"Oww…" groaned Louis as Clara pulled him back into cover. There is a present but subtle glare of displeasure in her eyes.
"He will be fine," assured Giorgio, going to tend to Louis.
Meanwhile Sean and Carl are busy wiring the charge to blow a hole in the wall. Clara and Ariel are taking turns to shoot back at the machinegun nest, and to ensure no other ambushes.
"Ok, we are set!" said Sean, having wired charges in a chain to ensure a big enough hole that will not collapse the ceiling. This is a highly precise operation, hence Sean employing AI models built into the software of his Exo-suit HUD to make the precise placement.
Carl pressed the remote.
"BOOM!" a deafening blow later, the wall came down, opening a space that can allow 2 people to go through. Carl is ready with a hammer, moving to hack away the remaining bits to ensure no cramming happens.
"They are going to flank us!" yelled an "enemy", realising what the cadets are up to. But before he can give any orders, yellow smoke suddenly puffed out from his body.
"SNIPER!" the remaining "enemies" quickly ducked down and took cover, cautiously looking out the window to see where that shot came from.
"I am in position, use it well," grinned Albert, his voice coming in through the radio of the cadet.
"You are a master of timing!" laughed Clara.
Leaving Giorgio behind to help Louis, the rest of the cadets moved through the hole in the wall, quickly arriving at a door.
Clara activated her Exo-suit's hydraulic battering ram, and with a swift "bang", the door is hit open.
2 flashbangs thrown by Sean fell in, blinding the "enemies" inside as Ariel led the charge in, opening fire at anyone they seen.
Soon the whole house is full of yellow smoke — from the "enemies".
"Heck yah! OUCH!" yelled Eddie in joy once he heard the news of success, accidentally grabbing his machine gun's hot barrel in excitement.
(Control room)
"That was a remarkable demonstration," said Herbert.
"Send in the next group," said Jay, taking down notes.
(Late afternoon, fields)
Urban combat exercise is finished, but instructors have other plans.
"Begin!" ordered Nanami. Sean, Clara, Carl and Louis dashed forward, dressed in high-cut ballistic helmets and plate carriers, heading to the 9-hole shooting boards, specialised L-shaped boards with rectangular and square holes cut out in different sizes and positions from high to low. The objective is to test their shooting skills from different heights and different postures by shooting at their target boards while moving down and sideways, aiming through the different holes of the 9-hole shooting board.
While it looks easy, it is an extreme test of their shooting skills and coordination of them and their weapons. Louis moved down and sideways, switching to each hole and shooting, aiming the red dot sight on his HK-416A5.
His gun shuddered as a result of his shaky hands, struggling to control where his bullet is landing as he moved to shoot. While not unfamiliar to this kind of training from his Marine Division Recon days, Louis is not used to the high stress, high speed requirements of special operations, messing up shots to a great degree.
After they shot 9 rounds each, they ceased firing and checked their target boards. Carl grinned at his target board.
"Damn, my shooting skills have greatly improved!" he exclaimed sarcastically.
"9 shots, 10 bullet holes!" he laughed, pointing to his target board, which has a 10th bullet on the most rightward edge. He laughed at Louis who is standing by his right side, counting the number of holes on his board.
Louis counted only 4 holes on the board.
"Hey, that's enough," said Sean, waving Carl off. Sean tried to comfort Louis by pointing out how he still passed, albeit scrapped past.
Little did he know that it only made Louis feel worse. He cannot fathom what it will be like if his comrades were to trust him with their backs, someone who cannot even properly aim and shoot. He is supposed to be the best of the best to serve mankind.
But he may actually be its greatest disappointment.
"Next zone!" ordered Nanami. The 4 cadets rushed forward to a new gun range which is situated in a room, with moving targets outside the room, about 200m away. The cadets have to empty the 30-round magazines within a time limit; they are rated on their relative accuracy.
They took prone positions, loading the rifle and ready to shoot. Just as they are going to pull their triggers, the sprinklers and the wind system in the room came online, mercilessly spraying water at the cadets below, mimicking a storm. The fact that their vision is obstructed by the rain is not even the most severe problem, but rather that the strong gusts of wind is going to seriously mess up their bullet flight path. It is extremely likely that where they end up hitting is far off from where they aimed at. With only a simple Holosun HE515 red dot sight, they can only adjust based on experience.
To make things worse, Maia came over with a loudspeaker, asking them random questions to distract them. As she yelled questions at them, she also looked at the target boards with binoculars.
"Number 101! How many rabbits and chickens are there in a cage if there 36 heads and 95 feet?" she roared.
Clara's brain kicked into overdrive, trying to solve this math question while being uncomfortable from the artificial rain and trying to place her shot, all under a time constraint.
"Ma'am, 12 rabbits and 24 chickens!" she replied, firing a shot at a moving target at the same time, landing accurately.
Maia then turned to Sean. "Number 9! What is the chemical formula for sodium hydroxide?"
"NaOH, Ma'am!" yelled Sean.
"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU SO LOUD?" roared Maia. "I HAVE EARS GOD DAMN IT! FOX EARS!" she roared. Sean grimaced; his ears almost busted as a result.
Just as Sean is about to fire the next shot, Maia bent down, speaking in Japanese.
"How many more of us do you intend to kill, hmm?"
Sean froze, his trigger finger going off from his rifle momentarily. She knows only Sean can understand Japanese here, directly confronting Sean on his mistake 3 years ago.
Images of Artemis 14 "Katya"'s head being blown open with a full-powered rifle cartridge flew before Sean's eyes.
His breathing ragged. He can almost feel her boiling, dark crimson blood spurting onto his face as she collapsed onto him as if he was reliving the moment again. Beads of sweat rained down from his face onto his jungle camouflage uniform, trying his best to line up his sights at the targets,
He turned to Maia, her face is a mixture of pain, and toxin.
Seeping toxin.
Sean breathed, closing his eyes to re-adjust himself. His finger moving back to the trigger finger.
"Maia," he said in Japanese, addressing her by name instead of "Instructor Maia" or "Ma'am". "My answer—"
A rapid burst of gunshots surged from Sean's rifle barrel, hitting the target.
"— is zero."
Maia's face turned dark, almost gloomier than the artificial rain. She then turned to Karl. "Number 23! When does 1 + 1 equals to 3?" she asked.
"Ma'am," replied Carl in a normal volume. "The question—"
"ARE YOU BORN FROM MOSQUITOES?!" roared Maia. "LOUDER! YOU WANT TO BE A TIER 1 WITH THAT BUZZING OF A VOICE?!"
"YES MA'AM!" roared Carl.
"Good! That's the spirit! Now answer my question!"
"The question is wrong!" replied Carl firmly.
Maia kicked him. "ARE YOU AN IDIOT?" she roared. "1+1 equals to 3 when you solve it wrongly! UNDERSTAND?!"
"YES MA'AM!" yelled Carl, internally hurling Norwegian profanities, returning to his shooting, rapidly hitting 2 targets accurately and quickly.
Finally, she turned to Louis, who is trying his best to steady his sights and aim at his target in this environment of strong interference.
"Number 42! What is the effective range of an intermediate rifle cartridge?"
"Ma'am, around 400m!" reported Louis, trying to take quick deep breaths and hold his breath to steady himself, as he had been trained since joining the Marines. But his heart rate is simply too high from anxiety and disorientation.
And true enough, his next shot whizzed past the target board, missing it completely.
Maia fumed seeing it in her binoculars. "MISSED?" she roared. She pushed Louis aside and grabbed his rifle and fired a crisp shot at the target, hitting it in the bullseye.
"Adjusting our state to match the environment is the bare minimum!" she reprimanded. "Down, 50 push ups! The time still goes on!" she said. Louis immediately got down and started his push ups. Maia then stepped on him.
"I suggest you do the rest of us a service and piss off!" she yelled.
Louis remained silent, finishing his push ups and grabbed the rifle again, firing at the targets.
Soon, the time is up. The cadets checked clear their guns, and stepped out of the range as the other cadets took their turns. Looking at the scoreboard, Sean and Carl are tied first place, and to the surprise of no one, Sean is ranked last.
"Well done, comrade," said Carl raising his hand to shake with Sean.
"Why do I feel this will be the death of me?" laughed Sean, shaking hands.
Carl's eyes flickered, making his ghostly appearance thanks to be an Angel subspecies of the Sellardraxians even more unsettling. "You are really droll," he laughed, fist-pumping Sean, then nonchalantly pushed Louis aside, walking off.
Sean looked at the glooming Louis, gently brushing off grass in his hair, and giving him a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
After all the cadets are done, they proceeded to a 2-men course. Louis is assigned together with Clara. The aim to is hit targets in a mock 1st floor of a building made up of containers, ensuring speed and relative accuracy. As the targets are randomly generated, one miss can result in them accidentally friendly firing. Each cadets have a maximum of 2 attempts, and both cadets need to pass without "dying" to be successful. They will be ranked based on how many they hit and the relative accuracy.
Clara and Louis readied their guns at the starting position. Knowing Louis's barely passing aim, Clara decided that she will have to assist Louis in this aspect by coordinating.
The whistle is blown.
"GO!" yelled Clara and the 2 sprang out. 2 targets popped up in front. Both fired. Clara's shot hit the target in the dead centre while Louis' landed on the sides.
More targets popped up, and the 2 moved their way through them. A target popped up some distance away from Louis. He aimed at it with his red dot sight, missing. The target then promptly disappeared. "Damn it," cursed Louis.
The 2 then entered the room sections. Clara placed her hand on his shoulder, signalling him to stop. She turned into a room, rapidly taking out 2 targets that appeared, aiming down her red dot sight. A target then appeared in the end of the walkway; Louis took it out. The 2 then cleared the room, checking for any new targets, then moving out. Clara then placed her hand on Louis' shoulder firmly, somewhat helping to improve his stability, allowing Louis to butcher less of his shots, together clearing through the targets. Soon, their rifle magazines are depleted and they switched to pistol. As the next section is extremely narrow and only allowing 1 person to cross through one of the 2 corridors, they split.
Due to the extremely close distance the targets are appearing at less than 10m, Louis did not have to aim, hence pointing his Glock 19 Gen 5 and shooting once they appear, not missing a single shot. This gradually restored some confidence for him. He then cleared the area, heading leftwards, moving along the corridor.
It ended in a clearing, which Clara had also arrived at the same time from the right from the other corridor. Just then, a target appeared beside both Louis and Clara and directed at the opposite person.
Both pulled their triggers. A fresh bullet hole appeared on the target next to Louis, left by Clara's Glock 19 Gen 5, while the target next to Clara remained spotless.
Why? Because a yellow smoke rose from Clara's JPC plate carrier, the end result of a bullet fired from Louis' pistol. His blood ran dry as he saw what he has done while Clara stared incredulously at him in disbelief.
"Numbers 42 and 101 fail! Second attempt begins in 5 minutes!" announced Herbert.
A fuming Clara threw her helmet at Louis, angered. Flames are burning around her in the air as her unstable temper led to an outburst of magic.
"Are you for real?!" she roared.
Louis averted her gaze, mumbling that he is sorry. All the little confidence he had garnered on his shooting skills is gone like a snow man on a hot summer day.
"CAN YOU F*** UP F***ING UP FOR ONCE?!" snapped Clara.