Hoth: Blood and Ice

[Aurilie Alde]

It almost looked like Echo Base was going to be a place where the Republic and the Empire managed to create their own bit of comfort in this arctic world. That was before the constant sieges managed to turn everything upside down and put them back on emergency mode. Given Aurilie's weapon of choice, ammunition wouldn't be so abundant and she was tired of being gouged by opportunistic ortolans. She collected every spent casing and tried to make do with what she had. Thankfully, there was a workshop to make recycling ammunition possible but it was a tiresome process, to say the least.

She would be found at one of the workshop tables in the morning doing a bit of manual scrubbing and cleaning of her collected casings.

[Remmington Balmung]

After all the pirate attacks, Remmington strolls around the hangar with his datapad, checking on the systems and the condition of the hangar. Mouse droids scuttle along the floor, keep it clean. A gonk droid follows along with him. "Alright Drift, I'll need you to go over there to supply some back up power to the maintenance."

He notices Aurilie and offers a polite greeting. "Good morning Prince Aurilie. How are you this morning?"

[Aurilie Alde]

As Remmington was directing his droids, Aurilie was bent over her basin with safety glasses and gloves as she was scrubbing the interior of her bullet casings with a miniature brush. It was perhaps then she considered the value of a hunting caddy or squire to tackle such menial work. However, she supposed this was just an aspect of her 'hobby' that she should familiarize herself with and her efforts would only elevate her dedication above more casual hunters.

She stopped her chores to regard the approaching Sith, taking a moment to remove her glasses. "Good morning, Lord Remmington. Well enough, I hope the same could be said for you?"

Her eyes narrowed and she gave a quick glance around her surroundings. "...Are you not here...?"

[Remmington Balmung]

Remmington nods. "I am doing pretty well. Just checking the status of the hangar here. Are you working on your weapon or something?" He asks as he glances at her work.

[Aurilie Alde]

"As you see, everything is operational and not under siege. That's good all things considered. " Aurilie pulled out an empty shell casing that looked like it belong to a slugthrower of some sort. "Less so the weapon and more on the ammunition itself. I can't rely on the ease of charging a blaster pack. Thankfully, I've taken a tutorial on making my own ammunition. I only hope that my targets will appreciate all of the efforts I put into each slug. However, I suppose that appreciation will be short-lived."

[Remmington Balmung]

"Oh? You're more a fan of the classics? Don't see many people using slugthrowers in this day in age. I guess they have their advantages." Remmington comments.

"Do you need any help with this? I can probably help make you shells." He offers.

[Aurilie Alde]

Aurilie raised her brows momentarily before nodding. "I suppose you could refer to them as classics but they're more so known as a tradition among those in my House. My family has strong roots in the founding of Alderaan and the brokering of the first peace in our world. They say that the first settlers relied on such weapons, perhaps around the same time when Jedi were known more for their swords than lightsabers. In honour of my House's frontier spirit, I've decided to use slugthrowers to this day."

She tapped the liquid out from a slug. "I'll admit that the shot drop and potential misfire is something that most people consider a disadvantage but that only makes the weapon's mastery doubly so rewarding."

Her hand gestures to the basin she was fiddling around with. "This, I likely don't need help with. I'd rather manage my existing casings. However, if you're talking about new shells, I would be interested to hear you out, Lord Remmington."

[Remmington Balmung]

Remmington nods. "Noble tradition is certainly a good reason. I have seen people use them quite a bit in the Outer Rim too. Gets by scanners and when you disable them they don't look too suspicious. Plus they are fairly inexpensive... well compared to their blaster counterparts. Still, you cannot argue craftmanship sometimes. I have seen on holonet some truly stunning works made by master craftsmen."

"I believe some slugthrowers are popular in hunting as well. A lot cleaner than blasters that may sometimes disintegrate the target." He considers more noble uses of slugthrowers after setting a reason linked to criminal element. For someone like a prince, they definitely would not want to be associated with the underworld.

"I believe that some worlds even use them in sports competitions to showcase feats in marksmanship." Following up on her example of marksmanship pride.

Remmington looks over the shells. "We should have the materials and machines capable of making them here. I can probably just look up the process to create whatever shells you may want on the Holonet. These sorts of things shouldn't be too difficult." He checks a nearby console to see if the base has a database on slugthrower ammunition.

[Aurilie Alde]

"Hm." Aurilie murmured with a slight frown at the mention of the underhanded purposes of the weapon. "I can't say I've considered the reasons in the slightest. However, I can understand their popularity in the Outer Rims, considering that it is still much a frontier world. Technology might not be so abundant or plentiful when you're already struggling to make do with the harsh terrain. I'm sure hand-crafted slugthrowers easily have more prestige than any mass-produced blaster."

"Prior to all of this, I've actually preferred to use my slugthrower for the purposes of hunting and competition with a good share of acclaim to show for it. I've had a conversation with someone about this difference. When something is disintegrated, it doesn't exactly leave much possibility to take a trophy or prisoner. It might be argued that something like that would be more of an advantage now but not something my sentiments can agree with. That, and the use of explosives, too. Very clumsy things." She shook her head on that note.

She looked curiously at what he was looking at. "I haven't really hassled anyone on using the machines here to churn out the slugs I need when I can do them by hand. That said, it is a slow and time-consuming process. There's also the powder and grain t take into consideration. Then again, with our finite resources, I probably shouldn't complain if my slugs were made of slag.

[Remmington Balmung]

Remmington nods. "I can understand the appeal for keeping a trophy. I actually have a skull of a giant beast that I help slay."

He manages to find something. "Okay, I think I got the details here. Well the ammo will serve its purpose here. You can always get better grade ammo when you return back home."

[Aurilie Alde]

Aurilied raised a brow and brought up curiously on the matter of trophies."Oh? Would you be willing to share details about this beast?"

"As any war effort, every little bit helps. I do appreciate the aid, Lord Remmington. I can't afford to be too picky. I suppose I might have to adjust my estimates on further shots but it seems there isn't a shortage of targets around here." She shrugged. "Do all Sith keep tallies?"

[Remmington Balmung]

"It depends on the person. As for sharing, I have a holopic of the skull I mounted back home. Just give me a moment while I finish up on your ammo here." Remmington replies without looking up as he continues to put out slug shells as almost a machine like pace.

"Though you know that creature from the Vera Hawke show that you got holopix at the auction? Its based on an actual monster that I encountered. Some details were changed a little but its mostly accurate to what happened. There were a couple of these monsters called Monoliths that had wrecked a military camp. I was part of a suppression force to deal with them. We actually did soften them up with artillery fire before going in. Even then, that only bought us a little bit of time to focus on one of them before the other recovered and got back into the fight."

He finishes the slugs and lines them up on the table individually. "Please take a look and judge for yourself."


/ Making slug ammo for Aurilie. Fluff roll. Mechanics/Int @ Avg. Master Artisan -1 Difficulty. Ally assist. Custom Tools. Inventor. Intuitive Improvements. 4eP+1eA+3eB+2eF+1eD =
3 successes, 8 advantage, 2 Dark Side

+2 Strain

[Aurilie Alde]

"Of course," she nodded once as she took a step aside for him to get to work. Just because she was going to get some extra slugs for her rifle didn't mean she was going to put this project of hers aside when she started it already. She supposed she could just save them for high priority targets or something else in the future.

"Hm," she murmured on that curious now. "I didn't know that your reputation was greater that of this Vera Hawke for her to be taking from her accolades. When you have something so mighty requiring heavy firepower is another channel entirely. I don't think I've done something like that before. My firepower is mostly calling in a Hutt for help."

She gave an inspect of the slugs and picked one up for a closer look. "These are pretty decent. I don't think these will hamper my shooting trajectory in the slightest. Thank you, Lord Remmington."

[Remmington Balmung]

"Your welcome Prince Aurilie. Let me know if you need help with anything else." Remmington says as he quickly cleans his hands and then takes out his datapad to show a holopic of a massive skull.

"So the Monoliths they we fought were a parent and juvenile. This is the skull of the juvenile one. The juvenile stood at 12m tall while the parent was 14m. The beasts couldn't shoot disintegration beams but they used the Dark Side of the Force to power their growls which weakened their prey. Jo'ren and I did a lot of the work as our lightsabers seemed to be the only things that could cut into their hides." He explains.

He chuckles a bit at her compliment. "Actually its quite the opposite. I am pretty much an unknown in the Empire. Just an average guy from a class of geniuses. My only claim to fame is helping kill the Emperor and being the father of the Empress."

[Aurilie Alde]

"Only by lightsbers? That is peculiar...but the galaxy is large enough for such a thing to exist." She said pensively.

Her eyes narroweed at first before raising her brows. "That doesn't sound anything near average. I have to admit that I'm not exactly well-versed in the workings of the Empire. How massive was this effort to killer the Emperor. And...being the father of the Empress? Should you know play a more direct role right raising her then?"

[Remmington Balmung]

"Plus artillery fire." Remmington added. "Maybe it was an effect of the Sith alchemy but even a vibro-axe couldn't even scratch the hide of that monstrousity."

He thinks for a moment to better summarize events. "Well my peers usually stuck out more in the lime light with their achievements so my own were very muted. Its not a secret but I doubt most in the Empire are even aware of my relationship with the Empress."

Getting into more details. "The Emperor had a Devour-All-Life-in-the-Galaxy platform. There were of course some of us that opposed this platform. Joren, a few others and I faced the Emperor and his immortal guard at the top a tower. We didn't really want to test how immortal these guards were so we threw them off the tower to isolate the Emperor. Even then we needed assistance from my daughter and a specially mystic imbued knife to break the Emperor's defenses and finish him off."

Continuing on with the questions. "As for raising my daughter, I did have some involvement but she is mainly raised my her mother and her family. She says that she can't stand seeing me. I guess you can say she is in a rebellious phase." He seems a bit sadden at the last part.

[Aurilie Alde]

"I see..." she said pensively as she considered his testimony on the events. "It seemed like to me that you had a direct hand in the events. Typically, the victors do find a way of writing themselves in history but I suppose if fame isn't exactly for then I could see why you'd want to leave the fame with your partners. It sounds like quite the mighty feat, to say the least."

"That's unfortunate." She frowned faintly at that. "I'd imagine that you must only want the best for her but perhaps the rift is too great for those good intentions to mend it. Perhaps time will rebuild those bridges but I imagine some change will have to happen on either side."

[Remmington Balmung]

Remmington nods. "Thank you for the kind words. Being of service to the Empire is all the reward that I need. Not many can claim to have defeated a Sith Emperor."

He chuckles a bit with no real confidence behind it. "I certainly hope so. Though I fear it may be too late. She is busy running the Empire. I myself am busy trying to restore my fallen House."

He looks over to the Prince. "Enough of that talk though. May you tell me about your life? Do you have family?" He segues away to something more enjoyable.

[Aurilie Alde]

"If so few have done the feat, which is clearly the case, you'd think that sort of fame would in itself open avenues without you even knowing. Perhaps they are too overhyped with glory in the Empire? I'm not too sure." She shrugged.

Aurilie sensed the topic change and merely nodded once to acknowledge it. "I do have a family, yes. I'm married Lieutenant Cynella, who you might have seen around here. She is orignally from Kuat and has served on many key Republic campaigns. We have a children at home, one boy and two girls, Ashley, Carlotta, and Susette. Ashley is almost 5, himself."

[Remmington Balmung]

"I cannot really say myself. I travel around a lot but I have not heard my name mentioned anywhere nor do people recognize me. For better or worse I suppose. I guess I am rather used to it at this point so I am not bothered by it." Remmington comments.

"Hmm... the name does not sound familiar. Though I probably have seen her around? What does she look like? Though more importantly, how did you two meet and know that you were right for each other?" He asks.

[Aurilie Alde]

Aurilie gave a glance around the place. "I suppose, despite our limited numbers, there are a good share of people we still haven't made acquaintance with. I have to admit that you're probably one of the few Sith have spoken to for more than a mere moment. There are enough things to do in the base to keep us preoccupied. I take it that you spend most of your time here, Lord Remmington? We're both not exactly people who work with the technical aspect of ships and droids, so I suppose we're both a rare sight here."

She took a breath in as she thought back to the time where they first met. "We met about five years ago on Alderaan during the Festival where Queen Panteer were looking for partners for her children. She was there for that bid but I suppose we found ourselves courting each other on many occasions, some by chance and some planned. We first met at the hedgemaze, where typically couples are meant to run together. A bit unintentionally preemptive of us but good chemistry and a bit of adversity on the side seemed to have made our match to be. I've been happily married with her ever since."

[Remmington Balmung]

Remmington nods. "Yeah, I'm a big techie so I'll usually be around here or the Engineering once we get that going. Well I look forward to making her acquaintance."

He smiles at the story. "Ah, a wedding extravaganza. Interesting customs that you have on Alderaan. It certainly sounds like a lot of fun. I'm glad that worked out for the 2 of you. Finding someone that you match well with can certainly be a challenge."

[Aurilie Alde]

"The wedding itself didn't happen until much later, this was more of a courtship. I wish I could say more but I didn't directly participate myself in the proceedings. But yes, there was indeed a wedding afterwards and the prince-consort himself is actually also here with us, Galen. Thankfully, the Alde have never been ones to compete with extravagance. We were happy with our own more subtle weeding. And thank you. I wish there was some advice I could give on the matter but there's no exact schematics or build for it, so to speak. Sometimes is a matter of chance and everything falls into place. Of course, attentiveness and consideration also go a long way as well," she nodded.

[Remmington Balmung]

Remmington smiles. "I'm happy that worked out for you two. Actually, I'm acquainted with Galen already. Way back when... hmmm... like over a decade now. We met at Nar Shadaaa. Kind of funny when you think how young we all were around then." He chuckles.

[Aurilie Alde]

"Is that so? I admit that I haven't had too many conversations with Prince Galen to know much about his past. 10 years must have been enough time for a different life. I suppose it is, in this case. Are there other's you're also acquainted with before all of this?"