Last Stand

A battered-looking Rece sits on a bar stool that he's pulled over to a regular table in the middle of the room. He nurses a bottle of ale with a straw in it, leaving his hands free for the task in front of him: dissecting a handheld energy shield while muttering under his breath.

"I'm intellectually curious, I just know what my interests are. Plus they align with my career. Bet you didn't go to college either, mister - ooh, is that tri-phase induction coil?" His mood begins to brighten as he delves deeper into the guts of the device.

Stimmed to the gills, Tomin knows she's not sleeping until a bit of it wears off...and then things are probably going to hurt enough to keep her awake anyway. Better to go find some distractions like pre-wrapped snacks that were more crunch than flavor, and a bottle of something alcoholic.

She offers a nod on the way to rustle around in the supplies before coming back toward the table. Rather than interrupting by asking if sitting would be an interruption, she just pulls up a seat, settles the rifle against the table (who *isn't* walking around armed and waiting for shield alarms?), and works on opening her acquisitions, waiting for a pause in Rece's fiddling to say, "fancy shield. What's all the guts there do?"

Terreck could certainly do for a drink, patting his jacket to make sure that his flask was still there he wandered towards the bar to order. He wasn't much better off than when he left the Jedi Temple, but at the very least he'd seen a medic and a few bandages were evident where they peeked from behind his clothing.

Seeing the duo at the table he offered a polite nod, but wandered past for the moment. More interested in a drink now then conversation.

"Oh! Hi! So, you've got this pretty standard durasteel frame, which works pretty well to handle kinetic attacks on its own, right? But it also serves as a mounting point for these networked ray shield emitters, which are gonna handle your energy weapons, plus the way they're linked gets around a lot of the coverage density issues you see with a single central generator in a device this size, especially on those new-fangled form-fitting shields everyone's talking about. And there's room for this - real big offshoot discharge capacitor, which is gonna absorb some heavy ablative effects before it gives out on you. Real sturdy, smart way to get around the limitations of the design."

Rece finally takes a breath. "Course, doesn't do much good if you drop it."

He peers under the table. "Nice gun, by the way. BlasTech?"

"No shield's much good if you drop it." Tomin says after listening to words that occasionally lined up into something she could honestly nod along with. The overall takeaway though..."sounds like a really nice, high-tech bit of work. Make it yourself?" It's a guess based on the obvious deep familiarity with the piece.

As to her own weaponry... She taps the barrel where it leans against the table. "Yep. Been a real workhorse out here, built in sights and made for distance." She returns Terrick's nod as he passes by. "But with all of this fighting going on, I'm thinking it could use an upgrade. Has space for some kind of attachment...couldn't settle on anything back when I bought it. Figured I'd see how it did first and decide if I was feeling any particular kind of thing would work better."

Rece shakes his head. "Nah, just studying it. Keeping a promise to a dying man. Well, more of a one-liner. Plus I'm the one who killed him. But a man's only as good as his word, dontcha know."

He nods appreciatively at Tomin's assessment. "I do love me a good scope. Couldn't fit one on mine, but with the way the Mandos keep charging straight at us, haven't had much call for sniping anyway. How's that stock grip treating you there? I can (and have) argued numbers til the lactils come home, but the way it feels in your hand matters most."

"There's a story there, yeah? ...this from the fight outside the temple? We were moving kind of fast to avoid all the collapsing stone to really have a look at what was left there." She's stripping the packaging away from a set of supposedly cheesy crackers as she speaks. There's a dubious tilt to her head as she regards it before shrugging and starting in on them. The opened package is offered toward Rece in open invitation, but without comment as they chat.

"And yeah, the batch in the temple were all working with lightsabers, so they charged right in. Good thing these Blastech's are just fine at close range...right up until they're in your personal space." She considers the question. "grips always been ok, built for folks with larger hands though, I think. Shoulder set's fine, and it's easier to carry and bring to bear than you'd expect for the size."

Rece nods vigorously at the comment on grips. "Right? It's like every product tester is a two-meter, hundred kilo human male. Had to refit mine. A good foregrip could help with those personal space issues, too."

He accepts a cracker with thanks, then continues. "Yeah, real tough customers outside. Had a choreographed group intro and everything. Big guy named Shield tried to get under my skin by insulting my curiosity, but I had this comeback about how his shield was his entire personality and it could fit in a backpack, and I was gonna take his shield apart after I took him apart, which was really cool because I usually only think of those in the refresher the next day. And then I stole his shield and shot him."

"...didn't stick, so he hit me with a lightsaber, which it turns out hurts a lot, but I stole that too and shot him some more." He shakes his head. "Man kept dropping things. Definitely skipped grip day."

"So, big temple showdown, eh? Didn't see anything between your team charging in the the whole building starting to shake. You decide to drop the roof on that lady?"

She smirks at the backpack line, and outright smiles when he gets to the lightsaber. "Yeah, they kind of do hurt a lot. Slice through stone and all. Well, you'll make better use of his stuff than he did, for sure."

A bit more serious, she nods, "manner of speaking, yes. Though I'd say more like the Force decided to drop the building. I could not land a shot to save my--or anyone else's--life, but the blasts kept dropping bits of statue and building on their leader, which kept her off our heavily-bleeding backs. But that might have given her ideas, because she started to Force-pull the building down on everyone."

There's a pause as she takes a pull off her drink. "Never expected to be fighting so many folks with lightsabers, honestly. They're...we're not supposed to be destroying people's homes and taking over their worlds..."

Rece leans in. "You aren't. They are. Look, if I got a lightsaber, anyone can - the Coreward Path, the Krath, whatever crazy folks try to conquer the Republic next time. I mean, it's just a power core, a crystal, and an emitter matrix. I mean, the emitter matrix has a lot of moving parts I haven't figured out yet, and the crystal might be magic..."

He waves the tangent away. "Point is, lots of people have lightsabers. They don't have your lightsaber. Lots of people have blasters or badges. They don't have mine. And they don't make our choices for us, either."

There's a grin. "Having one and using it effectively are different. But yeah, one doesn't need to be pure at heart or something to use one. This lot are Jedi trained though, and it's all...it seems very counter to the lessons I was taught."

"I still have to say 'we' there, you know. Not that we're all cut from the same tree or anything, but it's like...even if I find one of these Mandalorians helping puppies, I'm still taking them prisoner or something because they're in this war stomping on planets. Can't entirely shrug off the group, or some collective responsibility for our folks."

More seriously, she adds, "need to see that as a caution, if nothing else. She believed in what she was doing, you know? That's a warning to keep an eye on my own actions and motives so I'm never in the same boat."