Z
Zack
A relatively small cargo ship, carrying a disproportionately large amount of supplies and equipment, came into proximity of the settlement. The ensuing radio transmission gave explanation.
"SHIT!" Uso quickly got up from where she was, scrambling to find her datapad, "Vier! How'd we not know he was coming?!"
The answer from Vier was just like her other answers, stright to the point, and just a bit indifferent,
"This planet does not have a deep space monitoring system yet. We would need to install one if we want to catch ships on approach."
Uso's face was clearly angry for a moment, then accepting, then a bit disappointing in herself, going through a series of emotions as she worked out that there was no way for them to setup such a system until their business with the I'ee was finished.
"Right... ok, Send him to our starport and I'll go over there and meet him..."
Starport may have been a bit ambitious of a name for what was setup on the planet. A large concrete slab extended for what seemed like miles in all directions next to the city. Some ships were simply landed on the slab, with some cargo and loading drones moving about in between them. There didn't seem to be any lights or control tower setup either.
The tiny freighter landed in a fairly open spot. Its two occupants unloaded quickly. Marcus made his way to the rear of the craft while the other went to the cargo bay door and began going over a checklist on his datapad.
For his part, Marcus looked around, surveying the location and what it both did and did not have in the way of resources and facilities.
"You weren't kidding, old man." Marcus seemed to talk to himself. "She's got a lot of work ahead of her."
*boom*
There was a loud crack off in the distance, as a small spec began bounding away from the wood and stone structures of the city, getting a bit closer with each rocket powered jump.
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
Her final jump ended with a rocket-assisted stop fairly close to Marcus. Uso herself dressed in a deep blue bodysuit that seemed to stand up well to the stresses put on it from CRT organs installed in her shoulder blades. The green haired Neko brushing her bangs back just a bit to get them out of her eyes, the rest of her hair pulled back into a braided ponytail.
"MARCUS!" She finally shouted, "Great to finally meet you in person! How's the old man doing!?"
He smiled and nodded to Uso as she came closer. "Nice to meet you, too, Uso. Last I saw him Wazu was doing pretty well. Of course, he got a chance to come back to Ayenee with me for a little while. I think that did him some good."
Marcus gestured over to the other man, who was still going over the checklist. "I'd like to introduce Craig Eldredge, our company's transportation manager. I'll explain why I brought him along in a moment."
The tall man handed over a datapad of his own to Uso. "First, though, this contains all the plans I've made so far for what could be done with a food business on this planet. Obviously, I'd have to have a lot of climate control and soil tending to make it successful, but we have all the necessary equipment to accomplish that, so there's not a major concern for it on our part. You said something about employing locals for the work. What sort of experience do they have in agriculture?"
"Basically zero," Uso said, taking ahold of the datapad and examining the display. "There are some that specialize in growing plants, but growing plants here is something that really is a specialty. The atmosphere just doesn't support it. Sandstorms kill nearly everything that isn't close to the mountain..." Uso took a brief look towards the mountain near the city. The top of which was almost entirely made up of a large crater... Needless to say very recently the mountain used to be a lot taller. "... so there are a few plants grown indoors, but nothing quite on the scale you're looking for. Food is mostly procured from the green stuff growing in the water. An Akemi's was setup here recently and the locals are going crazy for a little bit of variety in their diet....but most importantly, we kinda need to start training the locals and giving them useful skills."
Uso would then turn her attention to Craig,
"And nice to meet you Craig," She said, extending a hand to shake.
The Nepleslian tapped a few times on his datapad, then smiled and took the offered hand. "Thank you very much, Ms. Uso. Pleasure to be here. The boss here tells me that we've got something you might need."
Marcus laughed lightly then moved over to the cargo bay door on the ship. "Alright alright. He's right. Uso, I haven't got a problem with training locals for employment. Our corporation, even back in Ayenee, has always been about giving back as much as possible to the communities with which we're involved. If the citizens here would be willing to sign some type of employment contract in exchange for training, we'll train them at no charge.
The executive opened the door to the small freighter to reveal a cargo hold full to the brim with various ship parts, organized as much as they could be in the undersized ship. "And now for the other half of my reason for visiting so soon. Ships..."
"I'm certain that won't be a problem. I think a lot of them will be eager to get out of the house soon and get back to work... as for ships...what did you have in mind? Full disclosure, all of anything related to ships right now is being put into a combat fleet. We've got some cute bugs that need help dealing with the NMX... though I suspect that we'll be done with that in a month or less. Then we've got some options opened up." Uso said.
Marcus nodded. "Yeah I heard about it. The I'ee, right?"
He didn't, really, wait for an answer. "And that's where me bringing Craig with me is going to come in handy. I would be willing to wager a pretty fair amount that he's got at least as much experience in ship building as anyone you have here."
Marcus switched the datapad he'd handed her earlier for a different one. "This currently has two ship designs on it. One is for a decent sized freighter. I've tried three different avenues and nobody that would normally build or sell ships seems willing to even reply to me. This tiny little thing is the only freighter we have. The other design is for a purely combat-oriented ship. We'll need it to escort the freighter we're trying to acquire. So here's my offer. You build these ships for us, starting with the escort ship. I'll join you with that ship in helping out the I'ee. Beyond that..." Marcus presented Uso with 500,000 KS.
"We can pay you 500,000, and offer you an additional 500,000 worth of goods and services from Equilibrium before we start charging your colony and the locals for what we produce here. I already have a trained crew ready to man the ship, and if you need a reference for my abilities in a fight, I believe Wazu will attest to my capabilities. So whattya think?"
"Heh, yeah the Old Man has already vouched for you. I know you're good for it." Uso said, taking the second pad and looking over the data. "The timeline is going to be iffy... I'm not sure I can have this thing built before our planned excursion to I'ee space.... but 500,000 will sure go a long way in providing missiles and other gear...
How about 500,000 now? I'll task some of our production away from building our combat drones and towards building your ship. That's going to cost us a few ships for the upcoming fight but I can outright buy enough missiles to make up for that.
Regardless of what happens next, you're welcome to come and see what the I'ee have to offer. We're up against the squids, and we've got a pretty good idea of how many ships and of what type they have.
After that, 500,000 worth of free stuff is a great start. After that how about we take a 1% cut of your profits? That'll pay for whatever land you want to use out here, and give us a bit of a head start on setting up some terraforming gear. We'll even work with you to mitigate or stop the sandstorms in your area first before spreading out to the rest of the planet." Uso offered.
Marcus looked over at Craig. "Start drawing up the plans for the escort ship. You've got the lead on this one."
"I believe, Uso, that we have a deal." He extended his hand to the colony leader.
Uso would reach out to shake,
"Fantastic, I think we'll both enjoy this going forward. How much space do you need for your grow-op?" She asked.
"The farms and facilities themselves will only take up a couple hundred acres. Obviously, the more I have to work with, the more I can do for the area. But, I'll leave that up to you." Marcus looked around at the landscape, again.
"As far as the sandstorms, I think I can do something about those, too. At least, in part. I'll leave the ship parts here. Some of them Craig will need for our escort ship, but the majority of them are just extras we came across in trying to acquire what we'd need. That'll allow me to bring what I'll need to do the initial soil treatments. By the time those are finished, the I'ee will be rid of their Mishhu problem if I have to personally tie their tentacles to a millstone and throw them in a pool of acid."
Uso slowly turned to look around. Sure, the city was the largest city on the planet... but it was still made of stone and wood, with only a few very modern exceptions that had been setup recently. The rest of the planet, the vast majority of what was around them, was a gritty, not quite sand, not quite mud...
"I mean.... I've got space. How much of it can you use? Soil treatment is one thing, but we can only shield so much of the planet from sandstorms for the time being... though we'll be expanding that as fast as possible once we finish with the I'ee."
Marcus shrugged while Craig took it upon himself to begin unloading the ship, stacking various types into appropriate groups.
"Yamatai allocated an entire small continent. So, I can use as much as you're willing to set aside. But, for the sake of practicality, 1,000-2,000 acres would be easy enough to handle with a few well trained people. If you want to shield a kilometer or so around that, we can do soil treatments and plant some regular foliage to stop some of the sandstorms naturally.
"OK, lets aim for 2,000 acres to start. We'll start figuring out how to setup the shield generators we have to cover them, and then we can start expanding outward from that. Quite frankly I'm not expecting much in terms of being able to terraform this place... so we're going to be clawing out territory and keeping it stable using shield generators and maybe some kinda... life support thing. That's all technical stuff though, we've got people for that.
We also don't have continents here, all the land is connected and there are some small bodies of water, though at some point I do play to grab some space-water and send it down here. Comets, asteroids maybe... that kind of thing.
... What else do you need from us in order to make this work?" Uso asked.
"Right now?" Marcus shrugged. "Give Craig a team that'll do what he tells them, and send me the coordinates for the land you're setting aside. Do that and by the time you're ready to leave for the I'ee home world there'll be another war ship to join the fight and the soil will be getting prepared for planting."
"Very well, we'll block out some area in the north west, and I'll put Craig in touch with my people.
I think it'll be good working with you Marcus!"
"SHIT!" Uso quickly got up from where she was, scrambling to find her datapad, "Vier! How'd we not know he was coming?!"
The answer from Vier was just like her other answers, stright to the point, and just a bit indifferent,
"This planet does not have a deep space monitoring system yet. We would need to install one if we want to catch ships on approach."
Uso's face was clearly angry for a moment, then accepting, then a bit disappointing in herself, going through a series of emotions as she worked out that there was no way for them to setup such a system until their business with the I'ee was finished.
"Right... ok, Send him to our starport and I'll go over there and meet him..."
Starport may have been a bit ambitious of a name for what was setup on the planet. A large concrete slab extended for what seemed like miles in all directions next to the city. Some ships were simply landed on the slab, with some cargo and loading drones moving about in between them. There didn't seem to be any lights or control tower setup either.
The tiny freighter landed in a fairly open spot. Its two occupants unloaded quickly. Marcus made his way to the rear of the craft while the other went to the cargo bay door and began going over a checklist on his datapad.
For his part, Marcus looked around, surveying the location and what it both did and did not have in the way of resources and facilities.
"You weren't kidding, old man." Marcus seemed to talk to himself. "She's got a lot of work ahead of her."
*boom*
There was a loud crack off in the distance, as a small spec began bounding away from the wood and stone structures of the city, getting a bit closer with each rocket powered jump.
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
Her final jump ended with a rocket-assisted stop fairly close to Marcus. Uso herself dressed in a deep blue bodysuit that seemed to stand up well to the stresses put on it from CRT organs installed in her shoulder blades. The green haired Neko brushing her bangs back just a bit to get them out of her eyes, the rest of her hair pulled back into a braided ponytail.
"MARCUS!" She finally shouted, "Great to finally meet you in person! How's the old man doing!?"
He smiled and nodded to Uso as she came closer. "Nice to meet you, too, Uso. Last I saw him Wazu was doing pretty well. Of course, he got a chance to come back to Ayenee with me for a little while. I think that did him some good."
Marcus gestured over to the other man, who was still going over the checklist. "I'd like to introduce Craig Eldredge, our company's transportation manager. I'll explain why I brought him along in a moment."
The tall man handed over a datapad of his own to Uso. "First, though, this contains all the plans I've made so far for what could be done with a food business on this planet. Obviously, I'd have to have a lot of climate control and soil tending to make it successful, but we have all the necessary equipment to accomplish that, so there's not a major concern for it on our part. You said something about employing locals for the work. What sort of experience do they have in agriculture?"
"Basically zero," Uso said, taking ahold of the datapad and examining the display. "There are some that specialize in growing plants, but growing plants here is something that really is a specialty. The atmosphere just doesn't support it. Sandstorms kill nearly everything that isn't close to the mountain..." Uso took a brief look towards the mountain near the city. The top of which was almost entirely made up of a large crater... Needless to say very recently the mountain used to be a lot taller. "... so there are a few plants grown indoors, but nothing quite on the scale you're looking for. Food is mostly procured from the green stuff growing in the water. An Akemi's was setup here recently and the locals are going crazy for a little bit of variety in their diet....but most importantly, we kinda need to start training the locals and giving them useful skills."
Uso would then turn her attention to Craig,
"And nice to meet you Craig," She said, extending a hand to shake.
The Nepleslian tapped a few times on his datapad, then smiled and took the offered hand. "Thank you very much, Ms. Uso. Pleasure to be here. The boss here tells me that we've got something you might need."
Marcus laughed lightly then moved over to the cargo bay door on the ship. "Alright alright. He's right. Uso, I haven't got a problem with training locals for employment. Our corporation, even back in Ayenee, has always been about giving back as much as possible to the communities with which we're involved. If the citizens here would be willing to sign some type of employment contract in exchange for training, we'll train them at no charge.
The executive opened the door to the small freighter to reveal a cargo hold full to the brim with various ship parts, organized as much as they could be in the undersized ship. "And now for the other half of my reason for visiting so soon. Ships..."
"I'm certain that won't be a problem. I think a lot of them will be eager to get out of the house soon and get back to work... as for ships...what did you have in mind? Full disclosure, all of anything related to ships right now is being put into a combat fleet. We've got some cute bugs that need help dealing with the NMX... though I suspect that we'll be done with that in a month or less. Then we've got some options opened up." Uso said.
Marcus nodded. "Yeah I heard about it. The I'ee, right?"
He didn't, really, wait for an answer. "And that's where me bringing Craig with me is going to come in handy. I would be willing to wager a pretty fair amount that he's got at least as much experience in ship building as anyone you have here."
Marcus switched the datapad he'd handed her earlier for a different one. "This currently has two ship designs on it. One is for a decent sized freighter. I've tried three different avenues and nobody that would normally build or sell ships seems willing to even reply to me. This tiny little thing is the only freighter we have. The other design is for a purely combat-oriented ship. We'll need it to escort the freighter we're trying to acquire. So here's my offer. You build these ships for us, starting with the escort ship. I'll join you with that ship in helping out the I'ee. Beyond that..." Marcus presented Uso with 500,000 KS.
"We can pay you 500,000, and offer you an additional 500,000 worth of goods and services from Equilibrium before we start charging your colony and the locals for what we produce here. I already have a trained crew ready to man the ship, and if you need a reference for my abilities in a fight, I believe Wazu will attest to my capabilities. So whattya think?"
"Heh, yeah the Old Man has already vouched for you. I know you're good for it." Uso said, taking the second pad and looking over the data. "The timeline is going to be iffy... I'm not sure I can have this thing built before our planned excursion to I'ee space.... but 500,000 will sure go a long way in providing missiles and other gear...
How about 500,000 now? I'll task some of our production away from building our combat drones and towards building your ship. That's going to cost us a few ships for the upcoming fight but I can outright buy enough missiles to make up for that.
Regardless of what happens next, you're welcome to come and see what the I'ee have to offer. We're up against the squids, and we've got a pretty good idea of how many ships and of what type they have.
After that, 500,000 worth of free stuff is a great start. After that how about we take a 1% cut of your profits? That'll pay for whatever land you want to use out here, and give us a bit of a head start on setting up some terraforming gear. We'll even work with you to mitigate or stop the sandstorms in your area first before spreading out to the rest of the planet." Uso offered.
Marcus looked over at Craig. "Start drawing up the plans for the escort ship. You've got the lead on this one."
"I believe, Uso, that we have a deal." He extended his hand to the colony leader.
Uso would reach out to shake,
"Fantastic, I think we'll both enjoy this going forward. How much space do you need for your grow-op?" She asked.
"The farms and facilities themselves will only take up a couple hundred acres. Obviously, the more I have to work with, the more I can do for the area. But, I'll leave that up to you." Marcus looked around at the landscape, again.
"As far as the sandstorms, I think I can do something about those, too. At least, in part. I'll leave the ship parts here. Some of them Craig will need for our escort ship, but the majority of them are just extras we came across in trying to acquire what we'd need. That'll allow me to bring what I'll need to do the initial soil treatments. By the time those are finished, the I'ee will be rid of their Mishhu problem if I have to personally tie their tentacles to a millstone and throw them in a pool of acid."
Uso slowly turned to look around. Sure, the city was the largest city on the planet... but it was still made of stone and wood, with only a few very modern exceptions that had been setup recently. The rest of the planet, the vast majority of what was around them, was a gritty, not quite sand, not quite mud...
"I mean.... I've got space. How much of it can you use? Soil treatment is one thing, but we can only shield so much of the planet from sandstorms for the time being... though we'll be expanding that as fast as possible once we finish with the I'ee."
Marcus shrugged while Craig took it upon himself to begin unloading the ship, stacking various types into appropriate groups.
"Yamatai allocated an entire small continent. So, I can use as much as you're willing to set aside. But, for the sake of practicality, 1,000-2,000 acres would be easy enough to handle with a few well trained people. If you want to shield a kilometer or so around that, we can do soil treatments and plant some regular foliage to stop some of the sandstorms naturally.
"OK, lets aim for 2,000 acres to start. We'll start figuring out how to setup the shield generators we have to cover them, and then we can start expanding outward from that. Quite frankly I'm not expecting much in terms of being able to terraform this place... so we're going to be clawing out territory and keeping it stable using shield generators and maybe some kinda... life support thing. That's all technical stuff though, we've got people for that.
We also don't have continents here, all the land is connected and there are some small bodies of water, though at some point I do play to grab some space-water and send it down here. Comets, asteroids maybe... that kind of thing.
... What else do you need from us in order to make this work?" Uso asked.
"Right now?" Marcus shrugged. "Give Craig a team that'll do what he tells them, and send me the coordinates for the land you're setting aside. Do that and by the time you're ready to leave for the I'ee home world there'll be another war ship to join the fight and the soil will be getting prepared for planting."
"Very well, we'll block out some area in the north west, and I'll put Craig in touch with my people.
I think it'll be good working with you Marcus!"
