The resident gun nut

Posted on Thu May 3rd, 2018 @ 3:19pm by Ensign Amanda Turell
Edited on on Sat May 26th, 2018 @ 11:43am

1,516 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Misson 1 - Rebirth
Location: Armoury
Timeline: 7th feb 2395 1030hrs

ON:

Walking briskly through the corridor Amanda was in the mood for some time on the phaser range but wanted her rifle instead of the type II already at her hip so she headed into the ships armoury to check it out.

Stepping through the doors she headed straight for the locker that held it.

Gabe was behind the reception area just off the armory in the back working on his initial inventory of the weapons. A PADD in one hand and a stylus in the other. He would grip the barrel of the rifle with the stylus hand and tuck it under his arm to look at the serial number and cross check it with the list on the PADD. He would place the PADD and stylus on the antigrav cart beside him and break the rifle down to do a quick inspection before noting on the PADD whether it needed to be pushed forward in the maintenance rotation.

As he worked the pinging of the doorbell would be tripped that would let him know someone had entered the lobby of the armory. He grunted and looked through the door to see an Ensign enter.

"Be there in a sec." he hollered over his shoulder as he put the rifle on the antigrav cart and noted on the PADD that it needed to be cleaned, immediately. He headed to the front and nodded to the Ensign.

"Hello, how can I help you today?"

"Good morning chief." Amanda replied, she'd heard a new armoury tech had come onboard just before the departure; this must be him. "Just coming to draw out my rifle or some range time."

He nodded "Got the itch to pull a trigger eh? I understand that feeling. Why dont you pull a few 'nades out and really have a good training session?"

"Nah, I'm a sharpshooter, I leave grenades and assaulting to Ensign Joran." Amanda replied.

He snorted "Every officer going out in the field needs to carry some nades. After all better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it." he said grinning.

"True, but if I can't drop the opponent long before they get anywhere near grenade range then I've done something wrong." Amanda countered.

He snorted "Or they snuck up on you." he grinned.

Amanda chuckled. "There is that, now do you need me to sign my life away before I can have my rifle?" She asked.

He shook his head "Just scan the rifle number into the system and put your thumbprint on the PADD so I know which one of my babies you've taken out of the nursery." he paused before adding "Bring her back in good order, or I'll have you in here stripping down the rifles with me."

"This isn't one of your babies chief." She inputted code into the locker and pulled out her rifle, a modified type IV phaser rifle. "She's my baby."

He looked at her and squinted an eye "Every weapon on this ship is my baby Ensign. Even if she's not assigned to me she's still my girl, not much unlike a Father giving away his daughter at a wedding." he grinned as he looked at the weapon and noticed the modifications. "Very nice indeed, you did this yourself?"

Most of it." Amanda replied, "There were a couple of little internal bits too that I didn't have the skill to fit."

He nodded at that and grinned "Well if you want some finer points to weaponsmithing I'd be happy to impart some of what I've learned over the years."

"Could be interesting," Amanda said. "You have a thing for weaponry?"

He snorted "You could say that, I quite enjoy all forms of weaponry from blades to the more current forms of phasers. Though my heart is stuck in the 20th century."

Amanda smiled. "Ah the 20th century, so much over the top violence, I'm suprised we even made it past all that."

"True but they had wonderful weapons to play with." he grinned and pulled a 1911 out from a holster in the small of his back, instinctively dropping the mag and clearing the barrel before offering it to the Ensign.

Amanda took the pistol. "1911, not a bad choice, I prefer the traditional look though." She said noting the grey, black and green camouflage pattern.

He grinned "Well when your tricking it out you might as well give it a facelift." he said then continued "Besides there's some internal trickery."

"I'm a fan of the 1928 pattern thompson." Amanda gave Gabriel the pistol back. "I've a holoprogram of the old mobster days, shooting things up with a 'chicago typewriter' while hanging off the side of a Ford model A."

He laughed "I think I might have the same holoprogram. Though I think I might have a chicago typewriter in my personal locker."

"Though personally, I prefer rifles, bolt action like the old Lee Enfields, I think that is bias because I'm british." Amanda smirked a little.

He nodded "I was always fond of the M1 Grand or the M16A1, but that's personal prefrence."

"The holodeck doesn't do a good recreation of either of them but they're not bad weapons." Amanda remarked, she slipped the sling of her rifle over her shoulder.

He grinned and picked up the 1911, slipping the mag in the well without looking racking a round in and dropping the mag to replace the formerly expelled round before replacing the mag again. He squinted an eye and tilted his head towards the back armory.

"Place your rifle on the rack there behind the counter and follow me." he grinned, heading quickly into the armory area to a secured locker marked "SCPO G. D'Anconia". He pressed a thumb to the reader and provided his authorization code, the door popped open and he moved out of the way for the Ensign to take a look at his personal goodies.

"A Thompson, a Garand, a M16A1, and a Barret .50 cal with a variable scope with various other small arms in the cubby below and several thousand rounds of ammo." he grinned like a Cheshire cat as he showed off his babies.

"You have actual real ammunition for these?" Amanda asked just a little astounded. "How did you get approval for all this?"

"I'm a collector and I do a limited mass production of ammunition when I go on leave. You wouldn't believe how much red tape I have to go through to keep it on the ship. Clearances from the CO, XO, and Chief Tac/Security Officer, plus none of them have the firing pins in them. They are kept in a secure non-disclosed location. It also helps that I have almost as many years in service as most Captains and I was the armory officer on ESD and made friends with a few Admirals who had a boom boom itch that I was happy to help them scratch." his perpetual grin remained on his face as he spoke.

"I can't beleive you actually have a big 50 in there." Amanda said. "Those things were devastating."

"Devastatingly handsome." he said laughing "But yes the anti-material weapons did pack quite a punch." he eyed her again "If you're a good young Ensign next time I go to shoot them I may invite you. It would be with the holo-ammo because I only go through the paperwork to do the real deal about twice a year."

"How well do you think the holo ammo compares to the real rounds?" Amanda asked, despite her attraction to firearms she'd never fired a real projectile weapon.

"I've been modifying the program to provide the proper recoil and ballistics to match my ammo. It's taken a few years to tweaking but the holo-ammo I would say is a 99% match for the real deal. That last percent is just because the holo-ammo doesn't fail, unlike the real ammo. That's great all things considered but it does make you lose the muscle memory associated with troubleshooting the weapons system when a failure occurs. Try as I might I can't get a reliable failure algorithm that feels organic and not computer generated perfection."

"Sometimes technology makes things too perfect." Amanda remarked. "I think I will have to take you up on your offer chief."

He nodded "Like I said, if you're a good Ensign, only the good Ensign's get to play with my best babies." he laughed "Next time I go out I'll let you know. Might even run one of my custom shoot house programs give you a good work out while getting the boom time."

Amanda nodded. "That sounds good to me" She hefted her rifle. "I had best go, thank for the chat chief."

"No problem, let me know when you want to replace that scope, I may have a few in stock that might be an upgrade." he said as she walked out of the back armory into the lobby.

OFF:

Ensign Amanda Turell
Sec/tac officer
[Npc Taliserra]

&

Gabriel Estaban Aubrey D'Anconia
Senior Cheif Petty Officer
Armory Specialist
USS Wolff

 

RSS Feed