Private Bless You

[Mercy]

Ashin Cardé Varanin

Mercy was a Knight now.

She didn't particularly feel like a Knight. This would never be admitted to anyone ever. Instead Mercy simply claimed that she'd accept the title when she wanted to accept it. The whole 'it's my choice'-shenanigans that would ring hollow, except that most people who knew Mercy... well... they didn't really except anything else from her. Self-assured to the brink of delusion, arrogant and blunt to the edge of affront.

Also constantly eating something.

Talking while chewing was not exactly diplomatic, but nobody had the heart yet to tell Mercy otherwise.

Right now Mercy was moving through the depths of Pomojema. Chewing on a nutrition bar and thinking. She didn't often Think. It was annoying, like little mosquitos kept harassing her brain, which was why she preferred to just Do Things. But right now Things were complicated onboard and offboard. So Thinking was necessary. Right now she was thinking to herself... a Knight... needed a Sword.

Sure, Mercy could buy one, but that seemed a bit gauche.

Instead she descended down towards the sounds of anvils hammering and forges burning up. Right before the smithing hall Mercy paused for a moment. Suitably impressed. Then she barreled through. "Sup, the smith somewhere here?" Called out to no one in particular as dark shades looked back and fro.

It was kinda smoky here.

Mercy sneezed.

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

Plenty of materials alchemists called the Pomojema home, but if you came down here and asked for 'the smith,' they'd point you at Azel Moran. The huge Sith Lord was currently engaged in detailing a complex piece of metal with a glossy black triangle file. That file could probably survive a trip through a star.

He set it aside as Mercy approached.

"You here to learn alchemy, or you want a weapon?" he said in a voice like large rocks sliding across other large rocks. His tone implied that neither of those outcomes could be taken for granted.

 

[Mercy]

She curiously eyed the complex piece of metal.

Looked fancy as kark.

"Uuuuh." A blink blink as Mercy glanced back up to Moran. It wasn't often she met someone who rivaled her in terms of bulk. This one did and that always surprised her. "I uh, dun' think alchemy is really for me." A shrug there, but Mercy's eyes had a shiver of avarice in them. The idea appealed before realism settled in again.

"Am good at smashin' chit, breaking. Dun' got that uh... creative spark or whatever it be." Mouth set in an angry turn at that admission. "So, I guess... weapon, but... I want something that be mine, ya know? Not some Akure Leviathan chit that was pressed in an urchin sith assembly line."

Bemused at that thought. But how else did they manage to produce swords that still turned up every left-turn ya made.

"Am sure ya got better chit to do than help an apprent- A Knight." reminding herself more than anyone else. "-I'd ask Varanin, but as ya know that be complicated right about now."

That were more words than Mercy usually spoke.

Stomach went growl.

She pulled out another protein bar and started chewing as she watched the Sith Lord.

Ashin Cardé Varanin

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

"Oh, you're that one. I'll set you up for what you're after — it's a common ask — but the cost is doing what you're told."

Moran got up from this particular workbench and the specialized pieces of metal clamped thereunto. They were gun parts, or close: the mechanism of a custom long-range lanvarok.

"The room behind you has bar stock. Go get a bar of the one labeled Sadow-290 and bring it over to forge number six. I'll show you how to turn it on and how hot to get it before you start hammering. Let's beat some preconceptions out of you."

Mercy

 

[Mercy]

Ashin Cardé Varanin

That one.

Mercy smirked.

"I see mah reputation precedes me." She drawled before frowning. About to say something she somehow found the wisdom to think better of it. Maybe it was the wall toppling on top of her. Whatever it was... some of her caution was slowly seeping back into her. Her time in the Sith Empire was distant and the last few years were spent in relative safety. Surrounded by criminals and thugs of no consequence.

Sith Lords... were a different matter entirely.

"Guess that's... fair." Muttered before nodding, considerably more subdued, but still with a swagger in her step. She took big steps to Sadow-290, then carrying it to number six. "What kind of preconceptions?" Asked finally as she put it down near the forge.

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

"Fuck creative spark," said Moran by way of explanation. "You want something that's yours? Make it good. Make it something that does its job and doesn't break. Everything else is just playtime."

He fired up the forge slowly, then turned it off and did it again so she'd see how it worked. The forge was a long open plasma shaft set into the wall.

"Here's tongs for holding hot metal. Use them to hold the bar, put the end in the forge, hold the hot part against the anvil. Then hammer it. Here's a hammer."

 

[Mercy]

Ashin Cardé Varanin

A slow blink there.

First time anyone ever told her that. Really? You didn't have to be creative for alchemy? That... uh... yeah that changed things. Nodding there thoughtfully as Mercy stepped up to watch carefully how the Sith worked the forge. "Thanks," As she accepted the tongs and looked at the forge with a somewhat critical eye.

Then without saying another word doing exactly what Moran said she should do.

Except- Mercy didn't ask for a set of thick gloves. Those were usually pretty useful even with a pair of thongs. Brows furrowed as the heat hissed against her hands, but except for a grunt and a light hiss?

No complaint.

"'Least I won't be cold while I be here..." Muttered as she pushed the bar deeper in. Her skin shifted from copper to something with a deeper crisp of crimson. It burned and almost immediately her skin began to repair.

As if this was the most normal thing ever.

"You ever met uhm. Forgot her name. The uh... Hssss lady. I 'eard she was an intense alchemist."

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

"Hunh." Moran watched Mercy's display with interest. "So you already know how to be your own gloves. Good, that saves us some time."

As she got hammering, he occasionally grabbed her arm and repositioned it by some margin. Correct form early on was important.

"Val'Ryss Zankarr, Darth Hauntruss. Never met her, but I've got the keys to her forge. Decent generalist — very nice forge. Why'd you ask?"

 

[Mercy]

"Hm? Oh..." A little shrug there. "I heal quick an' I had my arse kicked to the inch o' my life so often I dun' feel pain that much." There were exceptions, of course. Like trying to tank down a Gorog and breaking half the bones in your body. That had been stupid. She knew that now. Back then... and realistically always... if she felt challenged?

She had to answer it. Even if it was suicidal to do so.

"Hauntruss, that's right, thanks." Mercy took his corrections in stride, since it seemed to help her get a better grip. Smith chit like that. "I uh..." A cough there as embarrassment caught up with her.

"When I was a kid I made a study of female Sith. Whose who. Chit like that." Some girls wanted to be princesses... others wanted to be Sith. "History is full of stuffy men parading around as Sith-" A pause there and a quick glance to Moran. "No offense meant, of course." Slipped out easily. "-not as many women. Ya got yar Rave's, yar Ashin's... yar-"

Waggle of the hand.

"Well, you know. So I always am curious about the more famous ones, s'all."

Greedy expression that was shoved down hard.

Oh, yeah, Mercy wanted to be one of them. That much was clear.

Ashin Cardé Varanin

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

"Sure. Ophidia, Arcanix, maybe a couple of the Zambranos, Xiangu, Voyance, Pavanos — plenty of serious names when you were a kid. No shame in that."

He pointed to the end of the bar, which was flattening out under Mercy's ministrations.

"Keep it hot, go on. For this alloy you want it whiteish yellow, almost too bright to look at comfortably. What you've got is a spatula, almost a cleaver. Let's make you a hefty chopper for life's complicated problems."

 

[Mercy]

"Ahh... Darth Ophidia ... yeah, I thought I forgot someone important." Then again that old spider was probably proud to be forgotten. Cause untold mayhem and genocide before slipping away into the margins of history.

That seemed to be exactly the MO of that assassin.

"Chopper?" Thoughtful there and then nodding as she followed the instructions. "Guess something thin and graceful isn't in my cards." A grin there as she teased the Sith Lord, because a chopper sounded perfect in all honesty. Teasing him was probably ill-advised but... she was kinda giddy. Seeing the work form under her hands. It felt kinda... good to shape something and make it anew.

"Never thought I'd enjoy this sort of thing. Misconceptions indeed." Cheerful as she blew more heat into the plasma. Until the alloy was shifting towards that white Moran warned of.

Ashin Cardé Varanin

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

"General rule of thumb for staying in one piece on this ship, kid," said Moran, "or taken seriously, which is usually the same thing. Don't make assumptions about what someone's specialty's like. If you'd walked into Kishan's poison lab and said 'I've never tried bio alchemy because I'm not interested in breeding animals,' I guarantee you'd be puking up major organs within hours. The thing with studying in a place like the Pomojema is, there's a hundred different ways to be a Force practitioner and you're only ever going to understand a few of them.

"Alright, the shape's looking decent. I'll do a little work on the edge geometry and-”

The red-hot cleaver-on-a-bar shivered and its edge grew more regular, better defined. They'd been at this for a good half hour, working with Force-enhanced strength. Moran had other things to do. A lanvarok rifle to finish, for example.

"-you can take it off the bar now. Draw it out to a spike about yea long, to go inside the handle. When you're done, heat it all until it's red as a meat-addicted reek, then quench it in the solution right here. Then if it's hard, head it again until it's deep red and just leave it to cool on these racks. After that's the grinding — sharpening on a Svolten rhyolite grindstone. With me so far?"

 

[Mercy]

Ashin Cardé Varanin

"It's not the-" Then a sigh as she counted to five in her head. "-kay maybe it's a bit the same." Mercy muttered while trying to stamp down the hackles raised in her.

It was easier with someone like Moran though.

There was no doubt in Mercy's mind that he knew more. And knew his chit well at that. It didn't feel like a competition to be seen as better. No, it was a chance to absorb some knowledge... so she could be better later. "Yeah, yar right, I guess. I am digging this smithing chit. I doubt I will ever be a Rave or a... well... you. But,"

Thoughtful there.

"Gives me a bit of a zen in the mind. Very calming?" Mercy shrugged and wasn't really sure how to describe it, or if it even mattered. The instructions were listened to closely. Then committed to memory. She might be a walking slab of muscle. But muscle memory was a thing and Mercy thought she had it all.

"Yeah, I think so. Draw out to a spike. Heat it up to meat-color. Quench it. Cool if need be. Grind it 'til it can cut through a whisper. About right?"

A glance towards the table Moran was sneaking his own glances towards. Clearly the man had left something more interesting behind and was eager to get back to it.

"Whatcha workin' on there anyway. Looks like some fancy arse sniper rifle chit."

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

Moran nodded at her 'I do it myself' moment. The worst that could happen was an injury, and Sith Knights injured themselves every day on this ship. Or had it done for them, but Mercy was in no particular danger of that at the moment.

"Very good. It's the mechanism for a long-range lanvarok, a sniper weapon that Varanin commissioned. I'm aiming to make the disc ammunition supernaturally frictionless so it slides through the air — and the sound barrier. No sonic boom, no serious sound. And all analog, without electronics. Quiet in a few ways." He snapped his fingers. "Blink and an alchemised razor disc's spinning out inside your rib cage from half a mile away. That's the goal."

 

[Mercy]

A whistle there.

"That sounds fethin' nice. I 'eard Varanin had a 'master sniper'-phase, so that shouldn't surprise me." This was the main reason why Mercy... just... wasn't concerned for Ashin the way Avalore seemed to be and some of the other Sith were. There were about half a million ways to cheat death and if stories were true Varanin employed about half of them throughout her career.

So what if the Jedi executed her? She'd be back to haunt their dreams soon enough anyway.

"Anything I can help with? Since ya been so helpful with mah soon-to-be clever."

Ashin Cardé Varanin

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

"Phase? Maybe. Master? Probably not."

Moran chewed on a possibility.

"While your blade's normalizing — slow cooling to reduce the stress of making it hard — I'll show you her collection. I need to pick up one of them for a refit anyway. Since I have a key and you're one of her people, I doubt she'd mind. I haven't looked through most of them myself, but she has at least two dozen sniper, marksman, or anti-materiel guns in that vault upstairs. You interested?"

 

[Mercy]

Ashin Cardé Varanin

Mercy never did have much to do with guns, unless you were talking about the muscular kind.

Didn't mean she wasn't interested.

"Hell yeah, chief." A blink there. "I mean, m'Lord an' such." Drawled quickly with no real subordination in the tone. A lot of excitement though. "Can't say I used guns a lot myself... goes a bit against mah skills, but-" Smiling there hungrily. "Won't pass up da opportunity to take a look. I 'eard her collection is a bit legendary. Loooots of good stuff in it."

Those were just rumors, of course. But as an Empress, etc, it wasn't like Ashin lacked the funds or access to get the best of the best.

As she busied herself with finalizing her blade she shrugged.

"Besides, pretty sure I got one o' her's sniper probe droids in mah ship. So might be a fun way to test that thing out too."

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

Ashin's collection had a vault and long, thin range of its own in a secure low-traffic part of the ship. Moran did, in fact, have the key and also the appropriate biometrics.

The range stretched the full width of the ship, four hundred meters or so, with a few more meters of composite impact absorber at the far end behind a holotarget. The range was wide enough for exactly one shooter at a time.

The range projected from one of the vault walls. A gun rack dominated each of the other walls. A central console held service supplies, ammunition lockers, and an index and range-control terminal. Moran got the index on display.

❂ MandalTech MX-1 Sniper Rifle
❂ ArmTech M6-RSC Railgun Sniper Complex
❂ Mandal Hypernautics Mun'Beviin Anti-Materiel Rifle
❂ Hekler'Kok AMR-1 Anti-Materiel Rifle
❂ ArmTech AT-90R Sniper Rifle
❂ Valicore Engineering Chiru Tranq Rifle
❂ Tenloss DXR-6b Disruptor Sniper Rifle
❂ Santhe/Sienar Harpy Sniper Rifle
❂ Junbei Hao JBR-1 Shadow Rifle
❂ TriTech PX-36 "Annihilator" Handheld Energy Torpedo Launcher
❂ TriTech GSS-11 Deluxe Sporting Rifle
❂ Breshig War Forge Consolidated DR-03
❂ Breshig War Forge Consolidated SR-2M
❂ Breshig War Forge Consolidated AMR-4M
❂ Lucerne Personal Defense LPD-25 Quickstrike Sniper Rifle
❂ Locke and Key Mechanics Jackal Sniper Rifle
❂ TDW Mercenary Company Acquisitions M-114 "Hunter" DMR
❂ TDW Mercenary Company Acquisitions M-107 Anti-Material Rifle
❂ Roble Manufacturing BCR-X13 Compact Sniper Rifle
❂ Nelson Prototyping Vulcan Sniper
❂ Scar's Brands PBA-01 Pressure Cannon
❂ Revenant Industries Modular Blaster Mk1
❂ Agents of Chaos Phase I "Clairvoyant" Anti-Materiel Sniper Rifle
❂ BlasTech SR-930 Electro-Fusion Blaster Rifle

"Anti-materiel on the left, sniper in the middle, marksman on the right."

 

[Mercy]

Ashin Cardé Varanin

Mercy looked like a child during taungday.

Wide grin, rubbing her hands and staring unashamedly at the wide collection of rifles stacked against the wall. "Feth, I knew Varanin had a range here, but somehow I dun' realized it stretched out for the entire length of the ship..." Who did something like that? Who had the kind of power to stare a shipwright executive in the eye and say 'yeah i want a 400 by 5 meter gun range in mah darkside academy station, make it happen'.

Left, middle, right.

Her eyes were drawn to the anti-materiel rifles. They appealed on a fundamental level. As much as anything that was the anthesis of yourself would draw you to it.

"Guess if mah instinct tells me to grab an anti-materiel sniper, I better use a marksman instead..." A hint of self-awareness that surfaces very rarely. Usually when Mercy was so busy learning that it short-circuited her usual reflexes to be bold, brash and bullying. Her fingers coasted against the barrels of a few of the rifles.

She picked out the TDW Mercenary Company Acquisitions M-114 "Hunter" DMR at random.

None of the names said much to her.

"You ever shoot a rifle like this before?" Asking absently as she checked the chamber, the scope.

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

"Like that? A little. The marksman guns — weapons you can still use at closer ranges than a sniper fight — are more of a layman's choice than the rest of all this. Oh look at this, she's kept records."

Moran squinted at a holo of the gun.

"Dire Wolves M-114 designated marksman rifle. Straightforward, durable, high-quality, reliable, simple. Seems she's fond of this one. It saved her life on a planet called Xolu in a long last stand against..." The holo depicted huge lanky creatures, two or three times as tall as a human, with doubled opposing sirens for heads. "Damn strange alchemy."