- OOC:
Combat Engineer
Level 1: Electrical Systems
Story 2: Electrical Systems
The room was quiet, except for the steady hum of servo motors in the fans twenty feet above the floor. The classroom was littered with odds and ends, half disassembled electronics, mines, datapads, detpacks, computers, and everything in between set in piles. It looked like a junkyard had exploded.
Thirty two students sat in groups of two or three. Every few minutes they would look back and stare at him. The older man, nearly ten years their senior. He did not wear the Cadet uniform they all had on, at least not their version of it. No one knew for sure why his was different slightly. Black, instead of light gray, no rank or bars of any insignia could be seen.
It had happened a few weeks after he had joined the Academy. He had asked a few of the Instructors and they had only mumbled about him being selected for possible placement into a squad called Wraith. He heard rumors about the squad, but never dared to believe he had a shot at getting placed in it right out of the Academy.
The room was beginning to swelter, some of the rooms did this. He figured it was a test to see what Cadets would go insane first. He simply took another route, by removing his jacket, and placing it on his chair back. A sleeveless undershirt covered a scarred chest, twin interconnecting locks of some make ran the length of his arms. Anyone skilled in cybernetics knew they held skin grafts in place. In truth both his arms were fully cybernetic. Few people knew that though, in truth he did not remember his past up to two years ago. All he knew was that he had been frozen for a very long time.
The Cadets quickly looked away as he glanced up. Most of them avoided the ones in black, he had heard the names they were called. It was justified mostly, nine times out of ten the ones in black broke the rules first, he was no exception. He remained silent as his fingers hit keys on a medium sized datapad sitting in his lap. A small loop of cords were tied together at the top, their ends tipped with a variety of connections.
A few long minutes later a young man, who seemed very out of uniform strolled in. He paused for an instant when he saw one of the class out of uniform. He went to say something but decided against it as Joamer looked over at him. The young Instructor saw that he was in fact running late, and decided against bringing the being out of uniform up with the older man.
Walking to the front of the class he set down two books and looked around. After letting his gaze linger on Joamer for a long moment he said "Class, welcome to Electrical Systems, level 1, course 2." The class started clapping, completing this course meant they would be one step closer to graduating. Joamer ignored them, and the 'Instructor'.
"Today we will go over in more detail the electrical systems of various objects found on the battlefield. In front of you you will see, a standard issue datapad, a comm link, a detpack, and a proximity mine. Those are what your exam will cover. Before that we will discuss what constitutes an electrical system. Turn to page two in your notebooks, we will go over the diagrams listed." The young man said, Joamer noted he never gave his name.
Must be his first day, fresh out of Cadet training. Another one promoted ahead of his ability. Joamer thought to himself. He knew this was going to be a long day when he woke up. They had him taking double classes, part as punishment, and part as a new training regimen. All the black uniforms had the same schedule, it was just another test. They wanted the ones with the abilities, not someone who would crack under pressure.
"Cadet, why don't you explain to us what a basic electric circuit is." The Instructor said after a long moment of silence. Joamer knew he was the one being asked, he was always asked the questions, just another test. Joamer looked up and saw the Instructor holding up an extra notebook, since he did not see one on Joamer's desk.
He ignored the offered book and instead said "A basic circuit consists of a source, a path, a means of control, a load, and a ground. Even with more advanced varieties of wiring setups, it's still all the same. You lose one of those, you lose the circuit." He continued to tap away on his datapad as he said it, not bothering to look up and address the class, or the instructor.
The class looked up at the instructor, who sighed softly. After a moment he said "Correct, even when you get into the highly advanced systems it remains the same. Troubleshooting a electrical circuit is simple, if you follow a few basic procedures. Joamer, since you do not need the book for the answer, why don't you tell us the first step." The instructors voice was changing slightly, becoming almost testily.
Joamer did look up then, he watched the young man for a long moment. He considered ignoring the man and being stubborn, but that would not make the class go any faster. Besides, he was not in a spiteful mood today. "The book says to check source. That is not exactly correct. Try to operate the item in question first, then if it does not work. Check your source of power."
Joamer looked up and refrained from smirking at the Instructor. He saw the young mans face go red for an instant before he calmed down. Joamer knew that he had tried to trap him with a trick question, he sighed deeply and went back to programming his datapad. He ignored any other questions, unless directly asked of him. The class seemed to ignore him as well.
What seemed a year later the instructor finally said "Now class, time for the exam." Joamer heard moans from around the room and smiled slowly. He always enjoyed peoples reaction when it came to taking tests. "In front of you are various items, find the problem with each item and fix it. When complete you can leave."
Leaning forward Joamer reached for the first item, the standard issue datapad. Tapping the screen he waited for it to boot up, but like he expected nothing happened. He looked up to see the students pull tools out from under their desks and begin to disassemble their pads. Shaking his head he simply pulled out one of connectors from his own pad and snapped it into place. Then he tapped a few keys and began the diagnostic program.
A few long moments later a error came on screen. Reading it over he shook his head and stood up. He ignored the class as he heard them turn to stare. Instead he walked to the back of the room and picked up a new looking datapad, by this time the whole class had turned to watch him. A few of them were looking around the room at the various piles of scrap and looking like they wanted to stand up. He wondered if they realized the Instructor never said they could not scrounge parts from other places.
Removing the battery pack from the pad he slipped in the new battery and tapped the screen. A second later it flashed to life, he set it down away from his pile. Pulling the commlink towards him he flipped the switch and tuned it to a general frequency. Like he expected he heard nothing, but suddenly a thought occurred to him.
Pulling his own comm link out of his belt he tuned it to a private frequency, and tuned the broken one as well. Tapping the side button he heard nothing coming from the broken commlink. Mumbling to himself he reached down under the table and pulled out a bag of tools. Reaching in he pulled out a short thin pry bar and removed the top cover of the commlink, he carefully pulled the two ends apart enough to see inside. He saw one wire lose in the bundle.
Picking up a small pair of pliers he held the wire in its correct position and clicked his commlink again, the broken one made a soft thump in answer. Ignoring the class he slid the fixed commlink away and clipped his own back on his belt.
A few long seconds later he pulled the detpack towards him. Quickly removing the detonator from the low grade explosive he keyed in a detonation sequence and counted to five as he placed two fingers on the prongs. As he reached five he felt a short low burst of electricity. Setting the detpack down he picked up the explosive compound and sniffed it. Even with high quality explosives the same tell-tail smells emitted from the compound. This had none of those.
Looking up at the Instructor he held out the explosive and waited. A second later the instructor nodded. Joamer slid the fake explosive compound towards the other end of the table and reached for the proximity mine. He stopped himself from activating the mine, something told him that would be a bad idea. Instead he opened a small hidden port and hooked his datapad into it. Running the diagnostic program took awhile longer as the computer ran through multiple checks. A minute later the screen flash the green clear signal.
Joamer sighed and stood up, he packed his datapad back into a small case on his belt and slipped into his jacket. After buttoning it up, and settling it on his shoulders he tapped the activation code into the mine and stood back. Picking up a long stick he slid it toward the mine, a second later a small pop was heard as the test mine let loose a small puff of smoke. Basically indicating if it has been real, you would be dead now.
"Class, your bugs are all different. In time with enough experience I hope you can find and fix these simple bugs with the speed in which you just watched the Cadet here finish his. Congratulations, you just completed Level 1."
Joamer nodded and walked out of the room. He felt his pad beep at him, a second later he picked it up and read the message. He sighed to himself, but was not surprised. He had another training sim to do, followed by another class. He was beginning to feel the weight of the long grueling days. He did not remember the last time he got a decent night sleep. They still let him wear the black jacket though, so something he was doing, or not doing, must be right.
