Skirmish 4

Malachi had ordered Class 13 to take a break all of a sudden. Having prepared for the usual exercises, they were stunned momentarily at the respite given to them.

As they all filed out of the classroom, one cadet by the name of Tyler Simmons decided to go to the firing range in the armory. Even though Malachi did tell them to relax before the day of the mission, he still went out to train.

When Tyler arrived at the firing range, there was already a familiar face of a young woman taking shots in the area. It was Rae Ramirez. Unlike her usual pep, she was thoroughly in focus as she cycled through firing her shotgun and pulling the charging handle. Her ponytail swayed wildly with each pull and every time she reloaded the shells.

To compensate for the shotgun’s limited range, all of the targets that popped up were closer to the firing stations. The targets at the very rear did not rise up at all.

Once all the targets were down, her station lit up and she slammed the timer stop button that was recently installed. 3 minutes and 22 seconds. Rae made a frown as she was unsatisfied with her record. Eventually, she turned around and finally found Tyler watching her.

“Hey, Ty,” she greeted, “How long have you been there?”

Rae smiled when she greeted Tyler, getting her usual pep back. Tyler nodded awkwardly as he returned her greeting.

“Uh, hey,” he said, “I, uh, I just a-arrived. S-So you thought the s-same as I did, h-huh?”

Rae approached Tyler and gave him a slap on the back.

“Relax, why don’tcha?” she said, “We’re all friends here. And, yeah, I figured I would spend this time shooting rather than relaxing. I’m the type of person who wouldn’t be able to relax when I’m not moving my body.”

“I-I see,” replied Tyler, “W-well, I’ll just grab some guns.”

Tyler approached the weapons depot and took two guns with him, along with their respective ammunition. These two guns were the most familiar types of firearms to him, despite Malachi having created them just recently. Their performances and descriptions, however, were what attracted Tyler to them in the first place. These were the shotgun and the sniper rifle.

Rae just sat on a nearby bench to rest while also watching Tyler perform. It must be said that Rae performed better in the kill house, but she seemed to lag behind in the firing range. As for Tyler, she did know about his performance in the kill house, but this will be the first time that she will see him in the firing range.

When Tyler arrived at his chosen station, he picked up the sniper rifle and removed the scope. This prompted Rae to ask a question.

“Hey, why’dja remove the scope?” she asked, “Shouldn’t it be an important part of the sniper rifle?”

Tyler was still loading the ammunition into the rifle when he answered.

“I, um, overheard Malachi saying something a-about building a new range for s-sniper rifles and light machineguns,” he explained, “S-something about limited range p-preventing the sniper rifle from being maximized. Looking into the s-scope, I realized that this g-gun works the best f-from far away, e-especially since the s-scope limits the v-view to a smaller a-area. B-besides, there should b-be a reason why the s-scope is removable i-in the first place.”

Tyler was correct in his assumption. In the history of Earth’s warfare, the first actual sniper rifle was a military or service rifle used in the American Civil War—the British Whitworth rifle—and had a scope mounted on top of its barrel. It was only during the two World Wars that sniper rifles had seen regular use, and even developed to having soldiers specialized in its use. By then, development of rifles specialized as sniper rifles had proliferated.

One of the best examples for a service rifle-turned-sniper rifle would be the American M21. The M21 was actually a converted M14 semiautomatic battle rifle that had a scope fitted on top of it, as well as an ammunition upgrade.

Tyler had finished loading his gun, and took aim. Moments later, the first target popped up and he, too, took his first shot. Like clockwork, as soon as the next target rose up, Tyler sent out the next shot. Only until he needed to reload did there have a silent gap in between. Even then, once he reloaded his rifle, the clockwork shooting resumed once more.

The semiautomatic rifle’s magazine could only hold 10 cartridges. This meant he had five silent gaps between each reload for a 60-target range. As soon as the last round of his sixth magazine was fired, he punched the timer stop next to him.

Tyler had achieved a record of 1 minute and 30 seconds. His average meant that he only needed a second and a half for each target. How well would his performance be if he did not need to reload, eliminating the silent gaps?

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Rae could only watch in awe seeing someone who could perform as well as Malachi.

“Hey, you’re so good at this already,” she commented, “Why do you still need to practice?”

Tyler turned around to answer her. However, since he had just finished shooting, his expression was severe, unlike his usual shyness, and made Rae flinch in surprise. Only when Tyler took a deep breath did his face relax and return to his usual self. The contrasting personalities made Rae unsure about Tyler.

“I’m not s-satisfied with just this,” he explained, “W-when I look at Malachi, he could already perform so well d-despite being the same age as us, I-I thought that he had the t-talent to be better than any of us. But, when I heard Levi’s story about their past, I thought that I h-hadn’t really exerted a-as much effort.”

With a bit of silence, Tyler returned his attention to the firing range. This time, he prepped his shotgun, instead. Since the loading mechanism of the shotgun was vastly different from the sniper rifle, one should expect a longer time reloading the shells.

Moments after taking aim, the first target popped up and, like before, everything was like clockwork—one target, one shell. Of course, to compensate with the shotgun’s limited range, it was done the same way as Rae’s turn previously. The shotgun’s shell capacity was 8 rounds, giving Tyler the need to reload at most 8 times at his current performance.

Once the last target fell, there were only 4 shells left in the shell tube. Tyler’s performance ended with a record of 2 minutes and 12 seconds. This was 1 minute and 10 seconds faster than Rae’s record.

Again, Tyler frowned at his performance. He picked up his guns, left his station to return to the depot, deposited the sniper rifle, and got more shotgun shells. Tyler did not return to the firing station, but went to a nearby table and placed the box of shells on top of it.

Rae went to Tyler to find out what he planned to do.

“Are ya gonna practice your reload speed?” she asked.

“Y-yeah,” he replied, “The shotgun’s r-reload action takes too much t-time, so I need to find out the b-best way to reload as fast as p-possible. When w-we’re out e-exercising, I c-can’t find the t-time to practice a-as much as I c-could now.”

Rae stared at the box of shells on the table for a while.

“Mind if I joined ya?” she wondered, “I think I should practice as well as ya.”

“I-I don’t mind it,” he replied, “I-If you’d l-like, we c-could take turns u-using the same gun. I’ll j-just borrow a s-stopwatch from the d-depot.”

Once Tyler got a stopwatch, the two of them took turns trying to figure out the best way to reload the shotgun. Although Rae was slow in reloading the shotgun, she was able to visibly improve her reloading speed. However, since Tyler was already exceptional in this case, improvements were hard to come by. Hopefully, Malachi would be able to create a way to improve the shotgun.

A while after,

“Why!?” cried Rae, “Why is such a lanky guy like you so good at shooting!?

Rae’s face was already in front of Tyler, making him bend a bit backwards. Rae stared into Tyler’s pair of eyes. Tyler, however, was sweating profusely and hesitated from answering in confusion.

The results were out with Rae almost always lagging behind Tyler in one way or another. From the way they were reloading the shotgun, Tyler’s hands were visibly swifter than Rae’s. As for shooting, Tyler had Rae beat with his split-second reaction time.

“… I… well…” he stuttered, “I-it’s probably b-because of my dad… H-he usually took me out h-hunting when the t-town was in danger from m-monsters.”

Rae retreated and crossed her arms.

“Okay, but that doesn’t explain your tricky fingers,” she argued, “How can you make your fingers move like that?”

When Tyler was reloading the shotgun, he found a way to hold three shells and inserting them into the tube in one go. Of course, before he achieved this, they were loading the shells individually. As for Rae, she was still loading them individually. She did try to copy how Tyler did it, but her fingers were too uncoordinated to see any result.

Tyler looked down shyly.

“Um, well, I-I have a hobby, see…” he whispered.

Rae smacked his back.

“Speak louder and clearly!” she yelled, “I can’t hear you!”

Tyler sighed and looked up a bit.

“I-I do carving as a h-hobby,” he answered, “I make small s-statues from time t-to time…”

There was a bit of silence from Rae. Tyler looked down again, seemingly in shame. After a while, Rae left. Tyler, being left alone, sighed again and returned his attention to the guns on the table. Once he picked up the first shell, though, Rae returned and placed two items on the table.

“Show me,” she said.

What Rae placed down were a small knife and a block of wood. Tyler stared at Rae momentarily.

“If you’re wondering where I got those, the armory has a lot more junk than you think,” she said smiling with her tongue out, “Now, show me those fingers.”

Tyler blinked multiple times for a bit before grabbing the knife and the block of wood.

The block of wood was a 10cm cube. Tyler inspected the block for a bit before carving out the first piece. As for Rae, being the person responsible for having Tyler show her his skill, sat down on a nearby chair. Little by little, a rough form was starting to be seen from the block.

About 30 minutes in, Rae was showing signs of impatience. Her left leg was repeatedly shaking up and down as she watched Tyler. Tyler noticed this, though, and took a break from his carving.

“Um, i-if you can’t wait…” he said.

“Eh, don’t mind me,” she interrupted, “This is just an old habit.”

“I-I see.

After a few more minutes, Rae could already recognize what he was trying to carve. The figure was seated and was womanly. Inspecting further, with how the figure was seated, there was only one model possible.

“You… you’re carving me, arent’cha?” she voiced.

Tyler stopped his hands.

“Well, I u-usually have a model,” he explained, “A-and, well, y-you wanted me to carve something, s-so I, uh…”

Rae leaned forward and smiled at him.

“Well, make sure ya make me pretty, aight?” she advised, “Ya really are good with your hands.”

With Rae’s smile, Tyler’s heart skipped a bit. He looked down impatiently and tried to finish his work. Fortunately, he did not cut himself because of a trivial mistake.