Ask Simulating the Real Things

[Terra Lanris]

It was a warehouse in the lower districts that Terra had come to meet one of her new associates. The woman was a professional assassin, and that meant she had to be competent in how to fight. How to clear a room and keep her cool under pressure. While Terra wasn't interested in becoming a permanent gunslinger, she had been leading pirate operations and would no doubt have more people try to kill her before this was all over. That meant she needed to know what she was doing.

The warehouse had been strewn with a variety of targets for her to shoot throughout the day, but not at a consistent distance. She'd asked Mars to help her train on how to shoot fluidly. When on the move, in different positions, when stress was high, and when she wouldn't actually know where the next target was. In other words, Terra knew how to hit a target when everything was calm and stationary. She needed it taken to the next level.

She'd brought her trusty pistol with her and many spare powerpacks. While she waited for her partner to arrive she pulled a cigarette from her pocket and lit it, enjoying the way it calmed her anxieties. Quite irregularly, she'd also brought some stims with her. She figured if she couldn't produce the actual adrenaline of a firefight, she could at least simulate it.

 

[Acklay]

When Terra brought it up Mars had agreed almost instantly. She'd never been asked to help train someone before, so she was both very excited and a bit nervous. After a bit of prep work, the cyborg woman had set up in and tricked out some old warehouse Terra'd suggested they meet at.

"Knock, knock!" Mars announced her arrival just after rapping her metal fist on one of the durasteel beams holding the building up, then joined Terra where the tiefling woman stood smoking. She'd brought a pistol too, though it was currently tucked away underneath her coat. "You ready to get started?"

tag: @Phoenix

 

[Terra Lanris]

Terra turned to see the other woman arrived and was eager to get started. She nodded at the question.

“Very ready,” she said. It was a necessity for her line of work at this point. And there was no better training to do than what they had set up here.

“Before anything else, I have to know: how do you keep your cool under fire? I have a tendency to… panic when I’m trying not to die,” she said sheepishly. Were her skin not already pink she’d have blushed at the confession, but she needed to be upfront with her trainer. Not so upfront that she told her she’d once shot her own partner on accident without realizing it. She’d improved since then but still had a ways to go.

 

[Acklay]

"How to keep cool under fire..." The question had a lot of ways Mars could answer it. She could talk about experience, exposure, and practice... but what was the best way to describe how she did it? What would be helpful?

Mars was silent for several moments while she thought, but piped up once she settled on an answer. "Well, for one, just a lot of...practice. You have to deliberately and actively fight against your body's fight or flight response and choose not to panic." Of course, that was much easier said than done, but that was how she'd learned from Bryn. "One way to keep your cool is to remember to take deep breaths. I know it kind of sounds like bullshit advice, but it really does help."

To demonstrate, Mars took in a deep breath through her nose and exhaled out her mouth. "It slows your heart rate, and that allows you to think more clearly. It will make aiming a lot easier, too."

"Is that your biggest concern?" She couldn't decide if training someone not to panic would be easy or difficult, but she would try.

tag: @Phoenix

 

[Terra Lanris]

Terra listened intently. Mars truly had a captive audience and a student who was motivated to succeed. She was talking about her very life here, there was no greater motivation than that. Many people would give her a slow, painful, horrible death if they managed to catch her off guard.

She nodded along with what she said, unfortunately knowing that there was no shortcut to "lots of training." But that was why she was here.

I understand, she said. Yeah, I wanna make sure not to panic under fire and... to be able to fire in all different situations. Not just when I'm standing up nicely on a shooting range with perfect posture, she said.

She motioned over toward the table and the myriad of stims and powerpacks. I brought stims so I could practice with adrenaline mimics, she said, wondering if that was actually a good idea. Seemed like one to Terra at least.

Do I just start... running the course or what? she asked.

@lizziie

 

[Acklay]

"I've got a couple of courses, actually," Mars answered. She gestured to the open warehouse in front of them which had many currently stationary targets strewn about. Some were bigger, some were smaller, some were out in the open, and some were hidden partially behind cover. "But let's start with the first one."

Mars shrugged off her coat and tossed it to the side, leaving her in just a black tank top and revealing the entirety of her cybernetic arms. She pointed to Terra, then to the room ahead of them. "Go through the warehouse and take out all the targets. They're all in a pretty straight line, so don't worry about having to search around."

"But, here's the catch. You've got to keep moving, because in about fifteen seconds after I say "go", I'm gonna start walking after you. If I catch up, you have to start over." She'd set it up so that Terra would have to move quickly to stay out of Mars' reach at a leisurely pace. It was supposed to imitate a time-sensitive firefight or anything where both speed and accuracy would be a life or death situation. Though, in this case, Terra would just get a tap on the shoulder instead of a gun shot to the heart.

"Go!"

tag: @Phoenix

 

[Terra Lanris]

Terra listened to her as she explained what was going to happen and she nodded. The first test didn't sound... too hard. It sounded like the kind of thing she'd be able to manage. It was just like target shooting but a tiny bit harder.

She jabbed a stim into her thigh, pain shooting through her leg followed by her heart rate accelerating. It was pounding, she wanted to start breathing heavily, and she could feel her hands shaking. It felt like being in a gunfight.

She pulled her pistol from its hostler and headed to the starting line, raising it and taking aim.
She heard the shout of "go" and she centered her sights, pulling the trigger. A hit. Off to a good start. Another shot. Miss, but a close miss. Another shot. Hit. She moved down, firing again and repeating the process.

Hit, hit, hit, miss, hit, hit, hit, miss, hit. She could see Mars starting to walk toward her, the tension only causing things to mount. Miss, miss, miss, finally a hit on the last target. Her heart was pounding and it was clear that nearly getting tapped had driven her to fall a bit short in the accuracy department.

I was doing pretty well until you got close, she said, with a nervous chuckle. She clenched her hand to keep her hand from shaking too much.

 

[Acklay]

"Yeahh, not bad, but those targets you missed would've shot you in the back by now," she pointed out. She'd hit most of them though, which was good. "Try again, but when I start walking, don't dwell on it. Acknowledge and keep steady. As long as you don't stop moving I shouldn't catch up to you."

While Terra made her way back, Mars took a second to fix the one or two targets that had been knocked off, then joined her. Once she hit all of them without getting tapped, they could move on.

"Go!"

tag: @Phoenix

 

[Terra Lanris]

Terra watched her set up the targets once again, taking to heart what she had said. Focus on her targets… yeah, easy.

She nodded again and checked her powerpack. The declaration of start was called again and Terra started moving at once. She moved down the line and forced the other woman out of her mind. She focused down the barrel of the gun and for a moment it clicked. Like flying a ship, she suddenly became focused like a laser and her lasers followed suit.

Plasma slammed into target after target until she reached the end, almost squealing with excitement. She turned toward Mars looking elated.

“That was better! It worked!” she said before catching herself and mellowing w bit. “How’d you learn to fight anyway?” she asked after a moment.

 

[Acklay]

"It was!" Mars felt triumph on Terra's behalf as she turned toward her with an excited expression. Her enthusiasm was infectious, to say the least.

As for herself and Terra's question, that was a long story. "Uh, long story short, I was in a gang when I was young. They sent me on the same kind of stuff I do now, just a little less high stakes."

But, that was in the past and she really didn't want to think about it. "Gang's gone now though - most of 'em dead - so I've moved on."

"What about you? What gotcha into...all this?" Question for a question. They could take a breather for a few minutes before the next course anyway.

tag: @Phoenix

 

[Terra Lanris]

Terra knew that story all too well because she had lived it as well. At least in a way. She nodded.

She sensed that Mars didn't want to expand on it and she didn't want to pry too much except for one question. What planet? she asked.

Yeah, I know what that's like. Same story for me. I just was the driver rather than the trigger person, she said.

For me it was Corellia. Our gang did okay up until the end. I learned a lot... still miss them, she admitted.

I tried setting up a real business for a while. One of the others from my gang had joined Crimson Dawn so I ended up joining as well, she said.

Guess this is more profitable and still works with Dawn, she said.

@lizziie

 

[Acklay]

"So she gets it, huh?" Though unfortunate, it was a bit of a relief to know the woman understood what it was like to lose your gang. People could say what they wanted about gangs, but it was like a second family - or in Mars' case, her only family. Her old boss was like a father to her, and her old friends were like siblings. Though she'd moved on, she still missed them.

"Coruscant. Level 2077." Coruscant wasn't all that much different from Omega, except for being a dirtier shithole. The asteroid city, at least, benefited from being significantly smaller.

"I only know two of my old gang who are still alive. One's in prison and the other..." Well, Mars had zero idea where Moxes has gone off to. "...well, she wasn't dead then, but who knows now. I miss em too."

But life went on. She'd bail Bryn out of prison one day, but for now, she had to worry about herself. Thanks to Terra, CD were her people now. Even with his release, and even if he tried to reform the gang, it wouldn't be the same. Mars just wanted to see him free. She owed him that much.

Mars shifted her weight from one leg to another during a stint of silence, eyes traveling to the various targets. Not only had Terra hit them, but she'd hit most of them in vital areas. That was good.

"But, ya know, gotta keep it pushin. You ready for the next course?"

tag: @Phoenix

 

[Terra Lanris]

They both paused a moment after Mars finished speaking, and Terra's own mind turned back to her early life. She'd hated the boss at the top, forcing them into that life, but the others around her who she had worked with day in and day out... they'd been her siblings. Yes, Terra did understand.

You're not wrong, she said with a nod as Mars mentioned pushing on. That was all there was left, and Terra had decided the galaxy was a place where she would take what she could get. That was the nature of business, and that was all Crimson Dawn was. A very powerful business.

Yeah, let's do it, she said, pushing herself up. The last stim still hadn't worn off, but she was adjusting to the feeling now. She bounced up and down on her heels a couple of times, shaking out her arms and drawing her pistol again.

She ejected the powerpack and slapped in a new one, tossing the half-spent cartridge on edge of the table.

What's next? Let's do it! she said, growing more eager with her previous success.

 

[Acklay]

"Glad you asked!" Mars pulled out her datapad and ceremoniously poked the screen with her finger, causing the targets in the room to start to move side to side in janky, irregular, and quick movements. It wasn't the best setup in the world, but it should be just good enough for what they were trying to accomplish today. "This time, while you're moving, they'll be moving too."

Mars then went on to explain that instead of walking after Terra, she'd be on a timer. Every time she hit a target she'd get a couple of seconds added on, but every time she missed, more would be taken away. It was supposed to train her to keep calm and try to maintain accuracy while under pressure.

"When you're ready, I'll start the timer. If you run out, we start over."

tag: @Phoenix

 

[Terra Lanris]

Terra watched as she activated something and all the targets starting moving at once. Her eyes went a little bit wide and suddenly she was feeling nervous again. It would show on her face quite plainly for a split second before she locked her emotions down, taking a deep breath.

Okay, she said with a nod. Okay, okay, okay, she said, this time more to herself.

Go! she said, knowing the timer was starting, but not thinking about what that meant. She shut everything else out, going into the mode that she did when she was piloting. It was all the same instincts and skills just a slightly different execution of said skills.

She fired, performing quite well to start with. The middle she lost her focus momentarily as she thought about how well things were going, and then she faltered. Several misses occurred before she got back on the mark with her shots once again, forcing everything but the targets out of her mind.

@lizziie

 

[Acklay]

"Hit. Hit. Hit. Hit. Miss... Miss. Miss. Hit!" Mars kept track of the hits and misses, taking off time or adding more on accordingly. Terra was doing pretty well, especially since she got ahold of herself and recovered.

"You're doing good!" she called out. Terra had just enough time left to hit the rest of the targets, as long as she kept her cool. "Almost done!"

tag: @Phoenix

 

[Terra Lanris]

It was clear that when she put her mind to it, Terra was a quick learner. And maybe it was also the result of having a good teacher. The final few targets were all hits but one and she finished up with a wide smile and a laugh. Not only was she getting better, but she was starting to enjoy it. More than she had expected.

You know, this really isn't so much different than precision flying or driving, she said. Different muscles, but the general skills are the same. That fact had caused her to revolutionize the way she fought and shot. Normally she fired laser cannons and there was no panic there. These were just much smaller laser cannons.

I might just come out here and do this for fun... she admitted after a moment. It was an empowering feeling just like her piloting was.

I really do appreciate you coming out her to do this, she said. Even if she was being paid for it it was hardly a "conventional" job.

@lizziie

 

[Acklay]

"That's good that you can relate the skills," Mars noted aloud as Terra finished up the course. It seemed that all she needed was a push in the right direction; she was picking it up pretty quickly. Of course the real test would come when things were shooting back at her and aiming to kill, but having a good base to fall back on was always useful.

"And you should! I'll write the targets to a switch so you can activate or deactivate them as you want." It wouldn't be hard at all. Terra would have to kick a few from time to time seeing as they were basically junk on cheap wire, but it wasn't like they had an actual training facility to go to.

Mars clasped her hands together and stretched her arms way above her head, then rolled her shoulders and neck after she dropped them back down. "Hey, it was fun! I'm glad you got some use out of it." The woman's eyes jumped around the warehouse for a second, surveying the targets before heading back to Terra. "Are you all good for today, or are you down for one more? It's a lot more challenging."

If she was, Mars would explain what it would entail. It basically consisted of her firing light stun bolts at Terra while she went through the course. She'd have to utilize cover in addition to everything else she'd learned. But, if not, or if it seemed a bit much for her, Mars would go to collect her coat and start rewiring the targets to a switch somewhere.

tag: @Phoenix

 

[Terra Lanris]

Terra was feeling pretty good about things. The stim was starting to wear off now, and she was elated about her performance so far. It was a great experience and she knew it would be applicable for her work going forward.

That'd be great! she said as Mars said that she could stay and continue using the targets.

Sure, I'm good for one more, she said, having absolutely no idea what she had just signed up for. Oh, it would be fine. She definitely wouldn't get shot and wake up with an absolutely horrible headache, no sir. She would perform perfectly for sure, yep. Definitely.

 

[Acklay]

Once Mars got finished explaining to Terra how the third and final course would work, she would pull out the light pistol she'd brought with her and show Terra that it was set to stun. She'd had to go and get a light damage weapon specifically for this since her WESTAR was far from it.

"Start when you're ready. No timer this time, just don't get hit. Use cover, be unpredictable, and keep your composure."

Once Terra began, Mars would wait until she switched cover for the first time before firing off her first shot. There were only five shots in the power pack, so she waited for opportune moments to shoot. Each shot would whiz just past Terra, close enough that she would hear them fly by, but just far enough to miss.

As the tiefling woman finished up the last targets though, Mars leveled her arm and shot the final one aimed right at her gun arm. Unlike the others, this one would connect if Terra didn't act to get out of the way or take cover.

tag: @Phoenix