The girls of Armadillo Squad are now standing outside of the kill house. Emi pats down her 30 round PMAGs on her carrier. Her eyes glance at the other girls, inspecting their own equipment just she's doing. "Hey Mai."
"What's up Emi?"
"Do you know how this optic works?" She asks as her fingers tap on the optics of of her rifle.
"Well that's an Aimpoint CompM4. You turn that little knob on the top right to adjust the brightness on your red dot. The indented knobs on the top and side adjust your zero. You adjusted your zero...right?"
"N...not yet."
"Ah...I wouldn't worry about it yet. The Kill House is close quarters so maybe use your irons for now."
"I'll consider your advise Mai." Emi detaches her optic and places it into her backpack, replacing it with the detachable carry handle that came with the rifle.
"No problem Emi. By the way, if it were up to me, I'd run with the carry handle myself. The M4A1 looks more classic that way."
"Now I know why you go by the call sign Boomer."
"Yep. And it's not just because of the RPG. Man this thing is slowing me down. Anti-tank roles suck. Why couldn't I just carry some C4s like Chiara?"
"C4s? What are C4s?" Chiara questions from the other side. She appears to have a small form factor red dot on a rail adapter to her MP5SD.
"Oh...we haven't gone to that part of the tutorial yet." Mai corrects herself. "I wouldn't worry about it yet Chiara."
"When can we start shooting already?" Hikari complained as she aims her rifle at the exterior kill house dry firing her rifle.
"Whenever the Drill Sergeant can hurry up and get onto the observation tower." Mai grumbles. Honestly, I don't even know why you're so eager to start shooting again. Your rifle is probably going to jam up on you again."
"That's not going to happen Mai. Do you want another kick in the face?"
"No thanks. I think I get the point." Mai had already made fun of Hikari enough for her to push back and doesn't prod any further. "Jeez...what's the hold up with the Drill Sergeant? We've been waiting longer than expected."
"THE HOLD UP IS THE FACT THAT YOU LADIES ARE JUST CHIT CHATTING LIKE WE GOT ALL DAY." The Drill Sergeant yells through a megaphone from above the watch tower which overlooks the kill house. "Are we done with your squad's exposition dump so we can get back to reality?!"
"Yes, Drill Sergeant!"
"Right. So this here is the kill house." The Drill Sergeant begins his explanation but cuts off to call on Mai. "On second thought, why don't you explain it exactly how I told you the first time you did this course Boomer? Seeing as you've already gone through this training already."
"Yes, Drill Sergeant!" Mai agrees forwardly before turning to Emi, Chiara, and Hikari. "So the Kill House is a course where you will have to go through a simulated "house" where enemy targets will pop out from various hiding spots, covers, and doorways. The goal is get through the kill house and eliminate all the hostiles as quickly as you can. But watch out! Not all targets are going to be hostiles so just don't go spraying and praying everywhere.
"Sounds easy. I'll go first." Hikari brushes her ponytails behind her head as she stacks up to the front of the Kill House. "This is going to be easy."
"Hime! Since you're going first, let's see if your confidence is warranted." The Drill Instructor calls from the observation tower. "At the sound of the buzzer, the timer will begin and you will go through the course as quickly as you can. Shooter ready?!"
"Yes, Drill Sergeant!" Hikari responds as she gets into a fighter's stance at the front of the kill house entrance, as if she's ready to pounce.
"Stand by..." A small moment of silence fills the air before a loud "BZZZZ" from the buzzer emits and within a fraction of a second, Hikari goes inside the kill house and disappears from everyone but the drill sergeant's overhead sight. The girls from the outside of the kill house cannot see what's going on but they can certainly hear Hikari's AN-94 burst fire doing some serious work in the kill house. When a room in the kill house is cleared, a higher pitch audible buzz emits to confirm to the shooter that the room is cleared so Hikari will move onto the next room. This goes on for about 40 seconds and sometime after 30 rounds, the sounds of the gunfire changes from the notable 2 round hyper burst of the AN-94 to single shots of 9mm coming out from Hikari's P320 Flux Raider PDW conversion. At the 48 second mark, Hikari comes out from the opposite end of the kill house and sprints back to the entrance of where the rest of the girls are waiting. Emi and Chiara have a shocked look on their face from how quickly Hikari had returned from the kill house. Mai seems to have a smirk on her face as if she's knows something.
"Hpmh. That was incredibly easy!" Hikari lifts her rifle over her shoulder proudly and she sticks her tongue out at Mai. "No jams what so ever."
"Hime! I have to admit, you are quite the fast and reactive shooter with your AN-94 and P320 Sidearm! You breezed through that obstacle course in less than a minute!" The Drill Sergeant confirmed through the megaphone. "All of the targets in the kill house were eliminated."
"Ah. Thank you Drill Sergeant." Hikari smiles widely as she smirks back at Mai who isn't buying it for a reason.
"Not only did you eliminate all of the hostile targets, but you also completely annihilated all of the innocent bystanders. Congratulations Hime! You are a world class war criminal!" The tone of the Drill Sergeant's voice changes to one of anger.
Hikari's smug expression dies in an instant. "W...what?"
"Were you not paying attention to Boomer's instructions?! Or are you just trigger happy, Hime?!" He then look towards Mai again. "Repeat your instructions to her one more time because I don't think she heard you loud and clear Boomer!"
"Yes, Drill Sergeant." Mai replies with a smug certainly before leaning over to Hikari's ear. "NOT ALL TARGETS ARE GOING TO BE HOSTILES SO JUST DON'T GO SPRAYING AND PRAYING EVERYWHERE!" Mai screams at the top of her voice to irritate Hikari who repulses instantly.
"Gah...Did you seriously have to yell in my ear!" Hikari cries back as she protects her own ears.
"I think you heard it loud and clear. So to elaborate further." The Drill Instructor address the girls from the watch tower. "Warfare is not a simple sport between two opposing forces, especially in the real world. Since we are trying to simulate the combat conditions of the battlefield, just like in reality, the battlefield is not an arena. Battles are fought in unexpected places and in inconvenient places, especially where there is vital infrastructures and civilians about."
A tutorial notification pops up in the girl's heads up display explaining further: In certain tournament events, you may come across NPC civilians who will be caught between you and the enemy crossfire. While collateral damage is a given in warfare, direct fire upon unarmed targets is frowned upon in the rules of war. Shooting civilians, prisoners of war, or destroying vital infrastructure like power plants, schools or churches intentionally or recklessly will not cost you the match, but it will severely penalize your squad's income at the end of the match regardless if you win or lose. On the contrary, helping injured civilians / prisoners of war or repairing destroyed infrastructure such as bridges, power facilities and such can give your squad extra income points during matches but are not required to win.
"Oh...That makes sense....my mistake." Hikari confesses to herself after reading the prompt on her heads up display.
"Right. Try again and this time, watch your fire!" The Drill Instructor addressed Hikari through his megaphone.
"Understood, Drill Sergeant." Hikari gets into position as before in front of the entrance of the kill house. Within a few seconds, the buzzer goes off again and Hikari proceeds through the kill house as before, being more careful of where her shots are going. Within 58 seconds, she's running out of the kill house and back at the entrance where all the other girls are waiting.
"A little slower than before, but no collateral damage this time. That'll do Hime." Hikari slumps down on the floor and sighs in relief. "Alright, Let's see....Trackstar, your up next.
"Yes, Drill Sergeant!" Emi goes through the kill house just as Hikari did. Her M4A1 is fired in semi as Emi carefully picks out her targets in the kill house. She makes a reload with her rifle during the run before finishing the course in about 1 minute and 14 seconds. She sprints back to the entrance to hear her results.
"That's not the worst run I'd ever seen, but it's not the best either. Trackstar, why the bloody hell do you not have a sidearm?!"
"That's something I haven't addressed yet, Drill Sergeant." Emi admits with a bit of guilt in her voice.
"Well don't be a cheap bastard like Boomer next time. Get yourself a sidearm at Flint's after today's training."
"Of course, Drill Sergeant."
"Mouse! You're next. You have a 9mm SMG and a 22lr sidearm am I right about that?"
"Yes, Drill Sergeant!" Chiara replies back with certainty as she stacks up at the front entrance.
"Keep in mind you're using a pistol caliber firearm as your primary which means your damage output isn't going to be a effective as your teammates running intermediate cartridges. My suggestion to you is stay within your cartridges effective range which will primarily be within close quarters. Combatants with body armor higher than level II might give you some trouble so make your shots count."
"Understood, Drill Sergeant."
"On another note, your side arm is a plinking toy at best. Don't think you're going to win any firefights with it unless you get a good shot at an opponent's vitals. You are a scout after all so getting into firefights shouldn't be your priority. Lucky for you, this kill house is entirely close quarters so this shouldn't be difficult for you. Are you ready?"
"Yes Drill Sergeant!" Chiara waits for the buzzer before going through the course. Her MP5's silencer is noticeable even to the girls waiting outside of the kill house. But when she switches to her silenced Taurus TX22 Compact, the impacts of the round hitting the cardboard targets nearly as audible as the pistol itself. Chiara is a little faster than Emi at 1 minute and 4 seconds but nowhere near as fast as Hikari.
"That's acceptable. Not amazing, but acceptable." The Drill Sergeant notes as he looks at his timer. "Boomer, you've done this course before. You know what to do."
Mai stands by the entrance with her SKS ready to have her go at the course once more. She remembers the first time she's done this course and how she nearly made the same mistake as Hikari on her first run. She was training with another squad a few months ago, all interested in doing the summer tournament as before. But complications got in the way with some of the squad members and Mai never really had the opportunity to compete seriously as she will for this tournament. She hears the buzzer and goes like a natural. Her 10 round internal magazine limits her capabilities at close quarters and she has to make reloads in between movements between rooms. At some point, she just switches to her Hi Point C9 pistol and shoots the rest of the course with that considering reloads for her pistol are a lot faster than pressing stripper clips into her Type 56 SKS. She's the slowest at 1 Minute and 24 seconds.
"You know your time would be a lot better if you used a more "modern rifle" boomer. But for now, just stick to mid-range engagements. At least your Type 56 SKS is better at longer ranges than most AKM rifles."
"I got that Drill Sergeant." Mai nods. "But I ain't changing my rifle anytime soon."
"Your loss Mai..." Hikari shakes her head in disbelief.
"Trust me, I know what I am doing with my rifle. It's not just about firearms you know."
"She's absolute right." The Drill Sergeant interjects. "Victory on the battlefield will not be won with firearms alone. You'll have to use your terrain, tactics, technology, and wits to give a devastating blow to the enemy! You will have to use whatever you have at your disposal. Not everything will go according to plan. Even if the ultimate goal is to eliminate the enemy team, going all rifleman and grenadiers will not cut it on the battlefield. You all have your specific classes and abilities which we will discuss in our final section of your training."
"Yes, Drill Sergeant!" The girls answer back in unison.