Lunch by the River

[Horus]

[ Ambiance ]

The croaky voice of a young man from Uluru oozed itself through the hustle and bustle of the riverside cafe. He sat perched on a stool by the waterfront, singing soft tunes as his fingers strummed the stringers of his instrument. However this was not a normal night. Horus, Lord of Admirals, was here this evening. The staff were tense, but proud, the patrons would dart their eyes momentarily every now and again but otherwise remained quiet about his presence.

This was not an ordinary meeting for Horus, first of its kind. This was a galactic corporation that was interested in working with the Commonwealth, Horus did not mean to intimidate them with their vast show of arms as they had done in the past with delegates from other nations. Although a show of arms were ultimately inevitable, the super-fleet known as Home Fleet safeguarded Alexandria, in ten thousand years it had never left its post. Horus had no plans to move Home Fleet to make the planet more accommodating.

A waitress came around and gently sat a glass of water on the table then lowered a bucket of ice that contained a bottle of sweet white wine. It was more-so for Horus than it was for Gir. Horus was a big fan of wines. The distant noise of wheeled vehicles could be heard. Alexandria relied on ground-based vehicles and a vast network of public transport. They had a strict no-fly policy for civilian ships. Horus uncorked the bottle.


[member="Gir Quee"]

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir's journey to Alexandria had been relatively uneventful, though fascinating nonetheless. Most of his former military career had kept him in the more developed, eastern half of the galaxy. Thus travelling through the western areas of galactic civilization had exposed him to a dozen knew worlds and probably twice as many cultures that he had never previously encountered. Yet none of them appeared to be as interesting as what he had read about the Commonwealth. Militaristic nations were not an entirely foreign concept to him, yet it seemed to him that perhaps the Commonwealth had taken that up to the next level compared to many of their peers. The shockboxing footage he had seen of them reinforced the concept even further. But even that provided only a brief foretaste of actually being on Alexandria itself. It seemed to him that the vast majority of everyday people that he saw could easily slip into a military uniform and look entirely in place in any number of galactic power militaries. The blonde man entered the riverside cafe and scanned the tables.

"Can I help you?" asked the waitress, looking him up and down, "you're an offworlder, aren't you? Give me a second, I know where you should be..."

Gir followed the woman, curious as to how she had figured him out so quickly. As he passed another table with several gentlemen sitting at it, he slowly realized the particular cut of his business suit wasn't common in this art of the galaxy. The woman waved him over towards a taller and older man, [member="Horus"]. As Gir approached the man, he extended his hand out for a handshake.

"I am Gir Quee," started the former Republic officer, "president of Lucerne Labs."

 

[Horus]

"Horus Nelson," he answered in turn, his hand extended and grasped the corporates hand firmly, shaking twice, "Lord of Admirals." Horus motioned for him to take a seat, the waitress come by and delivered a menu to Gir as well as a glass of water. "How was your trip to Alexandria?" Horus inquired, initiating small talk. While Horus had every intention of having his dinner and getting everything finished by the time he took his last bite, he knew that it was polite to take ones time. Unfortunately for Horus, time was something he didn't have these days.

He would press on nonetheless, give Gir the time they needed to discuss their agreements and deals, as well as future projects of the Commonwealth. He knew who Gir was, a respectable man with a long history. Thankfully there were many public libraries accessable across the galaxy, it wasn't hard to trace down informaiton on Gir. The same could not be said for the Commonwealth and its people, they were new to the galaxy but they were making quite the impression. Some called them a fascist dictatorship, a horrible regime, but it mattered not what others thought, they knew the truth of it. They killed the King, and now they had freedom. They were revolutionists.

[member="Gir Quee"]

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir finished shaking [member="Horus"]'s hand before sitting down across him. His eyes lingered on the wine bottle's label as he considered how to answer the question. At face value, it certainly seemed innocuous enough, as if they were old friends or co-workers meeting up after a holiday. But Gir didn't know the man nor the man's culture. From what he had seen of it though, he doubted that the man would be interested in the various sights on the worlds nor the starships that he had seen on the spaceways. He's being polite...but he's probably a busy man given his position.

"My journey went well," revealed Gir, "I managed to see a few new worlds that I hadn't previously seen, as well as a couple of starship classes that I had only seen in holos before. I noticed several warships in orbit over Alexandria with Commonwealth transponders. I do not think that I've seen their designs before."

Starship design inherently interested Gir not only because of his professions, but also in what they revealed about the culture behind them. Sometimes it revealed a culture's philosophy. To Gir's eyes, the basic Tie Fighter's fragile hull and lack of shield systems showed how little the old Empire valued the lives of its pilots. Yet conversely, the mon calamari had sacrificed carrying extra weapons in order to improve the shielding of their cruisers to improve the chances of their crews simply surviving the battlefield. But as curious as he was to the Commonwealth's design ethos, perhaps more importantly, but knowing a bit more about the ships and their construction methods, he would have a better idea on how to build the shipyards for them. It would do little good to make a shipyard that would be too small to build what they planned to build in the future, nor to use exotic materials or equipment that wouldn't be able to maintain.

 

[Horus]

"You will get to know their designs quite well. I'll organize for TaraTari to submit all current projects and blueprints to your company once we have come to an agreement," Horus said. The venerable Lord Admiral placed a datapad on the table. It's contents were primarily that of the contract that needed to be signed, but it also possessed all known planets in the system as well as mining companies from which Gir could acquire resources, as well as other production lines in the surrounding systems. "What we need is battle stations - yesterday," Horus emphasized how critical the defense of the Commonwealth was to him,

"We're also interested in heavy fighting ships, as well as dedicated carriers. Our primary focus is safely transporting the Marine Corps onto a planet for a fast immediate defense." Horus flicked the datapad and began to display information about the Commonwealth military, "We try not to rely on plasma or blaster technology for our weaponry, we prefer the more archaic mechanisms of slugthrowers and flak guns. We are not adverse to our ships utilising nuclear warheads, either," Horus stated flatly, his eyes studying Gir's.

[member="Gir Quee"]

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir nodded in understanding of the requirements laid out by [member="Horus"]. Logistics seemed to play a bigger part of their warship's designs than many galactic powers, but Gir could well understand the strategic benefits of such a choice. The independence that afforded them likely gave them far more leeway not only in terms of ease of manufacture and the supply chain, but also in terms of strategic movements: they wouldn't have to protect isolated blaster gas harvesting outposts set up over far away gas giants. Gir glanced at the datapad before pulling it over to scroll through its contents.

"My company has mobile factory ships that are capable of quickly producing such ships and war materials at different locations," revealed Gir, "I can have at least one of them here in two days, and several more within a week. I think it may be worth while to have at least one of them start constructing a shipyard facility that would enable even more production capacity within orbit."

He pulled out a small datapad of his own that he would eventually hand off to the Lord of Admirals.

"This datapad contains our current, public products list," said the blonde man, "that might be of use to your naval planners. Let me highlight a few technologies that might be of interest to you."

Gir pulled out his stylus and highlighted a few technologies, notably the Rainburst-class Flak Cannon, the massive Trident-class Autocannon, and the multipurpose Rhongomyniad-class mass driver cannon that might potentially be of interest to the Commonwealth's staff. Doubtlessly, Gir would need to converse with the region's professionals to ensure that such devices could be manufactured and easily utilized by the Commonwealth, but if not, he could at least demonstrate that they possessed the technical know-how to make future weapons that would be better fitted to the Commonwealth's needs. He slid the datapad over to the man.

"Of course, we can develop new technologies or redesign some of our existing products to better fit the Commonwealth's needs," said Gir, "if you were to prioritize one of those needs that you mentioned, which one would be at the forefront. Or perhaps, the one with the most priority?"