To Talk; Negotiations (Nova)

[Auric]

That was... an interesting thing to hear. Most people don't admit to such things in formal discussion -- particularly powerful leaders. They usually say they'd worked on incorrect information or referred to their error in judgement and usually humble themselves but Cid's honesty was refreshing. It was good this way -- less pretenses and need for stiffness; particularly for someone like Auric, who respected it and would have been more inclined to offer more services for less. Even with his current leverage he would let aa few things slide and give back some more... after all, despite him not liking how Cocoon was, he had no intention of just leaving them to rot.

And this negotiation presented to him a great deal many opportunities to do good and work on his long-term goal. To each place he'd been to, he'd made arrangements that would aid in his work. Still, it had been some time since he was last working wearing a Guardian Corps uniform and the idea was more appealing than he'd initially thought despite his unwillingness. "I would have it no other way." he replied, accepting the terms... it was exactly what he'd wanted and precisely the same as what Cid had needed from him. Auric wasn't stupid -- Nova, in her stupidity had thought him meaning to just take a group of armed men with infinite power. Such was not the case -- if he wanted to go around blowing stuff up on Cocoon, he sure as hell didn't need the Sanctum's help to do it. But there was a reason why he was even considering it to begin with... a reason which, given time would no doubt reveal itself.

"I have no intention of taking all the elites. As for as unit size goes, I think ten or twelve will be a good size with six in reserve and a few in training. With support staff." he specified, listing precisely the things he needed. Essentially he was asking for a small group... and all facilities required to handle them, meaning pilots for fast deployment by airships or ... hell, even a janitor to help clean up the mess. Usually that stuff was a given but he found that, when making a deal you had to state the obvious... which was very similar to what he always tried to tell his class -- "make no assumptions". You cannot assume that the person you are speaking with is inherently able to comprehend what it is you're asking for. Sometimes you had to dumb it down -- make hand puppets, drawings, a slide-show, whatever to get it through their head.

"That's only natural, Cid. You and I both know an unwilling soldier isn't one you'd want in the team anyway." he stated. It was a fact -- if you could help it, you should always have people on your team who knew what they were signing up for and wanted to be on the job. Forcing someone to join wasn't a great idea given how out in the field you needed to trust these very people to watch your back... still, in a large military body such things were usually inevitable. A commander doesn't usually get to decide which rookie he gets... only that he gets them. "I'll do you one better, I'll have a rotating roster so the people who join my sub-division will move on or rejoin their previous posting so as to improve the standard of your full-time elites." he threw in, knowing the idea was particularly appealing given how Cid must have wanted to repopulate the once elite Cavalry.

But it was good for it to be settled -- they would be armed with the best equipment they had to offer which ensured that in terms of light-weaponry, they wouldn't ever fall short. Cid's proposal for logistics made quite a lot of sense and was every bit as acceptable as the posting the man offered just moments ago. Cocoon didn't really need to worry about that... given time they'd eventually have a surplus but he imagined that the recruitment sky-rocketing with news of the Primarch's return had a little something to do with the shortage. Plus there was also the call to arms... as far as he understood it, quite a lot of retired soldiers -- particularly in the Homeguard were coming back into active duty. Producing all those armaments wasn't a great big issue -- just a matter of time. The issue of gil was non-existent, Cocoon in and of itself was incredibly wealthy. Auric himself had quite a few corporate backers particularly from weapons labs and R&D firms.

Which reminded him.

"I'll also need discrete access to all R&D labs, archives and Sanctum information bases. In return I can provide some security solutions and alternatives to prevent leaks of important information." he proposed, knowing it to be a good offer. Without the fal'Cie to monitor and regulate the flow of information much of Sanctum would have to do it themselves... and the Turks from Midgar's Shinra Electric Company were good enough at espionage that he knew it was only a matter of time they or some other foreign presence would set their sights on their particularly advanced technology. Esthar being the only other technological marvel out of the many realms he'd visited...

[Cid Raines]

when all is said and done, i will be free, and
when i’m gone, you can't depend on me, in
time you’ll see you stand alone into our own
- - - - - - - - - -

ten or twelve fit perfectly in the range of numbers cid had in his head. he was more wishing to have a smaller sub-unit and not one with over twenty full-timers. support staff would be fine, too. with his return and also the fal’Cie gone, people seemed to be more willing to help out on cocoon, whether it be in protecting it or rebuilding it. though of course some were still shaken from the almost destruction of cocoon, and then a year later, its move to another land, not floating about gran pulse any more. the primarch himself was confused about it but he soon quickly adjusted after a year of being dead.

a rotating roster... yes, that would be helpful.

“we will need an amount of time for the soldiers to be in the division, and it would be best to switch them all in and out at different times instead of having a bunch of different faces at a time,” plus the older ones in the sub-division would be able to guide the rookies. it only seemed logical to do that, and a whole group of newbies would call for some stress if they didn’t get it, though of course they wouldn’t be thick – hopefully – and have knowledge of what to do and they would be able to take orders, obviously.

“i’ll also need discrete access to all R&D labs, archives and sanctum information bases. in return i can provide some security solutions and alternatives to prevent leaks of important information.”

“though how do i know you will return information?” the dark haired man asked, but a smile at the corner of his mouth. auric was a trustworthy man, and though he wanted a lot of things he knew how to give things in return for the ‘gift’. equivalent exchange was something cid believed in however he had did feel wary of giving the mercenary the access to the research and development departments, and everything else, but the offer of security solutions made sense. though he had only limited basic knowledge of hacking, he was able to hack into dysley’s library and find out about the maker, though, he was perhaps just given permission. the old primarch seemed to know that cid attempted to hack into top secret files that were certainly easy to get into. perhaps they had a lowered security when he tried.

“access granted,” cid said, pursing his lips momentarily before his eyes flickered to ouranus again. she had messed up big time, but it was cid’s fault for not asking yaag rosch to send a more... well, to not send a rookie, really.

[Auric]

Cid was right to be wary. Auric was... fundamentally, a mercenary. He had so far offered his services in exchange for material wealth. To Auric, however, it all had a value in trade and as overboard as he went when it came to pricing himself you had to figure that he was worth it. Assuming you could afford him, after all. What Cid was granting Auric was an all-access pass to what Cocoon's equivalent was of the internet. It was a little more complicated than that... computers were everywhere and on Cocoon anyone could do shopping just about anywhere by browsing electronic catalogs. He'd actually seen something similar on Esthar... the difference being that on Cocoon it was all centralized. Everyone relied on the information network in some extent or another... military units received live reports of where each other was located and in the great hunt of the L'cie they never truly lost track of Lightning Farron and Hope Esthaim.

And in the worse case scenario, had Auric wished to abuse this power he could end Cocoon in a day by crashing all economic networks and blacking out whatever essential systems were needed to support the great metropolises of the world. But what he offered was invaluable... Auric himself had counted at least six attempts at remote access by foreign powers... half of which he could have back-traced to ShinRa Electronic Company's Turks. So far, their security measures were holding up but it was only a matter of time before someone could seize control of it... and by then, they'd wreak havoc on Cocoon whether they intended to or not. But Auric? He was asking more out of courtesy...

The truth was that with his ability he could mentally ask the system to whatever it is he wanted. Not that he would; as much as possible he kept his unique abilities to himself but the possibility was always there. Such was the creative application of omnilingualism. And he actually knew for a fact that the fal'Cie had purposely given Cid privileged and limited access to the files regarding the maker... the information network back then had been closely guarded by innumerable fal'Cie working in tandem to strictly control all things that went on. Now..... without the god-like beings monitoring it, the system was much less intuitive in repelling foreign attempts at access... which is why Auric's offer was invaluable.

But his asking price was incredibly high. For everything he offered, he expected either equal or greater renumeration... anything less and everyone in the room knew that Auric was going to point them to the door. "Blind optimism, Cid." he replied coolly, offering only this one small joke to alleviated the pressure of giving Auric the keys to the kingdom. "I've got no intention of ruining anything, don't you worry." he said softly, contemplating on having one of the students bringing them both a drink. Of course, Auric was a hard person to figure out... you couldn't tell if he was lying or telling the truth which might have added to the Primarch's stress. Ah, well... still, you should know that Auric's intellect was surprisingly high. He was a polymath... and this was a byproduct of his baser abilities but the schematics and research projects that were conceptually sound and yet were defunct lying in Cocoon's databases could have very easily been finished off by him. Auric's ECHO gloves were proof of this... though others had taken a look and still had no idea how it worked.

Right now, however, as Cid had gone an approved his access Auric thought to get a little back at Nova by placing her name down as some important engineer for the Sanctum and intentionally making that information vulnerable for the Turks to access. Oh it would have been a sweet idea... and leaving a mental note to do so a little later, there was a final few terms they had to settle up. It was a given that Auric would only ever answer to Cid... as both knew for sure that he would never cede his command to someone like Yaag Rosch, they were an entire military branch apart and Auric would have shot him in the face had he tried to command his men.

"Now... as to my rates... I have a 2 billion gil signing fee. And a 200 million gil salary." he proposed. "Does that seem acceptable?" he could hear people's mouthes drop and one of his students choked on what must have been some sort of chewing candy. To put it into perspective... Garden gave him the salary of an A-rank SeeD... this was 30, 000 gil. His average job he charged at six figures.

But damn.

This was Auric: the cause of Cocoon's upcoming great depression.

... Nah, they can afford it, right? Hehe.

[Cid Raines]

when all is said and done, i will be free, and
when i’m gone, you can't depend on me, in
time you’ll see you stand alone into our own
- - - - - - - - - -

“blind optimism, cid. i’ve got no intention of ruining anything, don’t you worry.”

“you don’t know how loopy i am lately,” cid flashed a cheshire grin at auric as he finished speaking. what he spoke was true – though he was stressed he was also more loony because of it, but who said he didn’t like to take huge risks? it was probably the adrenaline rush, though cid didn’t consider himself an adrenaline druggie.

“now... as to my rates... i have a two billion gil signing fee. and a two hundred million gil salary. does that seem acceptable?”

of course the students’ reactions were nothing compared to cid’s. as if to reiterate the fact that he was loopy, cid burst out laughing, throwing his head back in the process before – as suddenly as it started – he regained his composture. no, not really. he still had a bit of a cheshire grin on his face and was ready to start laughing anytime soon. the signing fee and the salary was hilarious but he knew auric didn’t intend it to be so. naw, the man was being drop-dead serious about it, but it would definitely be worth it, from what he heard from the mercenary’s customers.

“done, mate, though don’t expect pay rises in the near future,” damn, if cocoon was short on money they would already be in a depression, but heck, when cid saw for himself how much money there was on cocoon, he was in shock for what seemed to be weeks but was actually just four minutes. he might have lost some of his sanity then, actually... no, i’m just kidding with you. anyway, there was a lot of money of cocoon, it almost seemed uncountable. ff, some of these students here might die from shock if they saw how wealthy cocoon was. i almost did.

[Auric]

It was official. Auric could work for a month and be the richest man on Cocoon. Even when one works in high positions and decides where the money goes, the money isn't officially yours unless it's credited directly into your account... and Auric? Well, he was one exceptionally well-paid individual. Right now, that is... still, to this moment many of his students were frozen -- unable to even remotely contemplate the figure he was being paid. But Cid would have understood his reluctance... even despite the authority he was being granted, the numerous freedoms and an all-access discreet pass to all archives the cold hard gil was the kind of indication that measured his lack of desire to even be remotely associated with Cocoon.

How could he? Nova, the PSICOM officer was a practical insult and while certainly he was every bit the professional, the one luxury he always had as a mercenary was the ability to say 'no'. That's the thing about the army... it's always just orders and blind obedience. But now it was certain. He always knew he would eventually have to go back... right now it was a matter of convenience. He still had a role to play as much as Cid did in shaping Cocoon to being something more -- to alleviate the stress of the people, quell their fears and restore order. But they were still sheep... it was doubtful that quality about Cocoon would ever change.

"Hnh." he grinned, giving his head a quick shake. "Fine by me. Just don't expect me to spend any extra hours." he state, half-jokingly. That was how he always was... never put more effort than he needed to. After all, he wasn't being paid for over-time. So why bother? Do the job, go home, get some rest... ah, the joys of the salary man. All he needed was a suit. "I guess that's all there is to discuss. I'll need to have a talk with a few of my... clients, re-define the terms of my ongoing contracts." he turned off his electronic tablet after it recorded the details of their deal then got on to his feet, the small table being only a small divider of distance between them and he offered the Primarch his hand. "Miss Nova. Cid. If there's nothing else... seems I'll have preparations to make."

"Class." he stated simply, students and SeeD alike snapped up and were on their feet... standing at attention as they did no doubt to give their guests a farewell. No salute, but their discipline was definitely there.

[Cid Raines]

when all is said and done, i will be free, and
when i’m gone, you can't depend on me, in
time you’ll see you stand alone into our own
- - - - - - - - - -

“that’s all there is,” cid said to confirm there was nothing else to say before he stood from his seat, lifting a hand and shaking auric’s, resisting the urge to pull it away quickly despite the mark being hidden under the white leather gloves. “farewell. come along nova,” the dark haired primarch nodded his head to the class of students as they stood to attention, a nod to say that he didn’t ignore their presence. when he stated ouranus’s name he placed a gloved hand on her shoulder, as if to wake the silent girl before he lowered his gaze and set off out of the classroom. that was an easy negotiation, it might seem. he got what he wanted, auric got what he wanted, but...

well, who knew what would change. he was wary about giving auric access to the R&D labs, archives, and information bases, but due to having returned to him because of the granted access, he supposed it would be fine. if auric decided to break any of his words... cid had no idea what he would do, but he would certainly do something to auric in return.

still, he had work to do and there was no time for him to scheme in case the worst case scenario happened.

exit.