OOC:

Kraytirous
Combat Engineer
Level 0: Rookie
Story 1: Basic equipment

“Good afternoon, girls. If you were let into this room, this means that you have the proper education to become a Combat engineer. You will need to be studied in physics, trajectories, the chemical compounds of explosives, the best way of breaking down barriers and the strongest way to erect them.”

The instructor glared at all of them, his crisp uniform not showing a single crease. “When other members of the Imperial army fail, one life is forsaken. When you fail, you are putting your entire squad in danger. So don’t fail!” He shouted the last part. Kraytirous flinched when he heard the man’s tone. No pressure, he chided to himself in his mind.

“Now, we will begin with the most harmless of the exercises. There are piles of debris in each of the cubicles that you see around this room,” as he spoke he waved his arm around himself at the large chamber. It seemed more like a small warehouse then a chamber, but Kraytirous kept that to himself.

“You will use them to blockade yourself within the cubicle. Whosoever builds a barricade that can withstand me kicking it will earn a point. At the end of the day, you will have gone through a large number of tests. If you succeed in earning three quarters of the points, you will be inducted as a rookie combat engineer. Now, to your cubicles. You will be timed with ten minutes. Begin… Now!”

Kraytirous went to his cubicle, ducking inside of it and quickly taking account of what he had on hand. He organized the large pieces of plated metal away from the smaller ones, he set aside the metal rods into a corner, placed the strips of steel to the right and the wired mesh, rolled up, against the last corner. He took in a deep breath and closed his eyes, imagining where the force that the instructor kicking the barrier would go. It would push the barrier backwards and downwards. So by creating a triangular prism and covering one of the larger sides with the metal boards, it should be stable enough to withstand a kick.

Kraytirous got to work, pulling the fusion cutter from the basic tools that they’d been supplied with. He started by setting a strip of metal on the floor. Two metal rods were placed vertically on it, welded in place. Drawing up the plates of metal together, he began to roughly weld them together, covering the rust holes with the smaller pieces of metal. Placing the makeshift barrier up against the goal-post like rods, he welded it to the rounded pipes of steel. Wiping away the sweat from his forehead, the man took a second strip of metal and welded it horizontally across the top of the two pipes, giving the barrier something else to prop up against. Pleased with the barrier, Kraytirous set it aside and drew two more pieces of piping. These ones were longer than the other two, giving him leeway to get them cut to the right angles. And so he did, cutting them so that the tops pressed flat against the barrier and the bottoms flat against the floor. He exhaled as the instructor yelled, “TIME’S UP, LADIES! Put DOWN the fusion cutters and step away from the barriers!”

Kraytirous took a deep breath in and did as told, stepping back. The barrier was barely tall enough to cover his waist, but he was confident that it would be able to withstand the kick. All around him he heard the sound of clattering metal that had been absent when he’d been concentrating so intensely on the erection of his own barrier. A kick and the scrape of metal, but no crash. A grunt of satisfaction and foot steps. Then another bang and this time the crashing of metal sheets. This continued for another few moments, until at last the instructor stepped in front of Kraytirous’ barrier. He lifted his boot and kicked at the top of the barrier. It scraped backwards, but stood standing. Kraytirous looked up at the man. He grunted and walked onwards.

After a few more minutes, with nearly a third of the barriers on the floor, the instructor gathered them together again. “Now,” he said, smiling brightly. “We get to the good stuff. These barriers you’ve erected are all nice and dandy, but you not only need to know how to make them, but you also need to know how to tear them down.” Kraytirous’ head tilted slightly at this and a smile crept onto his own face. This is what he’d been waiting for.

“You will have three minutes to destroy your own barriers. I will be giving you each two fragmentation grenades and a blaster rifle. That is all you will have to down your own barriers.” Kraytirous took his supplies and returned to his cubicle. The barrier was short and tough. If he threw the grenades at the wall at the back of his cubicle and they bounced back towards the barrier, hopefully landing beneath it, then the explosion should topple the thing.

He nodded to himself and did as he’d proposed. He armed the grenade and threw it at the center of the wall. To his dismay it ricocheted to the left, hitting the wired mesh and getting trapped within it. He cursed softly as the detonation rumbled through the cubicle. He ran his fingers through his hair and looked down at his last grenade. How could he ensure that it went where he wanted it to?

At last, he decided to underhand it. He’d toss it right behind the barrier and hope that that proximity was enough to blow it down. He took a deep breath, armed the grenade, lowered his arm and threw it underhand. The grenade arced through the air, landed with a little clang on the ground and Kraytirous held his breath as he waited for the explosion. With a resounding kaploom, the barricade wobbled on its support and fell over, smoke rising from the place where the grenade had detonated.
A whistle was blown after the three minute mark. Kraytirous glanced at the barricades of others around himself, seeing scorch marks, smoke rising and most of the barriers brought down.

“Good, good, well done, most of you. But you’re not finished yet. I have another task for you. Now that your barrier has experienced combat damage, I want to see you repair it. You will have one minute to make that barrier able to resist a fragmentation grenade. To your cubicles… Ready… BEGIN!”

Another shout that made Kraytirous flinch, but he grew used to the assertive man. With a deftness grown of desperation, he quickly scooped up the steel mesh that he’d very thoroughly destroyed with his own grenade. Frack, he swore in his mind. This was his best bet. Throwing aside the ruined mesh, he scooped up another piece of metal and quickly began to weld it to the back end of his barrier. He’d thoroughly managed to damage the main barrier itself, not to mention almost warp the metal poles holding it up beyond recognition. Scooping up another two, he quickly cut off the warped part and began to replace the destroyed ones.

“Twenty seconds!” The instructor shouted. Kraytirous became frantic. What if the poles didn’t hold? What if the place he welded them was too weak? Why hadn’t he made the bloody thing taller?! Self doubt made him clumsy and sloppy. He fumbled and dropped his fusion cutter. He swore loudly and scooped it up, half-done melding the second pipe. “Times up! Drop your tools and get out of there, unless you’re confident enough the barrier will hold to use yourself as a training dummy!” Kraytirous was under no delusions, this was one challenge he could not succeed in. Hopping over the barrier, he stepped out of the cubicle and waited. Just as the instructor had hinted, a training dummy was brought in and placed in a crouching position behind his barrier. The fragmentation grenade was thrown at his barrier and it detonated, shrapnel denting and warping the barrier beyond recognition. Smoke began to rise from the heated piece of metal.

With a glance over the barrier, Kraytirous saw that, to his bewilderment, the dummy was still intact. The barrier itself, however, was almost destroyed beyond use. As they picked up the dummy, the barrier fell over backwards. Kraytirous stepped over it like a father mourning his child. He crouched down and ran his fingers across its surface. He muttered a soft thanks to the hunk of metal for holding together as long as It had and he stood up. He snapped one of the more rounded piece of metal off and slipped it into his pocket.  He’d keep it as a momento.

“Well, girls, the time for results has come. This last challenge was worth two points. You got one,” he held up his index finger to emphasize the point. “For your barrier standing even after the fragmentation grenade struck it.”

Kraytirous lowered his green eyes in shame. He’d failed on that account.

“And the second,” he put up another finger. “If the training dummy remained unharmed from the exercise. I will now be calling the names of those that passed this course.” Kraytirous heard him go through the names alphabetically, and he swallowed nervously. Had he harmed the dummy? He hadn’t bothered to check. “Shalluat,” the name was spoken. A grin broke over his face and he thrust his fist upwards in triumph. After the man finished running names off, he lowered his clipboard. “Well done, those of you that passed. The rest of you, might I suggest the medical branch.” He grinned maliciously. “That might be more your speed.”

OOC:

Passed