Drafted-Skillplan
Drafted 3 - Skillplan
Skillplan
As the drugs take effect your footing becomes more stable and almost with your usual confidence you enter the ‘Green Hell’ half an hour later. You greet Simmons as he looks up from his datapad projection. He grins a bit, reaching for his head with his right hand, lightly touching the ends of the cranial implant where it connects with his skull.
“Hurts doesn’t it” he says.
“Yep” you reply, also touching your own implants gingerly, “but I am assured it’s quite normal after brain surgery.” You both grin and you ask Simmons what skill he chose.
“Kinetic armour compensation, as we will be fighting the Caldari, that’s what we’re here for isn’t it?”
“True, I got the thermal armour compensation because of the Serpentis pirates we encountered the other day.” A look of realisation glides over Simmons’ face.
“Should have thought of that. Those guys are probably going to be the ones we have to fight before we meet the Caldari in battle.” Taking a look at the projection of his datapad he moves a number of items on what at second glance seems to be his skillplan. “Ah you’re working on your skillplan as well” as you take out your own datapad. “I need to have a skillplan before 8 p.m. as well. What do you have so far?”
Simmons sends you a copy of his plan, adding that it’s just a first draft and all. You look over his choices and point out that it’s very good, armour based, heck defense based is more to the point.
He agrees, saying “well I want to keep as much as possible between me and space as I can. Now I need to work on the offensive stuff a bit more. What should I choose, long range, short range, increased damage, accuracy or should I just go for the drones?” In the next three hours you debate, shuffle and reshuffle the skills. Taking a break as Ferrier enters the quarters. He takes up his datapad and heads for his bunk.
“Don’t you want to join us, we almost have this skillplan nailed” you say as he passes the both of you.
“No thanks, I need to figure this out, besides my head is killing me.”
“Okay” you reply with a bit of sympathy and share a look with Simmons.
“Doing it the hard way” you whisper to Simmons as Ferrier walks out of earshot.
“Well, good luck to him” Simmons replies. “I’m just glad to discuss this stuff with you before I have to go to the Sergeant. I’ll bet he will make me change everything no matter how good it is.”
“I don’t know, I think we thought this one through good enough, even for him. At what time do you have to meet with him?”
“In about an hour, so how about some dinner?” Taking your datapads with you, you head out to the mess hall. Looking over your skillplan during dinner there is nothing you see that should be changed. You contact Aura on the main terminal.
“This plan will take a long while to finish, assuming you live that long that is.”
“Well thanks for the vote of confidence” you reply, and disconnect your datapad from the terminal. While you turn around to head back to your seat, you bump into a nasty looking character. You grunt at the sudden push he gives you as he shoves you out of his way.
“Move it Green” he mutters. Taking a quick look at the patches on his uniform, you learn that he’s of the Red Echelon, still in training but months your senior nonetheless. He is trained in the old ways, Sergeant mentioned that earlier. He also mentioned that the sergeant of that echelon rather sees his grunts die then to be able to pay off their own debt to society.
“See how good you grunts have it with me”, he added, and was met with a collective groan soaring through the air after that statement, with a big grin on his face he left the lot of you gawking at the other echelons. Better not make a fuss of it with this guy, you think by yourself as the Red Echelon trainee walks along.
As the hour of your appointment with the Sergeant approaches, you talk a bit with your comrades in the mess hall. Skillplans are the one of the main subjects, followed closely by the new implants and chosen skills. Another few minutes is spend on guessing when training will be over, which is futile, because the answer is 'when the Sergeant says so'. Finally the moment of your appointment has arrived, with a 'wish me luck' to your comrades you head out to the Sergeant’s office. Knocking on the door, you wait for a reply. Expecting to see Simmons there, you enter after the loud "come in". Simmons is not there, the Sergeant however is, sitting behind a large dull tritanium desk. You hand over your datapad, standing at attention, your eyes fixed on the wall behind the Sergeant as he goes through your skillplan. Your eyes take in the exquisite painting of a natural phenomenon. Vibrant colours, combined with the blackest of black you have ever seen in a painting. You cannot read the title or the artist who made it, no matter how much you try. Suddenly you realize that you are being studied by the Sergeant as well.
“Excuse me sir” you hastily mumble.
“Never mind that, how come this plan is so similar to the one Simmons showed me earlier?”
“We discussed the skills on the plan together sir, figuring out the best skills, starting with defensive and then moving on to the attacking skills, sir” you hastily explain. “We talked about every single skill and the best moment to learn it. Did we do wrong sir?”
“Not quite, you did better than I expected and were smart enough to use each other’s experience, knowledge and perception to hammer out the best skillplan I have ever seen a grunt put together in my time as a training instructor. But don’t get cocky or you’ll die nonetheless. Now find me Ferrier and send him to me early, let’s hope he is as good as you are with his skillplan, though I think he didn’t discuss his plan with any of your comrades.” Thinking back you nod your head in agreement. Yes Ferrier keeps almost everything to himself. Even the special mission the Sergeant gave him was still a mystery.
“By the way, no flying for the next 24 hours for any one of you grunts, until I’m certain you are fit to pilot a ship. I know everything should be fine, but it’s on doctor’s orders. Start reading one of the books on this list.” He taps your datapad and gives it to you. You quickly browse through the list of books, the word ‘history’ seems to be in a lot of them, as well as the words ‘strategy' and ‘tactics’. Oh goodie you think by yourself. More homework, just what I needed. As if the theory on search patterns isn’t enough to keep you up at night. Although, keeping you up would be a good idea, because every time you even look at the pages the lieutenant gave you during the theory lessons, you instantly fall asleep. Leaving you ‘winging it’ during his lessons, and now you got even more bedtime reading. With a shrug you throw a rather sloppy salute and you take your leave to find Ferrier. Suspecting he will be in the mess hall you walk over there. Sitting alone at a table, Ferrier is looking over something on his datapad. You can’t see what it is, but you suspect it’s his skillplan. You knock on the table, as it seems he didn’t see you approach. Quickly closing the datapad application, he looks up at you.
“What is it?” he asks you in a flustered way.
“I’m done with discussing my skillplan with the Sergeant. He wants to see you right now.”
“Ok thanks, I will go to him right now” Ferrier replies as he gathers up his jacket and datapad. He walks towards the exit and you follow him out. As he takes a left towards the Sergeants’ office you take a right to the Green Echelon quarters. After a quiet walk through the almost deserted corridors you enter the quarters. You greet Simmons, who is lying down on his bunk.
“So how did your meeting go?” you ask Simmons.
“It was like a first degree interrogation. He wanted to know what every skill was for and why I chose it in the first place.”
“Well good thing you did, because I only had to explain we created it together” you reply with a smile. Fortunately Simmons could see the humour of that as well and grinned back at you.
“Did you also get some light bedtime reading as well?” he asks.
“Yep. I got every book of the last two hundred years with strategy and tactics in the title. Man, if these things are a good read like the book we got from lieutenant ‘what’s-his-name’ on search patterns, then I will probably use them as a pillow until I’m dead.”
“Well, you better start reading it anyway, because tomorrow we have to take an exam on it” Simmons replies.
“Bugger, I forgot about that. We are not allowed to fly, but a day off is probably not going to happen. Oh well, I better start studying those patterns” you reply, taking out your datapad from your jacket. Hanging the jacket on a hook on the wall, you make yourself comfortable on your bed. Propping up the pillow against the wall, leaning back against it, you start reading through the search patterns. You feel your eyes getting heavy, but this time resist the urge to fall asleep. Reaching for a large can of caffeinated Quafe to help you stay awake you continue reading. After three hours you finally finish it. Stretching yourself on your bed, you see all your comrades busy with their datapads, no doubt going over the same boring book you just finished or changing their skillplan. Looking around you see that they’ve also made a large contribution to the Quafe turnover as the floor of the Green Echelon quarters is littered with dozens of caffeinated Quafe cans. Looking at the time you decide it’s time for bed anyway, taking of your uniform you jump into bed. A last touch of your hands on your new cranial implants and you turn on your side wondering if the skillbook has changed anything yet. Turning over on your right side, you suddenly have an idea on how to improve your armour defenses. You will have to fly again in an exercise against the drone ships in order to make sure that it will work. Then, just as you try to think up more improvements, sleep finally finds you and you quickly drift away.