He knocked on the doors of his friends and called them into the hallway for a spontaneous rendezvous. Since they were now Elementals, protocol prohibited talking about specifics of their training, therefore their individual plans were not mentioned. But Kieran Ravy needed to order supplies for his adjustments, and he reasoned that others could also require them. He was direct and to the point.
"I'm placing an alloy order for weapon and armor modifications. Does anyone need anything?
While Yan Zantara and Nora Rahmyn presented their requests to Kieran Ravy, Luna Trevyn and Nayla Zantara checked their data disks once more.
"Just two liters each of high-gloss medium green and matte forest green paint," Yan Zantara began to think, "plus a personality adjustment, but I suppose those don't come in pill form."
Ravy Kieran laughed. "I'm afraid not. Nora Rahmyn, how about you?
"Nothing critical," she said. "Just some matte blue paint for my armor."
"How much?"
"Call it four liters, give or take."
After writing this down, Kieran Ravy turned to face Nayla Zantara and Luna Trevyn. "And you two?"
First to answer was Nayla Zantara. "I need communications and movement sensors, eight ounces of white paint, a night vision filter, and two steel tubes fabricated to these specs." She gave a slip of paper containing the measurements to Kieran Ravy. After giving it a quick glance, he turned to face Luna Trevyn.
His tone was full of faux formality as he said, "What will your pleasure be, madam?" Luna Trevyn looked at him coolly, wiping the sneer from his face at once.
"Four liters of gloss black paint," she said with precision, "a square meter sheet of tricarbonite plastic, and a five-pound block of alorium."
"Okay, then." After taking note of her list, Kieran Ravy made his way to the materials warehouse. He added ten pounds of magnesium alloy for himself and cut the metals and polymers that were requested. He went to the detail shop's stockroom for the paints, gathering the designated varieties as well as matte red and orange for his own use, after noting the removed materials on the log outside the entrance.
He brought the supplies back to Kyara about an hour later. Everyone worked in turn in the ship's machine shop for the next six hours, carefully airbrushing their armor. Piloting Kyara into synchronous orbit above Celyra Prime, Kieran Ravy sought privacy before focusing on the 2.5-meter block of magnesium on his workbench. Although magnesium is infamously hard to deal with, it was his chosen metal for many uses. Its extremely high melting point meant that errors had to be fixed in a blast furnace, and its great hardness made shaping difficult.
As usual, Kieran Ravy planned to machine the finer details by hand after sketching the bladestaff's main design on his computer. A computer-controlled milling equipment in Kyara's machine shop could precisely cut materials as hard as diamond with nanoscale accuracy. He returned to the shop after saving the design to a disk.
When he arrived, he discovered Luna Trevyn skillfully sculpting her alorium block to strengthen her armor with a plasma smelter. Because of its low melting point and ability to hold its shape right before liquifying, alorium proved perfect for this. Just enough heat was being applied by Luna Trevyn to make it flexible dough. Kieran Ravy, who had previously witnessed the procedure, watched with fascination. Luna Trevyn, in thickly insulated gloves, raised the glistening sheet and laid it across the shoulder guard of her armor. The extra weight didn't matter. She skillfully used a knife blade to trim the surplus metal while it was still almost molten. After taking off her protective goggles with dark shades, she at last saw Kieran Ravy standing close by, pushing a huge block of magnesium on a cart.
Then she said, "Hello, Kieran Ravy," calmly.
"Hi!"
"What brings you here?"
"Just need to use the milling machine for a bit."
"Well, go ahead," was her calm response. "You don't need my permission." She went back to her next alorium sheet.
After a while, Kieran Ravy, a little taken aback by her usual detached demeanor, pushed past her and clamped his magnesium block into place. After checking the settings and inserting the disk, he started the procedure. As it sprang to life, the machine sliced and beveled with mechanical accuracy. After two and a half minutes, he took off the asymmetrical staff, prepared to hand-finish it in his room.
On his way back, he ran upon Nora Rahmyn in the hallway.
"Hi, Ravy Kieran! "What is that?" Pointing to the metal staff he was holding, she inquired.
His reply was, "Bladestaff I'm making," "The sword was getting kind of old, and this here is a traditional Fire weapon."
"Calm down. Is it visible to me?
It was given to Kieran Ravy. With an experienced eye, Nora Rahmyn weighed the crew. She then performed a sequence of dazzling thrusts, slashes, and twirls with astounding speed and accuracy, spinning it in a magnificent exhibition. Kieran Ravy was stunned for a second.
"Whoa! You learned how to use one of these when? Nobody has ever used one in battle that I've seen.
Nora Rahmyn grinned. For a time, it served as my main weapon. But I gave it up. No weapon should be taller than the person wielding it. Would you like to take some lessons? She extended an offer.
Ravy Kieran shook his head. "No, thank you. Using this device, I have twenty gigabytes of material on my Elemental disk. Hopefully, I'll be the one instructing in the near future.
Nora Rahmyn said, "Don't get your hopes up," in a caustic manner. "See you later."
"Tschüs!" Kieran Ravy returned the phone and proceeded to his room, already considering how to best edge the blades. The ideal tool looked to be his router; a fifteen-degree head should get the right amount of sharpness.
He put on gloves and safety goggles and configured the router. He led the dull edge across the rotating bit, creating a razor-sharp finish, then ran it at top speed to cut the hard magnesium. He used a hard wire brush to scrub the handle region, then airbrushed everything but the handle and blades a dark red, Fire's characteristic hue. On his final visit to the shop, he handled a bright, blazing orange and anodized the edges of the blades using paint, a water tank, and a high-voltage charge.
He had finished his new weapon. The challenging part—training—came next.