"Begin!" ordered Nanami. Sean, Clara, Karl and Louis dashed forward, dressed in high-cut ballistic helmets and body armour, 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, which is extremely painful for Sean.
Sean moved down and sideways, switching to each hole and shooting, aiming his LPVO optic at 1x magnification.
His gun shuddered as a result of his shaky hands, struggling to control where his bullet is landing. Sean's breathing is ragged, pictures of Freyja's head being blown open by a speeding bullet right in front of him, her boiling, dark crimson blood spurting onto his face as she collapsed onto him coming into his mind. Beads of sweat rained down from his face onto his jungle camouflage uniform, trying his best to line up his sights at the targets, not helped by the recoil of the full powered 7.62x51mm cartridge fired from his SCAR-H. Despite being the gun he used and tuned to his needs ever since he started learning how to shoot, supposedly the gun he is most familiar with, the recoil impulse and the handling is completely foreign to him as his hands shuddered and breathing ragged.
After they shot 9 rounds each, they ceased firing and checked their target boards. Karl 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 Sean who is standing by his right side, counting the number of holes on his board.
Sean counted only 4 holes on the board.
Seeing their interaction, Louis tried to comfort Sean by pointing out how he still passed, albeit scrapped past.
Little did he know that it only made Sean 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 horrified that they may end up like Artemis 14 "Freyja", all because of him, yet again.
"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.
The cadets are ordered to put their rifles away, instead using the rifles provided in the range, UNSSD standard issue HK-416 rifles with no attachments at all, only default iron sights.
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 iron sights and no equipment, 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 100! 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 Louis. "Number 92! What is the chemical formula for Sodium Hydroxide?"
"NaOH, Ma'am!" yelled Louis.
"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU SO LOUD?" roared Maia. "I HAVE EARS GOD DAMN IT!" she roared. Louis grimaced; his ears almost busted as a result.
Maia then turned to Karl. "Number 23! When does 1 + 1 equals to 3?" she asked.
"Ma'am," replied Karl 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 Karl.
"Good! That's the spirit! Now answer my question!"
"The question is wrong!" replied Karl 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 Karl, returning to his shooting, rapidly hitting 2 targets accurately and quickly.
Finally, she turned to Sean, who is trying his best to steady his sights and aim at his target in this environment of strong interference, not helped by his shaky hands.
"Number 9! What is the effective range of an intermediate rifle cartridge?"
"Ma'am, around 400m!" reported Sean, trying to take quick deep breaths and hold his breath to steady himself, as he had been trained since he was 14 years old, but the images of Freyja's death kept playing in his mind, botching this attempt. 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 Sean 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. Sean immediately got down and started his push ups. Maia then stepped on him.
"HOW MANY MORE PEOPLE DO YOU INTEND TO KILL AS A RESULT OF YOU SCREW UPS?" she yelled deliberately in Japanese, which she knows only Sean can understand here, directly confronting Sean, passing crushing judgement on his mistake 3 years ago.
"ZERO!" yelled Sean defiantly in Japanese.
"Then I suggest you do the rest of us a service and piss off!" she said through gritted teeth in Japanese.
Sean 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, Karl is ranked first place, and to the surprise of no one, Sean is ranked last.
After all the cadets are done, they proceeded to a 2-men course. Sean 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 Sean readied their guns at the starting position. Knowing Sean's barely passing aim, Clara decided that she will have to assist Sean 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 Sean's landed on the sides.
More targets popped up, and the 2 moved their way through them. A target popped up some distance away from Sean. He aimed at it with his canted red dot sight, missing. The target then promptly disappeared. "Damn it," cursed Sean.
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 holographic sight. A target then appeared in the end of the walkway; Sean then took it out with his LPVO set at 2x magnification. The 2 then cleared the room, checking for any new targets, then moving out. Clara then placed her hand on Sean's shoulder firmly, somewhat helping to improve his stability, allowing Sean 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, Sean did not have to aim, hence pointing and shooting once they appear, not missing a single shot. This gradually restored some confidence for him. He then cleared the area and advanced using CQB techniques, 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 Sean and Clara and directed at the opposite person.
Both pulled their triggers. A fresh bullet hole appeared on the target next to Sean, left by Clara's Glock 19, while Clara's target remained spotless.
Why? Because a yellow smoke rose from Clara's body armour, the end result of a bullet fired from Sean's FN 5-7. Sean's blood ran dry as he saw what he has done while Clara stared incredulously at him in disbelief.
"Numbers 9 and 100 fail! Second attempt begins in 5 minutes!" announced Herbert.
A fuming Clara threw her helmet at Sean, 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.
Sean 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.
"WHEN IT COMES TO MISSING CAN YOU MISS FOR ONCE?!" snapped Clara, defeated, losing all of her respect for Sean.