The Founder: Part 1

[Soeht]

When the next day arrived, Daella met with Velkoz in order to move the project to the procurement phase.

“Greetings, My Lord,” said Velkoz, “Did you rest well?”

Daella did not even bother to answer the question. She simple waved her hands to Velkoz as a gesture for him to move on.

“Yes, well,” he began again, “We are going to need a vast amount of materials shipped to Copero for this project.”

Velkoz then pulled out a datapad with some notes. He handed it over to Daella. The Sith Lord quickly read through it in order to get an idea of what would be needed to build the starship.

“Mirkanite,” said Velkoz, “Very valuable. There are heavy amounts produced on Mustafar.”

Then, Velkoz paused. It was clear what he was going to say next.

“I trust you know that Mustafar is in Omega Protectorate territory, yes?” he asked Daella.

 

[Soeht]

“I do,” answered Daella, “Are there no other options we can use?”

“The number of planets containing mirkanite are few and far in between,” replied Velkoz, “Most of them do not have as rich of a supply as Mustafar does.”

Thinking about the dilemma that they faced, Daella took several seconds to brainstorm viable options for them in order to obtain this Mirkanite. She understood that the Omega Protectorate was insistent on fighting against the One Sith. Yet, she noticed that they began a war against the Confederate system as she intended them to do.

That would mean that their Mirkanite reserves would be heavily regulated. Chances were, the One Sith would have to go through very covert means of acquiring the sizable amount that they would need for the superweapon.

Just covering her bases, Daella said, “And you have checked whether or not we can mine the few worlds within our reach?”

 

[Soeht]

“The capital investment of starting the mining projects would be greater than what we believe would be the price of smuggling the Mirkanite to us,” claimed Velkoz.

It was a simple answer. Logical. Daella agreed with it. She began to think of other advantages that this move would have. For one, it was likely that the only ones with mining rights to the Mirkanite were Omega Protectorate sponsored corporations. This meant that it was unlikely to acquire the metal at a cheap price. It also meant that there would be an influx of income for the Omega Protectorate as the project went on.

Yet with the Protectorate currently trying to fight a war against the Confederacy, this would mean a boon to the One Sith. So long as the Protectorate had the ability to distract themselves in a perpetual war with the Confederacy, they would be less likely to assist the Republic.

 

[Soeht]

“Do you have an idea of who we may turn to in order to get Mustafar’s Mirkanite?” asked Velkoz.

In silence, Daella continued to think about what she could do in order to acquire the much needed materials of the project. Eventually, one entity came into mind.

“South Systems Business Bazaar,” muttered Daella.

Velkoz perked a brow at the mention of the company. He understood that it was fairly amoral when it came to dealing with clients. So long at their client could reliably pay for their services, they were usually able to obliged.

“I think that could be done,” said Velkoz, “Yet I’m certain that the Protectorate would find us out if we just asked the Bazaar for Mirkanite.”

“Have several holding companies get started in unaffiliated space,” said Daella, “We’ll have those be the official buyers and we will route the shipment through several more before it disappears in our territory.”

 

[Soeht]

“I imagine that will take some time before the Protectorate realizes what happens,” said Velkoz, “Though I’m certain that once they do find out, the Bazaar will be banned from trading within their territory - and the Bazaar will be unwilling to do any further business with us.”

“Such is a conclusion stemmed from emotions,” replied Daella, “If they refused to do further business from us, then it’d be the loss of two clients. If they continued to deal with us even if the Protectorate finds out, then they would only lose one.”

“I’ve found other humanoids to be a lot more emotional in their thinking,” claimed Velkoz, “I don’t think it will be as simple as you say.”

Daella did not respond to that suggestion. She was quite aware that many people, even those in charge of the major nations of the galaxy, followed what their heart said rather than their mind.

 

[Soeht]

“I’ll have the holding companies established, My Lord,” said Velkoz, “I trust you know how to get in contact with the Bazaar?”

“Yes,” replied Daella, “I’ll be sure to get in touch. Send word for me as soon as you complete the establishment of the holding companies.”

And with that, Daella left Copero. She made her way to Csilla, where they had more advanced communication equipment that what she would find on Copero. She made her way to a One Sith comm station. Once there, Daella met with those in charge of the facility. She made it clear to them that she wanted the message that she was about to send to be as secure as possible. She did not want any unauthorized access to it.

The crew obliged and got to work in preparing to send the message. The recipient was selected from a list of vendors that Daella knew were affiliated with the Bazaar.

[member="Alisha'ven"].

 

[Soeht]

Once they were ready, the crew attempted to establish communications with Alisha. The message took several seconds before it made its way around a communication relay obstacle course. This was the best way in order to make the sender as anonymous as possible.

Eventually, the message reached Alisha. A hologram of a hooded Daella appeared before the Twi’lek.

Bowing to Alisha, Daella said, “Hello Alisha’ven, my name is Diana Vu Noi.”

Daella decided to use a fake name in order to further obscure the true identity of the sender.

Alisha replied with surprise to Daella. She inquired about the type of business that they would bring.

“We require Mirkanite for a project,” replied Daella

Alisha, well versed in highly sought for goods that the Bazaar traded, understood the likely purpose of the request. She would also know that this mean “Diana” had the backing of a powerful government.

 

[Soeht]

Curious though, Alisha did ask for what the project was for.

Responding with as much grace as she could, Daella said, “Unfortunately, I do not have the authority to divulge such information.”

Wondering if there was any merit to the request, Alisha asked for any sign that a contract for the Bazaar to get Mirkanite would be paid for.

Daella assured Alisha by saying, “You will receive word from my sponsoring company soon. At that point, you should know that the Bazaar will be compensated for its time and effort. I merely wanted to give you foreknowledge of our impending request for a quote.”

While the suspicious potential buyer did give Alisha a bad feeling, she understood that if the credentials she were shown were somewhat legitimate that it was likely that they would be paid. However, she did tell Daella that a down payment would be necessary.

 

[Soeht]

Daella replied to Alisha by saying, “A down payment is understandable and acceptable. We will make sure that it gets to the Bazaar before we expect any work.”

With that, Alisha knew that it was likely that there would not be a big loss for the Bazaar should the deal fall through. It would mean making up for it with the next order that came to her would be easier.

“If you understand what we are looking for, I believe our business is finished for now,” said Daella.

Alisha agreed.

“I will be contacting you again soon with our request for a quote,” said Daella.

Then, the communication ended. Daella thanked the crew on Csilla for their help and departed. She took out a comm device and attempted to contact Velkoz. Over a day had passed since they last met and he said that he would be establishing those holding companies.

 

[Soeht]

“My Lord,” answered Velkoz as he responded to the call, “Do you have any news from the Bazaar?”

“A deal will be possible,” said Daella, “While the Bazaar does not have mining rights, they would be able to buy the Mirkanite and sell it back to us after they mark it up for a profit. Standard vendor procedure.”

“That is reassuring,” claimed Velkoz, “And also, we have successfully established several holding companies for the purpose of buying the Mirkanite. They have enough capital for now in order to make the transaction and support the shipment of it.”

“Excellent,” said Daella, “Where is the headquarters?”

“Esfandia,” replied Velkoz, “We have just a warehouse there that will receive the shipments. You can use the communication systems on Csilla to route a message through that warehouse to the Bazaar to make it appear that you are calling from there.”

 

[Soeht]

“Then I will stay on Csilla for now,” said Daella, “Until we’ve secured the Mirkanite shipments.”

After saying that, Daella ended her call with Velkoz. She decided to stay on Csilla and wait for a whole day. This would allow for Alisha to gather some preliminary estimates on buying the Mirkanite.

When the next day arrived, Daella returned to the comm station that she originally used to call Alisha. She informed them of how she wanted the call to be routed this time - with it appearing to be from Esfandia. The crew happily obliged her once again and quickly prepared everything.

Once ready, they allowed Daella to make another call to Alisha. Again, she appeared as a hologram in front of the Twi’lek. Just as before, Daella gave a very respectful bow to Alisha.

“I am glad we could talk again,” said Daella, “We are ready to ask for a quote.”

 

[Soeht]

Alisha greeted Daella once again. She asked for the details of the quote. Via the subspace link, Daella sent the quantity of Mirkanite that the One Sith required. Alisha was surprised to see such a high amount and wondered what its true purpose really could be.

“This much Mirkanite must be shipped to our warehouses on Esfandia,” said Daella, “It must all be in good condition and meet our quality standard.”

Alisha was smart enough to know that this was likely just a holding company. Yet, she told Daella that she understood the request and would be sure to get a price on the shipment. Their conversation ended.

In the following few days, Alisha researched extensively on the exportation laws dealing with Mirkanite and the Protectorate. As she suspected, they had no way to mine the ore itself. This meant that the cost for the One Sith would be considerably high.

Yet, it was no impossible to acquire it.

 

[Sheff Zee]

With the power that he was granted by the Force, he had taken Tantorian Industries from his father. He had quite literally stripped it from his hands in the form of a datapad. Although that had happened quite a while ago. Now, he was busy preparing things for the One Sith, mass-produced weapons and ships.

His company worked on droid manufacturing as well, but he had yet to introduce a mining droid for the new joint mining operations of Tantorian and Titan Industries. Malphas planned to get on that immediately, but there was an important matter that he had to attend to in the construction yards.

Grinding his teeth upon each other, the Vonduun Skerr Draxus clad Sith Knight walked out of his private office and waso n his way.

 

[Soeht]

Alisha noticed that Blas-Tech had the ability to purchase Mirkanite from Mustafar. To the savvy vendor, she understood this as a sign that it was possible for the Bazaar to either acquire a license or to piggy-back on Blas-Tech in order to acquire the huge amount of Mirkanite.

To that end, Alisha began to get in contact with the people she knew in the shipping and logistics industry. She inquired about which ones had the legal ability to ship Mirkanite out of the Protectorate. She also looked into any companies that simply stocked Mirkanite and just resold it.

While the sale of Mirkanite was a niche market, there were many different types of companies that were heavily involved with it. This meant that Alisha had tons of avenues to buy the Mirkanite and export it out of Protectorate territory. She made a few calls and eventually found the most economical way to get the Mirakanite simply due to the vast amount of options that they had.

 

[Sheff Zee]

There were quite a few people in the hallways. Now that Darth Acarus was the owner of Tantorian Industries he had made sure to increase the security of the shipyards. After being apart of the raid for an important Sith Artifact on Ossus, he realized that he didn't want a similar thing to happen to his own organization, and so there it was.

He was nearly at the construction yards when he received a message on his comlink.

Immediately turning it on he looked at the figure that rose up from the holotransmission function. It had been sent quite a while ago, nearly ten minutes ago. He recognized the figure as one of the captain's of his transport ships. The ones that transported the natural resources of Tantorus to Coruscant and throughout the One Sith's Empire.

 

[Soeht]

On the next day, Alisha contacted the Esfandia warehouse and gave details on her quote. She changed the procedure of payment, though. Because of the highly sensitive operation that the Bazaar would have to pull in order to make sure that the Protectorate did not catch wind of the shipment, Alisha requested a full payment up front.

Daella eventually got the quote and looked over it. She was satisfied with the research that Alisha had done and would likely return to the Bazaar for future business should everything worked out. She saw that Alisha requested payment up front and was not surprised by such a request. The Bazaar was simply looking out for a profit, so it was understandable that they would cover their bases when dealing with such a highly secretive client.

Returning a message to Alisha, Daella told her, “We accept the terms of your contract and look forward to your business.”

 

[Sheff Zee]

"My Lord! We're under attack by an unidentified fleet! They've destroyed our escorts and are intercepting us on our escape vec-"

The message cut out before it could be finished and Acarus was already picking up his comlink again. He was contacting Captain Anthony Norduin, a friend and the man who commanded his flagship, King Adas.

"Captain Norduin, prep the taskforce, we're heading off."

"Don't you have unfinished busin-"

"Now."

Then he ran.

 

[Sheff Zee]

The force pushed him to greater speeds as he passed through the halls and leapt over a hovercraft that was transporting sheets of durasteel to the construction yards.

He was heading for the hangar bay.

Once he had gotten into the hangar bay, his eyes found the location of where he had left his ship and the ramp was open. His pilot was within, and when he started to pound up the ramp it began to close behind him. "Bring me to King Adas. Now."

He didn't listen to what was probably the confirmation of the order.

 

[Sheff Zee]

The shuttle landed in the hangar bay on the Adas, and the ramp was down before the ship had even had time to completely land on the hangar's floor.

In a moment he was in the turbolift that would bring him up to the bridge's level and once it opened he was running through the hallways again. Those that he rain past threw up their hands in a crisp salute but he paid them no heed. The most acknowledgement he gave them was a passing "At. Ease." And then he was gone.

There was no time to waste.

 

[Soeht]

With that, their business was complete. The Bazaar would handle things on their end to acquire the Mirkanite and send it to the warehouse on Esfandia. For now, Daella had to attent to other business.

As she left the communications building, Daella received a call from Velkoz. She answered it and saw a panicked look on the Chiss’s face.

“The focusing lens,” began Velkoz, “It’s missing.”

Daella’s eyes widened in shock. Her jaw tensed as the anger within her began to build.

“We believe it has been confiscated while in route,” claimed Velkoz, “Someone heard of the shipment and sought to stop us. We have an idea of where to go for information but, please My Lord, we need you to get it back.”

“We will discuss your failure after I return with the focusing lens,” said Daella as Velkoz sent the information he had gathered about to theft to her datapad.