Z
Zack
Zahen walked across the impromptu star-port that was where USO had set up camp. It had been a while since her last real conversation with the leader, Uso, and she had hoped it would be under better circumstances. Still, business had to be attended too, and that meant there was a mutual understanding between parties.
Approaching the Queens Slave, walking up the gangplank and looking around for Uso's impromptu office. She had told the Neko that she was coming, so her appearance shouldn't be unexpected.
"Uso, I have arrived," The lizard said, her voice stern. Not the usual mix of sarcasm, callousness, and a touch of song. The way she wore her VDTF armour, helmet clipped to her belt rather than the relaxed, naked appearance she had also might give someone red flags.
"Up here," Uso said, the neko calling out from the command center on the Queen's slave. The ship's main area having a large display table in the center, with chairs all along the exterior of the room... and a half-disassembled power armor in the corner. There were even some gun parts scattered about, along with a rather in depth display showing ships and planets.
"I hear you're people ain't getting along with my people?"
Zahen walked up into the command Center, turning to Uso. "You could say that" She said, pulling out a datapad. She was seemingly looking for something.
"I believe your people have forgotten something incredibly important Uso. Your people forget that the VDTF has its own rules, and own government to listen too, and we will listen to it, before we listen to you," she explained, looking up. "Regardless of if those rules make sense to you or your people, we expect them to be respected" The Lizard worded carefully.
"One of your captains told me to give my kind a way to skirt the rules... Get away from their punishment. She wanted to take responsibility..." Zahen continued, her voice trailing. She then handed the Datapad to Uso. "So here is what she has officially taken responsibility for," she added, the datapad playing a video demonstrating exactly how effective their claws, teeth and talons were at removing other creatures limbs and insides.
"They have taken responsibility for Vekimen tearing stuff up?" Uso asked, "Rather than Play 20 questions how about you just tell me what happened and we can cut right to the part where I solve the problem?" Uso asked.
"The Sraralumee told me you were smarter then that Uso. I was quite clear in the over all issues, and you seem to already have an idea about the specific issue, but if you want to play games the fine. All digging will halt until you take this a little more seriously," Zahen stated coolly, turning to leave.
"You can be an outsider who gets nothing done, or you can be an insider who doesn't threaten other insiders." Uso replied.
"That won't work on me Uso. I've gotten more than my fair share done, and barely anything to show for it. Until you pull up on your end of the bargain, you have little a stone to stand on" Zahen retorted quickly, turning back around. "So are we going to play this game? Or are you going to take this a little more seriously?"
"It has not gone unnoticed that your people have filled their end of the bargain quite well. We are less than a Day away from the I'ee operation and then we can turn our full attention to the Vek. You will be well compensated." Uso said, "But if you don't drop the ego then right after I shower you with gifts and tech I'll send your lizard ass back to space."
"I wouldn't say it is an Ego, I would say it is me doing my damned job. I am the official Liason. I am who the Sraralumee chose to represent her on this planet, and what I say carries the weight of her words. So far, we have dug for your people, moving hundreds of thousands of tonnes of material for your fabricators. We have accepted the subpar food you have provided us, despite it making us sick. Then, one of /your/ captains tries to stick her snout in our business like she has any right to decide what we do with our people? You are lucky I didn't drag them up here and shoot them on the spot for her to witness what her bleeding heart caused. My Vekimen heard her, and every time your people tell my people they don't have to listen to me, people die. Not my people anymore." Zahen warned.
"You accepted that we will follow our rules when you made the agreement with us in the first place. Your grasping at a moral highground is worthless, and as I have been inform just recently, we don't even need you anymore. I will have my Vekimen start putting the material we have dug up right back where we found it, you can keep the materials we have gotten for the projects we have been working on independantly while we were here, and you can send us back to our planet right now. If you want to send us back, then do so, but your threats fall short. Oh, and if you decide to save the time and try to kill us... Well I have contigencies set up for that as well. Now, we can play nicely, or things can get very ugly. Have I made myself abundantly clear?" she asked.
"So are you going to go back to the Sraralumee and let them know that this deal is fucked? Or are you going to go back saying you got what you wanted out of me? I'm pretty reasonable, you can talk to me, and I'm certainly willing to discuss our deal.
But if you want to stand around, make threats, and feel good about yourself then you can get the fuck off my planet." Uso replied.
"Fine. The Vekimen will await transport first thing in the morning. You will be released from your deal once the Vekimen are back on Komodo" Zahen retorted. "And they aren't threats, they are just how things will be," she added, turning to leave once again.
"I'm sorry for whatever my people have been doing, but I can't help you unless you tell me what happened, and what you want." Uso said firmly.
"It doesn't matter Uso, you just demonstrated you don't need us, so we will get out of your way. I've been rather clear. Your people disrespected our Sraralumee by giving the Vekimen here ways to skirt her rule. The Sraralumee is quite furious about it, and I've been very clearly ordered. This is what we will tell you, because you are Uso, and Uso's people committed the disrespect" Zahen stated.
"So then tell me what incident brought this on," Uso said, "I'll have a talk with the people who are infringing on our deal personally, and make sure that don't get in your way."
"The captain of the Pumpkin Eater. She found out some Vekimen broke their reproduction cycle and got pregnant without authorization. I told her we were going to punish them, and instead she told me not too, then said she would take the Vekimen into her own protection. She simultaneously tried to undercut my authority over my people, and by extension the Sraralumee. If you want us to stay, then I don't care where I am, who is around me, or what I do. If it's my people, I don't care if I blow their brains out across your deck, you or anyone associated with you won't do anything other than expect the mess to be cleaned up. Am I clear?" Zahen asked, turning around and crossing her arms.
"I'll reprimand her myself." Uso said, "Now. You also feel like you're not getting a great deal here right?"
"We haven't seen anything offered yet. As I mentioned we have done more than our fair share of work so far, and I have been doing nothing making even further micro agreements to try and get my hands on the technology you offered to let us study. I haven't heard any word on the power armour our Sraralumee specifically asked you for, and our people have been having health issues due to this... Algae product you keep giving us, that at your order I have been telling my people is fish" Zahen stated. "I have heard nothing but grief from the Sraralumee to produce something that I haven't personally made the deal to obtain" She added.
"Akemi has been importing raw meats for you, if there isn't enough or the meat isn't of the right type come to me and I'll get it straightened out.
As for power armor... we've got a few fires going there to get something usable for you. I understand that you feel it isn't going fast enough so we recently got together a land-development team that will be focusing on armor development.
And perhaps we haven't been as 'on the same page' as we could be about the technology. What do you want? I'll get the designs sent to you right now." Uso offered.
"I was never informed of this import, and thus the Vekimen haven't gotten any. I have no idea if the food will agree, but if it's proper flesh then there should be no issues" Zahen said, relaxing a little.
"As for power armour, you are still aware of what the Sraralumee desires yes? If it's happening then that is fine, but we need to be kept updated. As for technology, more or less anything. Specifically? This ship. More convenient, the mechs you utilize. Full technological write up's, preferably physical examples we can pull apart ad put together again" She continued. "Keeping us informed is key though. While we don't like the light, it doesn't mean we want to be kept in the dark as your kind likes to put it. It causes issues," the lizard finished.
"Computers do that though... " Uso said, looking around for her datapad, quickly swiping it off of the table and showing it to Zahen, "Look, here's our team-chat information. Get on our server and poke around. We're going to be having an all-hands briefing on our next mission soon, and I would like you to be there. I don't need you to kill anything, but we need to get you out of your Vek-Hole so you can start interfacing with the rest of us.
We don't specifically have specs for THIS ship, it is really just a used junker we got early on... but that doesn't mean we don't have ship designs in our database. I'll send you what we have including the design documents for the ships we have been building here. Reactors, materials science, the works." Uso replied.
Zahen looked at the Datapad, then looked at her own on her belt. "Give me what I need to access and I will keep it available if I am needed. As for the ships, that is fine. It was an example. Speaking of technology though, before the Sraralumee tried to crawl down my throat, the VDTF sent me something to show you. Care to come outside?" she asked, holding out a hand as an "after you" gesture.
Uso would clip the pad to her waist belt before heading down the ramp.
Zahen walked over to a Vekimen who was standing with a case. "As I understand, you want weapons? I have a weapon you might be interested in" She said, taking the case and opening it up. Pulling out a very plain, Duranium rifle and a simple, primitive banana magazine along with it. "This is the VDR-1. The first weapon made by our Arms Manufacturers. Fires a 8x60mm duranium round at about 1200 meters per second. Displaces over 5000 pounds of kinetic force, and I had one of the mechs step on this exact rifle a few days ago" She explained, sliding the magazine into the well and racking the slide. "Care to try it?" she asked, carefully holding out the rifle.
Uso picked up the gun, and checked the exterior for the usual features, bolt, magazine release, safety, sight, stock, ect. Not all of these features were modern, or even present on the gun, "Looks like you stamped the parts out pretty quick," Uso commented, taking aim towards an empty looking section of the star port and firing off a short burst.
The weapon kicked hard, and even the Neko would have a hard time controlling the climb in a burst. It was usable, but it was no fast firing, precision rifle.
"You would be correct. We wanted it to be as simple to fix, replace, and make as possible. How much do you think we would charge for a single one?" She asked, holding out her hand.
"As much as you can get away with. Capitalism is still fairly new around here.... sorta... here being the Kyoto sector not you know... HERE here.... Neps and Yami's don't really have a good handle on the value of money. Cheap guns go in the hundreds and you could probably unload a ton of the on Nepleslia... not to mention we're also in the market for locally-produced weapons and ammo." Uso said. "Low hundreds per unit certainly."
"150 DA to be exact. We were contemplating going 200, but we figured we were making 7.5 million KS per 100,000 units, so it wasn't a large concern of ours. All parts are interchangeable, and the ammo costs 50 DA for one hundred rounds. They cost next to nothing to produce once you have the means to produce them, and any moron could use one," Zahen explained, taking the rifle back. "The lack of moving parts in the weapon make it very rugged, and the hot and heavy round make it effective against most armour types."
"Yeah, but these rounds fire so hot I doubt any of the locals here could use the thing and hit a target." Uso said, handing the weapon back, "We're certainly interested in buying them, but perhaps you have a few more options in terms of ammunition? A lighter load for the locals around here?"
Zahen looked the rifle over, and shouldered it herself. "I never had any problems with it. Yes, it kicks, but it's only automatic because it's too complex to make a semi automatic system. Or at least, too complex for what we were going for," she explained, firing off three rounds with control rather than holding the trigger. She then brought it down to her hip and let it go automatic, able to handle it better there than when up at her shoulder. "Just have to teach them how to use it," she suggested. "But we can cut down the powder if that is a major issue"
"You're not in Vek-Land anymore. A lot of the other creatures in the universe can barely lift their own weight."
"Vekimen aren't known for their upper body strength. Again, I can see about cutting down the round size. So long as it fits in the barrel, it'll probably shoot," she said again, pulling out the magazine and clearing the chamber. "Your concern would be better placed on making sure the locals don't shoot themselves or others. Common sense needs to be used when operating this weapon."
"Oh they probably will. But we've got plenty of locals... I suppose it would be smart to ask for an electronic kill-switch now...but then again if we control the ammo supply there isn't much worry of them being used against us. Hell, even Lewis ain't brave enough to step out of his doomfort for another fight.
What does your production rate look like for these things?" Uso asked.
"Right now? With a full manufacturing set up, we could probably produce the parts for several hundred units in a day. Putting them all together and packing them in their shipment crates is the time consuming part. I would say 800 a week? That might be generous, but we have a good portion of our population at home working on building these things to garner up the money to start buying what we need to properly colonize our planet," she sighed, handing the rifle off to the Vekimen who was originally carrying it. "We received a box of twenty, with three magazines for each, and five thousand rounds."
"Alright, give me some time to run the numbers on our side and then we'll put in an order. I need to run it by the Ragna-guys first to square the order with their numbers." Uso replied.
Approaching the Queens Slave, walking up the gangplank and looking around for Uso's impromptu office. She had told the Neko that she was coming, so her appearance shouldn't be unexpected.
"Uso, I have arrived," The lizard said, her voice stern. Not the usual mix of sarcasm, callousness, and a touch of song. The way she wore her VDTF armour, helmet clipped to her belt rather than the relaxed, naked appearance she had also might give someone red flags.
"Up here," Uso said, the neko calling out from the command center on the Queen's slave. The ship's main area having a large display table in the center, with chairs all along the exterior of the room... and a half-disassembled power armor in the corner. There were even some gun parts scattered about, along with a rather in depth display showing ships and planets.
"I hear you're people ain't getting along with my people?"
Zahen walked up into the command Center, turning to Uso. "You could say that" She said, pulling out a datapad. She was seemingly looking for something.
"I believe your people have forgotten something incredibly important Uso. Your people forget that the VDTF has its own rules, and own government to listen too, and we will listen to it, before we listen to you," she explained, looking up. "Regardless of if those rules make sense to you or your people, we expect them to be respected" The Lizard worded carefully.
"One of your captains told me to give my kind a way to skirt the rules... Get away from their punishment. She wanted to take responsibility..." Zahen continued, her voice trailing. She then handed the Datapad to Uso. "So here is what she has officially taken responsibility for," she added, the datapad playing a video demonstrating exactly how effective their claws, teeth and talons were at removing other creatures limbs and insides.
"They have taken responsibility for Vekimen tearing stuff up?" Uso asked, "Rather than Play 20 questions how about you just tell me what happened and we can cut right to the part where I solve the problem?" Uso asked.
"The Sraralumee told me you were smarter then that Uso. I was quite clear in the over all issues, and you seem to already have an idea about the specific issue, but if you want to play games the fine. All digging will halt until you take this a little more seriously," Zahen stated coolly, turning to leave.
"You can be an outsider who gets nothing done, or you can be an insider who doesn't threaten other insiders." Uso replied.
"That won't work on me Uso. I've gotten more than my fair share done, and barely anything to show for it. Until you pull up on your end of the bargain, you have little a stone to stand on" Zahen retorted quickly, turning back around. "So are we going to play this game? Or are you going to take this a little more seriously?"
"It has not gone unnoticed that your people have filled their end of the bargain quite well. We are less than a Day away from the I'ee operation and then we can turn our full attention to the Vek. You will be well compensated." Uso said, "But if you don't drop the ego then right after I shower you with gifts and tech I'll send your lizard ass back to space."
"I wouldn't say it is an Ego, I would say it is me doing my damned job. I am the official Liason. I am who the Sraralumee chose to represent her on this planet, and what I say carries the weight of her words. So far, we have dug for your people, moving hundreds of thousands of tonnes of material for your fabricators. We have accepted the subpar food you have provided us, despite it making us sick. Then, one of /your/ captains tries to stick her snout in our business like she has any right to decide what we do with our people? You are lucky I didn't drag them up here and shoot them on the spot for her to witness what her bleeding heart caused. My Vekimen heard her, and every time your people tell my people they don't have to listen to me, people die. Not my people anymore." Zahen warned.
"You accepted that we will follow our rules when you made the agreement with us in the first place. Your grasping at a moral highground is worthless, and as I have been inform just recently, we don't even need you anymore. I will have my Vekimen start putting the material we have dug up right back where we found it, you can keep the materials we have gotten for the projects we have been working on independantly while we were here, and you can send us back to our planet right now. If you want to send us back, then do so, but your threats fall short. Oh, and if you decide to save the time and try to kill us... Well I have contigencies set up for that as well. Now, we can play nicely, or things can get very ugly. Have I made myself abundantly clear?" she asked.
"So are you going to go back to the Sraralumee and let them know that this deal is fucked? Or are you going to go back saying you got what you wanted out of me? I'm pretty reasonable, you can talk to me, and I'm certainly willing to discuss our deal.
But if you want to stand around, make threats, and feel good about yourself then you can get the fuck off my planet." Uso replied.
"Fine. The Vekimen will await transport first thing in the morning. You will be released from your deal once the Vekimen are back on Komodo" Zahen retorted. "And they aren't threats, they are just how things will be," she added, turning to leave once again.
"I'm sorry for whatever my people have been doing, but I can't help you unless you tell me what happened, and what you want." Uso said firmly.
"It doesn't matter Uso, you just demonstrated you don't need us, so we will get out of your way. I've been rather clear. Your people disrespected our Sraralumee by giving the Vekimen here ways to skirt her rule. The Sraralumee is quite furious about it, and I've been very clearly ordered. This is what we will tell you, because you are Uso, and Uso's people committed the disrespect" Zahen stated.
"So then tell me what incident brought this on," Uso said, "I'll have a talk with the people who are infringing on our deal personally, and make sure that don't get in your way."
"The captain of the Pumpkin Eater. She found out some Vekimen broke their reproduction cycle and got pregnant without authorization. I told her we were going to punish them, and instead she told me not too, then said she would take the Vekimen into her own protection. She simultaneously tried to undercut my authority over my people, and by extension the Sraralumee. If you want us to stay, then I don't care where I am, who is around me, or what I do. If it's my people, I don't care if I blow their brains out across your deck, you or anyone associated with you won't do anything other than expect the mess to be cleaned up. Am I clear?" Zahen asked, turning around and crossing her arms.
"I'll reprimand her myself." Uso said, "Now. You also feel like you're not getting a great deal here right?"
"We haven't seen anything offered yet. As I mentioned we have done more than our fair share of work so far, and I have been doing nothing making even further micro agreements to try and get my hands on the technology you offered to let us study. I haven't heard any word on the power armour our Sraralumee specifically asked you for, and our people have been having health issues due to this... Algae product you keep giving us, that at your order I have been telling my people is fish" Zahen stated. "I have heard nothing but grief from the Sraralumee to produce something that I haven't personally made the deal to obtain" She added.
"Akemi has been importing raw meats for you, if there isn't enough or the meat isn't of the right type come to me and I'll get it straightened out.
As for power armor... we've got a few fires going there to get something usable for you. I understand that you feel it isn't going fast enough so we recently got together a land-development team that will be focusing on armor development.
And perhaps we haven't been as 'on the same page' as we could be about the technology. What do you want? I'll get the designs sent to you right now." Uso offered.
"I was never informed of this import, and thus the Vekimen haven't gotten any. I have no idea if the food will agree, but if it's proper flesh then there should be no issues" Zahen said, relaxing a little.
"As for power armour, you are still aware of what the Sraralumee desires yes? If it's happening then that is fine, but we need to be kept updated. As for technology, more or less anything. Specifically? This ship. More convenient, the mechs you utilize. Full technological write up's, preferably physical examples we can pull apart ad put together again" She continued. "Keeping us informed is key though. While we don't like the light, it doesn't mean we want to be kept in the dark as your kind likes to put it. It causes issues," the lizard finished.
"Computers do that though... " Uso said, looking around for her datapad, quickly swiping it off of the table and showing it to Zahen, "Look, here's our team-chat information. Get on our server and poke around. We're going to be having an all-hands briefing on our next mission soon, and I would like you to be there. I don't need you to kill anything, but we need to get you out of your Vek-Hole so you can start interfacing with the rest of us.
We don't specifically have specs for THIS ship, it is really just a used junker we got early on... but that doesn't mean we don't have ship designs in our database. I'll send you what we have including the design documents for the ships we have been building here. Reactors, materials science, the works." Uso replied.
Zahen looked at the Datapad, then looked at her own on her belt. "Give me what I need to access and I will keep it available if I am needed. As for the ships, that is fine. It was an example. Speaking of technology though, before the Sraralumee tried to crawl down my throat, the VDTF sent me something to show you. Care to come outside?" she asked, holding out a hand as an "after you" gesture.
Uso would clip the pad to her waist belt before heading down the ramp.
Zahen walked over to a Vekimen who was standing with a case. "As I understand, you want weapons? I have a weapon you might be interested in" She said, taking the case and opening it up. Pulling out a very plain, Duranium rifle and a simple, primitive banana magazine along with it. "This is the VDR-1. The first weapon made by our Arms Manufacturers. Fires a 8x60mm duranium round at about 1200 meters per second. Displaces over 5000 pounds of kinetic force, and I had one of the mechs step on this exact rifle a few days ago" She explained, sliding the magazine into the well and racking the slide. "Care to try it?" she asked, carefully holding out the rifle.
Uso picked up the gun, and checked the exterior for the usual features, bolt, magazine release, safety, sight, stock, ect. Not all of these features were modern, or even present on the gun, "Looks like you stamped the parts out pretty quick," Uso commented, taking aim towards an empty looking section of the star port and firing off a short burst.
The weapon kicked hard, and even the Neko would have a hard time controlling the climb in a burst. It was usable, but it was no fast firing, precision rifle.
"You would be correct. We wanted it to be as simple to fix, replace, and make as possible. How much do you think we would charge for a single one?" She asked, holding out her hand.
"As much as you can get away with. Capitalism is still fairly new around here.... sorta... here being the Kyoto sector not you know... HERE here.... Neps and Yami's don't really have a good handle on the value of money. Cheap guns go in the hundreds and you could probably unload a ton of the on Nepleslia... not to mention we're also in the market for locally-produced weapons and ammo." Uso said. "Low hundreds per unit certainly."
"150 DA to be exact. We were contemplating going 200, but we figured we were making 7.5 million KS per 100,000 units, so it wasn't a large concern of ours. All parts are interchangeable, and the ammo costs 50 DA for one hundred rounds. They cost next to nothing to produce once you have the means to produce them, and any moron could use one," Zahen explained, taking the rifle back. "The lack of moving parts in the weapon make it very rugged, and the hot and heavy round make it effective against most armour types."
"Yeah, but these rounds fire so hot I doubt any of the locals here could use the thing and hit a target." Uso said, handing the weapon back, "We're certainly interested in buying them, but perhaps you have a few more options in terms of ammunition? A lighter load for the locals around here?"
Zahen looked the rifle over, and shouldered it herself. "I never had any problems with it. Yes, it kicks, but it's only automatic because it's too complex to make a semi automatic system. Or at least, too complex for what we were going for," she explained, firing off three rounds with control rather than holding the trigger. She then brought it down to her hip and let it go automatic, able to handle it better there than when up at her shoulder. "Just have to teach them how to use it," she suggested. "But we can cut down the powder if that is a major issue"
"You're not in Vek-Land anymore. A lot of the other creatures in the universe can barely lift their own weight."
"Vekimen aren't known for their upper body strength. Again, I can see about cutting down the round size. So long as it fits in the barrel, it'll probably shoot," she said again, pulling out the magazine and clearing the chamber. "Your concern would be better placed on making sure the locals don't shoot themselves or others. Common sense needs to be used when operating this weapon."
"Oh they probably will. But we've got plenty of locals... I suppose it would be smart to ask for an electronic kill-switch now...but then again if we control the ammo supply there isn't much worry of them being used against us. Hell, even Lewis ain't brave enough to step out of his doomfort for another fight.
What does your production rate look like for these things?" Uso asked.
"Right now? With a full manufacturing set up, we could probably produce the parts for several hundred units in a day. Putting them all together and packing them in their shipment crates is the time consuming part. I would say 800 a week? That might be generous, but we have a good portion of our population at home working on building these things to garner up the money to start buying what we need to properly colonize our planet," she sighed, handing the rifle off to the Vekimen who was originally carrying it. "We received a box of twenty, with three magazines for each, and five thousand rounds."
"Alright, give me some time to run the numbers on our side and then we'll put in an order. I need to run it by the Ragna-guys first to square the order with their numbers." Uso replied.
