Gus arrived fifteen minutes late to the class, thanks in part to him getting lost in the school. Panting heavily and clasping his technological notebook tightly in his grip, he stepped into the classroom and unwillingly drew the attention of the class to himself.
"Sorry... I'm late," he said, his breath recovering slowly as he spoke. "There was a thing."
"Yeah, the others mentioned a few people wouldn't be here today, plus it's a common occurrence after the first combat lessons from what I've heard," Jet responded, looking at him from his position in front of a desk towards the front of a class. "Although, after what I saw before, I'm surprised at you getting beat down, Gus. Go take a seat with your squad."
As he went over to his squad, Gus heard the quiet murmurs of the others in the room, questioning how the teacher already knew Gus. Of course, at this point they were unaware that he was the Squad Leader, so their minds instantly went to something different, with their conclusions supported by Jet's reference to a prior experience.
The room was large, made up of five tables designed to seat a full squad. The tables were circular, and could easily be split into two parts. In the centre of the table was a display section. Installed in the very centre was a mini projector that would allow students to look at things from various sources during their lessons, such as maps or diagrams. A familiar weapon had been placed on top, evenly between everyone in the table. Along the outside was a round stretch of wooden table where students could put notebooks and other things. It was separated from the centre thanks to a chunk of glass that acted as a connector.
As he sat down, Gus noticed that they were sat in a similar way to how their rooms were laid out on their floor, with Connor and Joel sat on either side of him.
"Gus, how are you feeling?" Joel asked him.
"You got beat pretty hard in that fight, how you won I have no idea," Connor added.
"I'm fine. My jaw got pretty roughed up, but it's all good now," Gus answered. "Did I miss anything?"
"Nothing too important," Joel answered.
"As I was saying," Jet began, "this class will be very important, maybe as important as your combat classes. After all, you have to understand what you are going to be using, as well as what your future allies will be using, and what they are capable of.
To that end," he continued, pushing himself off the front of the desk he was leaning on and beginning to pace back and forth at the front of the room, "look at the item in front of you. It is quite possibly the most important thing you will see during your time here."
"Isn't it just a gun?" one of the students on a different table asked.
"In some ways, yes. But I'll get to why it's so important soon," Jet responded,
"The MT-11 Repeater, the oldest and most used model weapon across all of human space. May of you will have heard it called the Mount Repeater, just so you're not confused."
The Repeater was a single fire weapon, meaning it fired one shot per trigger pull. Shortly after humanity had mastered the ability to transform battery power into kinetic energy, the weapon was designed by Mydell Tech. It was a balanced weapon, providing a substantial punch to each shot without adversely affecting the users mobility. This, combined with the genius decision to have the stock of the weapon adjustable between three different lengths meant that the base model was useable for people on the fly no matter their body.
Thanks to the cheap materials used to create the weapon, it has remained a popular choice since its inception, especially on worlds far away from the home planet. Today, it is commonly seen among pirate warbands and frontier forces fighting against the alien enemies of the Bloody Dawn.
Upon release, modification existed for the weapon, but it was scarce. Users were able to simply modify the trigger grip, making it easier to hold in various climates or for people with differently sized hands. Users were also able to graft an optic onto the top of the weapon, replacing the basic point that acted as a marker of accuracy.
"Now, if you pick up the weapon I think you will find that you will recognise it," Jet announced. Teala picked up the weapon and held it up for the others to see, twisting it around to show all sides. Jet was right, it was recognisable to them. It was almost the exact same weapon they had used in the simulation, save for a couple of minor differences. The battery that was on the side of the weapon during the simulation was not present here, meaning that it was not powered and could therefore not fire.
The weapon was cheap and reliable. But it was not always like that.
Since the first generations of the weapon were created shortly after the development of technology to transform power into kinetic energy, they tended to be riddled with errors.
Firstly, the most common error was to do with the system that regulated the transfer of energy. The battery would often send a surplus of power in one go as a result of use, overloading the weapon and burning the inner workings. In extreme cases, this could also injure the user, burning their hands and arms. Secondly, moving parts would often stop working. The cause for this was never found, but people guessed on online posts that it was a result of the energy transfer system that was in use. Thirdly, the gun often did not perform up to the standards that it was expected to, with the shots that were fired not packing as much of a punch as they should have.
All of these flaws were fixed with the arrival of the eleventh generation. Sporting a new energy transfer system, as well as some slight tweaks to the battery that was used, the new generation of MT Repeaters far exceeded the expectations the weapon had been set since its inception, without costing a substantial amount more than the original to create. As a result, the weapon quickly swept across space as the primary weapon of humanity.