“Aren’t weapons supposed to be dangerous? They’re not much use if they aren’t.”
Si’ir Monnen Dak sighed. She was good with the pulse rifle, but this was going to be more difficult than he thought. “They’re only supposed to be dangerous to your enemy, while you are in a firefight. They are not supposed to be dangerous to your colleagues or innocent bystanders.”
“What happens if I drop it?”
“Don’t drop it.”
“Yes, but suppose I do drop it?”
“Pay attention Sah Lee. Don’t drop it.”
“OK, I’ll try not to.”
“You need to bond your AI with it, otherwise it won’t fire, which also means no one else can use it if they take from you.”
“I wouldn’t let anyone take it from me!”
“That’s what I like to hear. However, it would be difficult to stop them if you are dead, but they still wouldn’t be able to fire it.”
“Right. I hadn’t planned to be dead.”
“You don’t need to plan for it, we’ll do that.” Si’ir Monnen Dak replied.
“What do you want me to do with it?”
Si’ir Monnen Dak was tempted to make a crude suggestion, but said: “KE weapons make a noise, have a recoil and lift when the bullet leaves the muzzle - that’s the end of the barrel.” he said, pointing at it.
“Why do they lift when you fire them?”
“You remember the bullets? They are ejected from the muzzle at high velocity. You’ll have learned in your basic physics that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. There are two consequences of that with a KE weapon, you get recoil, which is the weapon pushing back at you when you fire it, and muzzle lift. That’s because the recoil acts on the weapon above its center of gravity, so the tangential recoil force causes the weapon to torque around its center of mass. Is that clear?”
“No, I have no idea what some of those words mean.”
Si’ir Monnen Dak rolled his eyes. “Ask your AI to explain it, but I was going to tell you about the recoil. You understand what that is?”
Sah Lee nodded.
“This bit at the end,” he showed her, “is an anti-recoil device. It’s pretty simple but effective, but you still get a slight recoil and muzzle lift. It’s not difficult to control but you’ll need plenty of practice. You’re going to start now. This magazine only holds 36 rounds, or bullets, which you can fire one at a time by pulling the trigger and releasing it, all at once by pulling the trigger and holding it or, by flicking this switch," he showed her, "you can fire bursts of three rounds at a time. When you’ve run out, you take out the empty magazine and replace it with a full one.” He showed her how. “Hold it the same way as the pulse rifle and take a single shot at each of the first six targets. Start when you’re ready.”
Before he had finished speaking, Sah Lee fired her first shot. She paused a moment, then fired the next five shots in quick succession. Si’ir Monnen Dak retrieved the targets and examined them closely. Then he handed them to Sah Lee. “You’re going to need a lot more practice with KE weapons.”
Sah Lee examined the targets. “How could I have completely missed them all?”
“You did clip one of them. Look.” He pointed out a half circle missing from the left side, close to the bottom of the target which had been second closest.
“Oh, that’s OK then.” she said, sarcastically.
“KE weapons are heavier and they move when you fire them. Your hunting skills help you stay very still, which is just what you need with a pulse rifle, but you need to allow for the movement of a KE weapon, and for the trajectory of the bullet. Have you studied ballistics?”
“What are ballistics? I mean, no.”
“OK. When you fire a KE weapon, the bullet starts to drop due to gravity. Hunting weapons have the barrel set, so it tilts upwards slightly, so the bullet appears to lift up when the weapon is fired. Ours aren’t set that way. Your AI needs to compensate for that if it’s putting a targeting dot on whatever you are shooting at. All the weapons made from a single pattern should be identical, but you’ll usually find there are several patterns used to replicate a single weapon model and they vary slightly in their characteristics, so the best thing to do when you get a new one is to get down to a firing range and put a few rounds through it. That’s what we’ll do now.” He threw her what looked like a bundle of metal rods. “Lay down and put your rifle on the tripod. I’ll get a set of targets up. Fire six shots at dead center of each of them and check where the bullets hit.” He handed her a monocular. “That will magnify so you - and your AI can see where the bullets hit, and the AI will adjust where it shows the targeting dot. You can keep that weapon, and the monocular. Touren will show you how to stow them securely in your quarters.”
Sah Lee spent some time firing at targets at varying distances until she was consistently getting all her shots in small groups at the center of the target. Finally, she stood up, stretched and said: “Well that’s done the weapons training, what’s next?”
“That’s done weapons training for today. You will need plenty more. Now you and I are going to do more unarmed combat training. We’ll finish early, and you can study ballistics and the effect of wind on projectile trajectories. You can use one of the rooms over there.” He pointed to a distant wall with a long row of doors in it, some open, some closed. “You can sit quietly in them to study or they’re big enough you can use them for VR training - or if you prefer you can do it your quarters. I’ve booked us seats on the lander going down to Betzel tomorrow morning. You can practice what you’ve learnt on the ground.”
Chapter Forty Four
Betzel
Sah Lee met Sergeant Si’ir Monnen Dak in the lander dock. She was wearing body armor over her jumpsuit uniform and carrying her KE weapon. He was standing at the foot of the ramp to one of the army’s landers. He had a black backpack and was standing with his foot on a large metal box. Sah Lee tapped it with her foot. “Lunch?” she asked.
“Spare magazines.” he replied. “Let’s get on board.”
“Lunch in your backpack?” she asked hopefully.
“Environment suits. Do you know anything about Betzel?
“Only that it’s the planet the Command Headquarters orbits. I thought it was dead.”
“It is, almost. There are a few single celled life forms and some scrubby vegetation. There’s not much on the surface of Betzel, but there’s a controlled environment with synthesizers and sleeping quarters. We can eat there. No one lives there, but sometimes teams stay planetside for a few days if they are on extended exercises. There’s a maintenance unit, but that’s automated and only got bots in it. There are a lot of training set-ups there. Firing ranges, assault courses, small towns with a variety of building styles, most things you’ll find on a planet. It’s very hot, and it has a thin but turbulent atmosphere. You need an environment suit to keep you alive. If you can shoot with that and your body armor on, you’ll be OK in any environment. One more thing, your home planet’s gravity is slightly lower than standard, Betzel has one half galactic standard gravity. That means you are going to find it awkward moving in it.”
“Why go down there then? Wouldn’t it make more sense to practice on a standard gravity planet?”
“Two reasons. First, you’ll find yourself fighting in a variety of different gravity’s, so you need to get used to them, second, Betzel is just below us so we’re going there.”
“That makes sense. Come on, let’s go. What are we waiting for?”
“We’re waiting for everyone else who’re going down in this lander. It’s not our private shuttle. Get on board, we can put our environment suits on when we’ve boarded. Tell your AI to bond to your suit though it will probably do it anyway.”
Within a few minutes the lander filled up with a variety of species. Some boarded wearing environment suits, most stood and pulled the suits on before sitting down. Sah Lee took her seat next to Si’ir Monnen Dak. The seat adjusted itsel
f to fit her as she settled into it. The lights dimmed, and she heard the hushed noise of the engines rising, then a slight jolt as they lifted off. As soon as the engine noise started to rise, straps extruded from the seat around her waist and over her shoulders, pulling her tight into the seat. The flight was smooth until they hit the atmosphere, at which point it got quite bumpy.
“Are the landers always as rough as this?” she asked as they came in to land.
“These landers are built for speed, not comfort. They’ve got armor, but if anyone is shooting at us, you can bet they’ll have missiles that can blow us to bits, so the safest approach is to get down quick.”
“Great. That made me feel sick.”
“You’ll get used to it. Time to get off.”
As soon as the lander hit the ground, the ramp dropped down and the first of the soldiers got off. Si’ir Monnen Dak put his hand on Sah Lee’s arm and waited until they were the last to leave. As they got off, he said: “We’re going for a short walk first, then a long run to get you used to the environment suit. I’ll leave the ammunition box and my backpack here, take your weapon with you. We’ll take that track,” he said, pointing, “it’s safe down there.”
“You said there’s no life on the planet. Won’t everywhere be safe?”
“It’s safe because as long as you don’t stray off the track, you won’t get accidentally shot or blown up by anyone else on exercises. Let’s go.”
They returned after two hours with Sah Lee a bit more used to the environment suit but still struggling with the low gravity. The environment suits were tough, otherwise hers would have had a collection of rips to match the bruises where she had tripped and fallen over.
“Can we just do this on the habitat with normal gravity please?” she asked.
“No, we’ll keep coming back here every day until you’re used to it. You’ll do target practice now, followed by a couple of hours on the assault course. When you’ve got that cracked, you’ll move on to firing at simulated enemy targets while negotiating the assault course and an hour a day of unarmed combat. You’ve got to get used to it Sah Lee. When you’re competent here, I’ll move you onto more advanced unarmed and close combat with weapons back on the Command habitat, then we’ll be back down here again. After that we’ll move onto zero gravity. I told you I’d push you hard. Any spare time we’ve got you’ll be in the gym, strength building. And I want you to become an expert on ballistics. If there’s any time left in the day after that, you can get some sleep. Now pick up the ammunition box and carry it to the firing range.”
The training on Betzel was exhausting. Every time Sah Lee’s resolve started to waiver through pain and exhaustion, she brought to mind the destruction of her world and her life by the outcasts, she no longer thought of them as demons. Although they seemed to have been organized by the shadowy Tk’ng Dach Rm, they attacked for kicks. No other reason. Not for revenge or because they wanted something. She wasn’t sure if there was such a thing as evil, but if there was, they were driven by it. When she thought of this, the cold fury inside her came back and drove her determination to become a trained soldier who could hunt and kill any more like those who destroyed Aarn and all that she held dear.
As soon as Si’ir Monnen Dak was satisfied with her progress on Betzel, he started training her in zero gravity, which she didn’t like. He wasn’t making it any easier for her and made no allowances for any mistakes and any slowness to make progress as quickly as he wanted. The first few days of training in space she vomited as soon as she stepped outside the habitat’s gravity field. This made Si’ir Monnen Dak angry, though Sah Lee didn’t understand why. It didn’t affect him, and he didn’t stop or slow the pace of her training. The space suit was self-cleaning, but the smell lingered all day. She learnt not to eat for several hours before starting training in space. She still retched but had nothing to bring up.
Si’ir Monnen Dak was getting increasingly short tempered and volatile as time went by. His outbursts of anger when Sah Lee failed to grasp what she was being told to do were verging on the use of violence against her. One morning, as she woke up, her AI told her that she was required to visit Colonel B’erren Tek at her earliest convenience, which meant immediately.
Chapter Forty Five
Colonel B’Erren Tek
Sah Lee jumped out of bed and stumbled to the wet room to shower and dress. Not pausing to dry her hair or eat, she ran to the gravity tube and dropped the eighty-six floors to the corridor which took her to the Colonel’s office. Following her AI’s directions, she ran to the Colonel’s office. As she got to the door, it slid open. She heard a voice from inside say “Come in Private.”
Inside she saw a slender female reptile with dark green skin sitting behind a wide gray desk. She stood to attention in front of the desk. “Private Sah Lee reporting as ordered, Sir!”
“At ease Private. Would you like a drink?”
“No thank you Sir.”
“I would. The synthesizer is over there.” the Colonel said, gesturing to the wall on her left.
Sah Lee stood for a moment, wondering why the Colonel had decided to share this with her. “Get the Colonel’s drink out of the synthesizer.” she heard her AI say.
Sah Lee hastened to the synthesizer, took the mug she found inside it to the Colonel’s desk and carefully placed it in front of her.
“Thank you Private, take a seat.”
Sah Lee sat on the edge of the chair, wondering why the Colonel had summoned her when the highest rank she had met so far was Si’ir Monn, a Sergeant.
“Relax Sah Lee. You’re not in trouble. As you know you’re only here because we got a request from Ker Din Ser Forn. He seems to think you have the potential for greatness. At the moment that is not obvious to any of us. However, Sergeant Si’ir Monnen Dak reports that you show great determination and are making good progress. I assigned him to train you as he is an outstanding soldier but a real pain in the ass when he is not in the front line and I needed to find something for him to do. His condition is deteriorating at the moment and he is losing control of his anger attacks. You may have noticed.”
Sah Lee opened her mouth to reply, but the Colonel continued: “A peacekeeping force is going to a colony belonging to The Krexel Alliance. They are a small civilization who only joined the post-emergent galactic community six hundred years ago. There has been a civil disturbance on the colony by a group who want to break away from the political and economic rule of the main Alliance. They had a referendum but most of the population didn’t take it seriously and didn’t bother to vote. Those who wanted independence all voted and won the referendum by a small margin and are now in power. The majority who are against independence demanded another vote, the independence group refused. The argument escalated into violence and threatens a full blown civil war. The Alliance Government asked us to intervene to keep the peace. Major Errett San Mer is leading the peacekeeping force, Sergeant Si’ir Monnen Dak is going as one of two Sergeants in the squad. You will be going as part of his unit.”
Sah Lee drew breath to speak again, but before she could say anything, the Colonel continued: “No one wanted you here Private Sah Lee, we are going through a relatively peaceful period right now, apart from the unpleasantness on your world of course…”
The cold fury that burnt inside Sah Lee flared and took her over. Pulling her hunting knife from its sheath, she leapt on to the Colonel’s desk, grasped the front of her jumpsuit and holding the point of her knife to her throat growled “The destruction of my world, my family, my friends, my life was more than unpleasantness!”
The Colonel calmly replied: “You are right Sah Lee. I apologize. That was a stupid choice of words. Forgive me. Now, would you please return to your seat?”
Sah Lee was taken aback by these words from the Colonel. As sanity returned to her, she realized that what she had done was probably the sort of thing that wasn’t allowed and could lead, should lead to punishment. Probably being thrown out of the army
at the least. Shaking and feeling dizzy as the adrenaline still raced through her bloodstream and the dawning realization of what she had done, she let go of the Colonels jumpsuit and backed off her desk. “I, I…”
“Don’t say anything Sah Lee. Sit down. My AI has queried your AI and ordered a drink for you. Stay there, I’ll get it for you.”
The Colonel collected the drink from the synthesizer and put it on the desk in front of Sah Lee. She crouched down beside her. “I am truly sorry Sah Lee. I can’t believe I was thoughtless enough to speak to you like that. However, you have committed a severe breach of military discipline which merits a custodial sentence and dishonorable discharge from the army.”
“But, I didn’t mean… I can’t…“
“So, in the circumstances,” the Colonel continued, “you’d better not mention this to anyone, ever. As far as anyone else is concerned, this never happened. Apart from ending your military career, it would make me look stupid.” She smiled. “You’re not alone in joining the army to get revenge on those who have everything and yet make a choice to bring death and misery to the innocent.”
Feeling very contrite, Sah Lee asked in a quiet voice “Is that why you joined?”
“Yes. I guess that is obvious to you now.”
“What happened to you?” Sah Lee asked.
“I don’t talk about it. As time goes by, you probably won’t want to talk about what happened to you and your people. They say time heals. It doesn’t, you just get better at handling it.”
Hunter, Warrior, Commander Page 18
