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Post by V.A. NPCs on Dec 18, 2013 14:24:40 GMT -6
After six weeks of basic with his latest class, Relas was starting to get a feel for the strengths of many of his recruits. By now, everyone who was gonna wash out had done so. This particular group had quite a few talented horticulturalists - the VA green house was about to get a few new recruits. Good thing, too - the general had noted that the hospital was going through painkillers faster than usual, and more hands to help grow and process the necessary plants would go a long way to helping close that gap. And after getting shot by accident a few rounds of basic ago, Relas understood better than most just how unpleasant surgery without painkillers could be.
Relas had also kept a close eye on private Mason. He'd proven to be a proficient sharpshooter - better than Relas himself, loathe as he was to admit it. And he'd noticed Mason's doodles, even if that maybe wasn't the best word for them - they were pretty close to schematics at this point.
He'd been right when he assumed at the start of basic that major Tyber would be interested in something like that. Relas had mentioned it in passing, and when Tyber overheard, he got orders to bring private Mason in to see the major.
So, off he went. His basic class was just returning from urban combat training, their last exercise of the day. From the chatter he heard as the group came back, it seemed privates Relas and Shin had outdone themselves yet again. Shin had almost flowed though the building, to the point where it was hard for the other soldiers to keep up, neutralizing threats with his knife as well as his gun. And if anyone but Mason had been backing him up, he'd be dead by now - the class was talking about how Mason had fired his training weapon right over Shin's shoulder and just right of his ear, missing his classmate by inches while hitting the dummy in the bridge of the nose.
"Alright, guys, fall in," Relas said. The group did so, calmly but quickly - Relas had found that using a heavy hand seldom, and making that hand heavy as shit when you did use it, had gotten him the best results with new recruits.
"Not bad work today," Relas told the group as he pulled out a flask and took a quick drink, passing it around the class. Small rewards like that, in Relas' experience, kept morale high, which helped maintain discipline in its own right. He and Draco would never agree on how to get a class through basic best, but they both managed to make it work - they were consistently two of the five drill sergeants with the lowest dropout rates.
After the flask made it back to him, Relas stood back up. "Okay, the rest of the evening is yours. Stay on base - if I even think a group of you decided to sneak off to Crystal Crown again, you're in deep shit come reveille."
As the class split off into groups to go do whatever they were gonna occupy themselves with, Relas stopped Mason. "Mason, I've got orders to bring you to major Tyber, head of R&D for the Vorcan Army. Bring your notebook."
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Post by Mordecai on Dec 19, 2013 22:58:08 GMT -6
Mordecai had gone through the morning and early afternoon as usual. This was nothing new to him but he hadn't seen people like this before. That was the difference but it was nice to experience this again. Basic usually wasn't any enlisted's favorite time of their service but for Mordecai the structure of it all just felt right, felt like home.
After they had fallen in for orders he took a drink of the flask and just listened. He was always thinking ahead trying to come up with something new. Mordecai smiled slightly about the leaving base thing. He looked over at Shin since they were the closest people in this place. He was looking for an idea of something to do when he heard his name and he quickly stood to attention.
"Sir" he said turning toward Relas at attention. He heard what he said and was confused.
"Sir i just have to run to my barracks quick and grab it, Sir" he said and ran off at a jog to his barracks and grabbed his book and ran back to Relas. He followed him down to the R&D. He just looked around nervously wondering why anybody down here would want to talk to him.
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Shin
Mortal
Posts: 8
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Post by Shin on Jan 8, 2014 19:20:42 GMT -6
Shin quietly passed the flask along to another recruit without taking any for himself. Following Mason quietly to the barracks, Shin stood by the door as the other man gathered his notes and designs.
"If you don't mind, and of course if Sgt. Relas approves, would you mind if I tagged along? In the event that they ask about some of the additions you and I came up with together, a second viewpoint might prove useful."
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Post by V.A. NPCs on Feb 4, 2014 14:58:50 GMT -6
Relas shrugged when Shin followed him and Mason. He'd noticed the two of them talking over that notebook, so maybe he'd have answers that Relas and Mason didn't.
The three of them entered the R&D department of the Vorcan Army, housed beneath the armory. The monotone hum of powerful electric currents was occasionally interrupted by the mechanical whirr of robotic arms and various probes and senors shuttling back and forth on tracks, surrounding any number of weapons, vehicles and support systems in various states of completion or disrepair - though it was nearly impossible to determine which.
Relas walked the group toward a heavyset man wearing fatigues covered in small burns, chemical and heat-related. He cleared his throat, and the man turned around. His eyebrows were gone - whether permanently this time or just another short-term loss caused by a 'temporary setback', as major Norman Tyber referred to any accident ranging from negligible to catastrophic, Relas couldn't even guess.
"Major Tyber, these are privates Mason and Shin. Private Mason's the one I told you about, and it seems private Shin has been consulting with him on the weapon."
Tyber nodded. "Right, the weapon. You two, huh? Designed a long-range weapon." He looked at Relas. "Thank you, sergeant. Dismissed."
Relas nodded and left, knowing the last thing Tyber cared about was a salute. He'd likely forgotten all about Relas already.
Tyber looked at Mordecai and Shin, sizing them up. He apparently did it quickly, since after about a second his eyes shot to the notebook. "Alright, let's see what you got," he told the pair.
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Post by Mordecai on Aug 3, 2014 21:36:13 GMT -6
Mordecai looked over at the man who was in the room and he noticed he was a "Major". He straightened himself out and listened to the back and forth with Relas. Mordecai was relaxed and got up to speed with who he was and whatnot. After Relas was dismissed he pulled the notebook out and showed him the sketch.
"Sir this is a weapon that I have been mulling over and was interested in designing. In theory this weapon would be about 3 to 4 times more powerful with a distance that could be as far as a 2 or so miles given the atmospheric conditions. And given the correct ammunition this obviously would not be a silent kill but put in the hands of a skilled marksman... Center of mass would be a neutralizing shot."
He continued to explain how this would work and the physics behind it making it a reliable, non-cumbersome, and efficient. After his quick explanation, he looked up at Major Tybers and looked for a reaction.
"Questions,comments, concerns Sir" he asked in a relaxed manner. He wasn't sure if this was something he was looking for or something they were looking to upgrade upon.
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Post by V.A. NPCs on Aug 6, 2014 20:40:41 GMT -6
Tyber looked over the schematics for the rifle. "Impressive," he said. A thin smile then crept over his lips. "Yeah...very impressive."
"Your range parameters are ambitious, but certainly feasible," he said as he traced across different parts of Mason's design with his finger. "Of course, we'd never be able to do it with glass. We can't grind lenses to that kind of precision. No, this would need a digital scope. Of course that comes with advantages of its own - rangefinding, compensating for windage and elevation - in fact, with shots of that distance, we would likely have to factor in the curvature of Etrah. But if it's calibrated properly, it should eliminate the need for a spotter."
He looked at the chamber. "Chambered in .50 caliber, huh?" He scratched his chin. "We don't have any of those. Of course, Vorca mentioned that you weren't from around here." He paused, just barely long enough to catch his breath. "It'd be cost-prohibitive to manufacture a whole new round for this gun, especially since the price tag is already gonna be high. Maybe if we custom-tooled a 20mm anti-aircraft round..."
He stared off into space for a moment, then nodded, satisfied with that. "Yeah, that should work. In fact, that's perfect. I can build a working prototype in pretty short order if I start with a chamber and barrel from an old AA gun. And the general always likes when I can use broken stuff."
He began poring over the schematics again. "Of course, with a round that size, if this is gonna be shoulder-fired we're gonna need to do better than recoil-operated reloading." He then looked again. "Wait a minute, apparently you've compensated for that. I didn't notice the inertia dampers in the stock-"
Tyber's breath caught in his throat for a moment. He recognized that style of inertial damper; it had been used in Oledian weapons. A lot of the details of the weapon were similar in one way or another to both Reyonite and Oledian concepts, applied and otherwise, but those dampers were copied and pasted. Scaled up a bit, maybe, but they were the exact same.
He cleared his throat as he looked at Mordecai. "Where did you come up with these?" he asked, pointing to the dampers in the stock.
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Post by Mordecai on Mar 6, 2015 19:42:36 GMT -6
Mordecai looked at what he was saying and made notes and adjusted his math as he talked about the AA rounds. He continued to look at his notes and looked back up when he questioned him on his recoil dampener.
He stood up straight and looked forward "I agree if there was something that worked I don't expect you to manufacture something new like that and the digital scope would help individuals who aren't used to this size of weapon." He looked over at him. "Sir,Private Shin made the observation in my notes and recommended that this would help that issue, sir"
He stood there at attention waiting for the next response.
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Post by V.A. NPCs on Mar 6, 2015 20:11:58 GMT -6
Tyber looked at Mordecai, then back down at the rifle schematic, and finally his eyes fell upon Shin. Tyber was admittedly confused - the young man standing before him was far too young to have served in the Oledian Army - hell, the empire had been dead for 30 years and most of the army had been dead long before the 38th, or whatever, in line had signed the surrender.
But the fact remained, this boy was as knowledgeable about Oledian weapons technology as he was, and he had to be 40 years Shin's elder.
He was Oledian in ethnicity, however. Maybe he wanted to avenge his father or grandfather by striking at the closest thing to the Reyone Army that still existed. It was possible he might have gotten the tattoo nicknamed the Mark of the Legion, a tattoo of the royal seal over the banner of the regiment where he served. The tattoo would cover their heart when they salute, right fist over left shoulder. If this kid was that kind of wacko, he may have had a replica done.
"Private Shin," Tyber said, almost too calmly, "would you roll up your right sleeve, please?"
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