(CHAPTER 36) AGAINST THE ODDS
(LOCATION) – COVENANT HEAVY ASSAULT CARRIER, THE PURIFYING FLAME –
-5 HOURS INTO THE UNDERGROUND ASSAULT –
Mitsuki's mind was traveling at several trillion thoughts per second. She was still in the central control hub of the ship and she was busy focusing her thoughts on making sure that her Spartan was safe and that the Covenant didn't get wise to her snooping around. She knew that another presence was in this system but she also knew that as long as she kept herself disguised as a Covenant system that she should be safe.
She then moved her vision to the repair work that was being done to the ships main drive reactor. She saw that the Grunt repair workers were making progress on it. She raised one of her sleek neon green eyebrows and thought to herself, "They worked so hard getting that repaired. How loyal they are to their leader." She then sent an electrical pulse through the ships power matrix directly to the reactor and overloading it causing its circuitry to fry and killing several Covenant workers from the massive jolt of electricity. She grinned. "Oops! Too bad all that work was for nothing." She smiled; this ship wouldn't be moving anytime soon.
Another thing she did was again check on Chancellor Izumi to make sure that she was still being left alone. She easily hacked her way into the ships security cameras and saw that a single Brute guard was watching over her. It stood on the opposite side of the energy barrier and it looked to be taunting Izumi. Mitsuki established an audio link up. The Brute was harshly speaking. It said, "To think that something as low as you would cause us so many problems. Were it not the Prophet's decision, I would see to it that you would have been killed the instant we found you!" She noticed that Izumi simply sat and tried to ignore the insults. Mitsuki made a sly grin on her face. She quickly sealed off all communications and audio from the cell block and then opened up her own personal intercom system, she said in her cheerful voice. "Warning, system over load to Energy Barrier 67-D, please stand by for energy dispersal." The brute as well as Izumi were both confused. "What…?" The brute questioned. Izumi too was curious to the human sounding voice. It sounded like the voice of a girl near her age, not alien at all, and she knew that the Covenant would never poses an A.I. with such human like traits let alone something as cheerful sounding as that was. Suddenly, a large burst of energy coming from the energy field keeping Izumi in her cell arched out a bolt of power at the Brute and instantly knocked it unconscious. As the Brute fell limp to the ships floor and smoking slightly, Mitsuki grinned in amusement.
"They won't be messing with her anytime soon." She stood proud of herself and searched the rest of the ship for anything else fun that she could do to pass the time. Her amusement was cut short by the sound of an almost machine like voice from behind her saying, "So, those weren't just system anomalies I was detecting." Mitsuki gasped and slowly turned to see a figure standing in front of her. Her eyes narrowed, there was no escaping. Her cover had been blown by an actual Covenant A.I. and not an A.I. that the Covenant had stolen and corrupted. This one was a real threat.
She had never seen anything like it before. In the cyber world, it stood noticeably taller than her. She could only compare it to an actual scale of her standing next to Kalder in his MJOLNIR armor. It looked more machine than anything and had nothing to resemble a face, only a metallic face plate covering the components in its head. In its machine like voice, it said, "You are the infestation that is in my network." Mitsuki didn't respond; she was too afraid. This A.I. looked like it could destroy her in an instant. She slowly backed herself away from the Covenant A.I. In fear, she uttered out, "I-I wasn't trying too…" "Silence!" It yelled. "I won't hear any more filth spill from your vile mouth!"
It slowly began walking towards her. "Stay back!" Mitsuki called out as she quickly manifested her energy weapon. The glowing green ring of light around her body maneuvered itself to her hand and morphed into a ring blade. She quickly rested the weapon onto her wrist and began to twirl it. "I'm warning you!" She stammered, "I'll destroy you if I have to!" The A.I. laughed in its machine like voice. "Foolish girl, you are on my plain of existence now, I know every place that you could run to and try to hide. And now that I know your system coding, it will be impossible for you to escape."
Mitsuki was afraid to move, she debated on having Kalder pull her out of the system at one of the ships small control hubs but it wouldn't do any good. She would have been killed trillions of times over before he would even make it to one of the hubs to pull her out. In fear, she quickly focused her thoughts and transported herself to the complete opposite end of the ship. She found herself on the front of the heavy assault carrier near where the ships massive plasma cannon was located. This room was unlike any she had seen before. It glowed bright neon blue, and white and blue orbs of light were constantly flying past her in a cyber like snow storm. The area was highly charged with the ships weaponry; ready to fire should the need arise.
As she turned to look for a place to run she found herself again face to face with this Covenant A.I. "I told you," It said harshly, "you cannot hide." With lightning quick speed, Mitsuki quickly lashed her ring blade at the Covenant A.I. She managed to score a hit on its torso cutting a gash in its alloy like frame. She again refocused her attention and transported herself to another area of the ship. She reappeared in one of the ships data centers located near the top of the ship. This area glowed with a dark purple hue of light and the room was lined with what looked like rows of data storage shelves. All of which had white orbs of light speeding up and down the aisles as they catalogued information.
She quickly gripped onto her Ring Blade and sprinted off down one of the aisles. She could hear its voice talking to her. "There is no use in running; I can see every move you make. You are only making your death harder than it needs to be." Mitsuki frowned. "You'll never kill me!" She called out.
From behind, she felt a hard hit on her back. The Covenant A.I. had appeared behind her and struck her with an energy blast. She yelled out in pain as she fell to the floor and slid to a stop. Her ring blade came loose from her grip and slid further away out of her reach. She quickly tried to crawl after it but felt a heavy foot stomp down on her back. She yelped out from the sudden heavy weight on her body and fell flat on the ground. "You are weak!" It told her. "It was foolish of you to even attempt to run. Now, accept the fate that you have trapped yourself with." Mitsuki frowned and focused her thoughts. She quickly built up a large amount of power and did an A.I.'s version of an EMP burst. The Covenant A.I. found itself surrounded by a blinding white light and felt its circuitry go hay wire. It lost balance and stumbled backwards allowing Mitsuki to break away and retrieve her Ring Blade.
She quickly slid to a halt and picked up her weapon and then sprinted back towards the Covenant A.I. and yelled out loudly as she slashed at it with several harsh blows. Mitsuki had never felt this before. It was a mix of anger, frustration, and hate. She never liked when she was being hunted and she hated it when people put her down. She was programmed to be timid and calm nerved, but now, she was overcome with the strange urge to kill this enemy.
The Covenant A.I. quickly retaliated with a blast of energy sending Mitsuki tumbling backwards. It stood and walked over to Mitsuki who way lying curled up on the floor. She was clearly injured. "As I said, you are weak. These scratches you gave me are nothing compared to what I will do to you." The Covenant A.I. held it's wrists out and summoned blades of energy. They resembled that of a mono bladed Plasma Sword. It lifted its arms back and readied to strike. As the blades came down, the A.I. stopped. It felt something strange. Something had punctured its torso. It looked down to see Mitsuki holding her hand up with a blinding white beam of energy coming from it. The beam had punctured through the A.I.'s body and destroyed all of its vital programming. Mitsuki slowly turned her head and opened her glowing neon green eyes. Her expression was a rare look of hatred and anger. Her neon green eyebrows were slanted down angrily and she replied back in a hate filled voice, "I'm not as weak as you think."
She slowly turned her hand and twisted the beam of energy in the process before quickly pulling the blade out and watching the A.I. fall lifeless in front of her. She slowly stood and returned her ring blade back to the glowing ring of light that surrounded her body. She looked at the A.I. as it lay lifeless with its nano crystalline fluid spilling onto the floor. She stood in front of its lifeless body with no expression on her face. "I'm not weak…" She uttered.
Mitsuki jumped. The body of the Covenant A.I. suddenly seemed to explode into trillions of tiny particles. She quickly shielded her face with her arms from the blast and was almost knocked backwards. She quickly regained her footing and looked back to see that the remains of the A.I. were completely gone. She was confused. "Strange…" She uttered. She had never seen an A.I. destroy itself like that before, either it was something new or it was just how the Covenant A.I.'s worked. Just to be safe, she did a quick examination of herself. She looked over her hologram and saw no anomalies and she ran a quick system scan. She looked over her systems and noticed several small systems errors that seemed to pose no threat. She merely passed them off as anomalies from the battle that she was just in. Still, that battle seemed unusually easy considering the opponent she was facing.
She shook it off; she still had a job to do. She quickly teleported herself back to the ships central command hub and again re-interfaced herself with it. As she reactivated all of her former processes, she considered telling Kalder about her recent battle but stopped herself. The battle in its entirety took no more than ten seconds in normal time. Not even long enough to cause her Spartan any major holdups, and now, with the Covenant A.I. dead, she had the entire ships systems to herself.
Now threat free, she found Kalder's location on the ships security camera's and began to assist him with his task at hand. She saw him nearing the top of an elevator shaft and on the other side of the door was a large platoon of Covenant troops readying for a supply drop down to the surface of Aurora. The elevator doors parted and Kalder saw the massive fleet of Covenant troops on the other side. Mitsuki opened her COM to her Spartan and said, "Still feeling all of that confidence that you were talking about a second ago?" She asked calmly. Kalder pulled out his Battle Rifle and said, "Oh I hope so!" as he sprinted himself forward into battle.
His boots sparked off of the floor as his adrenaline kicked in and he sprinted off towards his enemies. Kalder's Battle Rifle made a constant barrage of loud pops as he fired on the large number of Covenant standing before him. He felt his shields taking hits from multiple locations but he didn't care. He was moving quick enough to dodge most of the shots. "You know, this probably wasn't the smartest idea for handling this situation!" Mitsuki called out nervously. Kalder quickly fed in a fresh magazine into his Battle Rifle and replied, "Not much I can do about it now!"
Up ahead a row of Jackals stood in a delta formation with their shields all drawn and all firing wildly at him. He grinned, he knew that formation all too well and he knew how to plow through it. He quickly pulled out a Frag Grenade and tossed it right at the center of the formation. The jackals could only duck behind their shields as the device detonated sending them all flying in a shower of purple blood. He ran past the downed formation and saw several rows of Grunts armed with Needlers taking aim at him. He quickly aimed and judged his shot. With a lightning quick flick of his wrist, he squeezed the trigger of his Battle Rifle and managed three head shots with one, three round burst. He repeated the move on the remaining rows of Grunts until they all fell limp.
Something caught his eye. Up ahead he saw a Brute with a Plasma Sword, a weapon that he had never seen a Brute use. It was odd but he didn't let it bother him. He quickly slid to a halt next to a Jackal who was shooting at him with a Plasma Pistol. With his lightning quick speed he quickly slapped the pistol from the aliens hand and then quickly picked it up by the neck and ripped its shield from its arm. "Gimme that!" He growled as he tore the device from its arm. He heard the Jackal's arm snap as he tore the shield free. The Jackal fell to the floor of the ship and Kalder quickly brought his heavy boot down on its birdlike head, killing it.
The device snapped around the left forearm plate of his grey armor and the shield flashed to life. Up ahead he still saw the gold armored Brute wielding the Plasma Sword charging at him. "Bring it!" He yelled as he slammed his Battle Rifle to the back of his suit and held his hand on his armor's belt plate. He watched as the Brute leapt into the air and brought its sword down on the small energy shield. The Jackals shield couldn't stand up to the full force of the powerful blade and died after the hard hit. The Brute had put nearly all of its strength into that attack and in the process threw itself off balance. Kalder quickly brought his leg plate up and slammed it down on the Brute's back. He felt the aliens spine shift unnaturally under his boot and the Brute fell to the floor.
The Brute stumbled to get to its feet. It quickly stammered back to standing only to see the swift blur of Kalder's arm flying towards its face. The Brute felt a hard hit in its mouth. It felt its teeth shatter from the force as well as its jaw breaking. In shock it bit down only to realize that an object was jammed in its mouth amongst its shattered teeth and thick, dark blood. Kalder quickly rolled out of the way as a Frag Grenade detonated in the Brutes mouth blowing a majority of its body apart. He quickly went over to the mangled body of the brute and took its Plasma Grenades as well as two Incendiary Grenades. He quickly attached them to the Belt Plate of his armor and then quickly grabbed the Plasma Sword it was carrying and attached it to his right leg plate. "Thanks bitch!" He called out as he again sprinted off.
Up ahead, he saw a line of higher ranked Brutes in scarlet armor. All were wielding Brute Shots and all looked ready for a fight. He quickly pulled out his Sniper Rifle and primed an Incendiary Grenade. The Brute's popped off a wave of shots from their large weapons. Kalder dodged several of them but also took direct hits from the others. His shields alarms screamed and he quickly tossed the Incendiary. The device broke open dead center of the formation and burned away at the Brutes. Two were left standing and both were badly burnt. With two quick pops from his Sniper Rifle, he brought the remaining two down.
His COM clicked with static and Mitsuki called out, "Reinforcements are heading your way! Get ready!" Kalder activated the zoom on his visor and saw the large door at the opposite end of the hall open. From behind the large blast door stormed out a large wave of higher ranked Brutes. All were in either scarlet or gold armor and all were leading the charge in front of four Wraith Tanks. "I don't like this!" Mitsuki called out. Kalder replied, "Really? I think it's flattering that they need that many troops to kill me." Kalder Sprinted off towards the large formation of Brutes with his Sniper Rifle drawn. "You worry too much, Mitsuki." He said as he popped off a clip from his rifle, "I know what I'm doing." Kalder took several more hit's from Brute Shot rounds. His shields dropped dangerously low and his suits alarms screamed. "Oh really!" Mitsuki yelled, "And I suppose that was planned just now!?" "Kalder again spent another clip from his Sniper Rifle. He fed in another fresh round and said, "You need to calm down, you're going to throw my aim off."
A Brute shot several rounds from its Spiker at Kalder's weakened shields. Two rounds pinged off of him while the third managed to punch through. Kalder grunted out in pain and called back, "You see Mitsuki! This is why your backseat driving is bad for me!" He grinned his teeth and ripped the large spike from his torso and allowed his suit to inject his wound with Bio-Foam. The foam stung his wound and it made his eyes water. It was good though, it gave him a wake up shot to keep him on his toes.
"You wouldn't have to listen to my back seat driving if you would just listen to me every once and a while!" Mitsuki shot back. "I do listen!" Kalder argued as he dodged a barrage of plasma fire, "You just have a nasty habit of telling me these things when I'm in the middle of something." The lead Wraith Tank sighted on the Spartan as its gunner opened up its plasma cannon. Kalder quickly dodged the rounds and then saw the bright glow of a large plasma mortar fire from the tank. "Take right now for example," Mitsuki called out. "you have a huge plasma mortar heading for you, you're probably going to wait until the last second to dodge this one like you always do instead of taking the safe way out and dodging it now." The large boiling ball of plasma grew larger in his vision. Kalder quickly flexed his legs and leapt away right as the mortar impacted where he was standing. He yelled back, "There you go again with your backseat driving!" He quickly popped off another clip from his Sniper Rifle into the heads of four unfortunate Brutes. He fed in a fresh clip and continued, "I don't like to react too quickly, it'll give my ideas away to the enemy."
Mitsuki scoffed. "You can be so impossible sometimes, you know that?" Kalder attached his Sniper Rifle to the back of his battle suit and pulled out his Battle Rifle. He began popping off rounds into the large number of Jackals that were grouping in front of the Brutes. He quickly primed a Grenade and tossed it. As it detonated he replied, "I'm not the one that's being impossible right now! I'm trying to keep us both alive and rescue the Chancellor! You keep yelling at me for all the mistakes that you say I'm making and it's making it really, REALLY! hard for me to focus on this battle!"
Mitsuki paused for a second, taking in her Spartan's words and becoming more frustrated by the second. "You know, you aren't the only one who can show off in battle!" Kalder rolled his eyes as he popped off several more bursts from his Battle Rifle. "What are you talking about Mitsuki?" He asked. "Just watch." She said sternly. "Oh boy… here we go…" Kalder groaned as he continued to gun down enemies, he heard the sounds of wall panels opening and the sounds of mechanics moving. He looked up and saw a line of automated turrets extend form the wall. Kalder sighed, "What are you doing, Mitsuki?" "Just watch!" She shot back. The turrets all flashed to life and instantly a large barrage of plasma fire erupted from the walls and began attacking the Covenant troops.
The hallway was glowing bright electric blue from the constant plasma fire. The sound was ear deafening with the constant whine of plasma cannon fire. Several of the plasma turrets fire even managed to lock onto Kalder and bombard him with plasma fire. His shields quickly dropped and died and his suits alarms screamed. "And for the grand finale!" Mitsuki yelled. Suddenly, red warning lights flashed through the hall as the atmosphere on the area of the ship that Kalder was in began to vent into the vacuum of space. Kalder was almost swept off of his feet as the air violently decompressed. He quickly grabbed onto a small divot in the wall and held on.
In an instant the hall went quiet. No sounds of weapon fire could be heard and the blue flashing of plasma fire stopped. Kalder looked ahead of him and saw the entire remaining Covenant troops floating dead in space. "Are you fucking nuts Mitsuki!" He yelled. "I had no shields and my Bio-Foam hasn't completely set yet. I could have been killed!"
Mitsuki gasped. Back in the command hub of the ship she quickly noticed that her thoughts weren't in check. In confusion she quickly scanned her systems while her Spartan scolded her. She didn't answer back. Her cheeks were flushed with embarrassment and she couldn't figure out why she had just had such an outburst. Her system scans revealed several errors in her programming that were clearly out of place. She tried to isolate them and correct them but soon found that she couldn't. She felt a slight ping of fear flow through her. Her outburst in battle had nearly cost her Spartan his life and his mission would have been a total failure.
Kalder too was confused. Mitsuki had never acted like this before, even in battles that he fought in before with near impossible odds. There was a pause over his COM channel as Mitsuki went quiet. He remembered from back in his training when he couldn't figure out why Linda-058 got snotty with him when he tried to win her over during training. He remembered asking CPO Mendez why girl were so complicated and getting his reply of, "Son, not even my level of experience can help you with that question." He shook his head and thought. "A very wise man." Still, Kalder wanted answers as to why she was acting the way she was. Ever since her repairs from her battle back in the city with the other Covenant A.I. that nearly killed her, she had been acting strange.
He pulled himself from the wall and leapt towards the now opened door at the opposite end of the long hallway. As he floated freely in space amongst the lifeless bodies of Covenant troops he asked. "So, what was with the "tude" back there?" "My what?" She questioned. He continued, "Your attitude. I've never heard you snap like that before. Are you feeling okay?" Mitsuki paused for three full seconds; a rare thing for her when faced with a simple question. She quietly replied, "I just get tired of getting pushed around…" He heard her COM line click off. Kalder shook his head. She was clearly unhappy with him right now and he didn't want to provoke her so he kept quiet.
Back in the command hub, Mitsuki sat on the floor with her knees clutched tightly to her chest. Her long green bangs draped over her face and her mind was being assaulted with countless thoughts of worry and doubt. "…What's wrong with me?" She quietly said to herself.
Kalder's glove gripped onto the wall as he passed through the opened blast door. He found several free floating grenades floating in the lifeless area of the ship and he grabbed onto them and stored them on his belt plate. The ship was now running dark in this area from the massive decompression. He floated freely down several long hallways for nearly ten minutes before Mitsuki timidly told him, "There's an elevator roughly three hundred yards ahead of you, keep following this hallway and you should find it. It will take you to Izumi." Kalder smiled under his visor. "Thanks kiddo." He told her calmly.
On the opposite end of the COM, Mitsuki blushed. It was a relief to her that her Spartan wasn't mad at her. She didn't understand what was wrong with her and she was desperate for a solution. In her mind she considered the fear of Rampancy but immediately shook the thought from her mind. "No!" She thought, "My life expectancy isn't even halfway over yet." Something else was clearly wrong. She fought to keep her thoughts at bay; she still had a job to do.
(UNSC OUTPOST BRAVO) 5 HOURS INTO THE UNDERGROUND ASSAULT
The lower levels of the base were quiet. The halls down here were dimly lit and some of the lights flickered and were in need of changing. Anna had begun her rounds of her new duty at the UNSC base. Its underground network of separate levels were somewhat difficult for her to grasp at first. Still, she used her same tricks of remembering where certain objects were to navigate her way around, much like she did in Izumi's massive palace.
She found her duty at the base to be simple and somewhat relaxing. It gave her time to simply walk around and think. She tapped her finger on a button on the wall and boarded an elevator. She hit a button of one of the upper levels and waited for it to arrive. While the elevator ascended, she leaned her back against the wall and sighed. All of this work still hadn't taken her thoughts far from Devon. She hadn't heard an update on any of the Spartans in hours. She only knew that the ground forces were having a tough time keeping the Covenant out of the pit that the Drill Ship had dug.
The elevator stopped and the door slid open. She stepped out into another hallway. This level had troops walking the halls and going over their upcoming missions. No one on this level seemed interested in the fact that she was there, in fact, no one was even paying attention to her or cared that she was there. She didn't care; she had other things on her mind.
She pulled out her small PDA and pulled up the map of the level she was on. She quickly found her location and where she needed to go. She continued on her way and reattached her PDA to her uniforms belt. Her short walk brought her to a door that read Firing Range. She tapped her finger on the button to open the door and it slid open. She stepped inside the lobby to the firing range and saw several soldiers loading rounds into ammo clips. They all looked up as she entered and none spoke to her. She walked up to the counter and saw a man in full combat fatigues looking over paper work. She uneasily spoke up and said, "Excuse me, Sir." Making sure that she addressed him in the proper military term. He looked up and saw the young girl addressing him and also took notice of her uniform. He raised an eyebrow and said, "Aren't you in the wrong area, Miss?" Anna replied, "I was told to come here and ask for Gunny for weapon training."
The man raised an eyebrow and replied, "Weapon training? That's something that you should have learned in boot, didn't you pay attention to your drill instructor?" He said harshly. Anna felt embarrassed and afraid, clearly everyone in the base wasn't aware of the fact that she had until just a few hours ago been only a Palace Maid and not a UNSC soldier. She nervously replied, "I-I never went through boot, Sir." His eyes narrowed. "Then what in the hell are you doing in that uniform?" He questioned. Anna was afraid. She didn't know the correct response. "But, the Supreme Commander… He…" She was again cut off by soldier. "I don't buy that for a second, not even a Base Intelligence girl would be talking to the Supreme Commander!" At this point, the other soldiers in the room were now looking at Anna. She lowered her head in frustration and embarrassment as she continued to get scolded for something that she didn't even do. "You're clearly just a refugee that managed to sneak inside and swipe a uniform. That's an offence big enough to earn you some jail time Missy!"
Anna could feel tears welling up in her eyes. She wanted to cry but she held it back. From the opposite end of the room she heard a man's voice yell out, "That's enough, Corporal!" Anna looked up and saw a man walk out wearing the black under suit for ODST combat armor. He was tall and well muscled and had neatly kept dark brown hair. He walked over to Anna, looked at the Soldier and said, "I'd watch that tone Corporal, especially when it's towards the girl that was not only appointed a rank by the Supreme Commander but who is also a close friend to the Chancellor and one of the Spartans." The Corporal stood down and replied. "I apologize, Sergeant; I wasn't aware." The ODST nodded lightly and said, "I suggest that you take the time to look over people's stats before you jump to conclusions next time." The Soldier nodded and replied, "Yes, Sir."
The Sergeant looked at Anna and said, "Follow me Miss." Anna nodded and followed him into a door on the opposite end of the room. He told her calmly, "Don't mind the Corporal, he's a good soldier but he takes his job a little too seriously." Anna didn't reply. She wasn't really in the mood for talking. He continued. "The name's Gunnery Sergeant Caleb Newton, but everyone calls me Gunny." He picked up two sets of sound suppressors and handed one to Anna. They resembled large matte black ear muffs. She took the suppressors and he said, "Ander's told me that you might be stopping by." Anna replied quietly, "Who is Ander's." "He didn't tell you his name?" Gunny asked. Anna shook her head. "Typical silent type. He's the one who got you fitted into your uniform and gave you basic firearm lessons." "Oh, him." Anna replied. "That's right. I guess he never did mention his name." "That's typical of Ander's." Gunny replied. He motioned Anna to follow. "I'm guessing that you want to further your weapons training?"
Anna followed him inside a small room that over looked a large firing range. Inside, she could see several other troops practicing with Battle Rifle's and MA5C's. She replied, "Yes Sir, Ander's suggested that I come to you for some practice." Gunny grinned. "Fair enough." He said as he put his sound suppressors on. "Let's get started." He motioned to Anna's suppressors. "You might wanna put those on." Anna nodded and quickly placed her sound suppressors over her ears and followed Gunny out onto the firing range.
The range was filled with the noise of weapon fire. He walked over to an ammo palate and grabbed five clips of M6 Pistol rounds. He then motioned Anna over to a firing booth. He laid down the spare clips on the firing platform and pulled out his own M6. "You know how to load it right?" "Yes, Sir." Anna replied. "Alright then," Gunny said as he brought up his Pistol. "this is a very easy weapon to use. Once you're loaded, just bring it up, grip it tight, flip off the safety, take aim and…" The weapon made a loud bang that made Anna flinch. "fire." He said as he lowered his weapon. He looked at Anna and said, "Now you try."
Anna slowly walked over to the firing area. She was nervous, guns were always something that she had always found to be scary. She stepped up to the firing area and unclipped the polished black leather holster and drew her M6. She again quickly studied the weapon and then nervously brought it up to firing position. "Be sure that you really hold onto it, it has a little bit of a kick." Gunny told her. Anna nodded and then slowly flipped the safety off. She carefully sighted on the Brute shaped target sheet at the opposite end of the range. She narrowed her bright brown eyes and then slowly exhaled and squeezed the trigger. The Pistol kicked against the palm of her hand and made a loud bang. Anna jumped and shut her eyes from the sudden pop. "Not bad." Gunny told her. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at the target. She had managed to shoot the target in the left shoulder. "Keep trying and get used to the feel of that Pistol." He told her. Anna nodded and tried again.
She again squeezed the trigger and held on tightly to the handle of her M6 as it kicked. She had managed a throat shot. "That's a kill shot!" Gunny told her. Anna lowered her M6 and looked back at Gunny, "Really?" She asked. He nodded, "a clean kill if I ever saw one! Nice job Kurauchi." Anna blushed slightly and smiled. "Thank you, Sir." She replied. Gunny cracked a smile and said, "No problem, kid. Pop off a few more rounds and then I'll leave you too it for a while. If you need more clips, their over on the ammo palate." Anna nodded and said, "Um, Sir?" "Yes?" He asked. "Thank you." She said quietly. "What for, Miss?" He asked. Anna sighed and said, "For helping me, and for clearing things up back in the lobby." Gunny walked over to Anna and patted her on the shoulder. He smiled and said, "Think nothing of it." Anna smiled and Saluted. Gunny stood at attention and returned the gesture. "You'll do us all proud, kid."