"Where are they headed?" Jarvis asked, looking at the scrambled readouts of the sensor screen. They were sitting on the edge of the Deep Core, concealed inside of a nebula, spying on the pirates they had been tracking for the past week, hoping to get a clear enough reading of their exit vector to extrapolate their destination. Jarvis had heard a rumor that this particular pirate group was somehow affiliated with the Hutts, and he felt it was as good a time as any to test his new ships in combat.

The ships vanished, and Smarts turned to the ship's sensor chief, a Bith. "Ojom."

"Let's go. Everyone, get ready for a fight." The crew vanished almost immediately, scrambling for their designated stations, ready for the fight to come. Jarvis walked calmly to the Blastboat, taking his seat and looking out of the window, anxious for reversion for the first time in his life.

Wanderer's Home exited hyperspace, its three starfighters and one freighter detaching immediately, the Blastboat moving away from the freighter a second later. They were only a few seconds behind the pirates, but the hostile ships had already engaged a group of four Hauler-class Automated Transports. The transports were holding out okay, but if they didn't get help soon, they would be overpowered by the two Corellian Corvettes and two squadrons of starfighters.

One of the enemy squadrons broke off their attack, turning around and coming after Allara's flight and Jarvis' blastboat. Jarvis grinned, touching his commlink and giving a simple order: "You know what to do."

The faster Manta-class starfighter surged forward, out of the range of its wingmen's protection. At precisely the right moment, the missile boat and K-wing each activated their booster systems, rocketing forward. The three ships found themselves in near-perfect formation just as they came into range of the enemy squadron, the Manta fighter switching to assault mode. The K-wing and missile boat unleashed their payload of concussion missiles, while the Manta fired its rockets and heavy laser cannons. Several of the ships exploded, their battered formation making it past the three fighters only to run into a field of miniature mines, which destroyed still more of them. When they passed through the minefield, The Wandering One and New Beginnings were waiting for them, pouring out ion and laser cannon fire, destroying still more of the vessels.

The Manta broke away, turning around to give chase, while the other two fighters and the Blastboat continued forward, hoping to reach the embattled freighters before it was too late. The Manta shifted formation again, powering down its main weapons and accelerating rapidly. It closed with the three remaining enemy fighters quickly, firing its ion cannons and miniature proton torpedo launchers rapidly, disabling one ship and destroying the others.

In the meantime, the others advanced as quickly as possible, soon reaching the first Corvette and opening fire with their proton torpedoes. The Blastboat followed quickly, firing concussion missiles, proton torpedoes, its main turbolaser, and its overhead laser turret. Zal followed suit in his freighter, unleashing its full destructive power on the enemy vessel. They focused their fire on their target's engines, weakening the shields and staying away from most of its weapons.

Jarvis checked his tactical screen, noting the location of the Wanderer's Home. "Ferril," he called over his commlink, "punish them."

"Charging main cannons," Came his reply, as the Corvette's covering fire coming from its turbolasers died down and vanished.

"Charge tube one," Jarvis said to Gren, at the Blastboat's tactical station. Shield strength began to drop and the main cannon fell silent, and the vessel slowed considerably, but the torpedoes, missiles, and laser turret continued to fire, offering the illusion that everything was almost normal.

Several seconds later, two brilliant beams of energy shot out from the Wanderer's Home, broadsiding the second enemy Corvette, which had been turning around to cover its companion's failing engines. The Blastboat changed course suddenly, speeding toward the wounded Corvette and firing its specialized turbolaser, impacting one of the vulnerable, round holes carved into the Corvette's side.

"Tube one offline," Gren reported calmly, returning power to the shields and main cannon. The Blastboat fired a mismatched pair of torpedo and missile, then broke away, gaining distance to make another pass. [Wanderer's Home[/I]'s turbolasers opened fire again, pummeling the ever-widening hole in its target's side.

With both of their Corvettes in serious trouble, what was left of the squadron assaulting the freighters (four had been destroyed by the freighter's defensive lasers) turned to attack the heavy starfighters which were attacking the first Corvette. The Blastboat changed course to intercept them, and the Manta joined him, finally having returned from its fight with the three enemy fighters. Zal broke off his attack on the Corvette, using his quad laser cannons to engage the approaching fighters. Allara broke away as well, using her laser turret to disrupt the enemy formation.

The four craft converged on the enemy formation from different directions, filling the space it occupied with waves of laserfire and missiles, quickly reducing the squadron to a fraction of its former self. The Manta gave chase once again, while Allara returned to assaulting the blast-scored end of the enemy Corvette, what had once been its engine assembly.

Jarvis glanced at the tactical readout, noting the other Corvette had rotated, using its undamaged side to shield its breached hull from the Wanderer's Home's turbolasers. "Charge tube two," He said confidently, "and bring us around to assault that Corvette's weakpoint. It's time we finish off these fools." All of the Blastboat's weapons fell silent, giving the engines all available power as the ship flew between the two enemy Corvettes, executing a long series of evasive maneuvers to keep from taking too many hits from the Corvette's light weapons. The weakening shields almost gave out, but they made it through alright, quickly discovering that the four unmanned freighters had already started firing on the damaged Corvette.

"Fire!" Jarvis ordered, as soon as they had a clear shot. The force of the full-powered blast sent tremors through the ship, but the focused beam of energy found its mark, cutting deeply into the enemy ship. An explosion appeared immediately, a small jet of fire shooting out from the gaping hole in the Corvette's side before, a couple seconds later, a great plume of fire erupted out of the ship's back as its engines exploded.

Looking at the two crippled vessels, knowing their escort of fighters had been reduced to ash, Jarvis felt good about his new ships.

The Hauler class transports were on there way to Rendili when they were attacked. The freighters had dropped off some goods at the Ojom stations and departed as one through their automated links. Before the ship formation could jump into hyperspace, however, the band of pirates pounced on it.

It was not clear whether they knew about the reprocessed metallic sheets those freighters carried from the new Belgaroth facilities, but they definitely went after the Stellar Enterprises owned vessels and left the other freighters heading for the planet alone. As per their programming the formation of four freighters detected the enemy and huddled together with their laser turrets active. They tried to run for deeper space and jump out of the system, but the pirates were faster and cut off all routes.

With their distress signal sent, the droid operated freighters hung in space and took shots at anything that came close enough. When the others arrived to help, four of the pirate gang's fighters had already been reduced to dust. As the fight ensued the freighters slowly eased away from the battle and moved towards deeper space, preparing to jump.

Before they could, however, two Hellfire Class frigates jumped into the system nearby. Both broadcast Stellar Enterprises transponder codes and moved towards the battle, but nothing much was left for them to do. The Corvettes and fighters had been reduced to floating debris.

"Unknown contacts. Thank you for your assistance." Called out one of the frigates after receiving a data package from the lead Hauler Class Freighter.

In the Data it was shown how these new ships helped protect the freighters from harm.

"Stellar Enterprises own you gratitude. If there is something you require in the form of payment please contact my superiors." Along with the message streamed the private number of where to call.

With that the two ships moved beside the freighters and formed up for hyperspace entry. This region of space was new for Stellar Enterprises and their quick expansion had left most of if unguarded. The company was building ships to protect these space lanes, but it was a time consuming business. In the mean time more and more pirates were finding the increased traffic easy pickings with this lack of security. It was most unfortunate.

"Perhaps your group should stay and guard this section of space from pirates. You all seem most proficient in it. Good day to all of you. Thank you again for the assistance." With that said, the new formation quickly accelerated into hyperspace.

Jarvis stood staring into the vortex of hyperspace, tapping the fingers of one hand against the clenched fist of another, more nervous than he had been in a long time. Business was not his realm of expertise, yet there he was, getting ready to plunge into that vast, unknown realm.

"Better calm down," Ferril's voice cut into Jarvis' thoughts, "or you'll have the whole crew thinking your a coward." He handed Jarvis a thin datapad, what looked almost like a speech scrolling down its screen.

"Maybe they should," Jarvis replied quietly, a nervous smile stretching the corners of his mouth.

"Start reading, we'll be there soon."

Jarvis looked down at the pad, reading the first few lines and then looking away. "This is ridiculous; this sounds nothing like me."

"No," Allara agreed, walking over and stopping at Jarvis side, "it sounds like me. This is a business meeting; you aren't supposed to sound like yourself."

"I still say you see how much money we can get out of them, and call it even," Zal yelled over at them.

Gren stared at his Twi'lek friend from across the table they were sitting at. "Go read something; it's supposed to make you smater." He turned his attention to the other three, not giving Zal the time to formulate the half-witted response he was obviously working on: "You sure you don't need a bodyguard? I don't like the idea of you two going alone."

"That's entirely unnecessary," Jarvis assured him. "Let's just hope they like Ryn," He added, another nervous smile creeping across his face.

Allara turned her attention to Gren. "Stellar and his people are a decent enough group, but they do have a habit of scanning everything that moves—and most things that don't—which is why Ferril's going with you, instead of me."

"Hey, boss," Zal said, getting up and walking over, "you okay? You don't look so good. You know, I only agreed to this because you said it was a good idea. If you're not sure about this, I'm changing my vote."

Jarvis dismissed the comment with a wave, trying to appear normal. "No, it's not that: I'm just really bad at giving speeches, and by extension, business proposals."

"I'll handle all of the talking, really," Ferril said, a little too eager. He looked like a little kid that was so excited he was about to wet himself.

"No, I need to do this." Jarvis took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down.

"Reversion," The Duros navigator announced, as if the sudden appearance of stars, and a giant planet, weren't indication enough.

"You could have given us a countdown or something," Zal grumbled angrily.

"I thought you were paying attention. My apologies."

"Sorry my brain isn't big enough for you."

The complaints were barely heard by Jarvis, as he stared apprehensively at the planet that had just appeared, without warning, in front of them. He took another deep breath, calming himself down, and finally gave the order: "Hail them; we have business to discuss."

Rob lay on his couch and looked up at the datapad he held in his hands. He was scrolling down the various message he had received and also different order requests. His company had much going on at the moment, which meant that people were always asking for money allocations to complete planned works. Some of these allocations were necessary, but a few were not. In business you got to know many sorts of people and some were not honest. During his years he had come across shady individuals and contractors that had requested more money when it was no needed. For this reason, all requests were double checked.

He was checking one of these requests when his ear comm link went off, informing him that people wished to see him.

"Have them land at the topside port. I'll meet them there. check them out of course."

With that said, the inbound ship was connected and given clearance to land. It was instructed that no weapons would be allowed for the meeting.

Rob got up and straightened his shirt before pulling out a jacket from his closet and downing it. He made sure he looked presentable, but as also didn't care to put on a tie before coming out of his room and moving towards the lift.

On top a speeder awaited him with combat droids attached the ranks on the back and sped towards the small spaceport. As they approached, he could see the ship coming in for a landing.

The modified YT-1930 freighter descended slowly, landing lightly and extending its port access ramp almost immediately. It was the closest thing to an unarmed ship that Jarvis had, but just for good measure, he had had all of the power leads to the weapons disconnected and all of the missiles unloaded before coming down. No need for the absolute worst first impression possible.

"Don't forget to breathe," Zal shouted jokingly from inside the ship as Jarvis and Ferril began to walk down the access ramp. "But not too much."

Jarvis was still nervous, but fortunately his hands had stopped shaking—possibly at the expense of his autonomic systems; he felt like his heart would stop beating if he didn't keep telling it to.

Ferril pointed over at a speeder that was clearly waiting for them, squinting to see the figure inside. "That's Rob Stellar! That's the man behind the company!"

That bit of information didn't make Jarvis feel any better. "Quit pointing at the man that holds our lives in his hands." It was probably true; a man like that wouldn't meet with a group of unknown aliens without making sure the situation was firmly under his control. Jarvis felt like the weight of a world was pressing down on him, constricting his breathing, forcing his back to slump. He told himself that he was just nervous; that all this would pass when he met Stellar, when he confirmed with his own eyes and ears that this was just another man, like so many he'd seen and met before. No magical pixie-dust, no cool superpowers: just a man in a suit.

But somehow, that personal reassurance didn't help. He started walking slowly toward the speeder, trying to look as casual as possible, pulling at his good jacket—the one that only had holes in the tops of the pockets—to try to center it on his still-shaking shoulders.

What am I doing here? What's a Ryn doing on this dirty planet, talking to a human who built his own economic empire? Why would I ever think this would work?

"What are you so worried about?" Ferril asked, glancing over at his friend. "You've stared down crimelords, defied pirates, hunted and been hunted by the scum of the galaxy, and laughed in the face of what amounted to the Hutt Crime Syndicate. What's one more meeting, more or less?"

While personal reassurances hadn't helped, to hear Ferril say that really put things into perspective for Jarvis. His friend had been so excited about the idea of meeting with a simple representative of Stellar Enterprises, but for Ferril to acknowledge Stellar himself as just some other guy—even if he was only doing it to make Jarvis feel better—meant a great deal. Jarvis nodded in agreement, the first shadows of confidence creeping across his features. "Let's do this; after all, it's just one more meeting, more or less."

wow...realy sorry, that was dumb. I posted the reply to my thread in your thread.

O.o

Delete this please....and sorry guys.

Rob looked out of the highly tinted blast resistant glass and watched the two Ryn get out of the freighter. He was surprised to see these two. It was not every day that one saw a single Ryn, let alone two of them. This was turning into an interesting day and the thought of it made Rob smile just a little.

Unlike the two that were approaching him, Rob was calm to the bone and not nervous in the least. He had been doing this a very long time and this was nothing new.

Rob turned towards the man beside him and nodded slowly. He watched that same man step out of the speeder on the other side and walk around. As he did, a large rack extended from the side of the speeder facing the Ryn and from it two combat droids unfolded. Each had a large blaster for their left arm and moved towards the Ryn slowly.

"Please stop gentlebeings." Said the tall man as he paused before the Ryn with his hands up, palms facing the to. "We must conduct a scan for security, I'm sure you understand. Thank you for cooperation."

The two droids advanced forward and trained their optics on the pair. A quick scan cleared them for powered and metallic weapons and an olfactory scan also confirmed the absence of explosives. With that complete the droids stepped aside and the guard turned towards the speeder, tilting his head in a nod.

Rob saw the nodded and quickly opened the door. It slid sideways and he smoothly stepped out onto the ground. He adjusted his suit and smiled at the two Ryn, walking towards them both with his hand out.

"Greetings, both of you. I am Rob Stellar and welcome Belgaroth."

Rob Stellar was not an ordinary human being; most humans would have turned around and left when they saw two Ryn waiting to be greeted. Sure, Stellar hadn't hesitated to whip out his combat droids and give them a thorough scanning, but his friendly smile and outstretched hand spoke volumes of his character, at least in regard to general prejudice.

Jarvis was a little shocked—to say the least—which helped him forget his nervousness. He recovered quickly, taking a few steps forward and shaking the man's hand. "Jarvis Ragnar. Uh," He paused, struggling for a good term to quantify his job description, "starship captain. This," He continued, stepping back and gesturing to Ferril, "is—"

"Ferril," Ferril said hastily, cutting off Jarvis, almost literally jumping at the chance to shake Stellar's hand. "Just Ferril," He elaborated. "Most Ryn only have one name."

Jarvis cut back into the greeting, preventing Ferril from getting the chance to give a point-by-point explanation of Ryn culture. Jarvis glanced over at Ferril, giving him a disaproving look, which he undoubtedly didn't notice. Calm down, moron. Jarvis turned back toward Stellar. "Mr. Stellar, I don't know if you are aware of the recent events involving four Stellar Enterprises transports in space above Ojom, but my crew and I defended a few of your vessels from attacking pirates.

"I am here, however, because of something a crew member from one of your soon-arriving frigates said to me. He was probably only joking; regardless, I have something I'd like to discuss with you. Should we speak here, or is there somewhere you would like to go?"

Rob stood near the two Ryn and found them both most interesting. They were unlike any clients he had ever had. It was not the fact they were Ryn either, but the fact that both were somewhat nervous and unsure of how to act or what to do. Rob actually found it refreshing.

As they talked, Rob smiled and nodded slowly, listening to both carefully. It was amusing to him how Jarvis was afraid that his friend, Ferril, would somehow mess up this deal for them. He assumed they had heard many things about men of his stature and about how those men acted. Rob never wished to be categorized with those types. He was very laid back and never judged people before getting to know them.

When the Ryn mentioned the incident at Ojom, Rob had of course been informed about it. He was curious as to when or even if those helpers would show themselves to claim a reward of some sort. So these were them and they were here to get payed perhaps, Rob thought. That was fine with him since that shipment had made it to its destination and business would continue as normal. A good deed should always be rewarded.

"Of course, I know all about that. There are other places to talk. Ones far more comfortable than these." He smiled and motioned towards the stretched speeder that he had come from. "Please get inside and we shall go talk in greater privacy. Oh and thank you again for what you did at Ojom. These pirates are getting to be a nucense."

Rob bowed slowly as he turned away from the two guests in order to allow them to pass in front of him and get into the speeder first.

I guess it's time for small talk. Jarvis didn't know where they were going, and he didn't really care. As he got into the speeder, giving Stellar a quick "thanks" as he passed by, the potential magnitude of this encounter began to dawn on him. "Mr. Stellar," Jarvis began a few seconds later, looking across at the now seated man, "I think it would be best to tell you a little about myself and my crew before we proceed any further. You see, we aren't exactly your average, everyday spacers.

"In all honesty, we look more like pirates than anything else, and we have no problem admitting that. My crew is an assortment of some of the least reputable species in the galaxy, but I trust that their actions above Ojom will speak more for them than their more disgraceful counterparts. You see, we were hunting those pirates, following them until we caught them in the act. The only accidental encounter was the one with the frigates that were dispatched to defend your freighters."

Jarvis paused for a second, then quickly continued before Ferril had a chance to jump in and say anything in his excited stupidity. Stellar seemed like a decent enough guy, and Jarvis had calmed down considerably; he just hoped that Ferril would catch on soon and stop looking like an idiot. "I know you probably expect us to ask you for some reward money, but that's not what we're here for. I'm here for something else entirely, something that I think will help us both considerably. I'm here to talk business; more specifically, I'm here to talk about the short-term security of your freighters in this region of space. We haven't had much time to research this, but it appears that certain pirate groups have started targeting Stellar Enterprises' shipments specifically, because of their relative lack of escorts. And if you care to believe me, I've heard news from some pretty dark corners that more pirates are on their way.

"I'm sure you have realized this and taken appropriate steps, but you need ships right now." Jarvis paused again, smiling. "I know where to get them."