Risen: Echoes of War

Sniper

There was a flash of light and a shifting of air.  Then, standing rather nonchalantly beside Felix was another Risen, this one with Asian features, his muscular arms folded over his chest.  Beside him was a rack of the new plasma rifles the Risen had used in the raid on the transportation hub that garnered the echos their K'ethik shells.

"General, friends, may I introduce our javelin commander, Charge?" Felix said with a smile, indicating the Asian Risen with a gesture.

Charge nodded as the echos turned from Felix to look at him.

"Hannibal," he said with a smile, greeting the former Carthaginian personally before looking at the others. "Hello.  My friend Felix here tells me you echos would like to learn how to operate the weapons that we have on hand, versus what you may remember."

Hannibal nodded.

"Modern warfare is something that a number of us have witnessed, commander, but not actually participated in," he confirmed.  "If we're to contribute to the Risen's effort to defeat the invaders and defend our world, we need to learn how to be most effective in battle."  He gestured at the rack of weapons.

"That includes learning how to fire those."

Charge nodded as he too glanced at the weapon rack.

"Well, you've certainly picked the two people best equipped to teach you, general," he said, his grin widening slightly as he looked over at the tesla before back at the echos.  "Felix here reverse engineered velkin weaponry to give us the tech that built these weapons.  On top of that, it's been my javelins and ballistas that have used them in battle.  So, between the two of us, we know all there is to know about long barrel plasma rifles."

The javelin commander paused long enough to reach over and pull one of the rifles from the rack, quickly swinging it up to his shoulder.

"Let's start with the basics," he said before reaching forward to touch a stud on the side of the firing grip.

"This is where you turn the weapon on."

The sun was sinking in the sky by the time Charge stepped back from the most recent round of target practice, nodding slowly in satisfaction as he looked down the line of echos still in firing positions.

"Better, my friends," he said.  "Much better!  I'd say you've got that last set of medium level skills down pat.  Moving targets, firing while moving, tracking multiple targets; you've all shown to be quite capable with all of these skills."  His eyes narrowed slightly.

"Keep that stock anchored, Adeesa.  Even with all the recoil compensation Felix has built into this weapon working for you, that rifle still carries a big kick.  You can't fight if you're flat on your ass."  Then: "Chin up, Bridget, keep your eyes on your target.  Teach your hand to remember where everything is on the firing grip so you don't have to keep looking down."

Nodding herself in acknowledgment, the former Early American returned her gaze to the target some fifty metres distant and let fly with another follow of discrete plasma packets.  Charge smiled as he watched them this time all hit home in the target's heart, the powerful blasts ripping the massive stone obelisk into a thousand pieces.

A quick glance over at the other targets yielded much the same result: the echos were smashing them to pieces.  If he had been an ordinary shooting instructor, he would've marveled at how quickly the echos had progressed from holding ranged weapons for the first time a few hours ago, to being considered competent with them now. 

It was almost as if every word was being absorbed, instantly acted on and applied to their skill set so that it appeared as though they were visibly improving each minute they practiced.  Even as a Transcended Risen, a being used to having a gamut of skills hardwired into their template and so instantly an expert, it was eerie.