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Specter
Heavy Weapons Specialty
Level 1: Cover Tactics
Story 2: Indirect Fire operations

" Well well, look what the vinecat brought me. Do you think you all are ready?"

" Yes, Sir!"

" Don't yes, sir, me! You all think you're something special, coming from that whole Fire support lesson, don't you?"

" No, Sir!"

" Don't give me that fierfek to me. You think that because you're the ones actually going into battle that you do all the work, well guess what! You're wrong! If you bucketheads out there on the battle field didn't have artillery fire, then none of your frontal assaults, flanking maneuvers. All of that wouldn't matter, if you didn't have support from these guns." With that the Artillery Sergeant slapped a hand on the giant artillery gun. " Today, you're going to learn how to blow stuff up, from a safe position. Lesson one, watch and learn."

The open grassy field before them stretched outward for hundreds of meters. Holograms lay among the field. Holograms of armored tanks, support vehicles. Even one that came in from the air and repeatedly settled down to unload troops. On top of the vast hillock lay the huge gun.

" Are we ready? Alright! Target approaching, zero-five-seven-four. Open up, one round. Ready? Fire!" A sound came as if the very sky had opened up and the earth beneath it had split. An enormous explosion erupted on the hologram of an approaching tank.

" Target destroyed."

" Two targets approaching. Western edge. one-seven-five-zero. Lock and load. Fire!"

KRAKA-BOOM

" One-seven-five-one, FIRE!"

KRAKA-BOOM

Ryan watched in awe at the gigantic craters that the gun created. The dirt flew meters into the air, before falling back to the earth. Anything that fell beneath this behemoth's hammer would be sure of destruction.

" Now thats just a demonstration. This here gun is called Thunderbolt. And can he bring thunder from the skies. If you are able to use him the right way, the enemy will think that even the heavens have turned against them. Its a Mobile Artillery Unit." The Sergeant pointed down the row of guns and various artillery types. " Those are other types. You will learn to at least operate them. Or else i will fail you. Understood?"

" Yes, sir!"

The next two hours were spent in learning how to load the Mobile Artillery, how to aim it, and how to fire it. As well as various tips on aiming and when exactly to fire. The second gun among the list that they learned to operate, was the Self-Propelled Medium Artillery or SPMA. Instead of using the mass driver projectile cannon of the Mobile Artillery, the SPMA carried a turbolaser. This required a much different type of operating. As the SPMA was mainly used against tanks, whereas the Mobile Artillery was best suited by subduing infantry.

They continued to learn how to operate all the weapons. Although they had fired none of them as of yet. Ryan wondered what could oppose these monstrous behemoths. The only thing that occured to him was either starfighter attacks, or their enemy counterparts. His guess was proven right when the Sergeant told them all about Artillery's greatest enemy.

" Now, what is Artillery's greatest enemy? It can't be infantry, we blow them to bits. It can't be tanks, those kings of the battlefield are no more than target practice from where we are. No, the true enemy of Artillery comes from the skies. Starfighters and orbital fire are the biggest enemies of artillery. A starfighter can zip in, blow up the emplacement guns, and then zip off."

Ryan dared to ask a question. " What about enemy artillery, sir? Aren't they a threat as well?"

The Sergeant clapped his hands together. " Right you are. Many artillery duels are fought and then our whole purpose of destroying the enemy infantry goes to waste, unless we can destroy the enemy artillery. Now, lets have some practice!"

Ryan took first manning of the Mobile Artillery. He listened as the first target was given. Advancing infantry, east side. Five-zero-four-niner. Swiveling the gun, he input the data into it. Then the order was given. The entire gun shook and left Ryan's ears, helmeted though he was, ringing. Ryan fired two more cacophonous blasts from the gun at the target, until the call. " Target destroyed!" went up. Then he moved on to the SPMA. He was given the coordinate points, armored unit approaching. Ryan fired. A burst of turbolaser raked the area where the tanks would have been with overpowering fire. Then it was another troopers turn

They continued to drill incessantly. Firing again and again. Finally, the Sergeant was satisfied. " Alright, thats good. Now you have one more thing to do. Transport these guns down to the edge of the grass field and back." Ryan his group immediately set to it. They closed up the weapons, got the Mobile Artillery unit on its repulsor lift, and the SPMA on started to crawl forward. They accomplished this in a little over fifteen minutes.

" Thats it. You might make an artillery crew, some day. Consider your Indirect Fire Operations training, complete. You have learned to operate these weapons. Although I dare say you need to work on the coordinates. You are all dismissed."

OOC:

Level 2: Precision Marksmanship
Story 2: Range Finding and Advanced Vector Calculation

Ryan Korr sat in a class room filled with other trainees. The Instructor at the head of the chairs was instructing them in how to calculate long distance sniping. The man went through exhaustive amounts of math. Trigonometry, geometry. Somehow Quantum Physics was added to the mix. Though Ryan didn't know exactly how it had been brought up. As he sat in his chair listening to his Instructor, Ryan thought about how he had fired from long distances in the past. Back in his mercenary days, Korr had had the occasional long shot. How had he calculated it then? Well he had simply used a little bit of trigonometry, tested the wind, calculated the distance, and fired. All within thirty seconds. In short, he had guessed. Of course he had run some math problems. So it could be called an 'educated' guess. But it was a guess all the same. Had he hit his target? Most of the time he had. Besides, you didn't have time to run through the mathematic calculations that were presented in class. It just took too long.

The former merc continued to listen as the Instructor droned on. Finally, he could stand it no longer. In his hoarse voice he asked

"Sir, how are we supposed to do all these calculations on the field?"

Startled, the Instructor turned around from the hologram he had been pointing at. The man scratched his nose and said "Well, thats a good question. When your being shot at you rarely have time for so much math. It is best to run a simple calculation and then shoot."

One of the more fiery students took this as a cue to try and get out of some work. He asked "So why are we doing all this math?"

The Instructor rounded on him. Raising his voice ever so slightly "Because it is good to know this when your on the field and you have the time to make all these calculations! Sometimes you will be under fire, other times you will not be. Now, lets go back to how you calculate the distance between two objects over a warped terrain."

Intent on his teaching, the Instructor continued on for at least a full two hours. Then he had all the students calculate a distance between two objects in the room. When he was satisfied that they had learned at least something out of this, he clapped his hands.

"Right! We are all done here. Pack up your things and head over to the target range."

Ryan stretched his numb muscles. Finally, they were going to get some shooting done today. He packed up his things and tramped over to the shooting range. Once there, he found the Instructor waiting for him and the rest of the squad as they all filed over to the range. The Instructor waited until they had all gathered before speaking.

"I see you all made it here without dying from math overload." He paused as the squad chuckled. Then continued "Well, now you get to put what you have learned to use. This will not be a combat simulation like your previous task. You will have five minutes to take out one target. That will be placed at sixteen hundred meters distance. You will be given several weapons to use. One for each target. Despite the fact that this is heavy weapons, you will be given a sniper rifle as well. They will only have basic scopes. You have your weapons. Get to it!"

With an affirmative grunt Ryan ran over to the position indicated. His experience as a mercenary usually made him more capable than most troopers. In theory someone with experience in mathematics could make the shot just as well as a former mercenary. When he had gone to school at the private academy he had taken math. Just like most other subjects he did well in it. But that didn't mean that he like doing math. If he had to he would. But only if he had to.

Ryan picked up his first weapon. One of his favorites. The A280. It was an excellent gun, with high armor penetration and excellent durability. It also boasted a longer range than most other guns. He steadied the weapon and aimed it at the target ahead of him. Doing some quick calculations in his head he took a deep breath. Held it in. And fired. The shot sped towards the target. The former merc was a bit surprised to see that he had hit the outside edge of the target. He continued to fire at the target. Readjusting his aim whenever he felt that he was off. Finally, after a long while of outside, and some inside, hits, Ryan scored a bullseye. Then two more. The squad Instructor had them halt when they had each scored five bullseyes.  Satisfied that they could all fire proficiently with the A280; he had them move on to the RT-97C; another one of Ryan's favorite weapons. This time he had more accuracy. The RT-97C's range was considerably more than that of the A280. As such, the Instructor had the target moved back a couple hundred meters. Every time he found that he was right on target, Ryan would squeeze off multiple shots in one second, filling the holographic image with red bolts. A voice came on.

"Accuracy is 85%."

The former merc grunted and kept on firing. He hit the target in the bullseye three times in one trigger squeeze. The bullseye was of course the head of the target. Finally, Ryan succeeded in getting two more bullseyes. Next up came the traditional sniper rifle. This time the Instructor moved the target back five hundred meters. So it was now sitting at around ~2400 meters distant. The former mercenary checked the wind, the distance, and ran a quick calculation through his head. He calmed his nerves and relaxed. Once he was satisfied with his mental state and the tension in his body, he fired. The bolt whizzed through the target's head.

"Accuracy is 100%."

Ryan continued to fire. He kept his accuracy at one hundred percent until he finally missed one. But by then the session was over. The troopers gathered around the Instructor.

"You fellows didn't shoot nearly as good as an Imperial sniper. But then I am not expecting you to beat an Imperial sniper in accuracy. Good work. Head back to the barracks. Get some sleep."

OOC:

Level 3: Weapons and Electronics Repair
Story 2: Armament Maintenance and Repair

“Nice work there, get to the lecture hall. You’re not finished quite yet.” Geoffrey said.

Korr nodded, “Yes, sir.”

The two headed out from the eerily silent target range. They reached the lecture hall in good time. Indicating an empty seat, Geoffrey motioned for him to take it. The instructor glanced around the now full room.

“Bring in their weapons.”

Troopers filed in with sacks full of weaponry and began to dish them out right and left. An A280 clattered onto Ryan’s desk. Not an A280, his A280. And what had they done to it? The rifle was smeared with what he could only guess was some kind of mixture of grease and mud. The power cell was all mucked up and the trigger was slick with some kind of oil.

“This is to simulate the kind of wear and tear produced after or during a full scale battle. Clean them. You have five minutes.”

Korr grabbed a towel from the box set on his table and proceeded to wipe the disgusting mess off of his rifle. Within a minute he had the hand grip and foregrip clean, as well as the power pack. But there he had to pause and let out a snort of irritation. The foregrip had a huge gaping hole in it. There was no way he could stand parade ground inspection with that. Korr searched around his table, and found a spare foregrip that was layed out, specially for him. He disengaged the original foregrip and replaced it with the brand new one. He was only half done though.

The optics were in total disarray. Korr aimed the weapon at the ground and proceeded to fix the ridiculously messed up telescopic sight. Two twists to the right, three up, then it was centered. Ryan grimaced as he surveyed the rest of the weapon. It was still pretty badly mucked up. Korr wiped off the rest of the A280 with his rag. Finishing that, he took out the powercell and replaced it with a new one, then refilled the tibanna gas, which was most likely old. Done.

A minute later the drill ended. Geoffrey inspected everyone’s weapons, gave a few pointers here and there. Overall, the class had finished that particular assignment.

Geoffrey walked back to the head of the class and leaned forward on a podium, “The most important thing for you on the battlefield is your blaster. Your armor is just defense. With no offense, defense is left almost useless. That is why you must always keep your weapons in prime condition. As a heavy weapons specialist, not only is your weapon your life, your weapon can be the hinge upon which the lives of your squad members hang. Your weapon jams, you need to know how to fix it. Your weapon gets dirty on the battlefield, you need to clean it up. You’ve already done the first two. The final thing we want you to do is a little bit harder.” that bemused smile appeared on Geoffrey’s face, “On the table in front of you, there are a variety of weapons parts. You are on a battlefield with no weapon and this is all you have available. You will need to build your own blaster, or slugthrower, out of those parts. There is no time limit, you just have to make sure it can kill something.” Geoffrey nodded to them, sat in a chair, and began to stare at his datapad, seemingly oblivious to everything around him.

Ryan stared at the jumble of pieces before him. This was going to take a while. There was the grip of what looked to be an E-11, a variety of barrels and cooling vents, some prismatic crystals, different gas conversion enablers, a cooling module, three different gas chambers, five energy converters, an emitter nozzle, wiring for static pulse adapters, an actuating blaster module, and two different scopes. Korr took one more look, and then got to work.

Thankfully, the grip fit fine with one of the gas chambers. Starting from there, Ryan went on to the internal wiring. He took out his tool kit. Getting out the pliers, Ryan pieced together the gas conversion enabler around the grip and gas chamber. Two wires hung out from the enabler, one blue and one red. Korr fit the blue one into the APAS connectors at the top of the grip and the red wire into the socket of the energy converter valve. The cooling module fit into place almost perfectly in between the enabler and chamber. The press plate area connected into the cooling module and then to the trigger, which had come already fitted to the blaster. Korr fit the trigger activation system into the rest of what he had put together. If he pulled the trigger now, he would successfully blow the thing up in his hands.


He now moved on to the barrel section of the blaster. The actuating blaster module fit over the APAS connectors. His fingers scrabbled at it as he shoved the thing in. Realizing his throat had gone dry from concentrating too hard, Ryan swallowed. His green eyes blinked once, refocusing on the task in front of him. Taking up the barrel, he fit in the static pulse adapters, hands steady as he put in the electronics. Finally, he took up the prismatic crystal housing and affixed it to the actuating blaster module. Putting a prismatic crystal in it, he connected the barrel to the housing, sliding it snugly into place. Around the inner barrel went the cooling vents and then the outer barrel. The emitter nozzle he fit on last.

Mentally taking a step back, Ryan surveyed his handiwork. It looked a bit like a DH-17 blaster carbine....except uglier. The emitter nozzle was almost square and the barrel was too long. It was time to find out if it would work. Picking up a suitably sized power pack, Ryan slid it into place. He stood up from his seat. Geoffrey looked up from his datapad, then stood. He beckoned Ryan to follow him as they exited the lecture hall and returned to the target range. When they had arrived, Geoffrey motioned for Ryan to hand him the blaster. Geoffrey surveyed it.

“Rugged, ugly, utterly ungraceful...it’ll probably work. Try it.”

Korr pointed it at a hologram target and squeezed the trigger. A bolt of galvenized plasma shot forward and created static around the leg of the hologram. Geoffrey nodded.??“Try it once more.”

Ryan did so. It shot again, the other leg.

“And one more time.”

Again, he depressed the trigger. There was an ominous click. Steam began to issue from the nozzle. Still calm, Korr drew his arm back and then forward, sending the blaster spinning in a trajectory that carried it away from himself and Geoffrey. The blaster gave a small puff and then erupted a jet of boiling plasma from its nozzle as it connected with the floor. It glowed red around the prismatic crystal housing. The housing burst with a bang as the crystal ruptured into a thousand pieces. Ryan stared at the smoking wreckage that had taken him half an hour to build.

OOC:

WC: 1,201

OOC:

Good job, might want to make it a slightly more "happy" ending. PASS

OOC:

Level 4: Weapons Systems
Story 1: Weapons Emplacement

Three weeks later,

Geoffrey had deemed that all the heavy weapons specialists in his course were fit to continue on to the next level of training. Ryan sat in a shuttle with many other specialists and some others besides. He was, in fact, sitting a little ways away from everyone else, right next to Geoffrey. His instructor seemed to be a jovial, if tyrannical, sort. He was always energetic in his speeches and his movements, more suited to being a pirate captain than an instructor. His quick-to-come smirk and sarcastic humor were simply the result of years spent on the Storm Trooper Corps. He was occasionally demeaning, but had a sort of friendly aura about him, not at all like the gunnery instructors or drill sergeants. Consequently, Geoffrey presently engaged Ryan in some polite conversation as they drifted in space, destination and purpose of mission unknown to all but pilots and Geoffrey, and of course some odd superiors. Geoffrey already knew much about Korr, but he didn't know half as much about the man's actual personality besides what little he had seen of him during training.

"So, Ryan, you were a mercenary once upon a time?"

"Yes."

"And what did you think of the career option?"

"Didn't really have a choice, sir." Ryan realized that he had forgotten to add the customary sir first time around.

"Financial problems?"

"Life." Ryan said, dropping the sir and seeing how things played out.

"Indeed, well I shan't pester you about your past, but I did want to know your opinion on the subject of humanity in general (that thing so much beloved by Palpatine) and its purpose in life, seeing as how you have spent much time acquainted with both walks of life, high, low, and middle....from the background check."

"I have....What question?"

"Oh, it is simply something a Gen'dai once asked me and I found I could not give a satisfactory answer. He asked me...what was it, 'I am curious, what do you think the goal or the future of humanity is? How far will you go?' Yes, that was it."

The question surprised Korr, which was a hard thing to do, for it had touched the heart of his thoughts. It was not that his thoughts had anything to do with humanity, but rather what was the goal, or purpose in life, specifically his? As of yet he had found only one answer that satisfied the outer Ryan, but that piece of light within him protested as he answered,

"I would say there is no overall goal for humanity. We don't all work towards something common that we can all share. Some groups try to work towards something, but when it comes down to it they are just people with a common ideal. And an ideal is false. Ideals motivate, but they are only a means to an end. The great minds use them to motivate the masses to do their work. The masses don't listen for so long though. Each person is filled with an individual desire of sheer practicality, to live in this world. The purpose of humanity? The purpose is to reach a greater state of living before the other human, before you die. That's why money is wanted. That's why the greed. We will only go so far as we can before we each die in our own turn. There is no purpose, its a circle. We are born, we live, we die, and then the next generation and so goes the universe." With the last words, Ryan waved his hand in the air vaguely and then let it drop. His tone had become filled with disgust as he continued onward. He found he despised the state of living he was in. But that was why he was training, was it not? To become better at his job, to be promoted, to get a higher pay, and to go up the ladder of rank, rung by rung.

Geoffrey nodded slowly, "An interesting answer, but I must not trouble you further, Private Korr, we are landing now. Get up and get ready to move out."

"Yes, sir."

When Ryan tramped down the boarding ramp and onto the deciduous ground before him he looked around strangely. He did not know this planet, but apparently they were going to be receiving some action, judging by the E-webs, DLT-19s, and even the artillery piece that was being unloaded. As par-custom, Ryan had a Death Hammer pistol and a DC-15s in the holsters at his belt, as well as his eight gauge. There were additional shells and power packs in the ammo boxs that sat in the brown ready-bag satchel. The satchel contained everything he would need to go on a mission in an instant, ammo, weapons repair tool kit, the works.

Geoffrey addressed the crowd of Heavy Weapons Specialists, and the squad of already trained specialists that were there for an unknown reason.

"You all are probably wondering why you are here, let me answer that question in a few brief sentences. The Empire once had a mining facility on this planet, but the miners had to leave in a hurry once they discovered that a company of B-1 battle droids from the Clone Wars was here. The Empire hasn't sent anyone to bother wiping them out because its would be a remedial chore for any platoon, that's why we are here. Our job today is to wipe out these B-1 battle droids, which are situated in the area just over that hill and to the left of the river. These battle droids were left on constant patrol for an unknown reason, but the results are that they never cross the river, hill, or anywhere outside of the area of patrol unless they are in pursuit of the enemy. Now the area they patrol is, as you can see, deciduous forest. Our task will to get E-webs and our artillery piece into place and then open fire upon the clankers. You don't need to worry about their blasters. The tibanna is so old that the plasma can't penetrate our armor, according to the scientists. Nevertheless, keep your eyes and ears open. Remember, this is also a training drill. Don't take off your armor, because those bolts can still burn through skin. Are you all ready? Very good, let's move out."

Ten minutes later, the artillery piece was situated on the hill over looking the battle droids, which were now in sight via macro binoculars. Ryan himself had helped set it up. E-webs were set up on the river bank and to the north and east. They were only awaiting the signal, there it was. A red flare burst into the air, followed quite quickly by a carcophony of sounds. Geoffrey stood a ways back, letting Ryan handle the artillery piece.

"Ready?"

The trooper calibrating the angles and distance nodded, Ryan triggered the firing mechanism. The field piece bellowed forth death, Ryan brought his eye pieces to bear on the trajectory of the shell, following it with the enhanced vision given to him by his helmet. The shell landed precisely in the middle of a patrol of a platoon of droids, turning it into a pillar of dirt and melted, disfigured, and misshapen metal. Red bolts could be seen through the loose canopy of the deciduous forest, cutting swathes through droids, plants, and tree trunks. Geoffrey rushed off somewhere to the north. Korr surveyed the field of battle. Droids were flying to pieces all over the field, but there was a problem near the river bank.

Ryan left the artillery piece and rushed down the hill. His heart was pounding in his mouth and he didn't have time to think, only to act. He ran full tilt down the hill and pounded his way through the brush. In due time, he arrived on the scene of the river bank E-web. He didn't have the breath to speak, he simply motioned to the other troopers to help him move the large weapon. It was in the wrong place. Some fool had set it up on the high bank over looking a lower bank, where the enemy had no chance of crossing the river to get to the other side. Taking the high ground was good in some situations, but there were some times when other means were called for. Where the river shallowed out and dipped low on either bank, that was where the E-web needed to be set up. Ryan and the troopers moved it there post-haste. They were almost too late. Scores of battle droids were trundling their way towards the river, opening fire with their blasters and spraying feeble bolts. Korr was hit in the leg just as he set the E-web down. It felt like someone had socked him hard in the knee. But it didn't even leave a dent in the armor and there was just the barest of scorch marks saying that he had ever been hit.

Another specialist connected the E-web to its power source, Ryan grasped the handles. Depressing the triggers, he pulled the E-web in a line across the droids, and then back, shredding any he had missed the first pass with the second and the third. He continued to push down on the trigger and move the weapon back and forth across the terrain until all the droids were scrap metal. He let go of the trigger, leaving the E-web steaming.

OOC:

WC: 1,595
It is a little outlandish, but hey, sometimes situations like these occur...maybe. And I was really quite tired of the classroom situations.

OOC:

I do ever so enjoy reading these more so than classroom scenarios, however might I suggest dropping the M4? "Nowadays" slug throwers are useless to most armours more importantly against battle droids. I understand that your character did not know what they were up against but it would be irresponsible for your CO to allow you to go to battle with a weapon that couldn't kill your opponents. Never the less I'am giving you a  PASS