Tales from the Forge [Mandalorians]

[Laira Darkhold]

Concordia

The scar, a place where Clan Vereen and ArmaTech had carved a furrow from the surface to the mantle in a massive mining of Beskar, outfitting hundreds with Beskar'gam. Now, months later, the dust and smoke had yet to settle, rifts of lava still flowed through the Scar, black volcanic rock covered the floor, and now, the Harvester sat atop a plateau, inactive, looking down into the destruction it had caused.

The Clan had destroyed an entire mountain in the mining, from peak to roots, and now they were preparing for another project, granted on a smaller scale. The build up of warriors, craftsmen, and smiths that called the young clan there own in the fortress proved that much. The Fortress built into the same mountain range was for the first time since its construction teeming with activity.

The Dragon of Mandalore looked over the deep furrow he had crafted, his fires had burned away in his endeavors. "Are we ready to begin mining?" The large, black haired Mandalorian asked over his shoulder, waiting for a response from the blonde haired man that stood patiently behind him.

"We are. Once the crew gets moving the Harvester can be fairly quickly activated. It is still whole after its last endeavor. Then we can process the ore, refine it in the forges, and have it shipped to the ArmaTech facility on the moon."

Draco turned and began making his way through the fortress to the flight deck, ready to fly over to the mining sight and get started. "Alright, see if any other up and comers want to pitch in a hand."

 

[Bhaltair Dhimani]

[member="Draco Vereen"]

Bhaltair was trying to make his way through the hurried crowds of miners and technicians going this way and that. In his right hand was a small duffle bag of tech that was the basis for most of his operations. Even though he had a company to run, it was within Mando culture to stop any form of extraneous business to help pitch in with the faction's efforts. He wore grunge clothing due to the environment he knew he'd likely be going into.

He stepped left, right and even skirted some larger work gangs to get to the work desk; a place to go when you were looking for a role or job to do. He said to the man working there,

"Hi. I'm Bhaltair Dhimani, Rally Master. I'm not that good with a shovel, but I'm still looking for any way that I can help pitch in. Do you have any technical jobs for me to do?"

 

[Gray Raxis]

Gray had been appointed CEO of SocMin Fed and had found himself having a lot to do with metals lately. He had been seeing to acquiring mines all over this part of the galaxy, but he had become more aware of a truth lately he had always known. He knew a descent amount about repairing ships and equipment, but he had no idea how to craft any of the items he used. He didn't just want to learn how to craft, he needed to learn how to. He had had ideas over time about weapons and armors, but he lacked the skills to do anything about it. He wanted to change that and so here he was to help with the mining operation. He figured he could learn something from watching if nothing else.

Gray was wearing appropriate clothes for the job as he came to the site. He had been trying to be more of a part of the Mandalorian culture and community lately, even if some of the recent events he didn't completely agree with. He saw two people already assembled and headed that way. One of them introduced himself and the name given rang a bell for him. It was the name of the owner of a new company devoted to the creation of cybernetics. The other person was Draco, the host of this job. He walked up to them and said with a smile on his face, " Hello there to you both. The name is Gray Raxis. It is a pleasure to finally meet you Mr. Dhimani. I've heard good things about you and your company. I think my fiance bought some of your product actually. And it is good to met you as well Mr. Vereen. I'm here to help in any way you need, so just tell me what to do and I will get to it."

[member="Bhaltair Dhimani"] [member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Brynyar Ordo]

[member="Draco Vereen"]

For now Bynyar was not well known by the mandode , for now for all they cared he was just a underworld mercenary, black market dealer,on occasion an artifact hunter, and a criminal hiding wanted men. The warrior may not be of extreme help, but he was an apprentice beskar smith, and a smith with common materials. When the giant looked at the operation, when he looked at the harvester, and its destruction it looked beautiful. The initiate had to prove that his father taught him what it meant to be a mandalorian, he had to prove this by earning the right to wear armor, and by by finishing the craft of learning how to become a beskar smith . His dream was to craft his own beskaram , that he could rightfully say was his . For now the apprentice only knew how to craft smalls blades with the prized metal, or a set of armor with other , more common materials. The giant , muscular , zabrak towered over most, his presence gave energy , a certain energy of meaning businiess. His rough, horned , blued eyed face looked calm as he spoke in a low, masculine voice "Sucuy vod , I am an initiate that would like to help with this operation, until I can prove I am worthy to wear armor , I will help in any way I can. I am an apprentice beskar smith, and I control a small black market on Hutta , is there anyway I can help make this operation move more smoothly?" , the brute talked as fast as possible in order to get to the point, he was direct, fearless, his father conditioned him as a child to become who he is today. This was his allit, he belonged here, family is more then blood.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Draco stood near the excavation site, waiting on his men to fire up the very large Harvester and the thousands of miners, mining droids, mining walkers, and other pieces of equipment nearby. Once they started, they wouldn't stop until the plateau the Harvest sat upon was slag and rubble just like the scar it looked upon.

The trio of other Mandalorians arrived roughly the same time. Gray Raxis, an up and coming member of the small Raxis family group. Bhaltair, a scientist who spent a great deal of time with Wayland's subjugation. And the third was an unknown who quickly introduced himself. "Well, this operation requires a great deal of Beskar and Euk'gar as Clan Vereen prepares for the next war. We need euk'gar for our starfighters and vehicles, and beskar for a line of tanks. Very little will go to waste in this process due to the invention of Euk'gar. Normally when using a large scale mining operation, there is a great deal of waste material as the common ores aren't processed due to their abundance, but now, we spend the time needed to refine and smelt these materials separately." He looked around at the trio and the harvester.

"Well, if we are going to do this, we should do it right. Start from the beginning. Get into the mines and take some mining equipment, pull ore from the rock with your own hands, get a feel for the hard work that goes into every ounce of beskar." The Mandalorian Commander had done the same while an initiate working with Mandal Hypernautics, and later as a Rally Master alongside the greatest living Beskarsmith, Ijaat Akun. The old beskarsmith had made him go into the mines alone, find the ore he needed on his own, and then oversaw the processes of refining, smelting, forging, metal working, all of it until Draco had gotten the knack for it. Ijaat had been integral for each piece of equipment Draco wore and carried, just as Draco had been. Draco would force these three to do the same.

[member="Brynyar Ordo"] [member="Gray Raxis"] [member="Bhaltair Dhimani"]

 

[Marcus Lok]

Marcus stepped over the rough surface of the igneous rock with some difficulty. The land was scarred and pitted with evidence of previous operations in the area. The land was famed as the site of the massive drilling operation that provided the clans with an incredible amount of the precious metal in the past months. Workers of all races crowded around in massive groups of mining crews that would soon ravage the landscape once again, and it was through all of these men that he would have to root to find the one that he had met previously, and under different circumstances.

The young spacer wore a heavier flight suit that had been recommended to him before he had undergone the short trip from Mandalore. He thought back to the days when his father had told him of the massive drilling operations that had been ordered by previous mandalores in their never ending quests of warfare and power that required the metal for the armor of countless warriors and their sons. Though it was not completely his line of work, he was itching to learn the skill that his father had failed to pass on to him before he himself passed on.

Karking hell!..

The ground truly had given way under his feet that time, and a good amount of loose rock went sliding down the slope that led onto further sites of excavation. The truly monstrous machine that he could see was something that he supposed was one of the more important implements of the operation as it was being tended to by an entire slew of men. It hummed and then roared to life which send a great echo across the plateau and down into the canyons below. And it was there at the machine that he saw the imposing man that he had first met on an asteroid. "Met" was a term he used loosely of course, as they had only been in each other's company for a few minutes before he had run off to deal with some other Republic threat. He approached with due apprehension, as the group that already had assembled gave the sad truth away that he may have been a bit late.

"Apologies, Commander. Engine was giving me some trouble, am I very late?"


[member="Draco Vereen"] / [member="Brynyar Ordo"] / [member="Gray Raxis"] / [member="Bhaltair Dhimani"]

 

[Brynyar Ordo]

[member="Draco Vereen"]

It seemed labor would be needed, not that the workhorse would mind. Nodding at Draco he began getting to work, walking forward he assisted a group in harvesting beskar. The machine buzzing to life, "Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz" , while many were experienced in this regard, Brynyar was not, he was many things, a mercenary, a shady dealer in the black market,an apprentice beskar smith and an artifact hunter. But was he a miner ? The answer to this was a flat no, it looked like he would have the chance to work hard at earning his place as a mandalorian after all. He would labor extensively holding the harvester in place as the long process of extracting the ore began. It was not at all difficult , but was tedious, how in the world did others of the mandode that came before him learn of this material? How in all the things of this galaxy did they find these materials with less technology ? The giant brute continued working this oddly simple task , perhaps his ability to adapt is what will gain his peers attention? Would this attention be good, or bad? The initiate wondered , Brynyar was hungry , more hungry then ever to earn his place as he vigorously worked. He had spirit , had courage, and toughness was this enough?

 

[Gray Raxis]

Gray nodded as the instruction of what he and everyone else were to do. Mining raw mandalorian iron from the rocks was what he was tasked with. A simple job that was respectable in every way. There was no trickery in it, no hurting others by doing it properly, no dishonor in getting your hands dirty. It was gaining something through the strength of your hand and will. It was a true Mandalorian tradition. It was one of the few that Gray had come to witness out of the clans actions as of late. He could respect and enjoy this task for the simplicity, yet necessity of it. It was Mandalorian to work hard so your actions could benefit your family and clan. He was feeling like a true Mandalorian thinking about it.

Gray picked up an energy pickaxe. He was going to work on creating cracks in the stone or making them bigger so another worker could get the heavier equipment in to finish the job. He went at it with earnest. He hit the rocks with measured timing and appropriate strength. He had spent some time working in other mines as of late and picked up a few tricks from the experienced miners along the way. He had been raised to not do a job half way, despite how he acted, and he applied it to all of his actions. His father had tried to raise him to be a Mandalorian after all, even if his dad didn't approve of the direction his people had been going in at the time.

[member="Brynyar Ordo"] [member="Marcus Lok"] [member="Draco Vereen"] [member="Bhaltair Dhimani"]

 

[Cynthia Solus]

[member="Gray Raxis"] [member="Brynyar Ordo"] [member="Marcus Lok"] [member="Draco Vereen"] [member="Bhaltair Dhimani"]

Course she was late. When wasn't she these days. Gray and star had her tied up top to bottom with specific jobs and the legion its self was demanding work, but when she learned that someone was doing a crash course in smithing and collecting some how could she pass up the opportunity. Really by the looks of things she knew one person and the other was a semi inspiration. As a mandolin he's well a legend but that's about it the other things the man had done was just plain unforgiving. Moving next to gray as she carried pickax with grate effort. By the looks he'd not noticed her slip in. Without a second thought she'd swing the pick axe into the wall close to him. "Hope I didn't make you jump. Lucky me though there is no fish about." Shed look at him like she was still bothered by that well till a smirk ran across her face. "Only messing with you. So how is everything?" She asked making another swing into the same spot. As it landed into the wall the rock would crumble away.

 

[Bhaltair Dhimani]

Bhaltair had been hoping that he could accomplish work closer to his specialties. However, it seemed as though the only real work they wanted to get done was to work the land. Sighing inwardly, he would follow suit like the others and grab an energy pickaxe. He would help them out no matter how physical the task was. He just hoped that the drain wouldn't embarrass him when was viewed upon by his brawnier, fellow men.

He took off his shirt so that he would just be wearing his white t-shirt underneath. He laid that shirt in a secure place as he went over near [member="Gray Raxis"] and [member="Cynthia Garon"]. He would then start swinging the pickaxe at the stone and ore. He swung a couple of times and then stopped so he could stretch his muscles before continuing. He wasn't able to keep up nearly at the same pace as the others, but he still tried to do good, consistent work.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The young beskarsmith watched the screens, looking at the group working as they used mining tools, both technologically advanced, and bronze age tools to remove ore from the rock. Nothing would go to waste, that was the point of the smiths like Ijaat creating Euk'gar. The Harvester off in the distance, burning away the earth with its wide angle mining laser. Half the size of the massive Nomad City, the Harvest could output more ores and minerals than some mining towns could on its own. When supported by other work crews and mining walkers it was able to supply most of the ore needed for the project Clan Vereen was working on.

The Clan's Alor turned his attention to the less experienced Mandalorians, working in one of the secondary mines. Slowly but surely working towards gathering enough ore so that they could at least hear about the next step in the long, time consuming process of beskarsmithing. Draco spent weeks working in the mines and forge before he heard even a little about forging it himself. He had been forced to swallow his pride and do manual labor for weeks as the Beskarsmith's apprentice.

Draco flicked the comm channels on, "Keep it up kids. Not much longer and we can pull the ore in for processing." He wasn't going into detail, he was going for the basics. They weren't looking to replace the greats, these were likely only looking for quick fix, hammer out their beskar'gam, and move on when they wanted to.

[member="Bhaltair Dhimani"] [member="Cynthia Garon"] [member="Gray Raxis"] [member="Brynyar Ordo"] [member="Marcus Lok"]

 

[Marcus Lok]

Marcus eyed the energy pickaxe with some hesitation before gripping the handle and hefting it up into a ready position. Already the banging of metal against rock and ore filled his ear drums. Many of his vod had already began their strikes at the stone and before long, he felt the need to join in. Finding a suitable position out of the way of the others he began to let loose his own flurry of swings against the rock face. With each impact, he could feel the slight concussion echo into his arms and he began to feel the burn of the exercise that went into mining this most precious metal.

In the distance, he could hear the powerful beam that the harvester emitted into the surrounding rock face to unearth much large amounts of hidden ore than the small mining team, but their work was to be crucial nonetheless. Nothing should go to waste, not one scrap of Beskar, and Marcus was determined not to undermine their operation with lazy work. He let loose another flurry into the rock wall just in front of him. Small memories of stories told around a fire began to flicker into his head along with the image of his father. He had often told him stories of the mines and how they had toiled to retrieve the ore from the rock day in and day out in the interest of the clans. He wished, for a moment, that his father could see him now. The thought of his reverent eyes put a swell of pride into Marcus' heart and he continued to hammer away at the rock. He would keep at it, and he would learn what his father had not taught him before he disappeared from this life.


[member="Draco Vereen"] / [member="Bhaltair Dhimani"] / [member="Cynthia Garon"] / [member="Gray Raxis"] / [member="Brynyar Ordo"]

 

[Bhaltair Dhimani]

Machió Shiaska thought Bhaltair to himself. This is harder work than I've ever done in my life. I thought university was Hell enough...

He started singing a song in time with the pick strikes.

"We dig dig dig dig dig dig dig from early morn till night
We dig dig dig dig dig dig dig up everything in sight
We dig up diamonds by the score
A thousand rubies, sometimes more
But we don't know what we dig 'em for
We dig dig dig a-dig dig!"

 

[Zef Halo]

Zef was much, much earlier in Clan Vereen territory than the Mandalorians that had come just now. He'd come with the first miners to enter the mine and was a bit further than the new arrivals. He'd be sweating within his armor like a pig despite regulating the temperature within his armor to cooler levels. Up and down the energy pick axe went in a monotonous routine that had been going as if for ages now. Draco Vereen was a tough, practical man. That's what he understood about the man from this whole activity.

"Keep it up kids. Not much longer and we can pull the ore in for processing."

< Ease up on the old man, Commander. Ain't got my youth fire to be hitting things continuously for a long time. > The old scoundrel complained over the com. < Besides this hitting ain't pleasant as it is on Zeltros. >

Zef proceeded striking the ore, taking often advice from nearby miners on his technique and what exactly he had to do. Boy, it sure ain't easy being a Mando again. The 'music' of pickaxes striking down echoed throughout the mine as it had been doing for the past hour. The ex-smuggler wondered how one survived this routine as a miner.


[member="Draco Vereen"] [member="Marcus Lok"] [member="Bhaltair Dhimani"] [member="Cynthia Garon"] [member="Brynyar Ordo"] [member="Gray Raxis"]

 

[Julius Sedaire]

LIfe since retiring, or trying to, had gotten boring. Several of his best smiths had went from Gotal'Veman to ArmaTech to help set up the new operations. It had been a simple process to sort of tag along, as an aged smith in the GV retinue. Swiftly his knowledge had been noted, and he had become rather well liked among the miners and other smiths, even though he tried to keep a low profile. He was just, if he were honest with himself, too much of a sociable person. Life on the island hadn't been quite to his liking, to be honest. For the first bit it was paradise, but sometimes he caught himself walking sword drills with a stick, or shooting fruit from tree-stumps to keep his eye up... Just in case, of course...

So when he saw [member="Draco Vereen"], almost out of habit he called out to the man. They were ones who understood each other, in a way even he and [member="Isley Verd"] understood one another. But he relented, and remained silent, standing at a makeshift overseer table in the mine, planning which way forward and down to take the tunnels. [member="Bhaltair Dhimani"] might recognize him, though his life had aged him harshly after their encounters. Actually, he knew all but a few of the faces in the group, and they probably he. Smiling ruefully, he nodded to a page, indicating to turn the current tunnel a bit to the right, and prepared, in case any of them recognized him.

[member="Zef Halo"] | [member="Draco Vereen"] | [member="Bhaltair Dhimani"] | [member="Marcus Lok"] | [member="Cynthia Garon"] | [member="Gray Raxis"] | [member="Brynyar Ordo"] |