Comments - Headhunter128

Corvin finally breathed, having held his breath for the last few minutes. He once again stood up.

"Very well, we are in agreement. Unless anyone have anything final to add, I believe this meeting have come to a close." He sat down again, intending to stay until the others have left.

Corvin clears his throat to speak again.

"Then allow to me to propose a framework for a potential agreement, details to be haggled over if need be. The first part of this agreement will address the issues regarding the sector of Saleucami and the recent acquisition of the Super Star Destroyer the Alliance have acquired. The latter part will involve what it might take for recognizing the Centrality as a protectorate of the Alliance.

As the first part of this agreement, the Alliance is willing to, as a show of good faith, immediately scuttle the Super Star Destroyer that we captured from the Authority upon the conclusion of this meeting. To equalize the balance of power between us.

Second. The Saleucami sector will be administrated from the Centrality, thereby not adding it to formal Alliance space for the near future.

Thirdly, in exchange for the release of the Centrality envoys sent to Imperial space not long ago, we are willing to trade you Grand Admiral Tiruel. A deal that favors the Fel Empire greatly and... if the fact of it sweetens the deal.. will not go over well with some in the Alliance I'm sure."

He pauses and look to Sion Desyk for confirmation. The Kel Dor nods.

"The final part of the offer, the only part of this offer that may give this framework of an agreement a chance. Is an offer from the Centrality...". He says and look at Kain.

Corvin waits for a moment to make sure none have anything else to say before once again taking his turn. The Captain stands up and begins;

"It would seem then, that before any other matter can be discussed, we would to address the matter of treason then.

No group of people or nations can be held as traitors in perpetuity. After all, treason its not something that can be inherited.

Though we have not yet come to such a point where there have been a generational shift, it will occur at some point, after which what is an entirely reasonable and legitimate slight for this moral wrongdoing, becomes little less than the most primitive of blood feuds.

While it is not currently so, I ask you humbly your majesty, would it not be better to settle the matter with this singular War Lord now?

All that it takes for us to begin this process, is for you... To put it bluntly... To name your price of treason." He sits down and looks to the Empress to gauge her reaction and response to his broaching on this most serious of matters. He knew what the price would be, likely the price that one always pays for such crimes, but non the less it had to be said before anything else.

After acknowledging Kains gratitude, Captain Isarch moved to his seat but did not yet sit down. He looks at the delegates and wonder how the heck he finds himself starring down two nation leaders at this summit. He feels woefully outranked and considered contacting his Admiral... But decided against it. The Admiral had his hands full starring down the Hutts. Come to think of it, Corvin felt that he would gladly have switched places. He cleared his throat and began.

"Esteemed guests, first I must thank you all for agreeing to come here today, to discuss the latest events to stir the galactic peace of how we may keep this peace." he paused for a short moment and gave a distinct small bow to both leaders, and then sat down.

"The matter at hand, is one of equilibrium both our great nations, and under which terms it can be achieved. Kain, I believe we should start with you putting forward your aims and goals and we will go from there. After which I am sure your Majesty would like to comment." he said, switching his gaze from Kain to the Empress.

Captain Corvin Isarch found himself in a situation... not to his liking. They had left the blockade a few days before. Apparently, Sion Desyk had taken a liking to him and insisted that he be part of the Alliance delegation. Word was, that at this stage of negotiations no Senator was going to partake. When he had asked Desyk why this was, the Kel Dor had laughed and said no Senator would stick his name to this endeavor in case it failed.

"Not to worry Captain." he had said. "Should we come out of this meeting with anything resembling a deal. They'll will scurrying all over us like Thunian wart-honets!".

The Captain had raised an eyebrow and asked. "And what is a.. Thunian wart-hornet exactly?" The alliance operative leaned in closer.
"Its an insect that has a venom-coated tonque." He had answered and made what was probably the closest thing to a wink the Kel Dor could manage.

Under other circumstances, Corvin might have found the joke funny, but alas he was very much not looking forward to this meeting, and what was really unnerving him was Desyks aloof attitude to this meeting. As if he was partaking in one of those ridiculous spy vids that flooded the holonet every once in a while.

Once at the meeting site, all there was left to do was wait for the arrival of the other delegates.

The blockade continues as the ships that the Centrality sent arrives a bit delayed and take up position to the rear, the Endurance and the two Ardents placing themselves next to the Alliance carriers.

On board the Alliance flagship, Kitwarro gave the order for the Flotilla to halt. In a fleetwide communication, he ordered everyone not to fire unless fired upon.

The fleet is reordered into a new formation with the Absolution in the center, flanked by the Star Hawk. The Endurances stick to the rear of the two large flagships and deploys several wings of Starfighters and bombers. the Four Scythes are divided towards the flanks, as is two CR90 corvettes and the five Corona frigates. The Sixth still being in the hanger of the Absolution.

Captain Isarch opens a new line of communication to the Rear Admiral; "Admiral, how do you want us to handle this?"
The response came quickly..; "Do nothing Captain. If the Hutts consider our claim illegitimate, then theirs is most certainly not. So we'll, stay and put our feet up."
"And if they attack?" the captain asked.
"Then it wasn't us whom escalated. Nor were we the first to break communications or activate gravity well generators. No matter what comes next, I'm confident we have acted in a manner of which the Senate will back. And... it would seem the Hutts are ready to act on any excuse to start a fight anyway." The Admiral replied and the Captain replies with the acknowledgement; "I will put my feet up then."

"Perhaps you misunderstand Fleet Master Daarga the Alliance have long claimed this system and the rest of the sector. We insist... That you leave." Kitwarro says, in what was to everyone who knew him, perhaps the most diplomatic tone the Hutts would ever get.

Isarch stirred but said nothing.

Captain Isarch receives an order for him to attend a holo-conference with the Rear Admiral and the Hutts. Before doing so however, he sends a short transmission to Desyk.

Before the brig forcefield is even lowered, Sion Desyk hears the notification of an incoming message and presses the button to acknowledge the call. Corvin Isarchs voice comes through the communicator; "Desyk, you may want to hold off with your scheme. The Hutts are here, and they have taken Saleucami it would seem. Admiral Kitwarro and I will be opening up communications with the Hutts in a moment." he says.

A frown appears on Sions face... Best laid plans and all that he thinks to himself. He moves his wrist up to chest height and responds. "Very well Captain. I will... Stand by." He moves to look at the prisoner and says; "It would seem... Grand Admiral... that you have nothing left to bargain with." and turns his back on him for the moment.

__________________

Meanwhile the Alliance Flotilla slows down, by Kitwarro's orders as they attempt negotiations.

As the Rear Admiral and Captain Isarch enter into a holotransmission. Kitwarro bruskly announces to the Hutts;
"Grand Admiral Tiruel have surrendered to the Alliance. There is no need for the continued presence of Hutt forces, the Alliance is ready to take it from here." Being a bit more diplomatic, Isarch quickly adds; "We are of course glad of the assistance of the mighty Hutts in this conflict, you have suffered a terrible insult during recent events." He says calmly.

On board the Austerity, Sion Desyk gets up from his desk and shut of his computer terminal as they have finally arrived. He straightens his ornate coat, leaves his room and looks to the two guards at either side of him. The guards are a specialized trooper detachment assigned to Alliance intelligence and are therefor marked with grey and yellow, instead of the more standard white and blue colors. He gestures for them to follow him as he moves to the brig where the Grand Admiral remains under guard. An identical set of guards to his own are found guarding the Tiruel.

"Grand Admiral, as you may or may not have guessed we have arrived at Saleucami. It would be in your... best interest... to facilitate a peaceful transfer of power, and the surrender of your forces on the planet and in orbit." Sion says.

___________

On the 2nd Flotilla flagship, Kitwarro orders a full sensor sweep and scan of the system to get his bearings.

Upon receipt of Kains message, the fleet began final preparations. A stream of transports and larger craft was streaming from the Absolution. As the last few transports cleared away. The Flotilla, now including the Absolution and a few Centrality ships, begins calculations for a hyperspace jump. Once the last few preparations are made, the mixed force jumps into hyperspace.

Any transports leaving the ship without authorization were warned once, to power down, and then destroyed immediately upon failure to comply.

As the Grand Admiral is escorted out under guard and taken to the Austerity, Captain Isarch begins recording a short Holo communication to Kain.

"Sovereign Protector. We have seized Tiruel and he is being transported to fry frigate right now. As a courtesy, I am allowed to inform you that the Alliance intends to end the threat of the Authority once and for all. If you wish, you can follow us to Saleucami, or merely send an observer to the Absolution.

Upon the conclusion of this conflict, Alliance High Command is willing to recommend that the Senate initiate immediate negotiations with the Centrality regarding future relations. For now though, time is of the essence. The Alliance will begin removing all non essential personnel from the Absolution immediately. Since the Womp rats have already begun scurrying off the ship, it shouldn't take long.

I'm sure you are terrible busy discerning the outcome of the devastation wrought today, but it would ease tensions if we were to continue the cooperation for now."

He ended and the message, he was sure a response would be forthcoming shortly, but he had a lot to do on the Absolutions, and not a lot of time.

A message is sent back to the Admiral, stating that a boarding party will be taking him into custody.

As the boarding party moves towards the bridge, they make sure that the surrendering crew is sent away from the corridors. With the Authority surrendering, Captain Isarch decides to accompany Sion Desyk and his soldiers to the bridge of the Absolution.
Upon entering the bridge, they move up to the Admiral.

"Grand Admiral, I am here to accept your surrender. Before returning to our ship, you will order your men, to follow my orders until such a time where they can be properly disarmed and demobilized. Are we in agreement?" Corvin ask, with the neutral, yet assertiveness that is expected of the situation.

meanwhile, the rest of the Alliance Flotilla moves around the SSD.

With the majority of the opposition destroyed, the alliance flotilla moves up and begins mobbing up the last few enemy corvettes, expecting to make short work of them, damaged ships are held back for shield regeneration and repairs as the rest moves forward.

________________

"All units, prepare for breaching action!" Captain Isarch orders.

The Austerity and its sister ship, moves in front of the small group, diverting power from most of its weapons systems to their Ion-cannons only and opens fire upon a single area of the ships shields, near its rear-most hanger bays. The Corvettes contribute with regular turbolaser fire, along with proton torpedoes from nearby K-Wings.

"Lets hope we can weaken the shields enough locally to get through and that the ship isn't fully crewed, otherwise we will be torn apart." Verris tells the Captain, referring to an intelligence assumption that the Authority would not have the manpower to fully crew the ship.

"Aye.." the Captain says. "But for now, its bow is pointed away from us, and that buys us a little time. Perhaps enough for the rest of the fleet to get here in case we fail to punch a hole." he optimistically points out.

"If you say so Captain.." Verris says with a note of pessimism.
____________________________________

OOC: In the interest of time, I will post my move even if I admit freely I have qualms about my method here. I'm sure the Centrality fleet will be there next turn anyway.

A frigate on the left flank of the flotilla suffers a terrible blow to the bridge and begins drifting and a nearby corvette loses power to its shields under the pressure of enemy starfighters and bombers. In response, another wave of starfighters are launched from the carriers and directed to the left flank, meanwhile the fleet continues to hammer down the last few ships of the Authority in front of the Alliance flotilla.

________________

Captain Isarch and his small strike force turns and begin their attack run towards the enemy Super Star Destroyer. Starfighters and a small number of bombers and launched to help.

"Send a message Kain via standard VLC protocols, we need his right flank to follow us in, or at least distract the that Golan!" he barked to his crew.

"And let Sion Desyk know, that he should prepare his men." his CO Verris nods and moves to an internal com station.

The Alliance Flotilla continues to fire upon the their original targets, but slows down a bit. The starfighters are now allowed to engage targets and move in, so does the bombers. The K-Wings move to target shield generators and other priority targets.

On the left flank, the Corvettes prepare for a potential enemy starfighter assault upon seeing them cluster up in front of them.

___

Captain Isarch on his newly arrived reinforcements forms up and begins to move towards the Centrality right flank and full speed behind the current combat formations.

As the Alliance Flotilla comes into range, most ships focus fire on the two nearest enemy Star Destroyers and Corvettes, putting pressure on the right flank of the centrality. Admiral Kitwarro didn't want a distanced slugging match however and had the fleet continue to move forward.

"Time for a brawl!" the protocol droid on the bridge translated to the crew.

____________

On the Alliance right flank, two Corvettes and a Frigate peel off at full speed to rendezvous with the Austerity under Captain Isarch.

Corvin's second in command looked up from a communications station and double checked something at the nearest sensor station. "Captain" he says to Corvin, whom reluctantly looks away from the window.

"What what I can gather, it seems the good Admiral have decided to send some help . A few Corvettes and another Frigate. I assume this is for our.. secondary objective?"

Corvin pauses for a moment and looks back out the bridge window. "You assume correctly. However it from seem that our target might just be running away... When our reinforcements get here, prepare a course that takes us around the right flank of the Centrality fleet." The Captain orders.

"Yes sir." his second affirms and begins preparations.

The Alliance 2nd Flotilla exit hyperspace at the edge of the gravity well generated by the Authority fleet. Their exit point is determined the be to the far left of the Centrality forces. It would have been preferable to engage the enemy directly to the left and leave less time to prepare for the enemy, but alas, the situation is what it is.

Rear Admiral Kitwarro wasted no time to set up a proper formation. His flagship, a Starhawk-class Battlecruiser takes up the front, flanked by four Scythes, six Coronas and four CR90 Corvettes. Close behind them are the Endurance-class carriers, already unloading their many wings of starfighters and bombers, the starfighters intermix with the fleet as a screening formation for now, while bombers are held back.

The Alliance fleet is laying in their attack vector towards the flank of the enemy.

*Captain Isarch stays in position as indicated, and for now the Austerity follows the lead of the Centrality forces.*

*Captain Isarch immediately dispatches the communications to the 2nd Flotilla.*

*I skip my turn

The Austerity stays at the back of the formation, in the shadow of the larger ships, content with the pretense of being a rear guard.

OOC: Should a document is some sort be made for the Alliance folder? For the sake of future people whom might just want the details without looking first for the event and then reading the entire thing?

The senator takes the datapad and begin to review it, he sends a copy to the various other people assembled in the room, notably not the general whom is entirely disinterested anyway.

Upon competition of the review some time later. The senator adds his signature to the datapad;

Armament Procurement Committee, Senator Tyrsas Kuiras

and hands it to the general, who also ads his;

Fifth Army Core, General Vox Alrimidas T'zorl

"Congratulations to Armara, the contract is yours. We look forward to a long, and beneficial, relationship between your corporation and the Alliance." The senator says and stands up to shake Evalins hand.

Kuiras had to make an effort to disguise his first reaction to what he saw as Evalin and her corporation being outright greedy. This contract was barely signed and already they were probing for additional deals. One would think a deal worth billions of credits was a good enough start to a business venture. Kuiras proceeds to say;

"Perhaps that is on the tables for the future, but for now our interests are limited towards this procurement." Kuiras paused for a moment chewing on her next words. "As I've said, we have mandate to diversify our procurement chains and manufacturing bases for all military armaments. Not to mention that it is always in everyone's best interest to allow for a period of trust to build" Kuiras said to Evalin.

General T'zorl add to that; "For now, the immediate needs of the army are met, or soon to be. If there is nothing else, we should proceed to signing the contract. I assume you have something prepared?"

"Very well." the general says, as the senator is conversing with some of the advisors.

The senator returns his attention to Evalin. "Time does permit I believe, though I suppose it depends on how much else there is to negotiate."

"We have no doubts as to the quality of your product, having conducted our own tests. They are sufficient." T'zorl says, uncaring of the pomp and grace.

"But how do you intend to guarantee logistical concerns? Are there strategic concerns involved in your production lines and distribution centers?"

Before Evalin can answer, the Senator further adds, "While we admire the speed with which you can provide us with the material. We would prefer a slower supply of material. Perhaps one that spans no less than three years. Both on the account of the yearly budgets, but also to make sure that there are no unforeseen teething issues with production."

"Welcome to Coruscant chief executive Evalin." the senator says. The general curtly nods. She continues; "It bodes well for these negotiations that we have heard much about the efforts you are making our on behalf, though we figured the incentive might just be irresistible. Please have a seat, refreshments are available should you wish for anything." the senator and the general sits down.

"So the question at hand is.. to what extent can you accommodate our requirements. They are not immediate, but the long term projection are non the less important. The Chief of State have issued a mandate that we diversify our corporate contracts, and the Armara corporation is one of many that we are reaching out to." Kuiras adds.

T'zorl preempts the senator from saying anything else by saying; "Lets get started then. We are all busy people no doubt."

Slightly irritated the senator acknowledges the statement with a gentle nod and a wave of the hand indicating that Evalin may begin her presentation.

Senator Kuiras and General T'zorl were awaiting the next round of negotiations with the Armara Corporation, surrounded by the usual group of lawmakers and advisors. Silence dominated the room for several minutes, the senators was watching the general stare in stoic silence at the door. It was the senator that broke the silence first.

"Tell me T'zorl... Will be intelligence be joining us again?" Kuiras asked. "Intelligence have no further interest in this matter. As far as I know." He responded.
"Oh really?. What do you know about it then T'zorl?" the senator probed.
"I know to let intelligence do what intelligence does."

Kuiras was about to say something with a protocol droid informed them that the CEO of Armara had arrived, and they rose to their feet to welcome the guests.

The terms are acceptable and both the Senator and the General stands up and proceeds to apply their signature to the datapad.

"Well then, until next time Miss Sova". The senator says and bows slightly. The general says nothing, but merely nods as he did last time and moves to the nearest window to watch the traffic and discuss something with one of the aids. The aid leaves the room.

And lastly the senator says; "And give the regards of the Alliance to your Chief Executive Officer."

_____________

As few minutes after the representatives leave, someone else enters the room. A Kel Dor, by the name of Sion Desyk, moves to speak with the senator and general.

"I assume you had a productive meeting." He says, taking a seat at the table where Sova sat. He moves his hands along the underside of the table as if to check for something.

The senator looks at him in bewilderment as to both his presence and his actions. Its only afterwards that he notices the pin on Kel Dors coat, indication that he is from Alliance Intelligence.

"Yes.. We did.." the senator says hesitantly. The general is less confused from the looks of it, turns to face the operative and says; "We have secured 200 units as you suggested. We will begin our own testing immediately." T'zorl says.

"Whats is this really about?" The senator inquires. "Why is intelligence involved in this?"

"Its quite simple Senator. If... others... were to procure this armor in any great quantity and we do not. Then it is best we know all there is to know about it. Its.. Prudence. A good virtue to uphold in times like these." Sion says.

"Or outright paranoia." the senator says chastising.

"In my line of work, prudence and paranoia is two sides of the same coin. Thank you for your diligent work general". Sion says, he gives the senator a deep bow and leaves the room.