“I only brought you target ammo that will shatter in a puff of dust and not ricochet, but there are rounds that are armor piercing, explosive, soft nosed expanding rounds, incendiary, and two gauges of buck shot; large and larger. The latter isn’t spin stabilized of course.
“They all feel the same when you fire, but are color coded for recognition. I’ll cover those later,” he added.
He handed them the clips and slid closer the two boxes of sixty-four rounds. “You don’t have to fill the clips, but leaving yourself shy of ammunition isn’t a good idea. I want you to fill them and unload them a couple of times. Notice the feel of the two ends of the rounds, so you can do it in the dark by touch.”
“Which way is which on the clip? Oh…,” Noreen answered her own question when she noted one edge of the clip was black, rough on one narrow side, and smooth on the other. The black end of the slug had the same roughness. Only one end of the clip was open and had a small plate recessed inside. They shoved slugs in until no more would fit.
“Now, let me show you how to unload them fast.
He took the clip from Noreen, and pointed the open end down into the satchel and pressed on two small flanges at the open end. The shells all slid rapidly out of the clip into the bag.
“Make sure you don’t do that when swapping clips,” he grinned.
“I’ll have you reload again and then let you shoot to unload. By the way, there are clips that are color coded to match each round type, and with practice you can feel the different textures in the dark.”
After they had each refilled their clips, he had them lay those down and handed them the two guns, holding them by the barrels as if with some effort.
He enjoyed the surprise on both of their faces when he released the heavy looking black things.
“Hey, these are light!” Dillon exclaimed. “Even here they must weigh only about half a pound.”
“The ammo in these large clips is actually slightly heavier than the gun. You won’t get tired holding them fully loaded.”
He pulled out a second gun from the satchel and another empty short clip. “Obviously the clip’s black edge goes forward, and to insert the clip you push this flange on the pistol butt and insert to hear a click like this. It won’t go in backwards.” He demonstrated several times how to seat and release a clip in smooth fast motions at first, then slow so they could see what he was doing. The smaller twelve-inch clip protruded a couple of inches below the gun butt, which was almost long enough for two human hands.
“There is a safety that is pushed on as the clip is inserted, and you release that like this once you are ready to pull the trigger.” He demonstrated that several times as well, and lectured them on standard range safety practices.
“Ok. Face down range, and if you are left or right handed hold the gun in that hand, and insert the long clips with the other hand as I showed you.”
That was done, and he checked each of them individually. “Keep your finger out of the guard, and slide the double safety forward with your thumb. Note that you have the safety available to thumb with either hand.”
“Plan to squeeze one off when I say so. As a first shot, I’d like you to each pick your square target at the far side, and try to sight it in. The sights will take some explaining later, but I want you get a feel for the slight recoil, and where your round goes based on how you think it was aimed.”
“Now move your finger inside the front of the trigger guard, then holding your aim, slowly bring your finger to the triggers and squeeze slowly.”
WOOSH-WOOSH, BLAM-BLAM sounded almost together, followed by “Damn!” and “Yipe!”
“Easy pulls aren’t they?” he laughed.
“There was so little kick I can’t say that scared me as much as the unexpected sound,” Noreen told him.
“I’ll have to agree,” Dillon echoed. “I was so focused on holding my aim that I was completely unprepared for the shot.”
“Then that might explain it.” Thad said.
“What?” Dillon asked.
“You didn’t notice? You hit the square just off dead center on the back wall, at roughly one thousand feet. Noreen hit just barely left of her target. Good flat trajectories with the right height.
“The first shot with these particular guns is often highly accurate because the shooter doesn’t flinch in anticipation when the gentle pull activates the round’s ignition. The trigger pulls are a modification that you can adjust if the easy pull bothers you. But an easy pull helps your accuracy for that first shot or burst.”
Noreen asked, “How do we switch to full automatic?”
“There is a selector on the back of the pistol you rotate left or right, but you aren’t ready for that yet.” Thad cautioned.
“Next, I want you to check out the targets in front of you, and notice that they are scattered in a staggered line in front and to the left and right along the lanes where I had you stand. Simply count from the closest to you out to the back wall and you will find eight of the red-grey squares in each lane.”
“I’ll call out ‘one,’ or ‘five,’ and you need to fire at that target until you see a grey puff hit anywhere on the square. You may have noticed that the gray-red colors are about the same shade as a Krall novice’s skin. We have redder ones to simulate a mature Krall.
“On the right end of these lanes we have moving targets that are motorized and shaped like a Krall silhouette, though usually partly hidden, and with selectable uniform colors as well. In between are different numbers and placements of targets, and some are pop-up, some fixed, and most are partly concealed. That’s where your shipmates are firing right now.”
“Why are we way over here then?” Dillon wanted to know.
“They probably started here earlier this morning, and then moved down. As soon as you show familiarity, we’ll move down as well. However, you have a capability they don’t. Full automatic fire selection, and that needs a bit of separation just to avoid startling them. Believe me they will want that, and it takes a skilled machinist and gunsmith to safely modify these. Sgt. Medford was the only person here that had the skill to do it by hand, and he’s gone.”
“Thad, we have machinists’ aboard and a machine shop.” Noreen informed him. “I suspect they could duplicate what your Sgt. did if we let them look at these.”
“Probably so, but full automatic needs to be carefully restricted in a fire team. Or else you’ll find you’ve blasted through all the ammo you carried, and a knife just won’t do the trick.” He had a grim smile.
“The larger clips were how we managed to fool a dumb Krall novice into charging our ambush positions when he thought we were all changing clips. Even so, we barely managed to hit him on full auto as he dodged and flipped into cover. He lost his lower right arm and the gun it held, but used his left arm and gun to continue after us all alone. It was a near thing for any of the three of us to kill or disable him before he got to us all.”
“We learned they can control bleeding and ignore pain, or don’t feel it perhaps.”
“They ignore the pain, but they feel it.” Thad said with extreme satisfaction. “The scream I heard when his forearm blew off wasn’t of anger it was of pain, quickly followed by snarls of anger that the dumb animals had done that to him.”
Noreen asked about wounded warriors. “It doesn’t sound like there’s a home for crippled veterans, what happens to a Krall that loses a limb? Do the team leaders kill them for being clumsy? We heard that one did that to a novice.”
“A stupid or poor warrior isn’t tolerated long in combat, apparently. I’ve heard of a couple of executions or death challenges after a Testing Day mistake by a novice,” Thad replied.
“However, the loss of an arm or leg in the randomness of combat isn’t necessarily a sign of poor skill as a warrior. Particularly if they complete the kill or performed well otherwise. And that limb loss isn’t a lifetime debilitating injury for them, since they will regrow a limb in three to five months of our
time.”
“Wow,” Dillon was impressed. “We’ve seen that ability in lower animals, and of course we can do it in a hospital setting, after about a year or more of slow growth. How did you find this out?”
“It has happened a few times, and the injured warrior is unable to engage in normal training, exercise, or raids, so they get assigned guard duty here. Protecting the animals that damaged them is a sort of penance. You try not to approach those ‘protectors’ before they get rotated out after recovery.”
He switched the subject back to training. “We can talk about how to blow legs and heads off a Krall later. You need to learn how to use their weapons first.”
Standing behind their positions on the line, he shouted “ONE!”
Dillon rapidly turned and fired three rounds at the closest target, missing the first shot then hitting it twice.
Noreen was a bit slower and fired more deliberately, hitting the target twice with both shots.
“Noreen, accuracy is important, but the huge advantage the Krall have on us is speed and strength. By the time you fired, the warrior would have seen you and leaped or twisted aside, and not only would you have missed, but the final trigger pull would have been your death spasm as he killed you.”
Thad didn’t let Dillon off easy either. “Better reaction time, but still too slow for the Krall, and your first shot at short range missed that big square, so you would never have lived to make a second or third shot.”
“But don’t be discouraged, we have effectively unlimited target practice ammo, and you have about a month before you should even find yourself at risk of a lottery selection for a combat team.”
“Thad,” Noreen inquired, “how long before Dillon and I are good enough to walk around armed with these?”
“I gave them to you, so you will leave this range with them strapped on, including a second set still in the bag, with belts, holsters, and ten clips apiece; five long and five standard length.
“The only ammo I brought you is the practice stuff, which can be deadly depending on where it hits you, even if it breaks apart easily. I’ve worn our armor and trained against my own people using these rounds. It can be dangerous, and it stings like hell if hit, but it’s the best practice you can get before you face the Krall.
“When we finish here you can go to the armory on this level and get some ‘real bullets’ if you like. Whoever drew the short straw to be the master at arms today probably won’t give you armor piercing, explosive, or incendiary rounds unless you are going outside, such as for combat, hunting, or scouting.” Dillon and Noreen noticed he said “probably.”
“Most people load the smaller buck shot rounds for wolfbats and skeeters that might sneak into the dome. Less collateral damage that way if they miss or if an accident happens. We could sure use more of those nonlethal Jazzers or Sonics for that reason. You don’t want to swat a skeeter with a sledge hammer…,” he considered that comment a moment. “Well for these skeeters use a sledge hammer, but not a cannon,” he amended.
They continued their gun range practice for a couple more hours, as more people from the Fancy trickled in from time to time.
****
Mirikami came awake as Jake’s voice softly penetrated into his awareness.
“Captain, it is three hours after dawn. Sir, it is the time I was asked to awaken you.”
Then a bit louder, but still gentle, “Sir, your First Officer asked me to let you rest until three hours after dawn. That time has just passed. Do you wish to have breakfast sent to your room?”
With a bit of a groan, Mirikami rolled over, feeling sore leg muscles tighten, and a moderate headache throbbed behind his right eye. Jake was on his third more insistent effort to arouse him when he responded.
“I’m awake, I think. Give me a couple of minutes to get my thoughts organized.”
He slung his aching legs over the edge of his bed, and used the null gravity handhold over the headboard to help rise to a sitting position.
“What time did you say it was?” His mind was waking up.
“Do you want ship time from before our landing, or local time, adjusted for a twenty two point six hour day, divided into twenty four fifty six and one half minute hours for this world?”
“Ok. I’ll use the local shorter twenty four hour clock, and I heard you say it was three hours after dawn?”
“The local time is 10:20 AM, with sunrise at 7:20 AM.”
“How did you manage to ‘forget’ to awaken me at dawn, no matter what clock you were told to use?”
“I did not forget Sir. Your wake up order was countermanded by Commander Noreen Renaldo, First Officer of the Flight of Fancy, per regula…”
“Stop.” He ordered. Considering how he felt three hours later than he intended to get up, he wasn’t about to chastise her for her consideration.
Noreen had already laid into him before he went to sleep, about how he had risked all their lives by risking his health by popping so many pills to keep going. She was like the daughter he’d never had. The thought actually brought on a nice feeling about how she had watched out for the “Old Man.”
“Where is Noreen right now?” he asked.
“She and Doctor Martin went to the dome an hour after daylight, and were intending to meet with Colonel Greeves for weapons training. They requested this via a Link to Mr. Rigson, who relayed the request for them.”
“Are there any Krall on board us now?”
“No Sir.”
“I had not thought about this before, but when you Link to us in the dome, you have to use radio signals that leave the ship. I don’t know if the Krall intend to let us do this. Is the Clanship still parked near us?”
“No Sir, it lifted off six hours and forty one minutes ago, and appeared to enter orbit.”
“Has a Krall shuttle returned to this compound, possibly bearing Telour?”
“No Sir, no shuttle has returned.”
“What would we need to do to provide you with video and internal links inside the dome without use of a broadcast radio signal outside of the ship or dome?”
“There are two portable repeater modules for extending transducer range, and they are in storage near my processors. They have not been used since my activation. They are capable of providing long-range radio links with crewmembers that remain within five to seven miles transducer range of those units. They have the ability to connect to a city’s communication grid if you do not want to send broadcast signals to the repeaters. A fiber optic line into the dome could provide a non-broadcast Link into the dome. The metal framework of the dome will limit leakage of their signal. I have had to boost the signal strength slightly to Link to transducers inside the dome. It is…”
“That’s enough for now.”
He wasn’t sure if the Krall were aware of the signals or cared, but if they did monitor them, even overconfident killers might get curious as to what was being discussed by their talking animals.
“Are either Mister Rigson or Branson back on board this morning?”
“Yes Sir. Both are in the dispensary.”
“Link me to both.”
“Yes Sir.”
“Good morning gentlemen. I hope your wound is healing well Mister Rigson.”
Both men returned his greeting, and Rigson added, “I’m letting Cal replace my bandages, and we brought Doctor Naguma back on a hauler pallet just after dawn, covered with a table cloth. With a missing right hand and two fingers gone on his left, we were afraid to let him be seen by any Krall.”
“Good idea. I suspect he might be killed on sight. How is he doing?”
“He’s very depressed and aware of how dangerous his injuries are if the Krall see him. Besides changing his bandages, I’ve given him an Oxy and Pep pill combo; to see if that will boost his energy and rev up his system for healing.
“The damn Primes that saw him say injured or not, his name goes into the lottery next month. I can’t understand how they can be so heartless.” The nick
name for the early captives seemed to have stuck, and Rigson used it almost as a swear word.
Mirikami needed to try to temper that anger. “Mel, some of those people can seem rather uncompromising and selfish, but we’ve not been faced with relentless violent death as they were. They’ve had to watch helplessly as friends or family was randomly selected for certain death every eight days for two, three, or more years.”
Thinking on that for a moment, Rigson softened his stance. “I may find myself changing as we face the same pressures, Sir. But I hope our attitude of ‘fighting-back’ brings some humanity and spirit back to them. They might relearn that from us.”
“Let’s hope so Mel.” Then to Branson, he asked, “Cal, do we have anything in the pharmacy that can help me with a headache and body pains, and perhaps purge me of over dosing on the Oxy and Pep pills yesterday?”
“I think so Sir. We have a couple of hangover remedies that act fast on many drug and alcohol after effects, and they will clear away the headache. A mild analgesic should help with leg and body pains.”
“Please have someone send whatever remedy you chose to my cabin, with a hearty breakfast. I hurt and I’m starved. I can’t recall consuming more than a couple of sandwiches and lots of fluids yesterday.”
Before he faced Maggi or Noreen again, he wanted to be well fortified. The Krall were nothing compared to the weight of guilt those two women could lay on him.
While he waited, he called the Drive Room to see if anybody was home in the now mostly gutted division. They had no main engines and no Normal Space drive, no Jump capability, so the fusion bottle was their major item for maintenance, and it didn’t need much. Then he remembered the two tachyon Traps.
It took a moment for anyone to respond, time Mirikami used to splash water on his face, leaving the com set on speaker. Chief Haveram answered after a minute or so, giving the Captain time to dry his face and hands.
“Captain, can I help you Sir?” was his query, when he saw the call’s origination point.
Koban Page 38
