Brokering A Deal.

[Jaqen H'ghar]

Merlin took his ship, Slyphnir a small frigate capable of little more than passage from one star system to another, loading everything up and patted the datapad he held in one of his pockets. This, for all intents and purposes would be likely to not work well...but these were desperate times and all avenues must be explored.

Entering in the co-ordinates he quickly hopped up and out of the atmosphere planetside, once out of the gravity well it was off to lightspeed as he set the autopilot for the last known location of Agememnon, the flagship of a group that had risen from obscurity as of late. After doing his research he hoped what he had would be enough, they were in the business of war, and knowledge was worth something. The only question was...what?

His superior hadn't been notified, if the negotiations went awry there would be little point, as he saw it and until he was given orders there was no point in staying where he was. It was with this knowledge he went to his room, and began to meditate, until the ship arrived....



Several hours later, he felt his ship slide out of hyperspace, and came to the cockpit. There she was, a large flagship of DSeg...well here went nothing.

"This is Merlin Ambrosius, captain of the frigate Slyphnir requesting permission to come aboard for a business discussion. I have something of value that might peak your interest..."

 

[Jiang Winters]

[Tiny timeline note: Takes place on the very outskirts of the system in which Fresia is located, about 1 day after DSEG's first contact with the GA and after this thread.]

The light transport Slyphnir's arrival and close proximity to the Agamemnon did not go unnoticed. In a moment, a handful of Firehawk interceptors descended upon the Slyphnir, surrounding the transport as it broadcast its message.

"Agamemnon control to Slyphnir, we have you on our scopes. You are cleared to use docking bay... Two-zero-zero, bow. We've already dispatched an escort for you; they're on you now. Callsign is Romeo Five-Five. They'll escort you in. Agamemnon control out."

The five sleek interceptors formed up around Slyphnir. The lead fighter advanced in front of the transport and, after strobing its tail navigation lights twice to give a 'follow me' signal, headed towards the primary hangar of the Kushari Supercarrier. The flight was short and painless, and would see the Slyphnir docked in the heavily shielded flight deck soon enough.

Once it was landed, it would be surrounded by Kushari personnel - Marines in Templar Infantry Assault Rigs and Sable power armor, engineers in Skylark flight suits, and a single 'Thrush' heavy fighter, hovering just far enough away that it could keep its twin 35MM guns trained on the alien ship, though none of the infantry had their weapons leveled at the ship. It was quite clear that on their turf, they took next to no chances.

"Slyphnir, this is deck control. You're cleared to disembark. A fireteam is waiting for you outside your vessel. Sorry for the warm reception, but we can't be too careful. The Marines will escort you to the briefing room; a rep will be waiting for you there. No weapons allowed, so ditch 'em before you come on up. Other than that, welcome to the Agamemnon. Deck control out."

 

[Jaqen H'ghar]

He stood up, and brushed himself off keeping his lightsaber tucked away out of site beneath his long coat. They said no weapons, but it was the only real proof he was who he said he was...which is to say, and Knight of the Empire, the true Empire, not this abomination the Sith have set up. They would simply have to deal with it, in the end and it would likely go unnoticed until he was ready to call attention to it as said proof.

Aside from that in his hands all he carried was his datapad, rubbing a hand over his bald head he took a deep breath and put on his best 'lets not shoot me to smithereens face' and walked out, somewhat undisturbed by the amount of firepower. At it's height, the Empire made these men look like boys with toys...very expensive toys of death and destruction, certainly, but toys none the less.

As he was escorted, he smiled and nodded to the men as they left, before taking his seat, and awaiting the representative in question...

 

[Jiang Winters]

Merlin Ambrosius; an unknown man who seemed to have something of value to trade. He was more forward than the others who had wandered out to see the fleet in the last day, more brazen. Though more courageous than his fellow man, the Kushari escorting him were still quick to notice that he was still a human. Compared to their kind, he was small in frame and short in height, though still very much so respectable in build for a human.

The Marines escorted him to one of the Agamemnon's many briefing rooms. It was still small in size compared to what one might've imagined a 650-or so meter long warship having, but it wasn't meant for large briefings. The crisp black polish of the steel floors, the gray walls, and the black-striped gray ceiling all felt vaguely imperial, though the hand-holds built into the walls and ceiling, orientation strips to give direction in zero-g, and holographic signs all gave the ship a far more practical, more modernistic feel despite being quite primitive compared to a modern Imperial ship. The table was a long, tall oval of black steel, with a holoprojector situated in the middle. It was a generic Kushari design, seen on many a warship.

Once he settled in, his representative made her appearance; Lieutenant Rook-Sjet, a Kushari Ranger. The female made her way to the opposite side of the table and folded her arms across her chest, studying him through the visor of her helmet. "My name is Lieutenant Rook, of Kith Sjet. Who are you?"

 

[Jaqen H'ghar]

He leaned back rubbing a hand on his head. "My my, no offer of coffee or small talk, straight to business...I rather like that." He said with a slight flash of a grin. He looked her over and reached out with the force, trying to pick up traces of the kind of person he was dealing with. Lots of secrets this one had, generally well meaning and she bristled with the force...but it was uncontrolled...interesting.

"Who I am?...that's an awfully big question." He said with a chuckle. "Sufficed to say, I am a warrior, of a higher caliber than you've dealt with in the past. I am no threat, nor is the remnants of my Order...but I would like to change that." He said, that grin of his revealing a slight cunning. "More importantly...I don't care who you are. I only need to know one thing to do business with you." He turned his head slightly, focusing all his force cognition onto her as he asked this question. "Are you friend of the Sith?" his voice held a commanding tone to it, one gained from the training of countless men and women as a Marshall in service to the empire, and they were charged with the force.

 

[Jiang Winters]

"We've never had the... Pleasure of meeting a Sith," Rook stated, her tone perfectly neutral, save for an awkwardly long pause she was forced to take to think of a halfway neutral word to use that didn't scream 'SITH SUCK'. It was, however, clear that the mention of the name unnerved her to some extent - she tensed when it was first mentioned, and so it was likely that she knew of them, but had no information on them other than the old wive's tales floating around about how Sith eat babies for breakfast by the dozen.

She could feel him reach out and probe at her; she could feel his presence there, more refined and controlled than her own. Her barriers went up in an instant, guarding herself from him. While she was not well trained, she remembered what little she had been taught quite well.

"While you might not care who we are, we care about who you are. Riddle me this: Do you stand with the Galactic Alliance, do you stand against them, or do you simply stand out of their way?"

 

[Jaqen H'ghar]

He chuckled as he felt her attempt to block him out and he moved out of her mind gently, having learned what he needed. The Sith bothered her, unnerved her, she disliked them quite alot, though nothing like the hatred he held. He could speak freely then...excellent.

"I stand with the Empire, the true Empire, not these heretical parasitic Sith that took over in the last decade. I'll assist the Galactic Alliance if they plan to destroy the Sith." He spoke the word sith with a contempt most held for those who commited the worst of sins. "I am one of the last of my order, we are not as many as we once were, but we are not all dead, either..." He reached slowly, to show that he meant her no harm, while putting up a hand in the traditional keep calm sort of way. When he pulled his hand back out from his coat, he held a silver cylindrical lightsaber in his hand, which he placed on the table. "My name is Merlin Ambrosius, and I am a Marshall of the Imperial Knights."

 

[Jiang Winters]

"An Imperial Knight."

Rook's lips pulled back in a frown and her hands came to rest upon her hips. She'd heard of the Imperial Knights, but the Kushari's information on them was spotty at best. From what they were able to glean from the net, the Knights were an order of elite warriors, proficient in the use of an energy blade known as a 'Lightsaber' as well as the use of a curious power known as the 'Force', which had also manifested itself in a handful of Kushari over the years. In a way, they reminded her of the Sabers and, to a lesser degree, the Federation Rangers, in that they were extraordinary warriors whose goal was the defense of their country and way of life.

He produced some kind of object. To Rook, it looked like little more than a fanciful piece of piping with some buttons and switches glued onto the outside. However, she had a feeling that the device was one of the 'lightsabers' used by the Knights, as well as two other, larger factions - the Jedi Order and the Sith.

"If you've come seeking a military ally against the Sith, Marshall Ambrosius, you'll be disappointed. We're not in the business of aligning ourselves with factions we know next to nothing about, against a foe many thousands of times our size. However, if you've come seeking material support and shelter... That we could arrange. We'd require either credits or information - knowledge of your galaxy and technology. Something to even the playing field should someone decide to knock at our homeworld's door."

 

[Jaqen H'ghar]

"Knowledge is power..." he said, replacing the lightsaber on his hilt. "To that end I've brought you star charts of the empire, in it's entirety as it was before the Sith took over." He said holding up the other object he brought wit him, the datapad. "I think that would grant quite a good advantage, being able to plan counter attacks and the like. Would you agree?"

He didn't actually give her time to answer as he went on, "In return, you'll find diagram for imperial armor. I'd like to requisition enough for 500 men. You'll see specific details, in the datapad as well, including the cortosis gauntlets, and the phrik weave...which may or may not be of interest to you in some altered designs as well should you have problems against the Sith yourself. The crimson armor of an Imperial Knight is specifically designed to fight dark jedi and Sith. So really, I suppose, I bring you two things...perhaps we could, if you found it worthwhile, add some weaponry to that list of things your giving us?"

He was a shrewd broker, Merlin. Giving her time to consider his first proposal then adding in as second bit of information, phrik weaving and the type of gauntlets he was requesting were often close guarded secrets, while relatively easy to make the gauntlets alone often went for 1,500 credits on the black market. He was giving them quite a deal over all. "It would be a good step towards getting to know each other, and various future deals. When we take back the Empire and restore it to it's proper glory you wouldn't be forgotten."

 

[Jiang Winters]

Rook smiled thinly behind the veil her armor provided.

"You forget, good Knight, that we Kushari are alien to your galaxy. Star Charts we can gather in due time, if not from you then from the Alliance. Phrik and Cortosis, however... I'm assuming those are resistant to the 'lightsabers' you and Jedi carry, correct? If that is the case, then we'd be very, very interested in those. Perhaps enough to warrant giving you your armor, and some very special small arms that would allow you to strike without leaving a trace."

The feline lifted one hand from her hips and gestured towards the Marshall. "Show me why we'd have use for the technology you're offering and prove its worth, and I'll agree to your deal."

 

[Jaqen H'ghar]

"Because the Sith don't plan to just stay within the bounds of their fuax Empire. We've fought against multiple times, like cockroaches they just keep coming back. They want it all. To rule this galaxy, and any others they can get to, and once they do, they will destroy it all fighting amongst themselves. Slavery, Destruction, Fear, Death...these are the ways of the darkside." He spoke the words without fear, but with warning urgent in his voice.

"It might not be this year, or the next, or this decade, depending on how well the Alliance, Jedi and the Imperial Knights fight. But they will come for you and yours. Understand that as fact and not as possibility. The gauntlets can disable a lightsaber that comes in contact with it for a few minutes at a time, that is why they must be done specifically to these designs. Phrik is resistant to lightsabers as well and the design we have can withstand several lightsaber blows..." he paused looking for recognition of this, seeing none he remembered they were in fact new to the galaxy, she likely had no clue what a lightsaber truly was capable of.


"I could use that silver cylindrical object I showed you to cut through your very own bulkhead doors if you were to try to trap me in here, or slice through any living creature with ease. I could move the light blade faster than most eyes can track in some cases, and it requires nothing to charge it. It is an elegant, absolutely lethal weapon and a versatile tool. The Sith use lightsabers as their primary weapon, outside of the Force...surely you can see the worth of what I have to offer?"

 

[Jiang Winters]

Rook snapped her fingers; one of her Marines tossed her an M7 Guardsman 6-gauge shotgun, a weapon far too massive and powerful for any human to wield.

"This is a Guardsman shotgun, Marshall. This weapon is simple, it is powerful, and it is reliable. It turns flesh to hamburger in a single shot, it rips armor to pieces, and its explosive sabots can turn the hull of a ship into scrap metal in a few shots. This gun holds six rounds of six-gauge ammunition, and I can empty all six rounds into you in the span of three seconds. That's over a pound of tungsten shot hurtling at you, in a foot-wide cone traveling over one thousand five hundred feet per second. You'll have a fraction of a fraction of a second to react. You cannot see it coming, you can't react, you cannot physically move fast enough to dodge it even if you know it's coming."

She brought the butt of the weapon down on the table, a harsh rap echoing through the room for a moment. "We're a thousand times more likely to encounter a weapon like this than one of your fancy energy blades. Elegance counts for zip against raw firepower. Tell me - how will these materials help on a practical basis, against foes we're likely to meet on a day to day basis?"

Rook laid the weapon down and shoved it across the table. "I don't mean to sound harsh or disrespectful, Marshall. I appreciate full well the threat the Sith pose, and likewise I realize what a tremendous asset such material would be to any special forces team that might need to fight them. But Sith aren't the backbone of an enemy fighting force - infantry are. Men with blasters and lasers. That's what we need to defend against. If your 'Phrik' can do that, then we've got a deal with no further questions asked."

 

[Jaqen H'ghar]

He sighed. "I don't think you fully appreciate a force user..." he said satanding. "Take me to a room where you can fire that thing at me, and I'll show you how it's useless against the power of the Force." He picked up the datapad and pocketed it as well, with an expectant look on his face.

 

[Jiang Winters]

Rook grinned and pulled the shotgun back to herself. "Don't be so sure of yourself," she replied, a hint of excitement in her voice. It'd been too long since someone had sparred with her - even if his intent was to show her up, she was looking forward to it. The feline emptied the weapon's tube magazine and glanced to one of her Marines. "StunShot. Twelve rounds."

"Aye aye, ma'am," he replied. The feline tossed her four speed clips, each of which held three shells. She loaded the first two in, simply pressing the tip of the clip into the shotgun's loading ramp and then ramming the rounds in using her thumb, then stuck the other two clips to magnetic patches on her armor. In just a few short seconds, she was loaded up.

She gestured for man to follow her out of the briefing room. After a short sojourn to the nearest sparring area, which was a rectangular room about thirty feet wide by thirty long with racks of training versions of melee weapons lining the walls, Rook ordered the guards to set up by the walls and escorted Merlin into the center of the room.

"I loaded this weapon and my sidearms with a type of ammunition called StunShot. It's training ammo. I could bore you with the technical details, but it's non-lethal. Travels the same as real ammo, but it bursts just before impact and hits you with a splash of a dense liquid that looks just like blood. Numbs the affected area, but doesn't deliver much kinetic impact so it shouldn't hurt you... But bear in mind that Guardsman shotguns are too powerful for human use, so you might want to pull on a training visor just in case."

Rook racked a shell into the weapon's chamber and disengaged the safety. She was standing about 10 feet away from him, and still had not dropped her barriers in the Force. She wasn't about to let him pull something silly, like convincing her that he was a step to the right of where he really was.

"Ready yourself."

His lightsaber activated, nearly startling her. She'd never seen anything like it, but she'd treat it like any other blade. Deadly to touch, best to avoid, useless against buckshot or high velocity projectiles.

She took a deep breath, steadied herself, then launched into action.

Her weapon shot up, targeting cursor flicking across her HUD and landing on his thighs. She squeezed the trigger - the weapon thundered and roared, belching forth a proverbial wall of high-velocity shot. If she remembered the math correctly, it'd take precisely .006 seconds for that shot to travel the scant distance between them. To make matters even worse, she was holding down the trigger and was working the pump again - in less than a second, the slam-fire capable weapon would discharge another round; combined with the muzzle climb from the first shot, the second blast would land on his chest, and the third would strike at the head. Worse still, each round would be adjusted to track his movement. It was an unstoppable onslaught of fire, one no normal man could ever avoid... But Merlin was far from normal, now wasn't he?

 

[Jaqen H'ghar]

"Ready yourself..." She spoke the words, though he barely heard them, an Imperial Knight was always ready for combat, it was one of the decrees of the emperor that never, ever changed.

He chuckled and felt through the force her actions, he could feel when she was going to pull the trigger a fraction of a second before she did, and that was really all Merlin needed. Using the force he pushed the gun off track, so far off track that the first shot soared above his head and into the ceiling, the second shot would likely be nearly vertical, the third, obviously due to the speed in which she was firing would be somewhere he simply was not.

The second thing he did was use his abilities in force speed, something magnified greatly by his mastery of Vapaad. He could feel, even before they entered the room the excitement of the call of battle and so was more than ready, closing the distance between them in a blur, bringing the lightsaber down attempting to slice through the middle of the shotgun itself, much like a hot knife through butter.

 

[Jiang Winters]

She felt her gun rise as she pulled the trigger, but it was too late. It discharged and the rounds splattered harmlessly across the ceiling. She was no fool, though; she let off the trigger and finished cycling the weapon with the pump's remaining momentum, chambering another round and readying it for firing as she lowered the weapon.

As she did so, Merlin came charging in with unnatural speed. She'd seen Sabers move similarly before, and so was by no means caught off-guard. Adrenalin kicked in and her world slowed, though not to the same extent as Merlin's. She wasn't using Force Speed, after all - she could use it, yes, but she was raw. Untrained. For thirty seconds of speed, she'd end up passing out and flopping on the ground. Maybe when it would be more useful, but not here. Not now.

He came straight, and she went to the side. She felt the pump slide back, slam home, then fly forward in her grip again. Her finger remained on the trigger; the blade sizzled past her shoulder with at most a foot or two to spare. Even through her air filters she could smell the sizzling, ionized air. As his blade completed its downward arc and she continued to move away, she turned, holding the shotgun's butt tucked between her elbow and torso so that the barrel would be at waist-level.

A few scant feet opened up between them. It was nearly point-blank; perhaps four feet of space separated them at most. The shotgun lined up just as the slide clicked home, and the mighty weapon discharged, unloading a spray of shot in his direction at point-blank range. She backpedaled as the gun recoiled, carrying herself further away from Merlin to give herself some breathing room should he somehow evade her attack.

[Current positions:

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1 'X' = aboot 5ft]