Guns and Dolls

[runmakitarun]

Makita is set up on the outdoor range. The RKG-41 is a bulky weapon. It's designed to survive a lot of abuse, and she's used it to beat people with before.

It also kicks like a mule. Makita's lack of expertise with the thing is pretty evident as she keeps shifting her stance trying to compensate. That and the merely mediocre aim she seems to have with the weapon.

There is an open case of 10mm ammunition on the ground nearby and an awful lot of spent shell casings around her feet. Her frown is a mixture of concentration and frustration. Too many of her shots are missing the target.

Comments

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

It takes less than a minute for Makita to secure and re-holster all her weapons, toss the boxes of ammunition into a duffel bag, and swing the bag over her shoulder to follow Goldy.

"You have your own practice area?"

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

"Of course," Goldy confirms, throwing a good-natured duh face over her shoulder at Makita. "It was one of the first things I sought out when I arrived here."

She pushes her way through some conifer boughs, onto an inconspicuous and fairly overgrown trail.

"The common area is far too small and far too public. One can't properly practice distance shooting with every Tom, Dick and Harry prone to wandering across your line of fire."

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

"That makes sense. And there's not really space out there anyway, at least not marked off."

Makita follows closely, and she's not exactly quiet. Forests aren't a terrain type she's all that familiar with. "Do other people know about it?"

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

It's darker under the thick canopy of leaves. The mulchy trail winds around tree trunks of all girths and age, and bushes that are thick with new annual growth.

"It's secluded, but it's no great secret," Goldy replies, shrugging. "I've shown it to a few people: Miho, Jadis, Starbuck, Alanna. And I dare say others stumble onto it from time to time."

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

Makita dodges a branch and nods, "How much can you teach me?"

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

"I can get you the basics today," Goldy reveals, "and get you working out of the prone position. You're obviously no stranger to guns, so it shouldn't be too arduous of a learning curve."

"After that, you're welcome to use my area to practice and work at the discipline elements, if you can find a gun." Implicit in the statement is the fact that Goldy doesn't loan out her own weapons unless she's present. "I'm happy to spend some time with you each week, to get you firing out of other stances, at different ranges and elevations, with different wind speeds and directions. And we'll deal with moving targets too."

"I will also need to verse you in the physics of ballistics, and show you how to perform the normal range finding and compensatory calculations on paper. You'll need to practice them until you can do them in your head. Without the math to back it up, a good eye and a steady hand aren't worth shit."

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

Makita listens carefully. It's something she does well.

There's a frown of concentration on her face, "That sounds a lot more complicated than fighting up close." Which is only true because Makita does that almost instinctively.

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

"Yes," Goldy agrees as she continues along the wandering path. "Marksmanship is a pretty specialized skill. But it's also a very effective method of killing, so the learning effort is definitely worthwhile."

"There are aspects I can't actually teach you," she confesses, "such as how to accurately gauge distance, elevation and environmental factors. But there are tools one can use to help with that: laser range finders, portable wind speed indicators and the like."

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Makita nods, "I've seen some of the gear Yarka carries. Maybe I can ask him where he got it."

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

Goldy gives her a slightly blank look.

"Yarka being... a sniper friend of yours?"

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

"Don't really like him, but he's good. Does his job."

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

Goldy doubts that he's as good as her, though she doesn't voice it.

"Fair enough. Not everyone can be great at what they do and likable with it."

She drops Makita a little wink.

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

Makita snorts in amusement and grins. "He's stingy," she shrugs, "Doesn't like to use his ammunition on 'minor targets'."

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

"Snipers can be elitist like that sometimes," Goldy concedes. "Don't like to get their hands dirty with grunt work."

"Me? I'll drop anything deemed as hostile as long as it doesn't compromise the elimination of a more pivotal or mission critical target."

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

"That's an attitude I can appreciate."

Out of habit she reaches down with her free hand and touches her pistols just to make sure they're still loose in their holsters.

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

Goldy offers an agreeable nod.

After a few more paces, she veers off the beaten path and pushes her way through a thicket of elderberry bushes.

"We're here," she announces.

Beyond the brush lies a natural clearing—a long, fairly narrow stretch of calf-high grass, weeds and wild flowers, lined and butted by a wall of trees.

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

Makita looks around, taking in the terrain automatically. She glances at Goldy then back out over the clearing.

"What do you need me to do?"

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

Goldy tramps over to a mossy log that lies in the grass nearby, and gives it a kick.

"Set yourself up behind this to start with. I'm going to pin targets up on the trees at the far end."

And off she heads to do just that.

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

Dropping to one knee, Makita swings the bag from her shoulder and pulls out a box of ammunition and a couple of magazines. She darts quick glances up to keep track of Goldy as she checks her carbine again.

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

Dropping to one knee behind the indicated piece of cover, Makita swings her duffel bag from one shoulder. She then looks over Goldy's rifle, noting the differences between it and the equipment she's familiar with from back home. Every second or so she darts a look up to make sure she knows where Goldy is.

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

Goldy affixes some medium-sized paper target rings at various heights on the already-peppered trunks of several trees at the other end of the grassy reach. She then ambles back to Makita's position, props the RKG against the log and hunkers down.

"Okay," she says, "we're set down there."

"Get comfortable and take a first look through the scope."

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

It takes a few attempts for Makita to settle into a position that doesn't have her tense, but eventually she finds one that's workable. She leans forward and puts her eye right up against the scope to peer through it.

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

The view is going to be pretty... black.

"You might want to take the caps off first," Goldy deadpans.

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

Makita leans back from the scope and turns to grin sheepishly at Goldy before sliding the cap from the eyepiece. She starts to lean in, then remembers to slide the cap from the other end of the scope as well.

This time when she rests her eye against the scope she can actually see through it.

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

"Alright. Now focus it using the wheel closest to you, and aim it at one of the targets," Goldy instructs.

The sight is 3-9x40 with a 6 mil-dot reticle. Goldy pauses until Makita seems ready.

"Now, the posts and little dots on the crosswire can be used to estimate the range to objects of known size, or to estimate the size of objects at known distances. For example: at this magnification, the distance between each dot is approximately one inch at one hundred yards. There are fourteen intervals there, and the targets are fourteen inches in diameter, so how far away are they?"

Goldy knows that the targets will be stretching from post to post, since she's used this set up herself on numerous occasions. She looks at Makita expectantly, waiting for her to complete the facile mental calculation.