OOC:

Jamasis
Heavy weapons specialist
Level 1: Cover Tactics
Level 1: Fire Support Tactics

Jamasis walked down the corridor, and turned left to an outdoor training area. Already there was a sergeant major, and standing near him were two other privates.

“Okay privates, over here,” said the sergeant. “I am sergeant major Syldren. First I’m going to explain some things to you before the others get here. Apart from you three, all the others are just starting training. I am relying on you to give them a helping hand, because to be honest they will be almost useless in this exercise. Secondly, you will only be using these standard E-11’s here,” he gestured to the half-dozen guns next to him. “This is because if I let you three loose with any weaponry you want, then the purpose of the exercise is defeated. Preferably, and be honest here, you would rather use smoke or concussion grenades for cover rather than rely on covering fire,” it was stated as a fact and the reluctant nods given by Jamasis and the others proved him right. “Go on then, pick up the guns,” he said impatiently, and as soon as they had done this the recruits appeared and walked toward them.

“Okay recruits. Pick up the guns and follow me down to the exercise,” said the sergeant before jogging off. They all followed in short order, and quickly caught up with the sergeant. He gestured down a hill “See the broken down bunker? You six have to get down there. Over there,” he gestured off to the left, “are several practice droids. Their guns are set to stun, and if one of you fails to get across you all fail. Obviously the purpose of this is to give covering fire, so what you are going to do should seem obvious enough. Two minutes, then you can go.” He walked down to the bunker leaving the rest of them a bit uncertain.

“Let’s pair up. One person goes down and their partner gives covering fire, and then when they get down we swap,” Jamasis said. “Let’s say one recruit with one regular, and two recruits and a regular going down to the bunker on the first run, then two regular with a recruit one the second.” Nobody objected, but silently paired up.

“Who is going first?” asked a recruit.

“I’ll go, you other recruits can go with me,” said one of the privates.

“Go!” yelled the sergeant from the bunker. Jamasis and the last private dropped to the ground with a recruit. Meanwhile the others ran toward the bunker. A first shot hit the ground just next to Jamasis’ partner, and he wasted no time in tracing the shot back to its source. There were two droids, and Jamasis fired a few quick shots near them. They moved a short way backwards, giving the others enough time to get out off effective firing range. Jamasis scanned up ahead, looking for more droids while the other recruit and private kept the two droids pinned down in case they attempted pursuit.

Another droid almost next to the bunker fired next, and Jamasis shot quickly at it, but the range was too long and his shot went for wide. Two other droids came up near it, and the other private turned his attention to those ones as well. Jamasis decided that accuracy was almost impossible now, so fired several quick shots in the general area of the droids, causing them to take cover.

The next thing he knew the droids smashed open as the other group reached the bunker and started firing. The recruit and the private ran down the hill, and he fired a final shot before following them.

The next minute was more of a blur than anything else. All Jamasis took in was running as fast as he could toward the bunker, with the three already at the bunker firing to either side of him, with the odd shot from the droids flying past his head.

The recruit ahead stumbled, fell, and a droid’s shot missed by a fraction of an inch, just above him as he fell. Remembering the sergeant’s words about failure, Jamasis stopped and fired two shots at the droid, the second causing some minor damage, but then the recruit was up again and they reached the bunker in a matter of seconds.

“Not too shabby,” said the sergeant, “but hardly perfect. Besides, those tactics may work in a large open space, but what about fighting in towns or in uncultivated areas? Come here.” He led them past the bunker to another, similar area as the one before. This time, however, it was littered with boulders and rocks, blocking almost any shots from their current location. “Same rules apply; I’d have thought the rest would be obvious enough. In your own time, off you go.”

“Pairs again?” asked the private “Only this time we’ll have to stick quite close.”

“I suppose. Each pair makes their own way across, try and use the rocks for cover and giving covering fire to your partner when you move between rocks,” said Jamasis. With unspoken agreement they moved off, and Jamasis jogged to the first rock with his partner.

“Move to the next rock, I’ll cover you. When you get there, I’ll move off to the rock the other side of you. Then, you move to the one after that, and so on until we get to the other side. Ready?” the recruit nodded “Okay then, go!”

He ran off to the next rock, but fortunately no droids popped up. Jamasis ran to the next one along, and he could see the recruit looking for droids but also not finding any. Jamasis was starting to find this was starting to make him quite nervous and also suspicious of the situation.

As soon as his partner passed his rock, several shots crashed into the rocks all around him. Aiming quickly he hit one of the droids, then ran to the next rock along whilst his partner quickly dispatched another one of the droids. When he reached the next rock he noticed that the slightly irregular route the six of them were making through the rocks was causing the droids enough difficulty to make their shots quite rare as they struggled to target any of them.

On the other hand, Jamasis was finding it much easier. He was firing two or three shots at each droid, before aiming at another. This was subduing them to a degree, but it also didn’t let any individual droid any clear shots. Before he knew it they had reached the sergeant at the far end, who had presumably walked around on his own. Just under a minute later the next pair burst from the rocks, and then after another tense few seconds the final private came through with his partner close behind.

“Well done men. I guess that’s enough for today, you’ll receive information about the next exercise soon,” said the sergeant. “And really, good job. Most people don’t manage that one until their second or third attempts.” With that he started to walk back to the main barracks, and Jamasis, with the others, followed soon after.