looking at a slum of some kind perched on a raised building.
He saw movement, and bringing up his scope he locked onto the movement, counting people and watching their paths. He heard someone start firing.
Someone else started moments later. Mark waited, he had ten minutes and he took his time, marking targets and estimating where they were going to go.
He breathed, slow and careful.
He checked his targets; there were fourteen, meaning he’d need to change magazines.
Time to rock and roll. Mark thought, remembering all that Richter, his training staff for basic, and Tyler had drilled into his skull.
He fired, expelling air as he changed targets, fired, changed targets, fired, let out air, new target.
The enemies started running for cover and chaos ensued.
Mark was fixated on his targets, but he missed a few times reloading, with only eight targets down. He got another three before the scene froze.
“Clear weapons!” Tyler yelled.
Weapons were unloaded and breeches left open as they waited for the results of their shooting. The view screen in front of Mark showed a replay of his rounds and placement. Mark made mental notes as he watched, data on correction, trigger pull, breathing, all of it was there.
Mark looked for a few pieces of key information, using his implants to go back and forth through the shoot to see what he’d done well and badly.
“Bring it in,” Tyler said a few minutes later, and everyone left their weapons where they were and gathered around Tyler, and Haas and Zukic were also there. Not about to let their egos get to their heads that they were the best shots around, they too were learning from Tyler.
It made Mark respect them more, rather than think any less of the two leaders.
“Alright, so this exercise was to see how well you were able to adjust to multiple targets that reacted like they were being shot at. It was an exercise in precision, your ability to think about the situation and adjusting on the fly. Some of you decided to start shooting as soon as you saw a target, not taking the time to search out the other targets in the area. This meant you got at least one good kill, but the others were sloppy. Others took too much time planning out the moves of their targets and didn’t have much time to actually shoot. Some of you made the right kind of estimations, and with educated guesses matched with knowledge of the weapon system, did well.” Tyler looked at everyone, his eyes never resting on anyone to single them out.
If people wanted to reveal their scores, that was up to them, otherwise Tyler wasn’t going to put them on the spot. They were all adults, they knew what they had done wrong and what they had to do next time.
“We’ll do another reactive shoot and then go grab some food?” Tyler said, looking to Haas and Zukic.
“This is your show Tyler,” Haas said, waving to Tyler with a grin.
Haas was happy to just be another Trooper for a while, sometimes being a leader was a lonely business.
“Alrighty, get behind those guns, same rules as before, but this will be a different scenario.”
Mark was hungry, but shooting guns, it was cathartic and fun when there wasn’t a real person at the other end of the barrel.
Over the next shoot Mark improved and Tyler called a food break. People locked their AMRs in the armories and headed off to the cafeteria. Mark found himself in a group with Sergeants and above, talking about the AMRs and best practices.
Mark saw a familiar face.
“Ollie?” Tyler said first, and Mark saw the boy’s face go through recognition.
He wasn’t a thin boy any more, he was a well-built young man with his hair cut short and his uniform crisp.
“Tyler?” Ollie asked.
Mark waded through the people, grinning.
Ollie held out a hand, and was wrapped up in a bear hug by the two brothers, laughing as he was lowered to the ground.
“The Victor brothers, fuck I’d never thought I’d see you two! Been a lifetime!” Ollie said.
Tyler
He saw movement, and bringing up his scope he locked onto the movement, counting people and watching their paths. He heard someone start firing.
Someone else started moments later. Mark waited, he had ten minutes and he took his time, marking targets and estimating where they were going to go.
He breathed, slow and careful.
He checked his targets; there were fourteen, meaning he’d need to change magazines.
Time to rock and roll. Mark thought, remembering all that Richter, his training staff for basic, and Tyler had drilled into his skull.
He fired, expelling air as he changed targets, fired, changed targets, fired, let out air, new target.
The enemies started running for cover and chaos ensued.
Mark was fixated on his targets, but he missed a few times reloading, with only eight targets down. He got another three before the scene froze.
“Clear weapons!” Tyler yelled.
Weapons were unloaded and breeches left open as they waited for the results of their shooting. The view screen in front of Mark showed a replay of his rounds and placement. Mark made mental notes as he watched, data on correction, trigger pull, breathing, all of it was there.
Mark looked for a few pieces of key information, using his implants to go back and forth through the shoot to see what he’d done well and badly.
“Bring it in,” Tyler said a few minutes later, and everyone left their weapons where they were and gathered around Tyler, and Haas and Zukic were also there. Not about to let their egos get to their heads that they were the best shots around, they too were learning from Tyler.
It made Mark respect them more, rather than think any less of the two leaders.
“Alright, so this exercise was to see how well you were able to adjust to multiple targets that reacted like they were being shot at. It was an exercise in precision, your ability to think about the situation and adjusting on the fly. Some of you decided to start shooting as soon as you saw a target, not taking the time to search out the other targets in the area. This meant you got at least one good kill, but the others were sloppy. Others took too much time planning out the moves of their targets and didn’t have much time to actually shoot. Some of you made the right kind of estimations, and with educated guesses matched with knowledge of the weapon system, did well.” Tyler looked at everyone, his eyes never resting on anyone to single them out.
If people wanted to reveal their scores, that was up to them, otherwise Tyler wasn’t going to put them on the spot. They were all adults, they knew what they had done wrong and what they had to do next time.
“We’ll do another reactive shoot and then go grab some food?” Tyler said, looking to Haas and Zukic.
“This is your show Tyler,” Haas said, waving to Tyler with a grin.
Haas was happy to just be another Trooper for a while, sometimes being a leader was a lonely business.
“Alrighty, get behind those guns, same rules as before, but this will be a different scenario.”
Mark was hungry, but shooting guns, it was cathartic and fun when there wasn’t a real person at the other end of the barrel.
Over the next shoot Mark improved and Tyler called a food break. People locked their AMRs in the armories and headed off to the cafeteria. Mark found himself in a group with Sergeants and above, talking about the AMRs and best practices.
Mark saw a familiar face.
“Ollie?” Tyler said first, and Mark saw the boy’s face go through recognition.
He wasn’t a thin boy any more, he was a well-built young man with his hair cut short and his uniform crisp.
“Tyler?” Ollie asked.
Mark waded through the people, grinning.
Ollie held out a hand, and was wrapped up in a bear hug by the two brothers, laughing as he was lowered to the ground.
“The Victor brothers, fuck I’d never thought I’d see you two! Been a lifetime!” Ollie said.
Tyler
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