Act 40: Practice

While Easani and Duci are heading to their gun exercises, they come across that human, Mattias, around the center of the base. The Owl isn't sure if she should question it, it might be just another thing out of this world like the Avali and the Synth.

"Ah... there you are." Easani says to Mattias. "I was beginning to wonder what happened to you. Stic's already left it seems like."

"Yes, it seems he did." The man crosses his arms and nods. "I just told the Avali scientists about the spectrum of Infinity Energy from the life force on the 1st to 18th scales. All evidence shared suggest that the dungeon and it's topology was created by the colossal, chief among this evidence is the dot writing the dungeon dwellers seem to use in their divinations and prayers. However we can't jump to a definitive conclusion because we would need to observe a similar phenomenon in another location with the same radiology, aura and behavior. Have you seen stairs around here?"

"Uuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...." Easani has no clue what to say to that whatsoever. As he didn't even understand most of that.

Whatever this guy is saying pretty much became background noise to the Decidueye as she turned her head to look at Easani. "Is he another scientist?" She asks. He is surely talking like one of those 'scientists' she saw.

"Yeah... he's another... scientist." Easani groans into her ear, irritated. His attention turns back to Mattias. "Anyway, Stic has already left through the teleporter, so I presume you'll be wanting to do the same, so you can tell him about these infinity energy scales and divination topologies and stairs and whatever."

The human frowned at the response he got. "Oh, I'm sorry about that. I was a bit too excited there." He looks around. "Stic left already? I could have sworn I wasn't in there for more than five minutes. I'm sorry again but I really need to get going, he might need me." With that said he runs off to the teleporter to get out of here.
Duci watched him go. Well, now she guesses that Easani and her can go back to what they were going to be doing. 

Easani watches him teleport away. 
"Well that was...weird." He says, mostly to himself, but partially to everyone else still there as well. "Anyway where were we? Erm....."
He looks around, and notices the training pistol on Darcy's side. A depowered training pistol that can simulate the real thing, but in reality isn't powerful enough to do much besides causes light pains.  Next to useless in a real fight, but perfect for what they have in mind: teaching someone who has never used a gun before how to use one.
"Oh! Right, gunnery exercises." He says to himself. "Anyway, we'll be going outside for this. Yeah, you haven't been outside in a while, have you? Anyway, we won't be going outside very far. The other guys are waiting for us there."
He heads for the door, one of the ones leading to the maze.

"Let's not keep them waiting then." She followed Easani out into the maze. It doesn't feel very 'outside' since they are still in the maze but it's nice to go out.

The door opens with a hiss, Easani goes through it, followed by Duci. Once outside, very true to his word, they dont' travel far. Barely down the corridor, before they're greeted with a scene. A table has been set up against one of the walls, and on the table are various objects. And on one of the walls is what appears to be several circles on top of each other, each one bigger than the last. A target.
Nezo and crew are there of course, just as they said of course.
"Alright newb, today we teach you how to use a gun." Nezo says. "Given the fact that you're not on patrol duty yet, and that the Grove has ceased any and all attacks, the chance of you actually having to use one is relatively slim for the moment. But still, better to know how to use one than not."
He takes out his own gun, an angled gauss pistol. 
"This is a standard Avali gauss pistol. It works by firing a projectile really fast through the barrel using electromagnetism. If you want to know the exact science, go talk to one of the eggheads. But since you're here to learn how to use it rather than how exactly it works, I'll demonstrate that now."
He holds his pistol up for her to see.
"First, you take your pistol. Like this. Make sure your hand is wrapped around the front of it, and that the other end is pointed AWAY from you. NEVER point that end at yourself, or anything else you absolutely do not intend to shoot. While avali pistols do have measures to prevent accidental fire on yourself or on friendly targets, it's not always 100% foolproof, so it's always a good idea to practice proper safely."
Everyone else nods in acknowledgement.
"Alright. So what you'll want to do next is hit that button on the side..."
He shows her the button, then presses it. A pair of blue light squares appear on the front and back end of the guns, themselves having a circle with a smaller dot in the middle of them.
"This will turn on the holosights, and turn the safety off."
He then points the device towards one of the objects, a small bottle.
"Then, you'll want to line up the two dots on your sight. Now keep in mind for very very long shots, you'll have to make adjustments, but since we're firing quite short range here, don't worry about that. ... Though you really should not be using a pistol at very long range anyway."
He clears his throat.
"Getting back on track, line up the dots on the target you want to shoot. And once you do that, you pull the trigger."
Nezo pulls the trigger, and a blue firey flash, and a semi-loud burst errupts from the barrel. At almost the same time, the bottle shatters and collapses onto the table. He clicks the button again, disabling the sights and turning the safety back on, and puts his pistol away from wence it came.
"Alright scrub, your turn." He says as he turns back to Duci. "Shoot the bottles."
He steps out of the way to allow her a clear shot.

She listened to all of his explanation on this object, and when he used it to destroy that bottle she was left surprised, that shoot was so fast! Duci then understood that he wants her to shoot the bottle with this. "Okay..." She picks it up with her finger-like feathers. Button on the side...she presses it and makes the guns safety turn off while bringing on the sights. Then she begins taking aiming with this weapon at one of the bottles. "Line up what dots...?"

"The dots in the middle of the circles." Easani replies before Nezo gets a chance to.

Well, this is certainly not like archery at all. Carefully, she lines up the sights on a bottle and keeps it steady and pulls the trigger. The projectile fired manages to hit the bottle. Though the recoil caught Duci off-guard.

"Yeah, forgot to mention the recoil... sorry about that." Nezo says half-apologetically. 
"Well, nothing to it now." Easani replies. "Take out the rest of the items." He tells Ducy.

There was miss the next time she fired, but she lined the sights again and hit another bottle, and then another shot, another bottle. Eventually all of the bottles were broken by gun fire from the pistol the owl is holding.

"Alright. Now before we move onto the next segment, I should probably tell you about this. You may not have noticed the little number in the lower left hand side of the back square on your sights?" Nezo informs her.

"Yeah? What about it?"

"That tells you how many shots you have left in the gun." Nezo informs him. "When that hits zero, you will need to load in a new clip. As a general rule, you should always exaust a clip before loading in a new one, unless it's an emergency. As manually loading bullets into a clip is not something you can do in the middle of a firefight."

"Got it." She looks at Nezo, then back at the gun she is holding. "...What do i do now?"

"Well, how many shots do you have left on that thing?" Nezo asks.

"Three."

"Alright.  Don't do this just yet, but when you run out of ammo, I'll show you how to reload." Nezo says as he reaches into a pocket and rakes out a small, rectangular, white object with one hand while holding his gun into the air with the other.
"Okay, first, you find this button." He points to a button on the side of the grip. A bit sunk into the grip, so one will not 'accidently' press it while gripping it. "Then you press the button as so."
He does this, and a click is heard, and a similar object as the one he's holding drops out of the bottom, and onto the sand with a plop. There is a small whine from the gun as the clip ejects.
"Okay, then you take your replacement clip, like so." He holds out the object in his hand out for her to see it. "Make sure the arrow is pointing up." His talon goes to the arrow just to emphasize his point.
"Then..." He moves the object and places it under the handle of the weapon. "You shove it up in there." He does it so, the 'clip' locks in place with a click, and there is a hum as the gun receives the new clip.
"It should lock into place all on its own. Though, you might want to slap the bottom if it doesn't."

"HHhhmmm..." Duci watched and listened to his instructions as he spoke and loaded a new clip in his own pistol. "Okay i think i understand..." She then tried to do what he did, pressing the button her pistol so it dropped the magazine. She then carefully put the new clip in place after one failed attempt and gave it a slap to lock it in place.

"Alright. Now, see that big target we painted on the wall?" Nezo instructs. "The big bullseye.  Try to fire as many shots as you can at it, and try to hit the center the best you can. Next clip you'll shoot from farther away, and then the last clip you'll shoot from even further. And after that, we'll call it a day."

She nodded and focused on the target. This time though she fired as fast as possible thinking it all could hit the bullseye around the center as she emptied the clip, obviously that did not happened.

"Hmmm" Easani hums to himself as he examines the target. There are bullet holes  in the center, but also in the inner and outter rings, and even a few completely outside the target area.
"You need to slow down, line up your shots. This isn't a combat zone, so you aren't under fire, so take your time."
Easani hands her the next clip.
"I was going to have you back up for this next one, but considering how you did here, you'll probably be better off just trying from this distance again." Nezo tells her.

"Alright..." It seems like she embarrassed herself just now. The Decidueye reloads the gun and opens fire on the target again, less trigger happy this time around so her accuracy is better.

A click from the gun, and a big fat "0" in the lower left corner of the targeting hologram indicates that she is out of ammo.
Now that she's out, Nezo and Easani both take a look at the target. A lot more in the center dot, less on the inner ring, and even less on the outter ring. None outside of target.
"Much better." Nezo comments. "Alright, last clip." He says as Easani hands her his last remaining clip. "Now for this, I'm going to have you back up a bit. Over to where Veers is.
Veers is behind her, about 5 steps behind her. He waves to get her attention.
"This will be a bit harder. So again, line up those shots."

"Mmm-mmm, okay." She looked back at the Eevee to see where she has to go. She then takes 5 steps backwards and reloads her weapon. Duci then looks to the target again, by all accounts it wouldn't be too difficult under normal circumstances, she can put an arrow into something over a hundred yards but this 'gun' is going to take some getting used to. She aimed those sights at the bullseye and began shooting again, careful shot after careful shot.

At this distance, she does a little worse than before, but only slightly. Only about two or three more shots in the inner ring instead of the center. Otherwise, it's the same score.
"Hmm... not bad at a distance. For your first time." Easani says encouragingly, patting her back a bit as he does.

"Can these really hurt someone?" She asks. "The holes they leave seem so small..."

"Well, yes. Yes they can." Nezo says. "Believe me, it's a lot different hitting holes into flesh and bone than it is into a rock wall."
"Besides..." Esani adds. "You have a training pistol anyway. A kind of powered-down version for less lethality in case of, well, accidents."
"Right. There is that too." Nezo acknowledges.

"Well..." Easani looks up, seeing that it's already getting dark out. "Er... good question. I guess it'll be time for dinner. In the mess hall this time. Then see if anyone around the base needs help with anything. And then..." He yawns. "It'll be time to turn in. We'll have to have you pick a hammock in the barracks. But yeah."
"As for us, our patrol shift starts... now." Nezo says . "So, we'll catch you later." He waves goodbye, as does Veers, and the rest of his pack as they leave.
"At any rate, I think it's time to head back inside. We'll have to turn the training pistol in for now. We can get more practice in tommorow." Easani continues as he heads back for the base door.