The Right Tools for the Job (Rusty)

[Noah Corek]

[member="Rusty"]

Fondor
Prex Tower
Office of Colonel Noah Corek

Noah had been searching for weeks for weapons that could be utilized by the GA SOF that he was assembling to help the GA better combat the threats that faced them in a ever changing galaxy. Originally Noah figured getting his own company Hekler'Kok Defense Industries to supply some of their existing designs but then thought against it. He then thought he could design them himself but he shot that down on the fact that he wasn't the best for this job.

So that was why he was currently scrolling through the holonet to find companies that could fill out a order for a entire series of weapons the SOF could use. While he was looking he stumbled onto a company that had been getting a lot of attention for its excellent craftmanship. Rusty's Custom Firearms and Cutlery. Looking at the weapons that the company had produced Noah smiled and nodded and began to type a message to Rusty on what he needed and how many of them he needed.

 

[Rusty]

The message alert dinged on Rusty's datapad. Exactly where he was, he didn't know. Hyperspace, probably. Or had they reverted? Who knew?

He had been on the move for the better part of a month, going from expo to expo, meeting with movers and shakers and investors, trying to find backing for RCFC. The company was doing extraordinarily well, but it needed a push to make it to the next level. It was not unlike a climb up a steep mountain. Reaching certain levels wasn't hard, but the higher you went, the more resources were required simply to survive, much less thrive. Hence the whirlwind tour through the galaxy.

Naturally, when the message came through, he checked it immediately. Might it be an investor?

No, something better. This looked like a contract.

Rusty looked at the requirements of the contract, scrawled down a rough proposal, and sent it back, along with his bid for the contract. As was his usual, the prices were reasonable. Hell, by military procurement standards, it was practically a steal for the GA. Hopefully, that would be enough to secure the contract.

[member="Noah Corek"]

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="Rusty"]

Noah had been taking a drink from a glass of water on his desk when Rusty's message and offer came through. Needless to say Noah almost did a spit-take when he saw the offer. That was not what he was expecting.

"Corporal Amedis!" Noah called for his administrative aide. In came a short human brunette female wearing the digitized grey and black fatigues of the Omega Pyre with a Corporal insignia on it. "Yes Colonel?" She asked. "Prepare a landing pad for a ship to land in the shipyards. There is a very important person arriving that I need to talk to." Noah informed her and pulled on his dual shoulder holsters with his custom M9-T11's in them. "I will make sure the VIP landing pad is ready Colonel." Noah nodded at this and walked to the elevator. "Corporal also contact Master Sergeant Michaels and Sergeant First Class Foret to meet me there in their combat gear and 5.56 Shadow Carbines." Noah informed her as he stepped in the elevator, sent a return message to Rusty to meet him on Fondor and the coordinates for the landing pad and hit the button for the bottom floor.

 

[Rusty]

A few hours later, Rusty's ship touched down on the landing pad. It wasn't anything special, just a standard freighter that had been retrofitted for comfortable travel. Granted, any pirates that tried to jump it would discover it had all sorts of nasty surprises, but that wasn't relevant.

Rusty strode down the ramp, stretching the kinks out of his artificial muscles. He was in his HRD chassis today, wearing a comfortable business suit that, although not cheap, did nothing to lessen the impression that he was a bipedal ox stuffed into business attire. He was tall, broad, built like a casting director's idea of a bodybuilder. His frames was layered with layer upon layer of thick muscle that stopped well short of being grotesque, landing instead inside the realm of what Koko, his assistant, delicately dubbed "meat candy." To avoid a string of lawsuits that might result from people breaking their necks whipping their heads around for a double take, the Shard stuck with cheap, comfortable suits rather than bespoke fitted ones. Instead of looking like a movie star, he looked like a poorly paid extra, Thug Number 2, if you will.

An assistant, a military type wearing a unit patch he didn't recognize, led him to a conference room, where he assumed he would meet the client. The Shard put on his best smile, flashing a positively blinding expanse of pearly white teeth that had been built into the HRD to be as charming as possible. Rusty loathed that smile, but it was useful.

"How's it going," he asked cheerfully. "I'm told you're looking for some weapons."

[member="Noah Corek"]

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="Rusty"]

Noah smiled as Rusty was ushered into the room by Corporal Amedis, who promptly left after a dismissing wave from Noah. Noah stood and looked at the man in front of him. Though man was a very loose definition for him, about two meters tall and probably around two hundred kilograms. What would surprise Rusty was when Noah stood to shake his hand was that he was nearly as tall as him standing at one point ninety-eight meters tall, coming in only a couple centimeters shorter than him.

"Yes Mr.Rusty your company definetly caught my eye. Though I have to say you do have a rather uh interesting name to be honest. Oh and don't mind my companions their more insurance for me than against you." Noah smiled as he talked to the man.

OOC: Sorry for the short post I just need to get some sleep.

 

[Rusty]

Rusty returned the handshake.

"Well, that's because I'm a Shard. We don't go much for family names. This body-" he thumped himself on the chest "is just an HRD. My assistant reckons it's better for business negotiations than a great hulking war droid chassis. And I'm not offended by the guards. Most of my clients prefer to meet with guards present."

In the Shard's left hand was a datapad. He was carrying it instead of keeping it in a pocket because he didn't feel like giving the guards a hernia. A well trained guard would know better to shoot, but there was always an element of pucker factor when an unknown pulled something out of their pocket in front of the boss.

"I've taken the liberty of refining the designs in the proposal. The blueprints are drafted up, and I can get the factories working just as soon as the ink is dry on the contract. So long as you've got buying authority with the Galactic Alliance, we'll begin building as soon as the funds hit the account. First prototype batch can be off the assembly line as early as tomorrow morning, and we can begin testing and quality control right after. We can have your first shipment of ready to go weapons here by the end of next week."

[member="Noah Corek"]

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="Rusty"]

Noah tensed a bit when he mentioned he was a Shard with Gideon and Ilona doing the same with their fingers going from resting along the side of their carbines to slowly moving to the trigger. "A Shard? Haven't encountered one of you in a while, ten years if I'm not mistaken. Not since me, Gideon and Ilona were commandos. It wasn't exactly safe meeting for that matter, it took a few magazines of tungsten carbide rounds to take him down for good. It was regrettable, Shard's are a rare species after Palpatine's attempted purge of them." Noah said with a bit of regret.

Taking the offered datapad Noah looked over the designs and nodded his head at the designs. A bullpup carbine chambered in 6.5mm for extra stopping power, a rifle chambered in a subsonic round with similar ballistics to 7.62mm rounds, a sniper /designated marksman rifle with rounds a bit larger than 7.62mm rounds but with ballistics similar to a 12.7mm rounds and the last design was a pistol of angular proportions that came in various different sizes and calibers depending on the users preferences.

Noah handed the datapad off to Gideon who looked it over before handing off to Ilona. "I'l admit these designs will be very effective once they are produced and see combat. There is one weapon that was left of the list on the contract though. A man portable anti-armor weapon light enough to be carried and fired by a single person and yet with enough penetrating power to stop anything short of a heavy tank."

 

[Rusty]

"As a matter of fact," Rusty said, producing another datapad as if by magic, "we just finished prototyping just such a weapon. With a little luck, it should be ready for production about the same time as the other weapons."

He pulled up the specs, seemingly oblivious to the reactions of the soldiers in the room. He was used to it by now.

"80mm recoilless rifle, fires a wide variety of ammunition and is effective out to 1500 meters, depending on the ammo used. It'll take some training to get your troops proficient, but what else is new?"

The plans were transferred to the other datapad in an instant.

"I feel it's also worth mentioning that all of our weapons come fully warrantied. We don't cover damage caused by operator stupidity, but just about anything else is covered. Just fill out the form detailing what went wrong, and we'll send you a replacement. All we ask is you send us back the defective unit so we can analyze it and see what we can do to prevent future malfunctions."

The warranty forms were on the datapad Rusty had given Noah. They were remarkably simple, exactly the opposite of most documents of that nature. RCFC didn't try to intimidate clients into not bothering by loading them down with red tape. They instead opted to make the customer experience as positive as possible, and if that meant eating the cost of a weapon every now and again, so be it. Happy customers tended to be repeat customers.

[member="Noah Corek"]

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="Rusty"]

Noah nodded looking over the specs for the recoilless rifle that Rusty had pulled up on this new datapad. "Yes, yes this will be a great weapon for anti-armor warfare." Noah informed Rusty while nodding his head and in turn gave the datapad to Gideon and Ilona to review the recoilless rifle as well and took the datapad back from them to review the warranty as well.

When he was finished reading the warranty and remembered a few moments before about how that he would need authority from the GA to solidify the contract. "Well for all intents and purpose I do have the buying authority for the GA and a budget on weaponry but my weaponry budget is half of what your contract is worth. The other half will be used from my own personal funds."

Turning around Noah and looked at Gideon and Ilona. "So what do you think? Are they good?" Noah asked, the opinion of his two closest friends more than anybody. "Well." Gideon spoke first. "It's definetly better than anything the Republic ever sprung for in our commando days for them." Gideon said in his Imperial accent with a snort coming out when he mentioned the Republic. "Please! Anything could be better than the what the Republic gave us. Sub-standard armor, basic infantry weapons that we had to repurpose ourselves, barely any stealth tech and even then when we did get custom gear we had to produce it ourselves." She informed them with her thick accent, akin to that of Russian.

Nodding Noah turned and looked at Rusty. "Well if my two most trusted advisors think your designs are good then so do I."

 

[Rusty]

Rusty practically beamed. That was high praise coming from a pair of soldiers. The average soldier was used to dealing with subpar equipment made by the lowest bidder. Governments had a tendency to buy gear and weapons as cheaply as possible, and still ended up overpaying.

"Well, if your weapons budget can't cover it, I'll make you a deal," he said, adding a few lines to the standard contract to cover the terms he was about to propose. "For now, we'll use your budget to cover the cost of the weapons. I don't want you paying a credit out of your own pocket if we can help it. I'm sure your troops would appreciate the sacrifice, but I'm used to working around budgetary constraints. Take what you can out of your budget, and if you're happy with the gear, we'll collect the second half of the payment next fiscal year, when your budget should renew. If you're happy with the weapons and they produce results, you could probably get the budget increased. You won't have to spend any of your own money, and if the GA bean counters see that I'm easy to work with, I get a shot at more contracts in the future. It's a win/win for the both of us."

Once the modifications to the payment section were made, he beamed the contract over to Noah. Rusty's signature was already there, it just required Noah's to make it official. Much like the rest of RCFC's paperwork, the contract was written plainly, with the bare minimum of legalese. The Shard hated lawyers with a passion, and he made damned sure that his business could be run without them as much as possible.

[member="Noah Corek"]

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="Rusty"]

Noah chuckled when Rusty gave him the details of paying half for the full order now and the rest once his budget was renewed and/or expanded, though he expected once his soldiers got their hands on them and once they used them that they spread the praise of the weapons just like Noah, Gideon and Ilona were right now and that once those praise got out to the standard infantry units and the brass they'd want to get weapons from the same place they got them from.

"I'll take that deal Rusty. With a deal like this I'll make sure to spread the word to my standard infantry counterparts of these great weapons, with luck you'll get a contract from the Alliance government proper for a MUCH larger contract worth substanially more credits than what this contract is worth. Though I'll be honest with you Rusty you lowballed the entire industry. Companies like Blastech or Sorro-Subb would have offered ten times as much. Hell even my company would have offered more and we're known for our deals for cheap weaponry." Noah informed him as he read the contract, pretty straightforward as it was, and signed it.

 

[Rusty]

The Shard chuckled.

"Well, a lot of your savings come because I do most of the R&D myself on contracts like this. Companies like Blastech have huge R&D teams that take months to decide on the length of a barrel. I came up with those myself on the flight over. I've been making weapons for a few centuries now, so I don't have to agonize over every little detail. I know what works, and I can throw together workable blueprints in a few hours. Saves a literal fortune in man hours and prototyping costs. There's another secret, though, one that people hate me for."

Rusty leaned forward, and dropped his voice to a conspiratorial whisper.

"I'm not out to screw anybody over."

He laughed, and continued in a normal tone.

"Seriously though, milking contracts for every spare credit has been standard practice for so long that it's considered normal. It costs what, two, maybe three hundred credits to build a rifle? Maybe more if you splurge on materials, but rarely more than 500. The average markup on the consumer market is between 50-150%. The average markup for military buys is closer to 500-600%. Even taking into account development costs, I can charge a 30% markup and still make a profit. I might not make as much, but I'll do more business that way."

[member="Noah Corek"]

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="Rusty"]

Noah nodded his head at Rusty's explanation for the lowballing of his bid and smiled. "Yes. Unfortunately a lot of companies tend to do that and BlasTech is notorious for it as well. For my company, Hekler'Kok I try and keep R&D teams as small as possible and give them a set deadline of usually only a week or two that is non-negotiable to keep costs down." Noah informed him and chuckled when he leaned forward and whispered what he did. "Yes you'll find many companies do that."

"My company was founded to be the same as BlasTech or Sorro-Subb but after I got it I gutted it except for the factories. Afterwards I hired some designers I knew were of the same mindset of yourself. Once that was complete we started to make weapons, armor and vehicles that are cheap and yet effective that we could sell in bulk to unprotected planets and their militias. Now more than ever we've been getting requests and orders for weapons, armor and vehicles having been pouring in. To the east planets threatened by the Sith Triumvirate and the Zenithian Empire. To the west planets threatened by the First Order. To the north-west there's of course the planets threatened by the One Sith. Even planets to the far north who wish to stay independent from the Republic, United Mandalorian Clans and the Mandalorian Empire." Sighing Noah took a tumbler that was on the table and poured some Corellian Whiskey in it and drank it.

 

[Rusty]

The Shard nodded sagely.

"It's definitely an arms trader's galaxy, these days. Peace and goodwill towards men might make the galaxy a better place, but we'd all be out of jobs if everyone got along. Still, it's nice to see guns going in the right hands for once."

Rusty had no idea whether or not the Galactic Alliance counted as the right hands, to be honest, but they had a reputation for being decent and fighting the Sith. That was about all one could really ask of a galactic level faction these days.

"Well, if you'll excuse me, I've got to go ahead and get these weapons in production. It's going to be a busy week, but I think we'll both be better off for it."

He offered his hand once again, and nodded to the other soldiers in the room.

"Gentlemen, it's been a pleasure doing business with you."

[member="Noah Corek"]

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="Rusty"]

Noah snorted when he mentioned that if everyone was nice and civil to each that they'd be out of a job. "I'd be a out of a job in more ways than one. Been a soldier for almost half my life, if all the sudden wars were abolished and everyone laid their weapons down I'd be outta two jobs."

Noah chuckled when Rusty said that it was gonna be a busy week getting all these weapons sorted out and manufactured. "Yeah I know how that can be. I'm gonna have a few more busy months with all the things I'm gonna have to do."

When he was offered a hand to shake Noah shook it and smiled gratefully. "The pleasure was all mine Rusty. I do hope we can get together some other time as well. Maybe even has HK and RCFC collaborate on a project. I've been trying to get a design for pulse powered slugthrowers going but it's been slow going."