Koban (50 page)

“Thad, I hope we can honor their memory. Thank you for considering
giving them to us. I’m eager to learn.”

“It’s that attitude Dillon, which I’ve sensed from many in your
group that has me hopeful that you will make a difference. You have ideas and a
willingness to try them. Follow me.” He walked them to an elevator.

The lift did its speed run to the sixteenth level, and the door
whisked up and out of the way. Noreen had been forewarned, but still was startled
at how fast it all happened.

Thad led them through several staggered heavy doors that he explained
were designed to prevent wild shots from passing into the outer corridor by accident.
Before he opened a third door, they could hear firing on the other side. There was
a heavy transparent window with a few nicks. It was a bit high for a human of less
than six feet, but the three of them could see in easily.

There were six Fancy crewmembers and passengers there, with backs
to the door. They were firing on a range that mimicked an outdoor Koban scene. Observing
them were three Primes, giving them tips and helping them with loading and handling
the weapons.

The range could easily have held fifty people without crowding.
At the opposite end, about a thousand feet away, and at various distances midway
were large boulders, tree stumps, logs, and what looked like dead bushes. There
were grey-red square rectangles that were apparently targets positioned close to
or partly behind the simulated cover.

Dillon spotted the tattoos on two men acting as instructors that
showed a single red dot. The other was a woman with a single blue dot in hers.

“Thad…,” Dillon was about to ask him a question, but it was anticipated.

“Yes, two of them are the other survivors from the Testing Day
where my men and I earned immunity for them. The woman is Elvira, or El, and she
survived a successful hunt with a rhinolo taken by her.

“El was already a decent shot before her hunt, and made it a
point to get better after that. She has survived the lottery for two years, and
is one of the few people I will occasionally talk to. We talk about weapons and
guerilla warfare, but she isn’t a fan of mine since the duels. She helps new arrivals
on the range.”

“How do you get on with the other two?” Dillon asked.

“Except for calling them cowards for not helping us on our Testing
Day, I’ve had almost no words with them since. Had they helped shove Doushan out
that door, either they or I would be dead,” he stated flatly.

“After the machete and knife fight losses of the other two, they
made it a point to become good shots in case I ever called them out. In fairness,
they have become good shots, and one is a fast draw to boot for a human.”

“
Will
you call them out?” Noreen asked. Dillon had told
Jake to play back their first conversation with Thad before she met him, so she
knew the history.

“No. Why would I? They didn’t help me and my men out there, but
neither would most of those here. Their fear that I
might
call them out has
made them better shots in case I did. They now teach new arrivals to shoot. It isn’t
complete restitution in my mind, but I was never going to challenge them without
greater cause anyway.”

He reached into a side pouch of the satchel and handed them two
sets of earplugs, then pushed through the last sound-deadening door, unleashing
a brief loud sound of firing.

Inserting the ear plugs Dillon and Noreen pushed open the doors,
entered the cacophony of gunfire, and shouted instructions. Surprisingly, the loudest
noise wasn’t from the guns firing, it was from the impacts down range. The swoosh
sounds from the guns weren’t as loud as expected, but every hit down range produced
a gray puff with a loud report. The shooters were all aiming at the closer targets
so the noise was loud. A miss sent one round down range where it puffed with a lower
report.

The Fancy’s people paused a moment to acknowledge them, Motorfem
Macy Gundarfem, and Motorman John Yin-Lee made token half salutes that Noreen returned
in kind with a warm smile. She and Dillon went farther down towards the far left
side of the range, where Thad had set the satchel on a small table, like those placed
behind the other shooters.

As they approached him, the firing behind them resumed with the
instructors calling out instructions and naming specific targets to hit. Thad had
pulled out two pistols, with handgrips that looked too small for the rest of the
weapon’s size. There were two ammo clips on the table, and they were longer than
what the other shooters were using.

Then he placed two black boxes beside the clips. He lifted the
top of one box and pulled out a grey three-inch long, finger thick cylinder. It
was flat on both ends and looked about the diameter of the gun bore. There was no
tapering at either end of the slug.

“These are the Krall pistol and rifle rounds. The black end,”
he showed them one end was grey the other end black, “is the pointy end, the part
that you aim down range. If you load it backwards in a clip, it won’t fire, and
it’s kicked out for the next round. However, the loss of a single shot might be
fatal against a fast closing target.

“These modified double clips will hold thirty two rounds compared
to the sixteen of the standard clip, but they stick out about a foot below the gun
butt and can get snagged in tight quarters if you aren’t careful. On semiautomatic,
the gun will fire as fast as you can pull the trigger.

“Full auto fire will empty you in about three seconds with these
big clips, for close to 600 rounds per minute when eighteen or twenty prepared fast
clip changes are ready. I can’t imagine many circumstances where a Krall or rhinolo
will give you even fifteen seconds. There is almost no recoil to speak of because
this is caseless ammunition.” He held up a cylinder round again.

“These are basically little rockets that are spin stabilized
coming out of the bore. They keep accelerating for a short time out of the muzzle
of a pistol or rifle. This gives them high velocity and a flatter trajectory than
some projectile weapons you may have used. They don’t have a terribly hard kick
leaving, but arriving they are a sledge hammer.”

“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.