Let's Get Down to Business

[Eugen Aker]

Fort Medina, 0643

Barely a half an hour past sunrise, and it already felt like there was a giant laser beaming down on Jihun as he made his way to the firing range. It was only supposed to get hotter as the day dragged on, with the promise of sandstorms. Fort Medina was hell, the base purposely placed in one of the most inhospitable regions of Klatooine. Even for the seasoned mercenary, it was no picnic making it through the day drilling the waves of recruits.

At the firing range, there was already a small crowd gathered. Training cadre, and perspective resistance fighters - Rebels. The latter mostly young twenty-somethings. He could easily see all of them still being at University. In fact, many of them had been students until chased out of their homes by Sith and Imperials.

It was still about 15 minutes to 0700, so he didn't bother the Rebels, making a beeline for one of the tables laden with weapons and equipment.

He picked out an unloaded AR-47, deciding to practice assembly and disassembly of the blaster as a warm-up. Over the course of a few minutes, the AR-47 was dismantled and rebuilt several times, Jihun's hands a blur with the components. Part of speed was owed to the simplicity of the platform, but a good deal of it was muscle memory from constant practice. By this point could he could field strip an AR-47 with his eyes closed. Very soon, the fresh batch of Rebels would learn to do the same.

[member="Lara Fairfax"] [member="Liuna Ondizi"]

 

[Aerena Juall]

Aerena moved over to the firing range in much the same way, but she was going to prepare herself too. She had come equip with a basic firearm, wanting to educate people of how to use the most basic of weapons before they attempted to use rifles and their ilk. Starting with a weapon that may have enough recoil to send a unprepared person flying through the air onto the backside, or maybe dislocate their shoulder- did not seem like an intelligent idea to the Rebel Women.

She then turned turned her head towards the various people who had gathered themselves to be taught. There was many a fresh faced individual. She was pretty sure some of then were even nervous just to be near her as a woman. She laughed to herself softly, giving them a quick glare and beginning to focus in on her own agenda. She placed several firearms, ranging from the post basic of handguns to those that resembled a revolved. She moved them from left to right in order of the hardest to use. Some of these weapons were completely automatic, but they all shared one property. They could all be used with a single hand. Her intent was to train people to use weapons offhand, so that they always had a method to defend themselves even if they lost a limb, had to carry someone.

Finishing with the weapons, she then stood up and headed to a patch of dusty grass, a large stick in hand. Slamming the object into the ground, she began to walk in a small circle, dragging and splitting away the ground a little to create a ring. It took her about a minute to carefully walk the circuit, but she finished with a 15 meter diameter semicircle. Then, in a mocking gesture she slammed the stick deep into the ground just to the left of the circle. Reaching into her pocket she would withdraw a piece of cloth, much like a flag. She tied two ends of the fabric to the stick, the wind blowing it out briefly to reveal what was written on the cloth. 'Hand to Hand Fights, with each other or Aerena, all fights must be supervised'.

Aerena knew that this particular attraction was going to pull in all the far too cocky people, potential bullies. You could tell a lot from a person over a consensual fight, if they intended to be aggressive, reserved. A lot of tension and stress could also be released. It was a win-win situation. Now she also had to admit, she was going to take a little too much pleasure from knocking over some cocky individuals. She had been on the receiving end of it before! Such a lesson would only benefit prospecting rebels.

Now fully done with her preparations, she glanced at the her watch. "Record time", she muttered to herself. It was not going to be long before they all started clamoring to get their hands on a weapons or simply hit someone in the face. It was going to be a rather stressful, but enjoyable day.

 

[Natasi Fortan]

Sweat beaded on Lara's brow as she trudged across the desert plain, towards the back of a small group of rebels heading out for small arms training. She felt like her face was already caked in dust and she'd barely been out of the shower for an hour. Whose idea was it, anyway, to establish a base of operations on the surface of the sun? She wiped her forehead on her sleeve and adjusted the pack slung over her shoulder containing her assigned firearm, supplies, and canteen. Already her throat itched for her to unscrew the top and sip the lukewarm water, but she knew that she had better resolve to conserve the water; there was no telling when she would be able to fill it up again.

Lara was no slouch when it came to hard work; she had been raised on a farm and spent a great deal of time and energy on work there. Lifting, carrying, hoeing (of the agricultural variety), planting, harvesting, processing -- she had done it all. She had even hunted with her father's bolt-action slugthrowing rifle -- not something that would prove effective in a military engagement, but at least it was something to keep wolves away and put a deer down so it could be dinner. The rifle she had now was clearly a military variant, and it was... intimidating.

She wasn't the best shot, it was true. Her depth perception was not her strongest suit.

She arrived to the range and arrayed with her mates around [member="Cardinam"], her lavender eyes taking in the range and the instructor. His fingers seemed to fly across the weapon, stripping it and rebuilding it in a few blinks. "Amazing," she whispered over her shoulder to the deeply unattractive recruit behind her.

 

[Liuna]

A green-toned hand rose to shield Liuna’s eyes. She gazed out towards the training area, a small bead in the distance. Though the sun was still quite new in the sky, it was already hot here. It was not to the point of being unbearable for the Mirialan, but she guessed that it would reach that point sometime later in the afternoon. As she followed behind her fellow rebels, she gathered her dark brown locks into a ponytail. For a moment, her eyes lingered on each person walking in front of her. There wasn’t much to judge yet, but it seemed to be a rag-tag bunch.

And that meant Liuna fit right in.

For the past few years, the young woman had been working aboard various ships. She fit in as a crew member when needed or she simply signed on as a mercenary. Either way, she didn’t really mind… so long as there were credits or goods that came her way. It wasn’t a life for the faint of heart – and that’s just the way she liked it. There was a certain thrill that came with such a life, and her transition into a rebel fighter happened quite organically. True, these missions may not offer the pay that she so looked forward to… but this was her chance to make things right.

As the group arrived, she rose up on her toes to see past the shoulders of the crowd before her. Her gaze found the man with dark hair, and she watched as his hands worked deftly to assemble and disassemble a rifle. She felt a small pang of excitement. Guns. How she liked guns. Her trigger finger was already starting to twitch. Glancing to the side, she smirked as a young woman with brilliant blonde hair spoke up. It seemed that she was speaking to someone else, but Liuna replied before the homely brunette could open her mouth.

“Mmm, not bad... I guess.” She shrugged, seemingly unimpressed.

[member="Lara Fairfax"], [member="Aerena Juall"], [member="Cardinam"]

 

[Eugen Aker]

One of the more other Cadre came and made herself comfortable at one of the other equipment tables rearranging weapons and even taking a hand in field stripping herself. At first, Jihun paid her little mind, until she stepped away from the table to make her own fighting ring. He ended his practice session then, looking out at the billowing white flag of challenge with great curiosity. Martial arts hadn't been on the schedule for today, but he wasn't opposed to mixing up things if that particular proved beneficial.

0700 came, and the entire class had finally arrived for target practice. Jihun and the other Cadre began to gather up the class for an introduction and the first state of training.

Jihun came around to the front of the group right at the foot of a large black anti-static mat, scanning the faces of everyone before he began. He noted them to be quite an attractive bunch all together, one cheery brunette, in particular, catching his eye. It was going to be amusing watching all this model material get caked with sand and grit by the end of the day.

"Morning, looks like you all finally found your way here. I'm Jihun, and I'll be your primary instructor on the range for the duration of the course. Our basic objective today will be to get you all acquainted with basic shooting principals. While it's understood that each of your units may have different specializations and SOPs (standard operating procedures), we're going to be using a service rifle to build some good foundations for advanced training on more niche platforms like side arms and support weapons."

He stepped back and reach for the AR-47 he had been practicing with before, holding it a downward carry position.

"Now before I get into the meat of instruction, I just want to give you all my expectations moving forward. I'm not here to play drill instructor, so as long as you're respectful to the Cadre and follow our instructions, then we're more than happy to treat you like adults. However, none of us are afraid to bust some ass if you start fething around. Don't make us go there, or you'll find yourself spending some quality time baking in Tent City."

"Alright, so the AR-47," he said, pivoting around so that everyone could get a gander of the blaster rifle. "Fairly compact even with its stock unfolded. Good range and fire rate, with manageable recoil. Dead simple to maintain. Even a Bantha could operate this thing."

He took a knee, gingerly setting the blaster down on the mat. "Before we start shooting, we're going to practice with field stripping and basic maintenance. So as it concerns basic field stripping, the AR-47 breaks down into three main components. The magazine (power pack), lower receiver (containing the gas canister), and the upper receiver which houses the barrel assembly and the bulk of the blaster internals."

As he provided an overview, he disassembled the weapon, first ejecting the magazine and then loosening the pin that held the upper and lower receivers together before sliding them apart. All in all the process took less than ten seconds.

"Now, back together." He reassembled the rifle just as quickly as he had put it together with a series of satisfying clicks. When he was done, he stood up again with the rifle in hand. "Pretty simple. Now, each of you grab yourself a rifle and a mat from the table, then gently set the blasters down flat before you start. I'll give you all about 15 minutes to play around before we move on. None of the blasters are loaded, but please treat them like they are, and be careful where you wave them. You sure in hell better not point your blaster at me. Now let's get to it."

[member="Liuna Ondizi"] [member="Lara Fairfax"] [member="Aerena Juall"]

 

[Aerena Juall]

Aerena would sit herself down on a nearby sandbag, her arm coming up to rest under her chin. She did not know how many people would bother with her little course, but she thought it was worth a guy. She knew the types, bigger is better! As far as weapons were concerned, people seemed to take rocket launches and sniper rifles over a simple handgun. She then had a butchers over at [member="Cardinam"] and his cohort. Rifle shaped blasters eh? She tuned in from her position, wanting to see if she could obtain any useful information. She knew her way around a rifle, but was not opposed to any new advice or technique for wielding them. At the same time, she drew a knife from her left boot, beginning to flip the metal blade up and down, catching it again and again. She half considered throwing it at a recruits weapon, just to see how they would react to a true surprise attack. Though she might irritate the other participants, so she decided against it.

Boring of sitting down, she acquired some rope and one of the spare sandbags from nearby and moved over to another metal pole she had buried much deeper into the ground. She would tie the sandbag to the pole quite securely. This was going to be the main stage for her martial arts training. There was a surprise twist in place for anyone who wanted to learn. Let's see how some fresh recruits dealt with the likes of conditioning, especially on the likes of a metal bar.

[member="Liuna Ondizi"] [member="Lara Fairfax"]

 

[Natasi Fortan]

Even a bantha could operate the AR-47.

Dead simple.

Lara's mouth went dry -- well, dryer -- with anxiety as he described the weapon in such terms. She wasn't sure that she would be quite as successful as a Bantha. The machine looked a bit complicated, and the swift speed with which the instructor handled the weapon made it difficult to see how he was doing it. She tried to follow along, but when [member="Cardinam"] sent them to pick up weapons, she wasn't quite sure she had it. The young farm girl picked up a weapon and moved back to the table, setting it on the mat gently, and studied it for a few moments, occasionally picking it up and shifting it on the mat, flipping it onto its other side before casting a sidelong glance down the table to see what her fellow recruits were doing and flipping it back to the way it had originally sat.

She finally found the mechanism to eject the magazine, then with more trial and error found the pin to loosen the receivers and separated them as she had seen Jihun to. Pausing to drag her forearm across her forehead, wiping sweat from her brow, she allowed herself a moment of satisfaction before trying to get the blaster back together again. Somehow the two receivers which had, until moments before, been fitting together nicely were now refusing to slide together. She labored over it for a few minutes before getting frustrated and setting them down, then half-raised her hand.

"I'm sorry, but I think I broke my ... gun," she muttered to Jihun, not wanting to expose her failure to the rest of the group.

 

[Eugen Aker]

Jihun paced back and forth slowly, observing the recruits practicing among themselves with varying degrees of success. The stunning brunette he had noticed earlier, just flying through the field stripping. At the other end of the spectrum, he found a rather dainty looking blonde struggling to reassemble her blaster.

He paused then, studying her from the back while waiting to see how long she took before calling for help. That was really the first test, getting one of these recruits to fess up about being lost instead of going along like everything was okay, which led to snowballing later.

It took her a while, but finally, she raised a hand signal him to come over, her voice barely above a whisper as she admitted her setback.

From his angle before, he hadn't noticed, but as he took a knee beside her, he noted that she had pretty glassy eyes, like a pair of amethyst stones.

"Don't give yourself too much credit," he quipped as he picked up the receivers for examination. "your blaster was already poo doo to begin with."

While simple in operation, the Rebel Alliance produced most of these rifles in-house in small workshops, notorious for inconsistent production and poor quality control.

"Sometimes the parts don't fit together quite right. It happens, not your fault. However, you're not doing yourself any favors just trying to smash the receivers back together. You just need to experiment a bit to find that sweet spot to finally get that alignment between the rails. This blaster is also overdue for a good lube, which will help with the process, but we'll get to that later."

He experimented with her rifle himself, methodically angling and twisting the pieces until he finally achieved alignment and could snap the receivers together.

"Okay, I hope you were paying attention. I want you to give it a try and ape what I just did."

He pulled the blaster apart and then handed her the pieces. "Remember, don't just force it when you hit a snag, just try to feel it out first."

[member="Lara Fairfax"]

 

[Natasi Fortan]

"Isn't -- excuse me, sir, I don't mean to question your methods," Lara said, holding up her hands as if to insist that she was not meaning to cast offense. "But -- isn't that unsafe?" she asked.

"If the bits don't fit all together correctly, might there be a chance for some sort of... combustion?" she asked, her mind clouding with the image of the gun exploding in her hand, shredding her body with shrapnel, cutting her flesh and organs to ribbons. She suppressed a shudder, even in the grueling heat of the day, and followed his movements along. When it came her turn to try, she did what she had seen him do though -- granted, with limited expertise, her actions weren't as smooth and graceful as his.

Her experimenting to get the machine back together, finding the sweet spot as he described, took twice as long. Finally, everything was clipped back together. "I fear I'd probably be dead if this were on the battlefield," said the farmgirl sheepishly.

[member="Cardinam"]