Sunday Candy [Crafting]

[Miss Blonde]

With the beskar in hand Miss Blonde and her customer were on a small back water world known as Relovian, and despite it being located in Wild Space the planet was rather developed bursting with full cities, islands, and mountain villages, it was a small perfect world outside of any prying eyes and the perfect place for her to start the crafting process on the armor with the beskar smith Tony Benetta, a rather old and angry Hapan ex Mandalorian woman who liked her alcohol and other illegal substances very much.

As for Miss Blonde she had changed out of her armor and was now wearing her forging gear that consisted of a heavy thick coat, pants, boots, and a welding mask to keep her face covered from the Jedi. After all he was still a Jedi and the less he knew where he was getting the armor from, the better. The whole criminal element of things.

But when the two stepped into the workshop Nikias would be able to see the woman out of her armor, and just how short she was. With the added push of the boot she was an even five feet tall and he'd be able to tell out of those boots she'd be an inch shorter. But regardless of these heights the woman was a skilled craftsman and she was wheeling up the beskar ingots that were set and ready to go.

"Tony, this is Nik, Nik this is Tony." The woman said to the Hapan woman with a nod.

"Howdy, so what do you want? Heavy, medium, or light?" the woman asked Nik.

[member="Nikias"]

 

[Akhilleus]

[SIZE=10pt]From the way the first meeting and mission had went Nikias had thought that Karin would've wanted a slight break before they reconvened to craft the armor. Just how wrong he was[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] immediately after getting the phrik they had left for a world called Relovian. Not one to complain Nikias gladly went along with the situation. The faster he acquired the armor the faster he could hop right back into action. There were some Sith on his list that needed hunting and needed a lesson to be taught to them for wronging him in the past. So as he walked into the workshop and soon saw Karin without her armor Nikias was more than a bit shocked at her height. Head tilting to the side and mouth opening for a second as though he was about to say something Nikias shook his head. There were plenty of shorter beings in the galaxy[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] whether she belonged to one of those species or not Nikias didn't know. Don't agitate the ones making your armor. Nikias reminded himself.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]The fact that Karin was still hiding her face was still slightly awkward to Nikias. She had proved that she meant him no harm[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] and he did not detest what she had done. It was still something that raised a question[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] he even doubted that Karin was her real name. "It is a pleasure to meet you Mam." Nikias said bowing his head to the older woman out of respect. Nikias knew that Beskar was heavy so had no clue how they would possibly make light armor out of it[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] and medium wouldn't truly help compensate for his lack of abilities in the force. "I would like heavy armor[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt], as heavy as it can get where I'm still able to move if someone happens to get to close."[/SIZE]

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Nikias"]

"Heavy it is, let's get started." and with that the older woman lifted a plastic bottle towards her lips and spat a glob of chewing tobacco into it in a rather gross fashion.

As for Blonde she immediately hoped to it and would commence the first step of the armor which was under layer, a thermo body glove that would hook up to wearer and keep them cool along with some power armor liner with additional gel to help absorb kinetic impacts the plates could not disperse. Snapping her fingers over to a crew of worker droids the woman ordered them to grab the boxes containing said items and place them by two mannequins that would be outfitted and dressed with the armor.

"Make yourself useful. Help the droids load the beskar ingots into the smelters while I take care of the micro mesh power glove." The woman said to Nikias as she had a droid grab a few beskar ingots from the crate.

The droid and Miss Blonde would hop on over to the mesh machine and start loading ingots into it so they could go through the process of being turned into mesh and soon after adding reactive energized bio fibers to simulate additional muscle and power.

 

[Akhilleus]

[SIZE=10pt]Nik kept his face neutral as the woman spat the chewing tobacco into the bottle[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] though inside he wanted to gag. He'd seen alot of things but for some reason that just made him feel off and lose his appetite. For a second when Tony had said let’s get to work[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] Nikias thought they were about to throw him out the building until the armor was created. For one he had no clue just how long it would take for them to craft it and would prefer to not spend hours sitting on the porch of the workshop like a child that was being punished. Relieved to have something to do Nikias nodded his head. "Yes mam." the jedi answered before getting to work with no hesitation.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]Moving to the cart Nikias leaned down grabbing ten ingots on his first trip. Thats when he felt just how heavy beskar truly was. It held an impressive weight in the ingots alone and as he hefted them to the smelters Nikias actually worked up a sweat. Tossing them in to Nikias turned to retrieve more. Of course he could be the type to go on and simply use the force to lift and transport the ingots in groups[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] but that was lazy. Something his people didn't tolerate[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] relying on the force to much left one helpless when they were left without a way to use it. Though while he worked Nikias took the occasional glance at Tony and Karin to see just what they were doing and the process in which they made armor. It would possibly come in handy when he returned home to his people. [/SIZE]

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Nikias"]

When the man was looking over to her and Tony he'd be able to see exactly what she was doing, and it was watching a droid load beskar ingots into a rather large machine. The machine would take the ingot on a conveyer and push it inwards where a heavy grinding noise would be heard afterwards. That was the machine cutting, shaping, and turning the valuable metal bar into a mesh like blanket.

But it wasn't going to end there, Blonde and Tony got together and were starting to converse to each other having a silent conversation that was drowned out by the noise of the machine. But to them they were talking about the beskar forging process, Blonde was still a student for this subject and this would be the second suit of beskar armor she would craft with Tony to add to her resumé as a beskar smith.

Blonde would then turn her head over to the young Jedi and give him a heads up and then a thumbs up to let him know he done good. She would afterwards leave Tony with the energizing of the mesh as that was something Blonde could easily do and not need to stick around for.

So stepping over towards the smelters the woman stepped up to control panel and set the temperature perfectly for forging beskar. The metal was known for being able to survive re-entry so it to say the least the ovens had to be hot, really really hot. So once it was at the proper temperature the woman walked over to the Jedi and pointed towards two sets of armor molds that her tungsten carbide printer had printed out for the armor.

"Take those and place them under the smelter's drain pipe, so when the liquid metal comes out it'll land in the cast by the forging area." Blonde said with a very business like voice.

 

[Akhilleus]

[SIZE=10pt]Flinching as the loud sound of the machine assaulted his ears Nikias finished putting the bars in the smelter and took the time to look at the blanket that the machine spat out. He'd seen plenty of mesh types in the past[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] but this was unique in its own way. Just what properties does this metal truly have? Nikias asked himself looking at the blanket. Out the corner of his eye he saw Tony and Karin talking[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] however the sound of the machine made it impossible for Nik to pick up even a fragment of what they were saying. He couldn't truly be upset about it[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] whatever they were discussing was between them. It was a business after all[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] for all Nikias knew they could be deciding just how much to charge him at the end of the entire thing. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]It always felt good to be acknowledged for ones work so there was a ghost of a smile when Nikias was given the thumbs up. "Yes mam." He said moving away from the smelters and grabbing the first of the casts and moving it over to the draining pipe Nikias felt himself sweating from the workout he was getting. To be crafted of Tungsten and be a large mold meant for armor made the molds naturally heavy. Doing all of it off the back of his own muscles and physical prowess Nikias had a harder time than other Forcers. The main reason for the armor was so he'd be able to put up a much better fight against them in battle. Finally setting the second one down Nikias gave a thumbs up to Blonde. "What type of equipment and gear will I be able to use once this thing is done?" [/SIZE]

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Nikias"]

"Well recoil is going to be pretty much none existent on most blasters and slug throwers, so have fun with that. But I'll deck the armor out with a standard set of gear, trust me you'll go crazy." Blonde said as she motioned over to the drain pipe.

"Might want to take a step back, it's gonna be hot." Blonde said as she then walked over to the pipes.

With a little red rubber handle the woman turned it sideways and the molten ore came pouring out immediately making the area hotter by a significant amount that could be quickly felt. The woman's mask reflected the bright red ore and soon it began to pour into the mold creating a more solid piece of armor that of course couldn't be worn in its current state, what with being a giant paper weight.

Whistling over to Tony the other woman had finished up the two body gloves and handed them over to a few droids. Once that was done the older ex mando walked over to the motion cap station and grabbed a set of ARCs or augmented reality contacts and started to load up the smithing program where she would control the droids at the smith.

Speaking of droids the team quickly moved the molten ore casts to the two smiths and Blonde would give Tony the thumbs up.

"You wanna see something cool?" Blonde asked Nik.

 

[Akhilleus]

[SIZE=10pt]"Hmm" Nikias said to the first statement[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] he was still relatively new to using ranged weaponry and hadn't truly any intentions of using them to much in combat. So he added learning ranged weaponry to his list of things to do. The list that included hunting numerous Sith and other Force users that had crossed him. If it could fix recoil[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] could it possibly fix his shields weakness with dealing with kinetic force? Something he'd have to ask as he'd much rather have his own shields built into the gauntlets as well if that were the case. So lost in thought of the possibilities Nikias almost didn't hear Karin's warning in time[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] but taking a step back at the last second Nikias had avoided a horrible burn. Considering how high Karin had set the smeltery Nikias was sure he would've been missing a lot of skin if the molten metal landed on him.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]Turning his eyes away from the bright metal Nikias shielded his eyes. Looking directly into it without protection couldn't be advised[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] could it? Waiting for the armor to finish molding itself Nikias took the time to look off and examine the other machinery in the room. It was beyond him why the two wouldn't open up a much bigger operation[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] they'd probably be able to do more custom orders if they did so and bring in more credits. Considering how secretive they were around him[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] maybe its because they didn't trust anybody that they could possibly hire. "Sure show me what you got." Nikias said moving to follow Karin and remembering his earlier thought. Sliding the gauntlet off his wrist Nikias held it up. "Do you think it possible if you could build these types of shields into the gauntlets as well? Unlike regular light shields this has a mechanism that allows one to shift sizes."[/SIZE]

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

"Maybe I'm just a nerd, but I find this satisfying." Blonde said as she watched Tony get into position.

With her all set up she lifted her hands and the droids mirrored her in the forge area. Lifting her hands up she pulled down on a lever that began to cool the beskar at a rapid rate, once in a semi cool state the woman took the mold of armor and began to work it almost like a putty. The reason beskar was so resilient wasn't just the strength of the metal it was the fact that the forging process involved folding over and over making layers of molecularly bonded armor.

The woman would fold a layer of beskar and strike it with the hammer hard causing a brilliant display of sparks to fly out in every direction. Striking the metal again and again folding each layer of the crest piece the woman had the droids mirror her so both pieces of the twin armor could be created at once. The woman was a master crafter and could handle this, and it was rather cool to watch the woman pound away at the armor.

"Can you do me a favor? There's a bunch of crates over there filled with a crap ton of gear I get from my friends at the Crusaders. Go grab them over by the loading bay and we'll fit your combat harness while Tony does the armor. Just take them to the crafting tables." Blonde said from beneath her welding mask.

She pointed over to the loading bay and there were two hover crates that needed to be moved from the dock the tables.

[member="Nikias"]

 

[Akhilleus]

[SIZE=10pt]Head turning slightly to the side Nikias was somewhat shocked to see the way that Tony was creating the armor[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] it looked incredibly different from how one would craft standard armor out of Duraplast and such. It was no wonder why Beskar armor wasn't mass produced[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] besides the rarity of the ore the forging process looked incredibly difficult. At this rate with only Karin and Tony[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] Nikias wondered just how many suits of armor they could put out. That wasn't counting the droids who emulated the master beskarsmith[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] it was certainly something to be amazed by. Nodding his head in approval Nikias knew that he had chosen the right people to craft his armor[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] though there probably weren't to many others jumping at the chance to help a jedi craft a set of the armor considering their already large list of talents. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]"Yes mam." Nikias said walking over to the loading bay with the odd suspicion that he had heard of the Crusaders somewhere but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Weren't they a group of Mando's? Maybe Nikias was mistaken but in the end he cared little. It wasn't his buisness to care about who the company worked and produced armor for. He was simply another customer at this point. Lining up the hovercrates Nikias pushed them over to the crafting area where cast a glance into the crates. Nikias wondered just how well kitted out they planned on making him. [/SIZE]

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Nikias"]

Walking over to her crafting table the man had placed the boxes where they needed to be and she was set to go in terms of getting the harness ready. It was a standard feature on armor that she created and since this was beskar they were working with it helped to have all the extra bells and whistles that went along with it. Placing down a combat vest the woman started with the weave on the bottom looping two magazine clip holders onto it followed by a few grenade hooks atop that.

"Do know how to rig a vest?" Blonde asked the Jedi as she focused on the vest.

It was a simple process really, all it involved was taking various pouches that would loop onto a combat harness' weave. Once they were on you just grabbed a few of the pieces of gear in the boxes and placed them in their assigned pouches. Said gear varied from a combat deionizer, energy sink, anti security blade, and a personal energy shield. But those were only a few of them.

"Do me a favor if you can, just weave up those pouches and while you do that I'll go check on the plates." Blonde said as she finished weaving the entire vest within a good five minutes.

She'd been doing this for a while, it was as second nature to her as breathing and eating so she'd blaze through it pretty quickly. Hopefully Nikias could grasp the concept of running small straps through loops.

 

[Akhilleus]

[SIZE=10pt]"Hmm,[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] as long as it’s similar to the way we do it on my world." Nikias said moving over to the designated harness[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] everything about it screamed war to Nikias. Reminded him of the soldiers he had once commanded and what they were geared in. Not him personally[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] Nikias had always preferred to go into things without armor[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] it brought more excitement to the fight and offered a greater challenge. There was no amount of thrilling moments that could match nearly feeling the blade of an enemy[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] or feeling the sting of a blasterbolt impacting your shoulder. Lifting up the harness[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] Nikias began looping the pouches into the vest in places where they'd be best for him. Most of the gear was common and not at all surprising[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] though the energy shield was new. Just more protection. Nikias thought as he slapped it into the pouch.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]The armor that was now being crafted showed Nikias' far departure from what he had once been. Before joining the Sanctum[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] Nikias would've never even thought about wearing full on battle armor. Though the change made sense[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] one could only take so many lightsaber wounds and being buried alive so many times. Will battle still be the same? Nikias thought[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] and in his hand held one of the anti-security blades. Ironically he couldn't see why they'd be called a blade. In Nikias' eyes it looked nothing like one. Placing it in the designated pouch Nikias was already running out of things to add in. The magazine pouches would probably be used to carry around his ballbearings instead of actual magazines but that was yet to be determined. The jedi may take to using slugthrowers when hunting those that were too far above him. "How's the armor coming?"[/SIZE]


[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

Blonde was watching Tony go to work, she was a master at her craft and was going hard at forging the armor. The twin droids banged the hammers and began to forge the other plates of the armor, by now Patricia could just have the droids copy each and every motion of a beskar smith and make the process completely mechanized. But that wasn't something she wanted to do, for starters it would get her in trouble with the mandos. But most importantly it would remove what was the heart and soul of making armor, that it was a human experience to create an item that would save someone's life. It just carried more weight.

But as for the armor the plating for the chest and back were finished and Tony was putting the finishing touches on the legs, it was going to take a few moments then the arms and helmet would be finished up in a few minutes. This was far from Tony's first rodeo so she could crank out a set of armor in her sleep.

"Going great Nik! We'll be done in a good thirty minutes to an hour!" Blonde would then walk back to the crafting table to look at the job the Jedi had done.

It was pretty damn good, everything was where it should be. All they had to do now was wait for the plating to finish up, and in the mean time she supposed Nik had proven himself to be somewhat trust worthy.

"DZ-345 go get us some drinks, soda please." the droid near them bowed and swiftly returned with two canned drinks.

Blonde would then look over to the man with her welding mask on and reach up to unhook a few air lines that went off with a hiss. Removing the mask slowly it revealed a young beautiful blonde woman who looked like she was in her early twenties yet carried herself like she was much older. That young spark of youth was lost and instead it was replaced with a weathered look that older people that sustained loss kept to themselves.

[member="Nikias"]

 

[Akhilleus]

[SIZE=10pt][member="Miss Blonde"][/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]Nikias didn't move away from his crafting table not wanting to interrupt Tony and Karin[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] whatever they were doing back there was of course their secret. Even then Tony was probably so deep into the forging process that Nikias had missed enough of it that even if he went back now he'd learn nothing useful. Instead he bid his time examining the combat harness[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] alot of things on it that would come in handy for the average merc or soldier. Not something commonly used by a forcie which would give Nik the element of surprise in combat[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] he already did things that was out of the usual for a Force User. This would just add to the repertoire. Feeling a bit parched Nikias looked up when his name was called. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]If only thirty minutes to an hour remained that meant Tony made armor faster than some professional crafters that didn't have to use material as hard to forge as Beskar. He'd love to see her craft basic armor. If they wanted to Karen and Tony could put alot of armor makers out of business. Stretching Nikias' bones popped from the air build up between the joints[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] he had honestly lost track of time while he was in the shop.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]Caught off guard when Karin removed the mask[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] Nikias saw what the woman behind the mask truly looked like. He had never even asked her[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] but the fact that she did it spoke volumes. "Thank you." Nikias said taking the drink the droid offered him. Though it was also applied to her trusting him. Karin had been full of surprises[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] everything from her height to her appearance. "So where do we go from here? I won't give you the whole jedi speech. You obviously know how to take care of yourself." [/SIZE]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Nikias"]

"No problem." Blonde said as she took a sip of her drink.

The woman would then look over to Tony who was still in the process of folding the armor and getting everything ready. It gave her some time to set up the process that was going to be fitting the armor with all of its shiny bells and whistles. Looking over to her crew of droids the woman flicked her wrist over to crates of various gear and the droids flocked to them to gather up the various gear and bring them over towards the crafting tables where the two were hanging out.

"I'm assuming you don't know me, which is probably a good thing. But I'm sure you've probably realized my name isn't Karrin and this isn't exactly the most up and up operations. Getting beskar armor usually costs a lot of lives, what with Mandalorians being very protective so I need to encourage that when you use this armor you keep what it's made of and where you got it to yourself. Or you know, the whole or else gimmick." The woman sipped from her drink and looked back towards the droids.

They were setting up all the gear across the table that would go in the helmet, the chest, boots, wrists, pretty much everything that was going to make this armor into a walking power house. Though she did have ideas of making a sword to go along with it, but then she'd have to go through an entirely new process that she really didn't want to do.

"You were saying something about light shields earlier?" The woman asked the Jedi.

 

[Akhilleus]

[SIZE=10pt]Taking a sip of the cold soda Nikias felt it chill his throat and the fizzyness of the drink. As with most sodas it was far stronger when cold but that only brought more enjoyment to the drink. It was quite the sight to see Tony still working hard on folding the armor. From a distance it seemed like an incredibly draining task and Tony did it with such ease that would make other professional smiths look like children in comparison. Turning when Karin flicked her wrist Nikias' head turned thinking at first it had been an order for him but the droids soon responded and went off to collect the gear.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]"No I do not know you nor do I wish to know your true identity if you do not trust me enough to share... You have proved yourself to not be my enemy on this day by fighting for the miners. I shall keep what happened and how you helped me underwraps. No need to worry about hunting me down,[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] nor me having to return the favor. This armor will see the light of day only during times of war." Nikias said. Tossing his head back he drained the rest of the soda his thirst temporarily quenched.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]"Yes,[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] I did mention lightshields. My people created our own special type of lightshield that expands further than any basic creation. The largest is easily over four meters in diameter. Built into one of the beskar gauntlets it would be far more effective and a better defense."[/SIZE]


[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Nikias"]

After a few more hours of waiting and getting to know Nikias the armor had been crafted and the plates were forged by the Beskar smith she had contracted to teach her. Miss Blonde was all set and now it was time to piece the basic outfit together. They would of course add all the extra bells and whistles soon enough but for now the essentials were what was needed.

Taking the helmet she would line it with the Agrinium mesh and wire it afterwards before uploading the HUD system. Once that was set she had a few droids place the heavy plate armor on the body of the mannequin. Once each set of armor was assembled the woman looked at her work and smiled.

"I have to say that came out pretty well." She said as she smiled and stepped back to admire it.

She gave a soft chuckle then looked over to Nikias.

"I hope you enjoy your set. I have to say it's some of my best work yet. I think I might save the other set for a good friend." she said with that same smile.

It was time to call it a day and put all the bells and whistles on by the droid crew. Tedious work like that was beneath her after all.