OOC:

Spec Story 1: Installation, Utilization, & Operation of Basic Comm Equipment

Ror Nadon
Communication Technician
Lvl 1: Equipment and Procedures

Ror woke up with a yawn in his apartment. What day is it now……oh god what time is it!! He looked at the time and saw it was 1000 hours, more than that he had his first day of advanced communication training in five hours. He got up and looked out at the busy streets below, it is a nice day today, I wonder if we are training outside. He got up and put on a shirt and changed pants before going to get some breakfast. After finishing up breakfast he checked his datapad to find a message waiting for him. Only one message was in his datapad, PFC. Nadon, Sergeant Bloodfin’s communications class is meeting outside Techcom’s central building at 1500 hours sharp.

“Well I won’t be late then Sergeant,” Ror said with a smile as he put the data pad down and walked out the door. He walked over to the gym to work out before training started. He got on a jogging machine and turned it on slow, walking on it to warm up for the harder exercises later.  He looked over to his right and saw red haired human jogging next to him. “Hey, what squad you with,” he politely asked the man next to him.

“Oh uhmmmm me, I’m with Magma squad, where a support unit so you probably haven’t heard of us. What about you,” the man replied as Ror picked up on speed.

“I’m with Paladin squad, we do unconventional warfare,” Ror said as the other man picked up speed as well; “I am Ror Nadon by the way.”

“Gerald Fargon at your service,” he said extending a hand towards Ror, “Hey I think I have heard of Paladin squad, how long you been with them?”

“Uhmmmm not even a week yet,” Ror laughed, “Just got there from basic, what about you, how long have you been in Magma squad?”

Gerald started a running pace as he continued, “Oh about a year, I am starting com tech training today”

“No way, I am starting today as well” Ror started running, keeping up with Gerald’s speed, “You training with Sergeant Bloodfin as well?”

“Yeah, well it looks like class won’t be full of losers at least,” they both laughed.

“Yeah well I am going to go, bye Gerald,” Ror said turning off the machine and headed for the door. Once outside he checked his watch, 1130 hmm still got some time. I think I will go get something to eat before class.  He went to the cafeteria and found his friend Trenton and sat down with him.

“What’s up Ror, don’t you have communication training today?” Trenton asked as he handed Ror an apple.

After taking a bite of it Ror said, “Yeah it is in a couple of hours, I have time to waste. I meet someone else from class at the gym, his name was Gerald. He said he was in magma squad, you know of it?”

“Nah man, never heard of it, sorry bro,” he said after a minute of thinking.

“Don’t worry; he seems like an interesting man. It shall make the class more interesting for sure”

“Cool man, good luck today” Trenton said as Ror got up from the table and left.

For the next couple of hours he just went back to his room and rested for class. At 1500 he put on his uniform and went to the Techcom’s central building and saw a group of people standing there. He saw a variety of people there, human, zabarks, and rodians mostly. He got into the group and found Gerald. He was leaning against the side of the building and nodded as Ror approached.

“Okay class welcome and thank you for coming on time today,” a human male with a 5 o’clock shadow stood on a box in an officer’s uniform. He had a sergeant’s badge on his left breast and was definitely Sergeant Bloodfin. He spoke again, “I am your senior commander from now on and I will be instructing you in the art of battle communications. Today we will begin the week long course in the installation, utilization, and operation of basic com equipment. Today I will be assigning your supplies and give an introduction to the unit. Now follow me to the classroom please.”

They followed him inside and were put in a classroom that was circular in shape and had a stadium type seating arrangement. He conveniently was placed to the right of Gerald, who laughed when he noticed this. “Well now isn’t this a stroke of luck my friend, it looks like we will be closer than we thought,” Gerald said.  Ror laughed two, but it was a fake laugh more or less.

“Ror Nadon, wow what a looker you are sport, I guess chicks are all over you,” Sergeant Bloodfin said as he called Ror Nadon was called to go get his pack of gear.  He got up and walked up to the front and grabbed one of the package on the table next to the sergeant, “I am just kidding son, now then Gerald Fargon your turn to get a package.”

Once back at his table Ror opened his package and pulled out the contents; inside there was a Military-grade datapad, planetary communications rig, droid repair kit, computer repair kit, diagnostics kit, and a lightweight tool kit. He looked over each piece and fiddled with some of the buttons and knobs on the datapad and rig.
   
“Okay now that you have your gear I want you all to go home and study the information on the datapad and there will be a test tomorrow on it, so don’t slack off” St. Bloodfin said and gestured the class to go.

Ror studied the data as he ate lunch with Trent in the mess hall after class. “Ror you shouldn’t study while you eat.”

“I need to for the test tomorrow Trent” Ror said without even looking up from the data pad.

“Fine whatever I got to go anyway” Trent grabbed his stay and left Ror at the table.

That night Ror stayed up to almost midnight studying over and over the data his sergeant had given him. He learned all the parts, procedures, and installation of the parts. He learned how to change between channels on the rig, how to change volume and how to connect it to computers to increase its effectiveness. He read about the kits and what they had in them and how Communication Technicians used them and what on.

Ror walked into class the next day with a smile on his face as he sat down next to Gerald, “You study all the material last night?”

“Yeah, what about you and Ror?”

“We shall see we, good luck on the test today,” Ror said as Sergeant Bloodfin marched into the class room.

“Good morning class, hope you’re prepared for today’s test, because it’s a dousy of one”, he laughed. He handed out the tests; they were as thick as a short novel. All of this on what we were given just yesterday!  He looked around at all of the others in the room; they were all as shocked and as scared as he was.

He opened the book and started the test; there were all types of questions on it. He saw stuff from basic training, some stuff from basic leadership skills, an extra course he took during basic, there was lots of detailed questions from the material they were given, some of the stuff he had never even heard of before. He was covered in sweat by the time he was done with the test. He looked down at his datapad on the floor, Wow it has been two hours since I started the test. He had his test in and walked out the room.

He sat down by a fountain near the class room and washed his face off with some of its water. Man I wonder why he gave us a test the second day into the course.

Sneaking quietly up on Ror Gerald said when he was right behind him, “Hi! Ror how did you do on the test?”

Ror almost fell into the fountain when he said that. Ror jumped up and glared at Gerald, “Thanks for giving me a fright Gerald. And I don’t know that was an insane test.”

“Yeah but I bet I did fine, I was the first one done you know. It took me only an hour and fifty minutes to finish” Gerald said with a vain smirk.

“Yeah, I guess I was second then when I turned mine in an hour, but I took my time and thought mine out instead of rashly putting answers down,” Ror responded as he laughed when Gerald’s smile turned into a frown.

“We will see about that when the results are back won’t we” after a minute or so of the silence Gerald’s frown turned into a smile and he walked off. After a minute Ror got up and walked back to his bunk where he took a shower and went out to eat with Trent and a couple of his other friends. He was nervous the whole time he was eating, how did I do, urrghh. After going to diner he went straight to bed still worried. 

The next morning he went he went to class and saw Sergeant Bloodfin smiling as he pasted out the tests. When Ror got his he looked at the grade at the top, Woot! A B+! Ror looked over to Gerald and saw that he only got a B on the test. “Nice job Gerald,” Ror said as he put his test down. He leaned back as St. Bloodfin stood up. He turned around and started writing on the board. It was a list of pieces of computers Ror guessed; it said things like main frame logging chip, storage device, and speaker. It was a list of parts of a comlinks Ror learned and they were getting a basic description of them.


Ror yawned at the tenth piece description he had to listen to, wow this is so boring if it wasn’t for the fact I am scared to see Sarge angry I think I would be asleep right now.  He drifted asleep for a moment any way. When he woke up a second later he saw St. Bloodfin standing above him. “So I am a lullaby PFC. Nadon am I? Is that what I am to you a sticken lullaby that your mommy sings to you every night?” he was pissed off beyond belief.

“Sir no sir, you are my sergeant and not a lullaby sir” Ror said snapping awake.

“Really now private I just thought that since I was putting you to sleep that I was a lullaby” he smacked him across the head, “If you think that is what I am get the hell out of my class! But if you want to pass my class then don’t ever think of me as a lullaby again Nadon,” he was red in the face by the time he was done with his tirade. He walked to the front of the room and turned around sharply, “Class dismissed, oh and you MIGHT just have a test on this tomorrow, so those of who weren’t asleep will best be reviewing the information I gave you” he sat down and gestured them to go away.

On his way out Gerald stopped at Ror desk, “Smooth move hammer head,” he laughed as he keep walking. Ror gathered his stuff and left in a hurry to not have to risk talking to St. Bloodfin again.

He went home and collapsed into his couch and sleep, he was tired for some reason. When he woke he saw that it was almost time for him to go meet Trent at a club to blow off steam. Quickly changing out of his training grab he put on a simple top and some loose pants to go dance in. He saw Trent leaning on a wall by the interest of the club and smiled as him, “Ror looking good! Man we are gonna score tonight” Trent laughed as he pounded fists with Ror.

“Maybe my friend, I don’t know how many Ithorian females this planet has”

“Oh Ror, it is a small universe now a days there will be one or two in there don’t worry,” he laughed again.

Ror joined in on the laugh and walked in with his friend and looked around at the club. It was dimly lit and had loud music playing in galactic basic. There were all types of people and races dancing and just hanging out there. They walked over to the bar and sat down and ordered drinks, “I spy with my little eye a chichería who is gonna get tonight, good luck to you my friend ha,” he got up with his drink and walked over, “Well hello miss may I buy you a…..”

Ror shook his head and looked around and didn’t see another Ithorian let alone a female one. He sighed and chugged a shot and ordered another one, “guess I will be drinking by myself tonight, like usual.” He leaned back and closed his eyes and listened to the music while he drank silently. He heard someone standing behind him and opened his eyes it was an Ithorian and more yet it was a girl. “Hello there”

“Hi may I sit down, Mr.….”

“Oh I’m Ror, Ror Nadon, and you are” Ror said as he moved aside so the girl could sit down next to him, If that bastard Trent sees this he will be braiding me tomorrow about it. She sat down next to him, Ror looked at her and saw she was in an elegant dress that was black and had a white pattern in it, the pattern Ror was unfamiliar to.

“I’m Uunun Abon, nice to meet you Ror Nadon,” she said and extended a hand out to shake Ror’s. They shook and he ordered her a drink. “So what are you doing on this planet Ror?”

“Well I am a Storm Trooper”

She laughed, “You’re a Storm Trooper, ha that’s interesting. A real Ithorian Storm Trooper, wow”

“Yeah as far as I know I am the only one, kind of an odd choice don’t you think?”

“I like it though, it is a great idea Ror, defending the Empire should be eligible to everyone not just humans”

“You really think so?”

“Yes, I do Ror”

Ror and Uunun talked for a couple more hours and went through a couple of drinks. After about four hours Uunun had to leave, but gave Ror her number, “call me another night Ror, I would love to talk again.”
The next day Ror went to the cafeteria and saw Trent in his usual spot, “You “score” last night Trent?” Ror asked with a laugh. 

Trent sighed, “No but I did get something Ror,” he turned his head and Ror saw the black eye on his right eye and laughed, “Don’t laugh at me Ror, I was not a pervert like she said I was”

Ror laughed and shook his head, “Well I got class so talk to you later dude,” Ror turned and walked out with Trent trying to call him back to talk about the mystery girl Ror met.  Ror walked into class and sat down as St. Bloodfin started his lecture on the terminology they would use. Ror and his class did field exercises, lectures, and a few tests on the stuff they had learned on the first couple of days. On the last day of the week and the last day of the course he had them line up outside the building in full combat gear, they had no idea what they were gonna do here.

“Greeting soldiers, today is my last day with you so I came up with a hell of a test to see how much you learned in my class. You will be charging up a hill with full gear on and then radio in that you have the hill. Now don’t worry about what you say, that is your next course is on so just say you are on top. Once there you will find a computer and you will have to set up your comlinks on that and signal a ship in orbit which will radio in whose messages they got.  So get ready for it, you have five minutes.  Oh yeah and we will be firing stun shots from a lot of weapons at you, so it will be almost real as possible, so if you are hit you “die” and fail my examine,” he laughed and walked off.

After the five minutes were up they all lined up and got ready, they heard the whistle and all of them started running. Ror saw that Gerald took the lead and tried running harder to try and catch up to him. As soon as they reached the bottom of the hill and started the climb up they saw blaster rounds flying all around them. He saw a human female get shot in the leg and she fell down to the ground and started crying. Ror looked around trying to find cover as the stun “artillery” rounds started falling on them. After a minute they stopped and Ror kept running up.

He was midway up the hill by now and he saw that about a third of the others were shot by now. He saw Gerald hiding behind a ruined wall as a machine gun opened up and nailed the wall repeatedly. After it stopped Ror dived next to them and they gave each other a quick nod and broke for it. They got up and sprinted like never before. When they were about at the top of the hill Ror and Gerald broke out the rigs and started to turn them on. Ror felt the heat of a sniper round fly past his ear and he moved down into a fox hole. He turned it on and quickly shouted, “Sir this is Ror Nadon, I am at the top of the hill!”

Without waiting to see if he would get a response Ror jumped up and ran to the computer on the other side of the peak of the hill. He grabbed the cords required to connect the two and fumbled with them for a minute until he finally got them connect and fixed the channel to the appropriate one, “This is Private First Class Ror Nadon reporting in” he shouted and got a conformation response right away.

He sighed in relief as they said he had passed the test and was to continue down the hill and meet the Sergeant Bloodfin to get information on where he was to go to continue his training. He walked down and saw the St. smiling, “wow PFC. Nadon I’m surprised you made it through the exam. Well this is what you need to do now…”

Ror walked out of the training area with a smile on his face, I can’t wait to tell Trent and Uunun