Introduction

[Raziel]

Alone with his thoughts. Raziel despised being alone with his thoughts. That was because so many of them were not his own. The thoughts and emotions of so many creatures intermingled with his own. Those that were the strongest, seemed to embed most deeply into his psyche. Fear was a powerful emotion. Raziel’s natural empathic gift had latched onto so many minds shortly before he had snuffed them out of existence. Every time he was left with his own thoughts he was plagued by visions: surprise, fear, terror, a stoic face appeared from the dark. His face. They would always end swiftly: a knife, a blaster, sometimes his own bear hands would reach out from the shadows and throttle his vision to black.

Still, being alone with his thoughts was sometimes necessary. He could untwine the various concepts and thoughts floating through his mind and start to untangle the web. Sometimes it was best to be forced to sit alone with one’s thoughts and sift through them. If allowed to, Raziel would keep himself distracted by new challenges to avoid this. Still, at least the security systems here had provided a mild challenge. Concentrating on keeping his presence masked in the Force took up barely a fraction of his conscious thought, he was so well practised.

The door slid open, the slither of light offensive to Raziel’s sensitive eyes. The lights in the office - [member="Marek Starchaser"] ‘s office – would not respond.

The light from the doorway would inexplicably be enough to show his hands laid out on the table before him unthreateningly, but not enough to show his features beneath his dark hood.

“Please close the door Mr. Starchaser. I am one of Salem’s most loyal aides and I have come to discuss some matters.”

 

[Corey's OOC]

Business meetings, tech shows, and making his branch of the government work from under the guise of Alana Flag had kept Marek plenty busy. He knew there was a change coming to the System Authority shortly, and that was fine by him, but only if his own candidate won. He was a former Sith, or sometimes Sith, whatever, he was more than that though, he was… a Sort of Master of the Force. At least when looking at the Templar, the Knights Obsidian, and the Sith he met during his time with Tion.

That was the main reason he would never step forward as the in-the-light leader of anything aside from a company. He wanted to keep his associate with Tion to only those that needed to know, and not bring attention to that group forward. Let their plan play how it would, and work his plan with the System Authority and the Technate. A plan which he hoped would end the wars plaguing the state he called home.

It meant he needed to speak to other governments, through either himself or his intermediary. And get the changes done. As he stepped into his office on Hypori, he preferred to stay away from Roon as much as possible, the lights didn’t come on. Taking a second, he reached out with the Force, instinctively, to see where he was needing to react. He knew the other was there. Just not who they were.

Using the Force, he shut the door behind him, and calmed down, allowing himself to adjust to the darkness that was [member="Raziel"] 's element. “How is ole Sally, anyhow?” He smirked, trying to break some bit of the eerie factor. “And what matters might those be?”

 

[Raziel]

Here's a calm one, Raziel thought to himself at Marek's calm demeanour. The man was either a fantastic poker player, or far more powerful than suggested.

"I wouldn't know." Raziel replied curtly to the first question. "Salem has made it clear that his interest is turning away from the region. As for us, there are many things to discuss. I should start by letting you know that your candidate is going to win next week. It was thought to be...in the best interest of the region.

"I worked directly for Salem, you see. This leaves me in the position of needing to find what you're about Mr. Starchaser. My name is Raziel," he lied easily, "and I'm going to ensure that the transition of power is as smooth as possible."

There was no need to convey the real reason for his visit. Salem was the reason he held his position. Unless he tied himself to the new source of power quickly, well...the knives were being veritably sharpened already.

[member="Marek Starchaser"]

 

[Corey's OOC]

Marek was a student of Ket Van-Derveld, being calm kind of came with that territory. And, well, the business side of the galaxy wasn’t always champagne and the best food in the galaxy. Though, it was about 90% of that. And if [member="Raziel"] was not aware of Salem’s current status.

But the information that the leader of the Systems Authority was turning away? That was something Marek had suspected. And that Raziel knew who his candidate was… That was interesting, though not entirely surprising. A grin crept across the Starchaser’s face. What he was on about?

“Well, Raziel, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I was here to help with the transition, at least of trade and logistics, when we moved from Verd to Norongachi. Behind the scenes is where the government really is. As for what I’m about? I want to pull away from the galactic war games for a while. The real battles are won in the contracts. I would love to bring the Technate forward, and put some real power behind the companies and engineers.”

A technocracy, fueled by advancing technology and directed by supply and demand, and the flow of spice credits. “Which would mean we need to ensure we can gather the right players to play nice in our space, and keep an eye on those that… aren’t.”

 

[Raziel]

"Interesting," Raziel replied. Already his mind was buzzing with thoughts and ideas. He'd need to brush up on his legalese, for a start. "We've always turned a blind eye to a background level of corporate espionage. A little bit of healthy competition never hurt anyone. We've far more concerned about foreign interests causing trouble. That said, I've brought a couple of reports for your perusal."

Raziel had done his research on the way the Foreman conducted his business. So, naturally, he'd decided to prepare some details to demonstrate his usefulness. Plots within plots, always thinking a few steps ahead. Not just a few steps, but twists and turns and forks in the road...

Raziel reached under the table very carefully, and brought up two brown envelopes. He pulled a tag on each, opening up the hermetic seal. Raziel also knew that doing so triggered a tiny signal to the nearest holonet router to send a beacon to Spynet, a measure for dealing with stolen documents.

A pulled out a thin sheet of flimsiplast and laid it on the table. "I'd read soon, the words will degrade on the light and air within around ten minutes. Our first concern is Hoersch Kessel. They manufacture one of the mainstays of our fleet, but they're floundering and vulnerable. I believe it's time for some coercion to get them back on track. A member of the military with a track record for getting shipwright projects on track should be inserted into a key role, I believe you've had the pleasure of meeting Miss Arist'lar before?"

[member="Marek Starchaser"]

 

[Corey's OOC]

There was a lot that Raziel and Marek would have to work on to make this all go smooth. He needed to know that he had the backing of the SpyNet, because that, mixed with the Technate, was going to fuel his vision for the new wave of where the government formerly known as the Confederacy was going to go. A technocracy focused on pushing the limits of science and technology. Not a major military power.

Something far more valuable.

Cornering the markets.

Watching the… comrade, Marek was not sensing any ill will and was not flinching when the other pulled the envelopes up. Grabbing the flimsi on @Raziel’s urging, the Overseer/Foreman took a quick moment to read. HKD… that was Count Morcus. “This is the kind of work I’d like to see done. Target the companies working in our Space, both Technate allied and otherwise. See what we’re dealing with, who we can save. And put in a course to save them. And I have met her, yes.” This was going to be a ride, working from the shadows to run this, wasn’t it?

 

[Raziel]

"Good, I've already worked out the post she'll take," Raziel replied. "She can stay with the Navy and take up a part time post with Hoersch Kessel, though they'll have to cut her off from ASA acquisitions. Good for you I suppose, you might get a less...bristly customer."

HK Deputy Chief engineer Position:

The Deputy Chief Engineer will reside at the Hypori offices and will be responsible for technical performance of current programs and provide technical leadership on new pursuits. The deputy chief engineer will be responsible for delivering successful solutions within cost and schedule commitments. They will work closely with the customer to understand their vision and help define technologies that will support them going into the future, address current issues and refresh technical baselines. Must have strong customer interface skills. The successful candidate will be required to communicate technical status and issues internally to program leadership, technical leadership and functional leadership as well as externally to the customer.

"I wonder if she'll enjoy being on the supplier side of life and being hounded by angry customers," Raziel mused. "I have a second proposition," he said sliding over the second envelope. "I suggest we create a spin off company from Lab Q and a variety of other government departments you're probably aware of. Makes commercial sense, takes the expertise to a wider base whilst still enabling innovation within the ASA military. I had a finance team work through all the details, suggested stock models are included. The ASA military will hold the majority to begin with, but there's room for others to get involved now before the venture capitalists get their hands on it. They'll pick up most of the military's current research and development contracts."

Raziel felt no need to mention to various aliases and companies he'd set up just to take advantage of this scheme and get a hold of some stock before the price rocketed.

[member="Marek Starchaser"]

 

[Corey's OOC]

Raziel really did put the leg work through for this. Marek knew that Salem was hoping he was going to take up the lead here, but… [member="Raziel"] had the connections and the behind-the-scenes mentality. He was going to be a strong ally. So long as the others accepted working with Marek, and they went through their positions and worked properly.

“I’d like to see her having to deal with customers.” Marek nodded, with a bit of a smirk. Listening to the proposition, and reading the other packet, the Overseer was pleased to see what was put in front of him. “It makes sense. What I’d like to do, is make it so our Technate companies are focusing on the open market, and keeping a skunkworks project team to convert projects to an ASA special edition, or strictly create those projects.

Get them working on corporate take over of the galaxy.