Battletech: Planet's Fall

Bang!

"Scheiße" he cursed

Richard went back to calibrating his rifle. His previous settings were for a neutral environment, and the planets he had been on were mostly mild or warm and humid.

But something was wrong with the cold. Either there was a problem with his arm or the rifle had a quirk. He couldn't hit the center of the target and that upset him.

"What a stupid shitty metal pipe!" he cursed and tried to shoot again.

Alek walked in and saw the swearing and adjusting and leaned against the doorframe "Issues lieutenant Winters?" Alek asked with a smile.

"Pretty much" he put down his rifle and greeted the big man "Good day Master Sergeant Korolov".
Richard looked at his notebook and entered the new data. "The cold is unfamiliar"

"Ah you are from a warm part of the common wealth eh?" He asked as he pushed off the door frame and walked into the room pulling out his own side arm.

"But you do good. First thing when you get to a new planet make sure everything works. You take your mech out for a spin yet?"

"Hesperus II, to be exact. Jungle, factories and humidity as far as the eye can see," he said and began to refill the magazine of his rifle. "Got around a bit during my tour of duty, but I guess you never really shake off your roots."

He nodded when Alek asked if he had moved his mech yet. "Yup, patrols have been pretty quiet so far, that'll probably change within the next few weeks once we poke the bees' nest."

"Ah never been to Hesperus II but jungle and humidity sound less pleasant. I am from small ice ball planet mostly known for farming ice to send to world's without water. So this cold feels closer to home." He said as he once overed his revolver

"But good just like gun mechs act different in different climates. Good to get a feel for how they move in the cold." He said snapping the revolver closed and firing off a few shots. He was a serviceable shot at best. All his shots hit the target but the pattern was spread and none near the center.

Richard went to the firing range after Alek and fired a few bursts. Apparently what he delivered was quite passable and his grumbling was somewhat unjustified, yet he finished his round with a "Tsk!" and turg the results back into his notepad.

"Yeah, that's why I try to set the whole thing up beforehand. I hate surprises" he said and reloaded.

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D2;LA; FLUFF ROLL; Small Arms:LIW /DEX: 4d10o10k3 24

"Aye smart thing that. Probably wish you had a bit longer of a range firing a rifle like that." He commented before reloding and firing another Salvo into the target. This one was much better basically a dead center grouping of all six shots. "Huh guess sometimes the stars align eh?"

"Have you ever actually needed to use that rifle there lieutenant?" He asked as he discarded the used casings.
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D2 fluff firearms roll: 4d10o10k3 41

"A 150m range would be ideal, but I'd rather not have to use the good stuff in the first place." He marveled as Alek fired his shots. "Not bad, not bad! But to get back to your question, I've used the good rifle a few times. Once pirates boarded our ship and we had to defend loading bay, got one or 2 of them then... and the last time I needed it was on Kelenfold." He told.

Alek nodded his expression a bit more somber than usual "ahh ye Kelenfold was a tough deployment." His tone said more than his words an implicit apology and acknowledgement of understanding what they went through.

"Don't let my range time fool you though if it comes down to me with this thing we have bigger problems. I also just prefer using this." He said holding up a fist.

"This looks like a pretty easy contract though. Doubt we'll need to worry about any of that."

"I hope so, but as they say a burnt child is cautious?" he said. The click of ammunition punctuated his sentence. "What about you, did you serve?" he asked.

Alek shook his head "No, father did though. I left the Commonwealth when I was a teenager and set up on Solaris until I joined up with the Fangs a little over a decade ago."

"Ohhh really?" he replied with interest. "Then you must be pretty smart, I've heard the arenas are pretty unforgiving".