A Titanfall Story

'This Is My Rifle, This Is My Gun.'

Our next lesson of training was ahead of us. We did our usual morning routine, truck doing his daily morning workout, Anina reading one of her books, and me doing my homework before class started. We all proceeded down to the mess-hall and had our coffee and food, talking again about our victories and defeats yesterday in the sparing ring. We finished our meal and made our way down to the training grounds where, our esteemed mentor was waiting. He was standing next to a stack of crates and finishing his business on his tablet. He put it away and had us line up once more and began his morning, motivational speech.

"Good morning maggots, I hope all of you slept well from h beating you got yesterday. You will continue your CQB training but you will also be taking care of your new best friend."

He popped open one of the crates and pulled out a rifle. He turned back around and held it in the air, he then proceeded to ask:

"Does anyone know what this is?"

I held up my hand and waited for him to call on me.

"Gunther, this isn't a god damn classroom. You will step forward and say 'yes sir!' if you have an answer."

I did as he asked and allowed me to answer his question.

"That is a standard issue R-102 Carbine Assault Rifle. Full auto and highly accurate, comes with a 24 round stick magazine and iron sights."

"Very good monkey! Now all of you will get one of these rifles, you will care for this rifle, you will clean with this rifle, you will sleep with this rifle, this will be your only friend on the battlefield besides your brother or sister in arms. If I see one of these rifles mistreated, left behind, forgotten, anything else your damn imagination can think of, the fool who did it will be cleaning the next cruiser's engines with a toothbrush making sure every speck of grease and oil is gone, do I make myself clear maggots?"

"Sir, yes sir!" We all said.

"Good, now each of you line up and get your rifle. Once you grab your rifle find a spot on the range."

We proceed to make a line and each one of us was introduced to our new training companion. I used the predecessor of this weapon so I was familiar with the set up.  I grabbed mine and took station 4 on the range.

"Gunther, since you answered me correctly earlier, you will go first..." he turned to the others and continued: "you will be given three magazines, you will be shooting at a still target. I want to see where everyone stands. Proceed Gunther."

A human shaped target presented itself on the range. I loaded my first magazine and racked the first round. I aimed my rifle down range and asked.

"Permission to fire?"

"Open fire." Yelled EM.

I unloaded the first clip into the target until the mag was empty. I threw the mag out and loaded the second, hit the bottom of the mag, and racked the first round. I emptied the second and proceeded to the last. When I emptied that magazine, I threw it and pulled the tiger twice to clear the barrel and racked the gun again to check for a spare round. I slung my rifle and brought the target to my station and took my place back in line. I looked over to EM and asked:

"Are you satisfied sir?"

He walked up to my target and saw a gaping hole in the head and chest of the humanoid target. I would say he had a face of astonishment, but he only had a single optical lenses on his head piece. He turned to us and began to speak.

"Very few things impress me, but for someone to unload three 24 round magazines into a target with that much accuracy... in 1minutes and 13 seconds, those are some fast hands. That's quite a standard you have set Gunther, lets see if the rest of them can fill in your shoes."