Voodoo

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen did respectably against Paladin Gunny and his Initiates-in-training the other day, well enough that Gunny admitted she was probably qualified for her Knight's rank, but she's not going to be allowed out of the Citadel until she's in good enough condition to pass the fitness and skill tests. Ordinarily she'd be turning to John-117 for help with that, but she hasn't seen him in a long time... fortunately, last night, she hit a piece of luck.

Voodoo said to meet him at the lake at eight AM. She'll be out there at 7:45, in the basic combat armor she bought from Quartermaster Durga. No helmet- Durga didn't have helmets for anything other than recon suits and power armor in stock- but that's nothing new for her.

Comments

[boston_bruiser]

And here comes Voodoo, in a tan polo shirt and blue jeans.

For some reason, Bar saw fit to fill the closet in his room with nothing but polo shirts and blue jeans.

He's brought a spotting scope for the rifle-shooting event, as well as a standup punching bag for hand-to-hand practice. He'll spar with Ellen if she feels up to it. He's also brought a stopwatch for the PFT.

He plops down the punching bag and sets the spotting scope down next to it.

"You ready?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen smiles. "As ready as I'm ever going to be, I think," she says. "I brought the weapons I have here- I don't have the whole training set, unfortunately. Thank you."

[boston_bruiser]

"No problem." He tests the stopwatch. It's working. He resets it to zero.

"First event is the pushup. You have two minutes to do as many as you can with proper form. Get set."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen drops to the ground at once and braces her hands and feet with great care. Keeping her midsection straight is a little bit easier than the original standards might state- the armor makes sagging difficult- but then again, it's twenty-five pounds of extra weight, so it'll all even out in the end.

"Ready."

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo checks her form. Her body's straight, as are her arms. He nods.

"Go!" He starts the stopwatch.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen takes a deep breath, reminds herself to lift her mid-back at the same time as everything else, and shoves herself upward. She's been doing these since the first day she was able to roll out of her infirmary bed and walk around. She can do this.

Which is really the last thought through her head for a while. When you're doing something like this there's no room in your thoughts for anything but the numbers.

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo counts off her reps, looking at the stopwatch every few seconds. The stopwatch eventually makes it to the two-minute mark, and he stops it.

"Time. 33 pushups. Situps is next. Get set." He'll anchor her ankles once she's in position.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Her eyebrows are sweating. That's not a good sign. Nevertheless she nods and rolls over from the prone position, settling her feet carefully. This one's going to be harder- bending in armor's a pain.

"Ready to go," she reports as she locks her fingers together behind her head.

[boston_bruiser]

He nods and holds on to her ankles. He takes a hand off for a moment to start the stopwatch.

"Go!"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Damn it, this was easier in the recon armor the Initiates wear for training... but you don't get a chance at easier when you're out in the field, do you. Grit her teeth and go, that's the only thing for it. Oh, and remember not to tuck her chin when she comes up no matter how much she wants to, it's bad form and it's not going to help her breathe at all...

Two minutes and sixty-two situps later, she slumps back against the ground and does her best to steady her breathing. There's not going to be any more situps today, she knows that all too well.

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo notices this. It's not too hard to put himself in Ellen's shoes long ago, doing evolution after evolution, hour after hour, day after day, all under the eagle eye of Master Chief Jaeger.

He can sympathize, absolutely. But he can't give breaks.

"Come on, Ellen. Gut it out and get on your feet. One more event." He stands up and resets the stopwatch.

"Next event is the two-mile run. Two laps around the lake should do it. I'll be running with you in case you sprain something. Get set."

It's partly also because he'll take any chance at PT he can get. Compared to the 14-mile sand runs they did in BUD/S, this'll be a Sunday stroll.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

She swallows and pushes herself to her feet. "Yessir," she says. "I can do this."

She's had to cross the entire Capital Wasteland in two days, with a full pack and heavy armor. She's going to have to do it again, soon. Her world doesn't give breaks.

"Ready when you are, sir."

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo starts the stopwatch. "Go!" He sets off alongside Ellen.

"Breathe into your gut, not your chest. You want to use all of your lungs, not just half. Keep it up, we're a quarter of the way there."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen would nod, but she's concentrating on keeping her pace steady. This part is... this is harder than she remembers. Dammit. Dammit!

She's not going to stop, you understand, she's just... keeping up the pace is tougher than she remembers. But she is going to finish her two miles if it kills her.

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo keeps an eye on Ellen, just to monitor her condition. So far, she seems fine, aside from some labored breathing.

"Keep it up, Ellen. Pain is weakness leaving the body."

Yes, it's corny motivational bullshit he never really got into in the first place. But it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. They eventually round the lake, back to the place where he set up the punching bag.

"Let's go, Ellen. One more lap."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

... seriously? That far? She used to be better than this-

"Yessir," she says, and maybe even does her best to muster a smile. At least, it feels like a smile to her. To an outside observer it probably looks more like a brief baring of teeth.

Well, whatever keeps one's spirits up, right?

[boston_bruiser]

The second lap passes by faster than the first, and before Voodoo knows it, they're back at the punching bag. He stops the stopwatch and slows to a halt. Ellen took the run a lot harder than he did. Which he supposes is normal for someone recovering from radiation poisoning.

He checks the stopwatch. "If this thing's working right, we've gotta lotta work to do," he says, showing her the stopwatch.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen looks at the stopwatch, panting, and closes her eyes a moment. It's still there when she opens them, though, and so she nods. "It... yes," she says, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Yes, we do. I can't take a... I can't take a score like that back to Gunny."

[boston_bruiser]

"One thing at a time. We've got a benchmark now, and that's what's important." He puts the stopwatch away and nods to the weapons she brought. "Let's move on to distance shooting. What kinda gear didja bring?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Part of the reason she made sure to come outside early was so that she could get her weapons lined up and good to go without having to wear them all at once. It's awkward to have more than two guns and a blade of some sort on at a time. She steps over to the assortment and starts with the smallest of the bunch, a squared-off black and grey weapon. "This is a standard issue AEP7 laser pistol," she says. "It doesn't pack a lot of punch, but it's fast and it's precise, so it's a good idea in close quarters. This one, here-" She indicates her next option, which is probably of a more familiar design. "This is a DKS-501 .308 caliber sniper rifle. Gunny says we have the option of testing with one of these or with a .32 hunting rifle, and I've had this one for a long while now, so... And this, here, is my plasma rifle. We have to have at least one long-range energy weapon proficiency, and I've used one of these longer than just about any other energy weapon I know. Oh, and the combat shotgun, we're supposed to be proficient with those too. I mostly use mine for hunting."

[boston_bruiser]

"Alright," he says, slinging the spotting scope over his shoulder and ambling off to the firing range. "Let's start off with the DKS and the plasma rifle. We'll get you practice with the pistol and shotgun once I build that kill house."

It's going to be a royal pain to build it, with its electrical wiring, strobe lights, closed-circuit cameras, and built-in fog generators and stereo systems, but once it's done? It'll be genuine Training From Hell.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Okay," Ellen says easily. She slings the plasma rifle across her back and picks up the sniper rifle; she's more used to carrying the plasma weapon that way. "If I can help with that at all, let me know. I'm not an engineer or anything, but I can help put things together pretty well, at least."

[boston_bruiser]

"That'd be appreciated," Voodoo says. "I'm not too worried about you getting too familiar with the layout, since I plan to make the walls movable."

He's also going to have to build and move furniture mockups into it. He doesn't even want to think about where his bar tab'll be after he finishes.

They eventually arrive at the range, and Voodoo sets up his spotting scope, setting his sights on one that looks to be about 200 yards distant.

"Okay, you see that silhouette target at the 200 yard line? Try for a dime group on his heart."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen very nearly says what's a dime?, but figures at the last moment that it's probably not worth finding out. It sounds like a measure of precision, regardless. Assume she's aiming for a Deathclaw's eye, then; she's had to make that shot at similar distances before.

As she takes careful aim through the scope she suffers a sudden, distinct twinge of nostalgia for her Gauss rifle. That was a fine, fine weapon, and she misses that thing's crack! and its kick against her shoulder something fierce.

It's been a while since she last had to look down a telescopic scope instead of using her plasma rifle's sights. The initial group she produces could probably be covered by a flattened bottlecap; she scowls faintly and sets about reloading, muttering something about knocking off rust to herself as she does so.

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo watches her technique, then looks at the target through his spotting scope. It's a quarter group. He has no idea who Gunny is, but he's pretty sure he wouldn't accept that. Mother wouldn't.

"You're jerking the trigger," Voodoo says. "Squeeze it evenly and slowly, but straight back to your shoulder."