In Search of a Blaster

You take in the cacophony of sounds as you walk the streets of Coruscant’s undercity. Determined to actually find a store that sells blasters, you were searching for some kind of mall. You assumed that, like Earth, shops would be all clustered together along major walkways or travel ways.

You ended up back where you and Abrie had drinks the night before and found a place at the back. Hidden would be the last word you’d use to describe the establishment, as two neon pink images of blasters crossing each other was visible from a fair way off. You were amazed you actually missed it the night before.

Inside you found multiple racks of weapons, some odd looking, others that definitely followed the trend of cool looking old earth guns with extra tubes attached.

“Ahh, a new customer” said an alien as you scanned the wares on display. The alien in question was a short, pink skin creature with a mop of greasy black hair decorating a bulbous forehead where a large pair of eyes, golf ball sized, peered at you. Under this, a standard human sized pair of eyes were separated by a pig-like nose.

“Yes, I am in the market for a blaster” you say to the alien. The creature grinned in what, you supposed, could be considered an accommodating grin.

“Why of course! We might have one or two of those” the alien chuckled. “What kind were you after?” it asked.

“Something small that is easy to handle in reasonably close quarters” you say, basically, you wanted something that matched an earth pistol. You know Star Wars and their over fondness for guns that you just point in the direction of the enemy and try not to yell ‘Dakka’ as you hope to hit something.

“Oooh, a challenge” the alien purred as it scurried away. It quickly began rifling through several different bins and racks, pulling out weapons that held various different appearances from the tube with a pistol grip, to a box with a trigger, several things that might have been awesome looking revolvers and back again. Finally the alien came to a section where it found the gun it was looking for.

“This” it said, pointing at a pistol that looked exactly like the one Jyn used in Rogue One “Is the most compact blaster I possess” it said. You cocked an eyebrow before turning around and pointedly looking at a rack full of pistols that were half the size of the proffered pistol. “Ahh yes, I see the problem now” the alien said calmly “You are one of those under the misconception that everything that goes pew is a blaster” the alien said, nodding to its own statement.

“Aren’t they?” You asked, a little confused.

“In a manner of speaking, all blaster tech works on the same principals, but no.” The alien replied, picking one up for emphasis “These are stingers, they work on the same principle as all blasters but unlike a true blaster, this is meant to be a small hold-out pistol. Without the extensive focusing and concentration mechanisms, it’s a very short ranged weapon” it said, pointing to the tiny box above the grip “Normally, without the concentration and focusing apparatuses, you’d get a puff of superheated gas and then your enemy’s only risk is of laughing himself to ****” the alien then pointed at the long thin barrel “That’s what this is for, turns that puff of superheated gas into a beam” he said “Impossible to miss unless you try shooting something in the next room over, then it’s just a fancy tickle device” he finished, putting his ‘stinger’ down.

“Well then, guess I’ll be taking this uhh?” You say, picking up Jyn’s blaster.

“The A-180 BlasTech modular blaster” the alien helpfully supplied.

“Yes that” was your reply as you inspected it. The weapon looked kinda like a Luger from the first world war, just with an extra thick tube for a barrel.

“Great! That’ll be 600 credits!” The alien cheerfully exclaimed, clapping its hands for added enthusiasm.

“Was kinda expecting it to be more” You admit as you pull out your credit chip. Since Credit chips were basically prepaid money holders, you could load it up on credits and not worry about not having a bank account. This was rather convenient and never would have worked on earth.

“More? Here? In the undercity? We might be in one of the nicer areas on the planet, but this is still the under city” The alien said casually as it took out a datapad to accept your payment. With a soft ‘dink’, the payment was made and the alien even threw in a nifty leather holster for the blaster. “Since you needed that quick lesson on blasters, might I assume you also needed a quick lesson in how they work?” The alien asked.

“Uhh? Just point them at the bad dude and pull the trigger?” You asked.

“There’s a little more to it than that” The alien replied patiently. “Come come, I have a little shooting range for testing purposes” it said before scurrying off to a little door off the side of the store.

Once inside the alien pulled out a few little clips that had a faint blue glow to them.

“This is your ammunition” it explained “It contains both the energy and gas that a blaster needs to operate,” it continued. The alien then stuck it’s hand out. “May I?” it asked. You handed the pistol over and the alien slipped the small thumb length clip into the base of the pistol grip, like a magazine. “Take a few shots, the button to release the energy cell is here” The alien said, pointing to a button on the base of the magazine. “Holds around ninety rounds give or take” it said. You took your pistol back and held it in a standard grip, dominant hand on the grip, off hand cupping it. Your first shot hit just under the target you were aiming at. It wasn’t quite as loud as a gun but still pretty loud. Your second shot hit a little above but that was okay, there was actually no sight on the weapon so you were kinda aiming by guesswork. You took a few more shots with it just to get the hang of it.

“So, how do you like it so far?” The alien asked

“It’s pretty good, so much better than a slug thrower in terms of recoil” You reply, the blaster even beat out a .22 pistol for how light the recoil was.

“I had pegged you as a slugthrower kind the moment you walked in” The alien said, grinning in some form of self conformational triumph.

Outside, with your new blaster now strapped to your thigh, you smiled. Your exploration of the Star Wars galaxy was coming along nicely. Now all you needed to do was get in an old fashioned shoot-out, find a spaceship and blast your way through a blockade. As you were thinking this, you were also walking in yet another random direction. It was because of this that you came across something of a dark alley that was completely devoid of sentient life. This alone was odd, but the fact that you thought you could hear some sort of muffled sound coming from it made you want to investigate. Using your godly powers, you decided to peer through the structures and came across a trio of men. One of them was watching the alleyway while the other two were getting their hands under the croptop of a blue skinned Twi’lek. It was pretty obvious to you that she was in distress, so you had a decision to make. On the one hand, it’s really none of your business and on the other, that doesn’t stop you from making it your business.