The Oracle
"It is quite a shame," Var Zheen said to Ciaran as the two of them were walking towards Cheriss' lab. "Tambor's stubbornness will not only cost him his life, but it will cost us a potentially valuable associate in our endeavors."
"It's really not," Ciaran replied without even looking at Var Zheen. "His fanatical loyalty to the Separatist cause would have been a massive liability in the post-Palpatine era; odds are if he lived to that point he would continue to prosecute the Clone Wars until someone finally pinned him down and shot him in the head. Instead, he's going to give our Gurlanin a chance to see if they can do some damage
and we can probably get someone set up in the TU's leadership that will be more willing to play ball with me and the galaxy as a whole."
"In that order?"
Ciaran shrugged, not denying Var Zheen's point. "Anyway, why exactly
are you going with me? Cheriss' projects were explicitly meant for herself and Force-users, and...well..."
"The Force is hardly inscrutable to a being such as myself," Var Zheen said haughtily. "I may not be able to use the Force, but I am
certainly capable of understanding how it interacts with the world - at least to a reasonable point in comparison to you for instance. Though that does tie into why I am here with you." Var Zheen turned towards Ciaran, his skeletal features becoming more menacing as parts of his face became shadowed. "What Sair has been doing is - much as I am
loathe to admit it - beyond me."
"You saw what she was working on?"
"Indeed. I will not deny her the privilege of unveiling her new discovery herself but I can say that it is...
fascinating. I look at what she has built and on a surface level I can understand the mechanics, the calculations, the construction, such things are
hardly a challenge for me to comprehend as I am certain you understand by now.
But." The Givin held up a finger. "There is one aspect of it that eludes me."
"The Force."
"Partially. As I said, I can understand how the Force interacts with the world around us from an objective standpoint to a reasonable degree, but I sadly cannot say the same for knowing how to
utilize it." Var Zheen brought a hand up to his chin, thinking about something for a brief moment. "I should be clearer: utilizing it
within the confines of research and development - that I cannot do."
"You say that like it's so unique. I respect Cheriss' work, don't-"
"How many Jedi scientists do you know?" Var Zheen snapped suddenly, causing Ciaran to focus in on him more. "Engineers?"
Ciaran furrowed her brow in thought. "I can't say I know of any
dedicated scientists or engineers. Revan comes to mind, but he's the only one I know who fits that description."
"Ah, but from what I know of him he did not dedicate his
life to the sciences. He was certainly a gifted engineer, perhaps even a great one, but he saw the galaxy in terms of the Force.
I see it in terms of numbers. The population of Coruscant - 1,057,103,539,390 people - the number of crew it takes to man this ship - 350 minimum for basic functionality -
that is how
I see the galaxy."
Var Zheen and Ciaran stopped in front of the door to Cheriss' lab.
"But from what I saw...I do not think I will ever understand how
she sees it."
The doors opened to the sight of Cheriss darting around the room, muttering to herself incoherently before she noticed Ciaran and Var Zheen. "Oh hey was wondering when you'd show up I've been-"
Ciaran gently held up a hand. "Focus. I'd like to know that all the credits that I invested into-"
"The
project of course I understand completely," Cheriss babbled as she darted around the room looking for something. "The new kyber-enhanced blasters were finished without issue those were really easy to put together all things considered but there was the other thing...oh right that's at the firing range I told Tyro that he shouldn't push them too hard the ones he has are still prototypes after all-"
"Tyro?"
"Well when you gave the funds for me to work on my frame and also told me to work on those blasters for the Agents and I
maaaaay have gotten a
few wires crossed as it were but trust me you're going to love it," Cheriss said rapidly as she darted out of the lab, with a very confused Ciaran and a nonplussed Var Zheen quickly following behind her. The two of them barely managed to keep pace with her as she began to go on about the process of her development, though Ciaran herself could barely keep up with the long stream of technical terms she was saying without stopping for a second. Benefits of a mechanical body, she supposed.
Just as the three of them reached the firing range, Cheriss slowed down enough for Ciaran to get a word in edgewise. "Cheriss, in layman's terms-" She was cut off when the door opened to sounds of a quartet of blasters firing rapidly.
"Tyro!" Cheriss shouted over the noise. "I
told you not to push the prototypes that hard, they might get damaged!"
The blaster fire went silent before Tyro shouted back "I'm just stress-testing these things girl, I'm not going to
break these."
As the group got closer to Tyro, they could see that he was wearing a visor of some kind over his face. That was relatively normal.
What was
not normal were the four canister-shaped objects hovering around Tyro in almost perfect formation. Upon closer inspection Ciaran realized that they at least resembled blasters in some capacity, except that they lacked some of the more traditional components. Namely, triggers. Or grips. Or really anything that would make it resemble a normal firearm in any capacity.
"...What am I looking at Cheriss?" Ciaran said, taking off her visor as if to confirm what she was seeing for herself.
"Weeeeeeell while I was redesigning my frame I thought to myself, 'Cheriss, if you can make cybernetics that are more compatible with the Force, couldn't you make
other stuff like that too?' So I did some tinkering with it so it would be more responsive when I pushed the Force through it and it works great and this frame is now
reaaally responsive but while I was doing some tinkering I got a bit sidetracked and started to work on the blaster project you assigned me so I thought that
maybe I could try making the blasters like that too so I did some experiments with Tyro's help-"
"I thought the girl was pulling my leg at first," Tyro said with a light grin on his face. "The first few prototypes were basically shinier blasters, nothing really special."
"Right and then Tyro pointed out that the main problem with blasters now that he's been training more often with lightsaber wielders is that you're dead if someone manages to get close to you so I thought maybe I could create something that you
didn't have to hold in your hands but could still fire of course this
sounds simple in practice but at the same time you need to find a way to keep them in control so I created that visor there -" Tyro rapped a knuckle against it slightly for emphasis - "to help with controlling the positions of the..." Cheriss tilted her head. "Er...still haven't actually named them but I'll think of something. The
important thing," Cheriss said intensely as she whirled on Tyro, "was that I wanted to make sure that nothing would overheat but
this..." Cheriss trailed off for a moment as she tried to figure out a proper insult,
"reckless brute was clearly pushing these things too far!
"
"Stress testing."
"Alright, alright," Ciaran said, stepping between the two before turning to Tyro. "You're the one who'd be using these things, so how would you rate them?"
Tyro brought a hand to his chin for a moment. "Well..." He trailed off for a second before sweeping an arm out, the four objects around him suddenly darting behind him and beginning to open fire down the range for a moment before stopping and quickly returning to Tyro. "They have fantastic versatility and mobility; I'd like to see even the best Jedi block blaster fire coming from four constantly changing angles. Thing is though they require a
lot of precise control; the only reason I've been able to handle these things is because I'm used to controlling multiple blaster bolts with the Force." Cheriss began to open her mouth. "The visor
definitely helps but it's still a challenge," he said, glancing towards Cheriss as he amended his statement.
"Okay,
how?" asked Ciaran. "Are those drones or are you holding them up with the Force?"
"Both," Cheriss interjected. "They hover on their own, but they can be redirected and fired by someone like Tyro here. The visor helps anyone trying to use them by marking the positions of the er...flying blasters...mini-blasters? ...A-anyway it's to help anyone using them control them more efficiently."
Ciaran turned back to Tyro. "Okay, important question then: Can you use these and the Blazing Chains style
at the same time?"
In response Tyro furrowed his brows in thought, seriously considering her question.
"...Maybe. I haven't worked with these long enough to be sure. I don't
exactly use my regular style to control these, so
maybe. I need to work with these a bit longer to see for sure if that's the case." He took off the visor and handed it to Ciaran. "I
am sure that these are much easier to control, so you can try it for yourself."
Nodding towards Tyro, Ciaran gently slipped the visor on, noting four different position markers as the canisters hovered in place around Tyro. Breathing in and focusing herself, she reached out, and the devices moved over to her, though not at the same speeds they did when Tyro was controlling them. Nodding to herself slightly, she reached out again, directing them towards the range, each one pointing at a different target. Then she...
"Um...how do I make them fire-"
Suddenly four blaster shots rang out and impacted their targets.
"Rightrightright sorry I forgot they're designed to work off of brainwaves a little bit sorry," Cheriss said rapidly as Ciaran blinked in confusion. "Well..." she said slowly. "At least I get how they work." She directed the devices to gently set down before returning the visor to Cheriss. "How soon can this enter production?"
In response Cheriss fidgeted slightly. "W-Well I
could build more but I don't know how many Agents can control these effectively. I-I mean I
could but-"
"We have been so far testing in ideal conditions," Var Zheen said, speaking for the first time in a few minutes. "Make no mistake they are quite effective but I would imagine that these require considerable training to operate effectively-"
"They do," Tyro and Ciaran said simultaneously.
"Meaning that only higher-ranking members should have these. Otherwise you would get reports of recruits shooting themselves with these..." The Givin waved his hand around for a moment trying to find the words he wanted.
"Parts of a blaster-"
"Parts!?" Cheriss shouted suddenly, becoming incredibly focused. "Parts, fragments, bits...yes that's it! These are Blaster Bits that's a great name for them!"
In response Ciaran looked at Var Zheen, who looked impassive, then Tyro, who shrugged. "Uh...sure. That sounds good."
"Indeed." Var Zheen said. "These are quite remarkable, though I was wondering if you were planning on telling Lady Ciaran about your
other concept."
Suddenly Cheriss froze on the spot, before speaking in a much calmer voice than before. "I-it's really only that, j-just a concept. I mean the costs
alone would be-"
"Nonsense," Var Zheen said, cutting off a now stammering Cheriss. "It is an idea worth showing to Lady Ciaran."
"Um...sure?" she confusedly agreed. "I mean, I'm not against you at least
showing me what Var Zheen's talking about."
Cheriss was silent for a moment, before exaggeratedly gesturing for Tyro to leave with wide gestures and over-the-top facial expressions. The old pirate shook his head, then left without a word.
"It's just that, a
concept," Cheriss stressed. "While I was working on my new frame I also wondered why you couldn't do something similar for one of you. I bounced the ideas off of
him-" she said, jabbing a finger at Var Zheen, "And he's been more into the idea than I am."
"Wait, what do you mean by 'something similar?'"
"What she is suggesting is designing a 'frame' that would contain a human much like her frame contains her Shard self.
I am of the belief that such a thing could be quite effective if it is...properly scaled."
"...By how much?"
"Her design would be approximately 6.1 (repeating) times larger than an average Human, which would match the height of the AT-APs currently in use by the Republic."
Ciaran stared blankly at him, then at Cheriss. "You're both suggesting the idea of a walker-sized 'frame' to me. Am I hearing this right?"
"
He is," Cheriss said as she jabbed a finger at Var Zheen again, "and he's been
insistent that it could work."
"Could it?"
Cheriss' arms waved about before sagging slightly. "...I
think. But uh..." She rubbed a hand behind her head. "I
kinda spent
my entire budget between the Bits and my new frame. What he's suggesting...well for one, doesn't exist. I'd need to build it from scratch. I'd need to build the
parts for it from scratch because they
also don't exist,
and I'm honestly not even sure how it would function compared to a regular walker. Would it be awesome?
Definitely. But I'm preeeeeeetty sure it would cost about as much as a
planet all together. Or two. Maybe three."
"That is grossly inaccurate," Var Zheen snapped. "The average purchasing cost for a colonization permit is-"
"That's enough Var Zheen," Ciaran said in a tone similar to a woman talking down an unruly child. "I get it. That being said Cheriss, this idea of yours is something worth at least keeping in mind. The cost wouldn't be that much of an issue since I
can buy a planet or three at this point."
Cheriss was silent for a moment before nodding with an unnaturally serious expression on her face. "I-I understand. A-anyway you can go now, I don't think there's anything else to see here."
Ciaran smiled slightly before gesturing for Var Zheen to follow her. As the two left the room and before the doors shut they could hear the loud squeals of joy coming from Cheriss.
"A two-man con, eh?" Ciaran said with a slight grin on her face. "I didn't think she had it in her, even if it was rather obvious towards the end."
"Truth be told Sair was far too nervous to broach the idea with you directly," Var Zheen responded flatly. "She asked me to help sell the idea to you."
"I didn't know you were such a kind man, Zheen."
"Hah. Truth be told I
was serious about my assertions earlier; her idea could be quite the invention."
"Hm...Is that what you meant before we walked in? When you said that 'you couldn't see the world the same way she does?'"
"...Yes. The concept on a basic level is understandable, but she has put
far more time and effort into it than she implied earlier. I can understand the core mechanics behind it, but even at a conceptual level I can tell you what she proposed is no ordinary tool of war by any stretch."
"Hm...I feel like that's dodging the question."
"Quite astute of you. The fact of the matter is that from it's core level it is a mishmash of the various inventions Sair has created. Her frame as a base, the work on the enhanced droids for some of its systems, she mentioned including larger-scale Bits as a possibility...The point is that it is something wholly
hers and I cannot help but envy what I can only describe as the embodiment of her passion."
Ciaran turned away from Var Zheen, thinking to herself. "Something that's truly hers and hers alone, eh? Hm..." She reflexively reached towards the Moonlight Blade hidden on her waist. "I can definitely understand that."
Rewards: Kyber Blasters designed for high-ranking troops. Blaster Bits designed for high-ranking Agents/Abysswalkers. Cheriss' "Experimental Frame" trait fully upgrades to "Kyber Frame." Hypothetical frame concept created by Cheriss.
AN: ...I'm not apologizing. Honestly I had the over 100 reward for Cheriss' frame action in mind for ages now, and the Force-friendly blasters were similar-ish in that regard.
Aside from that, wanted to give Var Zheen some face-time given the lack of it, and I like how it played out. Enjoy~
(No, Cheriss' new frame is not
actually made out of Kyber crystals. It's a nod to an Iron Knight tradition where they would name themselves after lightsaber crystals.)
(Plus the name is badass.)
(There
is another name I could have used for it, but ah...it wouldn't have fit in the context of the story. Some of you can probably guess what it was.
)
. +10.
