Vanguard

Chapter 20

"Shooting range"

[UNSC Vanguard, Rolion Sector, Fenion System]

On Deck eleven, Ahsoka was nearing the gun range when she began to hear muffled three round bursts of ballistic gunfire, she comes up to a bulkhead hatch where it opens and allows her to walk inside where the gun shots were much louder. She found Longarm standing behind a firing post wielding a BR55HB Battle Rifle firing in controlled three round bursts downrange towards his appearing and disappearing targets lined throughout the entire bay. She said nothing but took up a spot and watched the SPARTAN shoot down targets that appears from the floor, walls, and ceilings take the shape of different alien species, some of which she didn't recognize but others she remembered all too well from her vision little over a week ago, such as the large bipedal figures with the quadruple hinged mandibles hanging from their heads.

He fires his last three shots striking one of the smaller aliens in the head seconds before a bell rang signaling the end of the session and Percival reports "Twenty three point eight seconds, targets killed fifty seven. That's a new record SPARTAN."

Longarm pulls the bolt back locking it in place and ejects the magazine out of the rifle before setting them down again and order "Reset."

"Of course, resetting system."

She approaches him gave him a pat on the shoulder grabbing his attention and holds up his helmet in her hand "You forgot something" she said.

The SPARTAN looks down at his helmet and gently takes it out of her hands before putting it back on and replied "Thanks."

"So, what're you doing here?"

Longarm was walking towards the back wall where a gun rack, containing an array of UNSC weaponry, was mounted "What does it look like?"

She looks behind her seeing the multiple targets slowly retract to their former positions before turning back to him "Looks like you're having a little fun."

He turns around facing her with an M7 SMG in his right hand "I suppose you can say that" before tossing the weapon into the air towards the young togruta where she catches it and examines the weapon in her hands. The M7|Caseless Submachine Gun was a very lightweight firearm specifically designed for close quarters combat among UNSC special forces, the weapon was about eighteen inches long with its retractable stock pressed up against the main housing and featured iron sights and a built-on foregrip for improved aiming and stability, the barrel was awfully short but she guessed it helped its close quarters factor by giving the user better movement through confined spaces.

Longarm hands her a small metal magazine stating "The M7 Submachine Gun fires five millimeter caseless full metal jacket rounds at up to nine hundred rounds a minute, a single magazine carries sixty."

She looked at the magazine seeing a small hole on the bottom side and sees another on the left side of the SMG's main housing, she quickly puts two and two together and gently slides the magazine into place where locks with a distinct click, she then switches to the right side of the weapon and firmly pulled the charging handle back before letting it slide back forward loading the first of sixty rounds into the firing chamber.

She looks up at Longarm who gave an approving nod and gestured over to her firing post where she readies herself by readjusting the stock to her size and press it against her shoulder, she then heard the SPARTAN call out "Alright Percival start it up."

"Acknowledged . . . beginning program" the AI states followed up with an alarm sounding off signaling the start.

The first target emerged from the floor, a stubby little creature with greyish thick skin, red eyes, orange armor covering its chest, a rebreather over its mouth, and a large triangular air tank on its back as it wielded some sort of energy weapon, Longarm states "Unggoy, also called Grunts, they're cannon fodder for the Covenant Army and are the lowest ranking species in their alliance. They're weak and timid individually and will run when their commanding officer is killed, but they make up for that in sheer numbers and can overwhelm a defensive position despite the losses they suffer."

Ahsoka takes aim looking down the weapon's iron sights and pulls the trigger letting loose a volley of rounds downrange causing her to lose control of the weapon before letting go of the trigger and stating with a somewhat amused smile "That escalated quickly."

"Use short controlled bursts, press down on the trigger for one second and let go, press and let go" Longarm explains with care.

She lines up the weapon once more and presses down on the trigger for a single second firing off a more controllable short accurate burst of fire effectively striking the target across the chest, the target retracted back down into the floor as she readies herself for the next target.

The next target appeared from the right wall, this one with a bird-like appearance with sandy scaly skin, light armor all around its fragile body, its left hand carried a weapon similar to the grunt's but its right arm carried a gauntlet that was emitting a plasma shield that was colored blue, Longarm went on "Kig-yar, or Jackals, these guys are quick on their feet as they are merciless. They're more of hired mercenaries rather than religious believers and they're typically marksman and snipers, though they can be a little bloodthirsty in the latter, and they're normally seen carrying a shield gauntlet to protect themselves from incoming fire."

Tano examined every aspect of the Jackal target until she notices its left hand was exposed through a small gap along the shield's rim, presumably a hole for the jackal to fire through, and took aim before firing off a burst striking the target in the hand resulting in a clean hit and the jackal retracted back to the wall. She looks back at Longarm behind him with his arms crossed and he gave a good nod showing that she was making good progress.

The next target appeared this time from the ceiling, appearing as a large insect with wings and armed with the usual armament like the others she has seen before, "Yanme'e, or typically drones, much like every other bug they work together in swarms using their speed and ability to fly to gain the advantage over their enemies. They're easy to take down as long as you have enough bullets to take down an entire swarm."

The target began moving back and forth at a decent pace forcing Ahsoka to start tracking it through her iron sights before she lets off a few more bursts striking the target multiple times before it retracted back into the ceiling, she turns and states with a grin "This is too easy big guy."

"Alright then, here's your next target."

Tano turns around once more to see what she actually feared the most since her vision, a hulking behemoth adorned in blue ironclad armor, dark grey saurian skin, digitigrade legs, quadruple-hinged mandibles hanging from their heads with sharp teeth lining the insides, and piercing narrow vertical slit eyes.

"The Sangheili, and respectfully called Elites, these elite soldiers make up the backbone of the entire Covenant military from commanding small squads of Unggoy to leading entire fleets into battle, they're quick and ruthless towards their enemies using their superior combat skills and their tactical minds to their advantage. Though they have a soft spot for honor meaning if you throw your gun aside and raise your fists, you can sure bet the split-jaw's going to do the same. Their armor has a built-in shielding unit much like us SPARTANs and they're known to carry heavier armament and even an energy sword for close and personal touches."

She takes aim lining the sights onto the alien's center chest and pulls the trigger but there was no loud crack of gunfire, only a little click from inside the weapon, she pulls the weapon away from her shoulder and takes the magazine out to find it empty. While she admired the weapon for its ability to quickly take down targets and hold a large amount of ammo compared to the rest, she couldn't get use to the full automatic that can easily go out of control and possibly inflict harm on friendly personnel.

She sets the weapon down on the table in front of her and turns to Longarm asking "You have something more controllable?"

The SPARTAN thought for a moment before coming up with a solution "Yeah I think I have something . . . wait here" and left the firing range towards the nearby armory.

"What do you think he's getting Percy?" she asks as the hatch closes behind the SPARTAN.

"I only have several ideas, let's try some of the other weapons until he comes back . . . you see that rifle he was wielding when you came in?"

She turns to see the empty battle rifle and starts walking over to it, "Pick it up" the AI instructed.

She takes the battle rifle into her hands, which obviously proved to be somewhat heavier than the light SMG; she examined the bullpup design of the rifle, the built-in ammo counter which displayed zero, the optical scope mounted on top of the rifle's optics rail, and the extended heavy barrel for more precise delivery of rounds. She looks down at the table in front of her and found one magazine loaded with thirty six 9.5x40mm semi-armor piercing rounds, she picks up the clip with her left hand while holding the rifle in her right, and inserts the magazine into the rifle's feed located in the stock before pushing the left sided charging handle forward thus readying the weapon for use. She returns to her original post and lines up her shot back on the Sangheili's chest, she looks through the rifle's scope attachment with 2x magnification and centers the crosshairs on target before squeezing the trigger letting out a quick burst fire of three rounds. The shots were on target and she realized that she felt minimum recoil despite the three high caliber rounds fired from the rifle unlike the rapid fire volleys the SMG puts out, she squeezes off another burst into the target when she began to enjoy this kind of weapon, the only complaint she had was its weight of 3.7 kilograms, soon enough she began firing off rounds striking her target repeatedly until it receded back into the floor and her ammunition was depleted.

She sets the rifle down just as Percival remarks "Eighty three point seven percent accuracy . . . well done for someone who hasn't held a rifle before."

"Thanks Percy, I like it but it's a bit heavy for what I'm used to."

The hatches open up once more and Longarm walks back in with two black polymer fabricated holsters, one holding a handgun and the other containing three magazines, and he approaches the young togruta and states "This should be more your style" setting them down on the table.

"What is it?" she asks as she watches the SPARTAN pull out a small handgun from the holster.

He holds out a small blocky handgun with a black polymer finish, there were no apparent attachment equipped, and pulls back on the slide on top of the weapon checking the opened firing chamber stating "This is the M6C Mangum Personal Defense Weapon System, it fires a 12.7mm semi-armor piercing rounds from a twelve round magazine. Semi-automatic, recoil operated, magazine-fed, this weapon can effectively engage a target at up to twenty three meters with minimum recoil, good rate of fire, and high controllability."

While demonstrating to Tano, he inserts a fresh magazine into the weapon and presses his thumb down on the slide release causing the magnum's slide to propel itself forward loading the first of twelve rounds into the chamber; he then takes the weapon by the top and holds out the pistol grip for her to take. She gently takes the weapon into her hand, letting the light weight to fall into her hands and realizing it is somewhat lighter than her own lightsabers, and then takes aim at a target of an Unggoy appearing from the left wall. She expertly looks down the enhanced iron sights and fires off her first shot downrange striking the target square in the head, all the meanwhile the gun slide automatically swinging backwards ejecting the hot spent casing and pushes back forward loading a new round into the chamber, she felt little recoil from the weapon but for such a high caliber weapon it seemed as if though it could've done a whole lot of damage to the Unggoy, if it were real.

"Wow . . . I didn't feel a thing" Tano said with some aspiration in her voice.

"Almost makes you think what the clone troopers have to compete with this doesn't it?"

"A little . . . but it's still no match for a lightsaber" she said setting the weapon on the table along with the battle rifle and submachine gun.

The SPARTAN crossed his arms "That may be true . . . but" he then reaches down and snatches her two lightsaber hilts from her waist belt to which she barks "Hey!"

He holds them both in one hand and asks "But what if you don't have your lightsabers on you? Perhaps if you lost them or you were disarmed in a combat situation?"

She attempts to take them back with a quick swing with her right arm but Longarm jerks the lightsabers back away from her prompting her to say "Jedi don't lose their lightsabers easily. Skywalker taught me 'This weapon is your life, don't ever lose it.'"

The SPARTAN nodded understanding the importance between a Jedi and their lightsaber and then states "Well . . . everyone has their days when something goes wrong. If that's the case then what do you have for a backup weapon?"

"We don't have one; we use the force to try and win the day or at least survive."

"True but you told me the other day that a force user requires concentration to effectively use it against the enemy. But concentration takes time and time is something you might not have in a fast-paced situation."

"What're you trying to tell me?"

"I want you to have that weapon, take the M6 and train with it. If there does come a time where your sabers are out of reach and you can't use the force in time, at least you'll have that as your last resort. Just like your weapon is your life, this one can define the chance between life and death."

He generously hands her two sabers back allowing her to put them back on herself before she picks up the M6C in her hands and then look at the two holsters lying next to the battle rifle, she sets the pistol down and took the two holsters putting them on around her two thighs, the weapon holster on her right and the additional magazines on her left, they proved to be more comfortable than she expected and ask "How do I look?"

Longarm looks down and briefly examines the two holsters and comments "They fit nicely by the looks of it . . ."

She gives a gentle smile before stating "C'mon, let's do a little more target practice. Bet I can beat you."

The SPARTAN chuckled as he picks up his battle rifle and states "You're on . . ."

However Percival breaks the moment stating "That will have to wait, I'm receiving an emergency distress call on an open frequency from a Republic cruiser nearby under attack. Putting it through now."

On the intercoms, a frightened clone officer's voice spoke through with minor static interference "Mayday Mayday! This is the cruiser Royale we're under attack! An unidentified vessel has exited out of some portal and immediately open fired on us, we lost our escorts and we're taking heavy damage! What? We're being boarded!? Yes Sir! I repeat mayday mayday this is the Republic cruiser Royale and we're under attack! We require assistance immediately!"

"Percy where is that coming from?" Tano said with an alarmed tone.

"Very close by within the outer rim of the system. The Vanguard can be there in several minutes with the Gozanti's aid."

Longarm steps in "Alright do it, I want weapon systems online and counter-measures ready by the time we drop out."

"Consider it done . . . plotting course for the Cruiser Royale, spinning up FTL drive."

On that note the SPARTAN states "Ahsoka, get the cruiser ready for launch, they're going to need the extra firepower to fight off whoever the hell it is" before dashing out of the hatch making his way to the armory.

Ahsoka complied holstering her new M6C PDWS into its respectful position along her thigh and rushes out to make her way to the Gozanti for immediate combat.

Please leave your thoughts and comments. Thank you.