Moments at Linton: STP Range 1
Hardy led Ren down a flight of stairs into the basement of the armoury, ending up in a dimly lit corridor whose block walls led to a dead end. Ren imagined she could hear the crack of small arms fire, and sure enough, when Hardy opened the heavy steel door, she could see a solitary figure standing in the center lane of the pistol range.
As they drew closer, she recognised the figure of Gunnery Seargeant Julian Ross, methodically firing a magazine of ammunition downrange. As she watched, he loaded a fresh clip into the handgun, and fired two rounds. He then checked the target through a spotting scope, tutting under his breath. Frowning, he took a small screwdriver from his pocket and made an adjustment to the sights. Two more rounds, then another check, then another adjustment. Two more shots, another check and a smile. He release the magazine, unchambered the live round by racking back the slide, then placed the weapon on the range shelf in front of him.
"Sergeant?"
"Sir!" Ross stepped back and came to parade rest. "Good afternoon, Sir. How are you doing today?"
"No complaints this end. I have somebody I want you to meet. Mr Ross, this is Miss Irene Williams."
Ross held out his hand to be shaken, which Ren took after a moment.
"Pleased to meet you, Ma'am."
"Ren, Sergeant Ross runs the STP range, and he'll be supervising us today."
Ren nodded. "Pleased to meet you, Sergeant Ross."
"Call me Gunny." Julian smiled. "Everybody calls me Gunny."
"Gunny, then. And please, it's Ren."
"Step this way please."
The sergeant gestured into the range booth, and Ren moves to stand in the enclosure.
"Lieutenant Hardy asked me to look out a sidearm for you. Based on our experience, we've gone for the Sig Sauer P226, in 9mm rather than .40, to cut down a bit on the recoil. Your hands are big enough to handle it, and she's got a ten round clip, with a decocker and internal drop-safety. This particular model has been fitted with custom grips, which contain a laser aiming assist. That is currently disabled for training, as you need to be able to shoot reasonably before that will matter, and we don't want you getting lazy."
He handed her the weapon, and Ren looked it over, checking the chamber and latching and unlatching the slide to make sure it was empty. Ross nodded approvingly.
"Glad to see you remember something from your induction course."
"It feels a little light. Front heavy."
"The Sig is a well made weapon but needs the magazine to balance it. otherwise, the extra compensation at the front end will make it feel that way." Ross handed her a clip. "Here's five rounds. Now, please load the magazine into the weapon, but please don't chamber a round until I tell you to, Ma'am."
Ren nodded, as Hardy leaned against the wall of the booth, playing with something in his hand. Ren caught the flash of metal of Hardy's zippo as she turned back to face down range.
"Ok, Ren, let's keep the weapon pointed downrange and at the floor please. In your own time, chamber your first round, and just relax. It's just a walk in the park, ok?"
Ren pulled back on the slide with her left hand, then let it snap forward to chamber a round. She didn't turn round, forcing herself to relax and keep her breathing close to normal. She heard Hardy's zippo snap shut, and mentally scolded him for the habit he'd never quite managed to break whilst indoors of playing with the damm thing instead of going outside for a smoke.
"So you work in the analyst wing?" Ross was making small talk, trying to keep her level headed.
"Yes Gunny. I'm working on some code for the plane Quinn is testing. "
"I see." Ross sounded more like they were at a dinner party, as he stepped back. "Its nice to see a civillian take some interest in their...
Ren nearly jumped out of her skin as a string of firecrackers began exploding at her feet. She began to turn when Ross screamed at her;
"THERE! THERE! THERE'S your target!"
A light snapped on to illuminate a silhouette fifty feet downrange. A small part of Ren's mind knew this was a test - but most of her didn't care. The Sig came up and seemed to aim itself at the paper target, and she loosed all five rounds in five seconds. The noise was still echoing when she put the the automatic down on the range table, hands trembling slightly.
"What the FUCK was that for!?"
The room stank of gunpowder and cordite, and as she turned she could still see Hardy grinning, holding that dammed lighter, whilst Ross was standing right behind her.
"One of the other uses for this range is training up the MP recuits. It's difficult to simulate the stress of real combat situations, and this is one of the ways we do that." Ross punched a button, and the target wound uprange towards her. "Let's see how you managed."
Hardy stepped closer and put his hands on her shoulders. "You ok?"
"Yeah. Just a bit shaken."
"Kinda the point." Ross handed him the target, and Quinn nodded appreciatively "Not bad. Four rounds on paper, two snowbirds. Two on target. So your bad guy is on the ground, and hurt badly. "
"Must be the last two. I had calmed down and adjusted somewhat."
"I noticed that," chimed in Ross."First round was wild, high and left. Next two came in here, and here. Last two were upper torso, on the money. Not bad at all."
"Doesn't look great from here."
"Hey, you managed on a par with most of the MP's the first time we do this, and you've less pistol experience than they do by a long shot. Problem is, you have to do better than cops."
"How so?"
Hardy cuts in again. "A cop's job is keeping the peace. Yours is just staying alive, which is easier, but you don't necessarily get the luxury of being ready when trouble comes. You need at least two seconds to process what's happening, select your target, and decide what to do. What we just did was force you to do that without that time to prep. That's why your first shots went wide."
"The bad guys aren't going to give you those two seconds of luxury, unless you make them, or you get lucky."
Ren nods. Ross picks the handgun up again by the barrell, handing it back.
"Two things you need to do. First, I want to see you in here every day, putting a box of ammunition through that nice new handgun the Lieutenant swung out of his budget for you. If he's not here to teach you, I will be. Shooting is no different to golf; you want to be good at it, you have to do it every day. You have to work at it, and have someone to teach you right. Second, you need to start thinking like an FPS game. Where are your exits, where's your cover, who's your threats? You need to be considering what happens when the worst goes down, so you've already done your thinking when you have to draw your own piece. It's a shift in mindset that doesn't come naturally, but if you're going to be walking around with a weapon on your hip then what happens becomes your responsibility."
"I don't imagine I'll be firing outside of this range any time soon, Gunny." Ren smiles, slightly indulgently.
"You're hanging around with Lieutenant Hardy a lot. He's CC qualified and required, which in theory means he never takes the gun off except to sleep. I don't know what it is he's into, but suffice to say....
"Gunny." Hardy's tone is warning.
"It means he's a HVT, Miss Williams. By extension, that makes you one as well. Bear that in mind." With that, Ross nodds to Hardy, and leaves the two of them alone in the booth to practice.