Chương 23: Malfunctioning Class

It'd been a couple days since Afton was promoted, he as given the steel scout uniform that all Initiate's had to wear as well as limited access to the armoury, even if that only included assisting them in repairing things.

Him, Sandra Torres, and the other students that'd passed with them were currently standing in one of the vacant workshops with Doran standing at the far end of the room.

The man nodded at them all before speaking, "Welcome Initiates... Well? When I say something to you I expect to get a reply Initiates!"

"Sir!" they all reply in unison.

Doran nods "Good, now, I will be your teacher for all intents and purposes on most subjects. You will likely have other more experienced people show the ropes on things I am no so competent at. For now I think we should do something fun before we get bogged down in studies... Who's up to go to the firing range?"

Excited whispering immediately starts at the thought of finally learning how to shoot, a few shout out "yes" in undisciplined fashion, but Doran didn't seem to mind. Afton himself was pretty happy, he wanted to see at what level he was compared to the others, especially since Veronica and Christine had given him limited firearm training.

Doran "Alright, if you look to the side of the room you'll see a number of small arms. Pick what you want, there'll be ammo provided at the range." he says before walking to the door.

After steps over to the weapons and spots a few different kinds, laser pistols, plasma pistols, and some other variants of both. He grabbed the closest one and raised a brow, it was significantly lighter than the one he'd fired before... He quickly headed to one of the desks and grabbed a screwdriver to open up its casing, afterwards realising that there was no battery inside. The weapon was functionally useless without that vital component.

He glanced over to Doran who smirked back at him as other students headed to the door, completely unaware that the weaponry was faulty.

Afton shook his head and looked around the workshop, eventually finding an intact, slightly scuffed battery. After checking it over to make sure the weapon wouldn't explode in his hand he made his way to Doran, only then noticing that Sandra seemed to have fixed her own weapon aswell.

"Alright, is everyone ready?" Doran asks, receiving "Sir!" from the group.

He shakes his head, "Initiates! What is the most important thing when using a weapon?"

"Skill Sir!" an Initiate chirps.

"Wrong!"

"Knowledge?" an eleven year old asks.

"Now you're just saying words." he sighs... "Its safety, you can't very well use a weapon if its likely to blow your damn hand off! Initiate Parker! Could you elucidate what I mean for the others?"

Afton nods and displays his laser pistol, "I felt my pistol was lighter than it should be, and so cracked it open to check if its internals were fine... It was missing a battery. We're in a workshop so its likely all the weapons were malfunctioning in one way or another, if we used this at the firing range disastrous things may happen." he explains, the Initiates having looks of realisation flash across their faces.

"This was a test of mine to see which of you could keep a clear head despite all the excitement, all of you should fix your weaponry and show it to me when you're done. If we have time afterwards we'll head to the firing range." Doran states causing the Initiates to scramble towards the tools.

Afton and Sandra remain where they stand as their weapons were already ready for use. "What should we do sir?" the latter asks.

"You have my permission to go to the firing range... But before that. Why did you not help any of your fellow Initiates?"

"It's better they get a stern warning from you instead of assistance from us sir, they'll remember it that way." Afton explains.

Doran nods, "Good, there'll be a Knight on your left when you enter the firing range, tell him I sent you to learn the basics." he says before turning his attention back to the others.

"Thanks" they murmur as they leave, Sandra glances at Afton and smirks, "You know, I only remembered to repair my weapon after seeing you do it." she admits as the walk.

Afton shrugs, "Being able to spot it doesn't make you efforts any lesser, if any of the others had been paying attention they would've noticed too."

The duo enter the armoury and look to their left, a man in Power armour sits at a desk writing into a terminal. He has short unruly black hair with a handsome face and an average length beard.

It takes a moment for him to notice their presence and sends them a curious glance when he does, "Now what would two Initiates need from me? Doran too hungover to teach a class again?" he questions, causing the duo to smirk at the thought.

Afton shakes his head, "Doran wanted you to give us basic firearms training."

"Where's the rest of your class then Initiate?" he asks, wondering why just the two of the were here.

"They attempted to go to the firing range with malfunctioning weaponry sir, we were the only ones who bothered to check." Sandra says, receiving and slow nod from him.

"Alright... I'm Senior Knight Ramos by the way." he says as he stands, taking the Gauss rifle from the desk and slinging it over his shoulder.

"Initiate Afton Parker."

"Initiate Sandra Torres" they both reply with their ranks and names.

"So let me see the weapons you've got and I'll decide how best to do this." Ramos asks and is handed two laser pistols. He examines them and wraps them with his knuckles to check the casing and internal components.

Afton didn't know how much experience you'd need to be able to check if all the vital parts were inside just by tapping it... But he supposed it could be done if you were very familiar with the weight and feedback a properly working pistol would give.