Amelia peered round the door of the firing range, unsure of what she would find. Unable to see anything in the pitch blackness, she stepped completely into the room and lights suddenly flickered on all around her.

"Wow!" she gasped as she looked around. "Hello? Anyone here?"

"Please select your choice of weapon on the menu screen so that targets can be adjusted accordingly," a robotic voice echoed round the room, making Amelia jump. Once she'd recovered from the shock, she looked around again, wondering who had spoken.

"Please select your choice of weapon on the menu screen so that targets can be adjusted accordingly," the voice said again, and Amelia realised that it must be an automated voice that was turned on whenever anyone entered the room.

"Right, menu screen...menu screen...menu screen..." she wandered round the entire room, from the top, right down the long passage to the end and back again, even searching the corners, the walls and the door that she'd entered through. "What menu screen?"

As far as she could tell, the room was empty. Frowning, she decided to try something that her brother had taught her. Stepping back out through the door, she watched as the lights went out. She waited a few seconds, then stepped back in through the doors. The lights flickered on again, and this time when she looked at the wall to her right, she could see a computer terminal.

"Aha, thought so."

Jude had taught her a few years ago that if something didn't work, you just turned it off, waited a few seconds, then turned it on again. So far, it had never failed her.

"Please select your choice of - "

"I know!" Amelia shouted angrily as she strode over to the terminal and selected her hold-out blaster from the list. There was a loud hum, like some big machine coming to life, and when she turned to look down the room, she now saw several targets had appeared. They were 3D holograms of what looked like a humanoid figure, although it was hard to distinguish what, or who exactly it was...even the closest ones to her.

"Right," Amelia said to herself after a moment, opening her box and taking out the chrome weapon. Sitting the box on the floor by the computer terminal, she stepped up to the glowing light on the floor, guessing that this was where she had to stand.

Finding a comfortable grip on the blaster, she stood looking at the targets, her blaster held straight out infront of her. Choosing to go for the nearest target first, she aimed and pulled the trigger. The jolt of the gun as it fired forced her hand to jerk upwards and her shot ripped into the ceiling of the room. A few chunks of concrete dropped down and Amelia stood in embarrased silence, eyes wide open.

"Oops," she muttered at last.

After what seemed like years of waiting, an automatic voice said "Do you require additional assistance?"

"Erm, yeah!" Amelia snapped sarcastically, striding back over to the computer. She saw an option flashing on the terminal screen, which said 'Step by step walk-through'. Choosing this option, she saw the lights flicker for a moment, before becoming even brighter.

"Step One: Take your position on the indicated marker," the voice echoed. Amelia re-took her place on the marker and nodded.

"Right."

"Step two: Find a comfortable grip on your weapon. Use one hand, not two."

"Ok," Amelia nodded again as she found a comfortable one-handed grip.

"Step three: Turn sideways to the target."

"Seriously?" Despite her doubts, Amelia did as instructed and turned sideways to the target.

"Step four: Look along your shoulder, down your arm, keeping a straight line to the sights. Bring up the gun slowly."

Amelia brought her arm up slowly, looking along it as she'd been instructed.

"Now what?"

"Step five: Hold the weapon firmly, but don't grip it. Breath in..."

Amelia took a deep breath in, readying herself for what was coming next.

"Step six: Focus...breath out...squeeze the trigger gently."

Amelia closed her eyes, breathed out, opened them again and squeezed the trigger. She'd barely put any pressure on it when the gun suddenly went off. But this time she was ready for the jolt and managed to keep her aim steady. The blast shot straight through one of the targets and it disappeared. She gasped in surprise, then punched the air in delight.

"Congratulations. This completes the basic firearms training. If you require further assistance, please use the computer terminal to your right."

Now that she knew how to use her blaster, Amelia decided to spend a little longer practising with it, getting better with each shot, and then went back to the terminal to end her session. Peering out through the door, she saw that no-one was around, so she quickly changed into her handmaiden's uniform, complete with its white sash, then stowed her normal clothes and her blaster back in the box with her comlink and started off back up the stairs to the throne room to find Asané

This time when Amelia walked through the doors, the lights were already on. This was because someone was already in the room, waiting for her.

"Ryé?" she dared to venture as she stepped into the room and walked towards the other person.

A handmaiden approached her, one she had never seen before. Although perhaps her face was familiar from the visit to Coruscant.

"Hello there Amelia, I'm Ryé. Asané asked me to help you with your blaster skills..... She is helping the Queen today and cannot assist you, so I have taken her place......" She smiled waiting for Amelia to answer.

"Hi," Amelia replied. "Nice to meet you...erm...I'm sorry but I don't believe I do recognize you...although clearly you know me. Perhaps I did see you once or twice on the Coruscant trip, but to be honest, my mind was elsewhere...sorry."

She gave an embarrased smile, and then coughed a little, trying to dispel the tension that was lingering uncomfortably between them.

"So, blaster skills huh? You'll be pleased to know I've been practicing...still not very good at it though."

"Oh I bet you're better than you claim..... In my opinion, the best thing is to practice on moving targets.... Then when it comes to still targets, it's like a walk in the park...... So I'm going to set a program....... In that chamber, there will be a race around the room of womprats..... They will be diving around and jumping and such..... You shoot as many as you can...... They will immediately disappear when you give them a fatal shot..... Let's set it for...... 5 minutes...... Go inside.... Use your blaster..... And shoot as many as you can...... There will be a continuous flow, and don't worry, they won't hurt you..... Just holograms...... They will just be jumping and running around...... Okay? When you're ready, you can enter the chamber and I will start up the program for you....." Ryé said walking over to the terminal and pressing a few buttons.

"Right," Amelia nodded. "Sounds simple enough."

She stepped into the room, and pulled her blster out of her pocket. As Ryé had said, the programme started up as soon as she was through the door, and at least ten womprats began bouncing and charging around the room. One charged right at her, and forgetting what Ryé had said about them not hurting her, Amelia panicked and shot frantically at the creature. To her surprise - and delight - the creature disappeared.

After that, she found that the rats were - although not as easy as stationary targets - still quite easy to pick off, and she soon developed a habit of following on particular creature with her eyes until she could get a clear shot. She would focus on nothing else but that one rat, and as soon as it was gone, she'd pick out another and restart the hunt, so to speak.

By the time the five minutes were up, Amelia had lost count of how many rats she'd got...although that could have been due to the fact that she wasn't really counting in the first place.

Ryé stopped the program and opened the entrance of the chamber.

"That was excellent! The count was 201. That's wonderful for your first try at this kind of training! How did it feel for you? Do you think you got the hang of firing on moving targets?" She asked.

"201?! Oh my god!" Amelia cried in delight and amazement. "It felt fantastic! I wouldn't say I've mastered it completely, but I certainly got the hang of how to do it...wow!"

She laughed a little in amazement and triumph, then looked to Ryé for instructions on what to do next.

"Alright, now since you've practiced with simple creatures as womprats, let's really put up the heat..... Come with me..." Ryé led Amelia down some stairs which took a decent while to get to the bottom of.

They walked through a door revealing an enormous chamber that stretched the full length of the palace. At the top end was a booth where the controls were situated.

"Right.... Now this is going to be fun.... Firstly, I'm going to give you a second blaster. Now you already have the Holdout blaster which is our main weapon but due to the possible difficulty of this task, I'm giving you a second which you can keep.... The Bryar Blaster Pistol.... You're arena will be this entire chamber..... And I shall program it to look like the beautiful jungles of Felucia...... It will be completely interactive.... You can touch anything, climb anything..... It will all seem real but in fact it is all just computer generated..... Now..... I am going to set after you..... 5 Acklays and 2 fully sized Bull Rancors which are quite a bit larger than the original kind of Rancor....... I want you to attempt to take them out with your Holdout blaster..... If you feel that it is not doing a good enough job then switch to the Bryar Blaster okay? Now I want to see you hiding, sneaking up on them.... Ty not to be spotted.... If they chase you down then just try your best.... If it becomes too much for you, just call out my name and I will terminate the program...... You can be hurt in this lesson, but not killed...... So be careful....... You think you're ready to try this out?" Ryé waited for a reply.

OOC: I've highlighted some of the names so you can check out what they look like and their weaknesses and such if listed.

OOC: Thanks for those higlighted areas, they really helped...all I can say is eek!

IC:

"Right," Amelia nodded, struggling to take it all in. "So basically I'm gonna go get myself lost in some gigantic forest and you're gonna set 7 deadly killer creatures after me...and I can get hurt...and all I have are two pistols to defend myself?"

At Ryé's nod, she grinned. "Bring it on!"

Stepping forwards, Amelia tucked the Bryar pistol into her sash and pulled out her holdout blaster, finger ready on the trigger.

When the huge plants and scenery of Felucia began to appear around her, Amelia took a deep breath and stepped forwards into the jungle that had suddenly appeared around her.

For a while, everything was silent and still, but Amelia knew better than to let her guard down. Treading on the harder patches of ground where her footprints would not be left, she ventured forwards very slowly...very carefully...checking all around her, everywhere she went. When a twig caught the hem of her robe, she had to throw a hand to her mouth to prevent any sound from escaping, and quickly bent to untangle herself, still keeping a look out the whole time.

A few minutes later, she was in another part of the forest when a twig snapped nearby. Freezing instantly on the spot, she glanced nervously over her shoulder and saw the plants shaking slightly. The ground thundered beneath her and she knew instantly that something BIG was coming her way.

Making a dash for the nearest tree, she grasped onto a branch and hauled herself up, then swung herself up onto the next branch up, then the next one, until finally, she'd reached the top. Looking down, she saw the trees parting way below and knew that if she'd waited any longer, she'd have been in serious trouble. Standing below her now, sniffing the air as if it knew she was around, was a fully grown bull rancor. Green in colour, with evil looking spikes protruding from it's skull, it had to be the ugliest creature Amelia had ever seen!

Carefully watching the beast from her high vantage point, she had a choice of three spots that she could try to hit...the back of its neck, the top of its head or in the chest. Seeing as the chest was probably heavily armoured, and the top of its head was covered in spikes, she decided on the first of the three options, and very carefully positioned herself in the tree so that she had a clear shot.

Just as she was about to squeeze the trigger, however, the trees parted opposite and an Acklay appeared, squeeling and snarling, its long clawed limbs digging into the soft ground. At first Amelia thought it had spotted the Rancor, but it hadn't. It had spotted her.
.
"Uh-oh," she muttered as both beasts turned to her, hiding way up in the tree. There was only one thing she could think of to do. Letting out several quick blasts with her holdout blaster, she caught the rancor in the back of the neck, hopping to bring it down. But to her dismay, it shrugged these blasts off like they were insects that annoyed it.

Amelia didn't have a chance to protest, however, because the acklay had charged the tree she was sitting in, and was violently shaking it, threatening to snap it in half any second.

"Here goes nothing!" Amelia gasped as she leapt from the tree, just as it finally gave way beneath the Acklay. However, Amelia misjudged her landing and ended up ontop of the Acklay instead of on the ground behind it. Sensing an opportunity, however, she planted the tip of her gun into the neck beneath the thick crest and squeezed the trigger. The Acklay squeeled in pain and dropped to the floor. As Amelia scrambled off, the beast gave one last screach, then disappeared.

This still left the rancor, however, and as she turned to regard it, huge sweeping claws grasped her round the waist and hauled her off her feet. The Bryar pistol dropped from her belt, and the holdout blaster was knocked from her hand, so she was left weaponless. As she was hauled up to the beast's face by it's huge claws, she was suddenly struck with an idea.

Kicking out with her foot, she caught it squarely in the eye, causing it to howl in pain and drop her back to the ground. Landing heavily, Amelia lay winded for a second as the beast clutched at it's throbbing eye. Then she scrambled across the floor, grabbed the Bryar blaster and set it to its secondary mode. As it charged up, she looked for the opening she'd been waiting for, and when she found it, she squeezed the trigger. A huge laser blast shot from the gun, straight up into the roof of the rancor's mouth. Howling in pain once more, the beast toppled backwards and disappeared like the Acklay had.

"Two down, five to go," Amelia muttered as she sorted herself out again. Next time, she'd be more careful, she told herself as she set off once again, this time choosing to stick to the softer ground so that she didn't make a noise.

A little later on, she came across the second bull rancor, who was grazing on some of the fungal plants nearby. Remembering how she'd defeated the last one, Amelia crouched down low in a nearby bush, studying the creature whilst she tried to come up with a plan.

She needed to get closer to it, if her blaster was to have any effect what-so-ever, but to get closer, she had to cross a large amount of open ground - and when you're clad in bright yellow and red robes, that's easier said than done.

Perhaps she could draw the beast closer to her...set up an ambush instead?

Deciding that this was the best thing to do, Amelia collected some rocks off the floor and put them in the pouch she always carried on her belt. Then she climbed the nearest tree, silently this time, which was a miracle. She was definately getting better at tree climbing, she decided.

Once she was safely up in the tree, she pulled out the pouch of rocks and threw one at the rancor. It struck it squarely on the back of its great ugly head, and the thing turned round, snarling in anger. Amelia threw a few stones down into the bushes below her, and as she'd hoped, the beast came ambling over, looking for something a little more tasty than fungus.

What it found was an empty bush, and when it looked up, it came face to face with the barrel of the Bryar blaster, which had once again been fully charged. Amelia gave it a cheeky grin as she squeezed the trigger, and it was blown backwards by a shot between the eyes.

"Bullseye!" Amelia cried triumphantly as the creature hit the deck and vanished.

"Right...so that's two bull rancors and an acklay...only four more to go," she counted...but she knew a little about the acklay's weaknesses, so hopefully defeating them wouldn't be so hard.

After having seen an acklay up close and personal, Amelia had learned that whilst it was quite a fierce looking creature, it also apparently lacked in defensive armour, making it easier to kill from a long range. However, she also knew that it's long-clawed legs were not to be underestimated, so perhaps it would be a good idea to take those out first with a few well placed shots?

Realising that she might need more than her blasters for this next hunt, she picked up a large branch about a metre long, and 3cm thick, that had fallen from the tree when she'd jumped down. Using a nearby rock that had a jagged point, she hastily made a very primitive looking spear. At least now she had somthing to defend herself with if the creature got too close, or her blasters weren't - for some reason - working to bring it down.

Now that she felt better armed, she set off on the hunt again, treading on soft ground to avoid making a noise, and avoiding leaves and bushes that might rustle when she touched them.

Soon she came to another clearing, where an acklay was standing, sniffing the air...had it caught her scent? Just as she was about to take aim, however, another acklay burst into the clearing, not too far away from where she was now crouching. Had that one been following her?

She stayed as still as she could, whilst the two creatures regarded each other, then they both looked directly at her, and she knew she'd been found.

"Uh-oh," she groaned. One acklay was bad enough...two...well that was a nightmare! A nightmare that she'd just tumbled headlong into.

As she slowly stood up, out of the bush she'd been crouched in, instinct told her to run...put as much distance between herself and these monsters as possible. But then she remembered that if this was real life, and these monsters were after someone she was protecting, then she wouldn't have that choice.

So instead, she went against everything her mind was telling her to do, and turned back to the beasts.

"Come on then!" she called out, sounding braver than she felt. Getting a firmer grip on her makeshift spear, she pulled out the holdout blaster and as the first acklay charged for her, she fired two shots at it's huge claws. The blasts dug into the creature's soft flesh and it roared with pain, stumbling and falling to the ground as its companion rushed past. This time she launched the spear, which embedded itself into the creature's chest. The acklay stumbled, and dropped to the floor like the first had done, and Amelia wasted no time in rushing round behind them, planting her pistol at the backs of their heads and putting them out of their misery.

As the last disappeared, she brushed a stray strand of hair from her eyes and looked about. Only two to go...but they could be anywhere. How on earth was she going to find them now?

As she walked back out into the clearing again, however, she found the last two remaining acklays waiting for her.

"Hello Beastie," she muttered, drawing both pistols together. It was time to end this now. She was tired and dirty, and wanted out...but not before she'd finished. After all, if there was one thing she couldn't stand, it was not finishing something she'd started.

Letting out a volley of shots from each pistol, she caught the creatures several times and as they swayed and staggered on the spot - angered but dazed from the attack - she ran around behind them and ended their lives in the same way she'd ended all the others - with a well placed blast to the back of the head, beneath the crest.

As they disappeared, she did another quick count to make sure she hadn't missed any, and then waited patiently for something else to happen.

The hologram of the forests disappeared and Ryé emerged from the control area clapping loudly, "That was fantastic Amelia! I really thought you would've bailed out after the first Acklay or one of the Rancors.... I know I did..... I can safely say that you are skilled enough in combat with a blaster!" She gave Amelia a hand shake.

"For a handmaiden, the use of the Holdout blaster is the most important, it is not often that we need to engage in one to one physical fighting, but even still you have proven good at that also. You can now no longer consider yourself a 'rookie' in being a handmaiden..... You are perhaps more skilled that some of the girls who have been here longer than you..... Well, I think you've suffered enough for today! You can go about your business, I will report your progress to Asané and the Queen once they have finished with their business...... Take care now...."

Ryé left back towards the control center to collect the readings from the test.

Amelia was stunned!

You can now no longer consider yourself a 'rookie' in being a handmaiden..... You are perhaps more skilled that some of the girls who have been here longer than you....

That was the best news anyone had ever told her! She was going to savour this moment for a very long time to come.

But for now, she needed to rest. She'd perhaps go back to her room...have a bit of a tidy up...then maybe go down into Theed again for another night-time stroll.

She left the training rooms feeling like nothing could burst this bubble of happyness that had descended around her.

The blaster felt unfamiliar in his hands. Again he wondered what he was doing there. He was an educated politician, not a security guard!
Well, he had a job. He had to do it, no matter how unpleasant it was. It was his duty, a promise to the Queen.
He looked for Amelia, hoping she was nearby to get him started. Then a man approached him.

"Hey, trainee... You don't look at home here. Have you never held a blaster before?"

Tal sighed. "Alas, no, I have not, my good sire."

"Ah." The man seemed to realise something. "You're on of those guys..."

"If you say so, sir. I suppose I am. Pardon my rudeness, or ignorance, this most dreadful of all sins, but... What, precicely, am I?"

"A fresh politican. Just recently educated, hoping for a job at the palace, and thus sent down here to start in security. Oh, yes, lad, I've seen it all before. And I tell ya, it ain't not a pleasant sight!"

"If I may be so... Frivolent as to say so, sir, but that was a double denial..."

"Oh, damn you. You're nothing better than the rest. Take my advice, and go home now, kid. They all quit after less than a week. You won't even last that long, I can tell. You've got 'nobleborne' written all over you. Go home and drink some champaign or whatever, softie!"

"It seems," Tal said, offended, "That we have started out all so wring here. This is not a proper way of getting to know each others, sir. You must, with all due respect, rid yourself of your prejudgements!"

"Oh shut up, and let's get started already!"

.........................

Tal's head was boiling with fury as he left. The laughter still echoed inside him. But he would show them. They may consider him a softie, but he would show them all! The blaster in his bag, he headed home. He would practise there. And when they next saw him, they would see a changed man. Indeed, those rude people would never laugh at him again!
Never ming what his uncle would think. Never mind the... Siuation at home. Never mind the confontation that he was still lacking courage to execute... Never mind anything. Damn them all. Damn them all to hell!