The West Sea

Chapter 6: Amanium

"So this goes here... Uncouple the power connectors first before... Arman? What are you doing? I said... Arman!"

A small white smoke puffed in front of Arman's repair table while Dara walked off to get another set of power connectors from the loading bay's hanging shelves; the test rifle's circuitry sizzled in the air while fragments of white sparks floated above the disassembled weapon.

"Arman Bruno, you idiot! You wasted a perfectly good battery. Well, alright, let's try again," sighed Dara Palilia, her patience waning thin.

She had been teaching basic Hydro-Rifle repair and maintenance to Arman who, with a bit of luck, had managed to grasp the concept of it, although his was having trouble with connecting the main battery pack to the oscillating converter.

"Hey, look! No fire this time. That's a first," remarked Arman about his apparent progress.

"Yeah, yeah. Just make sure to attach the connectors properly this time," added Dara as she went back to the repair table.

Once the power connectors were done and ready, Dara showed how the Amanium-powered Hydro-Rifle worked to Arman so he can better understand what it was that made the weapon work.

"So here you have the battery pack, which contains about an ounce of Amanium. It's connected to this chamber here, which super heats the salt water chamber here."

Dara pointed at the rifle's gold-crested sphere as she continued her lesson.

"Then the water is rapidly desalinated and converts the remaining crystallized salt into your ammo inside here. It's bit small, but you can see the long tube that propels the crystal forward to the end of the barrel using the remaining steam from the heated saltwater."

"Well, that's basically it. Once you get that, it's easier to know where that parts are and how to reassemble them, you got it, Arman?"

Arman made a light-hearted salute to Dara. "Ma'am, yes, ma'am." He replied.

"Shut up!" Dara blushed slightly as they continued their lessons. The weapons instructor had left the loading bay on some urgent matter and the platoon had been assigned to work on their rifles for inspection at the end of the day.

As Arman and Dara worked on their Hydro-Rifles, Marcus was fiddling around the instructor's clipboard, reviewing the class standings.

"Hey guys, look what we have here!" Marcus exclaimed, waving the clipboard around like a trophy.

"It says here that... Surprise, surprise! Arman's at the bottom of the class! Well, isn't that a shock!" Most of the platoon laughed along with Marcus, some were busy tinkering their half-built rifles.

"Oh, and who's this at the top? Marcus Sakai? Well that's fairly obvious." He went and grabbed his finished Hydro-Rifle from his table and started tossing it around like a toy.

"I couldn't blame the instructor, though. This Hydro-Rifle is ready and fit for battle!"

He then grasped the rifle by its trigger and started spinning the light-weight weapon around.

"You see this masterpiece here? Finished it two minutes flat. Care to test it?" He then pointed the rifles sights at Arman, who was looking directly at him.

"Hey, man, stop that. Come here and help me with this thing," yelled Hugo, one of Marcus' lackeys, from the back of the room who was having trouble with his repairs.

"Don't tell me what to do, Hugo," cried Marcus loudly so everyone could hear. His rifle still pointed at Arman. Marcus squinted one eye and aimed his sights on Arman's head.