To learn the art of artillery[Artillery training/Open]

The open desert artillery range was just as Rysa remembered it from her days as a trainee, Desolate, sandy, and full of holes. Moving her piece into place with Finnigan, she slowly unhitched the howitzer allowing it's limbers to touch the ground with hitting it too hard. Being the commander of an artillery unit, she had been among the first to volunteer to teach the kiddos how to fire the artillery and properly handle their gear in relation too. The second horse manned by a fellow Garrison artillery man by the name of Kline Howtzer. His horse packed the ammo timber that accompanied the artillery pieces that her unit had donated for the training efforts for the next few weeks. All of them were older models that weren't used as often any more; however everything helps. 

Taking the moment to prepare for anyone who was willing to learn about the art of artillery, Rysa prepared the howitzer by taking out the sextant and telescope out from the timber box and began to measure out distances. She had gotten pretty good at shooting, but could use a little practice. "Hopefully these kids don't blow themselves up..." Rysa said with a sigh as she watched Kline unload their ammo boxes and 3DMG from the box so that it could be emptied for now. Taking the gear that were nearly packed into a carrying case to conserve space, Rysa swiftly began to equip her gear as did Kline. Artillery of this degree was designed to be mobile, and thought the gear was a bit cumbersome, it could mean the difference in a titan confrontation where the cannons were just not enough. A good artilleryman should be able to load and fire while in full gear she thought as Kline set the two ammo boxes beside the timbers at least two meters away from the cannon as was protocol.

Of all the lessons Connor wanted to learn during his training years, this was the last thing he looked forward to.

Artillery training.

Even looking at the machine from a safe distance made him anxious. He tried his damnedest to keep composure but anyone with eyes would see his discomfort. He could only hope that his peers would pass it off as his dislike of the heat, which between being in the desert and his clear Northerner heritage would have been a far more likely factor at a first glance.

He had to do this though...as a wise doctor once told him 'You had best get used to cannons, you will be around them a lot as a soldier.'

He had to do this...he had to...everyone has their weaknesses, but if he cannot find the courage to fire a damn cannon, what hope did he have against Titans?

Auth stopped his horse, then dismounted. He then proceeded to tie him to a nearby wooden pole, but that was more of a formality. The horses used by his family were trained to not mind anything around them, and not move an inch without being allowed to.

Why was he here? Well, given he had offered himself to take part in a voluntary-joining mission that had to take place soon, he thought he might as well pick up the basics of using artillery. Of course he wouldn't have been here if he didn't know they were taking with them a form of mobile cannon to use. And, well, it was Rysa's.

Here, he spotted her deploying the big piece of artillery. And it was kind of impressive indeed. He watched in silence for a bit, then suddenly smiled. He was wearing his uniform now. And it was pretty clear that it was a Survey Corp one, as opposed to the expected MP one. Oh well...

His line of thought was interrupted by seeing Connor. The young man clearly looked like he had much better days. Auth paced slowly to him, and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Connor. Are you afraid of cannons?" The question was on a rather calm tone. He might as well try to inspire the lad some courage, if anything.

Connor's alerted senses turned their attention to the approaching horse, which was tied up to a wooden pole though the beast seemed quite mindful of it's master. Connor's quick glance could deduce him as a Scout, which made his situation a bit more dreadful.

'Of all places for a Scout to be.' Connor thought to himself. Though at the least, the Scout's presence inspired him to put on a braver face. Yet even still, it was unexpected to find one in artillery training considering Scouts rarely use cannons.

Connor took a glance again...the Scout seemed more interested in the artillery. 'If there is a God, I need to thank him.' Of course, if there was a God, he would also have a sense of humor as the Scout read him like a book and paced towards him to address his anxiety. Connor snapped back into full attention. "It's just the heat, sir!" Of course he was going to bluff on an impulse, something Connor was instantly ashamed of, but who would admit it to someone they aspired to be?

'Who are you kidding...you would be lucky to survive the first hour in his shoes, never mind the first day.' That voice of doubt once again played in Connor's head as he looked at Auth and sighed through his nose, mumbling to him under his breath to try to make sure nobody but him would hear it. "Is it that obvious...?" He asked...he was really beating himself up about it.

"Alright, today trainees we will be learning how to shoot one of these bad boys." Rysa said turning around and patting the cannonade. She looked at the pair that had been sent to her piece and too a moment to realize who they both were. One of them was a trainee who seemed to be anxious as ever, and the other looked just like Auth, but with a survey corps uniform on opposed to a military policeman's garb. Strange as that was, she figured that he was probably not the military police type anyway. The winged insignia suited him better then a unicorn would any day. She was however still mad about being lied to, which was all the same. "Alright guys, come on over and get acquainted with it." She said waving the pair over to the cannon so that they could look at it. 

"This here is called the limber, it's what allows us to mobilize this piece." She said kicking the wooden limber that held the cannon itself. She tapped the barrel and quickly explained, "this is the barrel, the front portion is the face, and the interior portion is the bore." She said walking back towards the ammo box. "Oh and this is the node." She said rapping the back round portion used in transport. "So today we will be learning how to man and accurately fire artillery." She said reaching into the box and pulling out a leather thumb guard attached by a string to a 8" metal pick. 

"Alright Kline, to take position 2, you there trainee can have 1, I'll take 4, and Au..." She caught herself mid phrase. "You there...can have 3" she said repairing her statement with a devilish smile. She tossed the metal pick and thumb guard his way as she turned to explain what it was that the trainee fellow would be doing. "Connor is it?" She asked having heard Auth mention his name only moments ago. "Hi, I'm Rysa." She said in attempt to comfort the poor shaken fellow. "Your job is going to be easy, you will be holding the blunt rammer not the worm, so you will be jamming the round in." She said calmly. We are going to do a few dry runs first to get the hang of it okay?" She said turning to walk back to the ammo box to pull out a phosphorus primer. "Alrighty, survey corp guy...just put that guard on your thumb and hold it to the little vent at the back until I tell you to pick it with the metal bit there." She said bluntly as she pulled a primer out of the box. 

"Alright here we go. First trainee, dump your sponge end of that rod there into the bucket and run it down the bore." She said pointing to the ramming rod placed next to the right side of the cannon. "Next the worm fella there to you left will do both the dry sponge and the worm to remove residue." Rysa continued now going to Auth. "You will hold your thumb over the vent with that leather patch there to make sure everything is oxygen free." She stated calmly twirling the primer on the string. "Then I'll advance the round to Kline, where he will hold it ready for Conner so that he can push the round in with his rammer, please be careful." She said rubbing her forehead as she went through each step of firing a cannon in her head. "Next we can actually do the picking which will be your job as well when I tell you to do it." She said pointing at Auth. "After all that we can actually fit the primer in and get set to fire, so how about it people?" She asked awaiting any response. "Oh and one last thing, don't fire till I say fire." She said sarcastically knowing that she was going to be the one pulling the lanyard, however she wanted them to think about it.

//OOC: I was tempted to google the way of functioning for artillery. But you know what, I won't. It'll make this RP that much more realistic.

Auth listened intently to Rysa's explanations. While she obviously wasn't the best teacher, operating artillery sounded pretty easy. Aiming it would probably be the harder part, but it certainly wouldn't be something to pick up fast. Also, there was the problem of operating artillery efficiently, which was a whole different deal. One of coordination and experience.

"Understood, ma'am." Auth said, making a military salute. There was an obvious tint of sarcasm in his voice. Jokes aside though, he made a few steps to take a position near the vent his job would be at. He looked at it intently. Hold his thumb over it, and pick it with a piece of metal? He had to wonder, couldn't this somehow be automated? A lead ball to hold the vent, and a mechanism similar to the one operating the ignition part of a flintlock rifle to pick it... He noted to himself to talk to Mitsuo about this sometime.

He also prepared for his job turning out to be much worse than it first sounded. He liked the smile on Rysa's lips. It made him be certain some pretty interesting stuff would likely happen.

Connor sucked in one more steadying breath before approaching the artillery. His pace was somewhat slow, feeling as if there may as well have been a boulder tied to his back. He tried to at least take comfort in knowing that the cannon wasn't loaded, so that made the approach easier. At the least with his deep rooted fear there was one certainty: He was going to treat this machine as carefully as a sleeping lion, which was a good thing, caution was always a must.

He looked at Rhysa and nodded at her introduction, though he felt the pity in her voice and it honestly angered him. He was a soldier, damn it, he should be getting yelled at for showing fear, though this could just be the warrior mentality talking. Whatever the case, it worked, as Connor's shaking hands would be replaced with clenched fists. He just hoped this dose of courage would last long enough.

Overall this was a lot to take in for a first lesson, so Connor decided to commit his role to memory for now. "Wait for the round to be loaded and jam it in, right?" He asked Rhysa at the end of her explanation before they began. Even with what she called an 'easy' job, he had to be sure.

//OCC: Herdir, this is historically accurate for the technology we are capable of currently. The whole point of the cover is to make sure that there is an air tight removable seal so that oxygen didn't get into the barrel for a premature firing or an explosion with the residue, which was best done with the leather thumb guard. The pick is used to actually puncture the round for the primer. ^.^//

Rysa sighed at the sarcasm in Auth's voice. "Alright then you little shit, man that vent then!" She exclaimed now taking on her role as an artillery captain. "Conner don't just stand there, Pick up the ramrod!" She yelled preparing to answer his question. "Damnit Conner were you even listening, first wet sponge, then you wait for the worming and dry sponge, followed by the round being prepared by that fellow there." She said pointing at Kline as he picked up the worm. "Don't you dare do anything different!" She yelled going back over to Auth who was hopefully putting on the finger guard and using his finger to keep the vent air tight while the sponge was sent down. "Go ahead and dip the sponge end in the bucket there at the front and run it down the bore." She instructed Connor while pointing at the bucket at the front of the cannon. "Auth, go ahead and keep that vent plugged while he runs it down the tube, listen for any blowing air. If you hear anything let me know as soon as possible!" She stressed as she payed attention to Connor as he hopefully swallowed his anxiety and actually learned something. "Make sure to keep your body behind the face as well, don't want that going off with your face right there." She explained as she waited to see what Te pair would do while handling the cannon.

//OOC: I never said I don't trust you. I said I won't first teach myself how to use artillery than have Auth understand super-quick anything you tell him. This way, if I cannot understand what you're said, Auth cannot. I do understand things easily though.

Auth observed the sudden shift in Rysa's tone. He couldn't pinpoint why that happened though. In either case, he put on the guard, made sure it's in place, and put it over the little vent. 'Listen for blowing air, eh?' he thought. With all the movement around, hearing something that subtle wouldn't be easy. Thus, he went a bit against what Rysa told him, and placed the back of his other hand over the thumb. This way, he could easily feel any air that blew out.

He still did focus his hearing though. You never knew what could happen, and the more caution measures you had the better. Still, this whole job seemed that it could be done by mechanic parts. Well, he'd see further on if that was a good evaluation or not.

Connor just nodded as Rhysa took a more commanding tone, getting him into attention. "Yes, Ma'am!" He soaked the sponge and waited for the worming. Thankfully knowing this was a dry run made things a bit easier on his nerve.

Once instructed, he began running the wet sponge down the bore. He took it slow, just to make sure he was doing it right and listen for any queues to stop or do something different. He kept himself as far from the face as he functionally could, as he would inevitably treat this like it's the real thing with the panicked thoughts always smoldering in the deepest center of his mind. He kept his composure though, in fact he was almost more afraid of Rhysa calling him out on something he is doing wrong than the cannon itself right now, which was a damn good sign to him.

It meant he was determined to make progress.

"Good job Conner" she said gruffly as she looked back to Auth. "Any air out the vent Auth?" She asked as he seemed to be doing a decent job at listening. However if the cannon did happen to have fire going inside as he was suppose to be preventing, keeping his hand over the vent like that might not be the safest option. However, he seemed to find it easier then relying on his ears solely. Whatever works for him, Rysa thought to herself as Kline began to run the dry sponge down the muzzle. "Alright, nows the fun part." Rysa said going back to the ammo box and pretending to go thought the motions to retrieve a round. "Now after I inspect the round and deem it safe at least for our training exercise I'll bring it to Kline so that he can hold it over the muzzle so you can ram it down the bore Conner." she said taking the imaginary round to Kline, who shoved it so that the imaginary round was ready to be rammed. 

"Go through the motion of ramming, then I'll prime the piece for the dry fire." Rysa said as she Waited for Conner to ram the round. "After that Auth, take the metal pick and pick the round." She said knowing that Auth was smart enough to know that he would be taking the metal pick and shoving it down the vent to open the round for the phosphorus primer. "Then we can prime and fire." She said waiting for the pair to continue doing decently at their first attempt at loading and dry firing a cannon.

Auth smirked a bit at her. "No air." It was very blunt, but the fact he said it now should suffice to show the fact he wasn't allowed the time to answer the check. True, it was a dry fire, and true, in a real team she probably was used to whomever manned the vent to talk about the air only if he did hear it, but this was a practice run with newbies.

Knowing what was to come, he took the metal pick Rysa was talking about and held it with three fingers, and the hand half-bend. He quickly observed that this grip, usually suited for throwing, wouldn't do here. He adjusted it so he had a more solid hold, and chuckled in his head. Habits seemed to die quite hard.

Now, with nothing to do but prepare to listen for air again, observed that Connor was quite a bit calmer now. While he, as a very obviously soon-to-be survey corp, wouldn't have to deal with cannons very often, it was a good thing not to tremble in fear at them. You never knew what the universe had in stock for you.

As Reia approached the artillery range on her horse, Angus, she could see that the others had already gotten started. She had known that she would be a bit late, as the strategy meeting for the next mission had gone on much longer than expected. Reia had sent a messenger ahead of her, but she had no way of knowing if the instructor had gotten it or not.

Being a Scout, Reia almost never used the artillery. However, Commander Erwin had personally asked her to brush up her skills for the upcoming mission. She wasn't exactly sure why that was necessary, but one didn't turn down a personal request from the commander. However, she did note that only one other Scout was training with the artillery today. She wondered why that was.

Reia dismounted and left Angus near the other horses, not bothering to tie him up. She knew he wouldn't go far, and besides, he hated being tethered to a pole anyway.

She approached a Garrison soldier who seemed to be leading the training and introduced herself. "Reia Britannia, Survey Corps, Special Ops. I'm here for the artillery training."

//OOC: I honestly do not know if Commander Erwin is a thing in the RP anymore. After all, I think there can only be one commander, and at the moment, that's Kaito. This is a thing worth more looking into though. EDIT: posted a question regarding this.