It's only been a few days but I am starting to settle into the routine of ship life. Morning meal, training, bath, evening meal, free time. Though my personal time has been shrinking as of late. I keep finding more new topics to learn about and skills to practice. From what I was able to overhear and glean from chatter on the Noosphere. The ship was recently damaged and basic repairs are done. They finished repairs ahead of schedule. I'm not really surprised they did given how strong of a Mechanicus presence there is here. I have also aquired some juicy morsels of context. Turns out we are on the flagship of the Rogue Trader's fleet. The other two ships in our fleet are not doing so hot but are well enough that they're being sent off for a week to scoop plasma from a gas giant. Training is going well. Using my dendrites I can put on a void suit in fifteen seconds now. Even though my personal carapace armor is void capable I don't wear it all the time so it's definitely a worthwhile skill. I have to wear it to training, starting yesterday and run obstacles in it. It wasn't that bad. A lot of the other recruits struggled with the more standard armor. The fact that they can give Flak to new recruits and Light Carapace to those that are doing well is telling about the current wealth of the Drakios family. Though you can tell who from our cadre is from the Beta Cryo pods by their personal carapace armor. Lael has a really nice looking set of armor. I think it's some kind of Heavy Carapace armor and it has a lot going on under the hood. All sorts of little mods and customizations I think I would like to examine eventually. Though even with the power assist turned off she can still lap half the class. Not my half thankfully. I have yet to see anyone in power armor, but I haven't really prowled around much. Aside from my trips to the Librarium, the training hall and the mess hall I've mostly stuck to the deck my room is on. My personal map stretches around a kilometer towards the fore and aft centered on my quarters and covers six decks above and below. This is mostly thanks mostly in part to the Sky Eye working constantly in between return trips to charge at its dock and transfer its data, and only in part to my own auspex data. The interior of the ship is quite literally a maze that requires familiarity and knowledge of how the decks and sections are marked to navigate. The sheer volume of space is titanic. For now though it's back to the training area, only this time I get to bring my Arms Coffer. At least the ones I have come with shoulder straps they would be a bit awkward for me to carry otherwise and while I am sure my escort would be happy to take the load from me I have recalled enough about 40k that I want to ensure I can stand on my own if I need to. I have been trying to be social but it is unfortunately not the most comfortable of things. I recalled enough about my old life to retain the maturity of an adult but most of the non mechanicus adults treat me like a kid. Kids likely would also treat me like a kid. Not that there are many kids for me to interact with at the moment to test that theory. Making everything even worse is I realized the other day that I used to be a guy. I don't really care that much about the change but it is still awkward and embarrassing whenever someone talks down to me. Despite leaving earlier than needed I am not the first to arrive at the range. Sergeant Su seems to have laid out an entire table of various weapons of different types and sizes in the middle of the range booth. All the gear looks well maintained and of decent quality with some stand out pieces. My eyes are drawn to one in particular. A beautifully crafted plasma pistol. Though something about the shape looks slightly off. It takes me a minute of perusing my weapons database before I realize it's a Ryza-Pattern Plasma Pistol but not the standard variant the rarer Wrath variant. I put my case down at one of the booths close to the center table. Lael ends up taking one of the booths next to me as soon as she arrives with her own case. It's obvious everyone aside from perhaps the whiny noble is eager for today's lesson. —----------------------------------------------------------- Jari looked around at all the eager faces as he called them over and they lined up in front of the wonderful spread provided to him by the armory. "Hello everyone. Today is a good day. Today I get to educate you all on the wonders of firearms safety and on the various weapons you can expect to see most often around the ship." He clapped his hands together loudly. Jari took them through the basics. "Never point your weapon at something you are not willing to destroy. The most important rule however is this next one. Be Sure of Your Target and What's Beyond It. WE are in SPACE! Where a few inches of steel or adamantine could be all that is separating you from a cold painful death or a vital part of the ship!" He made sure to glare at everyone and let that message sink in. "If you are wielding a high penetration weapon, awareness is not just mandatory, it is critical. You only have to fuck up once to get yourself killed or worse." He saw most of the recruits nodding along including Lael and the kid nodding along as he spoke. "Your rank aboard the ship, your training and your proficiency determines what level of arms you are permitted to carry. The Lord Captain and our Archmagos can carry whatever the hell they want. However if new blood like you are caught with something you're not supposed to have. Well let's just say the punishments get real creative." He gave his attentive class his best sergeant smile. He heard a few audible gulps and that always tickled. "Some of you already have your own weapons. Some of you do not. Those of you with weapons. You will be tested on them and if you don't pass muster they will be confiscated and locked away in the armories of the Munitorum. Those of you who do not own a weapon, we will start you off with some simple stuff." Jari walked to his well prepared table. "Who can tell me what this is?" He lifted up a rifle and held it high. "That's a lasgun" Someone said near the back. "True! Anything else?" He asked as he glanced around. "That's an M36 Lasgun, Mars Pattern Mark III with the Short stock. You've currently loaded it with the standard charge pack holding sixty shots but the pack you've attached in parallel is a Hot-Shot pack. It has a single fire mode and a three shot burst mode and an effective range of around one hundred meters." The feminine high pitched voice made him turn to stare down at the kid for a moment. "Well our little shorty knows her guns. Shorty! You will only answer further questions if no one else does!" He said amused. He figured he should have known she could tell the kid is a cog after all. Check latest chapters at NoveIꜰire.net "Yes sir." Came the expected, if slightly pouty, reply. "She is however correct! This is the standard. The classic. The Reliable. The wonderful M36 Lasgun beloved by the Imperial guard from across the known galaxy. This is a Las weapon. For those of you without functioning brains that means it fires lasers." Jari turned, smoothly shoulder the weapon and fired at the head of one of the targets, then flicked the selector over to semi and fired three more shots into the body. Then ejecting the clip he switched to hotshot pack and fired one powerful shot into the head of a target next to the other. Where the hits before had left marks the Hot-shot left a nice smoldering hole. "As you can see the normal lasgun can kill a man but doesn't pack all too heavy of a punch when fired normally. However it does give you far more ammo to put down range. Firing on overload mode or with Hot-shot packs lets you boost damage and penetration at the cost of ammunition." He pulled out the clip and set the rifle down. "Anyone know what this is?" He picked up a pistol. "A laspistol?" Jari heard someone in the front row guess. He just looked around for a minute but with no one else chiming in he turned to Nicole. "Shorty?" "That's a Cadian Hellpistol." Nicole stated calmly. "Correct! Looks a lot like a normal Las pistol but these babies are spicy!" He turned and one again displayed impressive marksmanship and demonstrated the weapon by burning holes into a few targets. "Hellguns are wonderful and usually reserved for well trained soldiers. Now Las weapons come in all shapes and sizes! Pistols, Las rifles of all kinds, Long Las Snipers, Shot guns, Las Cannons! Multi Lasers! Single shot, semi auto, full auto. If you can imagine it there is probably a las variant for it. Similar to Las weapons are SP weapons. Which means?" He looked around. "Solid Projectile" Lael said after a moment. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. "Correct! Now as we are on a ship do you know some of our absolutely favorite weapons to carry around are?" Jari saw Nicole raise her hand but didn't call on her. "It's these!" He hefted a shotgun. "Shotguns. On a ship there is only so much space. When you fight off boarders. It's a wonderful feeling to just point one of these down a hallway and say fuck anything in that general direction. The added bonus is the shots have next to no risk of puncturing the walls or hull. Though they do tend to struggle with heavily armored targets unless you're packing slugs and have lower effective range than rifles or even some pistols." Jari was in full lecture mode now so he continued "Now both Las and SP weapons have their strong points. SP has an edge in ammunition variance. With Las weapons it's the standard power pack or maybe a hot shot pack. SP weapons have armor piercing, acidic, incendiary, man stopper, organ grinder, and shredder rounds to name a few. The ammo is also usually easier to make compared to Bolt shells." Jari turned and demonstrated the shotgun's effect on a closer target for the class before setting it down and moving to the next weapon, a flamethrower. "This is a Flamer. Fire as I drilled into you is very bad on a ship where oxygen is limited. However it is possible to use them to great effect if you get the right training. Flamers are what we like to call spray and pray weapons. You spray the enemy prays. You don't really aim them so much as the enemy either gets out of the way or gets coated in flaming promethium and cooks them alive. Not the best way to go. The Exchesiarchy likes them a lot. We BURN the heretic." Without turning around he lifted the flamer and fired from the hip spewing a molten line of fire across one of the dummies, one clearly designed to be burned as it was made more of cloth than the rest, setting it ablaze. Jari turned to the next weapon in his pile and smiled. "Now this is probably my personal favorite. The Bolter. I noticed a few of you requested bolt ammo for today. If you are ever lucky enough to see one of the Adeptus Astartes, or run into the ladies in the Adepta Sororitas they are likely wielding a Bolter. Bolt weapons fire mass reactive, jet propelled, gyrostabilised, penetrating, explosive fuck yous to the enemy. They have just as many ammunition variants as SP weapons but exceed them in both raw firepower and penetration." Jari turned and took a moment to shoulder the weapon and aim before he fired. The sound of the shot sending everyone's ears ringing. The head of the dummy he had selected exploded violently downrange. "Bolt weapons are loud, they're heavy, and they work. You take good care of your Bolter and it'll take care of you. Launchers are generally relegated to two types: grenade or missile and you better have training and a signed permission slip before you even think of touching either one. Now not much can stand up to a Bolter but for those few things that can we have our last two weapons types." "Melta weapons are heavily restricted on a ship. 'Why?' you ask? Because they melt things. Things like people, people in armor, people behind walls, people in fucking tanks. Melta weapons have short ranges and make up for it with overwhelming damage and the highest levels of penetration." "Right over here. We have an old bulkhead door generously d to us by maintenance. Behind it is a dummy. In an old flak helmet behind a riot shield." Jari lifted up the bulky meltagun. Took aim. Nicole and Lael were the only ones who reached up to cover their ears. Jari fired and a beam of heat lanced out. It boiled the very water in the air between it and the target. The beam hit the door and reduced it to molten slag and then kept going through the shield, through the helmet and vaporized the poor dummy. After enjoying a brief period of shocked silence from his audience he set the weapon down and clicked a button that rotated the portion of floor the target had been on to show off the effect. "Thankfully, and trust me I checked, only one of you owns a melta weapon and you didn't bring it for your first range day." Jari gave Nicole a pointed look and she just nodded and smiled. "Right and then we have Plasma weapons. As you well know we have a lot of Mechanicus friends on board. They like plasma weapons and lightning and more exotic things but back to plasma. Plasma weapons have good penetration more than our Bolt friends but not quite Melta levels. They have good damage. Where Melta weapons have very limited shots per reload plasma have more shots and better range. You can even fire overloaded plasma shots which do near Metla weapon levels of penetration." "But Jari, what's the downside? Why are people terrified of Plasma weapons?" Jari asked the crowd as he slowly pulled on a protective sheath that covered his entire arm and chest. Then he reached down and picked up the pistol Nicole had been admiring earlier. Held it out as far as he could from his body and pulled the trigger. The shot went down range just fine but then the weapon grew white hot and started venting gasses violently. "Plasma weapons can Overheat. When they overheat things tend to go missing, like your hand, or arm." Jari explained as he peeled the slightly singed protective cover off his arm and flexed his fingers. "Plasma weapons are also very hard to maintain and upkeep without a dedicated Armorer." Jari looked around and paused on Nicole. The young girl looked visibly upset and her eyes were staring at the pistol he had just fired. He'd probably need to talk to her about that. "However. They are still fantastic weapons." He hefted the other plasma weapon from the table, a more typical plasma gun and melted a few holes in one target and then went maximal and melted another. "Now there are technically more rare and exotic weapons out there. Those tend to be fairly unique and handled on a case by case basis. Needle weapons, lightning weapons, even certain Xenos weapons if you can get them sanctified and approved for use." "Now it's important to remember a few things. Never pick up a weapon used by the Archenemy. If you want to change something on your weapon do not try and modify your weapons yourself unless you are a trained armorer or artificer. You may not believe me but I believe you can indeed upset the machine spirits of your weapons and if you do you will have a bad time." "Now if you don't know how to do something. ASK. Most of the time when you get a weapon here you will get a guide on its operation and basic maintenance. Myself and the other proctors will be moving around to observe and help you. All of you are to stay in your bays and only fire when given the all clear to do so. If you point a loaded weapon at me or the other officers we will kick your ass." He warned as the group dispersed. —--------------------------------------------------------------- "Sergeant Su!" I called out as everyone was headed to their bays. "Nicole" he said neutrally as he paused and walked over. "How did you do that?" I asked firmly. "You are going to need to be more specific short stuff." He told me with a chuckle. "The Ryza Plasma Pistol. How did you know it would overheat?" I press looking up at him intensely. The sergeant looks taken aback for a moment "That there pistol has injured and maimed more people on this ship than I can count. It's been looked over by every Armorer and even some of the Magi all who say the machine spirit is calm and that the weapon seems to be fine. No one has figured out why it overheats more than not, it just does." He shrugged and I puffed out my cheeks. "I want it." I tell him firmly. "You… You what?" He looks down at me incredulous. "If I can figure out what's wrong with it and make the overheating stop. I want that pistol." I tell him with a small grin. "You want ANOTHER pistol? Little lady, you know I already got permission to look at… that crazy list you call personal equipment. What are you doing? Collecting these things?" "Yes." I tell him straight up. "I am and I want that pistol." I hold my ground as he stares me down, chewing over my offer. "You know what. Fine. If you can fix that menace you can have it. It doesn't get used outside of demonstrations like these anyway. If you can fix it by our next range day you get to keep it." "I have logged and recorded our verbal agreement. Sergeant Su." I extend my small hand which he rolls his eyes at before shaking. "Acknowledged. Now what did you bring by for today?" "My Archeotech Laspistol, my Archeotech Hellpistol, my Mauler Bolt Pistol, I also wore my ring but will only be able to fire it once." I say as I practically skip back to my bay. Behind me one of Seargent Su's eyes twitches rather violently. Muttering under his breath as he stomps over "Ridiculous little… short… pixie pain in my ass."