Drexhel awoke early with a nervous buzzing in the pit of his stomach today he started his heavy weapons training, not just basic drills but the stuff that counts on the field. He'd hardly slept the night before hand  and as always he knew something would go wrong it always did in his case. Pushing himself up from his bunk and scanning his surroundings through bleary eyes he caught sight of the small digital clock that was supposed to wake him, today's lesson technically started five minutes ago. Jumping out of bed and forgetting he was on bottom he crashed his head into the metal frame above him, from here he rolled out grabbing for his armor and making a clumsy attempt at shoving it on before lurching out the barrack door.

Now at a full run a sweaty, raggedly dressed Drexhel was looming on the horizon of the practice course, the last of the sprint was down hill from here he stopped a second catching his breath and arranging his armor accordingly,  he could see a small group of men, one at the front looking incredibly impatient even from this distance, wasting no more time he took the plunge down the steep hill stumbling as he ran, having to pick up his balance more than a few times.

Reaching the course the group of men clearly visible as storm troopers the one at the front clearly the drill instructor who looked like he was more likely to shoot Drex than teach him anything.

“Your late” he said in a hushed menacing voice “why!” that time a lot louder.

“Sorry sir, alarm  didn't” he paused still breathing like a wounded bantha “go off” he finished.

“Then replace it!” he roared then started taking breathes, “calm dirk, calm”.

Eyeing his superior up and down Drex was getting ready to sprint the opposite direction.

“I'm Sargent Dirk Canning, I'll be your Drill instructor for the day, your late, very late, so I suggest you look like an elite today or I might just brain you”.

“Yes sir”  Drex wondered how many times he'd be saying that today.

“Shud'up” Canning uttered calmly “Right first thing I need to do with you today is give you the oral lecture on the fine armaments you will be using today” he paused expecting some kind of retort before continuing.
“There will be three types of weapon today, one a projectile thrown weapon commonly known as the concussion stun grenade pull the pin and don't hold on to long simple” he paused again waiting, he must have been used to the men acting up “Second, The A280 armor piercing heavy blaster rifle as the name implies armor piercing so plenty of stopping power all you need to know after that is it'll launch one hundred  bolts before you need to reload” Again he paused perhaps it was to give the information time to sink in, as little as that was. “Lastly, and I know you'll love this the EHWB-10 Heavy repeating blaster fully equipped with a continuous energy source so it won't run out of juice, that doesn't mean however, that you can just squeeze away all day, it will overheat and you will look like an idiot” he paused again surly it was to let things sink tho Drex was now thinking maybe Canning just liked trying to be dramatic.

“Now if you'll follow me we'll run a few little weapon tests, this will give you a brief time to familiarise yourself with the weaponry at hand” he motioned towards a table and what was clearly the EHWB-10 with a sheet over it “Might I mention that all weapons used here are modified stun models, we do not want you killing anyone here” Drex thought this to be obvious though he hadn't really cared to think of it.  On the Table was a small case of Concussion Grenades another with A280 magazines and beside the table a crate holding some A280 models.

“Right Drexhel we'll start on the concision grenade” he stood expectingly staring at Drex “well, pick one up come on”.

Drex scurried forward grabbing up the projectile an staring back at Canning.

It looked like the drill instructor might be trying to start a contest of who blinks first before he gave any more instruction, finally he spoke in a grudging tone “there's a sheet of ply wood over there you get three throws to get as close to the plywood as possible if you don't make a dent in it you get to go home” he smirked at Drex, possibly serious and possibly hoping that would be the case.

He stepped up to the mark a short while away from the wood took a, deep breath, pulled the pin and lobbed the grenade into the air, a bit much into the air as it flew clean over the mark a small thudding sound as it went off in the distance followed by the sound of Canning slapping himself on the head “try again!”. Picking up another his hand shook the miss damaged his confidence and the ply seemed to be stretching further into the distance, pulling the pin again he hawked it upright far to high into the air, it had gone off before it even touched the ground. “How hard can it be to hit the target, look, its huge dammit!” he started cursing under his breath, Drex looked at his last grenade getting  little annoyed by his superior being an ass, picked up the grenade, out with the pin and launched it strait, with a slight clunk of metal on wood it dropped in front of the plywood putting a dent in the bottom right corner.

“Much better “ Canning clapped with a sarcastic taint to his voice “on to the A280 again not at its full strength but enough to get the gist of it, pick it up throw in a magazine, lets get this over with” he spat at the ground “see the red an white circles try to hit the middle, go on”.

Facing out to the targets, three of them diagonally further apart, Drex pulled the rifle up to his shoulder and looked strait down the site. He could feel the eyes of those around him burning into the back of his head in silent judgement, he let out a quick burst and felt the recoil as the bolts flew for there target hitting the first time. Not a bullseye but the target when down, lining up his second shot he squeezed the trigger tightly sending a stream at the middle painted circle slight overkill the first few landed getting the knock down the rest where wasted bullets. “Fire in bursts bolts cost credits!” Thinking to himself like he's paying for them Drex smirked at his own feeble joke before lining up his last shot, the furthest from the standing point two quick flicks of his finger two quick bursts, the first was two low the second caught the bottom, lingering for a second before it fell Drexhel felt a warm relief come over him.

“Very good, very good” Cannings attitude was pissing Drex off now, not like there would be much  he could do about it he was the man teaching him as well as a superior. “ Right last bit and your half way through the day” Drex gawked half?!, “yeah that's right  half, now I'm supposed to do a big fancy unveiling of the big gun but I can't be bothered so Drex be a sport and get that for me”. Drex trudged over the the EHWB masked by a dusty old sheet gave it a yank and revealed the big gun.

“The basics, the triggers on the back of the gun the mount is obviously just so you don't need to carry this thing go ahead Drex give it a squeeze at the plywood”

Stepping up to the EHWB and gripping firm onto the handles then giving it a shake to test how firm it was Drex got ready to let loose some heavy bolts. He spun it round to face the ply the planted hid feet firmly on the ground before giving it a good squeeze. It shook like a rag doll with the force it blew out bolts it  took him a bit  to stop himself moving so much and get his aim down. Forcing it with his whole body to stop the beast tilting up he finally got a strait aim at the ply putting several dents in it, he'd forgotten it was only stun rounds. “Right that's enough I want to get out of here, a few more instruction talks and we're ready to go”.

“First I will be explaining the tactical side I expect to see from you today, If you take this holopad it will show you the diagrams of what I will be explaining”.

Drex shuffled around impatiently.

“The first I will explain today is the Shock and Awe by definition it is achieved by using brute force to overwhelm, immobilise and defeat your enemy and is varied from use of grenades to torpedoes, this is the offensive Tactic I would like you to be aware of today”.

Drex watched the holopad diagram showing a squad  grenade a room, charging in and gunning down the opposition.

“The second, if you'll click your pad to the next diagram, is neither offence or defence as it as used as both, known simple as the holding attack, simply keep yourself grounded and keep the enemy at bay with your bolts, if the chance should arise feel free to land a few shots it can't hurt your chances.”

The diagram now showed a man using a mounted turret laying down suppressing fire on a group of hostile men.

“Lastly of the tactics is the defensive, make no mistake with its official name as it is defence, the counter attack, draw your enemy into the open weaken there numbers from your defensive comfort and take back any ground you may have lost”.

The final tactical diagram passed after showing some men running from enemy forces then an allied soldier on a turret letting loose on the enemy's.

Drexhel sighed, this day had gone on long enough, a nice seat and some breakfast now seemed like a pipe dream as Canning collected himself for more talking.

“Lastly before the practical assault course” finally Drexhel felt the dragging of his had taken its toll.

“I need to run you through your objective I'm sure you've wondered why these five fine men have been following us around today, these men are your objective, there has been a dummy LZ set up at the other end of the course your objective is to get them there safely, You begin twenty feet from the entrance of that building over there, the building itself is not large, ten meters  in width, ten meters in length and twelve meters in hight, it has two floors  and a rear entrance, your first task is to get through this building through the small field out  back and on to the EHWB-10 at the end”.

“Sounds easy enough sir” Drexhel piped up.

Disregarding this Canning continued “For the second part all you need to do I hold down a strong holding attack, covering the squad through four checkpoints and into the dummy LZ, Clear, Yes, Good, get to the starting position”.

Drex made a solid jog towards the mark stating where he should be closely followed by the five men soon to be under his protection. The com buzzed to live with the voice of Canning “Drexhel these men are armed with the same A280 as you are as well as able to follow any tactic you can they will aid you during the first half of this task the second your of your own, Ready, Drexhel, go!”.

With that Drex shot off his mark at a sprint with the five man squad nipping at his heels,  the door not but a few seconds ahead. Drexhels mind raced to the conclusion that there would be hostile forces inside coming upon the door he whispered down the come “shock and awe” Drex raised his A280 just short of the door as one of the five man squad shot forward gave a quick nod and opened the door the shock aspect definitely as the enemy's inside jumped and shot for weapons as Drexhel sprayed the room. “Go!” Drexhel called down the com moving inside the door, description was right small building two floors three incapacitated guards lay sprawled on the floor. “Wait here I'll sweep the second floor” He was already half way up the steps as he made this announcement, opening the door expecting hidden targets he instead found a hidden EHWB set up facing the fiend to the rear of the building. Taking leaps back down the steps and darting for the rear door the men he protected left in his dust, Drex was a bag of nerves even if he acted like nothing was wrong.

On exiting the back door a barrage of fire came his way he tumbled backwards into the building luckily unscathed. Motioning to the rest of the men telling them to wait he clambered up the steps  to the EHWB sitting at the window. “I'll do some holding attack here make your way out to cover on my mark” Drexs voice beginning to solidify as the action around him sunk in stunning fire from the enemy guns flying past his head. “Go!” he opened fire from the rapid firing gun emplacement almost instantly suppressing the enemy allowing Drex to count ten men strategically placed around the field. “keep em suppressed I'm coming down” his heart pounding he leapt the stairs in one rolling as he hit the floor, turning and hurling himself out the door then falling into cover. The over head fire was simply ridiculous not only could they not stand but they could not move, there cover small and closely bunched together “Cover me with some blind fire I'm going to back into the building when I call make a retreating.

The small squad slung there A280's on there cover and started squeezing the trigger, Drex made his quick crawl back into the building he was clear he made his way into the upper floor crawled into position by the EHWB then opened the com “make a retreat we're going for a counter attack, slowly does it”. The five men down peeled off one by one backing into the building, as predicted the enemy force made a start forward. Exactly what Drex was waiting for springing to his post he opened fire from the mounted weapon hailing down on his enemy's. He could see clearly they'd found cover but more importantly the six he managed to put on the ground.”Begin gaining ground on my arrival” Drex had been up and down these steps to many times now he took his time. As he passed the squad he motioned them to follow “four left we'll try flanking, you and you” he pointed at the closer of the group come with me “the rest go out and keep them occupied”.

The three designated men set out to cover fire While Drex and the other two slinked off to the left, keep low behind different walls of sand bags. Drex could see The remaining men from the side Drex took aim and the others followed suit. Just as he was going to pull the trigger the com buzzed on with the urgent voice or Canning “Drex, Drex!cease fire immediately Can you hear me We need to cut this short, it turns out the stun modification isn't meant for live training but as a live combat but for riot control, they can cause serious internal trauma, stop immediately”.

Drexhel lowered his weapon “what about my drill?”.

“You've done enough for today, good job, they guy that issued these will have hell for it” Canning sighed.

“So I just go home and call it a day?”.

“Yes Drexhel as you say call it a day”.

Drexhel sighed and begun his walk back to barracks thinking finally.

OOC:

Good story and good description of the weapons, watch the flow of the dialog back to descriptive text. PASS