A Realm Reborn

Posted on 21 Oct 2020 @ 9:33pm by Lieutenant Xu Chang Lau & Ensign Gwen Leighton

Mission: Mission 4 - Race against the machine
Location: Armoury
1012 words - 2 OF Standard Post Measure

This was the first time she would step from her quarters wearing a gold collar uniform. It felt different, heavier than the teal she had been wearing from the first moment of her active duty with Starfleet, so heavy that she kept tugging at the collar. Beyond the heavy feeling,beyond her own trepidation about the switch from a niche field to something far beyond what she believed to be her calling Xu Chang Lau felt as if she was stepping into a realm reborn. It went beyond the obvious change as well. She felt more confident, valued but free of her troubles and worries, free of the shadow bringers and horrors she had seen, as if catapulted heavens-ward away from the storm blood remains that were emblazoned on the backs of her eyelids. Add to that her... whatever it was turning into with Oliver... It had been a long time since she had been happy, genuinely happy.

She rounded a corner, nodding greeting at a couple of crewman as she went, it had taken some time but she was finally starting to feel at home on Andromeda but today was going to be a trial by fire, another new element to her rebirth.

"Ensign Leighton?" she asked of the young women waiting at the doors to the armoury.

"That's me," Gwen said with a nod, "And you are?"

"Xu Chang Lau, I've just transferred to Ops from Science" Xu extended her hand to shake the other womens, recognising Gwen from the few times she had been on the bridge at the same time as Xu, the most recent one while she had been at the helm. "Thank you for meeting me. I was hoping you could bring me up to speed with away team protocol, mainly hand weapons. My time with the Cardassian civil reclamation effort meant I have not been signed off on any and with my new position on the Andromeda..."

She allowed the final comment to hang, knowing that Gwen would likely understand.

"First and most important question, do you have ANY hand weapon training?" Gwen said with a nod, "I need to know where to start with you."

"The best I can offer you in answer is that I am accomplished in the use of Tessen" thinking that the Security Officer would be familiar with most types of earth weapon be they modern or from the ancient world. In this case she could see confusion spread across the Ensigns face. "The Tessen is an ancient japanese war fan, usually made from iron with razor sharpe edges. As part of my training as Geisha I was trained as a fan dancer... The principles are almost identical and the Tessen was the weapon of choice for most Geisha to defend themselves as it could be carried without rousing suspicion".

Gwen blinked and then smiled widely, "Well, that's one I haven't heard …ever. You have to tell me more about this Geisha training. I can guarantee you we have nothing like it in our armoury." She opened the doors to the Armoury and welcomed the Lieutenant in, " What about our phasers? Rifle? Have you fired them? We can go over button settings and various uses based on your knowledge."

"I'm a blank slate Ensign... I've seen phasers but I have never even picked one up!" She was almost embarrassed at the fact despite knowing her career path before Andromeda had no need for her to be weapons capable.

"That's actually preferred! It means you don't have any bad habits built up. Which means we won't grate against each other." Gwen typed in the code to shut down the forcefields over the weapons, "Just relax and we'll work you through the basics and then set up a time to get you some holotraining. I promise if you can handle pointy fans than this will be a cakewalk."

The two then proceeded to spend the next hour going through the various weapons, their specialties and settings. They also went over various scenarios in which each weapon would be used. Of course having just had a mirror villain they also discussed the oddest scenarios that they could think of.

"How are you feeling?" Gwen asked as they hung up the last of the weapons and began to lock everything down.

"More confident than when I started I must admit, I prefer the handhelds and not the rifles" She handled the type two she still had in her hand tentatively still, but she didn't think they would be a real problem. She would hope that the rifles would be something she would never have to handle again truth be told. "If I had a choice, I'd like to work on the bulkier weapons first on the holodeck. Get them out of the way and put to bed my worries about them"

"Good choice!" Gwen grinned, "The big ones are a little more intimidating BUT once you get used to them they turn into an extension of your arms. You can use them to hit things and break things and cook with!" She laughed, "But that's a story for another day." She checked the PADD nearby, "We can probably get in for some holotraining tomorrow or the day after, depending on your schedule."

"So long as I'm away team ready for the examination I can pick up the remainder of the training sign off at a later date".
And the date of the first examination was rapidly approaching but she was fighting down the worry about her feeling of being unprepared.

Xu spent the next couple of hours going over the different types of away team defensive equipment. The rifles genuinely did worry her but the type 2 hand helds were by far the easiest to use and was by far the weapon she would choose given the option. It had also done great things with her confidence in what to expect in regards to away team protocol and weapon combat. Now she just needed to get a handle on tactical theory and application and command.