9. Polar Bear's Reveal

That Wednesday morning we were once again up at five hundred hours. I was getting really sick of this. We all headed out to where the Sergeant was waiting for us. We were all on time but obviously exhausted. How the sergeant could be up this early I had no idea. I knew Dad was the same though. Early risers I thought in disgust. How could you do that to yourself? At least with the sergeant I knew why. Years of conditioning from the army but why would a banker have the same conditioning unless he really was an assassin?

The first thing we had to do was shooting. Or at least our unit, A Unit, I Unit, M Unit and N Unit were. I decided that the people who ran SAS training were insane. Who in their right mind would outfit half awake, unfed men with deadly guns at five in the morning? They were insane! But I supposed that on the field no matter what the time was we would have to be ready for a fight. No matter how tired, no matter how hungry, no matter what we were feeling we'd have to fight. I had always known training would be hard.

And field work even harder. I supposed it could be worse looking at C Unit, D Unit, F Unit and R Unit who were going to be expected to fight each other. I headed off with the rest of the five units to where Eagle was standing. I looked to the Gun Stand. Today it was different, there were twenty chairs sat around obviously for us. So we were being taught on guns today. Behind Eagle was some sort of machine guns. Dad hadn't been able to get hold of any machine guns to teach me with but I had learned some in the regular army.

I sat down between Dog and Polar Bear in the second row from the front. Bat was on the seat furthest away from Polar Bear. Honestly those two were like children at times. I realised I sounded like a mother hen and decided to stop. It was Dog's job to be the mother hen and even he didn't do it very well. After we had all filed in and taken our seats Eagle stood up to began his seminar on whatever this gun was. My gut twisted as I looked at it even after all these years guns still made me think of my mother's violent, tragic and early death.

'This is a General Purpose Machine Gun (1) or the GPMG which is often used in periods of sustained fire which may occur in the course of your service. If it does then this beauty here,' Eagle stroked the machine gun in a loving way, 'can be used in times of light fire but not so commonly. As you can see,' Eagle gestured towards the gun. 'It is mounted upon a tripod stand which you will be learning to set up later on. And there is a C2 optical sight unit which is not so good for you Tiger. And why would that be, Tiger?' he asked suddenly.

'Because it means I cannot use instinctive firing, sir,' I replied.

'Right,' agreed Eagle with a small smile and a nod of his head. 'And why is that Swan.'

'Um,' Swan stuttered, 'I don't know, sir.'

'Drop and give me thirty,' ordered Eagle. 'Pigeon?'

Pigeon sneered at Swan as the raven haired man did his press ups for not knowing the answer. I knew it and it seemed that Pigeon did as well. But did Pigeon really have to act so arrogant and better than everyone else? He was training here just like everyone else. I mean Polar Bear might be hardened and unresponsive but he wasn't arrogant. Pigeon was around Polar Bear's age and like Polar Bear he was angry that he was training with a lot young recruits to get into the SAS. But unlike Polar Bear he was taking it out on us. Like the fact that he had knocked me out needlessly just because I had been beating him at training.

'Because it's more about aiming using the C2 optical sight unit rather than just basing on instinct, sir,' Pigeon's lips curled at the last word. Then he looked at me, 'maybe instinctive firing isn't the best form of shooting,' he sneered at me.

'Did I ask for your input, soldier?' demanded Eagle.

'No sir,' muttered Pigeon.

'What was that?' Eagle demanded.

'No. Sir,' repeated Pigeon again as though speaking to a slow child.

'Thirty press ups for disrespecting me,' ordered Eagle.

Pigeon sneered again and unhappily dropped to the floor. Swan had just finished his thirty. I was almost jumping for joy to see that my previous assailant was now being punished. It was my turn to smirk at Pigeon. I looked towards I Unit. I had to say that none of them looked particularly upset at how their sharpshooter was being treated. Not that I blamed them. I imagined that Pigeon was a difficult person to be in a Unit with. Polar Bear was silent and growly but he respected me at least even if he did not like Bat at all.

'Right,' Eagle ignored the soldier doing press ups. 'Aside from that Tiger it needs to men two operate it. So when we go outside to practice I would like you to get into teams of two.'

At this point I looked around and saw my comrades doing the same. Bat and Dog shared a look. This didn't surprise me Dog liked everyone and Bat was scared of Polar Bear. Polar Bear didn't think anything of Dog but resented Bat. However, Polar Bear seemed to quietly respect me. Not that he would say anything to confirm that. Pigeon finished doing his press ups with an angry glare at me. I glanced at Polar Bear who seemed to be the only one not looking around for a partner. But I knew we would end up together.

'There are specialist platoons who deal with the GPMG which some of you might go on to be in,' Eagle said looking at me.

I suspected with what Eagle had said last night about my shooting skills that I'd be prime for that. I didn't like to tell him that I was better with hand held guns. Everyone else saw what Eagle wasn't saying about me. Pigeon glared at me whilst Polar Bear smirked proudly of me. The other three sharpshooters apart from myself and Pigeon offered envious looks. I knew it was because I was the best shooter in our bunch. Eagle didn't seem to notice or perhaps didn't care to comment on the stir his look at me had caused.

'At Battalion level it will be used more at support level. What does that mean Terrier?' Eagle directed at the red headed leader of M Unit.

'Um,' Terrier seemed to be thinking hard about that, 'that the shooters will not be in the thick of it.'

Eagle gave a sharp nod, 'when planning an attack with the GPMG always remember that it is best for those manning the GPMG to remain back. And aim is vital. Why is that Camel?' Eagle demanded of N Unit's red headed sharpshooter.

'So that we don't hit our own side, sir,' Camel replied.

Eagle nodded, 'as I said before it has a much better advantage in sustained fire. It can have up to 1800 metres range in sustained fire as compared to 800 metres in a lighter role. The muzzle velocity can reach up to 538 m/s. Its Belt Fed Rate of Fire can reach up to 750 revolutions per minute. In the more common sustained fire it can reach 200 revolutions per minute compared to the light roles where it will only reach half of that – up to 100 revolutions per minute,' Eagle then took the gun showing it to everyone, 'as you can see it is 1.23 metres long. It is loaded with fifty rounds. The gun and the rounds is be quite heavy – 13.85kg. Now I would like you to split into pairs and set a GPMG up in each pair.'

As I expected Polar Bear and I were together whilst Bat and Dog were together. We went outside and looked at the black weapon that was currently dismantled. Polar Bear seemed at loss about what to do. Eagle had given us almost all the information about the weapon except how the build it. I got the fact that it was a test. Eagle meant for us to show our common sense and problem solving skills. I looked over at Bat and Dog. Dog (like Polar Bear) seemed pretty at loss about what to do but Bat was managing okay.

'What do we do?' growled Polar Bear.

'You're asking me?' I demanded, 'you're the one that's been here before!'

A very tense silence followed what I had just said. I was cursing myself for my slip up brought on by anger and frustration and hating not knowing what to do. My education in machine guns was woefully lacking. But I should have known that angering my Unit leader by the thing that shamed him more than anything else was a very bad idea. I glanced back over to Dog and Bat who were making good progress unlike Polar Bear and I who were squabbling. Pigeon was having as much trouble currently terrorising his Unit Leader.

'If you must know,' growled Polar Bear, 'it was my firearms that got me binned,' he growled.

I could see that Polar Bear was far from happy about revealing this little bit of knowledge. I wondered why he had done so now. Was I finally earning the hard man's trust? I hadn't thought that was possible but maybe I'd done something. I wracked my brains. What could have changed? I'd answered the one question that Eagle directed at me correctly but that couldn't explain Polar Bear's attitude. Maybe it was a slow build up of me showing my skills. But I got knocked out yesterday afternoon!

'Well I'm not much of a leader,' I said.

Polar Bear snorted, 'I had just come back from being tortured.'

I couldn't believe that Polar Bear had been tortured. Torture was something so opposite to my almost innocent way of thinking. But the scars and his reluctance to let our medic examine him suddenly made a lot of sense and his gruffness which must have been gained from trials. Then there was the fact that he didn't want anyone less than fully trained out on the field. I slightly wondered what this had to do with Polar Bear's gunmanship. Unless he had been still injured last time he was here.

'You've been tortured? Why?' I couldn't help but asking.

'They thought I knew something I didn't,' growled Polar Bear.

'I'm so-'I began.

'Don't,' growled Polar Bear.

'Thanks for telling me,' I said.

Polar Bear ignored me, 'machine guns?' he asked.

'I'm better with hand held guns,' I replied.

'What about your father?' asked Polar Bear with a growl.

'Where would a banker get hold of a machine gun?' I asked sounding depressed.

'Where would a banker get hold of any gun?' asked Polar Bear with a feral laugh.

'He's Dad,' I replied.

'Polar Bear, Tiger, Bear, Pigeon get to work,' ordered Eagle.

I was embarrassed at being told off but at the same time smirked when Pigeon was told off too. It seemed that the currently red faced man's way of shouting at his leader wasn't helping him. We looked at the pieces that we currently had still yet to begin. I really didn't like building the machine gun. But at least it seemed that none of our group liked this. I was still thinking of what Polar Bear had told me. I decided to go easier on him considering the man had been tortured! I shuddered at the mere thought.

'Should we start with the tripod?' I asked.

Polar Bear gave me a sharp nod. We set to work standing the tripod stand up. Then we placed the gun on top of it almost ready to shoot. Then we placed the C2 optical sight unit on it. Finally we loaded it with the first round. I would aim whilst Polar Bear would load the next round for the first twenty five rounds. Then we would switch places for the last twenty five. A few teams had completed it before us including Dog and Bat. But to my delight Pigeon and his unit leader Bear were the last to complete it.

'Okay now you will aim for your targets,' ordered Eagle.

We did just as we had done so with the same style of targets we had done so yesterday. I thought it was almost easier than Dad's targets because we didn't use human style targets. I had always found dad's willingness to use practice on so called humans disturbing. I didn't say as much but I did. It was further evidence that Dad was a killer. In Afghanistan I had taken lives but in the heat of battle. Not a cold blooded way which Dad had taken upon himself to teach me how to do. At the end of the lesson we came one of the top in the class. I was definitely a good shooter.

1) The information I've got on the GPMG is got from http : / www . sasspecialairservice . com / sas – machine – guns – machinegun . html

I just had to punish Pigeon in this chapter.

So we have some more information on Polar Bear. Tell me what you think? Did Polar Bear's revelation seem in character?