Ask Tommy Guns

[Gett'se Vizsla]

Gett'se sat in a small pub on Daalang, waiting. He had reached out on the darknet, looking for a slicer that could help him with a particularly lucrative hunt. After several days of trawling through the net he had found one, an individual named 0R4CL3, who had agreed to meet him. Normally he did his own slicing, but what was required for the job he was looking at needed someone with a finer touch than he had. Brute force programs to overwhelm civilian security systems, no problem. Rapid searches for information on local networks, totally in the bag.

Slicing into an old Imperial bunker with multiple levels of encryption and a slicer on the inside... not really his cup of cassius tea.

So he waited having arranged to meet this 0R4CL3, which he swiftly learned to hate typing out, at the Bothan Boozehall on Dalaang. True to its name, most of the patrons were Bothan, and they had eyed him suspiciously every single day this week as he sat there waiting for the contact. The barkeep didn't mind his presence much, he kept a steady trickle of credits heading her way as he waited, not drinking much but enough to not kick out the heavily armed and armored Mandalorian. His presence had prevented at least two bar fights from breaking out, nobody wanting to fight in front of the Mandalorian for... whatever reason that might be.

Still, they watched him. But he was used to being watched. It seemed that everywhere he went the mere look of him drew the eyes of the aruetiise. Again, he was used to it. It got old after the thirteenth or so year though and he just sort of ignored it whenever he could. He hoped the contact would meet him soon, he was getting tired of thin Bothan clover soup and yeasty ale.

@Sreeya

 

[Tommy]

Tommy normally had to do a lot more digging on the background of her contacts before meeting them. What was curious about this one was that they were a fellow slicer. Any slicers that looked to her for next level help always climbed to the top of her list. She had been chatting with this person for a bit before they finally agreed to meet. Hilariously, sometimes these meetups sounded like online dating except it ended with a nice fat paycheck for her.

She entered the cantina and had to scrunch her nose at the smell. A lot of Bothans in one place had the delightful essence of a sun-dried, fertilized farmfield after enough time. She tried to hide her displeasure as she looked around, spotting the contact almost immediately. They stood out like a sore thumb amidst everyone there and had everyone looking over.

Tommy didn’t like that kind of attention, and she half considered calling it off. In the end, she sighed and made her way over to the Mandalorian, sitting down before them. Normally she was sarcastic or quirky, but the presence of a Mandalorian was unnerving even for her. She figured one wrong thing and he’d twirl a blaster between his fingers and pop her head off.

“Hi there,” She said cordially, “I’m your contact,” Tommy looked around to see if anyone was listening, still uneasy about the setting. She glanced back at the cold helmet, not even knowing if they were looking at her, “What do you need?”

@Arclight

 

[Gett'se Vizsla]

It seemed that his wait was finally over. A heavily tatted green Nautolan made her way into the pub, catching Gett'se's eye. He wasn't entirely sure if it was his contact, he had been expecting someone a little bit more... male. Any question he might have had was cleared up when she walked over and sat across from him.

"Zero-Ar-four-Cee-Ell-Three?" He asked in a deadpan as he recited her screen name. One thing about being a Mandalorian is people rarely expected a sense of humor, something he liked to take advantage of. "You know thats a pain to type." He said. He had talked to her over the net a bit under the handle of 'Vagabond', which wasn't entirely inaccurate given his footloose lifestyle. Still he figured he should cut straight to the chase.

Sliding a datapad across the table, it would show the schematics for an old imperial bunker, as well as some up close pictures that he had taken. The bunker was nestled in the crook of a ravine, and was surrounded by heaps of scrap. "It's an old Imperial bunker on the planet Attahox. Next system over." He began, looking around at the eyes that seemed to quickly look away as he caught them. The patrons of the cantina had been curious about his presence and now he was meeting with someone. 0R4CL3 seemed a bit sketched out by all the attention and he couldn't blame her.

Turning his visor back to the Nautolan, he cleared his throat. "Lots of eyes here. Do you want me to keep going or should we move somewhere more secure?"

@Sreeya

 

[Tommy]

Tommy stared at the T visor blankly for a moment as he rattled off the numbers to her handle. Was this guy for real? She couldn’t hide it, her jaw actually dropped a little, “Um...it’s Oracle..” She mumbled quiet enough to where he probably didn’t hear it as he kept going on. She had limited knowledge of how Mandos operated, but she heard that they took things literally and had little to no sense of humor.

She took the datapad offered, glancing down as she took in the details, “Imperial..” She whispered before he even said it. There was a noticeable glint in her eye and she straightened up in her seat. She was almost too distracted to notice that the Mando was still drawing excessive amounts of attention.

Tommy looked up again when he spoke, nodding in response. She let him finish up with his bill before leading him out of the bar. He attracted attention no matter where he went, so they had to have an overabundance of caution. Her idea was to duck into a nearby alley that wasn’t seeing too much traffic.

She still had the datapad and she looked around before whispering, “This place might have something I want,” She admitted then. Crimson Dawn highly valued Sith or Jedi artifacts, and a place like this was bound to have treasure hidden in a long forgotten bunker.

“Can I come with you even after I get you in?” She remembered that Mandos were snobby about who they worked with, if at all, “I’ll even waive part of my fee.”

@Arclight

 

[Gett'se Vizsla]

He knew it was Oracle, but it had been worth it for the visible dropping of her jaw as he stifled a small chuckle. He could see that she was interested before he even got to finish describing the job. She almost seemed distracted, but managed to catch his words and agree that they were a bit too exposed here. Paying his tab off, he followed her outside to the nearby alleyway.

"You sure? You haven't even heard why I want into the bunker." He asked. He wasn't about to say no to her waiving part of her payment, but he didn't want to make her walk into more heat than she could handle either. Drawing a pouch off his belt, he emptied five bounty pucks onto the lid of the dumpster. Activating them one by one, they displayed the holographic images of an Ubese, a pair of Trandoshans, and a pair of Rodians. Each with a six figure number displayed underneath them.

"They call themselves the Stormbringers. Nasty scumsuckers. They've been raiding shipments of phosovane salts bound for refinement into medicine, selling them on the black market to be turned into a potent narcospice. So far none of the truck crews have survived their raids." He shook his head. He was used to death as much as the next Mandalorian, but he didn't like criminals like these that killed indiscriminately, preying on the weak. He continued. "The Ubese is a slicer, and they've been holing up in the bunker in between raids. I'm not good enough to get in, which is why I contacted you. Figured you could get me in and I would handle the rest." By handle he meant kill the scum of course. She might note that the bounties were wanted dead, explicitly.

@Sreeya

 

[Tommy]

Tommy was caught off guard when he pointed out that she had blurted out her proposal without even hearing what he was doing. She had a sinking feeling all of a sudden and a bantha in the headlights look. She gawked at him for a moment as he mercifully went on to explain what he planned. She looked over the different pucks, each one looking more menacing than the last.

“Why do you have all five pucks…” She muttered as she looked back at him, “Do you mean to go after all of them?” It was hard to keep the incredulity out of her voice. This was bad. This was real bad. This sounded like walking into her death. Was this just a random Tuesday for the Mando? Why were they so kriffing weird!

“Let’s um...play it by ear,” She mumbled, “I can get you in a lot easier if, you know…” She nervously looked at him, “If you didn’t look so obviously Mandalorian.”

@Arclight

 

[Gett'se Vizsla]

Gett'se watched her face as the realization of the situation began to sink in. Five pucks, five high danger bounties. But the price was right and he didn't have to worry about trying to wrangle them alive, just needed to put a hole in each of their chests.

"They're all in the same place, it's either catch them napping or try to pull them in the middle of one of their raids..." Hunting them at home was dangerous but he might be able to catch them off guard. Trying to ambush them while they ambushed a convoy had a lot more moving parts to it, they'd be alert, there might be security forces involved. All things that could just make the job messier.

"That's not a problem is it? All you have to do is open the door." And maybe deal with any security systems that the bunker had, but that seemed like something she could handle. Listening to her go on about him looking less Mandalorian he shook his head.

"Negative. They're gonna know anyone coming through those bunker doors is a threat. Once I'm in its blasters out." He stated. This wasn't one of those holonet flicks where they could disguise themselves as janitors and sneak in. As far as he know the Stormbringers were the only occupants of the bunker, and anyone else would be fair game for the ruthless raiders.

@Sreeya

 

[Tommy]

Tommy had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. Why, of all people, did she have to get a Mandalorian for a client? They were turning out to be every bit as difficult as she heard. The way he shut off the ‘looking like a Mandalorian’ comment told her that he was the type to take a shower in his full get up. She simply sighed, rubbing her chin in thought. She began to walk back and forth, muttering to herself. It was one of her slightly neurotic quirks. She fiddled with one of her head tendrils, deep in thought.

She abruptly skidded to a halt where her shoe squeaked and she turned to look at him, “Okay,” Her eyes were suddenly wider, “You’re a Mandalorian, which means operating in complete darkness should be no problem for you,” She thought about the pucks, “Those chubba faces probably aren’t super skilled in darkness. I’m going to track down how the bunker is powered. The power companies are much simpler to slice into and I can have it so the bunker is shown as delinquent to immediately shut power off. The power company will think it’s a simple defaulted customer and won’t suspect a thing.”

Tommy paced around as she kept speaking, “I will also bring down the generator they no doubt have near the mining facility. If I time them both, you can just waltz right into the facility because the door terminals will be useless. All doors will open by default and your path will be cleared. And that way it doesn't matter how skilled of a slicer the Ubese is because everything will be offline."

This would have been a terrible plan if he cared about discretion, but he made it clear it didn't matter to him and he intended to shoot fish in a barrel. However, it entirely relied on him having some snazzy tech. Tommy looked up at him again, “Deal?”

@Arclight

 

[Gett'se Vizsla]

Gett'se waited silently, watching the nautolan pace, rubbing her chin and fiddling with one of her head tails. He silently wondered if nautolan head tails were similar to those of Twi'leks. She suddenly stopped, accompanied by a hard squeak of her heel as she turned back to him. He listened to her plan, a small frown growing on his face as she went into more detail. When she finished, asking if they had a deal, he shook his head.

"As great as it would be, you shutting everything remotely while I walk in, that won't work." Sliding four of the pucks over to one side, the ones displaying the Trandoshans and Rodians, he continued. "These... chubba faces, their reptilian. They can see in the infrared spectrum, better than I can with my helmet." He said, tapping the side of his buy'ce. Sliding the Ubese over to join the others he continued. "This guy, he's an Ubese. That means he's like me, never takes the helmet off and its probably packed with similar stuff as mine. Let me see that." He grabbed the datapad from her hand, pulling back up the base schematics with a few swipes.

"This is an Imperial bunker. That means it has its own power generator, right here," He pointed to the generator which lay deep underground, at the lowest level of the bunker. "It's off grid, completely hardwired and self contained. No remote access." He knew what that meant, and he was pretty sure she would know what that meant too but he would lay it out for her anyways.

"That means I need you on-site. Theres a service hatch on top that you should be able to access everything from," He pointed out the service hatch on the bunker's roof. "No need for you to go inside until I take out the acquisitions." Hopefully. He thought to himself, there was always the chance that things could go sideways.

@Sreeya

 

[Tommy]

Tommy grimaced as it became abundantly clear that there was no option but doing this on premise. This meant that this was likely an Imperial base that had never gone defunct - any that had been restarted usually didn’t know about the location of the original corresponding generator. That made this site even more intriguing as it survived for generations.

She had bitten her lip the entire time, but she couldn’t any more, “There are five of them,” She said finally, “You’re one dude. I mean, don’t get me wrong, you have some sick armor, but come on man,” Her eyes were wide, “I don’t wanna get stuck there left to dry if one of these alligators land a lucky shot,” Tommy paused for a moment, “No offense, but you know..”

Tommy had never worked with his kind before and she added ‘daredevil’ to her list of characteristics for them. Either this guy was exceptionally good, or he was trying to overshoot far beyond his capabilities. Tommy began to pace back and forth again.

“Look whatever, I’ll scope it out and go from there,” There was no hiding the tension in her voice, “How do we get there?”

Her eyes lit up, “Wait wait, do you have one of those jetpack thingies? Can I get a ride?” She rubbed her chin, “Wait, is that a creepy and offensive question? I’m not trying to offend you,” Tommy momentarily forgot Mandos were supposed to be terrifying jackasses.

 

[Gett'se Vizsla]

Gett'se watched the Nautolan practically try to chew through her own lip as he laid out the reason why they couldn't do things her way. He was worried she might break skin by time he was done but luckily no blood began to show as she released her lip and started talking again.

"I've handled worse odds." He said with a slight shrug of his shoulder. He understood her concern about the numbers, but he didn't share them. Besides the fancy base of operations these guys had, they were still just common criminals who had managed to pull off a few high scale jobs.

It seemed irrelevant in the end however as she agreed to at least scope it out.

"It's a short hop from here to Attahox," He pulled up the sector map on his datapad, showing her. "The bunker has an automated anti-air cannon so we have to land a bit away from the ravine, from there its a short hike through the scrapfields."

He saw her eyes lit up and she popped off with another question. He was beginning to think that this one was a talker.

"I do." he said, twisting his back a little bit so she could see the device that was magnetically clamped to the backplate of his cuirass. He shook his head as she continued, apparently worried she had offended him. "It wouldn't be the first time I've given a lady a lift." He said, recalling his recent expedition to Mandalore and the lift he had given Reiel. His forearm still itched with a scab from where he had been slashed not too long after that.

@Sreeya

 

[Tommy]

Tommy stared at him with the least amused face in the world. Handled worse odds? Could this guy be more extra? However, his tone was genuine and she had the feeling he was actually telling the truth. He somehow managed to be blunt without the added pain of a sledgehammer. It was a skill, and it was one she didn’t possess.

She audibly gasped when he tilted to show her the jetpack. When he mentioned that he had given a ride before, her eyes got even bigger. Tommy thought of all the shows and comics she had seen about Mandalorians and their jetpacks. There was even a Crimson Dawn member that had a jetpack mounted on a wall as a relic. Apparently he also had beskar gauntlets, but she hadn’t seen them.

“All right, let’s go,” She said, motioning for him to lead the way. Tommy pondered back to his original plan, glancing down at herself, “What’re we talking in terms of 'short hike'? My fitness level is sub par and I sometimes have mild asthma,” She was fine underwater, but she sometimes had trouble on land with air. It was something she had been born with and often had to carry around a saline bottle with her to inhale instead. If this was a ‘short hike’ by his standards it would probably take twice as long with her.

@Arclight

 

[Gett'se Vizsla]

The Nautolan slicer did not seem amused with Gett'se brushing of the five man squad he intended to wipe off the map. She did however seem impressed by his jetpack, she gasped and her eyes turned into saucers at the sight of it. The girls always loved the jetpack. So impressed in fact that she didn't even want to iron out the minor details such as payment, waving for him to lead the way.

"Then we have a deal?" He asked, wanting to be sure that she would actually hold true to opening the bunker. He didn't want to take her all the way to Attahox just for her to chicken out halfway there.

Gett'se followed the slicer's gaze down to her own physique, giving her an up and down once over at the mention of her fitness level. He wasn't familiar with the physiology of nautolan's, but he assumed they had similar baselines to humans. She looked... sub par, at least to his discerning gaze. "You're right... Will you need anything for the asthma, some kind of inhaler or something?" He asked, serious. He didn't want her collapsing because she forgot her medicine. At least she had told him.

He considered her next question. The Anti-aircraft canon was long range, created a bit of a deadzone around the area. "It's a ten kilometer hike, I can probably bring us about three-quarters of the way, if I fly low and fast." Maybe. He was pretty sure the automated cannon wouldn't pick them until at up to two, maybe two and a half kilometers out. "We'll have to walk the rest of the way though, I'm allergic to anti-aircraft cannons." He said, deadpan as he chuckled mentally at his own joke.

Once he was sure they had a deal, he would lead her the short distance to the hangar bay where his Y-wing was parked. It was a small hangar, but it made the Y-wing look bigger than it was. It wasn't one of the old rebellion style Y-wings. It was newer model, one of the bigger patrol gunships. It's black and blue paint job was faded and probably in need of a fresh coat, the boldness of the colors leeched by the radiation of space.

He didn't say anything, just walked up to the cockpit and pressed a button on his wrist com, sending a signal that opened the cockpit. Bringing down a short ladder that hung halfway to the ground, he motioned to the ladder. "You're in the back seat." That... may have been obvious. Oh well.

@Sreeya

 

[Tommy]

Tommy nodded, “We have a deal. I’ll take half pay up front and then we can negotiate on the rest depending on what we find at the base,” She had a good feeling about this - this was one of the original bases. It did have her wondering what the bounties actually did, but she bit back from peppering him with more questions.

She watched him survey her when she admitted to her lack of being in shape. When he agreed, her eyes widened at the bluntness. Was he implying he thought she was fat? She glanced down at herself, twisting to look at her own rear to see if there had been unexpected gains. Whatever, what did she care? He probably looked like a Gamorrean's toe fungus beneath the helmet. Tommy was about to say something when he casually moved on to describe how he would get them closer. Even a mile sounded like entirely too much walking, and she would negotiate that with him later, “Yes, I have my inhaler with me if needed.”

Tommy paused when he mentioned being allergic to cannons. She scrunched her face up, “Wait… is it from the tibanna?” Tommy asked, genuinely curious, “I’ve never heard of an allergy like that, gosh that must be so-” She stopped then, blinking at him, “Wait. Was that a joke? You made a joke? Like humor?” Tommy scratched the top of her head, “I….didn’t know you could,” She mumbled quietly, realizing she thoroughly beat the joke attempt to death to where he probably wouldn’t try again.

She kept her mouth shut the rest of the way, spotting the ship. Tommy was surprised to see a Y wing and had to bite back from gushing about it. She climbed in and already began to find her seat when he helpfully reminded her that she wouldn’t be piloting. She gave him an awkward smile and walked over to buckle herself in.

“So like...what do Mandos do for fun?” She asked, looking around the ship to snoop for clues on him.

@Arclight

 

[Gett'se Vizsla]

Gett'se watched as the nautolan over analyzed his joke, taking him completely seriously as she tried to rationalize what he had said before realizing that it had, in fact, been a joke. He didn't laugh, didn't react in any way, but underneath his buy'ce he held a quiet smile at the results. She was a talker, but this had the potential to be entertaining.

She stayed quiet on the way to the hangar but once they arrived at the ship she practically rushed up the ladder. He got a good view of the rear that she had inspected earlier after her comment about her sub-par fitness. Apparently she must have thought he was calling her fat. Really he thought she was a bit too skinny, lacking in musculature. He preferred a woman who he could perhaps call an equal on the field of battle.

Climbing up behind her, he strapped in and sealed the hatch. Behind the seats was a small doorway leading back into the Y-wings passenger compartment, the place he called home. Pressing a button on the command console, the hatch closed, but not before the nosy nautolan could get a peak. If she looked she would see what would obviously be a mixed living space and prisoner transport. There were a pair of holding cells welded onto on side, currently empty. A small pullout bunk, a weapons locker, a workbench, a small computer rig, as well as various other gear tied down to the walls. Most notably might be the camping gear he had there and a small spiked metal flute. He lived a fairly spartan lifestyle, with his work taking up most of his living space.

"I like... hiking. And camping." He replied as he powered up the ship and radioed the control tower for flight clearance. Receiving the green light, he guided the ship up and out of the hangar with the repulsors before firing the Y-wing's powerful twin engines once they were clear. The engines roared and they would feel a small amount of centrifugal force kick back against them through the inertial dampeners as they roared up into the atmosphere. Once they cleared the planets gravity well, he entered the coordinates and pulled a lever. The stars ahead of them stretched out into the tunnel of hyperspace. It was always a beautiful sight that never quite lost its luster.

"How about you?" He asked finally, once they were cruising through hyperspace. Realizing it had been quite a few minutes he mentally cursed himself and added, "For fun. What do you do?" He wasn't exactly the best conversationalist. Looking at the countdown to their destination, they had a little bit of time to burn. "Should I keep calling you Zero-Ar-four-Cee-Ell-Three? Or is there something else you go by?" He asked as he shifted in his seat so he could turn his head to face her.

@Sreeya

 

[Tommy]

Tommy saw the holding cells and she had to wonder what sort of unpleasant people ended up there. Did he even sanitize it properly in between prisoners? Probably would give her hives. She next looked over to see what looked like a flute. A flute? Did he play an instrument? Nah, she saw the pointy edge. It was a shanking tool! Holy shit, he imprisoned people and then stabbed them? Probably bled them out too. Wow, what a freak. Her eyes were wide as saucers as she stared ahead, wondering what kind of crime show series she was going to end up on.

She was distracted when he listed off some terrible things as hobbies, distracting her from her thoughts of him as a secret serial killer, “What?” She had to ask, “You like walking around until it hurts and then laying on the ground outside? By choice?” Tommy shook her head, wondering why people had such an odd fascination with recreating the lives of the poor. He had a perfectly good ship…

Tommy pulled out her comlink to play a game on it during a moment of silence. He spoke again after a while and she stared his way dumbly till he clarified, “Oh uh...I like playing video games, reading comic books, watching Clone Wars era movies,” She shrugged, “You know...stuff that doesn’t involve putting my body through unnecessary pain.”

Her jaw dropped visibly again as he repeated the letters of her name, “No no it’s Or-” She sighed, “Tommy. My name is Tommy. What’s yours?” She looked up from her game to hear this. Tommy stared at him for a moment longer, “Does your visor ever fog up? Sometimes I wear goggles when I go swimming because, you know, my eyesight isn’t the best and man it fogs up so bad and I can’t see anything.”

@Arclight

 

[Gett'se Vizsla]

Gett'se didn't respond to the nautolan's criticism of his hobbies. He liked what he liked, and she was free to like what she liked. Which apparently involved a lot of staring at screens, the same as her work. He supposed he wasn't so different, he did a lot of hiking and camping chasing bounties, some of them liked to try to run out into the wilds. It never worked.

"It's relaxing. Not painful." He sighed as she once again criticized him for the things he liked to do. He watched her play around on her comlink to pass the time. It was relaxing to walk around and enjoy nature without the added threat of someone shooting at you, something he couldn't really do while working.

"What, what is that you're doing?" He asked. Pointing at the comlink. He could barely see the colorful flashes over the edge and heard some audio effects coming from the device.

She was about to tell him it was Oracle. He knew it was Oracle. Instead she gave up however and gave him a real name. Tommy... it suited her in a way. It almost seemed masculine but when she said it it was anything but. "Gett'se." He replied as he finally had her full attention at least for a moment. And then she started asking questions, and sharing more information about herself.

"No. Its coated with an anti-fogging material on the inside. Can't have it fogging up on me in the middle of a blasterfight." He said as he imagined Tommy needing goggles to swim. A Nautolan. Needing goggles to swim. The thought was funny. "Maybe it's all the screentime." He said as he turned back to the control console, the timer to realspace reversion nearing zero.

The stars stretched back to pinpoints in front of them and he kicked in the subspace drives, steering them towards the planet. A few moments after reversion, a steady beeping noise began to come from the sensors. Glancing at it, two sensor contacts were coming in hot and fast.

"Hey Tommy." He said as began rapidly flipping switches and pressing buttons, activating the shield generators and setting them to rear as he pushed the throttle. "You like video games right, play any shooters?" He asked casually as he flipped a few more switches to boot up the laser turret, he didn't want to spook her too bad. A targeting computer in front of Tommy's seat would light up as it initialized, the joystick coming to life as the trigger lit up red on it.

@Sreeya

 

[Tommy]

Tommy looked up curiously as he asked what she was doing. The perplexed tone in his voice actually surprised her. She looked down at the game on her comlink, “Uhhh I set up these towers and then I have to defend my camp from attack,” Tommy felt silly explaining a video game to him when he went out and killed people on the regular. Her video games were probably a casual Wednesday for him.

She bristled as he mentioned her eyesight was poor due to gaming. It was the kind of bullshit that her parents used to lecture her on, and now she was getting it from a kriffing Mando, “Yeah well I bet your hair looks ridiculous and you have lower back pain from laying on the ground all the time,” She muttered. It was a lame comment, but she realized it too late. He probably didn’t even have hair. Tommy focused back on her game, shaking her head.

When he spoke next, her eyes were wide as saucers. She set the comlink down as he pressed buttons and the targeting terminal came up in front of her, “Wait what?” She asked dumbly, looking down, “I mean I’m pretty solid at them. I even won a tournament last year. In fact, the winning prize was a thousand credits! I went out and got the coveted 52nd vintage Vader issue comic-” She realized he didn’t care and she was rambling again. Tommy cleared her throat, “Yes, yes I play shooters.”

@Arclight

 

[Gett'se Vizsla]

Gett'se eyed the directional scope, watching the two blips coming up fast on their rear as he listened to Tommy ramble. She won a tournament apparently, that meant she must have some level of hand eye coordination. That was good.

"Congratulations." He said as she cut to the chase and informed him that yes, she did indeed play shooter. "See that screen in front of you, with the joystick. I need you to operate the laser cannon. There's a pair of pirate fighters on our six." He eyed the sensors as the fighters came within scanner range, the three dimensional image of a pair of I-BEAM fighters popping up on both their screens, facing them and coming in hot.

"I'm going to engage in some evasive maneuvers. Just treat it like a video game." He said calmly as he eyed the scope and rangefinder. The meters counted down swiftly and as soon as the fighters behind them were in firing range he rolled hard to the left, spinning the ship and diving as he did so. Laser fire flashed through the spot that the Y-wing had occupied moments ago.

He continued the roll back to their original orientation as he pulled up, putting the fighters in line for Y-wing's turret. "Fire." He said.

@Sreeya

 

[Tommy]

“DID YOU MISS THE PART WHERE I SAID I PLAY VIDEO GAMES?” She screamed at the top of her lungs after the idiot Mando casually rattled off what to do as if informing her that some weeds in the garden needed to be pulled. What was wrong with him?!

He mumbled something about evasive maneuvers, “YES TO GET AWAY SO WE DON’T HAVE TO FIIIIIIIGHHHHTTTT-” She trailed off as he applied said maneuvers. For a moment she did nothing, beginning to hyperventilate a bit. She was entirely unhelpful for a few seconds, doing nothing when he lined up the first shot. Tommy was panic breathing and struggling, but she remembered what he said about video games. This was just Star Wars: Fleet Online. That’s it. Nothing more.

Tommy exhaled, trying to calm herself down as she finally took hold of the joystick and pretended these weren’t real ships coming to kill her. She muttered to herself as she aimed and locked onto focusing the next time he tilted again. This time she aimed and fired, finding purchase with one of the ships.

“I DID IT! DID YOU SEE THAT? DID YOU SEE THAT?!” She screeched, looking up entirely too happily as they began to get peppered by the remaining ship.

@Arclight