Train hard fight easy! (Stephen, Mac)

[Lt. Aiden Jacka]

The Lieutenant set his sight to one hundred meters. Simultaneously the raw recruits did the same. He flicked the safety catch into the firing position and his body froze. The other soldiers began firing accurate, well aimed shot's towards their targets.

Jacka aligned his iron sights on he center of the bull ready to fire. He breathed in and out three times to gain complete control over his breathing. Then he breathed out for the last time and folded the breath. He then calmly squeezed the trigger and sent a .303 caliber round hurtling towards the target.

The single shot buried itself deep into the wood in the center of the bullseye. David crouched up from his firing position and peered through his binoculars towards the target. Satisfied with the result of the shot he jumped t his feet and strolled over to where Corporal Fox lay prone firing at his target.

"Nice shot" shouted David to the Corporal above the noise of the fire.

"I'm sure it's the only good one I'll hit all day" replied the Corporal before firing another shot that also impacted on the red wood in the center of the target.

Jacka then paced over to the thirty meter target and drew his Webley revolver. He tucked one arm close to his body and held the pistol firmly in the other the muzzle pointed towards the target. He pulled back the firing hammer with his right thumb before firing a double tap.

[Mac Bargett]

Along with Lt. Jacka and the others at the firing range, Sgt. Mac Bargett of the Special Air Service gripped the walnut forend of his Lee-Enfield Mk. IV bolt-action rifle with one hand and with the other pulled the bolt up, back, forward, and then back down again. In one swift motion he grabbed the rifle’s grip, pulled the gun up, into his shoulder, and turned with his left leg facing the target. Mac tried to control his shaky aim to bring the fixed post fore sight in line with the rear sight and the red center of the wooden target, but the sights continued to dance around the target. And although he was unable to hold the sights onto the target, Mac squeezed the trigger.

In less then a second, the .303 cal. high power round exploded out of the barrel and struck the target, but, as Mac could see, it did not hit the red portion, but only about a half inch below the bull’s-eye. He grabbed the bolt again with his right hand, expelled the spent case and loaded another round from the cartridge with the same two motions of the bolt as before. Once again he tried to lined up the shot and fire, but this time he held his breath, and hoped that was good enough to straighten the shot. This shot got the bullet into the edge of the red zone, but it was not dead center perfect, and that was not the perfectionism that his dad had taught him. So, like his father used to say, the only thing to do was to try again and hope the next time he isn‘t such a failure.
With the third shot, his frustration and father issues added to the weight of the rifle and he almost missed the target entirely, one inch farther to the left and the bullet would have had smacked into the dirt pile. Angry now, Mac realized that if he didn’t straighten out his thoughts, he wouldn’t even be able to shoot as well as the first shot. Then the target would win, and he would lose face with the men. For a moment Mac lowered his rifle and thought back to those cold December mornings back home in Pennsylvania.

He would wake up early, wash up, get dressed, and then go out with his father to go hunting, but first they would take a few minutes every day to do some practice shots against pinecones and bee’s nests. Back then Mac could hit a pinecone half the size of this bull’s-eye from 100 yards on the Appalachian Mountains. But back then, Mac would fire prone and use a log or a rock to prop the rifle up. He never got the hand of this freestyle firing. Mac had thought that when he joined this man’s army he would be using those minimachineguns with the duel pistol grips and drum magazines. Like in the films like Wake Island and the ones with James Cagney in them.

Mac will need to remember to get himself one of those babies.

[Stephen Colly]

Firing range, Stephen hadn’t been on one of these for ages; he had been just firing random shots at enemies in Europe and had returned a few weeks ago to be thrust into training with his newly joined Air Service group. Stephen stared at the round target, not seeing it as a target but as another German soldier staring back at him, defenceless and young…

Stephen blinked a few times, his fingers dripped around the trigger of his Automatic rifle, he didn’t seem to want to shoot at the target, his hand shook slightly, biting his lip, he looked through the eye hole at the target, and aimed a shot at it, letting out a huge sigh of relief as the bullet went hurtling off into the distance and bang into the middle of the target.

Stephen sat there on the sodden grass for a second, slightly stunned that he had forced himself to shoot at the board, he glanced over at Lt Jacka who was at the other end, the man might make him shoot so more shots and he really didn’t want to, it had taken all his strength to do that anyway…
Sergeant Mac was shooting like no-bodies business down the line and Stephen glanced over, his eyebrows raised, the firing was going on around him…rattling…Stephen leant back towards the rifle, taking a deep breath and shooting again, his hands trembled on the trigger as he shot again and again, hitting the target well…

[Lt. Aiden Jacka]

The shots from the Webley impacted on the second ring. In his frustration Aiden fired off the rest of the .455 rounds towards the target the recoil of each shot throwing his arm back towards him. He could see that a single shot had impacted within the bullseye and the rest had trailed off a little.

The lieutenant then holstered his Webley revolver and snatched up his Lee-Enfield. He then jogged over to a group of soldiers finished with their target practice were standing idly.

"Stop slacking and follow me" shouted Jacka causing many of the new recruits to jump in surprise.

Aiden lead the party over to what looked like a huge sandpit and attached a bayonet to his rifle.

"Fix bayonets ordered Jacka. This was an order the new recruits had never expected to hear off the battlefield. I will demonstrate. Private Harkin you try to bayonet me. You have my permission."

The confused Private stepped out into the sand and brandished his Lee-Enfield like a spear. He half heartedly stabbed at Aiden with the bayonet aiming for his commanders stomach. Aiden side stepped the blow easily before grasping the barrel with both hands and prising it effortlessly from the Privates grip before clouting him in the back with the hard wooden but of the weapon.Private Harkin stumbled to the ground swearing madly.

"Don't get pissed off by that little beating. The enemy will hit you with the other end" said David over his shoulder as he left towards the firing range.

The group of Privates then began to reenact what Aiden had just been doing.

When he got back to the firing range he paced over to Sergeant Bargett. He watched as the man fired off round after round downrange towards the target a look of determination and frustration in his eyes.

[Mac Bargett]

Having spent all of his bullets, Sgt. Mac Bargett slung his Lee Enfield over his shoulder and looked around. Most of the men had finished their target shooting and had moved on to bayonet practice, but there were still a few privates who were still firing away. Like the BAR man, Pvt. Colly, who didn’t seem to enjoy the shooting very much. Mac might have a talk with him about borrowing the Browning Automatic Rifle. It’s selective fire between semi- and fully automatic, plus the fact that is was made in America, made it look very appealing to Mac. He will have to remember to ask him about it, but for now, he will have to continue the training with the English Lee Enfield he had been issued.

And to continue today’s training, Mac needed to get over to the bayonet section. So he pulled his scabbard attached bayonet from his belt and slide it into the end of his rifle with a small click, then dashed over to the sand pit, where the men of the SAS were tossing each other into the dirt. Mac saw a private who had also just walked over from the firing range and was waiting for a partner. He called out to him before rushing towards him. The private repeated Lt. Jacka’s actions exactly, but when he grabbed the rifle and attempted to hit Sgt. Bargett with the butt, Mac ducked and tumbled out of the way.

From his position down in the sand, Mac applauded the private, “’Good show, private.’ Now give me back my rifle and let’s try it again.”

[Stephen Colly]

People were all shooting and trying to kill the wooden stick men and targets with bayonets and bullets…it didn’t seem right for men to be messing around with those things, some of the newer members of the team wouldn’t be able to kill a man in warm blood like Stephen had done, and doing this practice didn’t really have much effect and to be honest Stephen didn’t feel like firing at wooden targets today, he just wanted to get to the bunks and go to sleep, away from all the banging and crashing of guns.

Stephen gripped his rifle and shot another few rounds until he had no more and just sat there, staring at the target…he didn’t like this, he didn’t like this one bit, it was too fake, why don’t they just go over to France or Germany and kill some real people and then it might put some fear and terror into them when shooting the targets again…”Oi, come on Steve.” a voice drifted in to Stephen’s brain as he sat there and turned to see a fellow Private staring at him, egging him on.

Stephen gave a weak smile, he saw that the CO was coming over and he started to reload his rifle quickly, then putting it up to his eye again, shot a couple more times at the target.

[Lt. Aiden Jacka]

OOC: Sorry it's very short but I did'nt have much to go on.

The Lieutenant watched as Sergeant Bargett got to his feet and walked over to the sandpit. There were now only around ten men still on the firing range. Most were firing off round after round into the heads of wooden stick men. The accuracy of many of the men had improved greatly since when they first began the training.

Jacka noticed that one of the men had ceased firing. He lifted his binoculars to his eye and attempted to see who it was. he identified it as private Colly. He walked casually over to where Colly had just begun firing again.

"Stephen. You look troubled. What's up?" Aiden said loudly when the privates had finished firing.

He didn't look like he enjoyed it half as much as the other men. He also noticed that the man's target had not been pierced by many bullets. The Private beside Stephen was grinning as he added yet another whole to his target's head. Target practice was almost as fun as close combat training.

"Take this ammo" he almost shouted above the noise of the gunfire.

He dropped another two magazines for the Browning Auto Rifle down beside Colly as he awaited his answer. Then he drew his Webley revolver and loaded six rounds one by one.

[Mac Bargett]

((OCC: How about we do an obstacle course? With like wall climbing, crawling under barbed wire, etc?))

Mac picked himself off the ground and grabbed his rifle that the Private held out to him. Mac then used his rifle to point the bayonet at the Private’s rifle lying on the ground and gave the soldier an order,
“Now go get your rifle, private…” The private’s name was on the tip of his tongue.
“Son, Private Tom Son,” the private finished Mac’s sentence as he picked up his rifle and checked that it was empty.
“Ah yeah. Private Son, you’re one of those new Americans in my squad. Well, I hope you know this unit is one of the most elite divisions, and it’s going to be rough for us, we are going to have to show these limeys everything American can do, and without us Hitler would already be scrolling through Piccadilly.’’ Mac gave the private a moment to think about that before getting back to business, “Now, back to training, I want you to stab me in the face.”

The private nodded and lunged at him, his polished bayonet gleaming in the sun. Mac countered by grabbing his rifle by the stock and butt and moving it up to knock Pvt. Son’s rifle. The private falters, and Mac is able to, as lightly as possibly, rap him on the head with his rifle butt.

Mac steps back, “Now, if I was a kraut, I’d have your head on my bayonet. I can understand your failure to wound me, your superior, but I want to see what happens when you go up against an equal. I hope you do better.” Mac turns and points at another private who had just moved over from the firing range, “Hey private, this man’s free.” Mac pointed to Private Son and the other man, a Brit, walked over and prepared for Son to charge. Mac muttered into Son’s ear, “Do your country proud,” before walking back over to the firing range where Lt. Jacka, that private Colly, and another private were firing into the targets. Mac stood at attention at the Lieutenant, and gave him a crisp American salute before he remembered once again that he was not in that man‘s army and turned his palm out.
He then tried to shout over the gunfire, “Sir, the bayonet training is going smoothly. I am just wondering if there is any other training that I should engage the men in, sir.”

[Stephen Colly]

"Stephen. You look troubled. What's up?"
A voice floated into Stephen’s head and he turned to see the Lt. coming towards him, ”Sir.” Stephen muttered, saluting to the best of his ability at the man and then looked out again at the target, ”Life sir, life.” Stephen said over the gun fire, smiling dryly, his smile faded quickly as he glanced over at the rounds that Jacka had dropped next to him.

He picked the rounds up, loading up his rifle again and putting his eye to the eyehole, staring at the target, his hand quivered as he shot the bullet into the target, missing the middle slightly.

”Shit.” Stephen muttered under his breath as he took another go at shooting the target, this time he was more successful as it hit the centre and made yet another hole in the wooden board. He felt another shadow over him and looked up to see Sgt. Bargett standing talking to the Lieutenant. ”Sir.” Stephen said to the Sergeant, nodding slightly and looking back at the gun which was heavy in his hands, his eyes unlike the others around where dull and not excited at all by what he was doing.

OOC – I like the idea Mac

[Edward"Butcher"McMillan]

Moderation Post:

The following CP has been issued:

Jacka - 5CP, one short post

Bargett - 7CP, Only member in this thread with all posts meeting the minimum

Colly - 5CP, one short post