Drifters

[Miss Blonde]

It was time to keep doing it up, creation and progress didn't wait for anyone. So when it came to force imbued weapons and blending of tech and the force, Blonde was on the front lines of the subject researching and performing experiments. So far she had created a set of blaster rifles that had a few unique features such as the metal being able to telekinetic barrier. While that was a step forward, she needed to know more. And in her research she found that high tech stuff such as electrical wiring, chips, and other more advanced pieces of tech didn't really mix all that well with the force. When it came down to what did well, it was old fashioned physics. So items like low tech slug throwers were perfect when it came to imbuing them with the force.

The parts of the weapon blended perfectly with the functions and mechanics of the item itself. So she decided that in order to be sure of this theory she'd put out a few specialty shotguns of the lever action variety. While she did admire the pump action brand of things, she was also a criminal. Which meant lugging around an eight gauge wasn't exactly the best of options for her, and a lever action could easily be a lot lighter and pack just as much a punch with the sacrifice of some accuracy. But when you're using a shotgun, who needed to be accurate?

So it was range time again. With her this time was her always faithful assistant and mass murdering Nagai [member="Cyrus Falcor"] who'd be along shortly. But that wasn't all today, there was a special guest that Blonde hadn't seen since the disaster that was Christophsis. Her good friend [member="Nate the Bounty Hunter"] who she had heard was becoming more powerful each day, she even remembered when he was but a wee little padawan level force user. Regardless of that, Blonde arrived at the shooting range on Nar Shaddaa with a crate full of the speciality lever action shotguns, they'd get down to imbuing and firing in a few moments. She just needed for everyone else to show up.

 

[Nate Phantoms]

While his "friend"... more so boss was having her crates unloaded, he leaned against the docking ramp of one of his shuttles, The Bane still in orbit. Fingering the tags around his neck, he peered at the short woman from under his hood, hoping she couldn't read his thoughts. She did have a very violent side, which made him cautious, not sacred; just extremely cautious.

Sheathing the knife, he rose, once again clad in all black. Cloak swirled around him as long strides brought The Boss ever so closer. Stopping just short of her, his eyes scanned over her supplies. A few seconds later, flaming eyes would flick up as he cleared his throat, not sure if she was aware of his presence.

"Greetings Boss," Crossing his arms, he gave her a grim smile, the humor never reaching his eyes, as they were full of flames. "Missed ya."

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

Becoming aware of Nate's presence wasn't all that hard to do, he was a master now after all. That sort of power wasn't something that strolled around casually, it came with its own feeling of potential danger and strength. So when he spoke, Blonde didn't bother to turn around and greet him directly. She was a bit busy and while she certainly missed the man as well, she had to make sure the rifles were in working order. Nate would understand, she was the boss at the end of the day. So as the boss she had to ensure everything was going to plan.

"Give me a sec will ya?" Blonde said as she hovered over the crate.

Using the force she promptly waved her hand over the box and like clockwork the nails keeping the lid secure popped out one by one until the crate opened up to reveal a few rows of the lever action shotguns. They still had that brand new new gun smell and Blonde lived for that scent, she loved it and was genuinely excited when it came about. So without any further interruptions she grabbed the weapon and felt it in her hands, the wood was nice and varnished and stained, and the metal still had the fresh oil finish.

"Oh yeah..." Blonde said a bit drawn out as she cocked the weapon by activating it's lever action.

But she was getting ahead of herself. Turning around she looked over at Nate and smiled at the man under the mask. She trusted him, and she didn't particularly enjoy shooting while wearing the mask. So to his probable surprise, she reached up and undid the tubes on the mask with a snap hiss of pressure releasing and for the first time the infamous masked crime lord would reveal her face to the man.

"Hello, Nathan." her voice. It was somehow different, less distorted and light and more natural. It had a more genuine tone to it rather than one of a authoritarian crime lord.

Her face was shockingly young. A blonde haired bright blue eyed bombshell who looked like she was no older than twenty five, but that couldn't of been. Blonde's history stretched back over a decade, and that would of made her seventeen or sixteen when she took over the criminal underworld. It was either that or she was much older than her appearance gave her credit for. But regardless of her age, she simply smiled and tossed one of the unloaded shotguns at Nate for him to get a feel.


[member="Nate the Bounty Hunter"]

 

[Nate Phantoms]

His eyes landed on the weapon, something in the back of his mind going Oh hell yes. It was then she turned around, the flames in his eyes reflecting off the lens on her mask, that was, until she took it off.

He couldn't help but raise a brow, a little shocked at two things; his Boss was rather pretty, and she called him by his full name. Clicking his tongue, the corner of his lips pulled up in a grin, giving her a mock salute. Too bad we're both taken. That thought would be locked away, dissolving instantly as he spoke.

"Damn woman, killin' two birds with one stone." Chuckling, he pulled down his hood, placing a toothpick in his mouth before continuing. "Both questions are answered; I always wondered if you actually knew my name and I also wondered what you looked like. I take it you don't just show everyone them bright blue eyes?"

Catching the weapon in a one handed grip, he examined the weapon, nodding in satisfaction.

"Well, thank you for trusting me, the honor's mine."

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

She smiled back at the man and her shockingly gentle face revealed a small set of dimples as she nodded at him. She was happy that Nate had decided to come along, and she'd have to thank him with one of the shotgun she had aptly named Drifters. The context behind that was that it wasn't quite a weapon purely one with the force, nor was it one of of earthly bonds either. It would be something in between, it was a drifter. A weapon of two realms that existed in its own space. That was her reasoning behind the name at least, but she'd end up explaining that later. For now it was time to dispense with a few pleasantries and then get down to business.

"You'd be correct in assuming so. It's not often I show my face to the world. Besides you've been working with me for a while now, so it felt like it was time. Just don't expect my real name is all." Blonde said with a chuckle afterwards.

"But let's get to it. We're gonna need to do a little quality control and measurements. So you'll find a few shells at the counter, go ahead and load up and knock a few targets down." With that being said, Blonde would move her way over to a nearby table.

Set up on the table there was a holo computer and a small probe droid. Activating the droid, she had it wander over to Nate and had it beam down a few lasers to clock the speed of the buckshot and slugs that were on the table.

"So there's gonna be three buck shot and three solid slugs. Pick your targets and just fire, I'll worry about all the math. Have fun." Pretty simple and easy instructions. Before they went into the force side of stuff, they first needed an established base line of what the shotgun could already do.

Her plan was to imbue the barrel with ballistickinises and make it accelerate the round even further to speeds that were nigh impossible to achieve on a shotgun and rivaled that of a high end rail gun without all the electronic parts that would go haywire in the event of an EMP or strong magnetic waves.

[member="Nate the Bounty Hunter"]

 

[Nate Phantoms]

Cute dimples? Am I tripping? Shaking the thoughts off with a smile, he followed behind his Boss, feeling right at home as he towered over the woman, her height still not affecting her ability to intimidate him.

"I will have to earn that too I guess, I'll be able to do more work for you soon, things are starting to die down finally." Grinning, he stopped at the table, instantly pulling the slugs up and popping them into the chamber, closing the action, the clack making him smile.

Glancing at the targets, he weighed the weapon in one hand. Despite his grip strength, he knew holding the thing single-handedly would result in it flying out of his hand, making him look a fool. Pulling back his right arm, her brought his left hand up to the barrel, aiming in those split seconds before contact and firing immediately.

The rounds were gone in an instant, smoke wafting from the barrel as he examined his handiwork. Two of his shots, most likely the first and last were a little off, but the other hut dead in the center.

"Huh... still got it. Buck shot too?"

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

Raw information started to pour into the computer's screen, and Blonde would of course analyze it. The laser system worked pretty easy, when the round passed the first laser, the timer would start, and when it passed the second it would stop. This would give it the total FPS and how fast it was traveling. Since this was a smaller barrel shotgun, it wasn't as fast as she'd of liked it to be. But it was still mildly impressive for the archaic technology that relied completely on physics to operate. The slugs came in just a few points shy of two thousand feet per second, and with the added help of the ballistickinesis she could ramp that up to amazing rates. Load in a Beskar shell and the damage that could be done was unimaginable.

"I'd love it if you came to work for me again sometime soon. With the Fire Lotus Cup coming up, we'll be running a few small operations. Nothing violent of course, but we'll be selling a few products and running a few pits. Afterwards there might be some stuff you'd be interested in." With small chat still going on she'd be sure to let the results be known to Nate.

"Coming in at about a thousand nine hundred and eighty feet per second, which is decent considering the model. But yeah go ahead and grab that buck shot and go to town. Afterwards we can start the imbuing process." With her request made, Blonde continued to analyze her data and work out the calculations when it came to improving the speed of the weapon and how much force energy the barrel could realistically handle.

You didn't want to overload the weapon with energy, nor did you want to underwhelm it. You had to hit the sweet spot of prime efficiency without over-clocking and causing potential molecular destabilization which often ended with an explosion or the weapon just turning to ash in your hands. The force was a tricky mistress when it came to that subject.

[member="Nate the Bounty Hunter"]

 

[Nate Phantoms]

Turning, he nodded at the woman, the thought of working for the Boss again sounding promising. It did pay well, and it had many benefits. "Trust me, I would love to come back."

Opening the action again, he slid the rounds into the shotgun, taking aim once again, effectively tearing the target to shreds, the buck shot being devastating. Giving a low, drawn out whistle, he rested the weapon against his shoulder, looking over at Blondie.

"What about those?"

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

Traditionally buckshot was a lot slower than a shell, they weren't most aerodynamic thing ever made. They were essentially just a bunch of tiny musket balls packed into a shell, and we all know the musket was something that wasn't used at all. At least not by sane people. So when the droid clocked the FPS it came in at about a thousand, half of what an the faster slug had to offer. Which was still an improvement considering that most buckshot clocked in at around nine hundred or so. The weapon itself certainly helped out, what with being made of the finest materials. There wasn't going to be a lot of these things made, so Blonde made sure to make the ones that were the most top of the line a lever action like it could be.

"Just let me know and we'll work it into our little schedule." Blonde said as she went over the stats once more.

"Looks like they are coming in at about a thousand FPS, not bad all things considered." So with that all tracked and ready to go, it was time to move on to the next part of the process. Actually imbuing the damn things.

With a clap of her hands she stood up and walked over towards the other shotguns in the crate, and with a flash of said hands, the box dismantled itself and the weapons inside floated out into the air and levitated like they were on display.

"So in case you've never imbued anything before let me walk you through as I do it. I just need you to feed me energy since this is gonna be a tall order with all these guns." Time to get down to business.

Centering herself, the woman closed her eyes and shrank her force signature down until it was next to nothing. After that she started to focus on the actual working of what she needed done. That was of course Balistakinesis first and foremost. Once she had that in her mind, all she needed was for Nate to hand her the extra power to do what needed to be done.

[member="Nate the Bounty Hunter"]

 

[Nate Phantoms]

The man knew a little something about said processes, but enough to know that she would be doing the most of the work, and that'd be almost irrelevant. Smiling to himself, he realized that soon, he wouldn't really need her, as he could do it by himself with enough practice.

Sure, that would mean he wouldn't see her anymore, and that she wouldn't be he Boss anymore, and some other things worth bragging about. However, he couldn't seem to picture such things, her dominance having been proven multiple times.

Sitting, he focused on her, channeling his energy to act in reserve.

Power came in many forms, but for him, it was only through anger, passion and hunger. Hopefully, those powerful emotions weren't tied to his power, or else the Miss would be in some trouble.

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

Rage, hunger, the thirst for power. That was Tuesday for Miss Blonde. Over the course of a long career in the criminal underworld she had learned to hone these emotions when making judgement calls and giving orders that would shape the future their organization. She drew her power from sheer force of will and dominance over the force, so when those feelings and power hit her, the temptation to lose it was there. But she buckled down and let that power flow through her as she channeled into pure raw energy. That was important when imbuing an item with the force it was best to leave these feeling out of it lest they leak over into the item and make the user feel hatred every time they touched it.

"Alright, first step is easy. Reduce your force signature down to nothing and immerse yourself with the force itself. Be a conduit and achieve neutrality. At least when making items that will be sold. Then you picture your power, picture how it's cast and the feeling of summoning it." With that in mind, it was time to move forward.

She had the working all cued up, and she was ready to start pushing it into the barrels of the weapon making sure not to have it in the chamber itself. Once she locked on to her designated location across all the shotguns, the ballistakinesis started seep into the weapons and in the air the wisps of power could be seen in a white haze that lazily drifted into the metal of the weapons. It wouldn't take them very long to push the power inside and then seal the working.

"We want to slowly pour in the power, rushing it in all at once might cause it to explode. So patience is key." she said as a small bead of sweat ran down her forehead.

[member="Nate the Bounty Hunter"]

 

[Nate Phantoms]

Sitting beside her, he too closed his eyes, listening to her words before letting the meaning take control. Soon enough, he was completely void of any emotions, other then those that fueled him.

Said emotions were stripped down to the bare bones of their existence; ambition and power. He opened one eye to watch, seeing her begin to sweat as the mist coiled around the weapons. Reaching over, his index finger poked her in the arm. Granted, it looked stupid, but she would soon feel rejuvenated as he sent his energy coursing through onto her, his body reacting slowly, a few aches here and there, but nothing too significant.

[member="Miss Blonde"]