Once I was done communicating with an accountant’s secretary to set up a meeting, I had two days’ time to spend learning both about the banking guild and the moon I was landing on. It was fascinating. Several parts of this were nearly indistinguishable from an Admec Forge World. I focused on the Corellian and Industrial sectors as I would be able to get some of the material I needed there.
The Corellians of the Corellian Engineering Corporation and several of their subsidiaries held a portion of the city that was the size of a small continent and here they sold and serviced the vehicles they were known for. Focused on small atmospheric capable craft and bulk shipping instead of dedicated combat craft the Corellian line of ships were definitely ahead of the pack. The CMC, Corellian Mining Corporation, even had a chunk of the cityscape. Focused on both selling equipment to the Hutts and Others interested in the mineral wealth of the outer rim they also had quite the refining area.
I knew the Mechanicus could do better, but it was intimidating seeing the result of a culture that also had thousands of years of experience. The results of being able to expand with abandon shown and I was almost jealous of the peace this galaxy enjoyed. Sure, it seemed marred by endemic corruption, but there was no wars or destruction on the scale of my home galaxy. The last large-scale conflict had finished around a thousand years ago with what was known as the Ruusan reformation, or the Seventh Treaty of Ruusan. It put heavy restrictions on the leader, the Chancellor, of the republic and limited the standing armies. Removing the Jedi legally entirely from the equation. It was an interesting read though when I saw it mentioned in a forum post on the galnet, Galactic Network, bemoaning the Trade Federations power in the outer rim.
All of these pieces of information only tangentially touched on the banking clan, but I knew I would need to understand some of the nuance if I wanted a safe home in this galaxy. I earmarked the information for later perusal. Another hour was about up, and I really had no clue how much money the pirates and placed into the account my searches were pulling from.
One thing that I had available for free was the Corellian’s site they hosted in system. There was a map of the different showrooms for the sale of their products as well as a used page filled with listings of equipment for sale. They had some nifty search functions for narrowing your criteria on products you wanted to view. While only some had pricing available, their newer products, I would have to inquire at the correct office for used equipment pricing. The CMC had multiple options for mining equipment available. Both void and surface based.
The CMC digger crawler was the first one I looked into. An immensity of a tracked vehicle it was double the size of a Bane Blade tank, though only slightly heavier at 450 tons. It had two different versions available. One utilizing magnetic intakes for sorting through scrap and another with mechanical intakes and extra sensors for ground penetration. A very interesting aspect of these was that the forge inside was called a molecular furnace. It came with standard programming for refining the metals common to the industry of this galaxy, though this programming could be added to. It wasn’t as detailed as the standard forges the machine cult used but it was close enough that I could add the molecular structure of Imperial plasteel. Which meant I would be that much closer to a fully functional base of Admec technologies.
Problem was shipping something this size. It wasn’t anywhere near the size of a Bagger class digger the Mechanicum used but it might be as far out of my grasp because the Digger-crawler was larger than the spaceship I was on. Another demerit to it besides requiring a much more massive freighter to move was the fact that it would be reliant on droid or other labor in order to get ore. By itself it had no digging apparatus, only an intake for already retrieved ore. There were a few different options for this. The Trade Federation offered the apparently ubiquitous PK-4 worker droid. Capable of gathering most mundane resources but would require cargo sleds and tools to excavate the ore.
All of that would add to the maintenance. I wanted to have as few moving parts as possible to worry about getting replacements for, and eventually found another option. The 11-17 mining droid was about the height of a small astromech at one meter, but around 3 long. It dug with some sort of plasma drill that I really wanted to study and would be able gather one hundred kg of material for drop off. It had strong alloys meant to withstand the temperature of melted rock and ore, as well as shrug it off in its treads. It only had a good reception online and was typically used in harsh environments due to the thick armor and insulation it possessed. Built by the Roche Hive Mechanical Apparatus and Design Construction Activity corporation. It would be good to remember them as they seemed to produce some great, if alien, designs.
The day passed and I took some time from reading to passively scan other ships as they went by to get used to identifying vessels. There was a near constant flow of transport vessels moving to and from every starport on the moon, and the stations above it. While I couldn’t be certain of the capacity and fullness of every ship going to and from, I was positive that the planets appetite was measured in the dozens of kilotons of food and material per week.
During my ship watching another thought occurred and I risked another galnet search. I needed to know more about entities like the mining guild if I was hoping to compete with current providers of raw resources. I was lucky to find an organization that tracked not only the value of raw resources, but the value of the corporations involved in every aspect of exploiting them. The economy seemed more ambiguous than I had thought so I took notes that I would find the answers to later.
So many aspects to research in order to not reveal too much ignorance to the banker or any of the Hutts I may meet.
Another day passed like this, and I finally contacted the nearest starport to the Banking Clan enclave. It was time to meet the accountant. I carried the pirate captain’s dataslate, the lesser credstick, one plate of the metal debt shipment, and had his heavy blaster pistol on my hip. I would have to get used to this as I had been told by Joran that it was the “fashion” for captains and free traders. Even without, perhaps especially because, the proper paperwork I was the nominal captain and so it would be expected for me to be obviously armed.
I handed some of the normal pistols out to the three. They would take turns standing watch on the landing. Nar Shaddaa’s reputation necessitated the vigilance and they set a watch. I shouldn’t be gone long but it was good to be careful. I had also been told there was nothing else like the servitors and they would draw undue attention if spotted. I understood but suspected that the three were just scared of them.
As I left the ship a blue skinned alien with large eyes came up to me. The Duro, I think, was wearing a blue and yellow work suit of some sort.
“Welcome sir, here is the docking information.” The xeno said by rote while handing me a dataslate. Curiously looking it over I find myself glad at having spent so much time over the past week cramming this language into my memory.
There were plenty of options from merely using the landing pad, twenty credits per day, to other sundries such as fuel and basic rations. Refilling one of the hundred and twenty fuel cells was 52 credits. I needed 84 filled which meant the 2 thousand plus credits on my person was insufficient. Considering I would need to buy much more for my operation it was very telling about how much larger operations would cost someone.
“I’m paying for the berth for now, two days.” The xeno nodded, “And I’ll refuel and resupply when I return.” I gave the xeno payment and looked around before leaving. The landing area was completely enclosed and could fit ships nearly twice as large as the one currently in it. The older human, Scruffy, was the first sitting watch nodded at me. I absentmindedly waved a mechandrite in parting and left the landing area.
The area had standing maps that guided me through a thoroughfare of buildings. Both habitation and commerce related. There were many people moving in either direction and above our heads aircars and shuttles sped past. The entirety of the hives transportation seemed to be relegated to flying vehicles and that freed up the streets for pedestrians. The look ended up being both similar and very different to the imperial worlds I had seen. The air was also much cleaner here. There must be atmospheric scrubbers in some of the architecture around because from what I saw the Industrial Sector should produce pollution on par with districts dedicated to the same in the Imperium. I took as many of the sights in as I could on the way to the Banking Clan arcology. It was an immense edifice with the symbol of the local organization proudly displayed.
There wasn’t much foot traffic going in or out, so I found it relatively easy to get through the automatic doors into a cavernous atrium. Strange art, and sitting areas filled the space. Most were empty and seemed highly superfluous to my senses.
As I passed through an interior arch into the larger space there was a small but insistent ding, followed by an attendant droid walking up to me.
“Honored customer, there is a rack for weapons.” The droid started, indicating a space hidden by some reedy green foliage. After I removed the blaster, the droid started again “What can this one do for you, honored customer?”
“Meeting with Rohr Fall, accountant.”
“Right this way, honored customer.” The droid led me past the seating areas to one of the large doors, made out of some type of crystal that an Ogryn could easily pass through. They smoothly moved to the side. “The elevators on your right, the executive level. There is a waiting room. You will be notified when Accountant Hall is available.
The lift was clearly made for comfort and beauty. Much like the entire building there was molding of silvery metals adorning everything and this had a window looking out into the city. As I rose watching the cityscape unfold before me was simply amazing. They had eschewed the simple utility of single massive spires like the hives of the Imperium. Rather every building was built tall with a few, including the bank, towering over everything else. There was a h.u.d. on the glass that even gave the designations of the nearer corporate headquarters. Multiple off-shoots of Corellian engineering were present as well as a few others like Sienar Design Systems, Cybot Galactica and TaggeCo.
As I saw Nal Hutta above and the lights on the horizon, I felt a yearning for home. Stygies VIII had some areas that doubled as observation platforms that gave similar views. Looking out at Stygies, the gas giant, and seeing the lights of industry alight on the surface of the moon was one of my most treasured memories. It never failed to show what the Admec could do with everyone working together to feed the Imperium’s war machine.
The door opening behind me caught my attention, surprising me though I would never admit it. The lounge was as opulent as I had envisioned a Rogue Trader’s stateroom being. Gilding, delicate stonework and lovingly carved wood reliefs made up the space. Still, form over function was where I drew the line. I had a distaste for building things with the beauty of the object being the forefront of the design principles. My mentor had taken a sick delight in foisting the contracts that passed by him for nobles’ requests in the Segmentum Pacificus.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
I sighed and moved through the lounge, looking down the hallway straight ahead. A few people and droids walked about but none approached me, so I went back to looking around the weirdly nostalgia inducing place.
There was even a Caf dispenser that seemed more precious metal than functional object. I was able to get a cup of the local caf out of it and sat to wait. Accessing the noosphere I looked at the ocean of connections and signals around.
++ Be thou wary of the works of the alien, for your ignorance may lead you astray ++
As usual the MIU dispensed wisdom of the Machine God. I should tread carefully as I do not fully understand the systems lighting up my world around me. Passive I meditated on the information flowing around me. There were so many machine sprites, or their equivalent, and biological operators doing their work around the building that the noosphere was as alive as it could be on any forge world. Though almost entirely foreign in that I could not understand even a tenth of the works being done, either through encryption or programming in languages I did not yet know. It was a strange juxtaposition that didn’t feel quite right.
I left my reverie when I sensed one of the signals getting closer.
“Honored Customer, Head Accountant Hall is ready to see you.”
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Rohr Hall looked over the information available to the bank on the odd man who had requested a meeting with him. Captain of a ship, whose credentials were clearly doctored, that was flagged by both the Black Sun pirates and the Banking Clan. For different reasons but it was odd that both parties were looking for the ship. He wasn’t sure what the Black Sun wanted with it, but the current supposition was because of the recent change of hands.
What was, was that this new captain had a ship that was recognized by the Banking Clan security as having perpetrated a heist on one of their shuttles barely over a month ago. Stealing over four million credits worth of metals and cred sticks. He could see what this new captain hoped to accomplish. Develop a relationship with the bank as an operator they could trust. Probably. It had been calculated as the most probably likelihood and he didn’t doubt it. He sat in the easiest to get to Banking Clan operation if you didn’t have legitimate licenses to fly around republic space. And he showed up a couple weeks after the ship had disappeared to the Banking Clans information network.
Rohr sat and pondered the situation as he was alerted by the arcologies system that his guest had arrived. He took some time to finish his caf and take one last look at the limited profile of the captain. A holo shot, colored by the expensive modification to the projector, showed a man in a steel grey cloak with red and gold highlights on the shoulders, and a strange symbol on his left. White with black outlines on top of the crimson red denoting, possibly, his allegiance. It came up as unknown in the system and the search through the InterGalNet, the sole domain of the Banking Clan, came up blank as well. Neither of the two extragalactic dwarf galaxies that the Banking Clan had access to had anything like that. Unless this was some upstart organization this was possibly something new from one of the other five dwarf galactic bodies. Which the excessive, and frankly intimidating, augmentation that he had pointed to.
Skeletal reinforcement, spine entirely replaced, muscular enhancements in upper and lower body, a plethora of implants in the chest and skull and two metallic tentacles hidden under the thick fabric of the cloak. None of it came back as obvious weaponry but it was almost entirely made out of metal alloys the scanner didn’t recognize. Those it did were precious metals like platinum and arodium. The skull droid that floated behind him was equally intimidating. Either it was made using parts of an actual human skull or was indistinguishable from the real deal. Well oiled metals made up most of exterior the small droid and there were no signs of weaponry on either the droid or the man, except the Corellian Arms CD type-2 blaster pistol, which he had given up at the door. Judging by equivalents in augmentations that could be identified there was hundreds of thousands of credits worth of implants in the man in the waiting room. The ones the system couldn’t identify based on the blurry silhouette, the robe had some sort of radiation protections that didn’t allow a clear picture, could impact the value all the way into the millions when taking into account cost for implantation.
By all accounts the system told him this was an impossibility. The known issues with rejection should have prevented this and if it had borg construct equivalent technology he had to be considered a threat to their local system, but he had no recorded infractions, so the security bots merely stayed alert.
It was time to meet this mystery cyborg. He signaled the droid to lead him to one of the secure meeting rooms, one that could lock down movement within by focusing grav plating. Just in case.
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I was led into a large meeting room filled with a large circular table. A xeno, or perhaps another abhuman, sat on the opposite end of the table. He was tall, his features seemingly stretched to strange obscene proportions and grey of skin.
Removing my hood, I walked into the room. “Thank you for meeting me on such short notice, Head Accountant.” The table over which this meeting was taking place was a large, very thick piece of wood with minimal adornments. Finally, a purely functional piece of furniture in this place.
“Of course, your matter seemed important. Whom do I have the pleasure of meeting?”
“Beta Longinous,” I itched to use my numerical designation but having been advised I kept it to myself, “Most recent captain of the Dusty Crow.” Getting to the heart of the matter. I was sure that the Banking Clan should have recognized a ship that was responsible for the theft of their money.
“I’m Rohr Hall, Head Accountant of the Banking Clan on Nar Shaddaa. I assume the Dusty Crow is a recent acquisition. How did you come by it?”
“The original crew attempted to pirate my previous vessel, leaving it crippled. I was able to take their vessel due to the pirate’s miscalculation.” I brought the metal plate out of my cloak, “And I discovered that they had a trove from a previous attack.” I finished, sliding the metal across the table to the man. Truly I was slightly distracted by finding what seemed to be another example of a xeno specie merely being another set of abhumans, who seemed to be one of many. It brought to mind many questions about whether this could be an example of the crossing of the gulf between galaxies being more common than simply being a one-off event that the Luminous Beacon perpetrated somehow or if this was some sort of cross pollination that has happened in the past. I knew their history spanned thousands of years, so there could be evidence I may find that coincides with the dark ages of the Imperium. A task for later.
During my distracted thought Rohr had picked up the metal plate and inspected it. “Yes, I had looked into our records on the identification you related when scheduling this. I assume you intend to return our pirated debt shipment?”
“To be blunt, yes. But I’m hoping the banking clan offers rewards to those who return its lost property.” I had no choice but to be as clear as I could be. When I asked the three aboard my xeno ship, and wasn’t that a weird thought, I had gotten only shrugs and a suggestion that it there was a bounty hunting guild but none of them ever knew much about the profession, or who to go to in order to join the organization. Not that I wanted to join a guild filled with violent dangerous xeno from all over this galaxy.
“Ah, of course. May I see your registration with the Bounty Hunters guild Captain Longinous?”
That drew a sigh from me. Did I need to sign on with the group if I ever wanted to do something like this again? “…That is not something I possess.” I desperately hoped being unaffiliated with them wouldn’t doom my hopes of a ransom.
“Ah, that is a shame. We have posted bounties for either information or the return of our goods. Rescinding those because an unaffiliated being independently completed it comes with a penalty which we will have to pay.” The xeno seemed legitimately aggrieved by this. “Therefore, I am only willing to pay twelve point five percent as reward for the return of our goods. Anything more the Banking Clan will not finance.”
That was a shame but still something. I wasn’t sure about the value of what I had besides in the low millions of credits, and I wasn’t sure the slaves were the best source of information. Maybe I could keep the credits? “That is problematic, but I appreciate what I can get for it. As I said, my original vessel is crippled as is going to take some time for me to restore it. I assume once we are done with the meeting, I’ll meet some representatives of the bank at my ship to confirm the delivery of the metals?”
“That would be amenable. Were the metals all you recovered?” And there it was. I don’t want to burn this bridge over a hundred thousand credits, so honesty is hopefully the best way to go.
“No, the pirates had a stash in system as well as credits strewn throughout the ship. I assumed such things counted as salvage for the finder?” I ended with a deliberate question. I was myself uncertain how taking vessels went in this galaxy as I knew in my home galaxy that taking a vessel depended as much who owned it as who did the taking.
“Hm, I see. Far be it from me to audit every speck of dust aboard that vessel.” That seemed more reasonable than I expected from a galaxy spanning bank. “In return I’d like to ask a few questions.” There it was. In my lessons regarding rogue traders, it was stressed that information was sometimes the most valuable thing you could possess. Spending what you had could cost you much more than you ever intended.
“I can answer.” I said after a short pause.
He smiled. “Your accent is strange. And I have never seen the symbol you wear. Where are you from?”
An easy one. “My people are from beyond this “outer rim”. We have never traveled so far and doing so was always known to be dangerous.” I started, having practiced this story. It wouldn’t do to fumble and make it clear I was making it up on the fly. Helped that it was true. From a certain point of view. “A problem which I proved still true when my ship was crippled by pirates the moment I came close to the hyperlanes of the republic.”
“Hm.” He frowned. “What type of ship did you captain previously.”
Well, I couldn’t tell him a troopship turned fleet repair vessel as that could imply all sorts of things I didn’t need. “A Devourer. A mining vessel. One hundred and twenty meters long, with enough storage for three thousand metric tons.” Mostly true.
“A pity it’s been crippled. Depending on ores that’s not an inconsiderable amount that can be delivered to a planets industrial base.” And that might be an opening I need.
“You are correct. That being said I still plan to pursue my peoples plans for the system. I hope to use the credits to replace my capacity for mining. To that end, who should I speak with on the moon to purchase what I need?”
Rohr Hall responded after a thoughtful pause, “You cannot go wrong with the Corellian Mining Corporations goods when it comes to space or planet-based mining. They will have anything you could be looking for in their showroom. Its not more than a short cab ride away.”
“New equipment is well and good but what about used dealers? I’ll also need a way to bring everything off planet. I know the Corellian planet-based equipment is the size of the vessel I’m using. I’ll need something cheap. I don’t think I can get that in these well curated showrooms.”
“You’re correct. The action series of bulk freighters is outside of your price range.” He seemed to hesitate. “I hate to recommend one of the slugs, but I do know of one. Borgollo. Controls a patchwork of the northern quarter of the Industrial sector. He bought it out recently but seemed too good of a target and the others are swarming like mynocks. He is desperate and looking for any source of credits. Normally the Bank would charge for current information like this. But I am willing to waive broker fees in light of returning the shipment. The Bank always covers our debts. What else had you wanted to go over today?”
The next hour of the meeting went by quickly. Creating a new bank account and purchasing a datapad terminal that could complete transactions near a hyperwave transmitter for a 2.5 percent fee was just the first step. I used the previous captain’s credentials to put a claim on the ships bank account which Rohr told me would take a while as a security measure. If the pirate came back and claimed it as stolen the bank would side with their existing customer. I understood that; the Mechanicus treated existing contracts with a certain preference than new ones. It would take a month before any remaining funds could be claimed under the previous captain’s name for the ships account, so I’d have to return eventually.
As it was, I had left the bank before I realized I had forgotten the adamantine. I spared a quick look back before I decided I could present it at the next meeting. I had a scheduled visit with a representative of the bank soon at my docking bay. After that I was planning on seeing the showrooms of new equipment that would be around here and schedule a meeting with this Hutt.