OOC:

Ron
Combat Engineer
Level 2: Fortifications and Defense
Story 1: Field Fortifications

Vicious eyes of fellow students attached themselves onto Ron as he stumbled into the workshop practicum.  For their purposes the room had been cleared of all equipment; apart from the three or four crates of explosives in the corner used for testing purposes, and so after failing to hold an interest in the rather plain looking boxes in the corner most of the students placed their designs upon each other.  This was case especially for those who were late on arriving to their first class in an entirely new specialty certification program.  And so because of these aforementioned conditions, Ron could not manage to disperse these unwanted gazes.  Most of these students were younger than him, still completing their first specialty.  Ron had already completed a specialty, Communications Technician, and had decided to complete another before leaving the academy for a squad position. 

Eventually, the staring stopped, and with nothing else to look at everyone reserved their curious minds to their feet, or the ceiling, or their nails, or whatever else they found a sudden interest in so that they could pass the time in waiting for their very late professor.  The were of course, very happy, to resume their inconstant attentions to a common source as soon as she came.

The professor of the class was a woman- a natural brunette and soprano- who in her full title was called Second Lieutenant Marcy Rhoss, though she preferred her academic title, Professor Rhoss.  Though she was late (and she knew she was late), she did not give any appearance of apology or even any sort of recognition of the fact, and instead went headlong into introducing herself and giving the course description.  She did not speak harshly, but with a pleasingly rich tone and voice; a voice that was often said to be made for performance and the theater. 

But born-to-be actress or not, Rhoss was an excellent teacher, and even better officer; such that most of the students were forced to put away any such wild notions of theaters or actresses. 

"Good morning and welcome to your first course in Fortifications and Defense- Field Fortifications.  I am Professor Rhoss, your instructor.  I don't find this class an easy one to pass, though many may find it an easy concept to grasp, because its difficulty lies in an actual physical practical rather than the desk and chalkboard that most of you are used to.  Simply put, I will instruct you on the construction of the simplest of barricades which is able to withstand multiple explosions of the lightest of hand grenades.  After which you will be held accountable for designing it to my satisfaction.  When building your death traps you will notice that you have each been given a rather large blumfruit.  Anyone who has ever handled a blumfruit probably knows that they are very delicate and fragile.  You are to place it in an open space behind your barrier so that it has some means of protection from the explosion.  If you can manage to protect the blumfruit without breaking the skin then you will have passed this course.  I don't believe in second chances, as there are none on the field of battle, so you all will have one shot at doing this correctly.  If you succeed then I will see you tomorrow in the follow up to today's class, if not then I will see you every day after this until you build it correctly or drop this class."

It was simple enough.  Everyone nodded their heads like dumb animals and watched as Rhoss began the very short, but very information lecture on barricading.

"Building good barricades isn't complicated, but it takes practice.  Of course, the best barricades are constructed using metal alloy supports that absorb and reflect explosions of the a more substantive magnitude.  However in this practicum you are to build an efficient barricade using the simplest of materials.  For this particular exercise I will give you three large object types to supply your materials: scaffolding, produce crates, and heavy wire.  Any additional tools must come from your own ingenuity  Just know that you may use nothing else but what you wear upon your back.  Good luck."

"Good luck?" Ron thought to himself.  That was hardly a lecture, it was more like a shove in the right direction.  He looked around him, at the other students diving upon their projects in a feeble attempt to please Rhoss.  It was clear that some of them had been there before, due to the quickness of their constructions.  Ron sighed to himself and became more determined to pass the class as soon as he could, he had heard of some students coming back for a week to get this class right.

To Ron, the barricade didn't really matter.  It was all about protecting the blumfruit.  It was about the size of his head, and very soft and squeezable.  Ron took his crate, scaffolding, and wire and set to work.  After removing a couple sheets of metal from the crate, he took some shorter shafts from the scaffolding and some of the wire to create the skeleton of a smaller box.  He then took the sheets that he had taken from the crate and secured them to five of the six sides.

Then Ron stripped off his uniform temporarily in favor of using his undershirt.  Once he had removed the white shirt underneath, he ripped it up into strips and proceeded to wrap the blumfruit until it resembled more of a spherical cloth ball.  He wrapped it in the wire, and had formed a hard shell for it now; which after wrapping several times in the wire, made it very durable even to the point where he could no longer dent it due to his own punches.  He placed that inside the small box.  After that, he filled the excess with the rest of the wire and small nuts and bolts from the scaffolding and closed off the last side.

This he placed behind the single crate, which he reasoned would be suitable enough for the object that would absorb most of the blow.

When the students had finished their work, they all left the room and headed for the closed in room where they could watch the demolition testing safely.  Grenades dropped from mechanical traps on the ceiling in front of barricades, ripping apart the feeble structures below.  Blumfruit splattered everywhere.  Most students laughed as they saw the destruction, a few groaned in apprehension of the day to follow- and some cheered as they saw that their barricade held back the blow. 

The explosions stopped, and the students were left outside to wait to be called in to the room one at a time.  Ron was anxious when he walked into the room, for no one else had done what he did.  He hoped that he hadn't cheated to pass the course.

Rhoss wasn't angry though.  She tossed him a box, which he recognized to be the one he constructed for the blumfruit.

"Very clever- that." she said.  "Because of you I'm going to have to revise my lesson so that you cannot cover the blumfruit.  But as you have correctly made sure that it was not bruised, which it isn't, I think it is safe to say that you've at least demonstrated the intelligence of understanding what the object of the course is.  So many students focus on the barricade and not the thing that needs protecting.  You found alternative means, which ultimately meets the same goals."

"I didn't cheat?"  Ron said.

"You cheated death." Rhoss shrugged.  "That's what you're supposed to do."

OOC:

It's been a while since I wrote one of these, I'm working myself back into the groove of it.  Thought it would be worth mentioning that in the past Ron always went for the alternative way to solve his problems, so rather than it being an attempt to cop out on my part, it's more of an attempt to keep in character.