[i]Tendrando arms headquarters, Bespin, Cloud City [/i]

"And here, behind these walls, is my-our masterpiece." Lando gestured with his arms, and at that signal the baige painted brick walls parted open, just like the secret spy hideouts seen in holodramas. Standing in front of Lando were five military contractors, all wearing green colored camoflauge. The giant cylindrical room they were in was sparkly white, both for looks and because studies indicated employees worked better in white rooms, or so Lando's wife Tendra had insisted. Several large and angled transpirasteel windows provided a nice view of Cloud City. But everybody's eyes; except for those of Lando, who was smiling confidently at the contractors; were glued to the metallic tank in front of them. Its bottom was similar to that of an airspeeder, but there was a large and bulky turret stacked on top of it with one large barrel and several smaller ones. On the sides were several tiny barrels facing the front of the tank.

"This, my friends, is the Lando-izer. Um, we haven't come up with a good name for it yet, but I can assure you that the performance is second to none." Several months ago, Lando had received an offer from the Galactic Alliance army to build them, as they described it, "the most powerful and capable land armored vehicle you can imagine." They had offered Lando, who had never built armored vehicles before, and his company a very generous amount of credits. Lando didn't know why the government wanted more tanks that would only be useful in taking on fortified settlements, like, in a conventional war, but he accepted the offer.

"Are you tired of the Mandalorians refusing to sell you their fancy Besk'ar armor? We've got something just as good; we've figured out how to adapt laminanium for use on land vehicles. As you know, this durable alloy is also used on our patented YV hunter droids; in addition to being a super-durable alloy, it can also repair its molecular structure, allowing for regeneration during, before and after combat. And, unlike with combat droids, we did not have to weaken the alloy in order to allow for limb mobility. When reinforced, this armor is almost as tough as a star destroyer's neutronium-durasteel.

"The Lando-izer has a built in, Delta-X repulsorlift, and several on its sides if it needs to, say, navigate vertical terrain, remove obstructions or blow away enemy infantry. But if repulsorlifts are a problem, we have installed retractable treads just in case." To demonstrate this, a set of black treads extruded out of the vehicle's bottom. "Built in inertial compensators, and I forgot to mention a use of the side repulsorlifts: righting the Lando-izer up if it ever gets flipped over.

"It can function in water, although I wouldn't recommend it, as the vehicle is not designed for aquatic missions. Thanks to the inertial compensators, it can be airdropped from orbit without difficulty, and its repulsorlifts should provide decent mobility in midair. The top turret has a standard issue heavy laser cannon; 20 gigajoules, 5 shots per second and five kilometers effective range, and the lower two are lighter laser cannons. All are fully rotatable 360 degrees left-right and 60 degrees up-down. Hidden on the large turret is a surface to air missile launcher to take out air threats from a hundred kilometers away, and on the sides are small antipersonnel blaster cannons."

In his long years as a gambler, entrepreneur and company CEO, Lando had mastered the subtle art of reading people's faces and body postures. He could tell that the contractors were impressed. The question as to their motives popped up in Lando's mind again, but he resisted asking. Lando was a curious man, but some things just weren't his business.

Were they?

General Shatathon, the bald guy in the middle with a no-nonsense face, spoke up. "How long does it take to manufacture one of these…Lando-izers?"

"It took us about a week to build this one," Lando said. "But at a specialized vehicle building factory, you should be able to build several a day."

"What about the laminanium?" a younger looking man asked.

Just years earlier, when he and his family were taking a joy ride on Lando's ship the Love Commander, Lando stumbled upon a large asteroid field. Well, Lando mused, he didn't really stumble upon it; it had been charted for many centuries, but nobody had bothered to scan the field, being located outside any hyperspace routes. Lando was the first to discover that the asteroid field was filled with various rare elements, including those needed for rare and expensive alloys. The field was in unclaimed space, so Lando went through the trouble of claiming it for Telandrando Arms. It was definitely worth the investment.

"I'll provide any materials you need," Lando offered a friendly smile. "And in order to assure you of the Lando-izer's capabilities," in between the two parties, a rectangular table with a hologram popped up. The hologram showed footage of the Lando-izer navigating through horizontal and vertical terrain, airdropping from orbit and tanking a giant missile. "Enjoy," Lando smiled, and left.

After agreeing to buy the semantics to the Lando-izer, thanking Calrissian and making sure that they were well outside of hearing range, both natural and technological, Shatathon turned to his colleagues. "Excellent work, gentlemen. If our friend is to believed, we will have several divisions of Lando…izers ready for deployment by our deadline." The general spoke in his commanding military tone as he paced back and forth. "Now as you all know, Tendrando Arms is a public company, and its deals with both government and private sources will be available to the public…and to our enemies as well."

Trevor, a younger man with black hair and a slight irish accent, spoke up. "But how could our enemies prepare specifically for this weapon? It's basically a very touch battle tank, isn't it?"

"That's not the primary concern," the middle aged general corrected. "The Imperial Remnant is going to be curious as to why we paid so much money to a private firm to develop something that would only be useful in a large scale conventional war. It could give us away."

"We're already 'given away'. The Remnant is already preparing a pre-emptive strike, and started doing so before we did." Debbie, a government intelligence agent in her mid twenties, pointed out.

"Yes Agent Green, but they don't know that we are onto their plans and are planning a strike of our own."

"Do they? Somehow, I doubt that we've kept our preparations secret from leaks and spies all this time." Debbie smiled. "With all due respect general, the military doesn't have the best track record at keeping secrets. It couldn't even conceal the construction of a water gate." Civilian employed intelligence vs military intelligence, a classic rivalry stretching back to the Old Republic.

"Why don't you just strike a private deal with Lando?" Trebor suggested. "Offer to pay him extra if he keeps things quiets."

"That's impossible," Shatathon countered. "How is he going to keep the production of several divisions of tanks a secret? They'll be workers on the product, engineers and various other people that our friend would have to pay off. We also don't want to pique Lando's suspicions any more than we have to."

Shatathon turned to address the rest of the crew. "Now, I have some business to attend to. I'll meet you again here, 22 Coruscant hours sharp tomorrow. See you tomorrow." With that, the five star general turned around and walked away.

Shatathon had been in the military ever since he was sixteen, and he had been through more combat than even the most hardcore [i]Battlestar[/i] gamers. He had no love of war, but one of Shatathon's core beliefs is that pacifism doesn't work. Freedom, Shatathon knew, is not free, and he wasn't going to allow the galaxy to be ruled under the iron fist another Galactic Empire.

"If it's a war that the Imperial Remnant wants," Shatathon announced as he heard Debbie follow him through the downtown of Cloud City. "Then it's a war the Remnant will get."