Bubbles
Posted on Wed Feb 26th, 2025 @ 6:32am by Lieutenant Colonel Cornelius Tremble & Captain Edmund Merrick & Sergeant Major Lachlan Barr
Edited on on Fri Feb 28th, 2025 @ 5:12am
2,012 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
Episode 16 - Silent Cries
Location: Holodeck 1 - Deck 5 - USS Pioneer
Timeline: MD003 0930 hrs
Neil stood in one of the Pioneer’s holo-decks. With most of the crew on leave, there wasn’t as high a demand as usual and he’d marked off a block of time to get some weapons training in.
It wasn’t like that was actual work. It was more fun than actual work.
He finished loading the program at the arch, then dismissed it and moved over to a workbench where he’d laid out a selection of sidearms and eye protection. Phaser carbines were racked on the wall, diagnostics flowing through them.
In all aspects, the weapons were of course constructs of the holo-deck, but programmed to be as tangible and function like the real things. Malfunctions were even woven into the programming to check boxes on qual requirements.
For this, Neil was dressed in a tactical jumpsuit and wore level two training armor. It was all weighted and had pressure plates would work some of his muscles similarly to wearing the MARVEL suits. This wasn’t that training, but there was no rule against doing multiple things at once.
While he waited, he dropped and began doing slow push ups, getting his system moving.
Edmund arrived to the holodeck, the door swooshing open at his approach. He was curious as to what the invite from Neil was about. He took in the set up, raising an eyebrow, noting that Tremble was doing push ups. " Hello, Neil." Edmund deciding to use his given name instead of his normal usage of rank, they were on shoreleave. He just hoped that Neil wasn't going to disappear like the last time he had used his name.
Lachlan hated downtime. Too much time to get lazy and for routines to slip. He never begrudged his people their time off, he worked them hard and for good reason. Entering the holodeck he found Tremble and Merrick in conversation already. He was in his marine fatigues having taken a more casual approach to his dress code during shore leave. "Colonel, Captain." he said moving towards them as Neil stood up.
Neil climbed to his feet, his bio readings flickering in his contact, the computer recording the results as he reviewed Merrick and Barr. "Fellow cake eaters," he said using a former enlisted term for command ranks that didn't do any real work. Grinning, he said, "I take it shore leave isn't eating into your souls? He stepped over to the weapons rack and gestured, "No need to be formal top, it's range day. Pick your poison gents."
Ed looked at the weapons available, as well as the set up. "This looks like it will get interesting as things go." as he got geared up for this session.
Neil already had training body armor and web gear on, but he went through the motions holstering a standard type 2 phaser in a thigh rig and attached a phaser carbine to tethers.
"Ok," Neil said, as he adjusted reflective eyewear on his face, "We're going to run through a multi-vector course of fire, concentrating on choosing the most efficient use of our weapons. We'll save fun house training for another day. This is all marksmanship. Target bubbles will drop as we begin the program, speeding up as we get into the program."
He'd recited this often enough that he didn't have to think too much about it. This was a non-standard course, but he favored it. "This particular course stresses threat assessment and tactical decision making." Neil grinned wolfishly then, "Ed, your targets will begin as blue. Lachlan, yours are purple and mine will be green. We'll be back to back in a triangle facing out, but the bubbles will revolve around us. We'll score by popping them. Individual bubbles may turn white at some point as they move, becoming non-combatants, so try not to kill the friendlies?" He continued his instructions as he brought up the firing triangle.
"As well as turning white, some of our individual targets will flash yellow, indicating that any of us can take them out, stealing points from one another. Likewise, be aware that if your bubbles strobe, that means they're armored. You'll either need to change your fire mode from pulse to stream, or hit them with more shots. More shots take time and the little suckers just might dodge a bit. Using phaser stream will pop them faster, as the dwell time gets more energy on target rather than losing efficiency through containment of the pulse. But it's dealers choice."
As he cracked the muscles in his neck and stretched, he said off-handedly. "Oh yeah. Almost forgot. If a colored circle hits the ground that started with your individual color, we'll get shocks through the training vest to remind us that we shouldn't be missing..."
Smiling sweetly at his marines, he asked, "Any questions?"
"Just how much of a shock are you saying we'll be experiencing?" Edmund had gotten himself a phaser rifle as well as the type two phaser.
Humming slightly, Neil ran both of his chosen weapons through power up checks and double checked his power packs. "First shock isn't too bad. Second one will make your hair stand up. Third one might just knock you out cold...your armor and the computer will take some things into consideration. We won't be moving and taking cover during this, but you can crouch and shift to one side or the other to weave shots as you think necessary." Neil strapped a light helmet on that had it's own visor and rolled his neck to settle everything.
One of Edmunds eyebrow's raised, when he heard Neil's answer. "Mental note, don't let the blue orb hit the ground. It could be an electrifying moment." as a slow smile crawled across his face. "Good reason not to miss." he paused "What if perchance the colored orb assigned to me, I miss but hit one of yours instead?" He wasn't about to miss but Edmund wanted to get a bit more details, just in case.
"A miss is a miss," Neil said. "Mr. Merrick, are you telling me you are going to blaze away like a Fleety? All Pew Pew, spray and pray?"
Edmund flashed a glance at Neil, eyes narrowing, then he winked, and gave a chuckle. "Nah, just wanted to make certain you didn't have a trick up your sleeve in case someone hit someone else's orb, and there is an electric shock from that as well. Though-" he mused. "Perhaps that could have helped if that happened in a training course."
"Everything this training, Ed," Neil remarked. "Shooting a target you're not supposed to is just like hitting an innocent bystander, or a hostage."
"Which means getting a shock. Okay, that definitely answered my question. " Edmund checked once more his gear, it was all in readiness. This was going to prove to be rather interesting.
Taking up his spot, Neil settled his mind to the task. He turned his head only slightly to check Ed and Lachlan in his periphery, then the lights dimmed slightly and bubbles, all about an old earth basketball in size, began floating down from the ceiling in front of them. Raising the phaser carbine, which was on pulse for now. All of the bubbles were a uniform clear white at first, then they began strobing colors. Neil beamed three green in his direct cone of fire, then caught one on Lachlan's side and moved to fire, forced to crouch to avoid shooting the wrong target. Things began to speed up and he grinned as Tiny Bubbles began playing ever so softly.
Edmund raised an eyebrow at the song that started playing in the background, a more instrumental music. then he grinned, the basket ball sized targets seemed simple enough to shoot, and he hit his first targets, easy-peasy right? Then they sped up, so far so good. Pop pop, angling to where he won't hit the targets of Barr and Neil. the balls whirling about them, Edmund was starting to feel like he was in the center of a merry-go-round. Shifting his angle he saw something flashing in the corner of his eye, the color blue which moved just as he fired a shot, he missed and hit a white ball instead. He grunted, feeling the shock of being zapped. Did he hesitate just a nano second too long? A few more, another hit to the wrong color. Neil's. Edmund gave out a yipe when the second zap occurred, Neil wasn't lying....
Lachlan loved a little point and shoot as much as the next man. He hadn't found the program to be difficult and he always found his target. He practised daily on his marksmanship and made sure that no matter what he was ready for a fight of any kind. The music was a strange touch, old fashioned to be sure but then again in the field anything could happen, any distractive factor could be in play. There was no hesitation, no misses as he fired true each shot.
Merrick made certain not to miss anymore, saving himself from anymore embarrassment. He had been better, Edmund normally was more accurate, he was off his game, and it troubled him greatly. He'll have to make certain to schedule more time to polish his skill.
As the orb drop sped up, Neil fired and indexed. Fired and indexed until the carbine's program threw a malfunction at him. Keeping his eyes on the descending green orbs, he squeezed the carbine's power well release and slapped in a fresh power pack. The he now had five orb's spinning closer to the deck and he brought his weapon back up and began feathering the trigger. It took ten shots and he had to thumb over from pulse to stream. That slowed his shots down and he felt sweat break out.
Two minutes later it was over and the lights came up and the bubbles all turned back to white as a full dose fell about the three marines and then all popped at once, clearing the range area and giving them all a jolt.
Just a little one.
Grinning, Neil pulled his eyeware down around his neck and letting the carbine drop to hang and retract on the straps of his combat harness. "That gets the blood pumping. The three's scores popped up in their given hemispheres. All within expectable ranges, though Ed's were lower than his base line. Eyeing the Cure's CO, he said, "Good times. Everyone qualified as normal. Any questions, comments or complaints, talk to your recruiter."
That last jolt, even though it was minor, made Edmund jump. He had an obvious epression of relief to find that he was still conscious. Turning towards the other two, Edmund noticed the glance that Neil gave him. It was there, Edmund's score lower than usual. Sure he passed but it was barely, as far as Edmund was concerned. Edmund was getting the sense, deep in his gut that there might be a discussion in the near future as to why, his score was lower, and maybe other things might be brought up.
"I enjoyed it immensely." Edmund giving a crooked smile.
"Range time is fun time," Neil said as he wiped down his weapons, even though they weren't real. Some things you did regardless. After racking everything, he said, "Alright. First rounds on me get yourselves squared away and I'll be in After 11 in twenty.
A Joint Post By
Lieutenant Colonel Cornelius Tremble
Executive Officer, USS Pioneer
Battalion Commander, The Cure
Captain Edmund Merrick
Company Commanding Officer, The Cure
USS Pioneer
Sergeant Major Lachlan Barr
Chief of The Boat, USS Pioneer
First Sergeant, The Cure
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