Ray Shielding (EM, D9)

[Djanik]

Djanik had his earnings for a day, before spending them all, and a little bit borrowed from Jabber the quartermaster.

Now he was half buried in his ship's generator compartment, trying to install a few last minute upgrades.

Hopefully he'd be able to get some expert help.

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya was used to having to roust herself out of bed at all hours when on an expedition, but she had never liked it, and as she had gotten older she had grown to like it even less. It didn't help that she felt a migraine coming on. She rubbed her aching temple below the tiara with one hand, and drank caf with the other, with a datapad with specifications, installation directions, and maintenance instructions for military-grade shield generators balanced on one knee.

She took misplaced vengeance on Djanik by quizzing him on her growing Jawa Trade vocabulary. Particularly the insults.

Okay, maybe it wasn't really much of a quiz.

D9EM Valuable Shielding Facts (Warfare, 4 boosts for 4 strain from neural charm): 1eP+3eA+4eB+2eD 3 successes, 3 advantage


ooc: A triumph to Djanik, two advantages, and a boost. Use third advantage to heal 1 strain.

Net 3 strain this thread.

[Djanik]

For his part, he happily failed her quiz, her advice giving him the edge he needed to install the component.

Modding Shields, Mechanics, hard, two advantage, boost, free triumph, destiny flip: 2eP+1eA+1eB+3eD 1 success, 1 threat


(+1 triumph to reclaim materials, +3 advantage, using 2 to reclaim strain)

As the job was done, he gave the system a quick diagnostic, noting with immense satisfaction the powerful hum of the generator as it began to power up.

Once he was satisfied, he pushed out from the now much more cramped generator compartment, and closed the door.

Walking over to Vaya, he set down his gloves, and said, cheerfully, "I appreciate your tips, but you never did tell me what 'utini' means."

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya shrugged, absentmindedly annotating something on her datapad, and launched into lecture mode. "It seems pretty multi-purpose. Sort of like kriff, except I don't think it's standard to use it as an infix. And Jawa Trade's a pidgin, so it can be hard to trace etymologies. My two favorites are that it's related to the Basic undertaker and Huttese Uba Tuta Nyee.

"Undertaker, like someone who does something, but also specifically the being who deals with your corpse, which itself comes from maybe both the Old Alsakan underniman, meaning both to trap something or accept something, and the same High Galactic roots as 'entrepreneur,' meaning someone who goes out and does or, again, takes things.

"And Uba Tuta Nyee, an ungrammatical or at least nonstandard phrase, likely to get you sneered at at Hutt dinner parties, but in and out of common usage among their client species. Literally, it means 'you're from a boy,' as in, born of someone immature, and therefore yourself weak and foolish. It gets used in about the same way you might call someone a little punk.

"'Utinni' gets used interchangeably as an affirmative or a declaration of victory -- like 'I got this' or 'we got this,' or 'it's ours!' -- and a battle cry." She looked up and did her best scratchy-voiced Jawa impression. "You're mine, you little schutta!"

[Djanik]

Djanik considered that.

"Wow."

He tapped his chin.

"I like that."

Grinning, generally jovial, he added, "The shields are in, work better than spec too. This little bird is finally shaping up into a real fighter."

Taking a sip of kaff, he tried to relax, but was too jubilant.

Cool to dump accumulated strain: 1eP+2eA 0 successes, 3 advantage

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya shrugged. She'd been cramming on specs and tactics, but she was still no judge of ships, as she would freely admit. "Well, good luck up there," she said. "Frankly, it strikes me as a uniquely terrifying prospect. If my body takes a blaster shot, I have less than two meters to fall. With you guys, it's a looong way down. Or endless hard vacuum." She gave a mock shudder. "I'm not sure which is worse."

[Djanik]

"Well..."

He shrugged.

"If my ship is shot, at least it wasn't my body. On the other hand, the blasters are a lot bigger."

Drumming his fingers on the table, he stated, simply, "It's the old tradeoff. Soldiers tend not to envy the dangers other soldiers face... while becoming inured to their own. In my case, I'd rather face danger with deflectors, durasteel, and a twinned laser cannon."

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya shook her head. "When you put it that way, I'd rather not face dangers at all. I mean, sometimes exploring old sites is risky, but it's not a big organized let's-end-each-other's-lives party." She shrugged one shoulder. "Maybe that means I'm not cut out for this," she said, waving a hand to take in the Sword and the Resistance as a whole.

[Djanik]

"Maybe not the flashy parts."

He rapped his knuckles on the technical readouts.

"This boring bit tends not to have much interest from people, but I'll tell you now, that shield generator makes me feel a whole lot better about the coming mission, so far as my own safety is concerned."

Gesturing to the Z95s, he added, "Someone who could help the maint teams pull off the same stunt on all those would be a bigger hero than any of us flyboys and flygirls."

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

"Okay, do you have anything in between death by violence and death by boredom?" she said dryly. "Just because I can read a technical manual doesn't mean I want to adopt one as my holy writ." She held the datapad above her head, like a stone tablet delivered from on high, and rolled her eyes skyward as if in reverence.

[Djanik]

That brought a laugh.

"Well, bridge crews usually make it out all right - freight captains, smugglers, planners..."

A little shrug. "In war, every job is safe, right until it isn't. You just have to choose the frequency and nature of the risk you engage with."

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya sighed and lay back flat on the crate she had been sitting on. "You're going to hate this, but except for the more technical language that's as gnomic an utterance as I've ever heard from a Jedi."