Home on the Blaster Range (Combat Training)

[Armand Temi]

Message to [member="Val Cardin"]
From: Frab (Cryax Bane's assistant)

Subject: Training for Dakita Calfur
I know you are a good pilot and I hear you're pretty handy with a blaster. Can you provide some combat training for one of our Ravens, Dakita Calfur? She's proven herself a decent slicer but Cryax Bane needs you to give her a refresher on firing a weapon because right now she can't hit the broadside of a Bantha with a blaster. Once you're done at Big Bubba's Blaster range, then we've scheduled some time at Sal's Sparring Studio for some hand to hand combat lessons. Credits will be wired to you for this and I'm sorry for Ms. Calfur's behavior and resistance in advance. Meet Ms. Calfur there today at 10am and show her the ropes.
*end of message*

Big Bubba's Blaster Range was a dirty hole-in-the-wall firing range on the outskirts of Ground Zero. The best thing about Bubba's was that being so decrepit - a veritable junk yard of blaster parts and broken weapons - was that Bubba, the big-bellied human proprietor of Big Bubba's, flew under the radar of most of Antecedent's government arms regulations. Therefore you could try and buy any type of firing weapon from small handheld needlers to blaster cannons and mini seismic disruptors.

[member="Val Cardin"]

 

[Garik Reed]

Luckily, for Val, he was just about to descend into Antecedent when he got the message. Would've sucked if he'd been flying out. The pilot smiled as he read it. Dak, huh. Wondering what happened to the nosy twi'lek. He thought back to the muscular blue man who used to be her body guard. He shrugged, figuring the guy got himself killed.

After entering the atmosphere, Cardin started heading for the shooting range. Big Bubba's Blaster Range? Val was pretty sure he'd heard of the place before. Maybe not. He docked at a nearby spaceport, and walked out of his ship. He grabbed his jacket, flinging it over his arms, and strapped his two blasters on his belt. Apparently he'd be needed them. He headed for the firing range. Val entered the store, and immediately noticed the place was pretty dumpy. No doubt they sold some pretty good blackmarket weapons here. Cardin was checking out a couple of rifles when he realized he should probably start looking for Dak.

[member="Dakita Calfur"]

 

[Armand Temi]

Cryax Bane sure had bad timing. The day before Dak had been getting Club Frenzee ready for Antecedent's big opening night so she went to a rival club on a fact-finding mission to kind of see how everything was run. Which turned into a drink-finding mission to see how everything tasted. Thankfully by the end of the evening, she had made it to her B-7 which was parked in at Dragon Palace Casino docking bay. But based on her datapad messages she was supposed to travel to bumblekark and shoot weapons today at Big Bubba's when all she really wanted to do was sleep in all day and catch up on her Holoshows. So Dak splashed some water on her face from the ship's refresher and dressed appropriately for the firing range:

She took a speeder from the DPC to the outskirts of Ground Zero. Riding in the speeder she checked her datapad messages and realized that she would be meeting [member="Val Cardin"]. She smiled as she thought back to her night with Val in his ship in that shady port on Zeltros. Her day was already getting better now that there would be an opportunity to not only shoot blasters but flirt as well.
And it was a good thing she didn't bring her jealous Twi'lek bodyguard.

The speeder dropped her off at the entrance of Bubba's where she looked for Cardin.

[member="Val Cardin"]

 

[Garik Reed]

Val heard a speeder outside, and walked over to the wall. He looked out through one of the dirty windows, and was pretty sure he saw Dak. He shrugged and started walking outside. Once he saw that it actually was her, he smiled in greeting. "Well hey there. Ready to be taught by the master?" The rogue grabbed one of his blasters in a flash, and fired it into the air. Instead of shooting a bolt of energy, however, it just clicked, and made a little spinning noise. "Kark..." Val said, and looked at the blaster. He hit it a couple of times, and shoot his head, before slipping it into his holster. He looked back to Dak, and gave her a little smile.

[member="Dakita Calfur"]

 

[Armand Temi]

There's that handsome hotshot pilot, Dak thought. She watched him pull out his blaster and raise it in the air which he did with more grace than she ever had with a weapon. She laughed as the blaster didn't work. "Yeah good job, master," she said sarcastically. "C'mon let's see what toys they have here at Bubba's." She emphatically grabbed his hand and they went towards the entrance of Bubba's which was a doorway on a low, squat building with a barbed wire-fence around the perimeter. They could hear the sound of energy bolts and artillery fire around them. "Do you want to shoot inside or outside first?" she asked Cardin. "Do you think Bubba will let us shoot a rocket launcher? Maybe we can set off a few bombs while we're here!" Dak rambled on enthusiastically about the chance to cause mayhem and destruction today.

[member="Val Cardin"]

 

[Garik Reed]

Val mumbled a few curses under his breath as she dragged him into the store. He gave her an arched eyebrow at her as she talked about rocket launchers and bombs. "Woah, woah, woah...let's not get ahead of ourselves." Cardin, reluctantly, let go of her hand, and moved over to the 'Rent-A-Gun!' shelves. He grabbed a blaster pistol and a couple of rifles. He carried them over to the counter, dropping them down. "Yeah, these, and a couple passes for the range." He said to the large, overweight man behind the counter. Val looked back at Dak, and shot her a smile. "This good enough for now?" He winked at her, and looked back to the man.

[member="Dakita Calfur"]

 

[Armand Temi]

Bubba grunted to Cardin and slid two range passes over to him. The gun range proprietor checked his console and then said with a toothless grin: "You two have been pre-paid in advance. Stay as long as ya want."

Yes, thought Dak! She started to reach for the blaster pistol but grabbed one of the rifles with both hands. Man, it was heavier than she thought it would be kind of picturing it weighing as much as one of those foam guns at Club Frenzy. "Is it loaded?" she asked Val, not even sure where to load the ammo on the weapon. Dak was used to vibroknucklers, shanks and needlers in all of her prior spice smuggling operations. And then with Krevin as personal protection over these last few months, she hadn't needed to learn how to use more advanced blasters or vibroswords. She tried to cover her naiveté with bravado. "What are we going to practice on?" she asked holding the stock of the rifle against her hip, the muzzle to the ceiling.

[member="Val Cardin"]

 

[Garik Reed]

"Of course it's loaded..." Val sighed, and gently pushed the barrel of her blaster away, just in-case she fired it. He grabbed the blaster pistol off the table, and handed it to her. "You'll start with this. Easy for first timers." Cardin then picked up the second rifle for himself, and started moving towards the range. "Probably just shoot targets for now...we'll blow stuff up later, babe." He winked at her, and moved out into the range. The sound of blasters rang out in the air, giving an almost unrelenting buzzing noise. Val moved over to where there were two spots open, and leaned his rifle up against the wall. He gestured to her spot. "Well? Show me what you got!"

[member="Dakita Calfur"]

 

[Armand Temi]

"Of course, Mesh'la," whatever you say, Dak said looking back at Cardin all dreamy eyed. She took the blaster from his hand and added, "I like it when you boss me around."

Dakita followed the Corellian pilot out to the range. Once they got to where the firing points were, Dak pulled on some ear muffs and aimed at some target droids. She grasped the blaster with a two handed grip and pointed at the droid. She tentatively fired off a couple of shots and luckily didn't get hit in the face with the blaster kickback but her shots landed nowhere near her target. As she aimed for the next shot, she leaned closer to Cardin and said loudly because of all of the noise around them: "So what did you think of our little connect-disconnect the other night? Was pretty fun right?" Then she fired off another shot which hit the target droid in the leg.

[member="Val Cardin"]

 

[Garik Reed]

Val stood in silence as he watcher her fire the blaster. Pretty bad, for sure. He walked up behind her, and grabbed her arms. At least her last shot had hit. He brought the blaster to where it needed to be, and then let go of her. He moved back to his old spot, and crossed his arms. "Yeah, it was fun. Except for the whole, standing at the end of a blaster part." He scratched the stubble on his chin, thinking back to her tall twi'lek bodyguard. "Speaking of which, you fire that guy, or is her dead?"

After Cardin finished talking, he moved to where he had set his blaster. He checked the ammo, and shrugged. He brought it up, tucking the stock in his shoulder. Quickly, he fired off three shots. One hit the chest, the other its arm, and the last one the dummy's leg. He grunted, and lowered the rifle. "I'm out of practice..."

[member="Dakita Calfur"]

 

[Armand Temi]

When the pilot re-positioned Dakita's arms, she had to admit, she was starting to envision how blaster practice could turn into some sexy shooting range roleplay scenario. But like everything else, the Zeltron seemed to treat even her own well-being as a game sometimes. Routine target practice could mean the difference between life or death. She tried to stay as serious as possible. The pink-skinned slicer watched Val take his turn and even though he humbly said he was "out of practice," he was miles ahead of her in skill.

"I still have my bodyguard. But I didn't bring him today... I mean with all of these blasters around and him still being jealous of you," she trailed off. Dak tried a blaster shot using the repositioning Cardin had shown her. "I just couldn't chance that he wouldn't do something crazy."

[member="Val Cardin"]

 

[Garik Reed]

"You obviously didn't take into account me doing something crazy." Val shot her a smirk. "You pose is off a little..." He walked over, and grabbed her hips, twisting them forward a bit more. Even though there wasn't much recoil, a good stance was important. He crouched down, and would adjust her feet and legs a bit more, trying to make he stance wider, for stability. He stood up, smiling. "I do crazy things all the time. I'll show ya'."

Val walked back to the shop, and grabbed three small grenades. He winked at Bubba. Hey, their bill was paid, right? He walked back outside, and set them on the small counter next to their stations. He picked one up, and got ready to toss it into the air. "Ready?"

[member="Dakita Calfur"]

 

[Armand Temi]

A shiver went through the Zeltron as Cardin swung her hips into shooting position. Then when his hands gently adjusted her bare legs, she almost buckled at the knees. She was just about to suggest they cut their target practice short and go off to the Club or Cardin's ship but then he went into Bubba's store to show her "crazy."

She smiled when he brought back the grenades and clapped as if he had just brought her a cupcake. "Whooooo-hooooo!" she yelled, hands up in the air. "I'm ready! And my turn NEXT!"

[member="Val Cardin"]

 

[Garik Reed]

Val just chuckled. He tossed the ball up into the air, and whipped out his blaster. He fired one quick shot, and hit, sending a minor explosion up about 15 feet into the air. He twirled his blaster, and dropped it back into its holster. "It worked this time. Now, your turn. Remember, be ready for anything." Val nodded to her, making sure she understood. He tossed the grenade up into the air, and a bit away from them.

However, he had said be ready for anything. The moment after he tossed it into the air, he rushed at Dak, in an attempt to tackle her to the ground. "Where ya' ready!?"

[member="Dakita Calfur"]

 

[Armand Temi]

Dak was not ready as she was completely focused on anticipating the second grenade explosion. When Cardin tackled her she screamed but then laughed. "Oh help me, help me, please!" she said in mock-terror. "Somebody get this bad man offa me!!!" A couple of near-humans on the shooting range looked over at her shouting but then just shrugged and went back to shooting. She sat up with Cardin still draped across her legs. "Is this part of the training too?" she asked him teasingly. "Am I gonna learn how to shoot from the ground?"

[member="Val Cardin"]

 

[Garik Reed]

Val just laughed. He tickled Dak slightly, then climbed off of her. "Tell ya' what, this is boring. You hit the target within the 2 most inner circles 50 times, and we can move on to hand to hand combat. At least there, I'll learn something as well." He winked, and picked up the second blaster rifle. He checked it out again, and made sure it was loaded. He flipped off the safety, and held it out for her. "There you go. 50 shots loaded. I hope the prospect of wrestling is enough to make you somewhat good at this..."

[member="Dakita Calfur"]

 

[Armand Temi]

As the pilot withdrew from her lap, she felt immediately like pulling him right back on top of her. But she let him get up and listened to his next instructions. "I'm sorry this is so boring," she agreed. "I'm a terrible shot." Dak shook her head. She was truly grateful in some way that Val had taken time out of his ... well she wasn't sure he had a busy schedule because she always seemed to see him playing cards and drinking ... but anyway, she was grateful that he could show her the ropes. "Hand to hand combat with you will be much, much better," she said winking. Dak picked up the rifle and shot her target but unfortunately it took her twice as long as it would have taken Cardin. When she was finally done hitting the circles 50 times as instructed, her pink face had a slight sheen of sweat and her arms were sore from holding the rifle and its recoil. "Okay that's enough shootin'. Time for some wrasslin'! Where are we off to?"

[member="Val Cardin"]

 

[Garik Reed]

Val watched as she took the shots, nodding each time she hit her mark. He looked down at his datapad, trying to find the message he'd received. "A place called, 'Sal's Sparring Studio.' Any idea how far away it is? You got a speeder?" Val slipped the datapad back into his jacket, and raised an eyebrow at Dak. He moved over to the guns, and started cleaning them up. He bundled them up into his arms again, and motioned for Dak to follow him back into the shop.

[member="Dakita Calfur"]