The grind of metal filled their ears. All around them machines whirring and working at an endless pace. The dim lights hanging from the ceiling casting shadows of the robotic arms moving, cutting, and welding along the production lines. A few technicians and engineers were spotted here and there, but most of the workers were mechanical. They made their way slowly along the catwalks, led by one of the representatives of the company.
Rimward Robotics was a new robotics company on Sinsang, that was actually a partnership of many of the older robotic companies. After the end of the Clone Wars, a large chunk of the galaxy had anti-robotic sentiments and it hurt the market significantly and they were forced to join together.
The representative was going on about various economic factors and choices the new corporation had to make. Production capability and current models available. Standard economic statistics that they’d been fed all day from a variety of companies. But then they went from the catwalk into a straight durasteel hallway, the panel lights on the wall buzzing slightly as they pass.
“And now, we take you to our Research and Design department headed by some of the best minds in robotics on Sinsang. As I’m sure you’ve heard of, the government is funding work towards several types of worker droids as a contribution of their membership to the Galactic Coalition. Helping to build a better tomorrow for Sinsang and other worlds like your own.” The commercial representative said, maintaining the same sales pitch he’d been giving the whole tour. “But I believe I shall leave that matter to the head of our R&D Department.”
Before them stood a large and think door. The representative walked over, and ran through a number of security checks before the doors began to move. The grinding of gears next to them giving them a sense of how far they’d come from the noise behind.
Through the door, they found the hallway continuing and followed it through various branches and turns. Every so often, they’d pass a window letting them see into one of the testing chambers. In one room, the found an engineer working on fine tuning a fine manipulator. In another, they saw a screen and one trying to focus a new type of photoreceptor. All attempts to gain an edge on the competition, or so the representative said when explaining the basics of what they were seeing.
There were lead through this twisting facility, up a turbolift, to end up in a well furnished reception room. A young Sinsangese woman was patiently typing in something in the computer only looking up for a moment. “Foreman Grem Devor is expecting you. You may go in.”
There wasn’t even a hitch in the movement of the representative, as he didn’t even pause. The motions as smooth and calculated as the droids that were developed in the labs bellow them. He opened the door and held it, waiting for the group of representatives to come into the room, where the perfect number of seats awaited them. Behind the desk stood a sight that was a slight bit of a surprise.
So far on Sinsang, most of the people they’d met in business had largely been Sinsangese or some other brand of Human. But behind the desk sat a heavy set Skakoan male. His face hidden behind the pressure gear they had to wear on worlds with galactic normal air density.
He stood up to greet them, offering his hand to the Westerners. “Greetings and welcome to my labs!” Grem Devor said in a very jovial tone. “Please, sit, it must’ve been a long walk coming through the whole factory.”
After the formalities of the greetings were finished, he put his hands together and the desk looking between the lot of them. “Well, let me personally welcome to the Research and Development section of Rimward Robotics. I’ll spare going over any of the details that our representative has already gone over.”
“Our company has been working hard to fill the promises made in our government’s agreement with the Galactic Coalition. It is a privilege that organizations like ours and the Commerce Guild can work towards expanding new technologies. And please, this isn’t a marketing gimmick. I personally am enjoying this challenge to expand beyond the commercial sector and take up some large scale operations.”
Grem Devor reached under his desk and pulled out a datapad for each of the Westerners, handing them out. “These are from our electronic department, and contain information and specifications on the models we have available AND the ones we’ve been working on that aren’t out on the market yet. As members of the Coalition, we’ll offer you the chance to preorder for some of the first batches.”
“These include the new Engineer and Spider models we’ve been responsible for creating and providing to the central government and military, as well as civilian work droids. We have several models from everything from farming, mining, to street cleaning. We pride ourselves on making automated devices that fill the full needs for their jobs.”
“For example, the Harverster AX-10, can till, harvest, and water all in one unit. Our Lumberjack C-6 series can both cut the trees in mass quantities, has its own attached container unit, AND has an attachment that lets it replant new saplings as it goes. We do still have the traditional humanoid droids to fill the room of equipment you already have, if you don’t feel like replacing anything you already have.”
“Ah, I’m beginning to go on. Please, review the data I’ve given you. And if there’s anything, ANYTHING, your people require, my contact information is within. If there’s a market you need, we’re more than willing to develop something to fill the gap.”
“But please, what is it that your world seeks that you couldn’t find on any of the other worlds of the Coalition?” Grem Devor asked, leaning back in his chair and bringing his hands back against his chest.
