"Uh..." The one who was just pointed out vocalised, clearly not expecting to be called on. "Uh? What kind of name is uh?" Fergus spoke, prompting a wave of laughter from the majority of the class.
"J-Jordan sir. Twenty six!" The man stood up, forgetting his embarrassment and gave a Spartari salute. "Former Spartari Phalanx sir, I wish to continue aiding the empire against all her foes. When I saw this club, I knew I had to sign up. Sir!"
Fergus shook his head subtly. He couldn’t fault the man for his patriotism, but it made him squirm. "Thank you lad, take a seat." He then turned to the other sat next to him. "You."
"Keegan sir! Twenty seven! Former Spartari Phalanx sir, I wis-" -"Yeah, yeah. I get the memo." Fergus said before he continued his little game around the room. Eventually, he got around to the man sitting next to Evanthe and said. "You- Oh hold on a minute, this just got interesting."
Fergus stood up from his position at the end of his desk and walked over to the purple haired man. "And just might you be?"
I looked up as the man walked directly towards me for some reason and with a friendly smile, I said. "Hey, I’m Apollo. Eighteen. I’m here to learn more about this interesting advancement in Psionic-technology hybridisation."
"Uh-huh? And your friend here?" He used his head to point towards the Sepiida who was reading- Oh?
I nudged Janine in the side and she suddenly looked up at me before realising Fergus was looking directly down at her. Immediately she got to her job. "Hi there! These big words are funny to look at! What does amplification mean?"
Fergus raised his eyebrow in surprise before chuckling softly. He leant down next to the Sepiida and whispered something into her ear, noticing the defensive, but not possessive micromovements of this Apollo as he did so.
What he said made Janine’s eyes go wide in surprise before he turned his attention back onto the young one. "Show me your bullet."
I raised my eyebrow in surprise and was about to ask what he meant before he rolled his eyes. "Don’t give me the reach around, I’m not into it. Your bullet is infused with Pyro Psionics. Show me." Googlᴇ search 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝⚫𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖⚫𝕟𝕖𝕥
This guy’s ability was clearly able to determine that I could manifest my bullet, so there was no point in playing dumb. To the left of my head without looking a bullet began to form instantly, growing in power.
Fergus watched it for a moment as I let it continue to grow, until he did something that left me flabbergasted. I lost contact with my own bullet. My power was hijacked with zero resistance! "Shit kid, this is actually pretty impressive. The Flame is under control, which is already rare for you fire fuckers, but is also capable of seemingly endless growth as long as you have the strength and control to do so... Gjon, over here!" He exclaimed before looking at me. "Give me a sec kid."
A non-first year suddenly got out of his seat and walked over to the bullet that Fergus was manipulating with a dexterity that shocked me. ’This guy is clearly a prodigy with these bullets.’ I couldn’t help but think with a grin on my face.
"See the streamline? the way its tiny grooves are encouraging spin? Take a good luck and try to incorporate it within yours." He said, causing this Gjon to nod his head while stroking his stubble. After he was done, the man sat back down.
Fergus then looked at the bullet, wrapped his hand around it and nodded his head as he made it disappear. "Another addition to my collection. Thanks pal, lets you and me have a chat after the meeting later. You." He then pointed, getting back on with what he was doing.
I then turned to Janine and whispered. "Hey, are you ok? I couldn’t hear what he said to you for some reason. What did he say?" That was another abnormality as I could hear the guy shouting from quite the distance not twenty minutes ago.
Janine turned to me and nodded her head, she then leant in and whispered. "Im fine, we might have a problem, but I doubt it. He just said. ’Blueberry, you can act as stupid as you want, I have been around mercenaries my whole life, I know their tells better than anyone.’ Should we do something?" Janine then asked.
I shook my head. "No, let’s just see what happens." I whispered back and then listened to the rest of the introductions. Of the twenty that signed up, twelve were ex-military. A few were a bit flaked with their answers not really having a good reason other than it sounded fun.
The big guy from earlier, Bob, said that his muscles can currently only take him so far, and with his Psionic power being what it was, that he needed a fall back, for now.
Another person, a woman with Similar facial traits as Willow, Kathrine’s daughter’s friend, She had jet black hair that was shoulder length and tattoos all down her exposed arm. However, what she said for the reason of her being here was rather scary and uncomfortable.
’I am here to learn the skills so I can kill the bastard that tried to rape me. Got a problem with that fuckface?’ Most teachers would most likely have reported that and the woman would be packing her bags, but Fergus.
"Ahh, damned tinnitus, playing up at the worst of times. Are you all getting it as well? Ahh, it’s so annoying, I didn’t hear a thing said in the last fifteen seconds." Others began copying Fergus and it was understandable why simply from what she said.
I even got in on it and mumbled. "How bizarre, I wonder why this is happening." Evanthe giggled then joined in. "I know right, so weird." Janine had stopped paying attention again, the paper in front of her was taunting her and she would crack it if it was the last thing she would do.
After a few more people spoke, Fergus finally got through everyone. "Right. Everyone above first years, out. The range is open. Take a gun from the armoury and get to practice. First years, huddle up, we have to go over basic gun safety, yeah I know it’s boring, but in order to keep myself safe in the event one of you dumb dumbs accidentally blows your head off while looking down the barrel, I have to do it."
"Bye Apollo, I will see you in a little bit." Evanthe said. "See you." I replied and she scurried off to the armoury with clear excitement. When the rest of the club left, Fergus moved behind his desk and pulled out a rifle. It was the same model Evanthe showed us during enrolment.
Janine seemed to sense the weapon calling out to her while reading as she stopped and looked, her eyes had a hunger to them as she glanced at the weapon.
Fergus patted the rifle’s stock and began. "This little beauty is the PPR-L216. This is what you will be firing today and for the foreseeable future." A murmur went around and one of the soldiers put up their hands, clearly wanting to ask a question.
"To save you the breath of asking the question that is always asked. I have made ammunition for all of you prior. You will get a pouch filled with shot and you will carry the pouch like a new-born baby."
He said and everyone suddenly got incredibly excited. They had not expected to fire the weapons today, this was a great surprise!
"Now, before you start soiling your pants, I need to teach you how the weapons work. Don’t worry, I won’t have you disassembling them as if you break them, your ass is mine as these things are not cheap.
"This PPR is a bolt action rifle. Technically anyone can use this weapon as it does the job of filling the chamber with Psionic energy for you. You can thank my genius for this. While this weapon is not as powerful as the other weapons you will see the other use today, this makes a twenty millimeter its bitch."
Fergus began to explain how the gun worked. I understood most of the Psionic explanation for how the gun drew in ambient energy to use as gunpowder in place of... Gunpowder. But the rest of the gun rigamarole? That was lost on me.
I followed hive doctrine after all. Get in close, slash away with claws, or in my case, Zircon. Sure I had my minigun, rest in pieces, but that was still a close range weapon due to its spread.
Janine however, had practically gone feral. Absorbing everything opposite to Apollo, the Psionics went over her head, but the gun’s features and how it all worked, she absorbed, absorbed, absorbed.
She didn’t care what it took, she was firing this gun, today.