Born, six gun in my hand

[Corey's OOC]

So, here he was, a Knight. Really? How did that happen? Well, probably all the training, and the work he was putting into his life, and the Confederacy and the Templar. Marek Starchaser was well on his way to becoming a viable source of teaching on ranged weaponry. What he did need was to discuss more with Master Van Derveld about where his training was going to be going. He knew what he wanted to learn, and he knew what he could teach.

That was what he was doing here. He had made an open call around the Templar and the military who were in the know to give a bit of training with weapons, namely ranged weapons. This was what he had learned to use to survive as a child. He was versed in the use of many weapons and his parents had tried to instill this almost-Force centric view of the weapons into him. It seemed to have stuck mostly, but he never really noticed how much of it was calming his mind and letting the Force take over.

He had taken the time to kind of raid the armory and brought out several variations of Czerka and BlasTech weaponry. On his hip was his Templar Crossbow. For today, it was going to be a bit of ‘your weapon and you.’ There were even targets put up at varying distances on the open air range. He was pacing in front of the weapons table, just waiting for some of the marksmen, or marksmen hopeful to show up.

@[member="Krest"] @[member="Voroll"] @[member="Boone"] @[member="CC-117 Canal"] @Templar Marksmen @DreadGuardMasterRace @CIS

 

[Darth Ferus]

Krest moved up, both hands behind his head. He was a terrible shot, that much was for sure. In all honesty he just wanted to use his blade. If the opponent was too far, he'd just use to force to get in close. But that wasn't always working out. If he was going to be more effective, he needed to use all of his weaponry.

His crossbow was strapped to his back. Easy to get to, but always out of the way when he didn't use it. And he rarely did. He offered a small wave to @Marek Starchase before setting his hand back behind his horny head. "Got yourself enough weapons for a small army. You planning on going to war with us soon as we're done training?"

 

[Boone]

Captain Boone entered the room with a suspicious eye. The sniper had only recently learned that he was force sensitive and had taken the offered spot in the Templars with a wary hand. He'd never fully trusted force sensitives before, and now to find out he was one? It was almost maddening.

Boone nodded to the other two in the room and took a place with a bit of distance from the pair. The man was skeptical on what exactly he'd learn here, given that he'd been shooting and killing for the entirety of his career without the aid of some ancient cult.

So for now he waited in silence for the lesson to commence.

 

[Djorn Bline]

Canal heard of a training period that any CIS personnel could attend to. It was about how to use your guns in a manner that could help you when you are just by yourself and facing like a whole battalion. Interesting, perhaps it could help me whenver I become a one man army in front of odds that are impossible to beat for an ordinary soldier.

He arrived at the location of the training and brought his shotgun, blaster rifle, and pistol. No knife today since this is only a gun training exercise. There were three men in the area. Two were obviously templars cause he know what a templar looks like and the other looks like a soldier that was recon. He waited for instructions of the instructor and remained silent.

@Boone @Krest @Marek Starchaser

 

[Voroll]

Voroll strode to the location where @[member="Marek Starchaser"] was holding his training session, wearing his newly-fitted Templar armour with a crossbow swung around his back. Apparently they did not have a standard issue blaster rifle for Templars, but he had yet to use the crossbow properly either to understand its properties.

When he arrived he lightly waved to the group with a smile. He knew how to fire a blaster, but his aim could always do with being improved. Plus the prospect of using the Force to augment his firing was exciting.

@[member="CC-117 Canal"] @[member="Boone"] @[member="Krest"]

 

[Corey's OOC]

For Marek, this all made sense. He was going to start giving back to the Templar, and really, he could try to affect the other branches of the CIS military, if they wanted to join. Sure, the Dread Guard and the rest of the CIS forces had their training and this was more of a seminar with a Force user, maybe not any more useful than seeing how others approach weaponry. But for him, and hopefully the Templar that show up, it was going to be a bit of a learning experience.

Nodding to @[member="Krest"], he couldn’t help but respond. “The Duelists aren’t the only one that enjoy their choice in weapons. And someone with a marksman’s mindset needs to be ready for the occasions that arise.”

Watching @[member="Boone"] and @[member="Voroll"] enter, the Knight was waiting to see the rest of the group. Having military folk here was going to be interesting. Marek wasn’t a military person, but it still didn’t change the fact that he knew a little bit about something.

Glancing at the Dread Guard @[member="CC-117 Canal"], Marek had figured it was time to start. Especially since the last one was so well armed. “Well, I suppose we’ll start. Anyone that shows up after can catch up. Canal, is it? Would you mind resting your weapons on the table?” The first bit was he was going to have each person get acquainted with a new weapon. And that was why there were several of the same weapon, and examples of a few different types.

Motioning to the mountain behind him, he nodded. “What I want is each of you to take one of the revolvers, the slugthrowers with the revolving chambers. Without thinking, pick a target on the pistol range. Don’t think, just fire. Go on reflex.” He was reaching out with the Force, which would help him see what was going on with the Templar, but the Vong-Shaped, he would not be able to get into his mind.

That was this first action, stressing firing from the hip. Some people were good at it, others weren’t. He was going to make it so they didn’t even think. That the second they felt the grip of a gun in their hand, they fell right into a specific mindset. In order to do that, he needed to know what was going on in their heads.

 

[Boone]

Boone noted the seeming inaction of his fellows and grabbed a rough looking revolver from the stack, emptying it's slugs into six different targets quickly. Seemingly without thinking.

Shooting was something the sniper did instinctively. Something he'd been doing since childhood.

"Nice little piece you got here Templar." Boone said with a slight grin as he rolled the emptied pistol around in his hand and examined the neat holes in the targets.

@[member="Marek Starchaser"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

Krest rubbed his chin a bit before moving over to the table. He picked up one of the revolvers, shooting forward without a second thought. The bullet goes wide, avoiding -all- targets. There's a reason Krest doesn't shoot. And this was why.

@[member="Marek Starchaser"]

 

[Djorn Bline]

"Don't mind at all." Canal said as he put away his equipment on the table. Shooting without thinking, well that seems pretty easy cause all you have to do is shoot with no precision. He picked up a revolver and fired at six different targets without thinking. He liked his shots since he was a natural one. They all were in the middle but not middle middle in the chest of the targets.

@[member="Boone"]

 

[Voroll]

The first weapon to be picked up during this session was a slugthrowing pistol. It was odd to hold such a weapon due to being used to energy rifles. They were heavier, even for a pistol – as it had to hold a mechanism for the firing, propelling and holding of these slugs – than most other energy weapons, definitely heavier than a blaster pistol.

Regardless, after picking it up, he held it for a few seconds in both hands. For a moment in each and then in both, while walking to the range. Within the same moment the pistol was raised and two shots were fired; both missed, and Voroll didn’t know how close he had been to actually hitting it. That did little to bother him, actually, since he was new with such a small weapon. Again he took aim, with the small sights that were at both ends of the pistol. His breath stopped and the finger pulled the trigger. The target made a sound like it had with the others who had fired and hit their targets.
He had hit the target, but if it were a real opponent it would have only caused a minor flesh wound, nothing too much. It was true that he needed practice with this.

@[member="Marek Starchaser"] @[member="CC-117 Canal"] @[member="Krest"] @[member="Boone"]

 

[Corey's OOC]

There was an art to the single shot. Sure, Marek did carry a machine pistol on his hip, but he never forgot his first love. His father had given him a small revolver when he was younger, and hten when he grew into it, a six shot chambered revolver with krayt dragon pearl grips. This was the real reason why his orange bladed lightsaber has pearl inlaid to the grip. It was a reach back to his past. He wanted to make sure that he knew where he was going, regardless of the direction he was traveling. And that was important.

What he was going to do is try to get Czerka to make something like his revolver in a blaster variant, having the options was always nice. Really, making sure that everything echoed the user and the person who was going to be building a life with it, and surviving because of it was important. It was why certain soldiers decorated their armor, or helmets, or weapons, and craft. Marek himself didn’t do much of that, his CrossCurrent pretty plain, and really no plans aside from certain packages on his next purchase, something from CEC, after all, he had the funding, and he was going to have the place on Kothlis, hopefully. Wherever the Templar placed him, obviously.

When the gathered approached the weapons, he was taking note of who was attracted to what, just to see what was going on. And when they made their shots, how the felt in the Force. Being a Templar Marksman meant working it through the Force. And even with the Dread Guard, reading the body language was important. It was clear that @[member="Boone"] and @[member="CC-117 Canal"] were both soldiers. The former just had the feeling about him, and Marek was wondering if he was going to be taking everything seriously. The latter, well that was what the Guard was bred for.

“Only the best, really.” He nodded. “Nice shots, the both of you.” He gave a point to the targets down range. Both of them seemed to know what they were doing. Watching the Zabrak next, Marek could feel the unease, or something he was translating as unease in the Knight. Really, @[member="Krest"] needed to calm down, the next few ideas he was going to toss at them. “You’re going to want to take your time on the next bit.” Taking the weapon and re-loading it, he nodded at the range. “Give it another try, don’t rely on the Force, yet. That’ll come. Just clear your mind, let it happen naturally.” Sometimes that was easier said than done, but it was what happened when you were learning from Starchaser.

Watching the Imperial Knight, well, former, @[member="Voroll"] pick up the weapon. Marek grinned. He was greeting it differently than the soldiers did, and this was something he was looking to see. From what he remembered this one was the empathy, maybe there was some psychometry in him? There was a little bit of time delay here, and maybe approaching it the way he did, that made him miss. Taking the revolver from Voroll, Marek nodded. “Not bad. Speed yourself up a little.” He refilled the chamber with the slugs. “Again.”


He had waited until the two that weren’t of the Gun to fire their second rounds. “Now that you’ve got a bit of a feel for the weapons, as we’re worrying on slugthrowers here, we’ve got the next step ready. Just remember, while energy weapons are abound, you can never fail with a good slug thrower. For the Templar, you’ll learn how to guide the slugs soon, we’re not covering that today. Slugthrowers can always be repaired, and soon you’ll find your favorite, and it will be your constant companion. So long as you have atmosphere and pressure, you can fire these. And you never have to worry about EMPs.” As he spoke, he was leading the group around, there was another section to his playground.

This was in an alley of sorts, with duracrete barriers and blocks. “Each of you is going to run this course. There are going to be targets that are going to come and fire at you. The will only be firing stun rounds, so its not that major of a deal, yet. Each will run this separate, and we will run it a total of two times. The first round, I want you each to select a weapon off the table. Remember, we’re focusing on slugthrowers. Take one, and find some ammo that you think will work. Its not timed, but remember, you want to get to the end, and not stay there all day.”

Indicating to the table, Marek nodded. “Whoever wants to go first may. Run it how it comes naturally, don't reach out to the Force, unless its reflex. I don't want anyone actively using at this stage” With that, he took a step back and around the wall. He had a spot to see into the course, and was able to tell what was going on each time a target came up.

For this round, ignore the X's. And the drawing. The brown boxes are cover, wood, as the targets are shooting stun shots. Each red circle is an enemy. By the time you take the green outlined circle down, the red one in the beginning of the course will pop up to take stun shots at you. As you clear the two enemies outside of the boxes, the others will pop up all together. So.... when you start from the red X, only the two red circles not IN a box are active, when you take them down, all the other red circles appear. When you take the one at the top, with the green outline down, the red-on-red circle will pop up. Get to the top to finish.​

 

[Voroll]

When the revolver had been reloaded and advice given by @[member="Marek Starchaser"], the pistol shot out again. The distinctive pop and recoil that was iconic with slugthrowing weapons felt good; was both new in terms of muscle memory but old in terms of technological advancement. Voroll felt a feeling of ease when he fired mixed with a split second of joy and an overarching want to fire again and again. He did not press again until the slug pierced the target at the other end of the range. It was closer to the body than the previous shots and would have probably caused significant damage to a being, if they were stupid enough to remain still when a gun was being pointed at it.

With a slight smile after he knew he had hit it, the gun shuddered in the arm again. It was more from the centre than the previous shot, but still a good deal of supposed flesh damage. Again. The target’s chest had been hit, as opposed to the lower left hip, the arm and the stomach. The pop and slight smoke from the chamber caught Voroll’s attention this time. He knew they expelled such thing, but he had never seen it so close before. So much so he pressed the trigger while his vision was out of focus and missed completely.

When his clip was empty, Marek took them all aside and showed them to an alleyway, encased, on parallel sides, with duracrete walls and boxes between them. There was a red cross where the group stood, probably so Marek – after he disappeared – knew which side was the start. From this cross, Voroll could see a large, thin, wooden block that almost concealed the entire course before him if it were not waist-high. From there he could see two boxes which were evenly spaced from the walls, but did not look the same in width. He assumed, from the length of the walls, there were more behind those.

Funnily enough Voroll seemed to be rushing with energy, so much so he volunteered to go first – after picking up a lengthy and thick slugthrower and finding rounds that looked like shells. This was not a rifle, unless it was a primitive one. It looked nothing like the energy rifles he knew of. It had no sights and not but on which to rest against the outside of an armpit. It clipped open to reveal the inside of the two barrels, and apparently only two shells could fit in there at one time. He knew this weapon would be interesting. More of these shells were attached to a belt, or sling, that had been flung over one of his shoulders and down to his waist on the other side.

With this heavier slugthrower in hand, he stepped into the course. The first, elongated box he passed and took cover to the right of the course, between the wall and the box. He lowered himself so that he was crawling. Low enough so that targets, if they moved, could not see over and stun him.
As he approached the end, the target flung out in front of him. The trigger of the slugthrower was pulled in the shock and two bangs propelled the shells into the target before it could fire a stun bolt. When he finally registered what had happened he was on his aars with the slugthrower aimed between his legs. His head fell backwards and hit the soft mud while the weapon’s barrels had been cocked open to be reloaded with another two shells. After a few minutes and deep breaths to calm his frantically-beating heart he carried on.

Looking around the edge of the box he spotted another target, but the feeling crept up that he was not close enough to get an accurate hit. So he backed away and around; back to the front of the box, where he spotted the rest of the group. He made his way down the middle of the course so he could ‘sneak’ up on the target. He did not turn the corner to reveal himself, but more allowed the slugthrower to turn the corner. He held it and poked it around, to where he remembered it to be. This time he only pressed one of the triggers to release one shell, and not both. The bang smacked against his ear drums and in that moment he genuinely believed his heart had stopped. But it had started again, and continued to perform amiably.

When that target had been taken down the others, concealed in most of the boxes, suddenly activated. With the feeling of adrenaline pushing him already this far he rushed to the nearest cover: the second box on the right. His back leant against it and his legs were tucked in, so that a stun shot could not be fired from an angle and hit his foot.
With a deep breath he turned around and jumped up, the firing mechanism releasing the final slug into the target’s left shoulder. He dropped to the floor again just as a stun bolt passed by his body. He fumbled around trying to remove two shells from the belt and placing them into the barrels, but eventually, and after dropping one twice, he managed it. He heard the target moving inside the brown box that he thought was cover. But instead of trying the same tactic again, he crawled around to the right side of the box, again near the wall, and popped up there. He fired and ducked back down before a shining blue bolt could hit him from another target.

He moved back around, already feeling the energy and rush deplete his system. He ducked low again and popped up, missing the first time. When he popped up again he got the chest of the target, feeling the wind displaced by the flying energy of the opponent’s blaster. From here: the central box, he had little options but to run to find another piece of cover to take out a target. He was not aware of the target on the other side of the box, which would be his downfall.
As he ran from the box to the left, pushing his legs out to skid himself between it and the wall, two bolts of energy surged through his being, contracting each and every muscle into temporary paralysis. The slugthrower was pulled close to his chest when his arms and fingers tensed. He clumsily rolled into the cover he had desperately tried to run for, not through his own means.

When he came to, a fuzzing in his head clouded both his vision and mind. He did not know where he was, what he was doing or why he was holding a shotgun. But as his vision cleared and picked up more and more details in the surrounding environment, so did his mind. His memories returned to him and his reasoning pushed him upwards, to fire two slugs into the target concealed within the box next to him.
“Two left…” He muttered to himself, nearly on his knees behind the cover. Feet sunk into the softer mud on this side, but he edged his way to the corner and knocked his slugthrower against it, rather intentionally to grab attention. He ducked back when the energy loops dissipated against the ground in small clouds of steam. The shotgun popped out from the edge to fire into the box on the right side of the alley. When nothing happened Voroll realised he had forgot to reload the thing. So after doing so he took one shot at the target and deactivated it. All that was left was the one in the middle, the one he had not seen when running. The one that caused his joints to feel stiff and caused his hair to steam.

He banged the slugthrower, once, twice, three times against both corners before dashing around to the other corner, which still had the indentations in the dirt of where his weight fell into it. He sprinted from the corner, to where the ‘final’ target stood and shot it with the remaining shell in his slugthrower. When it deactivated he cursed the sound of a final one activating down near the beginning of the alley. He took cover, reloaded and took aim. He was far from close enough.

Around this block of cover he ran to the right side of the alley, down towards the front. He paused between each block, so that he did not get stunned. This time his mind was clearer, it was sharper and more focused. Not just from renewed adrenaline production, but from excitement. He enjoyed this. When he reached the first block after the elongated one, he crept around and spun against the wall of the final target. He poked the shotgun up and fired one shell, and then the next at another angle. The distinctive hiss of deactivation gave him relief but hope, that some more would pop up somewhere. He rushed back around, trying to listen and watch for more targets, but saw none. So walked out the other side of the alley, and took a sit down.