Saving Pilot Ralter

[Geneviève Lasedri]

Anaxes was as convenient as ever, being under strict security standards with the Sith just on the horizon. Geneviève had probably only been cleared so quickly on status alone. It was not something she preferred to brag about, but it did the job, to be honest.

The Orion Corporation was her destination--an upstart military tech company with big ambitions. They would have enough resources for the planned project with her help, and even more if they could pander to the Republic and convince them of the necessity of the weapon they would be contributing to. It would be difficult, but it would all be worth it if it spelled the thwarting of the enemy's plans. No one would be able to handwave themselves out of this mess. Not even the 'magicians'.

Cloaked in her all-black outfit, Lasedri arrived at the address of Orion Headquarters in the industrial sector. She had provided them with a specific time that their more-or-less mysterious visitor would arrive, and so she lingered in the lobby of the complex until the exact minute, then approached the receiving droid under the wary eyes of a couple of Chiss guards. "I'm here to meet with Mister [member="Slate Estrada"]." He had better be ready, for the Republic's sake.

 

[Slate Estrada]

With the knowledge that visitor would be arriving at the Orion Corporation headquarters soon, Slate made sure he was present in the building. The guest had not given a name, only the time they would be arriving. Slate was pleasantly surprised when the he was called down to the lobby at the exact time his guest had given him.

It didn't take long for Slate to spot the figure dressed in all black standing in the centre of the lobby. Approaching the cloaked character, the CEO didn't notice any distinctive features about them apart that she was a woman. As he neared the woman, he held out his hand ready for a handshake, "Hello and welcome to Anaxes. I am Slate Estrada and I expect you are the guest I have been expecting." Hopefully the 5 minute wait hadn't annoyed the guest. "Have you got a name, I noticed you never gave me one earlier." He finished in a friendly tone, still holding his hand.


(Sorry for the rushed post, busy day.)

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

Gen accepted the offered hand and pressed a firm grip, always intent on making sure she was not taken lightly, even when it was unnecessary. She glanced around the room to survey the security of this space, her single brown iris flitting about in one eye while her blank eye's movement was not quite as evident. Perhaps it was alright to trust a little bit, if they were to become business partners of a sort should things go properly.

Another thing she often did was lie about her name. But today was different. "My name's Geneviève, but call me Gen." Shorthand was her preference, and besides, it was much more difficult for any eavesdroppers to make an identity connection with such a generic name as 'Gen'.

"Mister Estrada," she resumed, content to not linger on her details for too long. "How badly would you like to kill these outrageous creatures the Sith like to deploy?" Hopefully, very, very badly.

[member="Slate Estrada"]

 

[Slate Estrada]

Slate noticed that his guest was glancing around the room as if paranoid something was going to happen. As it was his job to make her feel welcome, Slate would invite her to his office. "Maybe we should go somewhere quieter? Come on, let's talk as we walk." He began to walk away towards the elevator, expecting Gen to follow.

"As for those Sith beasts..."

"During the invasion of Manaan, I've witnessed their power first hand. They've killed my friends, my soldiers and thousands of innocent people. I would very much like them killed." Memories of the beast "Glitter" reminded Slate of the power these leviathans were capable of, and what made it worse was the fact that they came in sizes that could dwarf the Akura Leviathan. It would be idiotic to assume that anyone who wasn't Sith would want these creatures to live.

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

This was certainly welcomed--moving away from the less private lobby, where there were things that could undoubtedly hear them. She may trust Estrada enough in this case, but anything or anyone else could become a loose end, as it were. The fewer people who knew about her and her dealings, the better. "Thank you."

She nodded silently as Estrada voiced his frustrations with the Sith beasts. There was something just undeniably anger-provoking about the giant, mindless, organic tools of utter destruction. Whoever used them did not deserve to live; did not deserve to even be born. Lasedri pulled out her datapad as he spoke, and when he had concluded, she activated a holographic image of the prototype model for the weapon she was proposing.

Spoiler

"It's going to kill these sons of banshees, but we need it to be fast and heavily armored. My people haven't been able to come up with what I'm looking for, but I know if it's to be found in the Republic, this is the place to seek it out." Geneviève hoped he felt just as confident as she.

[member="Slate Estrada"]

 

[Slate Estrada]

When both Slate and Geneviève enetered the elevator, it began its ascension to the office located at the top floor of the tower. As the two stood in the rapidly accelerating elevator, Slate looked at the holographic image of the weapon his guest was proposing. From the image, it was clear that was was a unique idea, a weapon Slate had never seen before. Interesting.

"Well, I don't know a lot about spaceships... But armour, is one of my specialties." Slate smiled to Gen before continuing, "If you'd prefer I can call of my Head of Sciences, Dr. Noldin to assist us?" Dr. Bal Noldin was a key ingredient in many of the Orion Corporation's successful and "next generation" products. His genius level intellect would undoubtably help with the designing of this weapon, whatever it was.

A low pitched ding signalled that the elevator had reached its destination. Exiting from the white box, Slate began to walk over to his desk at the fair side of the room, again expecting Gen to follow.

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

"That's exactly why I'm here," Gen acknowledged as they stepped into the turbolift. "Odds are that when the Sith find out about these things, they'll focus a lot of firepower on bringing them down." She hated anything bad befalling her initiatives, and this was the last project she would want to fail. Everything she had worked for mattered little if no one found a way to disrupt the Sith's hostile promenade. When it came to dealing with despicable beings like them, if you were not cheating, then you were not trying. That was, at least, the way she saw it. Bad people stop for no one.

She followed Estrada out of the elevator and sauntered behind, habitually taking a look around the room for reasons, though knew there was likely nothing to worry about in here. "It's up to your discretion as to whether we should call on your Head of Sciences. But I do find communication to be key in most situations."

[member="Slate Estrada"]

 

[Slate Estrada]

"I think Doctor Bal being here will benefit the both of us." Slate would say before tapping a button on his monitor that would call the Doctor. Undoubtedly the Doctor would arrive soon as he always seemed to be on alert, but until he did arrive Slate and his guest would continue their discussion. "I certainly agree, the Sith will be relying on their destruction and we will be relying on them to succeed." The thought that armour would not do the trick was rushing through Slate's head, the weapon may need something else. Energy shield perhaps? Whatever the options were, Doctor Bal would cover them when he arrived.

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

She nodded in agreement, trusting that this Doctor Bal was as knowledgeable as Estrada claimed.

As they idled in his office, Lasedri felt the silence unbecoming for this sort of business and attempted as best she could to initiate some form of 'small talk'. Of course, not much was on anyone's mind these days except the war with the Sith, and everything just led back to that. What else would they be talking about, anyway? They were meeting for reasons that had everything to do with the war. "I heard you were on the ground at Manaan," she began. "What is the need you see the most of?"

[member="Slate Estrada"]

 

[Slate Estrada]

What did the Repulbic Military need more of? That was a good question. A question Slate thought about often and the Manaan invasion had influenced his decision greatly. "Intelligence. We need intelligence." Many soldiers would of said more firepower or a greater presence in the Galaxy. Those were valid arguments, but Slate believed the answer did not involve the military at all. "Manaan was a surprise attack. Somehow we didn't see it coming, if we did have information on this attack however, I believe it would've ended a lot differently." The soldier announced to his guest.

As he opened his mouth to talk to Gen once again, he was cut off by the door swinging open and Doctor Bal bursting in. "Ahhh Mister Estrada I was wondering where you were, I have the documents on the new railgun designs. I think we are ready to begi-"
"Doctor, we have a guest." Slate interrupted, looking towards Geneviève. Suprised, the Doctor turned and held out his hand to the mysterious woman, he was now red with humiliation. "I'm apologise for that, I didn't see you there!"

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

Intelligence... You can say that again. It was something Geneviève also found the Republic to be most lacking--in one way or another. They played a poor game when it came to innovation, and she wanted to kill that lazy habit and awaken a beast that would smother the Sith like a plastic bag around their smashed-in faces. They neglected their informants and neglected their developers. "I don't know if that bad habit is something we can--"

At that moment, the assumed and assumedly prestigious Doctor Bal arrived, meaning that this thing was probably, actually, truly underway now. She had made it this far, so this was bound to get somewhere. A smirk formed on her face as the scientist acknowledged her with a sort of absent-minded disposition. He had not seen her there--something that was nearly impossible to anyone with good eyes, considering her loud attire at all. But never judge a book by its cover, as has been wisely said on many the occasion. "Good afternoon, Doctor--very glad to meet. I'm Geneviève."

[member="Slate Estrada"]

 

[Slate Estrada]

"Well Geneviève, I must apologise again! My eyesight isn't what it used to be I can tell you that for a fact!" At the age of 62, it was obvious that Bal frequently missed and forgot particular details. But even with his aging senses and mind he was still the best that the Orion Corporation had. "What's the situation, sir?" He would then asked, more relaxed than when he entered the room.

"Well Doctor, Gen here has some designs for a new weapon. Now before you get excited, she only requires help with the protection of said weapon." Slate informed Dr Bal, hoping he would know what they wanted. "Can you do this for us?"

Without saying a word, the doctor looked at the two as a smile stretched across his face. "That depends, what are you looking for? Shielding will not be a problem as have already have some high powered prototype deflector shields in the workshop. Another option is a high conductivity polymer we are developing, it will act like steal to kinetic weapons, but will make traditonal energy weapons as effective as a water pistol." The doctor, still looking at the two, seemed very pleased with himself. Slate was rather curious to see both of these options, however the final decision was up to his guest.

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

Her intrigue escalated by immense measures at the mention of this new polymer. It was the sort of invention she wished her own company could take credit for. "Has this polymer seen the light of day?" she asked, hoping it was ready to go, but, then again, hoping no one else had caught wind of it and were developing such a thing for the wrong side. War was the father of all things, and technology was the noblest son.

"It sounds exactly like something I'd want on this ship." Truly, anyone would probably want to have this material at their disposal if it was the real deal.

[member="Slate Estrada"]

 

[Slate Estrada]

A glum look overcame the Doctor's face as Gen asked this question. "Well actually no. It hasn't. Mostly because we are lacking the resources and funding." Bal then glared at Slate. The reason for this was because Slate had decided to limit the funding for this material as the company could afford to invest all their profits into a product that may not even work, let alone sell. It would've been to risky for the company, and as this was one of Doctor Bal's favourite concepts he took it rather personally.

"Maybe you should explain more about the deflector shields, as they should suit Geneviève's needs just as well." Slate suggested, trying to stray the conversation away from another one of Noldin's rants about how this new polymer was the future.

The couple then turned back to Gen, Slate feeling embarrassed about what had just happened. "Ahh yes, deflector shields!" "The much more boring option." Doctor Bal whispered under his breath. "Well I'm sure you know how these work, the stronger ones require less power and the weaker ones require less power. But for a ship of this size and importance, I'd say you'll be needing a very resilient one."

"If you want we could take you down to the testing facility and show you some in action?" He the offered the guest.

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]