Life as a Mandalorian

Malfunctions

         Striker froze as she pulled the trigger again. No blaster fire and no mark on the wall or a target. She started to hear footsteps near closer to her. She looked over the rifle and tried to see if safety was on. The safety was flipped off and the mag was inside of the rifle correctly. The young foundling slightly started to panic as she didn't want to get yelled at by Trainer Thraz a single bit. He intimidated her a lot but she had a feeling he intimidated the others as well. She did all the things that she could think of. She just stood there. All the other trainees were quiet. The whole room got quiet.

        "Is there something wrong with your weapon trainee? You were supposed to be shooting at the targets not just standing here and fumbling with your weapon." Thraz's voice was stern and sounded slightly angry. Every other trainee did as told and was able to fire their weapons and complete the training session. All of them with different scores of course. Striker tensed as her back straightened and her eyes were still forward. Her rifle now was across her body rather than her being in the position to shoot the objective that was given.

       "Sir, my rifle is malfunctioning. I pull the trigger and nothing comes out of it. Everything is switched on and the magazine is fully loaded. The cause is unknown." She said this as clearly as she could. She didn't want to say anything wrong but deep down, she had a feeling that she did do something wrong or say something wrong. She glanced at Thraz from under her training helmet. Even though his helmet was on, she could just sense the disappointment and anger. Her muscles tense all over her body as she stayed as still as possible.

      "Well trainee, looks like you are gonna have to stay overtime after all this training is done. You can't just skip it. We'll get you another rifle to use and you can shoot then. Am I clear, young Sol'ar?" His voice had a slight hint of venom to it. He also got kinda close to her face which kinda made her flinch. Out of the corner of Thraz's eye, he saw Emar step forward but was then grabbed by Zyrnn to stop her. Emar wanted to go to Striker and try to help her figure out what went wrong with the rifle but her husband didn't wanna make it seem like Striker was something special and different compared to the other trainees. 

      Striker's adopted older brother, Xvan, stood in the middle of the left line. He saw the whole situation go down and he got worried. Thraz was strict and all the trainees who have been there for a while knew this. Striker, on the other hand, was scared and nervous because of how new she was to the clan. She barely knew anyone in the clan. Her hands were slightly shaking but she was trying her best to keep calm in her situation. 

     "Trainees! Listen up! Everyone else is dismissed for the time being. Be back in 1 hour. Sol'ar! You stay here so you can learn how to use and fire a Weastar carbine. Dismissed!" His voice was stern as all the other trainees were dismissed and walked out the door in an orderly fashion. Emar nodded to her new daughter before she turned and followed Zyrnn out the door. As soon as the Alor'ads left the room, Thraz became very annoyed and angry. He grabbed the young Mando's shoulder and pulled her close. His tone quickly changed. 

    "Go to that weapons locker and get yourself a different rifle. This time, it better work." His tone would make anyone freeze in their tracks. Her muscles tenses but as soon as she was let go from his tight grip she jogged quickly over to the weapons locker that was on the other end of the training room. She set the malfunctioning one down against the wall. Thoughts were rushing through her mind but she tried to push them away as it may be her downfall. The young Mando didn't want to be training with him already but there wasn't any going back.

      The newly named Striker headed back toward the door and jogged out quickly. She was heading back toward the range. The edges of her training helmet visor were slightly fogged as a bead of sweat went down the left side of her face. It was only the first day of training and she was already doing a terrible job. She knew as soon as she is released, one of her parents or her brother was gonna come and check up on her to see how things went and what went wrong. For now, she would have to work with it and discard those thoughts and focus on what was happening. 

      Once back at the range, she stopped at about 3-5 feet in front of her trainer Thraz. Even though with his helmet on, the blood-red and gold dirty paint job looked intimidating. Like his armor was originally different shades of red and gold, but over the years his armor becomes blood-stained and beat up. She didn't look at him directly as she had a gut feeling that if she even moved one muscle she could be yelled at and get a punishment of some sort.

     "Are you sure that weapon works?" He said this as he looked at the weapon then to Striker. She glanced down at her new weapon before saying. "No sir. I have yet to fire it because I am not in the correct spot to do so. The only correct spot would be downrange at the targets or the wall past the targets." Her voice was as calm as possible but mentally, the young girl was scared. She didn't know what he could do to her but she hoped that it wasn't too bad. Little did she know, this was not even to the medium level.