[b][i]Raven Collins[/i][/b] Two men and a woman made up the spare members of Whitlash's militia, and Raven was training them. Like in the NCR, gender was no object as long as one can shoot a gun, and so the Sergeant was trying to teach all three 'spare' members how to use their weapons effectively. Said weapons were a few old hunting rifles, pistols, and a shotgun, and to save up on ammunition, Raven brought in some of his own supplies of bullets, justifying it to himself as 'training future NCR Citizens'. Whitlash was going to be the NCR's gateway to Montana and its untapped riches, but that made the need for local goodwill more imperative, not less. That was why he dug the new well, because he knew from long experience that it was a good way to gain goodwill if the water table cooperated. Raven now watched his folk try and shoot old Sunset Sasparilla bottles off from the top of an old brick fence, occassionally saying stuff like, "Good!", or, "Relax your shoulders like this," or "You need to break the bottle, not just crack it!" He had to make sure he seemed the ideal trainer, after all; he did have some attachment to the town and its continued prosperity. Was he just telling himself that said attachment was best served by convincing it to join the NCR eventually? Probably yes, but that didn't mean that his ulterior motives were not backed up by some evidence; towns which joined the NCR did get benefits from their willing accession. So as Raven Collins continued to watch his new trainees, a thought snuck into his mind like a thief in the night: What if he were to fight the people he trained one day if the NCR made the wrong move or the townsfolk decided to oppose the loss of their independence anyway? That's a bridge he'd cross when he got there. Right now, he was not going to skimp on their training, with his next words being, "All right; you three can now shoot straight. Now let's go to the inn and -" And then the bells rang, and Raven knew he had to go to the town hall. Dangit, having been out in the hot sun, he was not in any shape to be in a meeting; it'd have been even worse had he not taken a morning bath earlier. Nevertheless, if there was a crisis, there was a crisis and he was going to go where he was needed...