trans_9 | GIA Equipment Training

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GIA Equipment Training

Like Commander Rahk had promised, he'd set up one of the sensoriums so he could teach the crew how to use the GIA equipment they'd be receiving, so he sent out a quick message to the crew to let them know it was ready.

Those arriving would find he's created a simulation of what seems to be a standard GIA training field, judging by the writing on the nearby buildings. The first thing they'd come across is the firing range, which had racks of the plasma weaponry Rahk had mentioned nearby. Not far away were small landing pads, each of which holding a waiting Bluestar Dropship. A little ways away from that, in a small open area, stood a handful of the Bio-Golems, stock still and waiting for orders.

Rahk himself was waiting near the firing range, ready for the first crew members to arrive.

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The first few crew members make their way in, ready to test out the new equipment.

First on the scene was the highly-skeptical elf.

He'd already told Vita he basically intended to stick his neck out to see if anything 'unfortunate' would happen if he expressed too much skepticism, but he was also sincerely curious -- and also sincerely doubtful that the equipment they provided would be of any use whatsoever to the practical wizard.

"Figures the elves would be first." Mei-Xing rolls her eyes. "Oh no! I'm too suspicious of the great, scaly aliens and their amazing weaponry to bother learning how to use them!" She crosses her arms and snorts.

Look, she's only here because she wants to blow shit up, okay?

Although partially hesitant, the logic in his mind poses a silver lining to possible clouds. Thus, the anomaly trails carefully into the Sensorium chamber. He's resolved to at least try to find a viable solution -- sitting out on a fight like this isn't something he can logically persuade himself to do.

"Hellow."

"Alright, people," Rahk said, once a good enough crowd had gathered. "We're gonna start simple."

He moved over to the weapons racks near the firing range, grabbing one of the Plasma Rifles off of it.

"This is the GIA standard issue Velar Mk. IV Plasma Rifle. Rugged and durable despite the sleek lines. Ammo consists of two plasma canisters, containing enough fuel for 300 shots each for a total of 600 shots. Reloading's easy enough. Hit the switch between the canisters and both pop out, then just slam the new ones in."

A simulation of an Ohm Grunt appeared down range.

"It can fire single shot, burst fire, or full auto." He fires a burst of three shots, a trio of white-hot plasma bolts slamming into the Ohm Grunt, causing it to collapse.

"It also has three firing modes. Standard, which you just saw. Then there's Unstable Plasma, for taking out unarmored targets." He fired again, this time the plasma bolts were larger and more amorphous as they zoomed down range. When they hit another simulated Grunt, they blew holes the size of a bowling balls into it.

"Then there's Hyper-ignited, which is for armored targets." Once more he fired, but this time the bolts were much smaller and quicker. When they hit their target, they went straight through.

"The pistols are pretty much the same, only they're obviously shorter ranged, single fire, and they only carry one plasma canister which has 30 shots. Now, each of you come up and take some time to get acquainted with these. They'll be your bread-and-butter weapons for dealing with the Ohm from now on."

"Man, the pistols kind of suck compared to the rifles." Mei-Xing rubs the back of her head as she peers from one to the other. "I mean, that's twenty times the ammunition of a pistol. Kind of pathetic." But she actually knows how to use them, rifles aren't her thing. They were too heavy and awkward for most burglary jobs.

Hn. Decisions, decisions...

Picking up a pair of pistols, she spins one around her finger, snapping a hand out to grab it when she realizes that the trigger guard didn't extend all the way around. "Tch. So much for my badass one-liners as I spin the things and holster'em."

"I much prefer, 'I'm so suspicious of the great scaly aliens and their amazing weaponry that I feel I damn well better find out how it all works!'" he said wryly. "But then again, knowledge to a wizard is like sword length to a barbarian."

"I'm not certain what exactly the advantages are over a magic wand, beyond ammunition," Aibghalien returned. He selected a pistol, then with a glance at Mei-Xing, attempts to emulate her grip on one. The medieval-fantasy wizard had a slight idea that one should point it in the direction of the thing one wants to die, but the finer points escaped him for the time being.

There was a practical reason to why Trudy was here. Despite the fact that her squadron was full of pilots, she wanted to make sure they were all proficient in their standard issue weapon in case they were ever shot down. So she had come to gain the knowledge to impart to those under her command.

But that was just the practical reason. In reality, Trudy was itching to play with the new toys. She grinned as she reached out and picked up one of the rifles, hefting it to get a sense of its weight. It might do. "You know just what to get a girl," she said.

"Well, for one thing. It's sexier." She pauses, whipping up a pair of holsters to stick her pistols into and reaching out to correct his grip a little. "Also, it attracts less attention on the astral. An active wand focus would light up the sky and totally blow any stealth jobbies. Bit of a higher grip, chummer. The range is also a bit better, and they're a hell of a lot less fragile. And you don't have to see the guy you're shooting at to make his life miserable."

She peers at Rahk critically. "I dunno about the length of his sword, Aibghalien, but I'm damned interested in these hand cannons. They're straight out of science fiction back home." She shrugs. "Don't plan on understanding how they work beyond 'this end towards enemy'."

"Out of curiosity, do mine do that, to your sight?" Aibghalien regularly carried around enough magic in item form to level a city, after all.

He adjusted his grip per her instructions -- unfamiliar though he was, he DID learn very quickly. It helped as well when he switched to gripping it right-handed. In his defense, he was used to the longbow, where one grips with the off hand and draws with the dominant. "It seems to lack versatility and... I suppose the Ohm don't have access to absolute force effects, though. Moot point, never mind."

"I'm a little surprised, honestly. I had the impression that you'd be one of the first to hew to the principle of, 'if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is'."

Were guns really that great?

Once they'd had their fill with the standard weapons, it was time to work with the more specialized guns.

"Alright, now it's time for something a little bigger. We've got the Firetooth Mk. V Heavy Plasma Rifle, which is the GIA standard sniper weapon. Those of you who specialize in that sort of weaponry will find it fairly easy to operate. Single shot, with a lot more power behind it than the standard rifle. Plasma canisters have 30 shots."

He then hefts up one of the Heavy Plasma Launchers.

"And this thing is the Salex Pattern Heavy Plasma Launcher. Single shot, used for taking out heavy targets and vehicles. Carries 8 rounds per canister."

An Ohm Firebug appeared down-range, and he braced the launcher against his shoulder to fire at it. There was a bright flash of light as the massive plasma bolt slammed into it, knocking it off balance.

"You still might need a few shots to take out some of the bigger Ohm, but it's better than using the normal rifles. Anyway, these weapons are a bit more specialized, so it's not mandatory that you get acquainted with them. Still, if you want to try them out, I suggest taking it slow at first."

"I've been getting that a lot, lately," Rahk replies.

"It's a bit bulkier than the Pre-Bleed weapons I've seen around, but you get used to it. I used them back when I was just a grunt in the GIA Primary Forces."

"Your magic items are generally always active, so yeah." She nods. "Even if you had a clue of how to mask your aura, I could pick you out. I could probably even use those things to track you down or target you with a ritual spell, if I wanted."

She shakes her head. "Naah, last time I fought them they didn't. They were just hellaciously tough. Didn't have much in the way of ranged weapons, either. There were two types I remember that had ranged attacks, and they really kinda sucked." She'd gone against plenty of the bugs over on Zokez II. Even managed to take out a few Tanks. Or, rather, her elementals did.

"Well, there's that. But if he's lying, I'll be able to tell." His aura would shift, and she's good at reading people anyway. "I think this guy's on the up and up. Besides, you can't get better than a decent gun."

He's not been around many who specialised in close-contact combat -- those he'd encountered simply hadn't needed it. Now though, the anomaly steps carefully forward. He's out of his depth here but it's either try or become essentially a drawback in battle.
Not that he probably isn't already but he won't let his mind go there.

Webbed hand/paws extend forward carefully once he's close enough (as in nearly runs into) the weapon rack. He can't hold a rifle all that well, so a pistol is what he goes for.

Curious fingers inspect the weapon as he listens to the GIA life-form speak. He takes a deep breath. This is not a Thunder-Maker. The mantra repeats in his head as Renne turns and trails to a more open section of the room.

And he prays no one is in front of him.

Up next came the big toys.

Once the crew had their fill of target practice, Rahk moved over to the landing pads, where the ubiquitous Bluestars sat parked, ready and waiting to be flown.

"And here we have the workhorse of the GIA Primary Forces, the Bluestar. It's the primary dropship, capable of being deployed in space and in nearly any type of atmosphere. While its standard set-up makes it useful for nearly any situation, it's easily modifiable for a number of different roles."

"I know this might not be everyone's specialty, but if you'd like to take a go at it, the Bluestar is very forgiving of new fliers. So, if you want to give it a try, pick a bird and get on. The manual is set to play on-screen in each of them."

"No truth detection method is failsafe." He had his own arsenal of spells that could do it -- and didn't even bother trying. "Their artifacts... we only know what they have told us. What more can they do?

"I would like to believe they're trustworthy, but it's not in my nature to do so quickly."

"True. Someone could mask their auras. But this guy's a mundie, he ain't even half-Awakened." She waves a dismissive hand. "I'll have to play with them to tell."

"Oh, you can bet that we're not getting the full story about the Ohm. But lying about the tech is just retarded, especially when you have people on the crew that'll crack these things open just to get a good idea on the inner workings. Can't hide a self destruct device or an override device from a whole ship of techies, after all."

"Interesting." Not particularly surprising, since he maintained a detect magic spell frequently for much the same effect.

"We had Grunts, a Tank, and a few Firebugs. To be honest, I wasn't much impressed with any of them." A few spells, not even his most potent, had been wreaking immense damage. "I do give credit to the story, at least; the Ohm's advantage seems to lie in overwhelming numbers."

He lifted the pistol in both hands and made a game attempt at sighting. In fact his eye was keen -- he hadn't spent years making pinpoint targeting with spells to have learned nothing from it. In fact, his major flaw was a gross overestimation of arc, a remnant of archery once again.

And for the final part came the...weird...stuff.

"Alright, I know this might be a bit unusual as far as what you're probably used to as far as standard equipment goes," he says while moving over to where the Bio-Golems stood waiting for orders. "But the Servitor Bio-Golems are standard fare in just about every GIA ship, and it's useful to understand how they operate."

He motions to one of them, who steps forward.

"Their primary purpose is for any manual labor jobs on the ship, like moving supplies or loading ordnance onto vehicles, but they're also useful for clearing away rubble in rescue operations. They're voice operated, so just give them the order you'd like them to follow and they'll do it. They might seem a bit slow, but they can follow pretty complex orders, and are very good at working in groups."

He points over at a pile of steel beams he had lying nearby.

"If you want to give them a try, see what you can get them to do with that."

"Hoi, omae." Mei-Xing raises her hand. A guy giving out these many shinies for free got the title, point-blank. "I get that these things're pretty good to newbies, but what about those of us who want to jack in and control a bit more directly? Are these things gonna take to a mod that'll allow someone to do that?"

Because, honestly, she could probably drive and use the weapons on this thing herself if she could connect through a datajack and some headware. It's not likely, but anything's worth a shot, right?

"It'd be pretty easy to do something like that," Rahk said simply. "Your engineering department could probably whip something up for that."

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GIA Equipment Training

Arrivals

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Firing Range pt 1: The Basics

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Firing Range pt 2: The Big Guns

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Bluestar Dropships

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Bio-Golems

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