Pew Pew Pew!

Posted on Tue Sep 30th, 2025 @ 5:24am by Lieutenant Commander Kurumi Ebisuzawa & Chief Petty Officer Kozakura Kikuchi & Petty Officer 3rd Class Shingen Miyazawa & Petty Officer 3rd Class Kiyohira Kabuto

1,892 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: The Next Myogi
Location: Shooting Range

Kurumi stood in the small firing practice range, skimming over a PADD. The room was small set with three 'booths' set behind a counter. Three targets were mounted on the far wall across from the counter. It looked like a traditional old style shooting range, which is exactly what it was. A large locker was built into the wall that sat opposite the targets. It contained different phaser rifles and some hand models.

As Chief of Security, it was Kurumi's job to ensure that everyones phaser certification was upto scratch. It was a basic requirement for serving on a starship and each officer had to retake the test when needed, or when it had expired. However with the threat of the Iconians returning, Kurumi had decided to recertify the entire security department. She wanted everyone to be at their best.

Today, she had scheduled in Chief Petty Officer Kikuchi and Petty Officers Miyazawa and Kabuto to recertify. She of course was a few minutes early to set up the range, and each booth had three weapons set on the counter. A standard phaser beam rifle, a type two hand phaser and a much more powerful compression bolt phaser rifle.

It was almost as a harbinger of greater things to come as Kozakura's flaming red hair slipped into the room at what was certainly a bare minimum of human height to be allowed in Starfleet, even for the enlisted 'cannon fodder' type of security officer. She was a quiet one, demure and fiery all at the same time. To her, this was more of an annoyance than an actual recertification and the look she gave Kurumi showed respect right alongside a sigh that gave away her thought that this was a waste of her time. "Konnichiawa." She said simply.

Shingen and Kiyohira followed in together, closely behind. They’d just finished eating and sharing stories from home with Nurse Ichihara before their appointment time with Commander Ebisuzawa. “Ma’am,” they each said together before taking a position next to Kozakura.

"Welcome," Kurumi said with a small smile. "As you all know, today We'll be doing some shooting practice. I am in the process of renewing everyone's phaser certification. You'll be assessed on accuracy, speed, handling and the ability to follow orders." She explained. "Please, step upto a booth." She told them indicating to the three shooting booth.

With her typical attitude, Kozakura rolled her eyes at the reaffirmation that she was correct: A waste of time. The little bit of ‘the ability to follow orders’ was clearly aimed at her, as she was more likely to be passing along orders and giving them than to be taking them. Besides, she was a regular at the range, putting at least two hundred fifty shots down range a week from various weapons. Mumbling under her breath, she stepped up to one of the booths, letting her eyes flick over each of the weapons.

"Got something to share?" Kurumi asked crossing her arms.

Kiki sighed and shook her head, "Commander," She stopped and paused for a moment, trying to get herself under control, "Why me? I may be young for my rank, but I got it for a reason and it wasn't by sitting around on my ass gabbling in gossip. Check my range records, I'm constantly nearly maxing my scores in both static and reactionary shooting. Wouldn't it be more useful for me to be running others through their qualifications instead?"

"I'm putting everyone on the ship through this, regardless of their previous score or skills." Kurumi said simply. "If you haven't noticed there is a huge threat looming over us. We all need to be singing from the same hymn sheet if we're going to survive." She paused. "And if your scores are that good, this should be easy for you, shouldn't it?"

"It's been one threat after another, ma'am." Kiki pointed out as gently as she could, "The insurgency on Earth, Braxus, Nikko, the only place we haven't had to be on point was at Gamma Zednar." She gave something of a feral smile, "So yes, this should be easy."

"If you're that confident then fine. I will accept nothing lower than a ninety-five per cent score from you. Anything lower and I'll fail you." Kurumi stated simply. "I'm fact, I'm making that the benchmark for the entire security department. I'm sure they'll all thank you later "

"Way to go, Kiki," Shingen muttered under his breath.

"Right, hand phasers first. You'll be shooting at standing targets first, then moving targets. The computer will generate targets at random. However, you are only to shoot the targets that match the colour of your booth." Kurumi explained pointing to a square of colour painted on the table of each booth. The far booth was blue, middle red and the closest to her yellow. "If you hit any other colours, it will give you a penalty."

Shingen and Kiyohira both stepped up to the blue and yellow booths, respectively. Type-2 phasers in hand, they stood at the ready.

"Loser buys the first round," Shingen said.

"That'll be you then, Jadeite," Kiyohira responded. "Hey Kiki, you want in on this?"

Kozakura picked up the Type-2 and looked it over, then flashed a grin over at the other two, "I can always use free drinks, you two are on."

"Ok, begin." The firing range changed as several targets appeared. Blue, Red and Yellow targets appeared but also other such as green, purple, black, orange and white appeared. Kurumi had programmed dummy targets to test accuracy and judgement.

Strands of orange phaser fire connected their weapons to the appropriate dots, aside from one of Kiyohira's that hit a purple, prompting a curse.

In the red lane, Kiki had taken brief shots, almost as if the Type-2 was shooting like a compression rifle, each packet of energy intersecting with a red target as if they were meant to be together. She hesitated for a moment as an orange dot obscured one of hers, but nailed it moments after the red came back into the open. She flicked her aim over towards the last yellow dot, but held her fire, "Looks like the first round's on you, Kabuto."

Kurumi didn't comment, she kept a blank expression on her face as she tapped on her PADD. "Ok. Next we'll be doing the same again. With phaser compression rifles. However, the targets will be moving at various speeds."

Once again true to her habits, Kiki did a thorough if rapid check of the rifle, frowning as she found a fault and disassembled a piece of the targeting housing and adjusting one of the settings within before replacing it again, "Sorry, ma'am, there was a problem with the sights, poor alignment."

“Blaming the equipment, I see,” Shingen said as he and Kiyohira hit the moving targets, this time the latter not falling for the similar colours.

“Hmph!” Kozakura huffed as she brought the rifle up to her shoulder and settled it into firing position, picking off her targets faster than the other two to catch up to them in number, “Better to check your equipment prior to using it than just take someone’s word that it’s good.”

"I do believe that checking your equipment before firing is part of the exam..." Kurumi said simply as she tapped on her PADD and didn't look up at any of them. "Plus, thats a basic step in prepping for security duty..."

Shingen dropped his head in shame. “Understood ma’am. Sorry ma’am.”

"Ok. I'm stepping up the difficulty." Kurumi stated. "Lets give this a try at advanced level." She tapped on her PADD.

"You may use your preferred weapon for this final test. Once again you'll be hitting the target holograms. However, this time they won't just be chamging colour. If they turn green then consider them as either no longer a threat or surrendered. If you shoot them whilst they're green, more hostile targets will appear." Kurumi stated. "Oh yeah, and just so you know. These little guys will be shooting back at you with holographic phaser beams. Don't worry, they're not lethal, but try not to get hit, they can sting a little."

She tapped a button on her PADD and the booth 'walls' that separated the three of them retracted slowly opening up the shooting gallery. "I expect to see you shooting not only on the move, but also working as a team." She pressed another button on her PADD. "Begin."

Kiki kept the phaser rifle, making a quick check of the charge level and glancing up at the two taller men as she gestured to them to step back slightly, "Since I can't shoot over you two, I'll take front rank, don't shoot ME." It came with attitude, "Areas of responsibility, I'll take center, Shingen take left, Kiyohira take right, keep on the move, don't get caught in one place for too long. I'll support both sides, understood?" Yes, she was young for her stripes, but she did make up for it with her 'command voice'.

The two men fell into their positions with a quick “Understood” each, taking their shots and moving away from the incoming fire.

Kurumi tapped on her PADD. The dots started to get faster and changed colour quicker now.

“Down!” Shingen called, pulling Kikuchi down with a free hand as he dropped, a beam narrowly missing both of them.

"Oof!" Kiki hit the ground hard as Shingen brought her down harder than he'd probably intended, "Easy, easy," She fought her way back up to a knee and brought her rifle back up from behind better cover to get back to shooting as she fought for air.

"Sorry!" Shingen said. "I figured you'd prefer that than a shot in the side!"

Kiki picked off another target, holding fire as her next changed colour and pinging another even as the next shot hit her in a shoulder and she grunted, moving again, "You two wanna hit some of them too?" She growled.

“We’re doing our part, Kiki,” Kiyohira said. “You’d see that if you looked.” Another shot took down another enemy marker.

The simulation ended. "Stow your weapons back into the racks." Kurumi said. "I'll analyse your performance and you'll have your scores by tomorrow."

Shingen and Kiyohira took a moment to examine their weapons, shut them down properly, and set them back on the racks. “Yes, ma’am,” said Kiyohira. “Could we ask for any initial observations though?”

Kurumi looked up from her PADD. "Apart from initial cockiness. I see potential in you all." She stated to them all. "But remember, that in the heat of battle, its your training and instincts that save lives. You should all be aware of that in the future."

“Yes, ma’am,” Kiyohira said. “We’ll keep that in mind.”

"Yes, ma'am." Kozakura finally spoke as she'd checked her own weapons minutely and replaced them in the rack, "Good job gentlemen."

“You too,” Shingen said.

“Yeah, you too,” Kiyohira added. “Shift is over, and I’m pretty sure we said the first round’s on me.”

Posting by:

Lieutenant Commander Kurumi Ebisuzawa
Chief Security/Tactical Officer

Chief Petty Officer Kozakura Kikuchi
Security Officer

Petty Officer 3rd Class Shingen Miyazawa
Security Officer

Petty Officer 3rd Class Kiyohira Kabuto
Security Officer

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