Firing rites for the scouts.

[Magnus Calpurnius]

Magnus walked in to the firing range, it had been almost a day since he had been here, normally it was only a few hours between trips. Not including those instances where he was in combat of course.

Walking to the wall, he picked out a heavy bolter, walked back to the firing range and took a few practice shots. It was a heavy weapon, no way would he be able to fire on the move with it, but at least he'd have his pistol with him in case the enemy got too close. Still, he couldn't help but wish he'd be allowed to take his trusty bolter with him, but the sergeant must have had a reason to have him take a pistol with stalker rounds.

The targets were going down quickly, but this was more due to the weapns sheer rate of fire than any special accuracy on Magnus' part. Of course, he was still averaging a 93% hit ratio.

It wouldn't be long until the sergeant got here, he hoped anyway. He needed to ask him something about the inquisitor.

[Andrus Taranius]

Andrus Taranius was enjoying himself, his rifle the standard m40 astartes pattern had a slight draw to the left,nothing he couldn't compensate for.
The targets appeared quickly, each one depicting possible enemies that might be faced by them during the mission. A power armor figure appeared, he fired hitting the target in the soft spot between the chestplate and helmet. A number of different targets followed each hit by high powered sniper rounds.

After the firing session was over, he checked his kill ratio, at 99%. Andrus cursed wondering where he'd misfired. He went over each shot in his head still cursing himself for his incompetence.

He found the shot, remembering that one of the targets had moved slightly before he'd pulled the trigger, in real life the round would have ricoched off armor, the angle was non penetrative. Andrus shook his head still cursing, vowing that he would do better next time.

[Julius Quintus]

Julius marched into the firing range with his bolter slung over shoulder. He'd had to return to his cell to fetch it and now he had to get the sights zeroed before the mission.

Julius stepped up to one of the long range firing lanes, unslung his bolter and locked a sickle pattern magazine into the receiver before racking the charging handle. He set the target range at 300m, an easy shot to allow him to set up the M.40 scope.

The first target appeared down range. Julius raised the weapon to his shoulder and flicked the fire selector from 'Safe' to 'Semi'. He looked down the scope, increasing the magnifactation to maximum and taking the very centre of the target in his cross hairs. Exhale and squeeze.

BANG!

The miniture rocket flashed from Julius's weapon to the target in a fraction of a second and blew a ragged hole in it, just off-centre in the 2 o'clock position.

Without taking his eye from the scope, Julius carefully adjusted the settings oof the gunsight and fired a second shot. This one hit the target dead centre.

Julius nodded to himself with satiisfaction. Then he reset the range to variable sized targets at 500m, the limit of the bolt guns effective range. He raised the weapon to his shoulder and hit the start button, beginning a random sequence of targets.

[Magnus Calpurnius]

Taranius surprised Magnus with his accuracy, he'd known the man was a good shot, but a 99% kill ratio was impressive. And yet the older scout still didn't seem happy. Some people were just perectionists he supposed.

Just as he was going to congratulate Andrus on his work, the sergeant walked in. Magnus would let the officer take some practice shots and get himself sorted before he bothered him with more questions.

"Sergeant," He called, a little later on, "I was just wondering if the inquisitors presence would affect our mission in any way?"

Where's Raziel? He thought to himself. Probably just taking his time in getting here.

[Julius Quintus]

The breach of Julius's bolter locked open as he fired the last round from his magazine, ready to accept the next round. Without pausing he hit the release catch, dropping the spent magazine to the deck as he smoothly locked a fresh one into the receiver and released the weapon bolt, locking the breach closed around another round. Julius raised his bolter again. His finger tensed on the trigger as the next target popped up.

"Sergeant," Someone said behind him. Julius lowered his weapon, clicked on the safety catch and turned to see Calpurnius standing a respectful distance behind him in a n attitude of enquiry. Julius gestured for him to continue.

"I was just wondering if the inquisitors presence would affect our mission in any way?"

Julius considered the question before answering, in truth it had bothered him as well. Inquisitors were professionals at meddling where they weren't wanted.

"The inquisition has no direct authority over the forces of the Adeptus Astartes Calpurnius. I think that Captain Antonius will take exception to any attempts to directly influence our operations on Lirdian. However, the Inquisitor does have authority over the imperial guard and may try to influence our deployment through them if he sees a way of furthering his own goals."

"Be careful in all your dealing with the Inquisition Calpurnius, they perform a nescessary task but there weapons and methods are not fit for true warriors."

"In any case, it is unlikely that you will have any direct dealings with the investigation team. Trust in your superiors ability to cope with the Inquisition and focus on performing your task to the best of your ability."

[Lucas Raziel]

Lucas walked into the Firing range. he saw Magnus talking with the Sergeant, and Andrus cursing himself.
"All he seems to do." Lucas thought.


whislt walking to a range, Lucas pulled his sniper rifle out. Lucas breathed in deeply, looked through the sight and fired. The sniper rifles bullet flew through the air, and right into the head of the target which popped up. More targets flew up, more targets fell down. Eventually no more targets appeared. Lucas checked his Ratio, and grinned. 100%.

Lucas checked Magnus'.
"93%, not bad with a heavy bolter." Lucas said to himself. he checked Andrus' ratio.
"99%. that's why he's cursing then."
Smiling, Lucas loaded the targets again, and started firing.

[Magnus Calpurnius]

"Thank you sergeant," Magnus replied "and I assure you, I will do my duty as the Emporer demands." He finished, putting a slight emphasis on the 'will'.

Finally, Raziel came in, and managed to get a perfect 100% on his accuracy. Although Magnus was forced to wonder how well he would do in the field. The firing range was one thing, but combat was another thing entirely, people didn't stay still like the targets, and they shot back too.

However, he had no doubt that Raziel, Taranius and their brothers in the tactical squad would do their best, and they would prevail against the foul heretics, Magnus would make sure of that. The heretics on the surface would feel the bite of his heavy bolter soon enough. That thought brought a smile to his face.

While Magnus was thinking about the upcoming mission he failed to notice his accuracy was improving. By the time he checked again it was on 95%. Magnus was a good shot, and he knew, but he doubted he'd be able to get much higher with a heavy bolter, maybe if he had his bolter he'd be able to get to 98%, but not with the heavier version.

They'd been here some time now, and while Magnus liked the firing range, he was starting to wonder how long the sergeant would keep them here.

[Andrus Taranius]

Andrus checked the ratio of his comrades. Lucas had scored 100%.

Now he was cursing even more, the damned millisecond had ruined his score. He knew he should not be so annoyed but his pride was at stake, he'd survived many battles taking down more than his fair share of enemies but he still felt that he had to prove something.
He noticed that the sergeant had stopped talking to calpurnius, and was waiting for his scouts to stop firing.

Andrus shouldered his sniper rifle standing to attention mimicking Calpurnius whilst Lucas was absorbed in his firing exercises.

[Lucas Raziel]

Lucas noticed everyone was standing to attention.
"Oh Crap!" thought Lucas. Quickly, he finished his exercise. Stood, and micicked the rest. Lucas gave himself a scolding. "oh, Sergeant Julius is going to kill me for being late!" he thought.

[Julius Quintus]

"Thank you sergeant, and I assure you, I will do my duty as the Emperor demands."

"I'm sure you will, lad" Replied Julius "Now get back to your firing rites"

Julius glanced at the hit ratios on the wall mounted pict-screen and raised his voice over the rattle of gunfire that still filled the hall.

"Scout Raziel, a guardsman can hit a mansized target at 500m with a sniper rifle. Reset your range to 1000m,, select head sillouettes only and repeat the cycle"

The young warrior was looking a little to pleased with his performance and it didn't do the neophytes get to full of themselves. In battle, overconfidence could kill a man as surely as bullets.

Julius unloaded and safed his weapon and secured it at his hip. Then he began striding down the range behind the firing bays observing the other scouts firing patterns.

[Andrus Taranius]

Andrus took his sniper rifle in his hands concentrating on the the grip and trigger checking it for imperfections.
He approached the target range once more, knelt, signalled for the practice to start once more and took aim.
He took a controlled long breath, focusing on the targets a 1000m away and released it, it was the perfect headshot taking the target right between the eyes.
A series of targets followed, each one taken down by a high powered round.
The exercise had been set at maximum, lasting an hour.
After the hour was up Andrus went through each shot in his head, searching for miniscule errors not apparent to anybody but an astartes but found none.
He checked his score and it read 100%, Andrus was satisfied at the result but he thought about the possible movements of combatants in a live fire situation and how this could disrupt his shots.

[Magnus Calpurnius]

The sergeant was watching, and Magnus didn't want to find out what would happen if he screwed up. He concentrated as hard as he could on getting his aim up, but no matter what he did he couldn't get past 95%. Damn it. He thought, raging at his own inability.

Hopefully it wouldn't be too long until they were allowed to leave, he still needed to check with the apothecary, and the heavy bolter was getting heavy, despite his enhanced constitution.

Taranius had managed to get his 100%, and for the first time that day he looked geniunely pleased. That was nice to see, as was his perfect score, Magnus has no doubt they would all depend on each other in the future, and a skilled comrade was one Magnus would be happy to have around.

[Julius Quintus]

Julius finished his inspection of the scouts and was grudgingly impressed with their performance. He seemed to have some good marksmen in the squad and that boded well for a mission where stealth and precision would be as important as brute strength.

"Cease fire!" he called, over the noise of the guns. "That'll have to do for today or we won't have any ammo left for the drop. Strip and clean your weapons and report any faults no matter how slight to the armourers. I've never lost a man under my command to equipment failure and I'm not going to start now."

So saying, Julius turned marched out of the firing range and headed for the armoury to do a complete check of his own wargear.

[Magnus Calpurnius]

"Of course sergeant." Magnus said, before hading out to make sure his armour and equipment were fine. He didn't need to check the gun, that had been checked earlier.

Unlike the sergeant, he wasn't heading for the armoury, he had a basic enough knowledge to make sure his equipment was battle ready on his own. He'd never be a techmarine, he didn't have that kind of skill, but enough to get by. For now he was of to the dorms.

[Lucas Raziel]

Lucas shot his last target. his ratio was 100%.
"I've had a good day." thought Lucas. He checked his squadmates score. Andrus got 100%, like Lucas.
"Godd for him, maybe now he won't curse." muttered Lucas. Standing up, Lucas put his sniper away, and walked out the door, heading for the Dorms. His weapon was fine, but he needed to pick up his knife, so he could get that checked.