Carth's magical adventure, ROUND TWO, MOTHERFUCKERS!

[Carthrat]

Carthrat chuckles.

"Y'know, there was a time, long long ago, where my profession did not consist of causing as much harm and chaos as possible," he says. "No, I was one step down. One step away, avoiding harm instead of seeking it. Hard to believe, eh?"

[Anastasia]

"Liar," she teases with a small smile. "But go on. What did you do way back when?"

[Carthrat]

"A trader, of course," replies Carthrat. "At the time, I was obsessed with three things; the Theory of Magnetic/Gravitic Rail Discharge, a girl named Tanewaki Yuki, and money.

As a trader, I worked between universities, you see. Universities traded technology and expertise; they gave me technology to trade, and then they taught me the theory behind it. So I could combine making money with working on my theory.

It helped that Yuki was the pilot of the ship, naturally. After a time, our ambitions grew. We started hiring other traders; making the great Tanewaki trading empire. We got married, naturally; we loved each other, even though we were almost complete opposites. I was an orphen living in the slums; she was a nice girl with rich, propserous parents. I played chess, she played chequers. I'm an expert at Offensive Driving- y'know, all that stunt stuff you see in movies; she was an expert pilot. I studied sword techniques and learnt to set things on FIRE, but she studied the use of a spear and learnt to set things on ICE. I was better with guns, but she was better with knives. She played music, but I learnt programming. She was a soccer champ, but I hated sport.

And we traded. And life was good.

And being a trader is dangerous business. Pirates plauged the spaceways; nobody was safe. You learn to take care of yourself pretty fast after a few shipments get stolen, especially when they're worth so much.

Of course, when you learn to fight, you start having an urge to use that ability. Me and Yuki started doing a little smuggling. A little bounty hunting. We started hiring more unsavoury types in our company. Ended up a mercenary company, didn't care if it was legal or illegal.

We were GOOD, Rachel. Damn, we were good. Our ship was called the 'Snowflake'. If you walked into a pub when we were at large and said that name, you'd clear it in moments.

Not these days, though. Time moves fast in space. Only a few people would remember me.

But back to the story. One of the members was a guy named Setsuna. I used to be friends with him when I was studying; we did everything together. Heck, he even wanted Yuki.

And that's how the whole bleeding mess started. Jealousy over a girl.

A long story short, he tried to take the mercenary company from us in a coup. Things spiralled down from there; most of the mercenaries died or scattered. After a while, I managed to kill Setsuna, but me and Yuki crashlanded on Earth.."

Carthrat goes silent, thinking..

[Anastasia]

Rachel nods at the right places, looking interested.

"I see...and Yuki didn't live to see your next trip into space," she murmurs. "But it's easy to see where things started to go downside, isn't it?"

[Carthrat]

"You must think it was when we started becoming mercenaries," replies Carthrat. "Maybe. I blame Setsuna, not myself."

[Anastasia]

"I see," is her response.

[Carthrat]

"Maybe. Maybe not," replies Carthrat, sniggering. "Sorry, I got sidetracked.

Anyway, let's go! Got a whole day to teach you."

[Anastasia]

Rachel nods, picking up her pace as you lead her onwards...

[Anastasia]

The field you are looking for is largely deserted, save for a smattering of small, green aliens who put a good amount of distance between you and theirselves.

This is about as alone as you're going to get on a space station.

[Carthrat]

"Ok, Rachel," says Carthrat, tossing her one of the .357's he's managed to pick up over the last few weeks. "Shoot me."

[Anastasia]

She hefts the heavy weapon, moving it about as she tests the weight of the firearm. She braces herself, points the weapon at you and fires. She is knocked back by the force of the .357, landing on her backside as the bullet is intercepted by your energy shield.

[Carthrat]

"Two hands," comments Carthrat, dryly. "You're lucky you're light enough to get knocked over; you might've dislocated your shoulder."

[Anastasia]

Rachel rubs her back. "Yeah, that was a blast," smiling at her joke. Getting back up, she gives Carthrat a once over. "No injuries..."

[Carthrat]

"If I'm injured by that thing, you'll see the results," promises Carthrat. "Try again. Or maybe you should meditate first? I dunno, I knew this really crazy goon, called Hwang Shen, after a period of daily meditation, he could shoot a bullet through the eye of a needle. And y'know what? The needle would be intact when he was done. I kid you not, I ran all sorts of tests on it, but they indicated the the bullet somehow passed through the nee- oh, sorry, yeah, off you go."

[Anastasia]

And thus, the day passes by as you instruct Rachel on gunplay. She shows no high level potential, but she does show signs of being competent with a gun with practice.

Much later in the day....

Handing you back the gun, Rachel rubs her shoulder. "Mmm, that kickback takes it out of you." she comments.