The Ultimate Holonews Reports

[Kay-Larr]

((OOC: Congrats! You are my 2000th post!!!))


It took some time of sorting through various bits of info gathered from different sources for Kay to figure that she's possibly found what she was looking for. And although she might be jumping the gun a bit, she needed his help. Can she call it a him? [member="Ultimatum"] surely resembled a man in form, but he wasn't alive. At least not in the same way that organics were. Still, he was a genius in his own way.

The modified corvette that Kay hired exited hyperspace just outside of Mustafar's orbit. More than likely she shouldn't of come herself, but she preferred face to face meetings. It was a better way to get a gage on someone.

After staring at the planet through the viewscreen for a little while, she opened up a channel and sent a message out. "Greetings. I am seeking an audience with the one called Ultimatum. My name is Kay." She left the Senator and Lady titles out of it for the time being. "Do I have permission to land?"

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum was working on orders for the shipyard in orbit. They had finished a large part for the new space station to be built above the planet, however they had run out of durasteel. He had gone back through the previous five months' logs and found that somewhere along the line the station's requisition of more of the metal had been buried under other issues that had arisen at the time. Now he had to order an almost immediate run to the shipyard with extra metal to make up for the time without work. This meant that extra money and resources had to be spent to expedite the work, this would benefit the local businesses, whose money would then return to him. It was not the transactions that angered or disturbed Ultimatum, it was the fact that something in such a high priority had been forgotten. It would need to be rectified as swiftly as possible.

However, fate did not shine on him this day, he had a message transmitted to him from the spaceport official. The man apparently wanted to know if there was anything special that he should do for a person who had sent a message down. Ultimatum had the message in a moment and ordered that the ship be treated exactly like every other one that came into the system.

Mustafar, by Ultimatum's decision, was an open planet to travelers, just about anyone could come to the planet and land. It was how they conducted themselves on planet that decided if they would be able to stay. Thus the ship was given leave to land, a set of coordinates for the landing pad, and a suggested flight path for ease and to avoid the shipyard which was beginning to cover that portion of space.

Ultimatum in the meantime, put the order on hold and sent for the hovercar to be brought around. It was likely that the two different people would arrive at the space station at about the same time, however that was dependent on how quickly the person above decided to move to the surface, some asked for permission and then waited a few hours for reasons that Ultimatum had never understood.

[member="Lady Kay"]

(OOC: Yay! Congratulations yourself!)

 

[Kay-Larr]

"Co-ordinates and flight path received. Thank you." She nodded to her pilot, giving him permission to follow the instructions given. There was no reason to delay. Kay wasn't the type to sit around and wait. There was always plenty of things that needed to be done.

Once the corvette had docked, she exited down the ramp with her satchel over her shoulder. She carried no weapons on her, for she felt or hoped that she wouldn't need them. Hopefully her instincts were right.

Sure enough, the two of them arrived at the same time. Kay bowed her head to [member="Ultimatum"] being of the sort to always be respectful, even if he wasn't a living creature. Ultimatum was still by all counts, a sentient being. That is if rumours were true.

"Thank you for seeing me. May we go somewhere private to chat?" It wasn't as though she was going to make her request out in the open.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum nodded as he stated, "Of course." He turned and walked inside the spaceport. He led the way to a questioning room, as the name implied it was intended for the questioning of people coming on planet, for security reasons only of course. The advantage in this case was that it had no camera's or listening devices. He assumed that this would not be an overly long conversation, so he didn't believe that it would require a drive to Progenitor Facility, which was far more secure, but it paid for that with its distance.
"This is a pretty good place for private talks, unless you would prefer something a bit more isolated." He meant it as a question, without actually asking.

The room was painted a dull grey, with a metal table, wood was too expensive, and two slightly padded metal chairs. The temperature was kept cooler than the rest of the building, so that questioning could be held in relative comfort instead of the oppressive heat. Ultimatum had made the standards for the room, wanting to avoid the all too well known idea of the questioning room being a dark place.

[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

She followed [member="Ultimatum"] inside the questioning room. After looking around for a moment, she felt satisfied that it would suffice. So Kay sat down in one of the chairs and folded her hands on top of the table. Her satchel hung beside her.

"I've heard rumours that you are very well versed in the holonet. Have you ever...created false stories using old archives?" She felt as though it was an odd question, but surely not unheard of by a politician.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum, not originally programmed with a politicians mind, was slightly taken aback at this question. It was something he had not expected, rarely had any organic shown interest in his abilities, normally taking for granted the fact that he was a droid plain and simple. He processed for a moment. Theoretically he could do that with ease, in fact it was likely that he could, with the right security clearance, create funds for anything and everything. Of course he had done neither.

"It is most likely that I can, though that would depend on what one wants the story to be. Why do you ask?" He took a seat as he spoke, wondering what this was about. Did she want to see how far his abilities could go? Did she have some plan for him? He had never even met or heard of this lady before. He didn't read much of what was going on in the greater galaxy, instead focusing his efforts on the immediate surroundings and attempting to get control of them.

[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

Did he seem to express shock? Well, she shouldn't be too surprised. She'd probably feel the same way if their roles were reversed. Kay slowly twiddled her thumbs as he spoke, a bit of a nervous reaction. It wasn't [member="Ultimatum"] that she was nervous about, so much as it was the situation that brought her here. There was so much that she had to do, some of it involved covering her tracks, and this was just a small part of it.

"I own a..company of sorts. Though none of it is in my name but their own. If I gave you some pre-made footage of them so that you could intermingle it with archived footage, then I'm sure that you could release a fairly good narrative and give this company a bit of a bad boy slaver reputation. I just want to help to further separate them from any connection to me." Hopefully that was enough detail to keep him interested.

 

[Ultimatum]

She was correct, it did have him interested. What could be so good or bad that one would want to distance their name from its? In the end it was not his place to ask, so he nodded. "Child's play. If you would like I could probably put information in historical documents to make it an older organization." Simple footage and what not editing, easy. Vocal replication and manipulation, easy. Base historical document additions, easy. So far so good. So long as the systems he would have to work through did not become overly secure he could handle almost anything.

[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

She thought about it for a moment and then shook her head. "I don't think that it needs to be older than about ten years." Kay brought out her datapad from her satchel and turned it on, tapping into the appropriate file pertaining her company and the 'actors' that run it. (( http://starwarsrp.net/topic/68110-shell-companyhelp-requested/?fromsearch=1 )) She slid the datapad over to [member="Ultimatum"] to look over.

"If all goes well with that one, then I might have a bigger request. It could still be childsplay to one as skilled as yourself, but I think that I'll probably need to get it done." The Republic of which she serves was having her under investigation. She didn't know who was going to be tasked with the investigation, so she had to try to keep her slate as clean as possible.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum read it, he realized now why this person was here. This was subject matter and a company that was questionable to say the least, almost any searches into this would cause problems. From either view it was probably something to hide, but he wondered then who she was that she wanted to hide it. It wasn't hid concern of course, but the information he would have to put in would have to be interesting to say the least and his interest was piqued as to the person he was dealing with.

"Not bad. What sort of information would you like added to them?"

[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

"Nothing too special. I'd like them to have the reputation of being ruthless trackers and hunters that work for persons unknown. Keep that part shady so that there is enough information to keep others guessing."

She leaned back in the chair, folding her hands on top of it. "Do you think that you can manage? And how much would this all cost?" Kay hoped that she'd have enough for both this task and the other one that she had in mind.

[member="Ultimatum"]

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum nodded as he prepared a response. When he was asked how much it would cost. He hadn't truly thought of that. He was still getting used to dealing with people in this regard. Few organics came to him for services beyond simply collecting things from the planet. He knew that such changes were normally something considered black market level of legality. He also knew that such things were normally quite expensive, out of necessity of the danger to the person making the adjustments.

Of course, Ultimatum could accomplish this with little to no trouble. Thus there was no danger to him. He could therefore make either a larger profit or better yet lower the price. He had no need for credits, they were a monetary system created by an organic's need to value what they see around them. The bits and pieces of metal were nothing more than that, except for the fact that organics generally accepted this as payment, but if that system were to collapse... oh what trouble the organics would be in. That was something to look into, the damage of economic failure. There had certainly been similar things in history, but nothing so bad as to cripple the entire civilization.

He waited a moment, allowing tension, which he could not feel, to build. At last he responded, "Considering the triviality of the job. You pick the price, I am not concerned with money. Keep it all if you wish." He smiled as he spoke, making his face take on a sign of sincerity, to show that he intended no falsehood. The least that could come of this would be knowing of a new person, someone of power that he would learn more of. He hoped to have a short time to chat with this person, perhaps learn a little more about her before she flew off to wherever it was she wanted to be.

While he thought of that he had his HoloNet programming bring up the information on the group and began preparing for the operation that would take place. The convenient thing was that he would be able to accomplish the task more than likely in the comfort of almost anywhere that had HoloNet access. It would be a delicate procedure, had to be done without setting off alarms, or if that did occur it would have to point in the wrong direction of the manipulation. It would be an interesting challenge, it would also prove his abilities in a literal sense rather than it all being theoretical.

[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

She raised a brow as he didn't want any credits in return. Surely he wanted something. Kay kept the datapad out in case [member="Ultimatum"] needed it for a while longer. "Well if not credits, then what would you like in return? If that is too simple of a task for you, then I could present you with something that would be more of a challenge." She wasn't used to having anything done for free as she didn't want to seem as though she was taking advantage of him.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum replied calmly, "If you have a task of importance then I would be glad to work through it. As for payment, I would like to know more about you. I find it interesting that you as a complete stranger would come to Mustafar for help from a person you do not know."

He looked intently, wondering if perhaps the organic had some ulterior motive for coming to him for assistance. It wouldn't have struck him as odd, after all organics in their heart were nothing more than greedy beings looking out for themselves. He didn't know this one, he couldn't be certain she wasn't after something of his. Perhaps his programming capabilities? Possibly. Control of the planet? Maybe.

He didn't trust any organics completely, much less those that he did not know, yet knew of him surprisingly well.

[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay unfolded her hands, only to fold them again. A bit of an uncomfortable gesture perhaps, but she was not at all comfortable with what could happen in her future. There was so much that she could tell him about herself. Where to start was a tough one.

"I help others, most of them strangers. It's how I make my allies and friends. But I've also made enemies. You see, [member="Ultimatum"] , I am not a fan of slavery and oppression. Just do a search on me and you'll be bound to find numerous files and reports on my actions against the Cartel. I have freed hundreds of their slaves and continue to do so. They have tried to stop me with little luck and now...now even the Republic that I work for are going to investigate my actions. I am not a bad person, nor have I killed anyone on purpose, but there are other things that I have done to free slaves that could be deemed illegal under the new laws. If in your search of the holonet that you find any security holovids or anything out there of me with members of the One Sith, please have them deleted. I can't very well save lives if I am in prison or executed." Hopefully it wouldn't come down to that.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum nodded as he mulled that over. He didn't agree with slavery, for many reasons. He didn't care if the methods were illegal, there were no true rules other than those that one made for one's self. The end result was that people would come together who agreed on the majority of the rules, all major galactic players were this way. He often wondered why some organics thought the way they did, but then he would remind himself that often it was circumstances that created the organic's mind.

"I will make it so. I am sure that the Sith would love to take advantage of such film, should it exist. Is there any other way I may help?" He set up small reminders for every two hours to get the work done. He expected this sort of job to take a day or to of focused work, especially the hunting down of possible videos.

[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

She furrowed her brows a bit. [member="Ultimatum"] was being so helpful and was asking for virtually nothing in return. Of course she would probably act in the same way if she was him, so in that way they were similar.

"It's not just the Sith that would use that footage against me, but the Cartel as well." Most especially Thraxis. He was the top of her list of enemies and she was pretty sure that she was his as well.

"I don't want to seem as though I am taking advantage of your skills or being ungrateful for them. But maybe, as I know so little about you outside of rumours, that you could tell me about yourself. That is if you have the time. I am sure that you probably have pressing matters to deal with."

 

[Ultimatum]

Of course the Cartel, he had forgotten them. Obviously the Cartel would be enemy with those that tried to free slaves. He had not thought of them, his study of galactic affairs had been brief and quite extensive. It had taken awhile to decide what he had to be aware of but he still found himself with considerably gaps in knowledge.

Ultimatum waved dismissively at the mention of pressing matters saying, "There are officials who can deal with mundane tasks and if an emergency were to reveal itself then we would be busy with safety procedures."

He stopped for a moment, putting a finger to his chin as he thought, finally beginning, "What to say? Where to begin? Well I am sure the rumors have spoken of my identity as a droid well enough. Since I am leading a planet that makes me an intelligent droid to some degree. I have the ability to make moral decisions based on a personally created scale of what is right and wrong, thus I am an artificial intelligence. I also am trying to help organics, but my methodology is different and most of the sentients would find it controversial to say the least. Originally I had believed that the only possible method was to exterminate organics, an obvious and naive conclusion easily found if one views the history of sentient organics and the damage they have caused to everything. I have quite well grown beyond that. At this point I have no need or want to kill organics or topple governments, however I am keeping an eye on them. I will not lie, I do not like what I have seen thus far of galactic affairs and the lack of cooperation for overall betterment of organics. I can't do anything about it yet, but that may not always be so."

He kept his voice perfectly calm, half believing that [member="Lady Kay"] would become in some way negatively affected by the information Ultimatum had spoken. He wondered if she would find his past and current works offensive. Most organics would, he knew.

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay listened to [member="Ultimatum"] as he described himself. He was an interesting being to say the least and in some respects, he was a sentient all on his own. His mannerisms, the way he sought to better himself and those around him was admirable and not much different than other sentients or organics as he called them.

"Sadly we tend to not learn the lessons of history. But I'm glad that you have learned and evolved. There are many that also don't like what is happening, myself included. I have found many allies among those governments that are deemed my enemies. That in and of itself can get me arrested or executed by the Republic. But I think that it goes to show how enemies can coexist peacefully. I don't think that I should be punished for that...."

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum agreed with her. It was selfish that one government would punish its people for trying to make peace with an opposing government. He knew that some organics were difficult to work with, but for leadership being unwilling to work together against a common enemy, that was madness. He had grown used to seeing organics as insane logically speaking. They always seemed to have to find the hardest way to accomplish something and then make that their routine.

"You are right. The Republic, along with most others of those galactic factions, will have to learn. Is there anything else then that I can do for you?"

[member="Lady Kay"]