Water is Cortosis to Life

[Gray Raxis]

Objective: Gain rights to the Cortosis mine
Post: 1
Alliy: [member="Lady Kay"]

Gray stood by his ship waiting on Lady Kay to show up while he was docked at the home headquarters for Justice Shipping. He was wearing his ranger armor with his blaster pistol strapped to his right leg as it always was with his lightsaber hilt hanging next to it. He was wearing this instead of his regular armor because it kept people from thinking he was either a clone or worked for the Republic, which both options seemed to happen too often. He was able to be neutral this way and just let people think he was some kind of space drifter, which was not entirely wrong looking at his childhood being raised and born on a space ship.

Gray was going to head to Bal'demnic with Kay to try to get the rights to a cortosis mine to go along with the other mines he had claimed in the name of SocMin Fed lately. He wanted to get it peacefully and seeing how wary the native Kon'me people were of outsiders, he needed a good diplomat. And that is where his good friend Kay came in. He just needed to wait for her to arrive so they could start their negotiations. Hopefully everything went well because he didn't want too much trouble. He had gotten plenty of it getting the phrik mine and the stygium mine already.

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay walked quickly towards [member="Gray Raxis"] as she hated making others late. She was used to schedules, especially her own. But right now she wasn't in complete control. She was dressed in her upper class merchant attire this time and with a satchel that was similar to her old one, though not the same. If the Kon'Me were going to trust her for this, then she had to still look the part, as though nothing really happened. Thank the Force that their self isolation kept them from the holo-net. It wasn't as though Kay planned on lying to them, she just wasn't going to bring her firing up in conversation.

"Sorry that I'm late. Mrs. Nesbitt insisted on coming and I just had to make her stay. We shouldn't be gone for very long, right?"

 

[Gray Raxis]

Gray turned to [member="Lady Kay"] when she arrived and smiled to her. He was glad to see she seemed ready to go. He said to her, " Good to see you Kay, and don't worry about it. You aren't late at all seeing how this job requires you to work after all. As far as Mrs. Nessbit goes, she is welcome to come along any time. Can keep Key company after all. We shouldn't be gone too long though, at least if thing go well for us. If thing go wrong who knows how long it will take. Who knows how what would happen though in general. Any ways, ready to get going? We have a cortosis mine to talk out of some people."

Gray began to head to his ship, which the ramp of was lowered for them already. The inside of it was much the same as it was the last time Kay had been on it. He said as he went up the ramp, " Oh Kay, feel free to take any of the spare rooms you like to use. You are also welcome to get into the rations cabinet and take whatever you like from it. I made sure to have some tea leaves in stock this time around as well. Might be some tea cakes in there too if I remembered to buy them, and they are all for you. You can spend time in the living area, your room, or the cock pit. If you like we can even go over some of the details for the mission."

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay would have wanted to bring Mrs. Nesbitt along. But the Kon'Me never saw her with a droid, and she wanted as little change for them as possible. She didn't need them to doubt her.

She followed [member="Gray Raxis"] into his ship and smiled as he had thought ahead enough to purchase some tea leaves. Hopefully they were of the Sapir variety.

"Thank you, Gray. We can head over to the living area, the same as before. I'll put some tea on and we can go over things in a bit more detail." Oh this will be....interesting. It was time to see what Gray's limits were when it came to negotiations, especially with an eclectic and socially impaired being like the Kon'Me.

 

[Gray Raxis]

Gray nodded to [member="Lady Kay"] as he said, " Sounds good to me. I will let Key know we can take off and then I will meet you there. Help yourself to the ration cabinet while I take care of a few things." He waited until they were both up the ramp completely then pressed the button to close it. He waited until it was all of the way up then went to the com system and gave Key her orders. The little droid beeped back and the ship began to lift off. He walked up to his weapon cabinet and made sure it was locked up tight. He didn't need anything from it, and didn't expect to need anything from it. Once he was done he checked out the inside of a small crate before closing the lid and picking it up. He went off to the living area.

Gray walked up to the table and set the crate down on top of it. He walked over to the ration cabinet after he did. He got into it and pulled out a bottle of water along with a ration of fruit. He went back to the table and sat down across from Kay. He opened up the ration pack and took out a piece of fruit. He popped it into his mouth before he opened up his water. He was waiting to see what she had to say while he ate the fruit and took a drink of his water. He was sure the subject of the crate would come up soon enough as well. Now he just needed to wait.

 

[Kay-Larr]

While [member="Gray Raxis"] was busying himself with Key and getting himself some fruit, Kay was preparing her tea. She didn't figure him for a fruit eater, but looks can be deceiving.

She stirred the tea leaves into the hot water and waited for them to dissolve. Once it was all ready, Kay joined Gray at the table, raising a brow at the small crate that he set on top of it. That was strange. More than likely it was the credits to pay for the rights to mine. For now she just ignored it.

"Alright. Now you've done a bit of research on the Kon'Me and know how much they don't trust outsiders. I have visited them a few times to check up on them and see to any of their needs. We'll be visiting the more social elite as they hold control over the mines and are a little more...trusting than the lower class. It isn't out of the ordinary for me to go there with a bodyguard, so you really should assume that role. Or you could pretend to be my assistant. The point is, they don't like change, they don't trust it. So I should do most of the talking. Keep your eyes downcast and don't meet theirs. In their eyes we are beneath them and to meet their gaze announces a challenge, so we must be humble in our manners. Keep your hands visible, as well as your weapons. They will be scrutinising our appearance, so we can't be hiding anything. Have you got all that?"

 

[Gray Raxis]

Gray listened to [member="Lady Kay"] as he continued to eat the fruit ration while drinking from his water. He thought about everything she had to say to him. She had brought up some good points about the Kon'me people and he needed to consider what she said. He eventually finished off his fruit ration and took one last drink of his water. As he finished the water, he said, " I think it would be best if we were more honest with them about my status as the one interested in buying the mine. We can say you are assisting me as a friend to both them and me to help bring about a mutually beneficial agreement. If they are as untrusting of outsiders as you say, then lying about my position would just cause more problems in the long run in my opinion. If you don't think that would be a good idea though we can go with me being your assistant as well as bodyguard."

Gray smiled to her as he added, " Oh by the way, this crate here contains some phrik from our mine in the Roche asteroids. I was thinking we could use it to make a deal to offer them some quality metal they can use in their mines or guards or whatever else they might have for it. I think you can figure out a way to use it in the negotiations. I do suggest you hold back on mentioning it though until the end, just in case we can get a deal without it. Sound good to you?" As he finished speaking Key made some beeping sounds over the com system announcing they were almost to Bal'demnic.

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay sipped her tea as she listened to [member="Gray Raxis"] . He had good points too, ones that she didn't quite think about. Her mind had been too clouded with recent events for her to think clearly. Her confidence in herself was also at an all time low.

She cupped her tea cup in her hands and stared at it. "You're right of course. We'll inform the Kon'Me that you are one of my trusted friends and have proven yourself to be worthy of gaining an audience. But remember that they don't know that I lost my position, so we'll have to refrain from bringing it up unless they do."

Kay sighed as she traced her thumb along the edge of the cup. Now was the time. "I'm ready to tell you now about what happened. I didn't resign from the Senate. I was fired. The leaked memo was fake, agreed upon by myself and the Supreme Chancellor. I wanted there to be as little of a scandal as possible. The reason that I was fired is that he found out that I am a Force user, of whom which are not allowed to serve in the Senate. It's more than likely that Faith told him. I broke the law, so I am barred from even working in some other department of the Government. And with all of my credits and liquidated assets given to the Mandalorians as part of the peace agreement, I was left homeless and jobless. Ryn and James found me in the mountains of Commenor. I didn't go searching for help because I was too ashamed.....and too embarrassed to ask for it." She continued to just stare at her cup and clench her jaw. She had done enough crying over it and didn't want to do so again. It wouldn't help her in any way. She had to bury it inside.

 

[Gray Raxis]

Gray could feel [member="Lady Kay"] confidence dropping and anxiety rising. He sent her another calming, soothing wave through the force to try to help her out a bit. As he did, she began to speak. She had started off with the details of the job, and he agreed with what she had to say. It was the next thing she said that caught him off guard partly due to the fact she had finally opened up and partly due to what she had exactly said to him. He had to frown as he listened to everything she had to say. He didn't like it at all and felt it was messed up what they did to her. There was no reason for it to have happened at all.

Gray sat there a moment frowning after she had finished speaking. He needed a moment to calm himself down before he said anything. He eventually got there and said as he did, " They fired you over a condition you can not control. They fired you because you were born with a connection to the force, something you had no choice about. You might as well have been fired for being a woman. That is wrong, just wrong. And if that wasn't bad enough everything you owned was used to pacify the council? I....thats......" He had to calm himself down again. He was still upset by what he heard. He eventually added after he got less hot under the collar, " They did you very wrong there Kay. Both the Republic and the Mandalorians. As a Mandalorian, I am deeply sorry for what happened to you there. This whole mess right now, its no wonder my father decided to leave out on his own rather than be a commando. The Republic might as well have handed Faith over to Draco and Alderaan to the Mandalorians. They don't realize what they lost Kay."

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay didn't like the fact that [member="Gray Raxis"] was frowning. She could feel his anger and normally when she told people this secret, it got them angry at her. Hence why she had been arrested, investigated and later fired. She listened to him speak and some of what he had said was wrong. Some of it was true though.

"I know that it isn't fair. But I can understand their fears, given what has happened in the past. I have seen the stigma against Force users elsewhere, so I do my best to hide it. I don't want my secret getting out unless I had no choice. As for my things being used to pacify the council? That would be for the Mandalorian council. They wanted us to pay for their funerals and for those that are injured. No one else stepped up and we needed this peace deal, so I offered. If I had known that I would have been fired soon after, then I would have saved some credits for myself. But I didn't know that I would be cut off."

She sipped her tea. "Thank you for believing in me though, and not getting mad at me for it."

 

[Gray Raxis]

Gray smiled at [member="Lady Kay"] when she finished speaking. He knew she was trying to make things smoothed over, but he knew what had really happened. Kay had been thrown under the shuttle as it landed and was left out in space without a suit. She had gotten the raw end of the entire situation when she didn't deserve it. He would just have to address it some time, but that would have to wait. He said, " Don't worry about ti Kay. I am a force user myself, so there is no reason for me to get mad about any of it. We should get ready though for dealing with the Kon'me. I can feel the ship landing at the port." He stood up and picked up the small crate of phrik off of the table.

As the ramp lowered to the ground, a group of Kon'me guards had their blaster rifles held out in a ready position. A kon'me wearing higher quality clothing stood between them with a stern look on his face. He seemed as if he could equally order they leave immediately or welcome them in. After studying them for a bit, the kon'me said, " Lady Kay what brings you to Bal'demnic? Is there another 'humanitarian' events going on with you delivering food and medicine to those scum on the lower levels?"

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay smiled a little as his words gave her comfort. She gulped her tea, having not expected to be there so soon. It was a bit of a waste to not savour her tea, but the Kon'Me wait for no man. She set the cup down on the table and got to her feet, hurrying towards the ramp as it began to lower, making sure that she was in front of and slightly to the side of [member="Gray Raxis"] .

At the sight of the guards with their weapons drawn, Kay kept her eyes lowered and her hands empty,arms to her sides. Even when she was spoken to, she remained still. Hopefully Gray remembered to behave just as humbled. "No, Your Grace. I came here with an offer from a business associate to add more wealth to your coffers. It would be a great honour for him to have the attention of Your Grace's ear, if even for a moment. And if you accept what he has to offer, then he will be a part of an elite and powerful group in the Galaxy of which you have hand picked. Your Grace is the best judge of character in both the known and unknown regions"

Oh yes, like dealing with a Hutt, flattery was always welcomed. How else would one gain positive attention from their 'betters'?

The Kon'me elder studied them again, scrutinizing them with his eyes for what felt like ten minutes,but really it was closer to one. "Is this your business associate?"

"Yes, Your Grace. May I introduce to you, Lord Gray Raxis. Forgive his attire, but it seems as though one of his servants packed the wrong trunk." Kay had hoped that Gray would play along with the Lord title that she had given him and the imaginary servants. She stepped back to let Gray be in front. It was now his turn to speak.

 

[Gray Raxis]

Gray studied the Kon'me guards actions using the sides of his vision as he watched the actions of the Kon'me leader. The words and actions followed that of one who held onto their title as if it was a right given to them by the greatest of divine forces, and the kind that tended to not like Gray as much. Gray wasn't exactly the most well known for showing proper respect to those in positions of authority, even though he did show them respect in his own way. He noticed the way [member="Lady Kay"] acted as well and was glad she was brought along with him. He noticed she called him Lord Gray Raxis, which was kind of ironic actually given some of his positions. He could almost chuckle but didn't because it would have undermined her efforts here. The leader of the Kon'me seemed curious, in his own way, as the mention of lord was given and it seemed it was now Gray's turn to address the unspoken interest in his title.

Gray said in a voice sounding more dignified than anyone would have thought he could sound, " Yes I am her business associate, Lord Gray Raxis. King of Imahalyan. Clanhead of Clan Raxis of the Mandalorians. CEO of SocMin Fed. Captain Wolf, scourge of pirates and slavers. Co-owner of Industrial Automatons. Assistant Minister of War for the Free Colonies. And slayer of krayt dragons." He waited a moment to let the titles, all of which were true even if some he gave to himself on the spot. He added after enough time had passed, " And yes, my servant grabbed the wrong trunk. They will be thoroughly disciplined for this transgression as well when our most important of business is concluded." He nodded his head to the Kon'me as a sign of respect, but did not avert his eyes from them. He was going to be sure to show he was an equal to the being in standing because he knew otherwise they would not be willing to take things seriously enough.

 

[Kay-Larr]

That was certainly a long list of titles. Not quite what she was expecting. Not quite what the Kon'me were expecting either. But it sure put the elder at ease. He gestured for his guards to lower their weapons. "A King deserves a better title than Lord. Come, let me take you to our Grand Hall where you may tell me how you can enrich our coffers."

Kay was a bit nervous as [member="Gray Raxis"] didn't keep his head lowered. But she trusted his judgement and luckily for them, it worked. She followed in behind with the guards taking their places to escort them.

The Grand Hall was indeed that. It was grand. The pillars looked as though they touched the sky, but they only touched a ceiling painted to look like the sky. And did the 'clouds' appear to move? Yes. A very well made holo-projector allowed them to alter the ceiling as they saw fit. One would expect a large table, but instead there were podiums. Sitting was not permitted in the Grand Hall. Kay well remembered that.

Once they were inside, the elder turned to his honoured guest. "King Raxis, now is the time to share your profitable suggestions. In this hall, our ears are listening."

 

[Gray Raxis]

Gray followed the Kon'me into their Grand Hall. The place was well built and designed to impress and inspire awe in all who entered. The only problem Gray had with the place was the podiums instead of chairs, but that was a very minor issue at best. He walked up to one of them and set his small crate on top of it. As the Kon'me leader spoke, he opened up the lid to the crate. He said without doing anything with the contents of the crate, " I come here seeking to acquire the largest, richest cortosis mine possible for my company SocMin Fed. I have need of the cortosis from it, and looked around the galaxy for planets with the material on it. I saw your planet, which was independent of any faction and had the highest quality of the metal, and knew this was where I needed to have my mine. So I am here with [member="Lady Kay"] to try and get that mine. I will deal with you honestly and fairly, so I expect the same from you as well. Also know that Kay's words are as good as my own in this matter. What she says I will support fully." He left off there so the Kon'me knew what was going on here. He wasn't dealing with one person but two.

 

[Kay-Larr]

The Kon'me studied [member="Gray Raxis"] while he spoke. He noticed the crate being opened but didn't try to peer inside. It was not his business to be a snoop. All he had to do was ask to be shown what was in the crate and then his curiosity will then be sated. He looked from Gray to Kay, and then back again. Why address a Senator whom was beneath him when he could address a King that was his equal?

"So you wish to take one of our greatest assets, do you? And you are correct, we do have the highest grade Cortosis in all the Galaxy. Lady Kay was good to bring you to the best. However we have some conditions."

Kay chose this moment to interject. "Forgive me for interrupting, Your Grace. I will be able to write up a contract rather quickly once the details have been sorted. A fair price for access would be...30% royalties on all of the Cortosis that comes out of the mine? And we should have a clause in there to expand the mine should drill holes prove that there is more to be had. Naturally we'd help return the area to it's natural condition once the Cortosis is all taken out." She looked to Gray, hoping that she didn't offer too much in royalties.

 

[Gray Raxis]

Gray could tell that the Kon'me was both curious and confused by his actions, which was a good thing. He didn't want him on his toes here and would rather have him distracted. If he could get the Kon'me in that state then they could get away with more. They might not like it afterwards, but it would be too late once papers are signed. He listened to [member="Lady Kay"] interject when the man began to try to mention conditions. He smiled at what she had to say, and while 30% sounds a tad high to him, it also made sense with the kind of mind set these people had. He decided it would be best to add to what Kay said here while they had the advantage to, " On top of what Lady Kay said, I would also request exemption from tariffs for all SocMin Fed, and all of Justice Shipping's other companies, ships and their cargo in and out of the planet. I also plan to be employing local workers instead of using workers brought in from outside the system. If you can not agree to these terms, then I am afraid I can not offer you a better deal. You either take it or I will find cortosis somewhere else and you will also lose the gift of high quality phrik I was going to gift you for our agreement of mutual benefit."

Gray subtly pushed the crate on his podium over as he finished speaking to cause ingots of phrik to fall out of it to the floor. The precious, durable metal shone brightly in the light of the room as if they were bricks of aurodium. He waited to see the Kon'me's reacted for a moment before he idly walked over and began to pick up each piece slowly off of the floor. Each moment that past as he did this was like another moment that credits in the Kon'me lord's coffers was being taken away. The deal was more in their favor than in the king's favor, but he didn't need to know that.

 

[Kay-Larr]

The offer was sound to the Kon'me. However the exclusion of tariffs meant credits going away. And that was not acceptable. Yet what [member="Gray Raxis"] offered next and strangely dropped on the floor, proved to be the tipping point needed. "You drive a hard bargain, King Raxis, but one that we can accept. You hire our people, and we'll provide you with the mines filled with the highest grade Cortosis in all the Known Regions."

Kay smiled a little. She wanted to pat Gray on the back, but will save that fir later. She didn't help him pick up the phrik either. Instead she whipped out her datapad and began filling out the template while the details were fresh on her mind. There was no signing ceremony needed. They only needed to sign the documents by the evening when they were looked over by the Council. She knew the routine. "Thank you, Your Grace. I will have this sent to you within the hour." It was a good thing that Gray announced himself as being high born, otherwise this might of not gone so well.

 

[Gray Raxis]

Gray was pleased to see that he had managed to smooth talk his way through the conversation and get a good deal out of this not just for SocMin Fed, but for Justice Shipping in general. The Kon'me didn't realize it, but they just gave the entire company freedom to move products in and out of the planet cheaply. He was going to need to update [member="James Justice"] about this development as well. He smiled to the Kon'me and said, " A pleasure your Grace to make a deal with someone as wise as yourself. To our mutual profit and benefit." He nodded to the male then turned to [member="Lady Kay"] after. He gave her a wink and a smile that the Kon'me wouldn't notice. He was going to leave the legal part up to her since she was both experienced and good at that kind of thing. He was really glad he had asked Kay to help him with this right now.

<---Time Skip--->​

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Gray was pleased with himself right now that the deal had been signed in its entirety to all of the agreements made before. The last thing now to do was to go to the mine can see to the start of the transition of things first hand and introduce himself to his new employees. The mine was outside of the main city a good ways, so they needed to take a ship to get to it due to the rocky nature of the planet's habitable land. When they landed he walked out to the mining town that had recently been formed it seems upon the still fresh discovery of the cortosis deposit. He said as he looked around, " Is it me Kay or do things look a little shabby here already even though this town is newly built? It seemed there was going to need to be some work done already. What was with the Kon'me and their superiority complexes? He needed to find the foreman and find just how bad the situation really was.

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay was glad to be out of the scrutiny of the Kon'me elders' eyes. Now they were on their own and can breathe easier. "King Raxis, huh?" She smirked and went along with him to the mining town.

It was not the best in quality. All of the buildings looked like shacks except for the Quality Centre and warehouse that held the precious metal. That building looked fortified and secured. Kay agreed with the sentiment that [member="Gray Raxis"] expressed. "They could certainly use some help. Maybe Ultimatum can send a team over to help with reconstruction? They can be busy doing that while the local workers work in the mines."

She led them to the Quality Centre to see how things were going in there. There was some security, but their pictures had been sent ahead of time, so access was granted right away. Crates dotted the building, most of them empty. Were they reused? Kay walked over to a small stack and opened one. "Gray, come take a look at what you bought." The crate itself looked to be about 20 kgs (44lbs )