Post by Gigachad on Aug 16, 2021 11:45:56 GMT
Pruszanka Kolonia
Invilis Corridor
Paul groaned as his alarm rang,prompting him to wake up and begin his day. He got ready for work,made some breakfast and turned on his television. As usual,local news were all about this Gauss-Furrelian war,prompting the man to sigh. This whole thing was getting quite tiresome and truthfully he did not care so long as nuclear warheads didn't start dropping out from orbit onto his world. After finishing his food,he exited his apartment and took the elevator to the roof,boarding his automated heli craft to work,hover just did not feel right to him.
On the usual pre programmed route,Paul gazed out of his craft's windows,smiling at the faint dots of light in orbit,ship engines. Most were no doubt heading towards Garren's Clarity to harvest exotic particles,others probably belonged to SMC and were heading to far off systems in order to deliver their state of the art Alcubierre Drives. The planet itself was hardly uninteresting of course,on one side was eternal day eclipsing vast solar farms tended to by automatons,in turn tended to by some poor chaps. Of course,that may be better compared to the night side,where frigid expanses of sprawling glaciers were home only to mining outposts seeking the ices for fusion fuel. Most however,Paul included,enjoyed a far better life than that in the various corporate cities dotting the habitable strip. Eventually his own company's headquarters came into view,a giant skyscraper,easily 2 and a half kilometers tall. Its frame dotted with landing pads for high to mid level employees while masses of bottom dwelling interns swarmed around its base down below. Paul certainly enjoyed his view,what he did not enjoy was the fact that he always had to put on a breathing apparatus once out of his heli craft so as to cope with the thin air at the tower's top,it was quite uncomfortable but probably better than the headache or fainting without it. Perhaps after he got this month's salary he might schedule some gene therapy to enhance his lungs and ears,skipping the problem entirely,but for now he walked across the foggy roof with his clunky breathing mask.
Once inside,Paul finally freed himself of that vile piece of equipment and began making his way towards the company's board room,not intent on missing the supposed meeting that was to take place. Still,he always took his time to salute any employee or security that crossed his path
Alas,he reached the large wooden doors,taking the time to straighten his tie and flatten out any wrinkles on his suit before walking in.
The chamber was exactly as it always was,well lit,the table was already stacked with their coffees and the central holographic display flashed between the company's budget,stocks and projected economic growth.
He promptly took his seat,closing the display and taking a sip of his coffee. Truth be told,he wasn't even sure why the thing was always open during meetings,everyone knew that business was booming. Paul put his mug down,eyed the other members,which were similarly relaxed,and finally spoke.
"So,does anyone actually know what the hell a lithorian is? I mean,this is the first time I even hear that word" he said nonchalantly. It was all very strange to him,some nation he never even heard of in his life suddenly wanted to broker things with their company? For all he knew,it was probably gonna be some nobody with delusions of grandeur,coming before them to spout nonsense about the superiority of his banana republic. This had already happened a disturbing number of times ,more than he had any interest to deal with,the galaxy sure was going to shit these days.
"They're a hivemind,first and foremost,but I couldn't for the life of me figure out how they look like" said a woman,Janet was her name. She worked for employee safety and rights. "I scoured the net yesterday and got a hundred different things,all of 'em lithorian,wasted my whole fucking evening"
Paul watched as Janet turned the projector on again and linked it to her data slate,causing it to quickly display and shift through the aforementioned pictures.
Surely enough no two of the things even looked like they belonged to the same species. Some were like insects,others like reptilians,others like….plants? Some were all of those things and others still looked like none. A little anxiety started to take hold of Paul,he hadn't interacted with an alien in a few years,and compared to these ugly motherfuckers,those ones were supermodels
"How the hell does that work?" Paul said,taking another sip of coffee as Janet shrugged.
"No clue,just make sure to be respectful,these guys look easy to piss off" some chuckling was heard among the other members.
"Alright,did you figure out where they're from?"
"I did,at least according to them they come from the 'austral expanse' basically everything below the galactic plane" she said,finding that fact particularly fascinating
"Wait,so outside the disk? I guess that explains the peculiar looks. By the way,their representative's supposed to be here in 10 minutes right?" Paul asked
"Yup" said Rotterdom,the board's treasurer
"But I have a feeling they won't even show up"
The intercom rang to life,almost making Paul spit out his coffee as a cackling shriek filled the room
"The….the guest is here" came a voice from the other side. Paul knew that voice all too well,it was Sahul,one of their security guards. What raised the a red flag was the tone of his voice,Sahul was a beast of a man and barely showed emotion ever since Paul first met him,yet now he sounded….shaken.
The other board members didn't seem to be bothered however,they were much more busy with hiding their half filled mugs in cabinets. The ones that had been smoking threw their cigarettes in trash bins and called out for Paul,snapping him out of his deep thoughts. He nodded and activated the air scrubbers and incense dispensers,hoping it would be enough to mask the scent.
The door swung open,Paul's eyes shrunk. The creature that stood before them was tall,inhumanly so,so tall that it had to lower its head through the 8 foot doorway. Its lower body was naught but a thick,homogenous stem. Paul wasn't even sure how it moved at all,let alone slid across the floor so effortlessly,like it had wheels under it. Sprouting from it were tendrils,long and prehensile like whips and tipped with blades. He could see 8 of them,dragging behind the lithorian as it moved. Its upper body was humanoid,slender frame but broad shoulders,like some kind of hourglass figure. Its arms were thick,thicker than Paul's legs and disproportionately long,hanging past where the knees would be had it been human. The fingers,dear lord,its fingers were actual blades,thin and sharp and pointed like a butcher's knife. A further set of blades jutted out of its knuckles and curled backwards. Two spiky pads erupted from its shoulders and bent upwards,some sort of cape hung from its back and arms,fused to the body. It was then that it finally hit him,the body,it was pitch black,blacker than anything he'd ever seen and so smooth and featureless that one could almost mistake this alien for being two dimensional. Its head was the worst of all however,sporting two pairs of bull like horns on its side and another pair at the top of its head,longer and flat,each sprouting three little nubs inwards. The face was almost blank,a part of him wishing it was truly empty. 8 eyes,no,8 patches of raw crimson glow dotted its visage,arranged in two vertical rows.
And so,here he was,locking gazes with something that may as well have crawled out from under somebody's bed.
WHAT.THE.FUCK.IS.THAT?! The thought raced across his mind like a hurricane,earning a squint of the eyes from the thing.
Paul immediately looked down,avoiding eye contact. Shit,could this thing read his mind? Of course,Janet said they were hive minded,that meant they're psionic too right? For a moment,Paul thought he had already fucked the meeting up,a smaller part of him instead imagining those bladed fingers around his throat.
The thing sighed,or atleast made its equivalent in sound,a deep inhuman noise. Then the creature crossed its arms behind its back,causing Paul to ease up,perhaps this being couldn't ascertain the machinations of his mind after all.
We want the planet
He was confused,he had heard the message clear as day,but the thing didn't move a muscle to deliver it. Indeed,the voice itself seemed to have no point of origin,it almost sounded like it was inside his head. He looked around frantically,some of his colleagues doing the same,only their chairman mister Denvers found the time to answer.
"What are you insinuating?"
We are willing to pay 500 million SIGEC for the world,how this is divided between you and other enterprises does not concern us
Whispering overtook the members,Paul could hear them,so it's no doubt the creature could as well. This was shaping up to be a far more interesting day than he had thought.
Mister Denvers raised his hand,making everyone go quiet
"So you're just going to buy us out? Give us a crap ton of cash,expect us to hand over everything to you and go live in some beach mansion for the rest of our lives?"
You misunderstand,the planet will be legally considered lithorian collective territory,all enterprises remain privately owned and managed
"But that still means we have to pay you taxes. Why would we do that? You hand us a nice heap of money now sure,but in the long run we stand to loose profit"
You will be taxed,naturally,but you'll find us quite endearing in that department. Furthermore,I believe you'll find our intervention to bring the exact opposite of a decrease in profit
"How so?"
Tell me,just how much of your finances are spent on maintaining the logistics for shipment to your clients?
"20%,last I checked,what are you getting at?"
We could make that zero percent. We've developed an advanced wormhole generator that could allow you to link up to any buyer,anywhere in this galaxy and with no delay. We can lease it to you,at no further cost than the taxes you are obligated to provide.
"But what exactly do you get out of all this? Now it's sounding like you're the one to lose"
In the short term,yes. But this is merely an investment for future operations. We've set our sights on this region some time ago and this location,and you,will prove invaluable. Alas,I have one more fact that deserves your attention
"And what would that be?"
You're the 20th company I've spoken to these last two days. Out of them,15 have already agreed and are waiting on their sums. This transaction is going to happen mister Denvers. I'm only here to know if you're in or….
It stopped,Paul was silent as he had been,now contemplating what would happen if they refused. He guessed they would be evicted off world and have their assets stripped,but a small voice in his head told him that was the best case scenario….
"You have a deal" said mister Denvers,to the surprise of the entire board,Paul included.
It was a pleasure doing business with you. You'll be seeing me again in a few weeks. There will be a conference to see how the compensation is split between companies and I suggest you attend.
"Before you go,do you have a name? Or just some term I can address you by in the future?"
Hm? Ah yes of course,you place great emphasis on those. Call me….Naz'kid
The doors swung open again,strange insectoids standing in the doorway to escort "Naz'kid" as they departed. The board erupted into arguing,but Paul was having none of it. He exited the room and went to the bathroom,washing his hands and looking at himself in the mirror. He began thinking,doing simple equations in his mind,it had been a long time since he did such things without a calculator. If he played his cards right,secured a reasonable amount of the sum for his company then further bargained with his co workers,he might end up with a million SIGEC right in his digital pockets. He could stay and make more,their profits were certainly going to improve,but ultimately why bother? He'd have all he needs to do exactly as mister Denvers said,retire to some paradise world and live his days in bliss. He smiled at his reflection,this may well be the best day of his life. Then again,plenty of good days were on the horizon,maybe he'd hook up to one of those Rhizomes he kept hearing about,try out some of those virtual paradises and skip the mansion and resort world entirely......
Yes,that sounded nice
Invilis Corridor
Paul groaned as his alarm rang,prompting him to wake up and begin his day. He got ready for work,made some breakfast and turned on his television. As usual,local news were all about this Gauss-Furrelian war,prompting the man to sigh. This whole thing was getting quite tiresome and truthfully he did not care so long as nuclear warheads didn't start dropping out from orbit onto his world. After finishing his food,he exited his apartment and took the elevator to the roof,boarding his automated heli craft to work,hover just did not feel right to him.
On the usual pre programmed route,Paul gazed out of his craft's windows,smiling at the faint dots of light in orbit,ship engines. Most were no doubt heading towards Garren's Clarity to harvest exotic particles,others probably belonged to SMC and were heading to far off systems in order to deliver their state of the art Alcubierre Drives. The planet itself was hardly uninteresting of course,on one side was eternal day eclipsing vast solar farms tended to by automatons,in turn tended to by some poor chaps. Of course,that may be better compared to the night side,where frigid expanses of sprawling glaciers were home only to mining outposts seeking the ices for fusion fuel. Most however,Paul included,enjoyed a far better life than that in the various corporate cities dotting the habitable strip. Eventually his own company's headquarters came into view,a giant skyscraper,easily 2 and a half kilometers tall. Its frame dotted with landing pads for high to mid level employees while masses of bottom dwelling interns swarmed around its base down below. Paul certainly enjoyed his view,what he did not enjoy was the fact that he always had to put on a breathing apparatus once out of his heli craft so as to cope with the thin air at the tower's top,it was quite uncomfortable but probably better than the headache or fainting without it. Perhaps after he got this month's salary he might schedule some gene therapy to enhance his lungs and ears,skipping the problem entirely,but for now he walked across the foggy roof with his clunky breathing mask.
Once inside,Paul finally freed himself of that vile piece of equipment and began making his way towards the company's board room,not intent on missing the supposed meeting that was to take place. Still,he always took his time to salute any employee or security that crossed his path
Alas,he reached the large wooden doors,taking the time to straighten his tie and flatten out any wrinkles on his suit before walking in.
The chamber was exactly as it always was,well lit,the table was already stacked with their coffees and the central holographic display flashed between the company's budget,stocks and projected economic growth.
He promptly took his seat,closing the display and taking a sip of his coffee. Truth be told,he wasn't even sure why the thing was always open during meetings,everyone knew that business was booming. Paul put his mug down,eyed the other members,which were similarly relaxed,and finally spoke.
"So,does anyone actually know what the hell a lithorian is? I mean,this is the first time I even hear that word" he said nonchalantly. It was all very strange to him,some nation he never even heard of in his life suddenly wanted to broker things with their company? For all he knew,it was probably gonna be some nobody with delusions of grandeur,coming before them to spout nonsense about the superiority of his banana republic. This had already happened a disturbing number of times ,more than he had any interest to deal with,the galaxy sure was going to shit these days.
"They're a hivemind,first and foremost,but I couldn't for the life of me figure out how they look like" said a woman,Janet was her name. She worked for employee safety and rights. "I scoured the net yesterday and got a hundred different things,all of 'em lithorian,wasted my whole fucking evening"
Paul watched as Janet turned the projector on again and linked it to her data slate,causing it to quickly display and shift through the aforementioned pictures.
Surely enough no two of the things even looked like they belonged to the same species. Some were like insects,others like reptilians,others like….plants? Some were all of those things and others still looked like none. A little anxiety started to take hold of Paul,he hadn't interacted with an alien in a few years,and compared to these ugly motherfuckers,those ones were supermodels
"How the hell does that work?" Paul said,taking another sip of coffee as Janet shrugged.
"No clue,just make sure to be respectful,these guys look easy to piss off" some chuckling was heard among the other members.
"Alright,did you figure out where they're from?"
"I did,at least according to them they come from the 'austral expanse' basically everything below the galactic plane" she said,finding that fact particularly fascinating
"Wait,so outside the disk? I guess that explains the peculiar looks. By the way,their representative's supposed to be here in 10 minutes right?" Paul asked
"Yup" said Rotterdom,the board's treasurer
"But I have a feeling they won't even show up"
The intercom rang to life,almost making Paul spit out his coffee as a cackling shriek filled the room
"The….the guest is here" came a voice from the other side. Paul knew that voice all too well,it was Sahul,one of their security guards. What raised the a red flag was the tone of his voice,Sahul was a beast of a man and barely showed emotion ever since Paul first met him,yet now he sounded….shaken.
The other board members didn't seem to be bothered however,they were much more busy with hiding their half filled mugs in cabinets. The ones that had been smoking threw their cigarettes in trash bins and called out for Paul,snapping him out of his deep thoughts. He nodded and activated the air scrubbers and incense dispensers,hoping it would be enough to mask the scent.
The door swung open,Paul's eyes shrunk. The creature that stood before them was tall,inhumanly so,so tall that it had to lower its head through the 8 foot doorway. Its lower body was naught but a thick,homogenous stem. Paul wasn't even sure how it moved at all,let alone slid across the floor so effortlessly,like it had wheels under it. Sprouting from it were tendrils,long and prehensile like whips and tipped with blades. He could see 8 of them,dragging behind the lithorian as it moved. Its upper body was humanoid,slender frame but broad shoulders,like some kind of hourglass figure. Its arms were thick,thicker than Paul's legs and disproportionately long,hanging past where the knees would be had it been human. The fingers,dear lord,its fingers were actual blades,thin and sharp and pointed like a butcher's knife. A further set of blades jutted out of its knuckles and curled backwards. Two spiky pads erupted from its shoulders and bent upwards,some sort of cape hung from its back and arms,fused to the body. It was then that it finally hit him,the body,it was pitch black,blacker than anything he'd ever seen and so smooth and featureless that one could almost mistake this alien for being two dimensional. Its head was the worst of all however,sporting two pairs of bull like horns on its side and another pair at the top of its head,longer and flat,each sprouting three little nubs inwards. The face was almost blank,a part of him wishing it was truly empty. 8 eyes,no,8 patches of raw crimson glow dotted its visage,arranged in two vertical rows.
And so,here he was,locking gazes with something that may as well have crawled out from under somebody's bed.
WHAT.THE.FUCK.IS.THAT?! The thought raced across his mind like a hurricane,earning a squint of the eyes from the thing.
Paul immediately looked down,avoiding eye contact. Shit,could this thing read his mind? Of course,Janet said they were hive minded,that meant they're psionic too right? For a moment,Paul thought he had already fucked the meeting up,a smaller part of him instead imagining those bladed fingers around his throat.
The thing sighed,or atleast made its equivalent in sound,a deep inhuman noise. Then the creature crossed its arms behind its back,causing Paul to ease up,perhaps this being couldn't ascertain the machinations of his mind after all.
We want the planet
He was confused,he had heard the message clear as day,but the thing didn't move a muscle to deliver it. Indeed,the voice itself seemed to have no point of origin,it almost sounded like it was inside his head. He looked around frantically,some of his colleagues doing the same,only their chairman mister Denvers found the time to answer.
"What are you insinuating?"
We are willing to pay 500 million SIGEC for the world,how this is divided between you and other enterprises does not concern us
Whispering overtook the members,Paul could hear them,so it's no doubt the creature could as well. This was shaping up to be a far more interesting day than he had thought.
Mister Denvers raised his hand,making everyone go quiet
"So you're just going to buy us out? Give us a crap ton of cash,expect us to hand over everything to you and go live in some beach mansion for the rest of our lives?"
You misunderstand,the planet will be legally considered lithorian collective territory,all enterprises remain privately owned and managed
"But that still means we have to pay you taxes. Why would we do that? You hand us a nice heap of money now sure,but in the long run we stand to loose profit"
You will be taxed,naturally,but you'll find us quite endearing in that department. Furthermore,I believe you'll find our intervention to bring the exact opposite of a decrease in profit
"How so?"
Tell me,just how much of your finances are spent on maintaining the logistics for shipment to your clients?
"20%,last I checked,what are you getting at?"
We could make that zero percent. We've developed an advanced wormhole generator that could allow you to link up to any buyer,anywhere in this galaxy and with no delay. We can lease it to you,at no further cost than the taxes you are obligated to provide.
"But what exactly do you get out of all this? Now it's sounding like you're the one to lose"
In the short term,yes. But this is merely an investment for future operations. We've set our sights on this region some time ago and this location,and you,will prove invaluable. Alas,I have one more fact that deserves your attention
"And what would that be?"
You're the 20th company I've spoken to these last two days. Out of them,15 have already agreed and are waiting on their sums. This transaction is going to happen mister Denvers. I'm only here to know if you're in or….
It stopped,Paul was silent as he had been,now contemplating what would happen if they refused. He guessed they would be evicted off world and have their assets stripped,but a small voice in his head told him that was the best case scenario….
"You have a deal" said mister Denvers,to the surprise of the entire board,Paul included.
It was a pleasure doing business with you. You'll be seeing me again in a few weeks. There will be a conference to see how the compensation is split between companies and I suggest you attend.
"Before you go,do you have a name? Or just some term I can address you by in the future?"
Hm? Ah yes of course,you place great emphasis on those. Call me….Naz'kid
The doors swung open again,strange insectoids standing in the doorway to escort "Naz'kid" as they departed. The board erupted into arguing,but Paul was having none of it. He exited the room and went to the bathroom,washing his hands and looking at himself in the mirror. He began thinking,doing simple equations in his mind,it had been a long time since he did such things without a calculator. If he played his cards right,secured a reasonable amount of the sum for his company then further bargained with his co workers,he might end up with a million SIGEC right in his digital pockets. He could stay and make more,their profits were certainly going to improve,but ultimately why bother? He'd have all he needs to do exactly as mister Denvers said,retire to some paradise world and live his days in bliss. He smiled at his reflection,this may well be the best day of his life. Then again,plenty of good days were on the horizon,maybe he'd hook up to one of those Rhizomes he kept hearing about,try out some of those virtual paradises and skip the mansion and resort world entirely......
Yes,that sounded nice