Targets Galore
Posted on 05 Aug 2016 @ 4:59pm by Lieutenant Benice Gyce Ph.D. & Lieutenant JG Eelim Galan & Lieutenant Commander Ryan Alexander & Lieutenant JG Lenaris Marika
Edited on on 06 Aug 2016 @ 9:21pm
1,925 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
Episode 11 - Divinum Mundi
Location: USS Galileo - Holodeck 1
Timeline: MD 32 - 1620 Hours
Tags: Lark
[ON]
Gyce had chosen a basic range a hundred paces from a black targeting backdrop. Colored circles of several colors floated on the backdrop while Gyce stood in her shooting slot inspecting her sidearm.
The security chief had invited a few people to join her. The ship as small as it was and as crowded, left it hard sometimes for people to have personal holodeck time.
Eelim was surprised to receive the invite from Gyce but happy. He'd accepted right away. He still wasn't over the Myra thing and he really needed to get out amongst people. To be honest he'd been hiding the last little bit from people feeling sorry for himself.
He came in. "Hi ma'am." He gave a small bow.
Ryan checked the message on his data pad. He was happy to see that his request for range time had been approved. He had only been on ship for a few days and was still trying to get a feel for the way things worked around the vessel. Partially he hoped that he would at least be able to make some friends. He finished up his power allocation report and sent it to his Department Head for final approval before dissemination, before closing up and heading to the Holodeck.
It didn't take him long to arrive. He entered and looked around, noticing Lt (JG) Gryce and Lt (JG) Galan. He made his over over to the two. "Good Afternoon sirs." He said, being as respectful as possible in his greeting.
"Ensign. Lieutenant." Gyce nodded to each of them and indicated the array of different colored balls down range. "How long has it been since either of you had your basic or advanced arms training?"
Eelim answered first. "I try to do target practice every week but it's been a rough month so about a month for me."
"I haven't had any range time since I have been aboard. My most recent qualification as an officer was at the academy, say about four to five months ago; though as enlisted, my VBSS qualifications should be nearing expiration." Ryan said with a smile. Range time had always been one his favorite training evolution's when in the Corps, and to him it felt it was one of the few things he was actually good at. And the Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure training had been the most exhilarating and terrifying things he had ever done.
Galan gestured with his hand. "Ladies first."
The doors opened, interrupting the burgeoning discussion, to let a fresh faced Bajoran woman inside looking halfway between happy and confused. Her smile seemed sincere, her eyes darting at everyone and the environment. "So... I have this scheduled .. but I can't recall doing so... and there's people too.. what's up?"
"Pick a shooting stall," Gyce smiled to the young ensign. "I will moved the wall to its base setting of twenty-five paces. Everyone in here is due for a refresher on firearms and I thought we might do so as a group. Objective is to only shoot at your designated color light. They will start out moving slow and as we go, the range gets longer as well as the targets moving faster. If you miss, you subtract a point. If you hit a color light that isn't yours, you lose five points. Everyone understand the rules?"
Eelim gave a nod to Gyce letting her know he understood.
Marika stared around at everyone for a moment, then shrugged and proceeded to bounce to a free spot, making sure to grab a phaser on the way over.
Ryan nodded in understanding. This hadn't been the first time that he had run this sort of drill.
"Everyone pick a color, I guess." Gyce smiled and walked up to her stall to inspect the simulated Type II sidearm. "I'll take green, since it's not a popular color."
"Yes Sir." Ryan said as he moved to the Blue Lane. He picked up the Type II phaser. He opened and inspected the power cell briefly before securing it, and power it on. He properly cleared the weapon before waiting for Gyce to start the event. This wasn't the first time he would be doing this drill, and it made him smile that he was doing this drill again. He hopped that he hadn't gotten rusty.
Marika mimicked Ryan's actions, taking mental notes before choosing purple. Because there could simply be no other logical choice. "Will this count as our annual certification, or is this practice?"
Ryan smiled, leaning over towards Marika. "I think we are going to run it a few times for practice, then we will get to qualify for the year." He said, hoping that he didn't sound too excited. He looked back over to Gyce, before turning back to his own lane.
Eelim took the red ones. He drew his phaser standing at ready. Eelim took a steadying breath shutting out everything but the red circles. He waited for the order to begin.
"It is up to you if you want to test today. But if you have not kept up your shooting, you may want to use the day as a whole as a practice session," Gyce told the other female Bajoran. Then she programmed the settings of the exercise from her booth.
"Simulation starts in twenty seconds. You need to get fifty points with less than ten errors in three minutes to pass basic arms," Gyce told those that were in attendance. She chose to walk around in case someone wanted her help. "And... Mark!"
Eelim watched the red circles start moving. He fired. As the sim progressed the circles started moving faster. He'd been just about to shoot at a red circle when someone else's beam hit it. He grinned not phased in the least and continued hitting read circle while he said. "Someone sunk my battle ship."
At the Mark, Ryan fired. Missing his first target. Taking a deep breath, he calmed his nerves and focused in the next Blue sphere that fluttered across his vision. His next shot found its mark, followed by the next and the next. Twenty-five consecutive strikes before he missed again. But he didn't left that phase him. He remembered the training, all the drills that he had done, the days that he had spent on the range coming back to him as if he had never left. Muscle memory taking over, he calmed his breathing, and practiced proper sight alignment. Each additional shot finding its mark, except for his last two shots. He missed them, taking seconds to long and trying to anticipate its movement to much. 46 out 50, he knew could do better. There had been a few close calls with the purple targets, but he had held. He wondered how the others had done.
"Great shooting Mister Alexander," the security chief spoke with praise." But it was Marika that Gyce honed in on next. "Think of this as a math puzzle Ensign Marika. Speed time distance."
Marika cocked her head to the left for a moment, then proceeded to fire her weapon. Very badly. Where a light appeared she fired, but always away, as if she expected the light to move or suddenly change. Of her twenty hits, about half gave the impression of a lucky hit. She frowned
Ryan nodded and smiled. "Thank you sir, I think I can do better, though I am pretty happy with that score for a warm up." Ryan said with a smile, hoping that he wasn't coming across as arrogant or condescending. He secretly wished that they were training on the phaser rifle, he could easily do two colors at once with that. "I am ready for round 2 when everyone else is." He said before inspecting the fire arm for a second time.
Eelim had managed a score of 45 out of 50 as a warm up. He was mad at himself. He just stood there and stared at his phaser and then the wall where the circles were. How had he managed 45 out of 50? He should have been perfect. He was disturbed.
"Relax," Gyce told Marike calmly. Almost motherly. "Each dot follows a pattern. Study the eddies and pivots. Take a deep breath and fire once you're comfortable in that current."
Eelim walked over to the side and sat down. He watched the others practice.
Marika watched the lights blink in and out for a minute. Patterns? If they'd been sentients she could have intuited the movements, but these lights were anything but intuitive. Maybe if she swayed to a tune? No... no time to sway in a fight. She tried herself at a few shots. She should have done this type of practice a long time ago. Limiting herself to sentience simulations had not helped as much as she'd thought. "I do believe this practice will serve it's purpose well!" She smiled at the security chief and started back towards spotting that pattern, or current.
"It just takes time and patience to hone these skills, Enisgn," Gyce explained to Marika.
Ryan waited for the group to start practicing again. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying o but himself back into that mindset. He let out a slow breath, before cracking his neck side to side and shaking his hands to loosen up the muscles. He waited for the next target to appear.
At the sight of it, he fired, striking it dead center. With each consecutive Blue target that flitted into view Ryan fired, striking each once. One more than one occasion he nearly missed wanting to allow for more lead time than was necessary. The image of his Drill instructor berating him for the same mistake he had nearly made years ago, brought out a laugh that further caused him to relax. It wasn't until his 49th shot did he get his first miss. With a sigh, he hit the last target. Shaking his head. "49 out of 50, and I miss the second to last shot." He said, a little frustrated. He shrugged, guessing that wouldn't hurt to have that as his qualification score. "I need to take out more time to do this sort of thing." He said to himself, debating whether he should give it another shot or just let his score stand. "If only it had been the phaser rifle." He mumbled.
"I may recruit you for my department if you keep that up, Mister Alexander," Gyce smiled.
Ryan smiled at the praise. "Anytime. If you ever need a body for something sir, keep me in mind. Or if you do any other type of training." Ryan said as he checked the weapon once more before putting it on safe. "I almost started with the security and tactical track, but someone talked me into OPS." He said with a smile.
"Would you like a little more time to shoot, Ensign Marika?" Gyce asked. She knew this type of skill did not come as easy as it did with others.
Missing yet another ball of light, Marika nodded with a soft chuckle. "I do believe that would be wise." She glanced back at the security chief with a smile.
"We can pick this up at a later date then, Marika, But all around, a good effort everyone," Gyce smiled at everyone.
[OFF]
Lieutenant JG Benice Gyce
Chief of Security/Tactical
USS Galileo
Ensign Lenaris Marika
Archaeologist/Anthropologist
USS Galileo
Lt. JG Eelim Galan
Security Officer
USS Galileo
Ensign Ryan Alexander
Operations Officer
USS Galileo
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