Siobhan spared Anya glance, picking up her surreptitiously straightening her clothes. Not surprise where her suspicions were going. Siobhan, focus for a change. Job to do and all that. As annoyed as she was that Tegs wouldn't just admit it. It wasn't like Siobhan was jealous.
Despite these truly fascinating thoughts about her best friend's and boss' private life assaulting her not entirely stable mind, Siobhan to turn her attention back to her job and accepted the list. I need to go out and hit something, she surmised.
It was a long list of ammunition, various types of blasters, gunships for landing, missiles, two lightly armoured personnel carriers, transport vessels and fighters. A list of beautiful toys able to deliver mayhem and destruction on short notice, fit for a private army. Certain warlords would go green with envy at the arsenal.
She gestured to Mara to sit behind a slightly smaller desk, which had its own computer and holocommunications unti, next to hers. With a wave of her hand, she pulled up a chair for Mara. Then she placed a call to one of the weapons and munitions factories Omega had on Fondor. It some time but eventually, by using her special charms, Siobhan was able to navigate the bureaucracy and get the manager on line.
She quickly put some notes down on a piece of paper concerning the orders, then handed the datapad to Mara. One would assume that even an expert clerk should not be tormented by being forced to decipher Siobhan's handwriting. For all her faults, Siobhan had some humanity, after all! She had highlighted certain gear on the datapad in red, along with an email address. "Type up the highlighted ones and send them to the link there. When they send their info back, check the data with ours."
An impeccably dressed man with a short goatee sprouted out of the holoprojector. "Antonius Vargas, senior manager, Omega Production. I've been told the Board has an important delivery request." He sized Siobhan up. "I don't believe we've met....Ms Kerrigan." His department was mainly responsible for providing gunships, starfighters and transport vessels. Division of labour dictated that production and maintenance should be compartmentalised. While that made economic and technical sense, it struck Siobhan as a bit of an annoyance.
"I'm new. Serial number CB547659, Code Varangian. These orders come from the VP," Siobhan responded. "List is being sent. We need them ready by tomorrow," she nodded to Mara. "I'll require a complete inventory of your stock."
"Oh, of course," Vargas nodded. Within a few moments he had received the data. "This has has gone through the Board? May I ask what sort of use is intended on such short notice? I haven't heard of any operation being planned.
Look, Siobhan, you're a bureaucrat now. Just need a bowler hat. "A training exercise," she said flatly, hands folded on the table. "To show combined arms capabilities. Being able to assemble a force on a moment's notice shows what we can do. Reach and flexibility. Now, could we see the stocks."
Vargas frowned a bit. "Jaina, go through the inventory and send a list of our current stocks." Apparently he had a lackey to boss around as well. Some time later Mara received a list which she could compare with what was required for Omega, which she could check and then pass on to Siobhan.
"Hind gunships?" Siobhan queried.
"Recently, in production. Early models. The King of Onderon has expressed interest. Far superior to the Basilisk, a bit slower and less manoeuvrable, but with far superior armour plating and capable of carrying a far greater payload in terms of troops and missiles. The computerised early-warning system provides faster information about incoming fire. However, they've actually been already scheduled to be sent to facility D3 on Irkutsk."
Siobhan shrugged. "Scrap that order then. VP needs them for the exercise, so I'm requisitioning them, if they're good as you say."
"These orders were made several weeks ago, there are forms that need to be filled out. It's a mess of paperwork. Some of them are already being prepared for takeoff, D3 must be alerted. It needs to go through the proper channels." Vargas said a bit patronisingly. Siobhan realised once again that she did not like bureaucracy. Hopefully the afterlife would not consist of an eternal waiting room governed by an obstructive celestial bureaucracy. "Orderly procedures require a signature from authorised senior staff."
"And now the Board's changing the orders and I've been instructed to make it happen," Siobhan said flatly, a bit annoyed. "Gotta be ready to adapt to changing circumstances at a moment's notice. We're not the Republic. So, can you get them prepped, tanked up and ready for deployment?" her tone contained the implication 'that's what we pay you for'.
The manager presumably muttered something about how ad hoc measures interfered with the orderly way of things, but obliged and nodded. "Must be a very important training exercise," he noted dryly with an air of curiosity.
"Lot of customers watching us. Gotta make sure our boys are up to spec. Now, enough beating around the bush. Deployment?"
"The plant has a highly skilled managerial and technical staff," he said in a somewhat self-congratulatory tone. "It will take some improvisation and we'll have to mobilise extra staff, but we can get them ready."
"Rest assured your contribution will be appreciated. You get it done, the exercise goes off without a hitch, I'm sure your efforts will be noted." On occasion using the carrot and dangling the chance of getting a raise always helped to motivate people. "Send us confirmation once you're done. We need them at staging area X54." With that she cut the connection. "Right, now to call the infantry weapons guys," she murmured.
