Building Blocks

[Chask274]

House Ordo Citadel
Sundari, Mandalore
1400 hrs.

The clack of boot steps on metal flooring and the muffled clank of armor plate were the only sounds that accompanied Aiden and the two Ordo warriors escorting him as they walked down the hall through the Citadel. The Supercommando Captain had requested a meeting with the Duke of House Ordo to ask for some assistance with a plan his own House had in the works. The plan had a critical need of a certain type of metal, and it was known that Ordo had a decent supply of it, so here he was. Aiden was admittedly a bit nervous, as the Duke had quite the reputation, and if he caught wind of the plan, it could be potentially catastrophic. Even nothing went wrong in that regard, there was still the issue of getting the metal, which was quite expensive and would certainly require payment of some form, which Aiden was prepared to negotiate on.

After a short while, his escorts led him to a sizeable door and told him to wait there, then departed, leaving Aiden to await whatever would come next.

@Prudence

 

[Prudence]

The Citadel was a towering symbol to Ordo's strength deep within the capital of the Mandalorian homeworld. The building itself was made out of a variety of different materials, but was made to look like a seamless construct of deep gray. Kalan sat within his office, a spacious room with high ceilings and plenty of space for sitting areas and receptions, dressed in his every day attire. Gone were the days when his official dress was a buffed version of his armor. Instead now he wore a form fitting gray tunic, with his rank attached onto the chest in a very militaristic fashion. With it he had matching gray trousers, knee high formal military boots, and a single shoulder cape of a darker gray. Affixed to his black leather belt was a sunspear pistol, and one of the many trophy sabers that he had taken from a Sith that he'd killed. It wasn't present on his belt because he enjoyed fighting with it, but more so as a reminder to those who would think about challenging him while unarmored as to the feats he had achieved.

Presently Kalan's feet were propped up on his desk, a lit cigarra between his teeth and his attention focused on a holo-readout. It was displaying information facing the House, troop numbers, economical status, etc. His attention was drawn from it as a chime indicated that he had a visitor at his outer door. Kalan depressed a button on his desk to slide the doors open, and brought his feet down to the floor, rising to greet the Captain that was waiting on him.

"Greetings Captain Fett. A pleasure to meet you, please have a seat."

 

[Chask274]

When the door slid open, Aiden's focus snapped around from the wall decoration he'd been inspecting to the Duke. He was dressed in his full armor, the plates dark green in color and freshly polished, with his helmet clipped to his belt. The only weapons he carried were his vibrosword and B-8R pistol, stowed securely on his left and right hips respectively.

Approaching the desk, Aiden politely smiled at Kalan, extending his hand for handshake before accepting the offer to sit. "Likewise, sir, and thank you again for meeting with me. I know you're a busy man, so I'll get straight to why I'm here; I was hoping to work out a trade deal of sorts. My House has need of a decent amount of phrik, and given your own House's disposition towards Force Users, we hoped you might consider sharing some of your stockpile." He paused a moment to let what was said sink in, then continued. "Now, obviously we can't expect you to just give us such a valuable resource, and I'm open to discussion on potential compensation." So far so good, now he waited to see what the Duke's response would be.

 

[Prudence]

Kalan returned the man's handshake before sinking back into his seat once more. He had seen the captain around before, but had never actually interacted with the man. He seemed like the typical military type, similar to Kalan himself. The man was quick to spout what it was he was looking for, a quality that Kalan admired. He preferred someone that got down to business, rather than dancing around with small talk and pleasantries. He was relatively surprised as to the reason for the man's visit however. He'd considered a number of things that he might be looking for, troop reinforcements, supplies, etc. but phrik en masse had not been one of the considerations.

Kalan steepled his fingers as he leaned back some, thinking for a moment as the man concluded his request. "Interesting." He paused for a moment, allowing his words to hang in the air. Meanwhile he was trying to mentally discern what it might be that House Fett was doing with the phrik, or moreso, who they were doing. Finally he broke the silence with a nod, "Certainly. The people of House Ordo are certainly no friends of the Force, and Phrik has proved to be particularly useful when it comes to keeping them contained, or combatting them. It's actually refreshing to see another House sharing our opinions, rather than those that would embrace the Force. Regardless, of course we would be willing to sell some of our stockpile to you. How much is it that you're looking for, Captain Fett? Enough to construct Commando armor from it? Or are we looking for something a bit larger in quantity....?"

 

[Chask274]

Aiden listened quietly as Kalan responded to his request. While his own views on Force Users weren't as severe as House Ordo's, Aiden could definitely see the merit in being cautious of them. However, when questioned about what he needed the phrik for, he tensed up slightly, and took a moment to choose his words carefully.

"I'll agree with you there, it certainly is useful against Force users. As for what we need it for, well, we're gonna need a bit more than a armor set's worth of it. We're looking to reinforce a conference room's walls, door, and windows with it. Or if that's too excessive, simply the doors and windows should do well enough."

He purposefully avoided mentioning why the needed to reinforce an entire conference room, with the hope being Kalan wouldn't push for too many answers.

 

[Prudence]

Kalan let out a low whistle as he heard what the Captain was planning to use the phrik for. Leaning back in his chair he chewed on his lower lip a bit, thinking it over, before sitting upright once more. He tapped away at his dataconsole and flipped through a few charts and other readouts before returning his gaze to the captain, "That's a good amount of Phrik. I hope you're ready for whatever kinda party you're getting yourself into..." He reached for a tumbler located on his desk, taking a long sip of the water within, "luckily for you we have quite the stockpile, with enough coming in daily to resupply whatever we'll lose in this arrangement."

Kalan fished around in one of his drawers, and withdrew another datapad. Punching a few numbers into its screen, he turned it around and slid it over the desk towards the captain, "Assuming that these numbers as far as prices go are agreeable, we've got ourselves a deal, captain."

 

[Chask274]

The Captain gave Kalan a wolfish grin. "Oh don't worry about us, we know exactly what we're getting ourselves into to. It's the other guys you want to feel sorry for." His smile widened when Kalan mentioned that Ordo brought in more than enough phrik to cover this exchange. It meant that the prices wouldn't be jacked up too high for scarcity reasons. As the datapad was passed to him, Aiden's eyebrows shot up in surprise. It wasn't that it was an unexpectedly high price, it was because the price was within the range the Duke had authorixzed for this purchase. Reaching to his own belt, Aiden withdrew a small datapad, and after a few button presses, passed it to Kalan. "Input the info for whichever account you'd like the payment wired to, and I'll send it on its way. Now, as far as delivery goes, I trust more discrete arrangements can be made?"

 

[Prudence]

Kalan watched, intrigued by the expressions of the captain as he accepted the datapad from Kalan. He knew the reputation of the Fetts, even if they had suffered harsh losses in recent years, and had no doubt that they'd be able to hold their own in whatever engagement it was they were scoping out. Kalan's own lips twisted into a smile as the Captain's eyebrows shot up at the price he'd been offered. Kalan had no love for Force users, and with the stockpile of Phrik that he was looking to acquire, Kalan had no doubt that it was a force user they were hunting. He'd offered them the same price that he imported phrik for, and clearly it met the price guide that the Captain had been allotted.

It was the Captain's turn now to return the datapad to him, this time with a screen open for account transfer. Kalan reached towards his dataterminal and withdrew a chip from one of its ports, plugging it into the pad. The form for his account number automatically filled with the provided information from the chip, and he pressed Done at the bottom of the form to complete it. Sliding the datapad back to the Captain he smiled once more, "Discretion won't be a problem. The moment we've received payment a series of unmarked freight haulers will make their way to wherever it is that you designate. It was a pleasure doing business with you, Captain."

 

[Chask274]

Nodding, Aiden input the coordinates for the delivery site, then set the datapad down and rose to his feet. Shaking the Duke's hand, Aiden nodded. "Pleasure was all mine, Duke, and thank you for your time."

With a final nod of thanks to Kalan, Aiden turned on his heel and left the office, a barely suppressed grin of satisfaction on his face as he exited the room.

'Step 1 complete, now to get people onboard...'

//END THREAD​

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