Parseltongue

[Tyler Ward]

The Sluis Van Shipyards are one of the, if not finest star ship builders in the Outer Rim. To the Sluissis that work and run the place, ship building is an art to them. The produce quality work, even if it is in a slow manner. They can also repair ships extremely well too. The Sluis Van Shipyards are a major untapped resource, in which the Galactic Alliance would do well to have access to them. Of course it's going to be awkward to straight-up just ask for regular ship manufacturing for a ragtag alliance of rebel cells that the galaxy isn't supposed to know exists. So if all goes well the SVS won't be doing that, knowingly anyway. Tyler Ward has a plan that maybe, just maybe might work. Aurora Blackwood is also accompanying the former Imperial.

Having their shuttle having landed in the landing areas at the shipyards above the Sluissi homeworld, before they go in to have their appointment with the shipyard's CEO, wanted to quickly touchbase with Aurora and make sure that they are both on the same page before going in."You ready for this?" he would ask "We are reps with the Freelance Mercenary Company." A made up name. "We are a growing company and we are interested in a contract for regular ship production at these shipyards." he would go over with her. Hopefully this would go over well. "Alright?" he asked. They will need to have their stories synchronized. Not only do they want regular production of ships, they want it at affordable prices, which is another layer of challenge.

Tyler would not long after push a button to open the shuttle door and he could see a Sluissi on on his way to over towards the two right now, presumable to escort them to see the big boss. Tyler is dressed in business attire, looking presentable as this is a meeting with a cooperate CEO. Tyler is ready to get this going.

@Valen Pelora

 

[Aurora Blackwood]

The good of the Alliance was the good of the Order. Aurora had to remind herself of this fact as she messed with her hair in the mirror. The future of the Jedi Order was intertwined with the Rebellion. The Order could not survive if the Alliance failed, the Empire would simply end them as they had before. Of course, the Alliance needed the Jedi to combat the power of the Darkness wielded by the Sith. Aurora was pushing herself to near exhaustion trying to advance the goals of both. She had taken a variety of students under her wing while trying to advance the goals of the Alliance. The fledgling Rebellion needed every resource imaginable. They needed ships, armor, weapons, soldiers, everything. To fight the Empire they truly needed a fleet. This was perhaps one small step in that direction.

Aurora had agreed to accompany Tyler Ward in his bid to convince Sluis Van Shipyards to manufacture vessels. The rouse was that they were a growing mercenary company in need of more capable ships. She had come dressed the part. Her business attire was a little more on the formal side. Aurora wore a fitting black dress that that amplified her green eyes and blonde hair. Short red heels clicked as she walked. No one would ever accuse her of not making an entrance. Her blaster and lightsaber were safely hidden on her person. She smiled at Tyler. “No comment on the outfit? Disappointing, I guess when you get into your seventies things just aren’t the same.”

Aurora winked at Tyler. If they were going to do this, she was going to have fun. The CEO was a man by all accounts and she knew how to play their cards. “I know what we need to do, and how we need to do it.” She pointed at the waiting escort once the door opened. “Lets go.” Aurora took a deep breath and headed towards the escort. Time to be pleasant, what a chore. @Faster Than Light @Darasuum

 

[The Storyteller]

The Sluissi the two representatives were meeting with stood waiting with both hands before him.When the door opened his dark eyes shifted from one of the so-called mercenaries to the other. He slithered forward a little and parted his hands in a sign of welcome. "Good day." He was not sure what to call them since they had not sent forth their names, only their company name when making the appointment. "I hope the transit was not too great of a stress. Follow me please." he said and turned away from the two to lead them back inside.

The Sluissi did not say anything for the duration of the walk. He had on an elegant blaster with a belt to indicate he was one of the limited and permitted members of the security force that also doubled as an assistant to the CEO. He held up a hand as they arrived at the office where the CEO resided. "Wait here." He then opened the door and entered. A few moments would pass, leaving the two Rebels alone.

Aproxamatly a minute later the door opened and the same Sluissi exited the office and beckoned them inside. Through the door the two Rebel agents woudl be able to see the older looking Sluissi behind a desk. He said nothing and waited for them to introduce themselves. So far he had not been told of their individual names and only recently of their company name. Sufficed to say he was not exactly happy by not knowing who he was dealing with. It showed on his face. Data stacks on his desk, a surface based data-pad and a built in holo projector topped his desk. His hands lay on top of the furnishing in a cool and collected manner. The dark eyes inside his head slowly looked back and forth between them.

@Faster Than Light , @Valen Pelora

 

[Tyler Ward]

Tyler was more concerned about the mission getting it done and all that good stuff, but once Aurora brought attention to herself and her outfit. Well. The young man rose an eyebrow. That wink though. She looks fine. And she's in her seventies? She's a human on the outside. She can't appear that young unless she is wearing lots of make-up and dyed her hair that color, or maybe she is a human-off shoot species. Maybe. When she said lets go, Tyler's mind went back to the task. "Right." Tyler would then nod his head and turn towards the incoming escort. After the escort greeted them, Tyler responded. "Good day to you too" he would nod his head and give off a polite smile. And he followed in tow with the Slussi when the sluissi requested the two to follow.

They've arrived to their destination, the escort went inside, most likely to inform the boss that his appointment is here and ready. That would just leave Tyler and Aurora outside for a minute or so. Tyler was pretty calm and ready to have a nice chat with the big snake himself. This could go either way, but gotta think positive.

Once the door to the CEO's office opened and the previous escort going out the door -making sure that his necktie was straightened- "It's showtime." he muttered, still audible to to Aurora, still keeping his smile as well. Once he rounded the corner of the door, now in the office, even as he gave a chill smile he could see the older Sluissi glaring out them with a sour look. Not letting that get in his way, he would get this started. He could see two seats in front of the desk.

The former Imperial Agent would walk over towards the older Sluissi. "Hello there. Thank you for seeing us." he would extend his hand over to the Sluissi for a handshake. Professional courtesy. "I'm Rhel Terek" he would decline to give his actual name out, just in case. An alias shouldn't be a problem here. The Alderaanian-born man would give an opportunity for Aurora to introduce herself to the shipyard's CEO before continuing. "We are with the Freelance Mercenary Company." Tyler would start out with. Tyler would have his eyes paying attention to the Sluissi's facial expressions and his body language. This could be some tricky negotiations.

@Valen Pelora

 

[Aurora Blackwood]

Deep breaths kept the Morellian Jedi Master centered. From a young age she had learned to modulate her every aspect of her body. Her face, posture, and heart were in perfect unison. Aurora behaved politely enough as the escorts took them through the building towards their meeting. She was careful to take note of each little corridor they passed. She was hopeful the meeting would not result in terrible violence. Unfortunately, far too many of her encounters were ending in violence these days. Aurora needed to be careful. Just. In. Case. She prayed her little partner was doing the same.

Eventually they were lead to the antechamber of the office. Her foot tapped impatiently as they were forced to wait. The little red heel clicked on the floor. She had to play the part. The upstart mercenary wouldn’t exactly be the well behaved type. Finally the door opened and she returned her fellow Rebel’s whisper. “Be good.” Aurora followed the escort into the room. She put on her most sultry walk paired with her brightest smile. Everything about her screamed fun but terribly dangerous. They could only hope the CEO fell victim to the downfalls of so many men. She did wait until Tyler was done speaking before pipping in.

“Yes, thank you for seeing us. We know you are busy and don’t wish to take much of your time.” Aurora flashed a brilliant smile. “I’m Scarlett Marx, Rhel’s number two.” She continued to beam at the CEO. She couldn’t get a sense of the man. A part of her wanted to reach out in the Force but she had to resist. Now was not the time. “We’ve grown tremendously over the past few months and need the vessels to fit our men. You’ve been told there is no one else worth our time.” That much was at least true. They needed the ships desperately, and this was probably the only place to get them. @Faster Than Light @Darasuum

 

[The Storyteller]

The CEO, Krawken Bugoz, shook the mans hand out of respect and professionalism but did not change his expression. After both of the humans, or at least that is what they seemed, said their pleasantries he waited a moment as he looked between the two. He did not seem phased by the woman's good looks. He was in fact more exclusively interested in Sluissi females but he did not say as much.

"Freelance... Mercenary... Company." He said, repeating the name they had given and looked down at his desk. He had not introduced himself since it said as much on a plaque on his desk and they were supposedly the ones who had made the appointment. "Do you know why I do not have a file on my desk with your name on it?" He gave them a chance to respond with only a single syllable before continuing. It was a rhetorical question after all. "Because as far as I can tell there is no information on your company. That tells me that you are either lying about who you are or you are in fact 'not so big' as you claim to be. While you speak the truth about my company you have some explaining to do about your's. Why do we want to business?" He leaned back a little, letting the two representatives have the floor to explain themselves. He was a skeptical man and had his business to keep safe. He was not about to just make a deal without knowing who he was doing business with.

@Valen Pelora @Faster Than Light

 

[Tyler Ward]

Oh boy. This will be a tough nut to crack. Tyler kept a cool, unchanging expression even as the Sluissi boss expressed a great deal o skepticism over the Rebel envoys fabricated story. Of course the Sluissi is right about this, but Tyler isn't about to tell him he is right and spill the beans. The Sluissi said they can't find any information about this company but that can be easily explained away. The ex-Imperial agent would then proceed to speak and address the Sluissi's concerns in a polite tone.

"Now, we aren't big. But we are growing. We are based primarily in the Outer Rim and are looking to expand." he would nod his head. "We know that your people are some of the finest shipmakers in the galaxy. Ship building is an art to the SVS." he would respectfully nod his head "We are interested in entering a contract for regular production here. We understand you guys take your time to produce quality work. And rest assured, regardless of if you have prior knowledge of us or not, our credits are good and you guys will no doubt be compensated for your hard work appropriately." Tyler would then pause. "If you are willing, we can look into talking price and drawing up a contract," The GA might not be as rich as the Empire, but hopefully the Sluissi gives them a generous price. Hopefully 'Scarlet' has some magic up her sleeve, it's getting increasingly harder to negotiate with the Sluissi boss.

 

[Aurora Blackwood]

The urge to roll her eyes was painful. Aurora resisted because she was playing a carefully constructed role. Scarlett Marx wouldn’t roll her eyes, she would smile, wink, and toss her hair. Well, she was pretty sure that was what she would do. Aurora wasn’t overly familiar with the reptilian Slussi. What she did know was that they were brilliant shipbuilders with a penchant for following protocol. Maybe that was their way in. She certainly did not like the way the CEO was treating them. Tyler was doing his best but his best might not be good enough.

Time to cheat. Aurora reached for the Force, keeping a careful eye on Tyler and everyone else in the room. She hadn’t sensed a single Force sensitives but that didn’t mean their wasn’t one hidden. She felt pretty confident their wasn’t. She reached for the CEO’s mind and molded her words to sound even more convincing. Oh yes my dear, you want to believe what I am saying. Her words flowed smoothly as she spoke. “My boss is maybe a little overzealous but he isn’t wrong. Maybe we over exaggerated our size, we aren’t big……yet.”

She smiled brightly. “A man like you didn’t get where he is by playing it safe. He took chances. We are just looking for a chance, our credits our good and our fighting even better.” She ran her tongue across her teeth, clicking her heels on the floor. “I promise you won’t find anyone as motivated or deadly as the FMC.” Her shrugged her shoulders. “And if I’m wrong, we’ll be dead and you’ll be richer anyways.” The Force subtly infected each of her words. It was a small working of the Force, barely detectable to even a skilled user but it would be effective . It had to be. @Faster Than Light

 

[The Storyteller]

Krawken brought his hands together to a point and rested his chin on them as his arms in turn positioned themselves on his desk. He had learned this long ago when a simple salesman. They did not teach it in business school but it was body language to keep him from leaning too forward showing interest or aggression. On the other end it meant he would not be leaning too far back to show smugness or disinterest. People did not always know exactly what body language conciously meant but they got 'feelings' for them and that was a significant part of sales. When negotiating a large deal that mattered. Nowadays it had become a habit to take a neutral unreadable body language.

The Sluissi male would keep this posture as he listened to the masquerading human male. Even as the female attempted to influence his mind he would keep the posture. It was only afterwards that he sat up straight to address the two of them. His tone was less gruff as before but it was obvious he was not easily giving into their exact desires. "I see. What you say is understandable. Still you are half correct..." Thanks to Aurora's force capabilities he was no longer questioning their company's legitmacy. But now he was still skeptical about the business aspect of their potential arrangement. He had no idea that Aurora was pushing forth parts of his urges and her own desires into his mind either way. All things considered, he was still a capitalist that was focused on the money of the situation.

"I may have taken risks to get here. But it is easy for someone to take a risk with little to lose. Now I have a great deal. There are things to consider. SVS's reputation is always at risk and not something I consider lightly. Space and time in our shipyards, investments in all areas of the market. These are things I consider with every customer so do not take it personally." He raised his hand emphasize his last request before drawing a datapad from underneath some data stacks. The next few moments he would type on it and then pass it across. It would have six zeros before the the first alternative number was shown. He waited patiently for one of the two envoys chose to read it and react.

@Faster Than Light , @Valen Pelora

 

[Tyler Ward]

Dang, Aurora does have a way with worths. Tyler is fortunate to bring her with her. This Sluissi snake-lizard thing is a strict man, although he can't blame him he supposes. Tyler would nod in understanding of Krawken's statements. Still understandable, althoguh his rigidness makes this unnecessary difficult. Regardless the ex-Imperial agent kept a smile as the Sluissi was retrieving his datapad and then put some key strokes on it. Then the Slussi pass the datapad towards them. Tyler would pick it up and hold it for the two to see. And behold, their pricing ranges in the millions of credits range. There is no way that the Galactic Alliance could afford this, they are pretty resource strapped. Tyler would look over towards Aurora and then towards the Krawken. "If you want to excuse for a moment, we need to make sure this good with our bosses. Right?" Tyler turned towards Aurora again "We'll be right back" then towards Krawken again he said as he got out of his seat. He could outright decline right now and shamelessly trying to haggle but that doesn't seem like it would be a good look. Maybe this venture wasn't the most prudent idea, should have expected prices would be this high. He would at least discuss things with Aurora first while he's at it, just to make sure to see if there is anything else they can do. Either the Alliance is too resource strapped to afford these prices or it would near bankrupt them in doing so.

@Valen Pelora

 

[Aurora Blackwood]

The Force shifted as her persuasion began to swing the mind of the CEO. She had at least convinced him that their little outfit was legitimate. Unfortunately, that didn’t get them as far as she hoped. The datapad the CEO slipped over and that Tyler examined was ridiculous. Aurora knew that they couldn’t afford those damn prices. She also knew those same prices were unfair. The CEO was trying to gouge them. Tyler seemed content to try and find a way to bail. Well, Aurora wasn’t exactly ready for that. She kept her eyes on both Tyler and the CEO. Kriff, it was time to jump off the the cliff. Aurora pushed into the Force again. Her words carrying heavy weight. “Oh shove off, Rhel. Our little rouse is clearly up.”

Hopefully Tyler was smart enough to play along. “Our man here is too smart for us…he must have realized you’re my little toad.” Her eyes met the CEO’s, haughty confidence quickly overtaking her tone. The Force still sliding across every word. She maintained her careful awareness of the room. “I’m the boss. I wanted to get a sense of you, and Rhel is too polite to say what we both know. These prices are inflated beyond reasonable.” Aurora clicked her tongue in disgust.

“I want to buy from the best builders in the galaxy…that is you, but at a fair price. I won’t do business if this is what you consider to be business.” Either this would work or the meeting would be over. The Alliance couldn’t afford these prices, and if the CEO wouldn’t negotiate this would be the end of their discussion. She could only hope the strength of the Forced carried the day. @Faster Than Light @Darasuum

 

[The Storyteller]

The male nodded as the well dressed human took the data pad. His expression and body language change was only noticeable because Krawken had been looking for it. No business man set their price at what they actually wanted. They set it above and made room for haggling or the off chance that the customer could actually afford it. The Sluissi would have been suspicious of the two if they had just immediately excepted the price considering how steep it was. But they had not disappointing.

With that in mind the woman began letting out quite a few choice exclimations. All the while Krawken remained in the same posture he had and looked her in the eyes as she made a point of speaking in equal parts flattery as demands. He believed fully that she was indeed the boss of their company but his mind started moving towards how to handle a boss on boss debate. He would lower the price, now that new evidence was revealed. The CEO's mind was fuzzy for a moment and he felt the zeros fall away from his previous request.

Brreeepeepbreepeep!

The sound of his desk commlink shook him suddenly as a flashing light appeared to match the beeps. Krawken inhaled as if he had just woken up from a nap on a road trip. Looking at the two representatives he waited a moment. "Excuse me.." He reached forward and picked up the communicator. He raised it to his ear and spoke immediatly. "...What is it? This had better be important or so help me." He huffed and waited. Eventually his bothered expression turned to one of mild fear, then anger at what was being told to him. "Yes yes. Thank you." Ending the call he returned the handset to its cradle and stared unfocused at his desk as he thought of what had just been told to him.

Finally he looked up at the two disguised individuals. "Sorry for the interruption. It would seem that a group of ne'er do wells have stolen some blue prints for a new ship design..." Taking a moment for that to sink in he would continue. "I am willing to significantly lower the price for our services if you and your company can recover those blueprints and return them."

 

[Tyler Ward]

Tyler was confused with what Aurora was doing, but then after the proverbial lightblub lit up a moment after he caught on to what Aurora was doing. She was more then determined to make sure they get what they came here for. Tyler smiles and nodded his head in acknowledgement as she was steering and commanding the course of the conversation. She isn't afraid to be aggressively negotiating with that unmoving CEO.

But then the meeting was interrupted with a buzzing on the CEO's desk comlink. Not surprising since the CEO has to be a very busy man. The guy is rough though.

Then it looks like they caught a miracle after all. Some guy stole some blueprints for a ship design and the Sluissi boss is willing to reduce the prices if they are recovered safe and sound. The Sluissi's tone and body language suggest that he was relucant to give such an offer, but it's better than nothing.

Without hesitation, Tyler would agree to with the offer extended. "Gladly. We will investigate and recover the blueprints." Tyler would nod his head sternly. Aurora is playing boss now, but realy there is only one reply they would give now, especially that they have a shot at that contract at a very good deal. That's what they are here for, for the Alliance. "If you have any information that can help us, possible suspects, anything at all just message us."

Of course that will be a task in itself. They would have a lot of work ahead of them.