[All Event Horizon threads [with the exception of Building Bridges to run concurrent with one another.]



<font color=red>Ardanium is a hard material that has the unique property of glowing the presence of raditation. This makes it perfect for use in fuel canisters for capital starships, which require huge ammounts of fuel to operate.

Found namely on the world of Questal, the gem was sought after by Emperor Palpatine during the later days of the Empire. He raided the planet in an effort to expand his fleet of Super-series Star Destroyers, but was foiled by Alliance agents.

<font color=green>[b]Space is infinite.

It stretches forever in space and time, unending, unmoving, an unaware. Space has see thousand of battles, trillions of deaths, countless acts of violence and death. Space has seen it all.

Space is the perfect place to hide.

In the vast blackness of space, far away from any kind of civilization, a starship could go for eternity without detection or fear of detection. It could go forever without worrying over such petty concerns as war, life, and death.

The Star Destroyer Reliant moves through the inky blackness of space, her colors proudly displayed. There is no need to hide, no need to cower, now. The ship can come and go without fear, without worry.

Without warning, the Reliant vanishes. Accelerating hundreds of thousands of kilometres an hour, past the speed of light, into hyperspace.

Space is infinite. It stretches forever in space and time, unending, unmoving, an unaware. Space has see thousand of battles, trillions of deaths, countless acts of violence and death. Space has seen it all.

And space now sees the tiny, insignifcant, planet of Questal, where the Reliant has reappeared.

Space sees this, and knows.

<font color=green>Eriadu - LFX Industrial Capitol World

He walked down the hallway, his lone footsteps patting the lushly carpeted floor, long legs carrying him ever closer to the room. He had called the meeting, and it would not do to be late. No, he mustn't be late.

The guards at the doorway parted as he approached, and with a quick swipe of his key card he entered. Drayson and one other were already there, but the others had yet to arrive. How like Drayson, always promp. Even overly prompt at times. The man had simply never heard of the idea of being 'fashionably late'. But then, he suspected, to be 'fasionably late' simply didn't work when one was in the military. And Drayson was the Supreme Soveriegn Commander, the big cheese, in charge of all of LFX Industrial's vast defence fleets. So it was allright that he was prompt, even if was a bit of a bother to the man.

Seti Ashar, for that was his name, sat at the head of the large, rectangular, table and smiled at the others.
"Hiram, Reynold, good to see you." Drayson nodded, a brisk movement of his head that he must have picked up in the military.
"And you, sir." Always short and to the point. It was the true Hiram Drayson way, he supposed. Seti was prevented from saying anything further by the sound of the door whooshing open and the clamour of voices outside. The rest of the staff, it seemed, had arrived.

These were the administrative staff of LFX Industrial, the heads of the various departments. El'jar Yor'ten, a Bothan who headed up the Banks, Hyfe Gooda, a Rodian who managed the mining and ore exports (this meeting would excite him the most, Seti suspected), and Hera Midar, a young female human of no more than 35, who was head of External and Forgien Affairs. Plus the one who had been there we he arrived, a grisly old man of 50 who ran the manufacturing and production department, and Drayson, Head of Defence. And, of course, Seti Ashar, their esteemed CEO.

As the assembly took their seats and the doors were locked, the privacy seals, engaged, Seti cleared his throat and smiled.

"Gentlemen, ladies, I would first like to make a toast." He smiled and picked up the glass of amber liquid that sat in front of him. "To this glorious place, our prosperity, and," his smile broadened, "to ourselves."

He cast a long glance around the room, taking the gaze of each of the assoisiates in turn. They smiled and raised their glasses, clinking them together in the middle of the table with a cry of 'To us!'.

"Now then, down to business. Mr. Yor'ten, can you appraise us of our financial standing?" The Bothan nodded and rose, his all-red suit catching the attention of everyone in the room immediatly.

"The merger with the Galactic Defence Initiative has strengthened us greatly. We're still apprasing total assets, but our gains have been approximately 400% so far. The war did leave the GDI in a perilious place, and I am sure that Mr. Drayson could inform us of those particulars," he cast an eye at the newest face in the room, that of Hiram, and almost smiled, "but for the most part we are doing quite well. Everyone is getting adjusted to the changes, of course, but within the month we should be up to full capacity."

Seti gave a curt nod, and Hyfe sat, quite pleased with another 'stunning performance.' That one had always been a tad full of himself, but it was excusable. He was damn good at what he did, after all.

Seti gave another long look at the assembled members before beginning to speak.
"Some three hours ago, with the permission of Mr. Drayson here, I ordered the Star Destroyer Reliant to pay a visit to the planet of Questal," At that statement, Hyfe Gooda's eyes lit up. He was the only one. Seti suspected that the others in the room had no idea where Questal was, or why LFX Industrial should have any interest whatsoever in it. Time to drop the bombshell. "Questal is the prime source for Adranium, and controlling it will give is the niche we need."

There was a silence as he finished his little 'speech', before Hyfe ventured a question;
"Sir, does LFX really have the assets at this time to bring another world into the fold? With the current rate of organization," he cast a glance to Yor'ten, "or lack thereof, the affects of having another world to govern could well bring the company down on us."

Seti nodded only. He had expected this question, and it had been one of his concerns since the idea had been suggested. But, he had been assured, they could handle it. The time for the world to align themselves fully with LFX Industrial would take no less than sixty days, and there was more than enough time between then and now to organize things sufficently to support another world. It might be a challenge, but you never got anyware without taking some risks. No pain, no gain, as the old adage went.

"Such concerns have been mulled over, sir, and we came to the conclusion that we cannot hope to gain anything if we do not make some sacrafices. The content of the Questal mission and the ores we recover there should be more than sufficent to keep our heads above water, so to speak," his eyes turned briefly cold as the he spoke the next words, "and organizational problems should be... addressed before we have a problem."

There was an ominious silence, just long enough for the words to sink in, before Drayson rose to fill the assembly in on the more technical aspects of the operation. Setia Ashar sank back in his seat, watching the other man with a grim satisfaction. The LFX Indsutrial CEO was not one to condone murder or war, but like most people he saw the neccessity of both those things. And when war was a fact of life, it was best to have someone with some compitence in charge of those aspects.

Hiram Drayson, he thought contentedly, filled that position admirably.

<font color=maroon>Questal System

Captain Lavonne Drake looked up from the portable datareader that held the latest Industrial Post, the daily news-cred of the corporation, and smiled to herself. Her post on the Victory-class Star Destroyer Reliant wsa a prestigious one, the ship being one of the larger vessels that was ever seen to be commanded on its own without a Commodore or Admiral present. Even the big Imperators normally had someone higher up on the scale calling the shots, but not Reliant. This was her ship, and her word was the law.

The ship's orbit was brining it onto the day side of the planet, the surface time was about 6:15 AM, and the first rays of sun were striking the Star Destroyer, bouncing off her midnight blue hull and making the ship glow.

An X-wing flight, three ships from the Reliant's sole snubfighter sqaudron, swooped in from that direction and waggled their wings as they passed the bridge, the normal sigh of respect for the Captain, or whoever was on the bridge. At this time in the morning, it woud probably be Hardy, Lavonne mused. Hardy was the Reliant's Executive Officer, Second Class, and normally did the night shift aboard the warship.

Captain Lavonne rose from her form-fitting seat and walked to the viewports, gazing down at the planet below. In her long years of commanding Reliant, she had visited many a planet and met hundreds of people, but it had been a long time since she simply stopped to admire a sunrise as seen from space. It was, she thought, truly a remarkable sight.

Before she could contemplate the majesty further, the com chimed and her attention was snapped back to reality. A droning voice, that of Hardy on the bridge, came through the speaker, "Captain, we've detected a single personal transport emerging from hyperspace. It is registered to the LFX Industrial Space Navy, and they're requesting permission to come onboard. Identification confirmed as Black Hawk I."

Lavonne did not turn, nor respond, for a moment. Black Hawk I was one of the personal transports of the Administrative Council, meaning that the visitor was either a Head of Department, or a delegate for one of said departments. And, since this was a fleet matter, she could guess that this would be one of Drayson's men.

She picked her comlink up on her way out the door, and told Hardy to let the transport land in the forward landing bay. She would meet their guest there, she said.

Several Minutes Later...

Lavonne entered the forward hanger bay with the ship's Executive Officer, a man called Bendini, in tow, just as the transport was setting down. A small honour guard, a dozen men from the ship's compliment, was waiting there for them already. They were armed, blaster rifles held ominiously against their chests. It was highly unlikely that it was a setup, but one could never be to careful. The laser turrets of the Black Hawk I were menacing.

Lavonne and Co. met the guests at the foot of their transport's ramps, and upon seeing the ununiformed man emerge at the head of their party, the Reliant's captain breathed a sigh of relief. She gave him a crisp military bow, more appropriate in this situation than a salute, and said, "Welcome to the Reliant."

The man, dressed in an all-black suit with a distinct military cut, gave her an appraising look before raising his hand in a salute and replying, "Major-General Sauron Devop, Ma'am. Pleased to meet you."

Lavonne, more than a little surprised, returned the salute and shook her head, as if to clear it.
"I am sorry, sir. I did not realize that-" Devop shook his head.
"No need, Captain. I am not here to play the boss. I'm here on the orders of Lord Drayson, to 'oversee and ensure the success of pending operation in the Questal system'. Since your ship was the only one in the system, I made the decision to have restover here. If that is not a problem..."

It would never be a problem. Especcialy not to a man like Major-General Sauron Devop. Devop was a distinguished man, formerly a Major serving as the Executive Officer onboard the Galactic Defence Initiative flagship Korolev, since renamed the Destiny. After the battle of Sluis Van, he had been bumped up to Major General and placed on Hiram Drayson's personal staff, as an Advisor and Overseer. He was undoubtably here to see this mission to its completition, and Lavonne suspected that his presence signalled the arrival of more ships, probably a pair of frigates, to back up their position here. It all came down to Devop's report. To many LFX ships, and the people would be scared. To few, and they would brush their presence off as inconsiquencial.

Major-General Sauron Devop was, it seemed, a very important factor in this whole thing.

<font color=green>Eriadu "Indsutrial Centre", Sesswenna Sector

The sight had not changed.
Much had, however. Seti Ashar, CEO for the now galaxy-wide and world-spanning LFX Industrial, paced idly in front of the window, deeply considering those changes. He paused now and again to look out over the vista of Eriadu's capital city, Eriada.

The cityscape seldom changed in the sprawling metropolis, nor indeed across the whole world of Eriadu. If Coruscant were to be called Imperial Centre, then surely Eriadu was truly Industrial Centre. Once Grand Moff Tarkin's capital, and riddled with smoke-spewing factories and manufacturing plants, the world was a dead and barren wasteland.

But yet, in some peverse way, it was beautiful. Perhaps it took a man with Seti's viewpoint to truly understand how remarkable Eriadu truly was. And like Coruscant, Eriadu never slept.

Always there was movement, even at this late hour when the LFX CEO should have been in the security of his own home, beings came and went. Brightly lit catwalks were filled with hustling workers, businessmen, and others. The air-traffic never ceased, an endless movement of airpseeders and hovercars between towering skyscrapers.

And yet, remarkably, some of that ceaseless movement was controlled. The thousands of individual sentient life-forms had to obey the rules, a relatively small, not insurmountable number of them. The other alternative was to decend into the pit of utter chaos.

And Eriada's teaming population had far more sense than to decend into that pit. The mobs cooperated for their own survival's sake.

Seti Ashar pondered all this as he looked out at the city that never slept. Certainly there was power to be had, within the uncounted billions, trillions even, that were the working force of the galaxy. The workhourse of the galaxy. The question that most consistanly rose was how, exactly, one should go about gathering that power. You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink. The old adage rang perfectly true in this case. Seti Ashar could, with little difficulty, lead these people to his idea. But could he make them conform. And, more importantly, did he want to?

They were taught from childhood that power was everything, and that those with power would conquer all. But power hadn't saved the Empire. All the power in the universe did not save Emperor Palpatine when he was thrown down the reactor shaft by his trusted sevant, none other than Darth Vader.

Or did it Palpatine had all the power, and he returned no fewer than twice after he was supposed to have died. And even though he had been defeated each time, it was his power that had allowed him to come back. And lack thereof to allow him to maintain a comeback.

With great power comes great responsibility. Palpatine was irresponsible, wasn't he? He allowed things like Alderaan to happen. Luke Skywalker certainly had power, and to Seti's knowledge he had never done anything to misuse it. Besides join Palpatine in his quest of Galactic Dominace way back when... but it was that act that saved Mon Calamari. Perhaps the ends did justify the means, then?

Of course, Kyp Durron had power and he let it overcome him. That boy, just a boy when he did it, blew up an entire world. No power could be contained. The simple fact of the matter is, it seemed, that those with power eventually fell.

<font color=white><font color=green>

Is it true what they say? Power corrupts? It seems that, yes, it is. Even Dxun Isstal was not immune to the corruption that power brought.

<font color=white>

<font color=green>Industrial Centre

As was normal within the LFX Industrial Head Office, the turbolift made very little noise as it arrived from whereever it had been. For that reason, Seti Ashar did not find reason to look up from the morning's briefing at the man who had just entered his office.

It was not, in fact, until Hiram Drayson politely cleared his throat that the LFX CEO looked up and, realizing his error, put the briefing down, and finally greeted the commander of their armed forces.

"I do apoligize, Commander. I'm afraid that I did not even notice your arrival. Please, sit. Sit." Drayson sat, politely declined a drink from the bustling protocol droid, and placed a single datacard on the boss' desk, without a word. Seti's smile faltered. Drayson seemed unusally still, much to flat for the CEO's liking.

"What's this?" He asked, picking up the datacard and twirling it between thumb and forfinger, refusing to place it in the reader slot until the man across the desk gave him at least some idea of what was going on.

"The latest report from Questal, sir." Seti felt his heart stop beating for a millisecond as the words resonded through his head.

... report from Questal...

Surely a simple report could not be harmful? But then, why was Drayson so... different, today? Was he simply having a bad day, or was is something more... sinister?

Only one way to find out, he supposed. He put the card in the reader...

<font size=1>LFX Industrial Official Document

Classified and Confidential

Status Report: Project Custom

:Star Destroyer Reliant attacked in Questal System at 0300 hours. Enemy forces confirmed as Koss Manufacturing forces.

LFX Losses:
(6) X-wing starfighters destroyed
(4) X-wing starfighters damaged
(2) Starfighter pilots killed
(5) Starfighter pilots injured
(1) Victory Mark II Star Destroyer damaged

Motive unknown.</font>

There was a memo tacked onto the end that was obviously added at the last moment, and it read:

<font size=1>Major-General Sauron Devop injured, condition critical. Recomend immediate evac.</font>

Seti looked up at the commander of his armed forces, and Drayson could no doubt see the fire in his eyes.
"What do you... suggest, Commander?" He asked icily, looking back to the readout before him.

Drayson's reponse was quick and cool, well-thought out. He had planned this.
"Hit them back. Hard and fast, where they least expect it. They have a supply convoy leaving the system in six hours. I can get a Task Force there in four and ambush them. But /I need your-"

"Do it." Seti said, eyes smouldering. "Retaliate, Commander. They must know that hostility against LFX will not go unpunished..."

Drayson nodded, and was gone.

<font color=maroon>Questal System

Space is infinite. A vast and unending legacy of stars and planets, all ignorant to the goings-on of petty warlords and struggling governments. The stars are indifferent to the rise and fall of nations, the wars that are fought in their names, indeed ever over the stars themselves. They do not care if the Empire controls Coruscant, or is Damorian Manufacturing Corporation dies like an insect smashed by the proverbial fist of the Jutraalian Empire.

The stars are the stars, and they dwell not on the insignificant. For this, they are the highest order of beings in the galaxy.

In the infinite void of space rest twelve ships. They are warships, battle-scared and proud, gleaming in the new light, silent and deadly. They are the predators, silent watchers, waiting for the time to strike.
They have been waiting for two hours, two hours spent in a perpetual silence, for the enemy to arrive.

They came at precisely six minutes to ten, twenty ships or more. Bulk freighters, slow, unarmed, and noncombatants. All save two. Two of them were frigates, not small combat craft like the LFX Anti-Pirating Force that was there to intercept them, but massive Rebel Assault Frigates, studded with weaponry and massive fins sprouting from their backs.

They would detect the waiting Task Force and engage them, fight only long enough for the rest of the convoy to escape. Dely and deter them, but only if they danced to the enemy's tune. They would not.

Already the quartet of Gunships, and two of the larger Lancer Frigates, were breaking away, seemingly running straight into the enemy frigates. The rest of the ships set to engage the enemy ships, shields being raised and bulkheads closed in case of depressurization. The enemy had two options now: chase the smaller force back towards the convoy, and let the bigger group wreack havoc, or engage their primary targets and let the smaller group do what they could. They chose the latter, coming on hard and fast, straight into the LFX ships.

Years of drills of training by the Galactic Defence Initiative had taught the now-LFX soldiers well. Their timing was impecible, and as the enemy struck the cloaked TIE Phantoms fired their missiles and entered the fray. An entire wing of the mystery ships, sweeping in on both sides of the enemy.

And more capital ships, too. Three frigates, larger than any LFX ship present. The Scion, Virtue, and Modesty, respectively. Corellian designs. The latter two had gravity wells, and they powered them up now so as to keep the enemy from running.

They were surrounded, kept at bay with the turbolasers of the Industrial fleet, and given two choices:

Surrender, or Die.

They chose an honourable surrender.

<font color=green>Industrial Centre

A corporation's main concern is profits. The galaxy revolves are money, and he who has the most money always wins. It's just that simple. That easy logic explained, in three seconds, the entire purpose of Operation Custom and, in the end, everything else that LFX Industries did. They mantained a starfleet for the reason that their profits must be protected. They controlled worlds because the idea that 'more is better' rang especcially true with the members of the company. And they destroyed their enemies because enemies were bad for business.

In the end, everything that LFX Industrial did was done to further their own profits. And, occasioanlly, maybe help someone in need. But then, only if they had nothing to lose. A corporation can push and push, but only get so far as far as the galaxy is concerned. And stopping along the way to help poor babies will only push them backwards.

Some would consider LFX Industrial esspeccially cruel, uncommpasionate, even evil. To Seti Ashar, all those remarks were true. True and appalling to the current CEO of the largest private company in the galaxy. But with hundreds of thousand of employees and uncountable needs to satsify, he could hardly change LFX now. They were set in their ways of profit over all.

That was not to say he could not try. The company had, in the last sixteen weeks, spent in excess of ten million credits to get homeless people off the streets of Eriadu's many cities and into shelters, at least, homes, at best. But that was not enough. It would never be enough.

The man in question stood now, watching the ceaseless air traffic as it passed by the monolithic office building. Always there was motion. People moving, in light of the evils inflicted on the galaxy. Someone suffered no matter what one did, but maybe, just maybe, that same act would help a dozen others. It was, he mused, quite impossible to help everyone. What aided someone may well hurt someone else.

But that was, naturally, the name of the game. You don't get something for nothing, and hopefully the pros would outweigh the cons. It was all a game of Chance, really. A game of Chance, where cheating was overlooked, if not expected, and even... encouraged. All away from the prying eyes of the public. Naturally.

Seti was interupted from his thoughts by the buzzing of the intercom and, with a sigh, hit the key that activated it. Voice only, no fancy holograms or image-display units for him. It was all about profits, this game, and wasting money on prime hologram communication to talk to his secretary, only sixty feet away, was seen as utterly and completely pointless by the LFX Industrial CEO.

"Yes?" He asked shortly. He was not in the mood for interuptions.
"Sir, Mr. Gohgen from the goTech Corporation is here. You have a meeting scheduled with him right now." Sti sighed. This was not a time that he wished to waste meeting with some low-level corporate slug. Who the hell was Mr. Gohgen, anyway? And who in this bloody galaxy had heard of goTech corporartion? If he hadn't known better, Seti Ashar would have sworn that this was one big joke. One big, sick joke. He sat back and let out a long, deep, sigh.
"I'll take him now, Nina. Send him up."

Mr. Gohgen from the goTech corporation turned out to be a small man, older than Seti, with a hat and cheap buckle-up knee boots. He wore a wrinkled grey suit that he must have thought looked quite professional, since he had the gall to wear it into Seti Ashar's personal office. This was, after all, only one of the most powerful businessmen in the galaxy. All overnight, it seems, too. He \mused to himself. He pushed that train of thought aside. Now was time to dwell over his new-found power.

"What can I do for you, Mr. Gohgen?" He asked civily, waving away the server droid and smiling politely at his guest." The other man sat down carefully in the large leather chairs provided, and a smile crept onto his face.

"I am most interested in talking to you, Mr. Ashar. Your corporation is most wonderous. And it grew up almost as if overnight, did it not? Truly remarkable, Mr. Ashar. It really is."

Seti faked a smile and nodded along, listening carefully to the man's rambling compliments. It soon became tiresome, and he interupted the man, "Thank you, Mr. Gohgen. But I'm sure you did not come all this way simply to compliment me on my work."

The small man shook his head nervously.
"No, I didn't." His smile vanished, replaced with a bitter frown. "I came to discuss this."

From inside the hat he drew out a small, high-powered blaster and pointed it at Seti. "You have much to atone for, Mr. Ashar."

Seti almost burst out laughing, so much was the rediculousness of it. He gave the man a smile, a real one this time, and nodded.

"Indeed I do. Go on then, shoot me." His bluntness, and the smile on his face, threw the man off for a second.
"What?" He asked, waving the gun as if he thought the LFX CEO couldn't see it.
"I said," Seti replied easily, "shoot me. You were sent to kill me, were you not? Go on. Do it. Pull the trigger. I dare you."

The other man was trembling now, shaking from whatever it was that made him so nervous. His finger twitched once as he tried to gather the strength the pull the trigger.

Seti winked at the man. From the corner came a single high-powered laser blast. The back of Mr. Gohgen's head was reduced to nothing, a charred mess. Immediatly ventilators activated in the room to clear the clouds of smoke and remove the acrid smell of boiling flesh. In the corner, T-X31 placed the BlasTech Heavy Blaster Pistil back in the comparment he kept for it and made the droid equivilent of a sigh.

Seti keyed the intercom again.
"Nina, send someone up to clean up the mess. Oh, and please find the person who let someone managed to smuggle a blaster into my office. Then fire them."

The CEO neatly stepped around the still-twitching body and entered the turbolift. He was to accustomed to death for this to bother him to much, but it had never happened before in his own office. The entire incident had shook him, but nothing made him more curious and angry than why?

He would have his answers soon enough, he suspected. And then someone would have to pay for trying to kill him.

<font color=green>Questal System

Seti Ashar was a man that certainly knew style. He was a powerful man, and powerful men are expected to travel in style. He had known business men who routinely took their company's most powerful warship, often a Corellian Corvette or Carrack Cruiser, to a simple meeting to impress their comptetitors.

It was those groups that got eaten alive, stripped of everything because one man wanted to travel in 'style'. Seti Ashar knew that style was important, but keeping his company intact was far more important than that.

So it was that his personal transport ended up being nothing other than a Star Destroyer. A Victory Mark II, but it effectively doubled the strength of the LFX Industrial components in the system. And, unlike most other ships mantained by the Corporation it would not be missed from the defence fleets. The Vigor had been built in the early days by the corp. to serve as a delivery vehicle, or an explortation vessel if neccessary. No one would miss the Vigor.

The Star Destroyer arrived in the system some eighty-six hours after the attack on the Reliant. With two of the ships in the system, any ideas of a second attack by whoever had pulled the first one off was eliminated. Drayson had tried to get one of the Imperator Star Destroyers to reenforce the position immediatly, but Seti had told him that, aside from his Anti-Pirating Task Group, only the Vigor would be going. And that, only when he was ready. Drayson accepted that, but Seti did have his suspicions that a pair of Aegis Cruisers had been missing for several days on 'routine military exercies.' He let it go. He did, after all, appreciate Drayson's assertiveness in the situation.

Major-General Saroun Devop met Seti in the ready room of his Star Destroyer. His face still bore a scar from the attack, and Seti was reminded what exactly they were facing here. Perhaps the attempt on his own life was somehow related? One could never be to careful...

"General," he said, not bothering with a salute. This was not a military meeting, and he could tell that Devop appreciated the lack of formality. "Good to see you up and about. I don't believe we've met...?" He held out a hand, which the General shook happily.

"We have met, sir. Once, the day after the GDI/LFX merger. I was introduced to you by Dxun Isstal as the commander of your flagvessel."

Seti did not remembered this, but he nodded and said "Of course. I remember you now." He could not tell if Devop believed this, but he seemed indifferent either way.
"Can you appraise me on the situation here, then?" Devop nodded, sitting down and passing three datacards to the CEO.
"Before you are the Tactical Report from Captain Lavonne of the Reliant, it includes damage assesment and casualties. You've also got my own report, and Mr. Torgon's report from dirtside." Seti nodded and placed the cards in his reader one by one. The third one intruiged him. It listed each of their new mining sites, projected costs of mining, distribution, and packaging. And, of course, projected profits. He gasped as he saw the numbers.

"Are these accurate?" He asked, not taking his gaze from the screen.
"As near as we can tell," Devop returned. "My estimates are a little higher all-round, but generally they represent best-case senarios. With a 6% loss for whatever reason, we're still looking at profits in excess of seventy-five billion credits a year. Probably higher than that once we fine-tune our mining and delivery system."

Seti smiled. A genuine smile, from the heart.
"I am impressed, Mr. Devop. Very impressed."