Who said diamonds are a girls best friend?

Posted on Thu Jan 25th, 2018 @ 5:53pm by Major Hailey Weston & Lieutenant Commander Shaille Levine

Mission: https://wellington.pegasusfleet.site/index.php/sim/missions/id/4
Location: Practice Range

As she walked into the firing range, Shaille paused, her mouth quirking in a smile. With the transfer to the Wellington it had been a while since she had gotten in some decent practice, but now, back here with the smells, the sounds, the general feeling of the range, she felt like she was being reunited with a long lost best friend.

Stepping aside to let a couple of marines pass, Shaille found an empty space and retrieved her rifle, running her fingers along the barrel and over the trigger mechanism before raising it up, nestling it carefully in her shoulder and squaring up. This was it, she was home.

In the next lane over, Hailey glanced up from her scope as the new arrival took the spot and took a quick look at the rifle, noting differences from the standard weapons. Hers, of course, didn't even remotely look like an issue rifle. She set her eye back to the scope and sighted on the target a simulated two hundred meters away, using standard firing rules, sending one pulse round per two seconds for four shots, then switched to rapid fire rules which gave her one second per round, methodically turning the centre of the target dark with repeated hits within the x-ring, a ring two inches in diameter.

Before she had even fired her first round, Shaille lowered her rifle and raised one eyebrow as she watched Hailey firing in the lane next to her. Nodding with approval, she grinned easily. "Impressive," was all she said.

"Thanks." Hailey didn't let up her firing, but flipped a button on the side of the grip and altered her aim fractionally, the muzzle now flashing with a whipcrack sound as bullets were flung downrange at the same pace. "Interesting rifle you have there." She said, a smile visible from even that angle, Seven millimeter with the pulse phaser module? Over-under side-to-side or single integrated?"

"You know your stuff," Shaille replied easily, "I'm impressed. It was a gift from an old friend, not the TR-116 I had wanted, but hey, a girl can't complain, right?"

Hailey chuckled, finger off the trigger and she set her safety selector to 'on', then bringing it off her shoulder, turning to Shaille, "Absolutely not! The TR-116, though, outside of the holographic dial-a-shot function was pretty useless, even if you put a ten round magazine of regular shells in it. Go through them too fast in a real situation and that special round? Absolutely situational against stationary targets or if you know where your target is at a specific time." She shrugged, "Give me my girl here anyday of the week."

With a laugh, Shaille shook her head. "Hey, I never said anything about practicality, just the ability to tuck it away in my quarters would have been more than enough, unfortunately the prototype run was too small and they're all highly accounted for, but oh well." She grinned. "Lieutenant Shaille Levine, Tactical."

"Major Hailey Weston, Marines." She said with a smile, "And if you really want to play with one on board, I have one in our armory, pulled a couple strings to train our team sniper on it."

Shaille's eyes widened. "Seriously? How on earth did you pull that off?" she asked incredulously. "I've seen one demo'd but never actually got close enough to play." She screwed up her face. "That particular privilege was saved for the higher ups... most of them wouldn't know a damned rifle from a chicken drumstick!"

"Ain't that the truth." Hailey sniggered, "I just happen to know some people.Comes with the territory of the Raider community. Plus, my father is commanding general of the Third Marine Division, so that also helps!"

"Aaaahhhh, well, that helps to explain a lot, you just have the right connections." Shaille grinned. "So you're definitely a good person to get to know better, and definitely not someone to piss off I'm guessing."

"Well, I know a few people who have pissed me off." Hailey gave a very feral grin, "Those who survived..." She trailed off with a wink, "It's always good to be on my good side, but it really is remarkably easy to do that!'

Shaille laughed in response. "It's always good to be on the good side of someone who is well connected, especially when it comes to disposing of the bodies. So what other weaponry is there on this ship to play with? I'm assuming you have all the really good stuff locked away from the rest of the ship?"

"Yeah, you could say that. No really heavy arty, a couple heavy repeaters, grenades of all shapes and sizes, shaped charges, explosives out our asses, RPGs, all that sorta stuff." Hailey chuckled, "All the stuff you'd find in the hands of a special operations unit."

"Now I think I am definitely going to have to arrange a play date," Shaille replied with a grin. "So many new toys!"

"Good, fun toys." Hailey smiled, "But if you'd like?" She hefted her rifle slightly, in a suggestive motion.

Shaille's eyes widened. "No way," she said quickly with a shake of her head. "Two things you never put your hands on, another woman's man and her rifle!"

"Without their permission." Hailey completed, "I always have found knowing your friends's weapons is a good practice. Never know when you're without your own but theirs is there. Better to know how to shoot it." She shrugged, "But that's all right," She flipped the safety off and with a smirk, depressed a button next to the trigger and a small sphere ejected downrange, where her weapon had been pointed the entire time, not hitting a target, but exploding anyways, "I guess you can't play with the grenade launcher then."

"Daaaaaaaamn...." Shaille breathed appreciatively. "That thing is insane! What's the range on the grenade launcher like? Rapid fire? Damage capabilities?"

"Max range is five hundred meters at optimum angle, laser guided, five round magazine and the fastest effective fire, one per second. If you're just saturating one spot, as fast as you can push the button. And damage? It depends on the grenade type used, what sort of explosive, etcetera." Hailey explained, "I've got a sixty-round magazine for slugs with various subtypes, of course, and a compressed energy magazine for the pulse phaser rounds, another eighty-odd shots for it."

"Impressive, very impressive," Shaille replied. "That is a serious piece of art... You know your stuff, I'll give you that much..."

"I would hope so, but this isn't a piece of art. I don't know how many operations I've taken her on, but she's a veteran of her own accord." Hailey shook her head, "Perhaps I wasn't clear... Outside of a couple years at the Academy, I've been a part of Raider SpecOps teams for just about a decade. It's not that I know my stuff, it's more along the lines of 'been there, done that, seen what mistakes bring'."

Shaille shrugged slightly. "I just tell it as I see it..." she said easily. "For everyone out there like you that claims to have 'been there done that' there's another who missed that particular memo. Tactical isn't exactly SpecOps, but you'd be surprised how often you come across 'veteran' officers who even after a decade or more in the field still can't rightly tell one end of a phaser rifle from the other."

"Or brass who last were out even visiting a field unit over a decade ago, but are 'experts' in operational maneuvers and personal combat skills?" Hailey nodded, "If it would make you feel better about my competency... What challenge would you like to make? Any at all." Her grin grew manic.

With a shake of her head, Shaille laughed. "Not a chance... I'm just a Fleet tactical officer, but I am also quite confident that you'd whip my ass with anything!"

"Groundwise, sure, but for space crap... Clueless, or at least semi-clyeless and I'm the Two-Ex-Oh around here... I'm trying to learn what I can, but well..." Hailey shrugged.

"The space stuff isn't that hard, for the most part we have computers that tell us what we need to do. Not really difficult or challenging." Shaille shook her head again. "The last ship I was on, there were a few of us that lived for the away missions, but I'm going to guess that we won't have a whole lot of that coming up given this ship has a full marine detachment. Thank the Gods for the holodecks, huh?" She laughed.

"Full detachment?" Hailey snorted in laughter, "A Sovereign should by all rights have a Company. When I got here, it had a mostly full Platoon and well... Our high and mighty unit has, counting me, thirteen Marines." She couldn't help but laugh, "I'm trying to swap out a bunch of our newbies for veterans I know, just to try to make us hit heavier than our numbers, but no, we have fewer than ten percent of what we should have and the Generals of Personnel have made it known we aren't getting reinforced, not after what happened here."

"I guess you can't blame them for being concerned," Shaille replied quietly. "We're kind of out here on our own, there isn't exactly a strong Fleet presence in the Delta Quadrant, and there's very little in the way of oversight. We're a risk, especially after everything that happened. I imagine the last thing they want is a Fleet vessel going rogue all the way out here." She shrugged slightly. "Though could you imagine the fun we could have if it did?" she finished with a grin.

The look on Hailey's face froze. The contemplation of going rogue and against the Federation's desired direction was anathema, even to the border of horrifying to her. "No." She said definitely, "It would not be fun." The tone had no give to it, "And they don't want a ship going rogue, but I still feel we need a full detachment.' Her voice eased up slightly.

Shaille raised one eyebrow, her mouth quirking slightly. So, clearly, the concept of a joke was lost on this particular marine. "Relax Major," She finally replied. "It was a joke, you know, ha ha, funny? The thing that is said to lighten the mood because it's least likely to happen?"

"Given what just happened? It isn't likely to happen, but apparently not the least likely. And it's something I don't joke about." Hailey forced a smile, "But, I'll keep that in mind. Sorry, it was not a fun experience."

"Everyone deals in their own different ways," Shaille replied easily. "No way is going to be wrong or right, anyway, it's been grand chatting with you Major, but I should probably get back to Security, now that we're away from the Station it's a little different."

"Oh, it is." Hailey smiled as she made sure her safety was on, then unloading and clearing her weapon, "But, perhaps I should be the one heading out? After all, you still haven't done any of your shooting and personally, I find it relaxing."

With a shrug, Shaille smiled easily. "I can come back later, when it's a little less crazy, it doesn't make that much difference for me. I'm not on a time crunch."

"Up to you!" Hailey's mood was back to genial and... Even somewhat friendly, "But if you need me for pretty much anything, just let me know."

OFF:
Major Hailey Weston
Second Officer / Marine CO
USS Wellington

Lieutenant Shaille Levine
Tactical Officer
USS Wellington