Learning to Fly

[Gambler]

Sicarius' eye flaked open slowly, the sand of sleep beginning to ascend back over him. He groaned once and stretched his arms over his head to shake the last semblance of sleep away and struggle to a sitting position. His eyes were fully opened by this point and he took a few minutes to look at his accommodations. The bleak, gray walls held bunks and cubbies though no one else was in them. Finally he smiled as he remembered where he was. "I'm on Eriadu," He said slowly, the phantom smile on his thin lips disappearing. After all of these years he had finally made it to Phoenix Corp.

Hands on the bed, Sicarius pushed himself to his feet and looked around for his footlocker. He sheepishly glanced back up when he realized it was right beside his bed for convenience. Seeing no one around that could mock him for not seeing the obvious, Sicarius bent down and undid the lock to obtain his gear. He strapped his tight fitting black combat suit on and sheathed his knife that hung on a necklace in his shirt. Then he holstered his heavy pistol comfortably where he usually adorned it. With a sigh he ran a hand over his shaven head and looked out of the barracks where the sun began to shine harshly over the sky.

Hearing someone coming, Sicarius stood at attention, hazy green eyes staring sharply ahead. As the person walked into the barracks Sicarius fell into old habits and he turned his left foot a few degrees, angling his body so that his cloak obscured his hand as he reached for his pistol. He loosened it from the holster in half an instant and kept that position until he saw the man's face. Then he relaxed. "Good morning, sergeant," He said blithely, quickly turning to face the man, his pistol going back to his holster in the same motion.

 

[Jiang Winters]

"Good mawnin' meat!" The grizzled drill sergeant thundered in response. The man was dressed in flat tan fatigues with a patrol cap settled on his head, hiding all but the edges of his buzzcut gray hair from view. He held a data pad in his hand, which he consulted for a moment before speaking up again in that rough, gravelly voice that seemed to be a universal trait of drill sergeants. "Dentath, Sicarus. You have been assigned a Military Occupational Specialty since you could not be bothered to take an extra five minutes to try picking one for yourself! Due to your past employment, Command has seen fit to put your happy ass in the EDF's Elite Forces. That means me and my fellow Drill Sergeants get the enviable task of running you into the ground again and again and again, until you meet or exceed the high standards set by the SpecOps Commander!"

With that, the Drill Sergeant produced and tossed the recruit a pair of durasteel dog tags engraved with Dentath's name, rank, and serial number. "Put those on. You'll get a uniform later, after you've completed training and joined your squad. Now, first things first. Report to Drill Sergeant Modravik at the Agility Course. If you survive that, you will then report to Sergeant O'Vai, at the Firing Range. Provided you don't blow yourself up or piss off O'Vai, you will then report to me, where I will turn you over to your squad, who will then run you through the rest of your training which will consist of intensive close-quarters combat drills, combat maneuvers, advanced tactics, and about a hundred other wonderful little things that you must master before you are finally given a permanent place in the EDF's Elite Forces. Head outside and hop on the hovertruck waiting for you. It will take you to the Agility Course. And make sure to hydrate frequently; this facility is practically a desert, and none of us want to deal with a recruit with heatstroke."

 

[Gambler]

"Yeah, I'll hie myself over to the agility course," Sicarius said curtly, catching the dogtag in his offhand. He undid the chain and put it around his neck smoothly, his eyes never leaving the Drill Sergeant's grizzled face. And I'll hie a few caps up your bony arse if I have to put up with you for the rest of this experience, He thought but wisely didn't say. Normally he wouldn't take that kind of treatment from anyone, but this was something he had been waiting for for quite a while. Now that he was getting a chance to prove himself, Sicarius figured that he might as well take that chance and put in every ounce of effort he could afford.

Vaguely he recalled his past life and how he used to survive. How he had killed indiscriminately for the scraps of trash he called home. It wasn't a living, but it had been his life. A hard life that gave him a specific set of skills. The set of skills he would need for this occupation. For a moment he paused in his reflection, the dogtag strapped to his neck. His hand hung there for an instant longer as he wondered what he would do if Phoenix Corporation didn't accept him. He dropped his hand with a single thought: I'll kill.

He all but refused to see the grizzled sergeant on his way out of the bleak room. Eyes straight ahead, Sicarius strode out of the barracks and into the harshly lit desert. Immediately he squinted them half shut from the glare of the sun that bit into his skull causing pain to blossom in his eyes. He looked down at the paved path at his feet that glowed gently with blue lights on the side. Looking to the side of the pathway he saw nothing but sand. Not the loose scattered waves of Tatooine but a harder packed one. The ground was red like blood mixed with water and dried to an orangish shade. A few small trees were littered throughout the distance though they were crooked and leafless.

Sicarius walked forward directly on the path towards the only place he could fathom as his goal. The agility field was just an unpaved area as far as he could tell. A few loose fragments of packed sand flung up, stinging his eyes in the frequent dust devils as he walked closer to the field making it hard to see clearly. But he knew that that was the place he was supposed to go to since it was the only place where there was any life. "O'Vai, sir?" He asked as he neared the figure.

 

[Jiang Winters]

"Just call me O'Vai or Sarge." The black human drill sergeant replied in a gruff but friendly tone as he turned about and planted his gauntleted hands upon the heavy plates of dull gray armor covering his hips. He was an older man, perhaps in his early fifties, and was wearing Phoenix Corporation Crusader-Class Infantry Armor. He stood at an impressive six feet high and had a strong build even for his age, and had a perfectly bald head and freshly-shaven facial hair, leaving only stubble on his face. A halfway-burnt cigar was tucked in the corner of his mouth, so it was likely the only reason he was out in the hot sun was to smoke.

"Hm. You must be Sicarus, right? That grumpy old bastard Ditrovich told me you would be stopping by this afternoon." O'Vai said, as he produced a datapad roughly the size of a large binder and started tapping out commands on the touchscreen to pull up the recruit's training schedule. "You completed Modravik agility course yet? On second though, to hell with Modravik and her course. Agility isn't fun; blowing shit sky-high is fun. C'mere kid, I'm supposed to set you up with your gear and make sure you know how to use it, and then turn yah loose on some combat drones to test your combat performance."

With that, the man turned and motioned for the soldier to follow, as he walked towards a large warehouse-like armory, which was clearly marked with a no-smoking sign. He paused briefly to slide his access card into the armory's keypad, and to ditch the cigar in the conveniently-placed ashtray, then headed inside and motioned Dentarth into the dimly-lit building after him.

He led the younger man to a large metal table not far from the door, and flicked on a light hanging over the table, casting soft white light over the heap of gear strewn across the table. "Okay. Here's how the gear thing works. You get standard-issue EDF gear until you prove yourself to the SpecOps team you're assigned to. Which isn't really that hard, they take anyone crazy enough and badass enough to work with them without going bat-shit insane."

The man then started pointing out different items strewn across the table. "First you have your standard-issue M-51 Medium Combat Armor. Comes with a helmet and goggles and a full comms set-up, and this one has a tactical computer and HUD system built in for you. It's nice and comfy, fairly light, and pretty protective. A good all-round armor. Next up is your CAR-15 Assault Rifle. It fires a mid-powered round at a high rate of fire, is pretty accurate, and is good at short to medium ranges. It's as tough as an angry rancor, and it has a chainsaw bayonet, so you're gonna have a hard time finding a better assault rifle. SpecOps uses this rifle too, so get used it. For a Sidearm, we can issue you a PAW Repeating Slug Pistol or a P-32 Heavy Slug Pistol, but since your SpecOps, you can use your own sidearm. You can even use your own rifle and gear if you want, unless your squad leader says otherwise. Anyways, there's a crapload of other gear and weapons I could run yah through, but you look like a smart guy, so I won't waste either of our time. So go ahead and slip into your gear; you're gonna want to get used to it, and some form of medium armor is mandatory for everyone on the firing range."

 

[Gambler]

[OOC: The last name is "Dentath", not "Dentarth" not a big deal, but I get caught up with little things =P ]

Sicarius looked at the gear extensively, trying to think about moving in such armor. He was used to working in either just a small vest or nothing at all, so he supposed his first movements in armor would be awkward at best. Hazy green eyes taking in everything, Sicarius looked appreciatively at the assault rifle. It was one hell of a gun. And he could tell that much just by looking at it. Not taking his eyes off the gun, Sicarius unstrapped his combat suit at the waste and the shoulders, letting the light vest-like armament fall to the ground while he reached for the heavier armor. He strapped the first part over his torso and chest first to get a feel for the suit. The he placed the other pads such as the knee plates and shoulder plates on and rolled his shoulders. He grimaced at the slight lapse in movement, but otherwise it felt good. Finally he strapped the helmet on and placed the goggles on underneath. Immediately he saw the area in a dimmer spectrum though he could see the settings on the side.

Good gear," He said, his hand brushing the side of the rifle. The extended muzzle was fitted perfectly into the body and leading straight to the power chamber. He checked the cell and almost whistled when he saw the power charge in it. A firing rate of close to seventy shots per minute. That much plasma at once could take down just about anything. But, he thought ruefully, you would have to hit the thing for that effect. He brushed his hand along the muzzle and power chamber once more before picking it up and strapping it to his shoulder. The assault rifle hung at his waist in easy reach. Perfect, He thought, eyes going down to look at his new gear.

"So, what do I get to shoot first?" He asked, looking up into O'Vai's eyes. The goggles obscured his eyes and prevented him from seeing the shade of O'Vai's, but it was worth the price. Sicarius stood, hand absently cradling the hilt of the assault rifle as if he itched to test it out.

 

[Jiang Winters]

[ooc: Noted. Sorry 'bout that, little spelling errors like that have been creeping into all my posts here the last few days.]

"Hm, that's odd. Looks like you don't have a CAR-15. That looks like a XCAR-20. The 'X' stands for Experimental. The CAR family are slugthrowers, but the experimental CAR-20 is a blaster rifle. Guess someone thought you could use the extra firepower." O'Vai replied, scratching the back of his bald head before motioning for Dentath to follow him. "Firing range is this way, Dentath."

He led him to the back of the armory and through an armored doorway into an adjacent two-story building, roughly three hundred yards long by a hundred yards wide. Inside the building was a mock battleground, complete with little buildings and trenches and wrecked vehicles. "See this? This is my playground. Objective is simple. See the red flag way at the end of the field? You run from here, at the starting line, clear to that red flag. You grab the red flag, and come back. Here's the kicker: There's a squad of simple combat droids with assault rifles loaded with paint rounds, and they're defending the flag. You have to blast your way through them to reach your objective."

The Sergeant folded his arms over his chest as he nodded towards the field once again. "You have fifteen minutes to complete your objective. If you can, sneak in and retrieve the flag without alerting them to your presence. If you can't sneak in, then kill 'em all as fast as you can. I'll be watching from this armored booth back here." He paused, then detatched a satchel from the back of his armor and held it out for Dentath to take. "Here are two EMP Grenades, a smoke, and a Frag, some tape and a bit of fishing line. Use 'em wisely... And creatively. Just because they're grenades doesn't mean you have to throw 'em."

O'Vai then took a step back, and started to make his way towards the observation booth, which was tied into holo-cams throughout the mock battleground. "Take a minute to familiarize yourself with your kit and set up your HUD. Oh yeah, don't forget to hotkey different color and shape settings for your targeting reticule so you can adapt to different combat situations. When you're ready, just say 'Go' into your mike and move into the field, and I'll turn on the 'bots." He called back to the man, before slipping into the booth and sealing himself in, so that he would be protected from any stray rounds and so that he could run the scenario.

 

[Gambler]

Eyes closed behind the goggles, Sicarius orientated himself with the feel of his surroundings. He took a deep breath to smell the acrid air, taking in everything he could. Mentally he painted a picture of what he saw: ruined buildings scattered around trenches and barbed wire fences. He could see the droids, inactive but still there, scattered in defensive positions. Then he opened his eyes and nodded, pleased that he already had a good understanding of the layout of the field. Checking the HUD, Sicarius set flagged markers at certain points. At each point he would check the status of the droids and his time before continuing. He looked at his rifle almost sadly when he realized that it wouldn't be much use for his plan except as a diversion and he still had grenades to do that. But he didn't plan on needing any of those unless his plan failed.

"I'm ready," He said once he checked his gear again and set tags up where he needed them. The droids flashed to life with a jerk of motion as they went about scanning the field, rifles up. Sicarius rushed forward away from their perspective sensors and dove into a ditch: checkpoint 1. He stayed on his knees for a moment of two longer before taking out the smoke grenade. He had already tagged it with a marker on the HUD as a foe giving him a range and precise location. Carefully he placed it on the ledge above the trench and rushed forward again. The droids still hadn't seen him, but that meant little if he didn't keep on his feet.

His second checkpoint neared, a ruined building with a broken doorway and many window slots perfect for firing out of. Briefly he entertained thoughts of firing at the droids at this distance but he knew that his rifle didn't have the range required. So he checked his time instead. Twelve minutes an 33.78 seconds remaining. He went out the side and fell into a crouch behind a wall. Once more he checked the searching droids. They hadn't seen him yet. Then he saw something he hadn't noticed before: there was a trench that led straight to a building adjacent to the droids at such an angle that he could slip out from it and grab the flag before the droids heard him. But he decided to follow through with his plan instead.

So he jumped fluidly into another trench and ran halfway up the field towards another building. This time he fired backwards with his pistol. The smoke grenade he placed back at his first "checkpoint" exploded, gray and black smoke filling the air rapidly. As he had hoped, the droids saw the smoke and fired into it, believing that their enemy would be using it to obscure some movements. He could have laughed, but instead he rushed forward again straight around the droids. Seven minutes left. Perfect, He thought. Six minutes too many. With that he rushed up the rotting stairway of the closest building to the flag. The smoke cleared at that point, revealing nothing to the droids. Once more, as Sicarius had predicted, they went forward believing him to be in the trench to hide from their shots.

Instead he jumped out of a slot on the second floor. The building he had been in wasn't very large and the second floor was only around thirteen or fifteen feet from the ground, but he buckled his legs with the impact and rolled into it, right behind one of the droids. He landed on his back and kicked out, hitting the droid at the knees and throwing it to the ground. Immediately he grabbed at his rifle and fired a burst of plasma into the closest droid, rolling before his last shot was fired as high powered blasts of paint reeled in at him. Jumping to his feet, Sicarius fired again and dove to the side into a third droid. This time he punched out, bruising his hand but destroying the droid's ocular relays. He pushed the droid in front of him to absorb more of the continuing rounds of paint. Then he threw the senseless hunk of metal at another droid. Not lethal in any way, but it left Sicarius with only one more opponent. Rifle out, Sicarius fired in the general direction of the final droid. The only way he knew that he hit was when he heard the explosion of plasma eating through metal. Drawing his knife, Sicarius rolled forward under a presumed shot of paint and stabbed it into the chest of the stunned droid where he left it. Letting his rifle hang at his side, Sicarius walked over to the flag expressionless and grabbed it.

He sprinted back across the field, sweat dripping from his forehead and covering his armored body. Panting from the loss of water and the exertion of his activities, Sicarius stabbed the pole of the flag into the ground at O'Vai's feet and recovered himself. "Done and with... six minutes and 12.34 seconds to spare.

[OOC: That was fun to write, but I am losing my touch so it isn't great. Sorry about that, but I just can't seem to write like I used to]

 

[Jiang Winters]

O'Vai grinned as the flag was planted in the ground at his feet, so did a man clad in a black variant of the same armor that Dentath was wearing, only minus the helmet and head covering. "I told ya I had a good feeling about this kid, Kael." O'Vai said, as the black-clad soldier stroked his chin with his gloved hand.

"Hm. He missed beating Dovan's record by three seconds, but not bad. Not bad at all. I'm impressed. Tell Modra-whatever that Dentath won't be attending her agility course, I'm clearing him for active duty in Special Forces. We'll finish his training on the field, and rank him up to Sergeant after a mission."

O'Vai nodded, then turned to Dentath as he tossed him a plasteel canteen filled with chilled water. "Hear that kid? Your basic training is over before it even began." He said with a laugh, as Captain Tyrell started to walk towards the exit of the training grounds. "You better catch up with Tyrell. He'll get you set up in the barracks, set your access level, give you a keycard so you can come and go from the EDF Base freely, and a few other things. If you ever need anythin' kid, anything at all, you come to the armory and I'll get yah set up. Gear, armor, computers, explosives, weapons; you name it, I'll get it, repair it, or upgrade it for you." O'Vai added in, before he too went walking off, back towards the armory, leaving Dentath to chase after his team's captain and meet his squad.

[ooc: And fin. I don't see a need to keep going with training, so consider yourself a fully-fledged member of the EDF's Elite Forces. I'll create a mission for your guy to go on here pretty soon; we'll rank your guy up the moment that's done.]