Crafting Time!

[Miss Blonde]

At Miss Blonde's personal workshop on Relovian a crate of refined beskar ingots sat on the dock with a beskar smith by the name of Tony Bennet sitting atop it. The secrets to forging beskar were lost to Miss Blonde until today and she was going to learn and in the process get [member="Zef Halo"] a pretty wicked set of armor she had designed for him. So with everything in place the woman entered her workshop and rolled up the docking gates to let Tony and the beskar inside.

Today was going to be about learning, crafting, and getting everything just right. Miss Blonde needed to unlock the secrets of this metal so she could craft herself some armor and not have to go through middle men like Tony to get she wanted. So escorting the kind female beskar smith inside she welcomed the woman and gave her access to the facility and all the machines that would be needed to forge the metals.

"Welcome Miss Bennet, Zef will be along shortly then we can begin. For now let's move those ingots towards the furnaces and some towards the mesh maker." Miss Blonde smiled and ordered her droids to make her commands so.

Now all she had to do was wait for Zef to arrive.

 

[Zef Halo]

Zef was slightly late for his meeting with Miss Blonde, he'd never been able to shake off that bad habit. It had saved him so many times from ambushes or other catastrophes, so that was probably the reason he subconsciously could never be on time. Employers who wanted his smuggling capabilities knew of that and had become quite accustomed to it, even the most impatient and punctual ones. He did not know whether the blonde crime lady would know that but he presumed she did.

The Mandalorian arrived just at the time he could see two figures enter through the docking gates where his meeting with Miss Blonde and her beskar smith was supposed to be held. Zef was glad that he'd finally be getting a beskar'gam, it had been decades since he last wore one. With Miss Blonde's connections and skills, he was that she would deliver. After their recent reacquiring of beskar operation, the Mandalorian was sure that the crime lady's reputation was truly legit but not legend.

Entering through the docking gates he saw two women - [member="Miss Blonde"] and supposedly the beskar smith. Zef was a bit surprised that she was a female, for some reason he always seemed to expect a rough, tough, veteran. Well, at least that was what most looked like of what he'd seen. Nodding at both of them, acknowledging them, he spoke:

"Aight, I am here, ladies. Shall we begin ?"

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Zef Halo"]

When Zef arrived they had already gotten started, a few droids had started loading beskar ingots into the smelters and were getting things taken care of. As for Blonde and Bennetta they were discussing various ways on how to work beskar and the various secrets that went into forging it. Miss Blonde was of course recording everything through her ARC units and droids but it was nice to get it one on one as well. So when Z pulled up the woman smiled at the man and waved as Tony just spit a glob of chewing tobacco into a bottle almost out of disrespect that he was a mando.

"Zef this is Tony, Tony this is Zef." Miss Blonde said introducing the two.

"&@$# yourself." the woman said spitting out another glob of tobacco.

"Anyways she's going to be crafting us some armor today, and I'm going to observe and help direct your needs. So let's start with the micronized beskar weave? Get the power going for the armor, I'll go have the droids load up the body gloves onto the displays." Miss Blonde gestured over to two bare mannequins that would soon adorn the armor they were crafting.

Having a team of droids take the various boxes of gear over to the dolls Miss Blonde looked over to Zef and gave a movement with her head to tell him to come over.

"Zef can we have a little pow wow right quick?" the woman said with a sweet tone.

 

[Zef Halo]

[member="Miss Blonde"]

"Nice to meet you too, Tony." Zef said dryly. "Your reputation as a noble lady precedes you."

The Mandalorian looked around the workshop that had been set up for the 'princess of manners' beskar smith that was Tony to work in. Miss Blonde hadn't failed at all, with what he knew as a Mandalorian regarding smithing, the workshop was quite well advanced to serve the crime lady's needs. Yet, he pondered for a bit how on Earth a non-Mandalorian had gotten her hands on learning the mystery of beskar smithing. Perhaps she had once been a Mando and for some reason she had left with quite the despise of them. No matter, Zef did not care right now. He had come here for a reason, his armor, just like him, was growing old. Yet unlike him, it could be replaced by something more 'contemporary'.

"Zef can we have a little pow wow right quick?"

"What do you need, Blondie?" He approached her closer waiting to see what she wanted.

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Zef Halo"]

When Zef came closer Miss Blonde would give him the rundown on Tony and how the Hapan beskar smith viewed the mandalorians. It was a tragic story indeed but Blonde didn't have time to tell everyone's backstory.

"Tony was a commando in the mando clans. Her father was a beskar smith that passed along the secrets. Needless to say she got burned by the clans and now she just smiths armor for people. You get the gist I'm sure but the point is she's not a fan of your people anymore. So don't start none, won't be none." Miss Blonde gave the man a pat on the shoulder and turned to face Tony.

"Tony! How are we on that micronized power mesh?" Miss Blonde asked the woman as she walked over towards her.

"Zef can you go and open up the crates by the mannequins and dress them in the thermo body gloves? I'd appreciate it. If you're up for a more challenging task let me know." Blonde said as she watched the power mesh machine get to work.

Loading in beskar ingots the machine that was modified with mandalorian iron weavers started to energize the microfibers of beskar and form them into a blanket of beskar weave that was primarily used in the making of crush gaunts. Now this would create a larger fabric that would be turned into a body glove to enhance strength and speed. Adding power to the beskar armor that would be fitted over it along with adding some extra protection to the user.

"Tell me, I was told that when forging beskar you needed to use an intense folding technique and add carbon? Is this true?"

The two women would continue to have their conversation about beskar smithing with the ups and downs and details about the process. Miss Blonde would do her best to soak up knowledge and learn the secrets to what could very well make her a very wealthy wealthy woman. Not that she'd sell the secrets, she wouldn't betray Isley like that. But she would happily sell a few beskar pieces of armor on the closed market.

 

[Zef Halo]

Zef listened to her story, just slightly interested. He'd seen too much of bad stories and bad backgrounds in one lifetime for him to bat an eye about them anymore. Hence, he half-added:

"Got it."

He looked around to observe the whole workshop as everything around was beginning to work in order to produce him a new armor with beskar, as he used to have two decades ago before losing it.

Yeah, don't ask...

It was time for the Mandalorian to get himself a new armor, an armor that could help the age that he had reached. Not that he was sixty but a decade less was still more than enough to make a difference between his age now and his age two decades ago. Zef was growing old and that had always been his biggest fear.

"Zef can you go and open up the crates by the mannequins and dress them in the thermo body gloves? I'd appreciate it. If you're up for a more challenging task let me know."

Miss Blonde's question waved away the sudden gathering of thoughts he was having, bringing the scoundrel back to reality.

"Sure, Blonde. I'd actually be happy if I learned more about this beskar smithing cause y'know. I am a Mando." Zef replied as he headed over towards the designated crates. Opening them up, he carefully took the thermo body gloves out and put them on the mannequins that were next to the crates.

The Mandalorian remained there observing the workshop while overhearing Miss Blonde's conversation with Tony - the badass ex-Mando that hated Mandos. Might as well learn a bit of the trade, he didn't have much better to do. For some odd reason too, this whole smithing thing attracted him.


[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Zef Halo"]

"So it's kind of like a choose your own flavor deal?" Miss Blonde said in response of what the two women were discussing.

But then Zef shouted out that he was down to help craft and hey Miss Blonde was happy to help a brother out. So walking over to him she would let Tony wrap up the blanket material and start forming that into a energized body glove of micro fibers and mesh while the two of them would look over the ore that had probably melted down by now.

"I don't want to be a Debbie downer or anything Zef, but when we last spoke you told me you were in your late forties? Well I want to let you in on a little secret." Miss Blonde said as she checked a few of the stats on the smelters.

The ore was set and ready to go reaching the molten level needed to start casting then folding down into the beskar plating for the armor. Walking over to the end of the smelters the woman had her 3D printer make a cast of the armor so they could poor some of the liquid beskar into it before starting the process. It was their job to prep it then watch Tony go to work.

But back to what she was saying earlier, Miss Blonde was out of her armor and this was the first time Zef saw her without it. She looked like she was twenty four and not a day over it, she was young and full of life and vigor.

"I'm thirty six, and let me tell you that I have a few secrets as to why I look this way. And it's not just cosmetic either, my body is physically at the age of twenty four. Im essentially immortal if I continue my treatments. Care to know?" Miss Blonde asked as she steadied the armor cast.

 

[Zef Halo]

[member="Miss Blonde"]

Zef followed Miss Blonde towards the smelters where the ore was currently being melted, the Mandalorian observed the process with fascination at the molten color of what was happening. He never knew that this 'robust' job might attractive. Or he was going insane at this age.

"I'm thirty six, and let me tell you that I have a few secrets as to why I look this way. And it's not just cosmetic either, my body is physically at the age of twenty four. Im essentially immortal if I continue my treatments. Care to know?"

The scoundrel remembered Miss Blonde's cheeky comment on board the dropship that had lead them to a hive of pirates that had stolen some beskar. She had stated that she was finally happy to be not working with kids, by that he had judged that she would be somewhere around his age or a bit younger. Yet, now as he looked at her, it finally made him realize that she did look like a kid. Well a kid in its twenties, that is. Her real age, at least what she said was her real age, was 36. The physical appearance clearly did not get close to even 30.

What she proposed to him was obnoxious, at least to his taste. Despite Zef's fear of growing old, he knew well that was how life went and thinking about immortality made him feel uneasy. He'd not want to be burying his daughter rather than being the opposite. It was the natural course of life and the Mandalorian preferred it to what the crime lady was offering him.

"Sorry, Blonde. Ain't my thing." He looked at her then shifted his eyes back to the ore that had melted. "But out of curiosity, how?"

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Zef Halo"]

"The details aren't important if it's not your thing, but if you change your mind I'll let you know." Miss Blonde would chuckle then look over towards Tony.

Walking over the woman had two of what were essentially full body crush gaunts to help augment power in the user's body. Miss Blonde smiled at the woman then watched her fit them on the mannequins. Now it was time for the main course, to forge the actual beskar plates.

"After you Tony." Miss Blonde would usher the woman towards the motion capture area.

This was the beauty of Miss Blonde's workshop. Augmented reality contacts and cameras would feed her movements into the hands of droids that were stationed at the smithing area allowing a single person to force two sets of armor at once. When the woman was in the motion capture area the two stations fed into her vision and she could see the forge.

Miss Blonde now walking over to the smelters let the molted beskar into the molds and filled the smithing area. Cooling the ore a bit it allowed the droids to hold the blazing hot pieces of beskar and start to fold and craft the armor. Layer after layer the woman started on the chest piece. And everything was being recorded so Zef and Blonde could study it for themselves.

"Zef, do you need any special features added to your armor? Shield generator? Arm weapons? Let me know now so I can fit it, or I can walk you through what I have available now." Miss Blonde asked the man as she watched Tony work.

 

[Zef Halo]

"Fine by me, Blonde." The Mandalorian chuckled as well at Miss Blonde's reluctance to share the details of how she'd achieved 'the look'.

Zef looked around the whole workshop again and watching what was happening, he realized how little he knew about the core of being a Mandalorian - the armor and its creation. He, himself, was not a 'techy' at all. His knowledge regarding that sphere was currently being filled by Miss Blonde's courtous act of creating an armor to fit him. An armor to be part of who he was, just as every other Mandalorian. An armor he used to have but had lost so long ago.
Noticing the crushgaunts, he smiled beneath his helmet. A master piece of Mandalorian smithing. The scoundrel would be happy to be their wearer.

"Zef, do you need any special features added to your armor? Shield generator? Arm weapons? Let me know now so I can fit it, or I can walk you through what I have available now."

"Uh..." Zef scratched his helmet thinking about that question. "Well, this armor is quite modular which is something I like about, so... wait. I have data about it stored somewhere in my helmet's memory. I will project it to you."

Putting his hand forward, the holoprojector came alive showing all the details of his current armor.

"I am not a techy, Blonde. As you've seen I am not the typical Mando, too."



[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Zef Halo"]

"You seem like a mando to me. Looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's a duck." Miss Blonde said as she watched the woman work.

There wasn't a lot they could do at this point, Miss Blonde wasn't familiar with forging beskar just yet and she wanted to learn. Luckily she was watching through the eyes of Tony and she was learning just by observing, and even if she was a quick learner it was going to take a minute for her to fully grasp beskar smithing.

As for Tony the older mando was still going to work and finishing off the chest piece. Once it was done she had the two droids set them aside and then began to work on the grieves and legs. Taking each plate she repeated the intense amount of folding and re folding. She had a razor sharp focus and seemed to be splicing in a bit of carbon with alum lacing to lighten the plates.

The two would just need to sit back and relax before they could start fitting the plates with straps and padding and fitting it around the armor.

"So, you got kids?" Miss Blonde asked trying to change the subject and talk about anything else.

 

[Zef Halo]

"You seem like a mando to me. Looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's a duck."

Zef chuckled at that comment, it was a fair comparison to him but he was quite far from what a typical Mando was. He'd never be a full Mando to the core, he knew that. Too much of a scoundrel to change. As much as Zef had changed to a Mando from two decades ago when he had been enforced into their ranks on their crusade across the galaxy, he'd still kept his view of life and the world as a smuggler.

Watching the mando hating beskar smith doing her job was truly ironic, he wore the armor, he was a Mando. Tony, on the other hand, was not a Mando anymore and hated Mandos, and she was the one that was currently making him his new armor. Indeed. He was still far from what a Mando was even if he 'looked like a duck and quacked like a duck'.

"So, you got kids?"

That sudden question almost startled Zef and took him away from his focus on Tony folding the metal back to Miss Blonde which was beside him. The ex-smuggler contemplated on what to answer. He was reluctant on answering the truth but considering that she was a notorious crime lady that had a non-Mando beskarsmith on her payroll, she might already know. Somehow.

"Yep. Got me one kid." His heart skipped a beat at the thought of his daughter that he had recently been reunited with after abandoning her and her mother since the day she had been born. "You got kids too, Blonde ? I'd be careful with that youth treatment unless you want to look as your kids' kid someday. " Zef scoffed at what he said as he tilted his head towards the blonde crime lady.

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Zef Halo"]

Miss Blonde looked over to Zef and gave him a warm smile, she didn't get to hang out with fellow parents other than Keira and Isley. Everyone else was just too young or trying to do the whole live fast die young lifestyle. So it was again refreshing to see and to know that older people exist.

"I got kids, yeah. Two boys and a girl. And let me tell you I know the struggle of dealing with teenage girls, all hormones and bad attitude." Miss Blonde sighed at that then looked over to Tony.

Tony had just finished up the leggings after a bit and had now taken care of the gauntlets and the grieves. All she had to do now was forge the helmet of the two sets of armor. Once it was done the woman's job was done. All the beskar plating had been forged and she was ready to go knock back a six pack and take a nap. But Miss Blonde's and Zef's jobs were not quite over. They needed to line the armor with soft padding and wire up the HUD and helmet.

"Zef take the plates over to my craft tables and we'll go pad them while I wire up the HUDs." Miss Blonde said as she went to her crafting tables to boot up her computer.

 

[Zef Halo]

[member="Miss Blonde"]

"Damn, Blonde, you've been busy producing." Zef slightly scoffed in reply to the crime lady's answer regarding her children. "Say, maybe you have something to 'fix' those hormones, perhaps ? I'd like that more than your key to immortality"

The scoundrel turned to look at the beskar smith completing the leggings and proceeding on to forging the helmet for the armor. Perhaps, that was the most important part, in Zef's opinion. It gave the armor a 'soul'. Without that soul, the armor was simply a heavy burden to carry.

"Zef take the plates over to my craft tables and we'll go pad them while I wire up the HUDs."

"Sure thing." He nodded to her and proceeded on taking the plates towards the craft tables for padding. As a typical man, the ex-smuggler tried taking all of them in one course but realized he couldn't which resulted in making two courses of carrying the plates to Miss Blonde's craft tables. "You know, this beskar smithing awkwardly attracts me. It gives you a sort of needed calmness."

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Zef Halo"]

Miss Blonde started with the first helmet. Taking reinforced visor glass she began to fill in the iconic T visor and make it wide enough for the man to see properly. Once that was done the woman flipped the helmet and placed the antenna on it and wired it into an ear piece for it. Once that was all set she reached into one of her drawers and pulled out an Agrinium micro mesh that she used to lace the first layer of helmet. When it was firmly set into the helm she would place the electronics and CPU in and cover the inner helmet with padding. The whole process took about ten minutes. Once everything was hooked up and activated she logged on to her computer and found the uplink for the helmet. Transmitting a simple copy and pasted HUD program into it she booted it up and the armor was complete and set to go.

"If you followed any of that then do the same for your helmet. The visor glass should pop right in, then place the mesh, wiring, then pad it up. I'll take care of the armor." using her rolling chair miss blonde slid down the way towards the other side of the crafting table where the armor lay.

It was beyond a simple job. All she had to do was line the plates and body with an Agrinium mesh and then place comfortable padding around them so it wouldn't chafe into the user and cause damage to them. It was all about comfort and freedoms of movement. This process would take the near master craftsman and her droids a good twenty minutes so hopefully Zef could handle the simple and inspiring task of placing his helmet together. It was a very touching moment for one to build their own helmet and hopefully be could handle it.

 

[Zef Halo]

[member="Miss Blonde"]

Zef observed carefully what Miss Blonde had been doing with the helmet, he'd done it before as well. The least he knew was how to fix his precious helmet when it malfunctioned. It was the part he had learned the hard way how to repair. The crime lady demonstrated quite the haste with the helmet, implying that she had done this before numerous time. The Mandalorian decided to not raise a question regarding that, he simply remained standing watching her fidgeting with the helm.

"If you followed any of that then do the same for your helmet. The visor glass should pop right in, then place the mesh, wiring, then pad it up. I'll take care of the armor."

Zef nodded and got to what he was instructed to do, using what he had just seen Miss Blonde do as a manual. The T-visor glass perfectly fit the helmet and then he went for the Agrinium mesh to fasten the initial layer of the Mandalorian helmet. He double checked that it was placed well and proceeded with the wiring of the helmet, for the scoundrel that was the easiest part. Zef had worked with wiring for as much as he could remember, initially he was supposed to be a ship and speeder mechanic as his father but that fell apart for him after joining the Sheg'rer Hooligans on Nar Shadaa where he was raised.

The padding took him a few times to get it right but in the end it was all good to go. It had taken him a little bit over ten minutes to complete the whole process. The Mandalorian removed his helmet.

​

​

Only one side of his face was revealed to Miss Blonde, gray hair slowly becoming the predominant of his originally black hair and he quickly put back the new helmet on his face. He'd been so long with an armor that even across the underworld his face was quite unknown, it had always been such a mystery to everyone how Zef looked like. The crime lady was one of the very few people who actually could catch a glimpse of only a side of his face. The Mandalorian had gotten used to his helmet being on his head so much that he knew that people would hardly recognize him, if at all, if he was without armor.

"There."

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Zef Halo"]

Miss Blonde caught the glimpse of Zef's face and he seemed to be doing the crafting process just fine. He was a natural perhaps. But regardless the man ha wrapped up the helmet as Miss Blonde finished up her end. After she was done padding she had a few droids bring her some extra tech. Fitting the armor with a comm link, IFF tags, a small oxygen tank on the small of the back it was all set and ready to go.

"We are ready to go." Miss Blonde said with a smile.

Snapping her hands she had the droids grab the two helmets, the plates, and some Agrinium mesh and fit the mannequins with them. After a few moments they would be looking a two identical sets of armor and she had to say she liked them, they were almost worth shooting Zef in the back for and dumping him in a ditch. Hell she had shot the equivalent of Mandalorian John Wayne for Mandalore the Ultimate's armor. And who knew how many people died getting Canderous' armor. But then again Miss Blonde didn't know those people and Zef had a kid, not to mention she liked him. So that possibility wouldn't come true. But could you blame her for having the thought? She was a criminal.

"I think we did pretty damn good today. You want to grab a drink or just ship off with it? Or do you want to try it on?" Blonde asked the man in a happy tone.

But seriously if she didn't know Zef he'd probably at least have a broken leg right now.

 

[Zef Halo]

[member="Miss Blonde"]

"We are ready to go."

Zef was staring at the two armors that had just been forged, they truly looked as the work of a master and he was thankful for Miss Blonde's deed. Yet, he knew perfectly well that he was once again indebted to a criminal as he had always been during his time as a smuggler. He knew perfectly well she would seek him out when she needed a favor from him and as a follower of the code of criminals, the Mandalorian would answer. And he would answer gladly since the armor that had just been made for him looked and functioned exactly the way he wanted it to.

"I think we did pretty damn good today. You want to grab a drink or just ship off with it? Or do you want to try it on?"

"Yeah, a dam good job, indeed." The ex-smuggler hadn't even tilted his gaze from the armor. "I've got lots of work still to do. The Crusade is preparing, I am sure you know that already as well, which means I got to leave."

Zef nodded thankfully to Miss Blonde as he took the whole mannequin with his armor and went towards the exit of the crime lady's workshop.

"Say thanks to Tony, from a non-Mando Mando." The Mandalorian said with a smile behind his helmet. "I'd be interested to learn more of this whole beskar forging trade in the future. They say it's never late to learn, right ? Besides, I'd like to surprise Isley. I am sure he'd be shocked."

With that, he proceeded towards the exit leaving the workshop.

"See you soon, Blonde."