Paralyzer

[Krasnaya Xue]

The first test had been rather successful, even though the majority of people still were not quite clear on how it operated. Krasnaya was fairly certain she understood the basic theory of the thing, but there was no doubt she had not the knowledge to firmly grasp the concepts involved. Everyone had their strengths. Electrical and quantum sciences were simply not her areas of expertise.

The machine of solidarity would pave the way for complete interdependence and fulfilling progress. The admiral sincerely believed that.

What she was not so certain about were the motivations--and perhaps intentions--of the woman who was here to assist in the further development of the new weapon in progress. The other blonde was a little too capitalist for Xue's liking, but that was something she would simply have to put up with. The Alliance was all about freedom. And freedom entitled one to their political views as long as they did not hurt anyone.

Also, there was that fact that Krasnaya Xue had been the very person responsible for the ionic bombardment of that one factory full of Sith--and this [member="Patricia Susan Garter"]. While no one would blame anyone for risking someone's life for the sake of killing no less than four invincible, unoriginal, and imbecilic Lords of the Sith (The galaxy needed to be cleansed of their ilk.), it was most likely not something the more capitalist of the blondes enjoyed very much. She had almost died, after all.

Was Krasnaya sorry? Not really. Not yet, at least.

The new ion cannon was being tested on Ryloth this time. Plans for initial dry operational runs on Geonosis had been cancelled due to the high alert levels. And so the Rebel technicians had chosen to get things goiing at the verge of the dark side of the twi'lek homeworld, away from prying eyes. Bundled up in a heavy fur coat and a ushanka, Admiral Xue surveyed the sparkling stars in the twilight above while the crews lugged the experimental cannon off of a speeder. "It feel breezy like the heights over Bespin," she muttered.

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Krasnaya Xue"]

Patricia was a little sore about everything that had happened, and by a little she meant a lot. Her family was even in the process of relocating from the twe'lik home world and staying on Relovian where her company was located. And after some snooping she found out this Xue lady had been the one to make the call to sacrifice her, so this made Patricia angry, very angry. The woman had two kids and a husband and she didn't even think twice about maybe considering that she could of handled the situation.

So Patricia sat in a nearby foldout chair wearing a thick furry coat as she flicked through the pages of a gossip magazine, it was guilty pleasure. Flicking a page aside she spoke in a voice that was saved for people she didn't like, or people she was going to kill. Most of the time they were in the same boat, but this whole be a good Jedi thing was keeping her from actually doing anything. It was a tough break but that didn't mean she wouldn't make things absolutely clear for the admiral.

"So get this, apparently this musician was on trial today and got off because his posse refused to throw him under the bus." Patricia paused then turned the page on her magazine.

"I wonder what that would be like." she said letting her words linger in the wind.

Afterwards she took her magazine and tossed it to the ground to take a look at the ion cannon. It was pretty good looking but Patricia really wasn't the type of person to know how these things worked. Guns sure, but giant cannons not so much. But she'd let her words sink in before moving on to the inner workings of this cannon.

 

[Krasnaya Xue]

"Oy," Krasnaya sighed upon hearing Patricia's voice. It was grating to her ears. Oddly enough, the admiral was oblivious to the intention of the other blonde's carefully chosen words. "Children magazines." She stepped the heel of her boot on top of the gossip journal and twisted it about to rumple the cover. "Why do you read these, comrade?"

Hazy blue eyes continued to watch the unpacking of the cannon and its placement in the sands, barely noticing where the silhouette of Patricia was moving. They had important things to discuss; behold! Tabloids and trash news were by no means important. On Bespin, everyone had been practical. They may have been nearly starving, but they had their priorities in line. Work before play. Food before trivialities.

Idly, Krasnaya entertained Patricia's fascination with this strange bit of news--if only to pass the time as they waited for the gun to be set up. "Did they even know if he was guilty?"

[member="Patricia Susan Garter"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Krasnaya Xue"]
"Does it matter if they were guilty?" she said as and paced through the frozen and dark landscape.

"In the eyes of the law, it's not about right or wrong, it's about the truth." she said with hushed undertones of venom.

"You see where I come from it's about proving beyond a shadow of a doubt if that person is guilty. You can tell a sob story or whatever you want but at the end of the day if these witnesses swear on everything holy that's what happened, then it's the truth in the eyes of the law. But outside of the law, outside of facts there exists the world of morality. Now you can think whatever you want outside of that world of facts, and it's clear that these people showed loyalty to their friend, to the person they cared about regardless of if they deserved it or did it." Patricia said as she slide her hand past her pistol letting her arms fold beneath her coat for warmth.

"It's something that a lot of people don't have these days." Patricia looked to the cannon and watched it being assembled for testing or whatever it was they were doing.

The woman walked forward in the fuzzy coat and stood next to the woman a few meters away. She looked out at the landscape and awaited to see if the woman was going to get the point.

 

[Krasnaya Xue]

"There is not much different in loyalty and truth," Krasnaya responded. Why were they being philosophical here? "But how do you know the truth? From that magazine? Someone was paid by a business to write that." Everything was a lie without a unity in progress. Someone was always out to shift things favorably towards themselves.

The cannon had been mounted by the crews by this time, but the power source was still not plugged in yet, so there was still time for this strange and candid discussion. "If everyone has just one common enemy, they all work together. Others--they do not. That is why they fail." A fierce wind blew their way and bit into Krasnaya's cheeks, and she shrugged her shoulders up against her neck to ward off the chill. "Just one common enemy."

[member="Patricia Susan Garter"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Krasnaya Xue"]

"You are giving people too much credit, if this was the case the One Sith would be gone. The Techno Union would of paid for killing billions on Druckenwell. People do what they think is best, not what's right." she said emphasizing her last sentence.

"But let's get to the matter at hand." she looked to the cannon and shrugged underneath her coat.

Patricia watched as a power generator was wheeled out of the ship and placed down near the cannon. Various wires were hooked up to the two pieces of machinery connecting the cannon to the generator. It was a fairly short process and Patricia was sure this one wouldn't take long either.

"So what is this thing? Besides a big gun of course." she said with almost genuine curiosity.

 

[Krasnaya Xue]

Garter was correct in her observation on people's behavior. They truly did what was best to them and not to society as a whole. If there was a way to meld the two, Krasnaya believed that selectivism was the key.

But that was political, and the admiral found it irrelevant to the matter at hand, as nice as it would have been to argue about social policies. "It's a new ion cannon, but with the conventional technology. It's different; extremely powerful," she explained. "We'll be testing on a tank after the first few test fires."

Pulling out her notes from the great Rebel engineer Mitczik, she read through the theory and scientific jargon she was not quite familiar with. She would do the best she could to explain the way this thing operated. "In water, if you propel an object fast enough, it clears a space with no water behind it. It's similar to aerodynamics." That much she was absolutely sure of. "This gun is supposed to do the same thing, except with electric magnetic currents. It fires an ionized photon load and ionized particles afterwards--the photon clearing a way through a shield for the ion fire to slip through and cause an immediate hit." Straightforward and immediately effective weapons. This was what she wanted.

[member="Patricia Susan Garter"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Krasnaya Xue"]

Patricia liked the sound of that, a gun that could rip through shields and fry systems. It would be a massive edge when it came to fighting the Techno Union, but Patricia wasn't sure she could fight them. Patricia's boss was back to working for them and she needed to back away before her funding and paycheck was cut from Arakyd if she was to openly defy them. But that was doing the best thing, she had to do what was right. And what was right was to stand and fight for what she believed in. So the blonde listen to Xue's words and asked a question or two.

"This sounds pretty great, tell me though something that's so powerful must draw a lot of energy. How much energy does it draw?" he said to the admiral and pulled at her own coat.

She liked that what it was capable of but if it took too much energy from a ship what was the point of having one?

 

[Krasnaya Xue]

"More than I wish," Krasnaya answered, inhaling and exhaling deeply after another burst of cold wind. Her hat remained snug, however--just as it was designed to. "The larger model requires about three times draw of a normal ion cannon. This model, however, is much smaller; very compact and good for tanks." And tanks were what would be needed soon enough.

"For most technologically advanced tanks, this should make a knockout with an instant. Ironic, the more antique tanks will not be affected much at all." She glanced at the other blonde, wondering how she thought about this. The admiral was well aware of the little entrepreneur's penchant for shiny and slick technology. Hopefully she would consider her words.

[member="Patricia Susan Garter"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Krasnaya Xue"]

Patricia gave that some thought, a powerful ion cannon that could knock out tanks and other vehicles rather swiftly. She quite admired that in this piece of machinery, after all tanks and artillery played a very big and decisive role on the battlefield and having the ability to swiftly knock out your opponents was a powerful tool to have at one's disposal despite the energy consumption. However on more archaic technology and tanks Patricia did like the sturdy build of tanks from years past, dinosaurs they may be when your vehicle got hit by something strong enough like a tank shell it was going to do massive damage.

"What are we looking at size wise? There's only so many guns on a ship, and if these come in capital size then how much space and power are they taking up to operate?" she asked the woman beside her began to flip through a data pad.

"I like the concept of this but we have to make sure logistic wise that they can be effective. Don't want to have to route all power to these guns just to make them fire" Patricia said aloud and looked on to the gun.

 

[Krasnaya Xue]

"Our capital model measures at twenty meters." That was a fairly large cannon. "It takes up enough space and power for four of our normal heavy ion cannon mountings. I wish it could be smaller, but it would not be able to eliminate frigates so quickly if it were so." That was the real trick: removing enemy ships from the competition quickly--not so much actually killing them. A deactivated vessel was no use. It was a sitting duck. And it would hardly cost a thing to move in for the kill as soon as this was so.

"The six-meter cannon is much more easier to work with, but sometimes we need the power." Yes, sometimes power was necessary. The military was the product of such a philosophy, and the galaxy would seem to agree with the sentiment. That was why the Rebels fought at all. Sometimes someone needed to do something. Like ionizing a foundry from six hundred kilometers in the sky.

[member="Patricia Susan Garter"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Krasnaya Xue"]

"The capital variant is the size of some star fighters and transports. This could be problematic, though I understand this is a way to sink ships faster I imagine it has a decent range?" Patricia asked the woman then motioned to her datapad again.

She was taking notes on everything going on here. She had no intention on stealing any products or information as her company normally sold modern weapons besides her slug thrower line. And while this weapon certainly had the capability to be a great driving force on the battlefield it was important that it was used in a way that didn't draw too much power from other areas. So this probably meant giving any new tanks coming out an auxiliary power source as a back up in case this gun bled them dry.

"Range wise if the gun is that big we should be able to draw power from the shields and take them out from a distance. It's never a good thing to have to get up close and personal with an ion cannon." Patricia kept asking questions and taking notes, it was important to file a report to the rebels to add to the collective information of the weapon.

 

[Krasnaya Xue]

Sink ships. That was an outdated term, to say the least. Krasnaya supposed it could apply, however, given the fact that she was the descendant of the maritime warman. Navy? Ships? Perhaps they did sink--eventually. "The 22-meter cannon's range is about the same as a normal turbolaser cannon, so we would not expect a starfighter to carry one, no." But drawing power from shields? That was an idea that had not yet crossed the Red Fleet Admiral's mind. "We take down our own shields for a moment to eliminate theirs? But if it's from long range, that could be beneficial."

The Bespin native pressed her hat down more firmly with another gust of chilly wind and watched as some of the men putting the final touches on the test cannon scrambled after their own stray headwear. This fluctuating breeze was becoming extremely bitter. "I hope we can implement that. I don't like the idea of losing shields, but you are right that we need options open."

[member="Patricia Susan Garter"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Krasnaya Xue"]
Patricia tucked at her coat as the bone chilling wind rolled past the two blondes, but this wasn't anything new for the two of them it seemed. Cold weather was just part of the job when you were in their particular line of work, not to mention just how freezing cold the vacuum of space was. So this was just another day at the office testing a highly destructive ion cannon that probably took a little too much energy to fire.

"Well with that being said let's finish up it's set up and see it fire. I'm quite excited to see what it can do." Patricia said with a small smile.

"I think we have a tank somewhere around here, I brought a walker if you want to shoot that." she said as she motioned over to her own personal cruiser that was waiting for this meeting to be done.

It was always fun to shoot shit, no matter how often you did it. It was just a primal sense of fun and enjoyment, and it ranked up there with sex and eating. And with a cannon this big it was certainly going to be a show to watch the sparks fly from modern equipment.

 

[Krasnaya Xue]

Admiral Xue only nodded, feeling a bit disinterested in furthering any conversation. She was a woman of few words for the most part. And she would rather see the cannon in action than yammer on about its details, besides.

The power pack in the back of the speeder was cranked up and brought to life, all its energy being shunted into the experimental cannon. A snap of one of the crewmen's fingers and an ecstatic wave by another signified that all systems were go and firing could commence. The gun was aimed at a large rock structure in the distance to avert any unintended casualties from a simple test run. Some of the worst accidents occurred before some weapons were even put into service, strangely enough.

A blinding flash of light burst out upon its firing, following by the reverberating sound similar to that of a faulty audio speaker connection. It was quite a show, and this routine was repeated twice; three times before an actual target would be utilized. Then the admiral turned to her partner of sorts. "Anything with a good shield generator would be acceptable. I hope it's not too valuable to you, since we will be frying its systems for what it's worth."

[member="Patricia Susan Garter"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Krasnaya Xue"]

"Nice, that's pretty badass!" Patricia said with a chuckle watching the large ion cannon crackle and spark stone and snow.

Once they were done firing the tests on rocks it was time to move up to something bigger and better, and Patricia knew where to start. She wasn't going to bring up the twelve meter tall walker first, no first they had to start off with something that would more than likely start off with a bang. Snapping her fingers she had one of her men bring out the crusher a rather large drone meant for pancaking enemy droids or personnel.

The man rolled two of the droids over to the testing area and had them set up. Once they were in position Patricia smiled and looked to her new kind of friend Xue and spoke almost excited to see what was next.

"Powered on Isotope-5 I think a hit from this ion cannon will make them go boom." she said with a happy little smile.

 

[Krasnaya Xue]

"Boom, yes..." That was certainly a way one could put things. She squinted her blue eyes to spot the very peculiar weapon rolling out along the plateau. "What is that?" It was unlike any war machine she had ever encountered. Some cylindrical wheel of death, she supposed. This Patricia chick seemed like she could be creative, to say the least.

Turning to the other blonde, Krasnaya offered her to take control for this round. "It's your machine. You may have the honors."

[member="Patricia Susan Garter"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Krasnaya Xue"]

Patricia smiled and gently took the controls from her fellow blonde and secretly her inner ten year old was dancing that she got to blow up some of these crushers. They ran on isotope-5 which meant that once this compromised the interlaced fuel tank they were probably going to go sky high compared to your traditional electronics that just fizzed out and sparked.

Aiming the gun she got her mark then began to draw power from the speeder. Once fully charged Patricia eyed the target and her smile widened as she pressed the button to fire. The ion cannon shot out its round and hit home on the crushers. The more powerful ion blast destabilized everyone of it's internal mechanisms and the Isotope-5 simply exploded.

A bright orange ball of fire boomed outwards in a small mushroom cloud as pieces of metal fell from the sky and burned for a few moments before the windchill and snow put them out.

"Ho ho holy fuck did you see that?" she said with a gleeful chuckle then smiled.

 

[Krasnaya Xue]

Suddenly it was if there was a sun on this side of the planet. The blinding light of the SCION cannon seemed like it had illuminated the galaxy, then the ensuing explosion from Patricia's little wheel thing lifted a brilliant fireball into the night sky that kept them in a sort of artificial daylight for a few seconds. That was not exactly what Krasnaya had been expecting when Patricia had mention a 'boom'. That was a boom indeed. "I... did see that..."

The Bespin native took a deep breath, allowing her gaze to linger as she captured the sight for later memories. She was not a pyromaniacal type--seemingly in contrast with her giddy counterpart--but that was not an image one could behold on many occasions. War did things. "Well, let's try something a little less violent this time." She almost chuckled, listening to the victorious cries of the excited cannon operators. "Don't want the twi'leks to think it's the end of the world."

Out was brought an AAT that had been disabled in the Battle of Geonosis and refurbished. "Shields are functional," one of the crewmen reported.

"Fire."

Again came the flash followed by a deafening crackle, an imperceptible beam having traveled all the way to smack against the hull of the target tank. The shields were apparently successfully breached, a thunderous thud echoing across the dark plain. As it relied on repulsors to hover, once the systems on it were knocked out, it lost its ability to hover and simply fell to the earth. "I'd say we're certainly on the right track."

[member="Patricia Susan Garter"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Krasnaya Xue"]

"I think this will do it, we just do a little fine tuning and start production. My weapons company Reclaimer Arms & Industrial will help manufacture if you want. We are located on Relovian here in wild space so shipping will be a breeze." Patricia said with a smile

She wanted to help out despite the fact that these people had almost killed her. But after talking if was clear the woman was just doing what she had to, four highly dangerous Sith Lords on the planet and only her. While she wouldn't of made the same choice as Xue she knew that the woman was only trying to do what was best so she just let that anger go and continued to do what was right.

"We can begin production soon if you want." Patricia looked over to the now disabled craft and this weapon was something that could help the alliance out a lot.