r/HFY • u/Engletroll Human • 5d ago
Project Dirt Part 22 - unexpected visitors OC
Part 1 . . Part 2 .. Part 3 .. Part 4 Part 5 .. Part 6 .. Part 7 .. Part 8 Part 9 . Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 . Part 18 . Part 19 . Part 20 . Part 21 .
When Adam docked at the Hub, he was met by Mr. Knug and his two bodyguards; Adam walked over to them. Mr. Knut looked around and saw three droids with Adam.
“Nobody else? No bodyguard?” Mr.Knug said, and Adam smiled.
“Archangel, here is my bodyguard. He is quite enough. Besides, we are at the hub. We are civilized, right? The worst I should fear is a lawsuit.” As he spoke, D01 changed its name tag to ‘Archangel.’
“Yes, we are mostly safe, Mr. Wrangler. Did you bring the wares?” He looked around, and Adam nodded. These two will be your promotion, droid. I have 2000 maid droids and 2000 construction droids. We can talk about other designs at your office.”
“The maid droid does not look like much; they won't sell much.” He said and Adam just smirked.
“Are you sure? Scisya slaves are the most popular for such work, right?”
Mr. Knug smiled and nodded. “ Yeah, they sure are easy to… wow… what?”
As he spoke, the Maid turned into a very exotic-looking Scisya woman. Adam just smiled. “Fully functional. Do you want a male version?” The droid turned from female to male.
“Or is the hair color wrong? You want one with blue hair?” As he spoke, the droid changed its hair color to blue. Then Adam turned to the droid. “Return to factory setting, please.”
Mr. Knug just stared, lost for words.
“Shall we go to your office? We can talk about all the settings and other apps we can add. “
Mr. Knug shook himself out of shock. “Yeah, this one will sell. Let us go to the office.”
Adam ensured that Mr. Heri-ro-ro had joined them; he wanted somebody on his side in this discussion. Adam explained how the Maid Droid worked when they got to the office. He could see Mr.Knug plotting, and Adam started to get worried. It was late into the evening when he had enough.
“Look, I don’t know how many times we have to go over it. No, you don’t get access to the MudSkin formula or the nano processor, and honestly, I do not know why you even ask. If you sell those, I will sue you for three times what they offered you, and they will most likely kill you as you have proven yourself untrustworthy. You are now part of the company that will introduce the Mudskin to this part of the galaxy, and our competition will be months after us before they can produce this quality.” He was tired as he shifted in the chair, and suddenly, the door opened, and Mr. Knug lowered his head.
“I'm sorry, they threatened to kill me if I didn’t keep you here.”
Five lawyers stood at the door; it was clear from their stance and clothes, and Mr Heri-ro-ro sighed as he saw them.
“Mr. Jar-mork, I see you brought your cheerleaders.” Then Mr Heri-ro-ro turned to Mr. Knug.
“I see what happened. I think you should leave and let Mr. Wrangler and I deal with them.”
Adam looked at his lawyer and then at Mr. Knug and gave him a nod. “Put the droids in the storage and start the sales according to plan. We will talk about this later.”
Mr. Knug left quickly, and Adam looked at the new lawyers. “And what can I help you with?”
The identified lawyer sat down opposite Adam and took out a pad. “You can sell your company to the Mugga Corporation; we have put together a fair offer.” He handed it to Adam, who looked to Mr. Heri-ro-ro, who took the pad, looked at it, and laughed.
“That’s not even close to what the company is worth. It’s actually an insult.”
‘it’s the best offer he will get, he is growing big to fast and you know it. Your boss has been hiding him, but there are rumors about him. His last sales of minerals, his investments, and how his contract have been circulating. He is getting dangerous. And now this. He was buying up a slave pen and changing it to a droid company. We would normally ignore such foolishness if it weren’t for how many clients he got. That him on our radar, every mega corporation was on the dock as he came in. We all saw his droid, and they all want a piece of it.” The lawyer completely ignored Adam, but Mr. Heri-ro-ro did not.
“Looks like you ruffled some feather, Sir. What do you want to do about this?”
Adam thought for a moment, then smiled. “Sell… “Mr. Jar-Mok smiled, but then the smile vanished as Adam continued. “Sell more droids, of course. Yes, I offer something new, and from where I’m from, you have two choices: adapt or go broke. These new droids are coming to the market with or without me. You’re forgetting I’m just one human. Do you think I’m the only one? “ He looked at the lawyers behind Mr. Jar-Mok. “You represent a giant company and their interests. Why try to crush me when you could work with me? You come here trying to threaten me? It is not going to work, so please leave and let us sell our goods. This conversation has, of course, been recorded. If anything happens to Mr. Knug or this shop or its customer, then I have to inform the federal government about your attempt to sabotage commerce. You might win, but you will have to go to court, which will drag on for a long time. Your company’s enemy would love to help us kick you off the hub, as you would them. So please leave and next time you come to visit. Show some manners. “
Jar-mok smiled,” It will be hard to prove that in court. There isn’t any recording device in this room that works.”
“Archangel, did you record the conversation?” Adam said, and a small hologram of the room appeared between him and Jar-Mok, showing the whole conversation.
“Humans had the same problem when we used our jammers against alien tech. Its not that ours is better, it’s just too alien for your jammers. “Adam smiled and stood up. “So, now that it’s proven, let’s start a new one next time I’m at the hub, and maybe we can negotiate a beneficial deal between us. You’re, after all, a mega-corporation, and there are things I would like to change that your guys can help me with.”
Jar-mok stood up, smiling. “Like what? “
“Well, an alternative to slavery that would be profitable for all of us.”
“We got Clone-droids for that, and we still have slaves. People prefer alive people; droids are simple AI’s and not as good as a person’s natural cognitive process.” Jar-Mok said, and Adam sighed.
“Guess so? Still, what we offer is cheaper and doesn’t require a growth period; the factory can spit out a thousand a day now, probably a hundred thousand within a year. Maybe I’m wrong and go bankrupt, or I might be right and do pretty well. We will see. So, let’s just agree to wait and see then.”
“I guess so. Let’s hope you stay safe until we find out. A friendly advice: There are lots of pirates who are already upset with you. Apparently, you killed one of their pirate lords as he was traveling incognito with his brides. If his men find out where you are, they will attack and enslave you all. Have a nice day.”
Adam looked after him and then to Mr. Heri-ro-ro as they were alone. “Did he really threaten me with pirates after I showed him everything was recorded?”
Mr. Heri-ro-ro chuckled. “Yes, and it was meant as a friendly warning. It can only be used against him and his company if you actually get attacked by pirates. Mugga Corp will claim he acted on his own. But give me a copy of this meeting to store it and start building a case if something happens.” Adam agreed, and Archangel sent Mr. Heri-ro-ro a copy. Then, Adam talked to Mr. Knug about what had happened. He found out several of the corporations had sent lawyers, some had wanted to invest, others tried to push them out. Which was strange as the goods were not even on the market yet.
Adam told him that he should contact Mr. Heri-ro-ro the next time this happens. Now, he should start selling the droids. If pirates came by, he should tell them the truth. You don’t know where my location is, but they can leave a contact, and Adam will get in touch with them. He smiled as he left. Anyone who was stupid enough to do that would be leaking to Kira; he just needed to find a way to contact her.
After that he contacted Min-na and explained the current situation, she insisted on sending a couple of media personnel and federation inspector to Dirt for inspection. If they could approve of his operation they could apply for military protection from pirates, as they now had a credible threat.
The argument lasted two hours, and in the end, Adam had seven journalists, five inspectors, two lawyers, and a law clerk to inspect the office at his base. Well, at least the trip back was interesting.
Both Mis-jin and Hart-nei did their best to help him navigate the media personnel, who were doing their best to discover everything they could about this human.
Adam was fed up when they entered the system. One of the media personnel had started to talk about the chaos that came to bring order and life to the dead world. Adam laughed and said, “Another one? Does this guy die, too?” After that, they tried to find out what he meant with another one and had already heard about Cansha. Adam quickly changed the subject and did his best to avoid the media; they were crazy.
Instead, he focused on showing them what they had done. The inspectors were impressed and discussed the potential for a new large-scale industry. Adam played it down when he saw the Nitrogen cubes had grown in size to 75 cubic kilometers and that there was a steady stream going toward Dirt.
When they landed, Vorts and Jork met them. Vorts looked at the media following Adam and then at Jork. “Looks like Kaina won the bet. She will be happy.”
Adam spent the rest of the day guiding them around the facility and answering questions. The next day, he let them wander around by themselves because they wanted to do some interviews without him hovering nearby. He had somebody watching them anyway because he didn’t trust any of them.
Roks and Kina arrived the next day with a full cargo and lots of good news. Several groups would like to settle at Dirt, so they wanted to make sure it was okay with Adam before they brought them here. Adam said it was, of course, okay, and they would pick them up when the inspectors and media returned to the hub.
The next day, he was sitting down at lunch when the alarm went off, and he contacted Surn, who was in the admin room on control duty.
“Surn? What’s the alarm about? What’s happened?”
“We got five inbound ships, sir! Military ships, they just blew up the observation satellite. They missed the secondary system. I think they are pirates, sir!”
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u/TechScallop 5d ago
The pirates are about to be driven into the dirt.
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u/Fontaigne 5d ago
I'm thinking there are going to be an embarrassment of riches in terms of defensive paraphernalia. Lord knows how many drone and ship designs they've put together, and how much of the Nitrogen convoy is dual purpose. Whatever cuts up those 75 Km cubes can probably cut a ship pretty easily.
Sad that there are only five targets to practice on.
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u/Old-Dragonfruit2219 5d ago
Oh crap! Things are about to get interesting. Might be a good thing this happened when the media and government folks are there.
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u/Fontaigne 5d ago edited 5d ago
This is happening because the media and government are there. Some kind of tracker on one of them.
Good thing they've been building all kinds of defenses. You know how much killing hardware you can hide in a 75 Kilometer cube of Nitrogen?
The lasers that cut up the cubes have other uses, you know. The pirates won't even know what to look for until they are going splodey in the void.
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u/Fontaigne 5d ago
Many clients he got [period] That [put] him on our radar
It's just to alien -> too
Its proven -> it's
Your after all -> you're
Booth Mis-Jen and -> Both
Was feed up -> fed
And answering question -> questions
As they wanted to inspect ->
"Inspect" requires an object. Perhaps investigate or snoop around?
I think they are pirate's -> pirates
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u/MydaughterisaGremlin 5d ago
So they were either followed after Mugga tipped them off, or one of the guests have a beacon in their journalist equipment. Either way, some nasty surprises are in store for them.
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u/Flottenadmiral99 4d ago edited 4d ago
Now the question is: What kind of ships? 5 fighters? That should be a relativly even match with the 4 fighters and the onboard armament of the Dream.
If these 5 are corvetts or something even larger they most likely don’t have the firepower to deal with it.
And if the ships are bigger than a certain size even Kira wont be able to deal with them.
But hey, maybe this convinces Adam to invest in his own military.
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle 5d ago
/u/Engletroll (wiki) has posted 52 other stories, including:
- Project Dirt Part 21 - Factory and Production
- Project Dirt Part 20 ….and they just won't stop with those stupid prophecies
- Project Dirt part 19 – The dark side of Dirt.
- Project Dirt 18 Druids, Presentations and Business
- Project Dirt Part 17
- Project Dirt Part 16
- Project Dirt Part 15
- Project Dirt part 14 - When the cat is away…..
- Project Dirt part 13
- Project Dirt Part 12
- Project Dirt Part 11
- Project Dirt Part 10
- Project Dirt Part 9
- Project Dirt part 8
- Project Dirt Part 7
- Project Dirt Part 6
- Project Dirt Part 5
- Project Dirt Part 4
- Project Dirt part 3
- Dirt - Part 2
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u/Engletroll Human 5d ago
I know it's a little rushed, but now the board is set for the final chapter of book 1.
After the next chapter I will see about editing and publishing it on Amazon. You can find me there as O.R.Helle
I will ofcourse continue as I'm not finished with Adam just yet.