Uibos V3b {Lego}

[Sébastien]

Contemplating what you should do with the remainder of your time, you play with your hands. As you glare around your room you notice a magazine. As you pick it up and begin to thumb through it, you realise it's a propaganda booklet. It talks about the great feats of the Vletrion Confederation, such as pioneering multiple worlds in the Sol Solar System, as well as their decisive victory in the Hyperlight Wars. Inside of the magazine is a police report. It says that a group of raiders were spotted harassing Neptunian merchants on their routes from Neptune to Jupiter. When reading the date, it was over fifty years ago. You begin to grasp the true concept of time and that for your entire life you've been stuck in a tube being engineered to serve a purpose that you didn't even sign up for. These thoughts rush over your mental quickly. You sit and think for a moment, then the thought leaves your head.

What you do next is up to you.

[Deleted]

No point siting and wallowing in the meaninglessness of my existence. Roman gets up, and seeks out anyone that can tell him what the hell he's actually supposed to do.

[Sébastien]

As you leave your dormitory, you encounter someone exiting into the hall from the room directly in front of yours. On their jumpsuit reads a sewn tag "AC-9991". As you inquire about what your actual goal is, AC-9991, who's nickname is Aris, says that he'll be going to the shooting range. When he received his laminated ID card, he was designated as a rifleman that would serve to protect the colony. He urges you to come along with him and practice your aim.

[Deleted]

Roman obliges the man, and follows him to the shooting range to see if he's any good with a gun.

[Sébastien]

You and your newly-found friend walk into the shooting range. You find a myriad of other clones there, testing out their marksmanship. You grab a rifle from the rack, on a platinum plaque reads, NebulaSystems Industries CEA-38 Repeater Rifle. It's hefty as you pick it up, you gauge it weighs anywhere from 5 to 10 kilogrammes and is about a metre long. Aris picks up a shorter, lightweight blaster. As you both begin to walk towards your stations, numbered 32 and 33, Aris check to see if his rifle is loaded, and by instinct, you check yours as well. Thirty-six shots.

You enter your station, a small compartment with a target directly in front of it, about fifty metres. You begin to line up your target. You hold your breath. Time slows down. You squeeze. The loud whirring sound as the ardour volt springs from the barrel of your rifle hurts your ears. You hit the paper target in what would be the throat. You look at yourself, shocked by the outcome. You repeat the same process and aim. This time you miss, hitting the bottom-left of the target. To gauge your average, you begin to aim once more. You can feel your lungs expand as you hold your breath, you stare at the target. Once again, you squeeze. The ardour volt finds itself in the middle of the target, somewhere around the area between the heart and the lung. A kill shot.

When you look over to Aris' target, you see that there are only two holes, both are in the head. One's lower, towards the jaw- the other one hits directly in the middle. You infer that the Confederation programmed Aris to be better at aiming, or that you're just shit at it.

After finishing off your remaining thirty-three shots, you reload your rifle and replace it on the rack. You and Aris meet up again. 

"Good shooting," Aris says. You snicker at his statement. "Let's go to the Mess Hall. We've done a good bit of practice. Time to eat," Aris says. 

[Deleted]

His ears were ringing, thanks to the absence of any ear protection. Hopefully next time he'll remember to grab some headphones before doing any shooting. Regardless, Roman concentrates more on his performance. It was good, but certainly not good enough. Beneath his blank stare, and emotionless face, Roman had resolved to spend as much time at the range as was needed to make every one of his shots a kill shot, but for now, it seemed food was required. Roman follows his newfound companion to the mess hall, not saying a word on the way there.

[Sébastien]

As you walk into the noisy cafeteria, you feel safer. As you walk along the line, you're given turkey samosas, lamb hot wings, and a honey barbeque dipping sauce. While not the most nutritious, it'll be good tasting for your first meal of being actually alive. As you dig into your meal, many sensations and flavours explode inside of your mouth. 

You and your new comrade enjoy the new food. It's awkwardly quiet between you two. Now's the time for conversation.

[Deleted]

(Sorry for the absence. A trip to D.C, finals, and just general procrastination have kept me rather busy.)

Roman was... 'unaccustomed' to such things. He had no idea how to ease the silence, or make conversation, or even he wanted to do either of those things, but he finally conceded to the expectation of human interaction, and asked this "Aris" fellow what his job was.