member="Sarge Potteiger"],

"Because our conversations are pleasant to begin with."

The droid muttered, looking up to Sarge from his datapad,

"I am asking you to accept initiating a new campaign fully under your command with resources in form of Expeditionary Forces which usually would not be under your command, I want to have responses to requests like that on official record in case something goes horribly wrong."

Machine explained the redundancy of his requests, he was a bureaucrat after all. He would wave Sarge off then,

"You are dismissed before you overload my joy circuits with all that cheeriness emanating from your orifices."

HK quipped