Private Close Encounters of the Profitable Kind

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Lori quickly nodded in response to his first question. She had participated in a few gladiator-style tournaments and she was certain that Val Tessalisk would excell at them.

She snickered as he made his battle pose, and then proceeded to pretend to drop a hankerchief for a 'favour' for him to fight for in her honour.

"They are fun! I've done it myself a few times. I didn't progress very far though and did break a few bones, but I still did better than people expected of me and made some Mandos gain some respect towards me. I think that some of them look upon me more highly than the vast majority of people do. I'm still regarded as a youngling, but at least they don't treat me as one as often as others do."

 

[Val Tessalisk]

Val wondered how people can see Loreena Arenais-Valhoun as a "youngling" when she's earned respect from Mandolorians. To get them to respect you as a fellow warrior was a pretty big deal considering their entire culture was centered around it. That's also not to mention her exploits against her various enemies, which would surely have elevated her in the eyes of many.

"Don't put too much stock into what people think about you, Lori. The only opinions that matter are those of the ones closest to you. They only know of you from what they see on the Holonet or some Bantha-crap propaganda. People who know you on a personal level know what you're made of." Val said.

He was one to talk, as he sometimes struggled with what other people thought of him. After all, he did mention earlier that Gen'Dai were often viewed as nothing more than bloodthirsty monsters even though it couldn't be further from the truth. He'd has his fair share of instances where he'd revealed his identity to others only for them to reel in terror. It was usually for one of two reasons: either he was really ugly, or because the reputation his species had.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Lori nodded a little, agreeing somewhat with what Val Tessalisk had said. Buuut....

"A lot of those that treat me like a youngling are those that are closest to me...." She gave him a light shrug of her shoulders as though it didn't really matter to her, but in fact it really did. "They just wanna protect me, you know? My parents are dead, they don't want me to follow suit so young." She laughed a little, in spite of herself. "I may have stayed out of their wars as they wanted, but I sure got into some of my own." Mainly against the Eternal Empire.

However things were changing there too. Her focus was more on the company that she was left with and the Eternal Empire wasn't pursuing her so much.

Maybe it was for the better...

 

[Val Tessalisk]

"Eh, sometimes it's inevitable. In your line of work, you're bound to make enemies"

Val shrugged, crossing his arms. Then he remembered about the slugthrower.

"Why don't we go check on the progress of our pet project?" Val asked Loreena Arenais-Valhoun enthusiastically. Some time had passed between the start of production till now, and they'd been conversing for a while.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Bound to make enemies. Yeah, some could say that. But most tended to leave her alone, no matter who they were. Lori was much too smalltime for any of them to be concerned with. Really, she should be thankful for that, yet the thirst for adventure and want of having some sort of significance just wasn't happy with being treated as though she was nothing. She didn't want to fade away like her mom did....

"Yeah, sure. It should be nearly done now." Lori led Val Tessalisk back to where their pet project was being brought to life. She was eager to see it completed and of course, to see it in action. "Lucky for you, we've got a firing range here to test her out. It'll be wicked to see what she can do." No doubt Val would be just as giddy as she was.

 

[Val Tessalisk]

"Oh goodie!" Val exclaimed.

The giant had memorized where the assembly area is and proceeded back over, anticipating that Loreena Arenais-Valhoun would follow. As far as manufacturing goes, this went by pretty quick. From what he'd heard and read, this stuff typically takes several days or even a week to get all the right materials then wait out the actual assembly process. Nevermind that this was an entirely custom build which likely needed special settings or tooling to make. Regardless, he trusted Lori's word that the eggheads here could deliver a quality project.

Val slowed his approach once within proximity of the manufacturing device. The machine was making significantly less noise than when it started, and the readouts on a holographic display seemed to indicate that the process was finished. Of course, he was completely unfamiliar with this device, and therefor couldn't say for sure if it was truly finished. Within the protective glass screen separating him from his creation, Val could vaguely make out the silhouette of the rifle amidst the dense steam from it's time "cooking", so to speak. He decided to wait for Lori to open the machine up, as he had no idea how to do it himself and even if he did, it felt a bit rude to do it without her present. She did offer to have this made here; it was as much her creation as it was his.

Val impatiently looked around for Lori, barely able to contain his excitement to see how the weapon turned out. He felt like a child anxiously awaiting to receive a gift during a holiday or birthday. Heck it could be his birthday for all he knew, he lost track of that information a long, long time ago.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

The giddiness of Val Tessalisk was almost infectious. Lori nearly skipped on their way there in behind him with her hands clased behind her back in the manner of a spoiled child. But she wasn't a spoiled child. She was giving a gift to a new friend. Or rather, she was having one made.

It was nearly finished. Lori glanced to one of the engineers, waiting for the signal that all was ready before she even attempted to open the machine up. She lifted the transparasteel cover, allowing the steam to exit the chamber. Inside lay the new slugthrower with what appeared to be perfectly aged wood, delicately carved with intricate details.

She smiled at her friend. "Go ahead. She's yours..."

 

[Val Tessalisk]

Val stepped over to the machine, his eyes laser focused on the weapon which slowly arose from atop a metal pedestal, steam emerging along with it. Loreena Arenais-Valhoun could see a twinkle in his eye as he stopped right in front of the creation. Then, Val reached his hands out to pick up the weapon; it's wooden furniture so new and finely polished that he could see his reflection in it. He handled the weapon with care like one would hold a child, examining every inch of its surface. Only a few hours ago, this thing he held in his hands was just an idea in his head, then a drawing on a holo-tablet. Slipping his fingers through the cocking lever underneath the gun, Val cocked the rifle once. The weapon responded with a crisp "click-chick". A toothy grin spread across Val's face.

"Oh yeah. We've got a winner here" He thought to himself.

He turned to face Lori and gave her a slow nod of approval.

"She'll do, Lori. She'll do..."

He really wanted to try and flip-cock the weapon like in Eliminator 2, but given how the weapon was freshly minted and he wasn't confident that he wouldn't screw it up and make an ass of himself, he decided against it. If he was going to break in the Slugthrower, he'd rather do it on a mission instead of attempting to show off.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Lori was beaming as she watched Val Tessalisk lift up his new weapon. The silence as he examined the beauty was enough to tell her that he loved it. And she couldn't be more proud.

She gave the engineers a thumbs up and turned her attention back to Val, grinning even moreso as he seemed satisfied with what they had built.

"Let's go try it out! The firing range is just down the hall. Let's see what she can do!" Lori was eager to see the new slugthrower fire and for Val to reenact their favourite scenes from Eliminator 2 INCLUDING all the famous tag lines and slogans.

Like a child she hung onto his arm, tugging him in the direction of the firing range. "Come on! Let's go!"

 

[Val Tessalisk]

"Woah woah!" Val chuckled as Loreena Arenais-Valhoun tugged him in the direction of the firing range.

He was glad he wasn't the only one as enthusiastic to see the Slugthrower in action as he was. Val looked down at Lori and smiled

"By the way, you totally missed an opportunity for a quote there" He said.

Val cleared his throat and did his best to imitate the Eliminator actor's distinct accent.

"Come with me if you want to shoot!" He said with a stern, almost robotic voice as they walked towards the firing range. Val had the rifle resting on his shoulder just as the actor did in the holofilm, completely unaware that he was doing so.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Lori snickered as Val Tessalisk imitated their favourite character. She clapped her hands in glee and then cleared her throat as she tried to imitate the squeaky teenaged boy voice of the Eliminator's charge; "Okay, but you can't kill anybody, okay? You just can't!"

She assumed the posture and gate of the boy as the two of them walked down the corridor towards the shooting range. Lori thought back to the asylum scene, wondering if her mom had ever hoped to be rescued in that way when she was trapped in an asylum. Lori would have loved to rescue her with Val at her side. The two made a great team.

In no time at all they entered the shooting range. It was filled with a variety of targets of different shapes and sizes, alleys for shooting, as well as different locations for close combat scenarios like inside of buildings.

"This is going to be...a blast!"

 

[Val Tessalisk]

Val chuckled at Loreena Arenais-Valhoun telling him that he couldn't kill anyone, a quote from the film. Val responded with a monotone "Why" like the Elininator in the film. He continued to carry the slughthrower over his shoulder like the latter as well. Once they reached the firing range, Val stopped and stretched his huge arm out to prevent Lori from going further. He then pointed to one of the targets and said

"M-1000! Get down!"

With a tone of false urgency before aiming his slugthrower at the target and pretended to shoot at it. Of course, soon he would shoot at it for real, but for now he was just having fun reenacting the film.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

"Because you can't. Trust me on this!" Once again Lori tried to imitate the boy's squeaky voice, which sounded quite funny because she couldn't quite get it right.

But that didn't matter. Her and Val Tessalisk were having fun.

She shrieked as she ducked down, keeping in behind him. Lori turned her head towards the two-way mirror and nodded her head to the people on the other side. Their fingers flew over the keyboards and switches as they took over the environment of the shooting range.

And then 'he' appeared, dropping from the ceiling in a pile of molten silver before rising up in human form and looking right at Val.

 

[Val Tessalisk]

Val watched as the liquid metal entity took shape, it was like watching a clay sculpture taking shape. The materiel took on the appearance of a human male of slender build. His face was almost perfect in appearance, to an unnatural degree. His gaze was akin to that of a predator closing in on prey, cold and unblinking. His icy blue eyes made his killer's gaze all the more unnerving as he stared down the duo. He wore the uniform of a law enforcement officer, but Val and Loreena Arenais-Valhoun knew this thing, this metallic monstrosity, was anything but. It was merely a ruse; a disguise to put his prey at ease by impersonating an officer of the law. Like Lori, Val knew what he was looking at. The Gen'Dai locked eyes with the being, and without breaking his gaze, extended an open hand to Lori and uttered only one word:

"Ammo"

Val said commandingly as his grip on the slugthrower tightened.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

It was like living in the holo-movie itself. Lori was both excited and intimidated at the same time. More than likely Val Tessalisk felt the same way.

As he held out his hand and asked for ammo, Lori quickly grabbed a bunch of shells from the armoury wall behind them and handed them to him. They weren't blanks, they were the real deal. This was a testing/firing range afterall and blanks just wouldn't suffice.

Lori took no chances though, even if this was fake. Knowing her luck, it could be some kind of ruse to collect on her bounty. So she chose to stay behind him.

 

[Val Tessalisk]

Without skipping a beat, Val loaded the large-caliber ammunition in a slot underneath the weapon while maintaining eye contact with the M-1000. In response to the imminent threat, the liquid metal android began a menacing power walk towards the duo. Extending one arm out to the side, the android's hand seemed to melt back down to its chrome liquid state before extending and reshaping itself into a long, ultra-sharp blade whose surface was so spotless that Val could see his own reflection on it. The android's power walk became as full-on sprint; its movement being very robotic in nature, yet it moved faster than any being Val had ever seen.

Val finally finished loading all 8 rounds into the rifle before looking back at Loreena Arenais-Valhoun . He gave her a nod before spinning around and taking aim at the incoming machine. The android pulled its bladed arm back to perform a thrusting stab when Val snapped the iron sights right on the machine's head. Time seemed to slow down as he squeezed the trigger on the Slugthrower; a deafening BOOM belched from the weapon as a single projectile smashed into the android's head. The impact of the projectile blew the unit's head apart like an overripe fruit, now resembling like some grotesque flower. However, the android merely stumbled back from the gunshot, as if only slightly inconvenienced by the attack. The android's split head reverted to its default chrome color as it reformed without even a hit on damage.

The android raised its repaired head and stared right at Val with its spine-chilling gaze; Val didn't have a spine but if he did, he would definitely feel a little unnerved. The android raised its other hand, raising a pointer finger and slowly wagging it at the Gen'Dai as if to silently scold the alien for even attempting such a fruitless attempt at resistance. In response, Val backed up to create more distance and in turn, pushing Lori back with him. The android lowered its head slightly while keeping its attention laser-focused on Val before resuming it's power walk towards them.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

"This is so wicked..." Lori whispered under her breath as Val Tessalisk and the M-1000 began recreating the famous encounter right in front of her very eyes. Maybe this was something that she could add to Mnemoland! It'd be super popular!

She couldn't help but feel a hint of fear and intimidation from the thing. Val seemed to do so as well, for he began to push her back as he tried to maintain a distance between them. "Shoot him again!" Lori's voice squeaked out as she moved back.

With all of the excitement she didn't even notice the banging on the transparasteel behind them from panicked engineers trying to get their attention. Nor did she notice the blast doors locking into place to seal them inside. Her focus was sorely on the M-1000 in front of them.

It just looked too real....

 

[Val Tessalisk]

Val mentally acknowledged Loreena Arenais-Valhoun 's call to press the attack. Through his vast network of neurons scattered throughout his body, Val could sense the increased movement from the techs behind the transparasteel. Was something wrong? Was this not supposed to happen? Val's thoughts were cut short by a twinkle of metal from the corner of his eye, he quickly cocked the rifle, chambering a new round into the rifle and shooting the M-1000 in the leg. The round blasted the limb off at the knee, spattering liquid metal droplets on the ground. The loss of limb caused the android to drop on all threes and contort in a way to where it could scuttle along the ground with only three limbs. The severed limb, meanwhile, melted back into liquid metal and slithered back into the machine's body.

Val cocked the rifle, firing again and again; each projectile impact putting a fist-sized hole into the android's liquid metal body. The next time he pulled the trigger, he heard a click. Without skipping a beat, Val uncocked the rifle and loaded another eight rounds before cocking the rifle again. As he did so, the M-1000 slowly reformed into a featureless humanoid shape. Soon the featureless shape re-assumed the appearance of the steely-eyed officer. The machine looked at Val with a barely perceptible look of frustration on its face. The machine turned its attention to Lori, seeing her hiding behind Val. The machine raised its other arm and transformed it into another shining blade and pointed it at her.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Again it was like being inside of the holo-film, yet this time her joy and excitement was turning to fear. As the M-1000 started crawling on three limbs after Val Tessalisk shot part of it's leg off, Lori now heard the sounds of the technicians fists on the transparasteel. She turned to look at them, seeing the panic written all over their faces. And without even checking, she knew that they were locked inside.

As the M-1000 regained it's form once more and spotted her, Lori could almost feel it's menacing gaze piercing right into her. The shiny blade pointing at her did little to slow down her heartbeat.

She kept behind Val, which at the moment was the only one besides their assailant that had a weapon. "He must be a bounty hunter, Val! And we're trapped in here with no molten metal to kill it!" Her Force tricks that she knew weren't much to rely on. Balls of light, levitation of small objects and a bit of Force Shielding....that was about all that she could do. And if this thing was anything like the M-1000 in the holofilm, it wasn't something that could be reasoned with or bought off.

So what could they do?

"Shoot off more pieces! Let's try to keep them seperated! If they are small enough, I might be able to levitate them away from eachother!"

That could work, right? In her mind it was possible.

 

[Val Tessalisk]

"A What?!" Val shouted back in disbelief while quickly looking over his shoulder at Loreena Arenais-Valhoun

How did a Bounty Hunter get in here? Or more specifically, who the hell made a droid exactly like the M-1000? He'd never even heard of a droid that could do things like this, even during the height of the Clone Wars where droids were a dime a dozen. He'd heard of B-X Commando Droids impersonating Clones by wearing their armor, but there was a huge gap between wearing armor as a disguise and straight up imitating an entire being. Val took aim again and fired two shots in quick succession, taking out both of the liquid metal assassin's legs. The legless droid flopped to the ground before sitting up again. The severed legs liquified and returned to the android's body, quickly regrowing and allowing the machine to stand again. The droid lunged and swung one of its blade-like arms. Val shoved Lori out of the way and took the blow for her. The blade carved a straight line across his chest plate and took off a long curl of red paint.

With the flick of a small lever just below the trigger guard, the rifle's bayonet sprung out from under the handguard. The droid swung again, but this time Val parried the blow with his bayonet before buttstroking the android. The physical blow deformed the machine's face and made it stumble back. Val raised the rifle, yelling as he brought it down on the android and nearly cutting it in half from shoulder to hip. He then kicked the android back, knocking it to the ground flailing and screeching.

"I knew that bayonet would come in handy" Val thought to himself.

He looked around the armory for a blaster, any blaster. The high-temperature plasma projectiles would likely be enough to cause damage to the M-1000's nanite-based structure. It wasn't molten metal, but he'd hope that high temperatures in general would get the job done as well.

"I can't keep this up forever! Running low on ammo and bullets clearly aren't cutting it. You got a blaster or something??"