Order Up (Vitale)

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After Mai had finished helping him with the ID programming on the grips, and after Vitale had asked him for a new weapon, Desmond had built a P99 for his new crew mate. It had taken him longer than he wanted, but he had other responsibilities now, he had to keep the ship running. All that mattered was that it was ready to fire, well almost, he just needed to program Vitale's palm print into the grip and be done. As it stood it would only fire for Desmond, and since this was Vitale's gun, that did Vitale no good what so ever. After he had test fired two clips through the weapon, he cleaned and fine tuned it, then removed the chip from the grip and plugged it into the palm scanner he used. It was as ready as it was going it be, and probably more than slightly different from Vitale's last P99.

Dez sent a wave to Vitale asking him to come to the armory and pick up his new weapon. In order to prepare for all the questions he knew Vitale would have, he dismantled the pistol and set it all down on the table before him. He wanted to be able to explain everything to the weapon's new owner and show it to him at the same time, he also set out one of the FN Five-seveNs he had provided on the table, this one fully assembled. And left it sitting there for comparison and for his own fun. It wasn't that Desmond disliked his revolver, far from it it was his preffered weapon, but he wanted to shoot something more than six times for once. He was getting a little stir crazy, sure he had plenty to do, but it was thing things he couldn't do that bothered him.

After his pad beeped indicating that Vitale was on his way to the armory, Dez smiled and went to the range to wait. Aiming the Five-seveN he fired off two of the thirty shots at one of the ballistic gel targets he had set up, there were eight there for Vitale to shoot at, so what was one that had already been shot? The first shot landed right where the fake heart in the dummy was, the second went through the right eye. A small smile crossing his lips, he fired another shot through the right eye, one through the nose and then six more to make a smiley face on the dummy. All ten bullet holes started oozing out fake blood, his smile widened slightly as he ejected the mag and the round that he hadn't fired from the FN. Good to know he hadn't lost his touch, though he knew that a moving target would be different.

Dez went back to the bench and reloaded the FN's mag, waiting for the sound of the door to indicate his friend's arrival for his new weapon. He went over every piece of the walther again, making sure it was perfectly clean and ready to be fired. It was up to his standards, and his standards were almost as obsessive on firearms as he was about his hat. After he set the last piece down, he heard the door open and turned to greet Vitale. "Welcome to the showing for the new Walther P99, Desmond edition. And you own the only one my friend." Motioning over the table at the dismantled pistol, he flashed the other man a grin. "Speaking from experience, any self respecting soldier would want to examine his weapon before anything else." At least he knew he did, anytime he built or recieved a new weapon, the first thing he did was dismantle it and examine it. In the case of him having built the weapon, it was just a triple check to make sure he didn't miss anything.

Dez leaned against the table and crossed his arms across his chest, "I've polished the feed ramp, slide flats, beveled the magazine well slightly, threaded the barrel for a suppressor. It has a three dot sight, I've modified the trigger pull weight, it's slightly lighter than the normally produced P99. The slide has been perfectly meshed, I've also modified the mag release, raised it just a few millimeters and it takes slightly less pressure to release now. Also there's the grip, it's ID coded to my palm print only at the moment, scan your palm here and yours will be coded as well. We can add others if you like. This way, if you lose this one, no one else can use it."

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Vitale was doing his usual, wishing he had a beer and reading these stupid reports that the Syndy boys sent out. Who reads this much, he wondered as he leaned back, trying to pop his back, and get comfortable. Then his pad went off with a vibrating announcement of messages. He opened the window and wooped at the announcement, hopping up and leaving the computer behind him without saving his place. Vi used the forward stairs rather than the elevator, simply because he hadn't used them yet. He was curious of how wide the hallway was, and was pleased to see that this could become part of his jogging route, to escape the treadmill.

He hustled to the armory and opened the hatch with some severe excitement, and was greeted in kind. Desmond was hard at work around here, getting the engine room in tip top shape and making things for a very needy crew, the man probably could use more sleep, but Vi was glad to have him. "Welcome to the showing for the new Walther P99, Desmond edition. And you own the only one my friend." Dez proclaimed. Vi felt like a kid who'd had a birthday party should have felt. "Hell yeah Dez, hook it up man."

Desmond continued, explaining a plethora of alterations to the weapon, which Vitale assembled on the spot, then he racked the already greased chamber. He aimed the unloaded weapon, and smiled approvingly. It was perfect, one could have only asked for a gold firing pin and an attachable cane to make it more boss. "This is the shu te chi bro, thank you! So how do we add in my prints?" Vi was excited, and though he meant the verse wide usage of 'the shit', what came out was more like chinese gibberish.

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Dez could only smile as his work was appreciated, this was always his favorite part for custom jobs, when the person who ordered it got to enjoy his work. He watched as Vitale assembled the weapon with practiced ease, the work of a true professional. Then he asked the one question that he had already answered, then again he wondered how much of his explanation Vitale had heard, he was more excited than any kid on any Christmas Dez had seen. "Put your hand on this pad here, if you want to shoot it with your left hand too, scan your left hand." He waited for Vitale to do so, then eased the pistol away from the man and installed the chip in the grip again. "Now, I've put the chip far enough in that it won't accidentally fall out. But if someone ever removes it, then it won't fire. So it's very important that it stays in."

He held the weapon out for Vitale again, then motioned down the range at the seven practice dummies that hadn't been shot up already. "I figured you might want to test it out, I test fired two mags through it to be sure it worked before I gave it to you. Still, as a solider, I always did like to test fire my weapons before I trusted them." Dez then let Vitale play with the pistol to his hearts content, then pulled a cylinder out of his pocket and set it on the table by Vitale. "Figured you probably already had a suppressor, can't have too many though. If you don't already have one, I can get you a holster with a slot for the suppressor in it, pretty easy to make."

Of course Dez had more contacts than he really felt like admitting at the moment, some of them he didn't want to ever really bring up. And the rest he didn't trust enough to want to bring them up, though he was owed a few favors. If the need ever arose he could get the crew some impressive equipment, well equipment he couldn't make himself. His specialty was weapons, he couldn't do anything with things like night vision or thermal vision. He could put it all together, but if it worked or not was another story. "Well, what'cha think? Need me to make any more adjustments or How Shi Sung Chung?" His Chinese was better than Vitale's, but then again, he wasn't a kid on Christmas today.

How Shi Sung Chung: Happy development or fortuitous turn of event))

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Vitale released the weapon to the master while he scanned both hands. The Walther was a work of art, and Dez was the artist. He listened as Desmond explained further, and then took the pistol back. "I still have my old silencer, but I like how this one is the same color. Customization is something I couldn't afford before. So that's just a nice little plus."

All the same, he threaded the silencer on to test it out. Looks were a nice addition, but nothing outshined performance. He fired off several rounds, and then checked the threads again, then fired off a few more and checked the heating. He wasn't overly concerned with the accuracy of it, as it was on par with his old one, but the function needed to be checked over. "All right, that looks fine. It could use an extension on the barrel length, but I can work with this for now. Dez, you are the man." Vitale held out the pistol again aiming down the sights, and feeling the reduced weight. It was a naildriver before, now it was a sledge hammer. He unloaded it, and handed it back to Desmond.

"Do you have the Cap's prints, and Keller's on file, can we load those in as well? They may need to use this in a pinch." Vitale decided that he needed to spend some time down here testing the weapon out, and after Dez was finished, he planned to do just that. "Also, what's the word on gas rounds? I had a box of them back on Seph once, and they were far superior to powder. The laser eliminates most of the particles, but gas is so clean." For years now, ammunition had gone back to powder propellant over gasses, but they were notorious for carbon buildup regardless of how refined they were, or of what makeup. Vitale hadn't been born prior to the turn back towards the old ways, but he'd always wondered why the Verse in general, moved away from gas propellants. They might have been unstable when pierced, but wasn't everything that went boom? "Why do you use powder over gas, just a raw materials thing, or is it a performance issue, or maintenance?"

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Dez watched Vitale worked, he had underestimated the man, if only slightly. Nodding at the man's comment about a longer barrel he made a note of it on his pad. "I'll try and have the barrel for you before Santo, if not then it'll be my first thing when we leave. You'll have it before our next stop." He promised, filling in some points on the template he had for barrels. Desmond was very organized when it came to his profession, he had templates for everything to do with firearm manufacturing. Making a few notes, he held the pad out to Vitale, "Put in how you want me to do it, and I'll make it happen." He stated, almost business like, but still with a friendly tone in his voice, he was doing this free of charge.

Of course that was when he was asked about the other prints and gas rounds. "Yeah, I can upload prints from the others. I've been working on this whole ID thing for a while now." After retrieving the gun from Vitale, he pulled out the chip and plugged it back into his scanner, then uploaded the prints. After replacing the chip he handed it back to Vitale, all the prints were in it now. Vitale, Roger, Keller, and Desmond himself were the only ones able to fire the weapon. And finding a new chip for the weapon in case it ever got stolen would be next to impossible. He had manufactured a connecting piece to it himself, one that stopped other chips from being used.

"Gas rounds... Well, there's a few things about them that I don't like personally. First off, if the rounds aren't created properly, then they run the risk of creating an explosion in the mag and blowing up the rest of the rounds. Along with your hand." Dez shrugged at this one, it was a risk, but his own skills were up to the task of producing the rounds safely. "Powder is cheaper, and they can also sit longer on the shelf than gas rounds. They're just as reliable, but what makes me not like them most is the sheer pain in the ass it is to make them. One misstep during the process and the first shot could blow up the firearm. I have the skill to make them, and make them right. I just don't have the gas or some of the other tools, you want some I'll give you a list of what I need, you buy it and I'll make 'em. There's also the problem that, say your mag gets shot, if you're dumb enough to keep firing, your weapon is going to explode."

OOC: Ok, it was actually kinda a pain to do much research on the gas rounds. All I found were patent information that was really boring to read. If I got anything wrong, PM me and I'll fix it for ya.))

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If there was one thing Vitale enjoyed, it was a blank check. People dreamed all the time right? What would I do if I had a million Platinum kind of thing. But when Vitale daydreamed, many a time he'd thought about this exact scenario. If I just had a gunsmith to just mack this thing out for free... And here, he had one. Wasn't life just wonderful all of a sudden? Vitale wrote down the specs he wanted now, and then started just adding things from his wishlist for fun. Mini gun with an underbarrel semi auto shotgun, semi auto shotgun with underbarrel grenade launcher, things like that.

Dez explained the issues he saw with Vitale's ammunition desires. But, he also offered to make it happen regardless. "Well," Vitale answered after Dez was finished, "I'll see what Davis says, you never know. I doubt we'll be on Santo long enough for a shopping spree, but you never know."

He didn't expect anything on Santo but a bloodbath honestly. They were going to fight a private military company in their own home. That wouldn't be easy in any way. It certainly didn't throw out desire to stop and peruse around, but Vitale liked to be coy regardless. He was curious about where Dez saw himself in the crew. The man could shoot, but did he have the gumption for combat? Fighting for your life, and fighting for a paycheck were two different ideals. And Dez may have wanted that piloting job he'd hinted at, and that would likely come by way of the shuttle.

"Speaking of Santo, what's your feelings about ground work? Or were you planning on hanging back?"

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Dez nodded at Vitale's response, he understood it completely, though he didn't know much about their stop in Santo to really comment. At the same time he looked over the form he had asked Vitale to fill out. Mini gun with an under barrel semi auto shotgun, a semi auto shotgun with an under barrel grenade launcher. Something told him that there would be quite a few interesting weapon requests from Vitale in the future. Oh this was already proving to be a fun ship, full of beautiful women and interesting weapon builds. Had he suddenly died and gone to heaven without knowing it? If so he wasn't going to complain, at least not yet.

Dez considered Vitale's question, "I saw plenty of action back during the war, I'd go if the cap'n doesn't mind. Not sure how much he'd like that though, me bein' the mechanic and all. Still, Davis gives the green light I'll join you." It had been a while since he had been in a gunfight, but it was like taking an engine apart, you never forgot how to do it. Then again, he didn't know anything about the mission other than they wouldn't be there long. Still he was a member of the crew, as long as he was a member of the crew he would do everything he could to keep them alive.

"Besides, I got a few toys I haven't gotten to give a good field test for yet." Dez smiled at the thought of most of the weapons in his duffle bag, of course he knew one or two of them would most likely draw more attention to them than was needed. A grenade launcher had it's uses, but at the same time it could also draw more people to your location. He had learned that lesson more than once when he was in the army, once through himself, and then a few more times from his squad mates.

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Vitale nodded at Desmonds answers. "Well, we should ask then." He looked at Dez' handiwork, and nodded again slowly, "We should be able to find a use for your talent, of that I have no doubt."

With an op as big as this one was likely to get, they could really use all hands on deck. He wasn't sure about how Davis felt about another gunhand in the crew, but he was personally sure they could use it. They had mechanics. What they needed was soldiers. But then, that wasn't Vi's call. It was Davis' and Vitale respected Davis. Not enough people out there trying to do what the Captain was attempting. Tauri could use a few more like him, maybe they could clean house for a few months, eliminate some of the problems, actually make this galaxy a little nicer to live in. That was Vi's hope anyway. At the end of the day, he hated to say it, a job was a job. But it would just be nice to have something good to say when it was all over.

Vitale holstered the Walther, and shook Desmonds hand. "Well brother, welcome to the team, and we will certainly have to keep you busy."

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Dez nodded, glancing over at the gel body he shot up. Only then realizing that it made him look slightly sadistic. It was more a boredom thing, he wouldn't do that if he was in the field, but he knew Vitale was right. They would find use for his talents, both in the field and out of it. "Well, I'm here to make myself useful." Actually he was here to run, but he felt he should make himself useful in the meantime. Besides, he was a part of the crew, that meant that everyone here looked out for each other. No matter what. "Especially if you're going to be asking my for builds like this. A minigun with a shotgun and grenade launcher attachment... That's not exactly easy... Doable though." Dez flashed Vitale a grin, the gears in his head already turning.

Desmond, turned to the range again, considering taking a few more practice shots. He didn't do it however, neither of them were wearing hearing protection, and while Dez didn't care about it, he wasn't sure on Vitale's thoughts on it. Besides, one thing he had learned long ago, don't suddenly surprise a soldier when weapons are close at hand. He didn't particularly feel like getting shot at the moment. Or ever, especially by one of his own crewmates.

Dez shook Vitale's hand, nodding at the comment. "Oh don't worry, I'll keep myself busy no matter what gets thrown at me." His mind was already working on a few ways to get the minigun/shotgun/grenade launcher that was suggested. How he was going to do that in the first place he didn't know, but he would find a way to make it happen.

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^{(((OOC: You Shot His Hand??? Sadistic Prick!)))}

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OOC: What'chu talkin' about Willis?))