4 Chapter 4

After some more small talk Valin and Dunn decided to meet up in 36 hours again to "make a warrior" out of Valin according to the seasoned Mandalorian. This arrangement fit him just fine, as he still had to get his newly acquired materials and parts back to his base and complete the last details on the designs on his droids and give the corresponding tasks to his construction droids.

The first task he gave them was to reforge his dagger with beskar. He wanted to be prepared when going through his rite of passage or whatever else they had in mind after all.

Afterwards, he planned to use a big chunk of his beskar stock to reinforce key parts of the Scimitar. Examples for those key parts would be locations that would suffer from extreme heat or radiation. Furthermore, he wanted to coat the hull with a thin sheet in a few locations in case an unexpected stray shot would ever find its way onto the ship. Aside from that he decided to reinforce the room for the DNA resequencer with beskar as it was something he only wanted to show his future crew since he wanted to offer them the chance to get stronger and possibly gain a few advantageous abilities. Reinforced with beskar it would even be difficult for Jedi to open it before he could react.

As for the droids he designed, they were both inspired by two different franchises from his former world. The biggest difference would be the material they would be build with and that they were completely loyal to him. Considering how strong he planned to make them, he made sure of it.

The first one was a purely humanoid shaped combat droid, even if he was chunkier than normal humanoids. The design he took for them was the armour of Warhammers Space Marines. He would give them additional shielding capabilities, a big knife, a particle magnum, and heavy weaponry inspired by the particle magnum. Together with a few grenades and other gimmicks, they would be a force to be reconned with.

The most important part however would be their programming. He would let them adapt the fighting style of himself, the Mandalorians, and tactics derived from video material to counter other droids, soldiers, and force users. With the intelligence that most droids possesed they would be able to learn and adapt fast enough. He was even thinking on equipping them with jetpacks to improve their maneuverablity. That could become a game canger in their team formations.

Ever since he watched Astartes, he knew that they would be a must have. A small unit of special droids to crush the enemy with overwhelming fire power and teamwork. That they were heavily armoured droids instead of real people with armours was just a plus in his book since they would be in the thick of the fighting.

The other droids that he would build were hybrids of sorts. They would be protected by a shell of beskar as well but function fundamentally different compared to the Marines. Those droids would be designed after the Sentinel Machines from Matrix. They would have a strong combat ability as well as tools to help in necessary repairs. Especially in space it would be difficult for normal droids to work.

The core would contain all the important technology while the end of the tentacles would hold tools and devices he designed based on lightsabres. They would be outfitted with the same technology Puddle Jumpers had in Star Gate, enabling them to float, fly and agilely move inside the air and in space.

This form of droid would be even stronger in certain situations. Droidekas were the best example that combat-efficient droids didn't necessarily need a humanoid shape.

Considering the amount of materials he had, he planned to build a unit of 10 Marines and 6 Machines. As an elite team those numbers were already pretty high, but he thought it was worth it.

Aside from that he tasked his droids to finish the ship according to his instructions. If nothing unexpected happened, it would be ready to take off in two months. The only thing he would have to work on himself in the future would be the DNA resequencer, the most important project he would work on while in space.

His secondary focus would be on the creation of the Zero Point Modules. Those crystal-based devices serve as an enclosure of an artificially created pocket of space time. Since the creation was fairly dangerous for inexperienced individuals and had steep costs, he wanted to make sure he could start the process from afar on an uninhabited planet after he took off from Tatooine.

After he was finished with the designs and instructed all his droids with their current tasks, he went to sleep, only to wake up to a droid pointing a dagger in his direction.

Coming out of his sleep-induced confusion, he quickly made his way over to inspect it. The double-edged blade was nearly 30cm long. The handle was black with a guard to protect his hand in case he tried to pierce something more resistant. While it looked rather simplistic, the same simplicity was where its beauty laid.

After making sure nothing was amiss, he showered, dressed up, collected his belongings and made his way to the meeting location they agreed upon.

When he arrived a few miles outside Mos Eisley, he only met Sabe, lounging around with her rifle. This time however she had a full box of ranged weapons with her.

"How are you doing Sabe? Where are the rest?" Valin greeted her as he looked around, trying to find the rest of the team.

"Hello Valin, they are still sleeping, it was decided I would go first to test your skills with guns." She said through her helmet.

"Alright what are we starting with?" He asked, curious about the test. He was always very proficient with any guns and rifles, made sure to train with them and was a little excited to show off. He wasn't sure if it was part of his ranged combat talent, but his eyesight was exceptional compared to his past life. He could easily spot even small details from more than a hundred metres.

"How about those guns you carry on you?" She said a little intrigued. Even with her specialization she has never seen those designs.

He could understand her attitude after seeing the weapons she brought with her. She was an obvious nerd when it came to firearms.

"I don't mind. It has been a while since I used them. I take it you want me to shoot those targets over there?" He pointed to a few mannequins around 30, 50, 100, 200 and 500 metres away.

Seeing her nod her head, he took out one of them and selected the first setting.

"This weapon has three modes." He said as he took a few shots at the first mannequin.

"That one is to stun opponents." He switched to the next setting before he took a few shots at the second and third mannequin. Small chips of it could be seen to fly as the energy penetrated into the dummy.

"This one is to kill." He said after his shots as he switched to the last mode.

"This one is called "incinerate" and it has obviously the most power of the three." He explained before shooting at all the left-over dummies, all of their heads exploding the instant the shot made contact.

Jokingly blowing at his gun, he holstered it again before turning around.

What he didn't expect was to come face to face with an excited looking woman in her late twenties with stars in her eyes. At some point she seemed to have discarded her helmet and freed her shoulder length brown hair.

"Where did you get those? Can you sell them to me? Are there any others of that kind? Maybe an assault rifle, a sniper or something heavier? Not to mention you even shot at the targets that were meant for using a scope, how did you do that?" She fired question after question, not even letting him speak.

"Whoa, whoa slowly please." He made some distance between them, her intense gaze not lessening in the slightest.

"As far as I know they are unique as I built them myself. At least I haven't seen someone use something similar. No there aren't any others, but I plan on building them. I won't sell them, but my crew would get quipment I designed and created myself, those guns among them. As for how I hit those targets, I have some practice and sharp eyes." He answered her question one by one, seeing her deflate before gaining hope again.

"Alright, I have decided!" She declared loudly.

He already knew what she meant, but still asked. "What have you decided?"

"I will join you, of course!" She explained as if it was obvious.

"I don't think it is that easy. Shouldn't you at least talk with the rest about it?"

"Nah, they will easily accept if they see what they can do and hear that you built them yourself." She stated in a matter-of-fact tone while pointing to his weapons.

He highly doubted it was as easy, but it wouldn't do him any good to discuss that now.

"When will the others arrive?" He asked.

"They should take around another hour. The twins wanted to test your close combat capabilities before we all go on a hunt together." She said while still staring onto his holsters.

"Let's wait then. You can play around with it until they come then." He sighed as he handed her one of his guns and sat onto the box, she brought with her.

She quickly snatched it from him and started shooting like a madwoman.

Valin however thought about how his expectations got betrayed and how his next test would go. Only thinking of fighting against those two bears in close range made him shiver. He was extremely capable when it comes to shooting, but his capabilities when fighting up close, they were still severely lacking as he had no sparring partner for all his life.

On the plus side, it was the perfect opportunity to gain more strength. It couldn't be that bad, right?