[@Gardevoiran][@Xandrya][@iTem][@BKburke][@Rultaos][@T2wave][@ArkmageddonCat][@Silver Carrot][@Strange Rodent][@Vampire Stepdad][@superservo27][@sntabe][@TheEvanCat]

"Hm, yeah, good idea, especially if any of our newer crew mates have any questions"

Stryker spun his chair to find the datapad and turn on the loudspeakers.

“Attention everyone, I was just informed we’re a few hours out from or destination. I want everyone to gather in the War Room in 15 minutes, I’ll share the intel we have on the job. See you there, Stryker out."

As he stood up and prepared to leave he called down the steps.
"Hey, uh Tib? You want the comm link set up so you can listen in?"

A muted 'yes' floated up in response, so Stryker leaned in over her console and flicked the appropriate switches.
"Ok, all set, see you later."

Stryker headed directly to the War Room to plug in his datapad and started to upload all of the briefing files to the holotable as he waited for his audience to arrive.

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[h2][center]Amy's Training[/center][/h2]
[center]A collab between Xandrya and myself[/center]

“Oh, so you're gonna be pretty busy then eh? I was actually...I was hoping you could help me with some marksmanship training," Amy stopped for a moment, holding out a hand to stop Grayson as well. "I'm an okay shot but I'm not great, but I want to do better."

“Yeh?” he asked “I mean, we’ve plenty of time ‘til we get  wherever  we’re goin’, so yeah,  we can do that. C’mon up to the armory, we’ll get some gear an’ ammo.”

He led the way upstairs and marched right on in to the armory. Every surface along his desk space and workbench was covered in weapons, all in various states of disassembly.
“What did ya wanna start with lass? 7.72, or somethin’ a little heavier?”

"Uh, yeah, that'll work," she smiled, looking around the various disassembled parts. Sure, some weapons were familiar to her going off of their parts alone, but otherwise she had no knowledge of what he had laying around. "It should be fine for some long-range practice." 

Amy picked up one of the parts, carefully examining it simply out of curiosity. 

“Right, ok, think you could handle slappin’ that Kilotek on the desk back together? Already had ‘er cleaned up and polished, jus’ didn’t get a chance to put it back together ‘fore I came to bed las’ night.” He grabbed one of the chairs and rolled it across to the far corner of the workshop portion of the room “I’ll load up a few mags worth a’ rounds. Or ya know, we could switch over if yer not comfortable with the assembly job. I’m sure you’re familiar wit’ loadin’ rounds at least right?”

Amy let out a short sigh of disbelief. She knew Grayson meant no harm, but nonetheless the question caught her off guard. 

"Yes, I [I]do[/I] know how to load rounds, I wasn't born yesterday." The statement came off half-jokingly, just like she'd intended. "The Kilotek however is beyond me. Hand me those rounds now, will ya?"

“Alrigh’ lass, only teasin’. Here, you hop up on this chair, the mags an’ a few cases o’ rounds are already set out. Only gonna need a min or two to get tha Kilo back in one piece!”

Grayson slid out of his seat and walked over to sit at the desk. True to his word, he quickly and efficiently reassembled the bolt-action rifle and tested it dry a few times by sliding back the bolt and clicking the trigger.

“All ready here Ames, how about you?”

“Just about done,” Amy rotated around on the swivel chair to face him, her hands busy with the last magazine and the remaining rounds that needed to be inserted. She worked on it a little bit quicker before finally setting down the magazine next to the other one, both full to capacity.

“Alright, let’s do this. My trigger finger is itching.”

“Right-o love, let’s go”

He collected the magazines and slung the rifle over his shoulder before heading out, leading the way downstairs to the makeshift firing range in the gym. Once they arrived, he set the rifle on the table and laid out the magazines. Finally he reached under the table and pulled two pairs of noise-suppressing earmuffs out from a box. He laid one set in front of Amy and slid the other down around his neck.

“So, obviously you know yer basics lass, but marksmanship is more so a skill of the eyes than the reflexes, and if I were ta’ guess, the years of bein’ blind affected that in ya. So that’s what we’ll focus on. Start here though, ya ever used a Kilotek before?”  

“Can’t say I have,” Amy replied, grabbing the earmuffs and subconsciously tapping it with a finger before she realized what she was doing. She then placed them around her neck like Grayson and picked up the rifle. “Walk me through the steps, please? I’d rather do it on my own as I’m a hands-on learner.” 

“Well, real quick, tha’s one of my own there. Kilotek Model 188, bolt action, fluted barrel, 10 rounds per mag, 12x scope with thermal toggle, and that foregrip there, he’s the real treasure. It’s adjustable to any point along the underbarrel to fit the user’s preference. An’ also, if ya’d prefer ta post up in a more covert position, there’s a little switch there that splits the foregrip into a bipod. Comes in pretty handy. So, let’s get to it lass. Load ‘er up, get used to the feel of it, I’ll set up a target,”

Grayson crossed the room, grabbing a paper target from the stack and pinned it to the wall. He fished out a pen from his belt and hastily colored in a dot, off-center and smaller than the actual bullseye.

“May as well dive right into the deep end eh? Try an’ hit that target I put on there, and we’ll use that as a baseline for how much practice ya need.”

"I appreciate your faith in me," Amy smirked in a hushed tone, reaching for the magazine to load up the rifle. After she laid in the prone position, she made some quick adjustments to her liking, especially since she was much smaller than Grayson so she had to readjust the foregrip. She did a bit of a test run, aiming down the sights with her finger on the trigger but with the safety on, so she wasn't taking any shots even if she wanted to. Amy felt comfortable after a few moments, looking up at Grayson. 

"Alright, stand back and watch the magic happen."

Amy took a breath in before she took aim at the small dot on the target. She switched off the safety and placed her finger on the trigger. She made sure to not use the very tip of her finger, so she lined it up just over the first crease. And finally, when she felt at ease, she pulled the trigger just enough to get the shot out. Not with a jerk movement, nor too soft as to jam the weapon, but somewhere in between.

“Nice one Ames” Grayson said as he lowered his earmuffs again and engaged his ocular implant to start analyzing the shot. He headed over and removed the target from the wall.

“Technique was excellent. Top marks there. Ya hit the target too, but the point o’ impact was off by a little bit. So, like I figured, it’s all in the eyes for ya, we train those up a little, and you’ll be unstoppable. Ready for another round?”

He placed a new target on the wall and placed 3 more dots on it with his pen.

“Same deal, sight ‘em up and shoot ‘em dead!”

He snapped his earmuffs back on and walked across to stand behind Amy’s position.

“Not bad if I do say so myself.”

Amy waited for a moment until Grayson walked back to safety, out of the line of fire. She got into the ready position and switched off the safety once more.  

Amy lined up the sights a little quicker this time, having the confidence she didn't have before. Not that she considered herself a great shot, but she found herself handling the weapon with ease. Targeting the dot on the right, she waited for a moment before slowly pulling the trigger again. 

Without bothering to take a look, Amy repeated the process for the remaining targets. She did not want to lose her concentration by looking up and then having to readjust.

“Well done lass” Grayson said after his initial analysis “89% accuracy on th’ first, 84 on the second, an 90% on the third. That’s all up from a 78% score on that first shot ya took, so that’s already a great improvement. Once we get ya to consistent high 90’s on stationary targets, we can try some moving targets.”

Grayson considered the stack of paper targets for a second and an idea came to his head 

“How ‘bout one more?” he asked as he grabbed a target and drew on two dots, so close together they were nearly overlapping, he quickly shaded in one of them then showed it to Amy.

“This is somethin’ I had to do to way back when I was barely more’n a kid. The circle, as always, is your target. The colored dot is a hostage…. And it’s someone you know. Could be anyone, a friend, family member, hell, it could be an old schoolteacher even. An’ you gotta visualize that before pulling th’ trigger. Someone ya know, and love, or at least respect, held at gunpoint by an’ evil piece of shit. Now kill ‘em an’ save their life.”

Grayson set up the target and stood back. For this test, he was firing up his implant right away to study everything that happened, not just the bullet trajectory and accuracy, but Amy herself. How she reacted physically to the task, any areas of tension, or stiffness in her actions and that sort of stuff.

"That took a dark turn real quick," Amy said to herself as Grayson was making his way back to her, her eyes briefly on the target downrange before she turned to him. "No pressure, right?"

Amy couldn't help but picture some of the people she knew, those she cared about the most, being in that situation. Of course this was only a training, with no consequences at all except being told she was a bad shot, but she felt a little bit nervous again. What would occur if the scenario was actually taking place and she missed, but not without injuring or killing her loved one? It would be nothing short of devastating for her.

But Amy had to shake away those thoughts. The loss of her parents managed to affect her with something as simple as training, and it needed to stop. Readying herself again with the same routine, Amy took a bit longer to fire the next shot, hoping to all hell for a positive outcome.

“God damn” was all Grayson could say “Tha’ was damn near perfect Ames.”

He pulled the target down and brought it over to show her.

“That’s a 96% right there, but look here, the ‘hostage’ circle isn’t broken at all. Still a kill shot, an’ the hostage survived so may as well call it a bullseye right?.”

He leaned down and kissed the top of her head.
“Proud of ya love. This one took me a couple tries to get an’ ya took to it right away. Yer a damn natural at this” he paused and tapped his temple “I’ve got a little bit of data to sort through, but if ya wanna keep goin’ we can move on to-”

The loudspeakers screeched to life.

[color=orange]“Attention everyone, I was just informed we’re a few hours out from or destination. I want everyone to gather in the War Room in 15 minutes, I’ll share the intel we have on the job. See you there, Stryker out.”[/color]

“Ah, damn” Grayson said as the announcement ended “Guess that’s all we get for today then?”

“And I was doing so good…”

Amy pushed herself off of the ground, picking up the rifle as she stood up and handing it to Grayson. She also removed the earmuffs, putting them back in their place.

“You know, I think I’m going to like this next job.”

“Yeah? Good feelin’ about it? Well let’s go see what it’s all about.” Grayson put his own earmuffs back, gathered up the extra magazines and led the way out.

“Should be jus’ enough time to pack this stuff away before we’re expected.”