You Rang? [Allaina]

[Sarge Potteiger]

Thyferra
OmegaPyre Training Center

There wasn't much Sarge was called on to do at OmegaPyre, typically speaking. On missions he had his objectives like anyone else, but once they were out of combat most people knew to leave well enough alone. He'd never questioned why it was, but he figured it had something to do with his like for being by himself.

That or people just didn't like him. He wasn't too sure.

It was these factors that made this request all the stranger; someone, somewhere, had decided it would be a good idea for the former assassin to train pilots in wilderness survival. It was easy to hide in a city, it was far more difficult to hide in nature.

He'd learned much of his fighting skills - in terms of gunfights - in woods. It was something of a home to him, being surrounded by trees, fallen leaves and branches underfoot. Stepping out of the treeline and looking towards the base, he feels a smile tug at his lips.

A gloved hand reaches over to pull the camo cloak tighter around his shoulders before he pulls it up in a makeshift hood, allowing him to shadow the upper half of his face.

The newest trainee should be here any minute. They'd not informed him of who it was.

 

[Qae Shena]

Allaina looked, felt and entirely was completely out of place in fatigues, with a blaster and survival supplies. Frankly she just felt awkward, feet on solid ground. The whole 'boots in the mud' thing wasn't her place, whatsoever. She wasn't the kind of pilot who got shot down. Hell, she was an Admiral. But that was the exact reason she was going to survival training - because she was too valuable to lose in a crash.

So all she had was the stuff they'd told her to bring which she sort of knew how to use. Really, they taught very basic escape and evade stuff for crashes and it had to be practised every now and then. It wasn't extremely important. So, she was being sent out to do just that.

And it was only because she had a vague sense of 'what the hell is that misshapen thing in the treeline' that she even found Sarge in the first place.

"Fancy seeing you here, Sarge," Allaina said to him. "You're my trainer?"

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

"I prefer the term 'ass-kicker', Allaina.", Sarge didn't keep up with promotions, and even if he did he probably still wouldn't have called her admiral. Not even the Prex got called by her rank; why anyone put up with it was beyond him.

Beneath that hood, a grin visibly formed, showcasing curiously straight teeth for someone with his job. Most lost teeth or had them all screwed up; not him. But they were hardly perfect, and certainly not pearly white.

Just below those teeth was a thick, shaggy brown beard, one longer than regulation length. Again, not surprising, but no one ever saw him without a full mask so that would probably surprise her too.

As would the hideous burn scar along his right cheek from a close call with a frag grenade.

Giving her a once over, he leans down and scoops up some mud. "Start getting dirty. The search parties come in an hour." This time training meant more than just showing her how to use things.

They were going to actual evade searches.

 

[Qae Shena]

Wow. Sarge actually looked like a Sergeant who'd seen more wars than was probably meant to happen. She didn't so much mind the non-regulation beard; that wasn't exactly an actual problem out here and quite honestly she couldn't be sure how long he'd been out here for. It felt like Sarge had been setting up for something like this for days.

"Sarge, honestly, if I had've known you liked it dirty, maybe things would've gone differently," she said off-hand, only to break some of the tension in the air. She had no qualms with it. She was used to grease and dust on her when working with starship parts. This, however, was different. Mud was a strange texture smeared on her face and her hands were covered in it. It was thick and goopy and she was fairly sure there were huge heaps of it in her hair.

And no, she didn't think about how much she was going to have to wash it. What do you take her for, a supermodel?

"So, uh. Run me through this. I mean, I know some of the basics, but nowhere near the kind of fieldcraft I expect you're going to drill into me," she said, hunkering down near the closest piece of woodlands scenery she could find.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

Sarge paused momentarily, again the teeth showing between the matted mass of hair along his jawline. "Dirty? If you must know, it's rough. I like to bite." The way he said that was just as off-hand as hers, but more absent in mind.

So far as he was concerned, she was probably a lesbian so there was little use in hitting on her. "Don't hide behind trees.", he scolds with surprising gentleness, "Here. I suggest keeping this in whatever passes for your survival kit."

In his hand was... nothing, but should she reach out she'd find the same cloak he was using. "I'm not going to drill anything into you; the patrols will. Because you're going to learn in a trial by fire."

He seemed to relish the opportunity, and it could be assumed he learned best in this manner. "That's a cape, if you couldn't figure out, wrap it around your neck to secure it. Need me to show you how to make a hood?"

 

[Qae Shena]

"Biting works," Allaina said with a grin. (gorram lesbians ain't so lesbian now are they?)But she left it at that, because if she was anything like him, there was a job to do and she felt so far out of place it wasn't even funny.

She took the cloak and rather clumsily put it around her shoulders, attempting to fashion a hood out of what she could, but failed. She was trying, at least, right? Allaina wasn't good at this. Now, however, at least she wasn't behind a tree trying to hide, instead trying to hide on the ground. Still. Learning and all.
"How do you even do this?"

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

The man snorted then laughed, "Here, I'll get it for you." Stepping over, he slowly gets her own camo-cloak set up the way his is while explaining each step as he went. It would have been easier to just take off his own and demonstrate, but that would necessitate showing his face.

"I'm well aware of what biting does...", he says absently as he gives the cloak a firm tug to tighten it up enough to hold everything in place. "When I was... sixteen and learning to soldier - keep in mind I grew up in a military family, so learning meant more honing than actually learning - I started in the woods. This may as well be home to me; unless you meant how do I fashion the cape, in which case you know the answer."


Motioning with a hand for her to follow, he slowly wraps his cape around himself and hunches over, obscuring himself from view. "Watch your feet. Don't step on twigs or branches, and avoid the dry leaves. If you cant avoid dry leaves, avoiding setting down your whole foot. Use as little surface area as possible. It's all about silence and blending in."

Turning his head back momentarily to smile again, he chuckles. "You ready?"

 

[Qae Shena]

There was a lot of fieldcraft to learn. Just how to make a hood was complex enough for her; it wasn't the same as grand military strategy, which she was barely just starting on, but this was crazy stuff. She was going to have to learn, and fast, what to do. Not an easy task.

He wanted her to be ready for this task and the fact that she was extremely nervous and not at all feeling her usual adrenaline rush given how far outside her usual comfort zone she was right now was putting her off the biting comment. If he brought it up another time, maybe, but right now getting laid was not on her priority list. Surviving hell was. No stepping on branches, avoid leaves... how was this even a thing people did? There was so much to do!

"Well... I'm as ready as I'll ever be..." Allaina said, half-heartedly. Yep. She'd never be a commando ever, that was a thing.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

"Well, good, you've got forty minutes to acclimatize before they're after us." Motioning her forward, he disappears from sight, other than the fact that about every five meters or so, a twig mysteriously cracked.

Normally he'd not leave a trail, but she'd need it to follow him.

Right now, he was leading her to a small mountain range nearby. There was a plethora of caves around, and he'd need to show her the one that would be their shelter for the night.

He'd neglected to tell her she'd be here all night and until tomorrow.

Pausing at a small stream, he kneels down, knowing she was behind him by the noise she was undoubtably making. "If you ever need to make your trail disappear, be it scent or footprints... cross a body of water."