So Far

Trainering Part 2

"R.C., can I have a word with you?" asked Max.

"Okay, let me just finish this last weld.  Done, what is it boss?" R.C. replied.

"I want... um, to uh ap... apologise. <Quickly.> For the way some of the guys treat you. <Normally.>  They ride you pretty hard and there isn't much call for it.  There's some call, mind you, but not for the way Rick talks about you.  Now, I am not apologising for me riding you hard.  I'll ride you until you bleed if I want but that's because it's better than the alternative.  I don't need you dead like our cyber-knight.  And I don't need you getting any of the rest of us killed.  You're a good kid," said Max.

"Thanks boss," said R.C. "I mean, not wanting me dead sounds pretty good about now."

"I thought that might.  We'll make a decent warrior out of you." Max says.

"I also want to tell you that you did good on the mission against the CS goons.  You got the APC shot all to hell but I didn't expect it go any other way.  The point wasn't to nab an APC but to wipe out the S&D team.  The fact that there's enough of the APC left to turn into a 'rolling patch' is testament to how well the mission went.  Even Rick had to concede you got out from enough m.g.'s to see everyone live through the fight." Max said.

RC {depressed} hangs his head and mumbles, "Beginning to sound like the story of my life 'Barely managed to make it through without getting someone killed'.  I'm beginning to wish I asked for more combat training before I was sen...I mean left home."

Max strokes his mechanical left eye but says nothing.

RC's head snaps up.  {bit happier now}  (Rad, more tech.)

"Now, I'm going to put a req through for a new Flying Titan for you. You've got to work on your dodging R.C.  It is a complete wonder you haven't gotten yourself smeared.  No disrespect but you suck man.  You're shooting is pretty sad too but there at least I've seen some improvement during practice.  You have to stop sucking up those mini-missiles, and I have to pound that into Archer too.  The two of you cost us a fortune.

"I get the feeling you're dissatisfied with this situation too, so I'm going to work with you on it.  I am gonna paint your ass and helmet until you get it down to reflex.  You need to get you dodging, and your PA dodging.  Dodging in flight is the easiest when you know what you're doing.  I know from experience.  It takes time.  Lots of it.  I'm old for a reason.  You want to live to see fifty like me you practice again and again and again.  

"Without suiting up I can tell you something that'll be a lot of help.  Dodging in the air isn't like dodging on the ground, you have multiple vectors for escape, and different direction is what I mean.  Use them.  And don't be afraid to drop.  I don't mean right to the ground but you get my point.

"We have a long road ahead of us in this war R.C.  It isn't going to clear up in a couple of days or even a couple months.  Those C.S. bastards will dog us and dog us until we're dead.  We, and I mean Tolkeen, not us particularly, we have to show them we won't be pushed around and that they had better keep to their own states and mind their own business.  So we are in for that kind of long haul.  If you're not up to it I won't bother wasting your time or mine.  You can get out.  But if you stay it's going to be until the end.  Until the C.S. limps home with its tail between its legs."

{surprised}  "Leave? You got neuro-plants or somthin'?" Says RC.

"Okay now that that's out of the way let's begin with the training.  How we do this is targets made of wood will fire real weapons loaded with paint shells at you.  There are paint pellets, paint grenades, and paint missiles in three sizes.  The colours are dependent upon the amount of damage the weapon would inflict.  They are additive.  This means that the more an area is pelted with paint the darker it will become.  Once it reaches black the affected area is destroyed, dead.  We'll outfit you with your own paint shells and paint mini-missiles."

The Flying Titan zipped along the ground.  Max was on the radio, "Push it, push it, drop, jump."

Paint splattered the right side of the suit.  The wing was covered and dripping, a long thin trail flowing out on the ground behind the Titan. "Stop, stop." started Max, "You've lost your wing again.  Come here and I'll clean it off.  The rest though I'm leaving on.  You're battle damaged and that takes longer to repair than slipping on one of the new spare wings. Okay, let's try it again."

The Titan took up its position again.  Max gave the signal to start and the paint started to fly again.  Five, six, seven shots and the Titan still hadn't been pegged anew.  Then the shells became to criss-cross in front and in back.  Max was on the radio, "Keep it up.  That's okay, you'll learn you can't dodge everything.  You have to know what to take and when.  Incoming!"

The Titan dropped to the ground, flexed its legs, hurtled forward through the hail of shells on its thrusters missing the splash of a missile entirely.  "Good show." Max started as another missile sprang up on the radar, way too close to the Titan.

The Titan was still on its downslope from the thruster assisted leap.  The thrusters kicked in again raising the Titan up and left even as the rockets roared to life and pushed R.C. out of the path of the missile.  "Excellent.  Shows over R.C. come on down now.  So how was that?"

"You know, Boss, I think I'm getting the hang of this.  {confidence}  Other than the fact that I keep loosing the wings.  But then again, the enemy will likely go for them first. Say, I just thought of something. If I fold the wings in and drop as a defensive manoeuvre, wouldn't that make me a lot harder for the missiles to hit?  I would take about 8 feet off my profile for a few seconds. <sort of wanders into another thought> I'd have to check the joints to see if they could take the stress. Maybe I could simulate it on my mini comp...."

Max clears his throat.

"Wha? Oh sorry Boss.  {feeling a teeny bit sorry}  You know, I think I might just stand a chance now."

Max chuckles and says, "Good.  Don't think we're done training exercises though.  And once those are actually over then it will be practice exercises to keep you up to your new greater level of combat ability."

The missiles came in from four o'clock.  The radar wailed and then the motion detector joined it.  The strike was imminent.  Max shrieked on the radio, "Get out of there."

The Glitterboy lurched forward as the thrusters began to kick up the snow.  It flexed its massive legs and leapt into the air as the rockets howled to life and sent the massively heavy PA hurtling through the air.  Max shouted, "Target."

Paint splattered in a stitch across the left side of the Glitterboy before it turned, sank in its pylons, and fired.  The target exploded into hundreds of shards long before the boom of the railgun shattered the air.  The radar was wailing again and Max shouted, "Back."

The pylons retracted and the thrusters cut out as the railgun roared to life once more.  The Glitterboy flailed as it sailed backwards.  "Get under it." lamented Max.

The top thruster fluted a blast of air and the ground welled up in the visor.  Then the Glitterboy had its feet flat on the ground, its clawed hands furrowing the ground as it screeched across the ice, snow, and frozen earth.  As it came to a stop it stood and turned narrowing it's profile as a flurry of mini-missiles whizzed past it with almost no clearance.  "Good work Archer." Max said.

The Glitterboy shuffled its feet turning to the left, sank the pylons and fired a shot seemingly at random.  Something in the distance flew apart spewing material into the air.  The boom rolled across the air.  "Holy drek Archer.  That wasn't one of your targets, that's for R.C.;  or it was."

"Sorry Sir but it was the enemy and R.C. can use all the help he can get. But <holding out his hand to forestall comment> that's not the point, it was a live target and I didn't know if it was going to fire on my position so the only logical thing to do was take it out.  Ok?"

"Fair enough." begins Max.  "I _have_ been rethinking some strategy.  This is good practice for when all else fails.  So now we are going to work on when things go right.  I've been thinking about the radar.  We run ours the CS triangulates our position.  They run theirs we triangulate.  Now, you can run radar constantly or you can turn it on for a sweep and off again.  We do it all the time until we've engaged the enemy.  Our new system is going to be the recon team who travels spread out runs theirs in shifts then they go dark.  We run ours similarly then we go dark.  Meanwhile recon has moved about and we have moved about, then we repeat the process.  So we have a net for coverage, the reads come from every which way in little tiny bursts and we get a good view of what's going on.  Now this is fine for when its clear we have hostiles in the area.  When we are uncertain, or if we are planning our own ambush we are going to use the recon team as our eyes and ears as well as Rad and G'lishi from our team."

"As to the grenade problem.  I talked to Chris, and he talked to somebody back in Tolkeen.  The suggestion that was made was to continue using the shield, but we're going to get someone to spell it up for you.  They are going to add a protection spell that will cover the splash damage done to your GB when you block a shot or you're caught in blast radius.  This spell is going to lengthen the usefulness of the shield too.  I don't know how much protection this is going to add but Chris' friend thought it should double the length of the life of the shield and protect the rest of you for that length of time as well.  You won't stand up to continual attack with it but it should give you some time to fall back, or finish off the enemy.  The recharge on it is going to be pretty hefty.  So it's going to have to be used only for grenade and missile attack.  I'll get the work sanctioned right away."