TRAINING: WWI GALLIPOLI

[agogemod]

and the band played waltzing matilda;

and it started all over again

OVERVIEW
The day after the Shapers have been rounded up and tossed out - a message from Grothia is sent out to all COST operatives that instructs them: at 0600 hours to present themselves to the armoury to receive their weapons for the upcoming mission and that they will begin their training, as well as confirmation for those that had guessed it from being in the foyer: they will be heading to WWI. They won't received their full kit just yet, but the training is about to start with the weapons. This will be collected off of Chiron in the armoury. This includes the weapons they will be receiving as well as a couple of other bits and pieces:

• Lee-Enfield Rifle
• accompanying Bayonet
• Webly MK IV Pistol
• one melee weapon of their choice: (a club OR knuckle dusters OR hammer)
• A gas mask
• A 30kg backpack

They will also choose to be trained in:

• Machine Guns
• Mortars
• Sniping

Whilst all characters will receive training for all of these, they will be asked to pick one to specialise in. Please sign up below for your character's choice!

Physical Training
Characters will start their physical training from then on. The first instruction: you aren't allowed to take that backpack off except for sleeping and the evening meals, and your gun must always be nearby so you'll have to carry it everywhere. All drills unless explicitly stated will be done with the backpack on. That damned thing is everyone's new best friend. If you take a peak inside of it: there is just a series of cylindrical weights in it.

Physical training will begin every morning from 0600 until lunchtime 1200.

Outside of that, the training includes a series of running, climbing and physical fitness challenges:

• A general warm-up of push ups, sit ups, stretching, chin ups, etc. They're a mix of muscle and stamina build up.
• Sprints. Covering a 30meter distance. Done in sets of ten.
• Wall runs. Characters will have to run and throw themselves as high as they can up a 6' wall. The first few sets of these will be done with only their backpack on. Second sets will be done with their gun in hand.
• Long Marches. There isn't that much space but everyone will walk in line formation around the room for an hour straight.
• Cover runs. Characters will run short distances to reach cover. The first sets of these will be done with only their backpack on. Second sets will be done with their gun in hand.
• Digging: Troughs of mud and rock will be set up and characters will have to dig a 6' hole as quickly as they can. The mud smells foul, point of fact, like rotten meat.

WEAPONS TRAINING
Weapons training will take up the time in the afternoon: from 1300 to 1700, dinner will follow after. On the first day, they will be shown how to clean and care for their weapons, as well as proper weapon safety. After that, at the beginning of each day's weapons training, all characters will have their weapons inspected. Any character who hasn't treated their weapon properly will be made to do extra 100 extra push-ups. Ye-ouch. The Commander cares about those weapons being treated well.

• The Mad Minute. After all soldiers are trained in the correct loading and reloading the primary weapon of the war, the Lee-Enfield Rifle, they're tasked in doing what is called The Mad Minute. The minimum all characters will be expected to reach is 20 shots per minute. The record is 38 shots a minute. They will drill this on average an hour or two, with breaks to adjust for aiming problems, etc. Drilling standing up and laying down, as well as crouching behind cover.
• Close Quarters Combat ( CQB ): This is taught as just bare-knuckle fighting ( mix of krav maga and just learning how to throw a punch and not get hurt ), as well as with the bayonet and their melee weapon of choice.
• Many of the previous drills will be reused but in addition to the weapon at the end. Running a short distance to bayonet someone, running to cover to have to line up a shot and fire. Climb up a wall with a gun to have to fend off an attack.
• Lighting grenades and throwing them. Catching grenades and throwing them back. Games of hot potato will be common.

ROUTINE CHANGES
There are other changes made to help the soldiers acclimatise to the Trenches that loom in their future. They're equally as shitty. We're not sorry. ( Chiron is maybe a little bit sorry ).

• Remember those Gas Masks? At random times with no warning, a putrid smell will fill where characters are present, whether that's their rooms, mess hall or training or other leisure activities. The second it's first smelt, everyone has to yank their mask on. If characters take longer than a minute, they're pronounced dead.
• All the food is still perfectly edible but something had been added to it that it smells foul. Rotten, actually, like meat left to sit in the sun three days. Anyone who's been around a dead body for a while is familiar with it. You're not allowed to turn it down; it's the only food you're getting. Even the Commander is eating it.
• Outside of this, the meals have changed; they're heavy of protein and carbs to keep you energized. Even if a lot of them seem to be cold meals now.
• Weather spikes in the station that spike between hot summer days and cold winter nights at any given point. You aren't allowed to change clothes to accommodate these shifts.
• Certain Capsules will be awoken halfway through their sleep and instructed to stand watch. Others will be made to sleep with only their pillow and blanket in the corridor on the hard ground. This will be done at random, but for the sake of it, characters can assume one or the other has happened at least once every three days.
• The sound of gunfire will also play at random times - run for cover or else risk a heavy whack on the leg or arms from your COs.
• Battle smells, i.e, piss, blood, shit, vomit and death, will fill corridors at random times.

SPECIALITY WEAPONS

For the Mortar and Heavy Machine Gun, live ammo will not be used, but a painful stinging paint, so if you mess it up and it explodes on you, you'll feel it. Again all characters will be getting basic lessons in these, but the one your character elects to specialise in will make them better at it and able to instruct others.

Heavy Machine Guns
Want that dakka dakka? Time to learn about Heavy Machine Guns. Short to mid-range. Everyone who options to train in machine guns will be taught in their upkeep, loading the magazine, unloading and unpacking the weapon, how to mount it on its tripod, how to feed it water, etc, as well as the most efficient way to take out as many soldiers as possible. They are heavy, as the name suggests, and require two people to move and to operate. One to fire and hold on whilst enduring having their teeth rattled out of their skull from recoil, the other to feed in the ammo and watch the water level so the gun doesn't melt. Yes, really, they melt when fired too long. Characters will rotate between watching and loading and firing so both are efficient in both aspects.

Mortars
Like to make things go boom? This is the class for you. Long range, a modern style of canon, mortar fire is essentially firing bombs at people. It's one at a time and requires a careful eye to line up and shoot. It also often explodes on the people loading it, so that requires care as well. A lot of this is learning to gauge for this particular weapon at a glance, but at long distance. This can be over many miles. Part of this will also be how to pick the best target to get maximum effect. Drills will involve having to make snap decisions between targets ( do you pick the officer you can see, standing by himself, or the group of soldiers advancing towards you? ).

Snipers
Want to learn how get that one shot kill? Sniping is it. This is a slow, careful measurement before each shot. The gun is the same as standard, a Lee-Enfield, but it is fitted with a scope and is all about precision and care. Soldiers who take this will be drilled to never miss and to get fast as they can in doing so. This is done solitary.

NAV NETWORK LOGS OOC MEMES PLURK

Comments

Questions?

[agogemod]

Let us do the research for you!

[ryuji]

Any medic training taking place?

[agogemod]

Yes and sort of no!

For the moment, if it is asked about, everyone is getting a rundown of their healing and regen ability, including the loss of limb regen that is possible at the base - just not when you're in the field for obvious reasons. The only true death they will suffer is if their revivacator implant in their chest is destroyed. Everything else can be rebuilt, so to speak.

Healing of average soldiers at the time, isn't addressed yet due to reasons ( eyeshakeemoji )

[ryuji]

Sweet! Good to know. Hopefully we wont have to regrow Ryuji in a test tube anytime soon

Yeah, I was thinking along the lines of trying to get him up to speed on being an ambulance driver or something to that effect/giving him some combat medic training for the soldiers. No idea if that fits in the plot at all, but he has moral qualms that need a-breakin' when it comes to actually killing people.

[heilt]

Angie will cover any additional medic training c: she's always here for that

[ryuji]

Doctor Ziegler, you are the true hero here.

[heilt]

#realangel

[trample]

Would it be possible to do a die roll to see if Eren could beat the Mad Minute record? Just for fun.

[agogemod]

SURE!!

What would you rank his skill with turn of the century guns? :VV

[trample]

It's never explicitly shown in canon and he's never used a gun on screen yet, but it's part of his military's training. Eren ranked top five out of like, two hundred very sweaty graduates (that's discounting all those who flunked out of training), just under a few people with previous, top of the line experience and a person who is superhuman, so...on the scale that's on the FAQ? Probably a 16/20.

[byfist]

THE CTHULU DICE HAVE SPOKE.

14 +3: 16 total.

And by my very shoddy math, that means that Eren is averaging at the 25-28 shots p/m. WELL DONE, TBH. THAT'S HIGHER THAN THE AVERAGE SERVICEMAN QUITE CONSIDERABLY.

[heilt]

What happens if your character wouldnt sign up willingly for training/would say no to their weapons #tokenmedic

Im here for punishment/finding a way to getting her to do it etc

[agogemod]

Grothia will explain that this isn't necessarily a reflection of what she will do in the field but Commander is loathed to send anyone out in the line of fire if they can't use the weapons in front of them. So she will insist very heavily for practicalities sake.

That being said, neither Chiron nor Grothia will force her to do it ultimately, for all Commander will look exceptionally DISAPPROVING. But if she's really set on just being a medic then she will be asked to do runs lugging bodies instead. She will be expected to run all the endure and bodybuilding training. But when everyone else is training with guns...

Say hello to your new friend, the long-term cost operatives if asked call it "Stacey's Mom". She will have to get practised in dragging the dummy onto old stretchers and dragging the weight over her shoulder, etc. It will be the average human weight + 30kg bag. The drills that have to be run ducking for cover, etc, will be done just the same for Mercy - but with the dummy in tow.

[heilt]

I LOVE THIS EVEN MORE thanks mom
Angie will def be able to do the duck and dodge and endurance runs (p sure jack made her before letting her in the field) and she will have no issue with being on body dragging duty

P.s. she will also give field bandage skills to everyone since someone asked about medic training. Theu may heal but CIVVIES WONT THINK OF THE NORMALS

[agogemod]

DRAG THEM.

And if she would be on that, no one in command would stop her teaching anyone that asked. It isn't their biggest concern just yet, but they don't see any harm in it so they're not going to get in her way as long as she keeps it out of standard training hours.

[mylawn]

Angela!!!!!

[heilt]

Yes Jack????

[fessus]

So... hypothetically, what would happen if you got caught taking another character's weights from their backpack for a while and putting them into yours, or vice versa? Just to give/get a break.

[byfist]

Grothia will be incredibly unforgiving of any soldier she catches doing this.

Both parties will get a very stern lecture on how this been designed to help them deal with an even greater burden in the field. She'll go into detail about carrying your own weight so you don't burden the people around you.

They'll also be made to run extra laps with their bags.

[twojedisticks]

Because I and my character are the worst, would there be information available on the shitty state of aviation and its role? Signing Jaina up to be a sniper but the woman used to memorize fighter schematics for fun, so I mean.

[byfist]

At this time, she will be told to focus on her infantry training rather than any machinery outside of the weapons.

If pressed this is because they're waiting on exact confirmation as to the when and where in the war, as between one end of the warplanes go from the simplistic things that had been invented 11 years ago by the Wright Brothers that people used to just throw grenades at each other and were used especially for reconnaissance, to by 1917, active participants in battle because a clever Frenchman worked out how to have a machine gun on a plane and NOT shoot out their own propeller. Ouch.

She will also be encouraged to memorize the guns with the direct angling towards her learning how to do field repairs on them. Because those guns are unreliable, eek.

[twojedisticks]

Wood and canvas deathtraps that can barely get in the sky, she would love and judge them at the same time.

But yes, field repairs! She can do this. Dirt fouling up your firing mechanism is big trouble, kids.

[canadese]

Does the training count as deployment? I ask because of how I need to handle morphing--would Ax be forced humanized at this point or would he have to continuously morph human in order to participate in the training and maintain his oh-so-convincing identity?

If he does have to morph, would this be allowed discreetly by Grothia? Even aside from his desire to stay incognito for now, it would be pretty silly for him to do the training as an Andalite, so either way it's necessary. Additionally, would I be able to play with the fact that he doesn't seem to actually be improving physically despite all this training (two hours isn't really enough time to get fit, after all) or should I say that, per Whit, "he works out so hard his abs become part of his genetics"?

[agogemod]

Training does not count as deployment!

Ax will be encouraged even if he isn't able to maintain it or gain strength to get used to handling the weapons of the time period. So you can absolutely play with that fact! Or if you wanted to roll with abs becoming part of his genetics, we'll let you make that call per what is fun for you.

Grothia will let him go after his two-hour mark for his changes but be a bit confused and assume it's a ~blue centaur cultural~ thing she doesn't know about, because whilst they know he's an alien everything else is slapdash notes due to Agent Young's reconnaissance being what it is - but she will also ask if he starts missing too much training. How are you going to be a crack sniper if you don't work constantly.

Basically DO WHAT IS IN YOUR HEART AND HAVE AT BRO

[canadese]

This is hilarious already, thank you kindly. A few follow-up questions!

How much would Grothia/COST know about his situation? Like, would they know anything beyond "alien" or would they at least know he can change form, if not the specifics of it? Likewise, would Ax be told the weird new mechanics of his powers upon deployment or would he have to figure that out himself?

AND FURTHER QUESTIONS ALREADY, WITH UNOFFICIAL MOD BLESSING: In general, what consequences would there be for not complying with instruction and also just generally being shifty? Assuming that training happens pretty much immediately after Ax arrives, he'll be spending every second he can manage trying to run reconnaissance, given that he doesn't trust COST at all. Taking advantage of his "breaks" that Grothia so generously allows him to actually morph cockroach and try to sneak around places, that kind of thing.

Also, he'd at least attempt to see if he can scifi hack the BRE and see what info he can find at the server or however this shit works, do I look like a scientist