Cathedral Forge: A Leg Up (Ginnie & Preliat)

[Ginnie Dib]

[member="Preliat Mantis"] was a savage, vicious war monger who had seen more despair than most planetary systems have happen in their goldilocks zones. To heal his heart, the woman wanted to start with his leg. The crude prosthetic put flashes of pain on his face and a limp to his step. He'd been a barrel of anger and a pit of unending rage. . . But Aditya loved him. Love wasn't a deniable thing, nor was it simply given by the once broken hearted widow. It was a tangible collection of wires and sprockets thrumming through her mind and into a set of blueprints she worked furiously on via her 3D holovisual CAD program. The program's mobile unit was set up on the vast stone steppes of [member="Ginnie Ordo"]'s Cathedral Forge, propped up high enough that the pregnant woman didn't have to do much leaning down.

Not that her belly distended far enough for more than perhaps Preliat to notice. She wiped the corner of her mouth and sipped root tea cooked by the little Mando'ade beskar smith from her cooking fire adjoined to the roaring forge.

The warmth of the forge slicked across the closest half of Aditya's body, she continued to try and turn round once in a while to avoid the shivers. Ziost wasn't the warmest place in the universe for the Epicanthix woman. "Preliat, you wanted Beskar plating on your leg, right? How heavy is that going to be, Ginnie? I think my measurements are off on the servo motor power sources. I want Preliat to be able to run with the thing in full tilt without putting too much pressure on his hip. Cyare, can you come look at this, please?" She called to Preliat, trying her best to pronounce the Mando'a correct.

From the way Ginnie Ordo sniffed, Aditya figured she got it wrong.

 

[Ginnie Dib]

"Shah-ray. Not Cy-ah-ray. Listen, cyare. Geeze, I'm deaf and I heard that mispronunciation. Kudos for learning, though." The child went back to stoking her forge. She wore her beskarweave jumpsuit and a heavy leather apron with her crush gaunt on one hand and the other wrapped around the bellows. Her braided black hair was pulled back atop her head, displaying the burn scars which stole the skin across her jaw and up over the mounds where ears should have been on a normal little girl. The scarring disappeared down the neck of her jumpsuit. How much of this twelve year old was as [member="Preliat Mantis"] was: one big scar? The Forge fire belched to life, heating the area around it with a sweat-slick heat consuming enough to turn Beskar liquid.

After all, that's what the Craftschild was using for the plating, wasn't it? Mantis the Field Marshall had access to rare beskar supplies, and combined with the tiny amount of extra shavings and bits Ginnie kept in store (mostly from her father [member="Ordo"]'s even rarer scraps and from the left over Beskar from her adventure with [member="Ket Van-Derveld"]), it would be enough. Just enough, she thought.

"Depends on the thickness. If we're doing Beskar plating, we can decrease the tensile strength of the inside components and make them lighter metals. Take out that durasteel. I've got Desh and Terenthium I can alloy. It's feather-light but sturdy enough for the insides. That way we can swap components out without breaking half the banks on Mandalore. What are you using for a power source?"

The girl put a smelting pot on the forge, dropping ingots of desh and terenthium into the slowly heating pot. She put her hands around the smelting pot's lid, pouring more heat into it until the pot began to turn a ruddy orange. Once it was yellow, the metal would start to melt. Her pet tuk'ata snuffled around back and forth from the pile of wood to the forge, sniffing at the forge itself as if testing its temperature. The growing beast held a keen, wary glimmer in its eyes, unsettled by Preliat Mantis.

 

[Preliat Mantis]

"The heavier, the better."Preliat painstakingly rose to a stand, his lips curling into a snarl as the pain shot up his hip- the prosthetic was improperly fitted and could do little to help the Mandalorian. He'd prefer a wheelchair, but did not complain outwardly once.


[member="Ginnie Ordo"]- to Preliat, was a reckless, endangering ball of fire that he did not trust. She was helping him, but any friend of Ordo was not a friend of his. Betrayal ran deep for him, and he would forever be weary of anyone from the Ordo clan. It was safe to say that Preliat did not trust her in the least, but respected her expertise with forging.


"Don't worry about resources Ginnie- I think I can acquire what we need."

 

[Ginnie Dib]

Preliat's lover worried more about his emotional reactions to the pain in his hip than his reaction to the girl. Aditya was vaguely aware of the trouble Ginnie Ordo's father had caused, he'd killed someone important in an invasion with Sith. How far that murder scarred the living breathing dignity of the Mando'ade the recent import was still figuring out. Watching them choose a new Mand'alor was a lesson in warrior ways, but moreso it was a lesson in who Preliat was to the Mando'ade. They feared and respected him, they trembled and stilled when he spoke. He'd mentioned once that he was a Field Marshal. It had been a title with no definition, the same as if she'd told him she was a Senior Prefect without defining the term in the strata of Atrisian Nobility. If she were honest with herself, Aditya would admit after Emperor Akio Kahoshi died she grieved more than a little. He'd been her ruler and her friend, the first person in her rushed off years to see her value and give her a shot. She'd owed her life to Akio and when he died in battle, Aditya ran. Blatantly ran. What would she do if she found his killer's daughter? Aditya'd probably punch the girl out. "Try this, then Ginnie. The Beskar plates are formed at the same thickness as Preliat's beskar'kandar beskar'gam. Did I say that right? Did I miss a word in there?"

She never stopped running until [member="Preliat Mantis"] asked her to dinner and held her later that night, surrounded by blankets and their two heaving, naked chests and asked her to come home. To be home with him on Mandalore. Rubbing her back, she exhaled sharply out of her nostrils and let her fingers brush the fabric of her blouse. What an open and exposed feeling, the woman thought, to be without her corset. Too tight. Aditya pulled herself away from the blueprints with a swish of her hand sending them closer to Ginnie. She bit her lip as she walked over to Preliat, taking his hand and holding fast to it, as if to say 'wouldn't be long now'. Her unusual eyes peered up at him with a tired smile and the bliss of sympathetic respect. He was the bravest man she'd met to face his pain head on, and that included everyone in the Army of Light.

"I've got some options, there are generators powered by latent electric fields I've been working on, and power packs. . . but the packs are inefficient and you'd have to swap them out frequently, Preliat. Why, Ginnie? What're you thinking?"

 

[Ginnie Dib]

Although she had no empathic giftings (nor would they help her anyway with the Epicanthix folk), Ginnie could feel the ire melting off Preliat into the Forge. She'd begun the process of cleansing the Clan Ordo name for such a person as [member="Preliat Mantis"]. In the girl's childish logic, her actions married redemption to her father's once good works. He'd done one horrible thing and it wasn't even him. [member="Ordo"] hadn't killed Gilamar Skirata: The Dark Lord had.

Try explaining that to a room full of righteous anger. The Mando'ade had a right to be furious, as Ginnie had a right to want penance for the sins her birth father - Aliit Buir of Clan Verd - had done to her. Anger made the forge work easier, Ginnie fuelled the fires with her desperations and soon the Beskar was pliant. She glanced over the plans, eyes narrowing as she caught the snarl on Preliat's face. The little deaf girl locked her jaw and turned forward, no frame of reference to tell the difference between an adult being angry or stuck dealing with pain, and being angry or upset at her. She was simply too young to understand the larger picture of the universe. What she could understand was the Beskar and the forge.

"Interior's best made from Desh-Terenthium. I need a feather-light alloy for my finer work. Alchemy makes metals heavy. It burdens them with thicker, deeper changes to the molecular structure. S'why you can't alchemize Beskar. Beskar's too dense already. Try and alchemize it and it bucks me off. Black Iron is confident. It knows what it is and knows what it wants to be. There's nothing better than Beskar'kandar Beskar'gam 'cause nothing else is immutable. No other material is as sure and certain as Mandalorian Iron. I can make the plates that thick, form them over the endoskeleton, they'll be heavy. Beskar'kandar heavy, plus a box of frag grenades heavy. I can shift the properties of the interior to fuel the operation of the prosthetic's servomotors and gears with Field Marshal Mantis' aggression and anger. Mix that with a motion-based generator responding from his remaining muscle tissues and a crystalline capacitor and it'll serve the Field Marshal better than his Beskad. That is, if you let me, Field Marshal, Sir."

Ginnie brought the first piece of Beskar from the furnace and raised her hammer, coming down on it with a mighty swing from above. The Beskar bent. Again and again the child swung her hammer with the animosity and will to work the iron. She Secret of the Mandalorians, oh you thought I'd reveal the secret of smithing Beskar? That's a secret, yo! She's reckless but not an idiot. The piece was mid-way completed, it held its shape reminiscent of a male's upper & outer thigh yet the child still had to smooth and temper it. She hefted it in her hand and held it out for Aditya and Preliat. "I'll need more, Sir. This piece is re-forged from my dead brother's Beskar'gam. Isley's Beskar'gam got shattered in a duel with a Sith Lord, [member="Ket Van-Derveld"]. He kidnapped me a bit back, took me to Tatooine to harvest the pieces. I got away and kept what fragments I could. . . just wanted you to know I didn't steal it, Sir. I know how hard it is for a thirteen year old girl to come across enough Beskar to shake a rifle at."

A piece of her vod forged with care. She held the peace offering out to him, it should have been much too heavy for the runt of a girl to lift, let alone hold out with one hand.

 

[Preliat Mantis]

To Preliat, a bad fruit spoiled the tree. [member="Ginnie Ordo"] was better off moving mountains than moving his opinions.



Preliat looked over to [member="Aditya Amadis"]- and nodded. Her pronunciation of the words was becoming acceptable. Living on Mandalore surely helped with her language skill in Mando'a. He rose to a stand, grimacing as he held his leg."Use my old armor, my Rally Master set."So, there it was. The life cycle of Beskar. "Personally, Ginnie. I could care less of what you did to acquire Beskar. I respect your expertise."He nearly snapped his reply, and sat back in the chair- refusing to stand after this point, due to the pain.



He turned towards Aditya. "I want to be able to kick someone into next week, if that's at all possible."

 

[Ginnie Dib]

"I'm glad. Think I'm getting used to Mando'a, eh?" Aditya smiled and leaned over to watch that Ginnie wasn't looking then kissed Preliat on the cheek. She handed him a small palm kit of medicines and analgesics. If he did want to take something for the pain, his girl was there to provide. If he didn't? There was no harm done.

"Your . . . I'll go get it. I came prepared, in case." Aditya said, making for the shuttle they'd landed by the Cathedral entrance. She hopped to the side as the Tuk'ata raced past her and onto the ship, the animal came back out with the Rally Master Beskar'gam hoisted on its back, balanced on the Sith Hound's spinal protrusions and spines. "Oh sweet bippy! That animal is . . . did that thing understand what we were saying 'cause that's freaky." She pointed at the creature and walked back to her lover and the little forge girl. Glaring over at the blueprints, Aditya tapped at the calculations and back at the girl.

"I can give you 680 kilograms per square inch from the mechanisms in the schematic I drew up. That's the force of a speeder crash. Is that enough?" Aditya asked [member="Preliat Mantis"] with the avid tone of a genuine question. Her man was a savage. He fought gods and monsters and she wanted him coming back. Whatever she had to do to that prosthetic to bring Preliat back was a worthwhile cost for the Amadis widow.

 

[Ginnie Dib]

"Wembley's smart enough for Basic. Not freaky at all for a Tuk'ata. When he gets older, he'll be able to talk back. Thanks Wembley. Go take your nap." Ginnie took back the piece of moulded Beskar and stared at it. She took the rebuke and buried it deep into her stomach. She would need it to work the metal. The girl rubbed Wembley's head and pulled the armour out piece by piece. Splitting the beskar plates from the under layers took tiny hands and skilled tool work. Thankfully, the child had the right tools and skills in her forge.

"This'll be enough with some to spare. What do you want to do with the rest of the Beskar? Save it for Ms. Fitz-Kierke's armour or you want something made for your ad'ika on the way?"

She began to put the beskar in the forge to heat. Ginnie didn't look back at the man as she continued to hammer and work the metal according to Aditya's plans and her better instincts. "You could kick the hangar door in on a frigate with that level of force. I'll compensate for the pressure on the internal mechanics by treating the Desh-Terenthium."

Holding firm of the components, the girl began to meditate on the properties of the lightweight alloy better used for hulls on ships. It was wiry and pliant, Ginnie peered into its molecular structure and began shoring it up from the inside. The Desh-Terenthium pieces would be protected by the Beskar, and with the ministrations of the young alchemist they would act to seep in and shunt energy into the circuitry to help run the leg's inner mechanisms. As the girl meditated, the fire grew brighter until her face was hot with the flames.

 

[Preliat Mantis]

The prospect of literally kicking someone so hard that they literally were getting hit with the same force of a moving speeder- brought Preliat's lips curling into a grin. He still wasn't looking at [member="Ginnie Ordo"], letting [member="Aditya Amadis"] handle the interaction to her. The disdain for the Ordo clan was never more apparent. Aditya was right- Preliat fought monsters. But in reality, Preliat was an animal, a monster in the purest sense of the word. Even standing in the room, amid a fledgling smith and a talented engineer, he could not hold a candle next to them. He created and designed weapons- about two, tops. They had created many things, Aditya ran a company, Ginnie had learned an ancient art. Preliat, however, was a savage beast with nothing more than blood following him.


He had to answer Ginnie's question- he pursed his lips and looked around, before looking over at Aditya."Save it for Aditya."

 

[Ginnie Dib]

"F-for wait. . you're giving me your beskar?" Wasn't Beskar sacred? What was Preliat doing giving her the rest of the supply from his old armour? He'd said he loved her on many occasions in the past, but now Aditya could feel it. The mother of his yet to be determined boy or girl was going to be protected and maybe it was the hormones causing an intense emotional swing, but Aditya went to Preliat and kissed him deeply and square on. "Thank you. I mean it, thank you love."

"We're gonna have to strengthen your hip flexors and leg muscles on the other leg to compensate for the force of your prosthetic's kick. No use you kicking down a block of durasteel if you go pinging off it into the next tank over. But . . strengthening your lower body will be fun." Aditya put her hand on [member="Preliat Mantis"]' arm with a saucy wink then drifted over to the work table, lowering herself to sit on the bench. Aside from a craving for ginger root and pickled fish, the smell of the Forge was making her mouth taste tangy. She gulped and started in on the circuitry systems she'd pre-made and brought with them.

"I've got the rest of the components in these boxes. Once you give me the Desh-Terenthium pieces I can integrate the internal mechanics and servo motors and give you the skeleton for the Beskar plates." She watched the girl nod and continued to be assaulted by the clanging sounds of the Beskar smith working the iron and the forge. The sounds echoed until Aditya thought her head would split.

She rubbed her temples and looked at the girl, whose sweat dotted her scarred face. Ginnie Ordo kept working, Aditya got up and rubbed her lower back. "Mh. I'm out of solder. You got so-ohgosh!" Aditya jumped as Ginnie turned her head and a roll of solder swung out and floated up to the Epicanthix woman. Picking it gingerly out of midair, Aditya got back to work and soon looked up from her thick goggles and pushed the back of her hand up to her nose.

"Nothing more I can do until the power source comes in. Wow, those plates are looking great, Ginnie! When do you think they'll be ready for assembly?"

"Give me a few days to get them forged and set. I'll call you when it's ready to trial on his thigh. Give the docking couplings a chance to heal in his bone and connective tissues till then. It ain't gonna tickle."

"I'll take care of that. For now we can leave you to it?" Ginnie nodded and waved Aditya off. Aditya shook her head and wondered when the Mandalorian collective would get a break. "What do you say, Preliat? Back to my corvette and relax? Nothing more we can do here until Ginnie's ready for the full assembly." The pale skinned woman yawned and put a hand on her lower back, holding her hand out for Preliat. Another few days and he'd hopefully be in a lot less pain.