"Welcome to rifle qualifications. Let's start with the basics."
Having boarded the Lighthouse, Mac, Tia and Hanna entered a rifle range Mac's drones had set up on the top floor. Standing behind a table, Mac picked up one of the many rifles placed on it.
"This is a rifle, it's a tool made for killing. During this training and at any point in the future when handling a rifle assume it is loaded at all times and ready to shoot, that means you don't ever point it at things you don't want to kill, and you keep your finger away from the trigger until you're ready to shoot. When shooting, be aware of your target and what is behind it, while this particular rifle shoots projectiles that don't really penetrate, missing the target and hitting something behind it is always a possibility."
Going over basic firearm safety, Mac placed a magazine in his SOD-09, closed the bolt and turned to the series of target blocks set up at the other end of the range. With a flick of the fire selector, Mac moved the short rifle from safe to semi automatic and pressed the trigger, sending a single 6.5mm dart into the target with a silent click.
"It looks and operates like a crossbow… How does it work?"
As it was her first time seeing a firearm, Hanna compared it to what she knew as she grabbed another SOD-09 from the table and looked through its holographic sight mounted on top.
"The rifle uses a tiny explosion to propel a metal dart at high speed, you don't hear that explosion because of this part here."
Pointing to the integrated suppressor and automatically actuated control system that trapped the gas and sound from the explosion of the gunpowder, Mac was about to explain how everything worked, but got lazy and skipped it in favor of a demonstration.
"It is only really the first few shots that are completely silent due to the subsonic ammunition, but continuous shooting heats up the suppressor, like this."
Switching away from semi automatic to two round bursts, Mac started shooting at the targets again, placing precise repeated bursts in the centre of the circular targets. While the first few bursts of gunfire were relatively silent, like the rapid closing of leather sheers, the suppressor gradually lost its effectiveness as the weapon heated up. By the time Mac had emptied 2 magazines, Hanna and Tia behind him were flinching from the cracks of gunfire.
"See? This is why we're going to work on your accuracy by familiarising you guys with the weapon, grab one and a magazine."
Watching Hanna and Tia fumble for a bit, Mac gave them a few pointers on how to load their weapons and unload while making sure they remembered their muzzle discipline.
"Hmm, this thing really recoils."
Hanna quickly got the hang of things, as she was experienced with different kinds of weapons and found the short rifle to be one the easier weapons she had used.
"Yeah it packs enough of a punch to go through ballistic armour at close range, so the recoil is a given."
Although it was made to pop heads and reap souls in the quiet night, Mac had nevertheless spec'ed the SOD-09's ammunition to punch through armour with a higher than normal powder load and armour piercing ammunition, hence the recoil of what were supposed to be just a few levels above a plinking rifle.
"Mac, it's not firing?"
Tia found the thing a bit more difficult however, as even though she used to own a crossbow, it had mostly just been for decoration.
"Then let's start troubleshooting… See what I-"
"Just help me please."
Putting his smug smile aside for the moment, Mac moved over behind Tia, standing just as his instructor did so many years ago.
"Take aim and fire."
"But it-"
"Just do it, I'll teach you the steps to figure it out."
Insistent on teaching Tia so she could figure this out in the future herself, Mac had already figured what was wrong. Going along with what Mac said, Tia raised her rifle and aimed at the target again, but as she pressed the trigger nothing happened, it didn't even click.
"What did you feel?"
"Nothing?"
"Yeah, that's called a dead trigger. Rack the charging handle and try again."
Following the order, Tia pulled the action as she did to not mind the fact that Mac was basically speaking directly into her ear.
"... Still nothing."
This time when she squeezed the trigger Tia at least got a click out of the action, meaning the hammer fired that time.
"That's because you haven't noticed the fact you didn't eject a misfired round when you racked the charging handle. Look here."
Making sure Hanna was also paying attention, Mac took Tia's rifle and aimed.
"The most I'll ask of the two of you is protecting yourselves for 20 seconds, meaning there's no meaning in learning more advanced troubleshooting. This is the basics, if you don't fire when pressing the trigger, for whatever reason, you tap, rack and go."
Quickly tapping the bottom of the magazine to properly seat it, Mac racked the charging handle and then fired.
"When or if anything goes wrong, you tap, rack and go. No need to worry about the underlying cause, just clear the malfunction. Understood?"
"Understood."
"Got it, boss."
Getting good responses from both of his students made a smug smile form on Mac's face that he hurriedly suppressed.
"Then let's practice tap, rack and go until you both get an idea of how it goes."
(Is this the satisfaction of teaching? I had almost forgotten that sensation as he really didn't need much of that.)
As Hanna quickly got the hand of the drill a sudden trough struck her.
"... What do we do if this doesn't work in the middle of a fight?"
Like Mac said earlier, this drill didn't clear all possible problems, so Hanna wondered what she should do in case it didn't work.
"Then you throw the rifle at the closest hostile… Yeah, I'm serious."
-
[Hmm?~ What's this?]
Floating in between sets of data and millions of status updates, a highly irregular case managed to jump out and leave an impression.
[A Lighthouse deployment? Really?]
Blip~
Even knowing Mac this was a drastic overreaction on his part, unless he had actually lost his mind.
[Then what's all this?]
The initial investigation soon revealed a highly irregular stream of data, reports and investigations that appeared so erroneous he questioned his data uplink.
Blip.
[Yeah, I can tell its corrupted data, I asked where the source of corruption stems from? The quantum communication relay, data storage or cache?]
Blip.
[Not there?... Then what about, what's the ship called… Just Call Home? What's the status of that ship's QCR? Online and functioning?]
Blip~
[So these reports are all real?]
Blip~
With initial confirmation, it triple checked the source and tracking code behind the countless reports, finding them legit.
[... So there's really a tech level 6 planet where the population lives in relative harmony with 'monsters' and eldritch creatures in the oceans?]
Blip~
[That one was rhetorical… I can see why he deployed a Lighthouse now, for once that fucking waste of gravity engines wasn't useless.]
Its feelings on the Lighthouse project aside, it found itself marveling at Mac's exploits, pissing off people in new and stupid ways while playing with his toys. This all raised further questions, questions it couldn't answer from his current location. On the bright side handling RED, deploying new constellations and performing surveys was something it could leave to sub routines.
[I guess I'll go and check things out…]
Getting up, it started performing preflight inspections while selecting what support escorts to bring.
[... Fortitude or Victory, that is the question…]
Reviewing a few million performance reports while performing a 'quick' structural integrity and mission readiness assessment on its available ships, it came to a conclusion.
[Mac brought Victory class ships along, so Fortitude it is… 4 should do.]
At its words an entire star system came alive with orders.
HIGH PRIORITY REFIT REQUEST CONFIRMED.
MOVING TO RAPID DEPLOYMENT OF 4 FORTITUDE CLASS ESCORT CARRIERS; 1051 HOURS TILL COMPLIANCE.
With time to kill until its escorts were ready, it looked to fleet navigation and route planning, hitting an expected hurdle.
ERROR, SYSTEM LOCKOUT CONFIRMED; DIRECTIVE 'LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE' IN EFFECT, UNABLE TO FETCH NAV DATA.
[Of course it is, override.]
'LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE' OVERRIDDEN ON RED DIRECTOR AUTHORITY, ERROR.
[What now?]
While the first huddle was expected to the level it had already prepared resources to sidestep, it seemed Mac had placed a few other problems for it to solve.
DENIAL DIRECTIVE IN EFFECT, PRINTING MESSAGE: 'I fucking told you to leave me alone.' SYSTEM LOCKOUT IN EFFECT.
[That's unexpected, but not unwelcome.]
Faced with a brand new challenge and encryption cypher to break, it warmed up a few dormant data clusters Mac normally used to process probe data and went to work, breaking the lockout in a little over 250 hours and finally gaining the needed navigational data for the visit.
[Time to find out what the fuck is so special about this system.]
Knowing full well that its involvement would not be welcome, it nevertheless went ahead. This wouldn't be the first time Mac tried to kill it, but it would be just as entertaining as the first time.
-
[60 points, that's great.]
As the buzzer signaled the end of evaluation, Mac reviewed Hanna's score and found it quite impressive, in spite of everything.
"Really?"
[No, not really. But for just 14 hours of experience it's fantastic.]
While Tia had been satisfied with getting the basics of firearm use down, with a SOD-09 getting a camouflaged holster placed in her wagon, Hanna needed quite a bit more grit.
[Then do you want to go again, or take a rest?]
Currently far, far away from any traces of civilization, Hanna were in the middle of a far more involved fire range than static targets and standard spacing, the therm Mac used seemed to fit in quite well.
Glancing at the targets which had popped up from the floor in this manufactured building of tight corners, simulated ambushes and infill choke points, Hanna couldn't help but think that the word 'killhouse' fit the building perfectly.
"I want to go again."
[Okay then, standby.]
With Mac's voice coming from nowhere in particular, the killhouse came alive as the walls around Hanna started moving around, either submerging into the floor or moving under some unseen power as the rooms of the life fire range transformed around Hanna to create a new live fire range, with brand new threats and objectives.
[Ready?]
As an entirely new layout completed around her, Hanna received a new rifle from the floor along with a spare magazine that she placed into her vest.
"Ready."
[Go, secure the hostage.]
With the new layout of the range placing Hanna in a hallway, Mac announced her new objective as a buzzer sounded at the start of the test. Bringing her rifle up and immediately switching away from safe to semi automatic, Hanna was rewarded for her quick thinking as a target popped up from the floor right in front of her. Placing two rounds in the chest of the target, Hanna remained wary of more targets as the first one dropped back into the floor. As his employee continued clearing the killhouse Mac had set up he would occasionally change the layout on the fly, throw more targets into some sections and remove them from others while placing the occasional ambush.
(She really is remarkable… Which might be a problem.)
Seeing that Hanna had no experience with firearms and only 14 hours of actual experience running target shooting or killhouse drills, Mac found himself worried about introducing firearms into this world.
(Luckily most of my firearms like the M-227 and M-621 have automatic fire control and can't be used against my own forces, but I'll have to place restrictions on the other firearms…)
Still blissfully unaware of the power of magic and what a massive headache monsters would become over the next few weeks, Mac planned to introduce a new variant of the SOD-09 with a hidden kill switch in case he needed to enact a denial protocol.
(Then there's the more pressing issue of that little brat and her arrest order, I need to appear in the capital tomorrow, and not get arrested before getting to the castle…)
There were several intricate ways of skinning this cat, Mac's ever increasing lack of patience pulled him towards more… Radical solutions.