Eden's Hammer - By Lloyd Tackitt Page 0,29
you with their lives, and they want to believe—have to believe—that you can be trusted; that you won’t do something stupid that will get them killed without reason. They’ll be watching you like a hawk in this training phase, and if you don’t act the part, they’ll get scared and won’t fight half as well. If you have to, fake complete confidence for their benefit.” Adrian didn’t add that he was doing the same.
Adrian took two steps back and snapped a salute to Linda, turned on his heel, and marched back over to the men. She watched him walk away with mixed feelings of doubt and confidence. She knew his advice was right; she would have to hide her doubts from her troops.
CHAPTER 8
MARCH 10, LATE AFTERNOON
ADRIAN HAD SPENT SEVERAL HOURS with Linda’s troops setting up a basic training regimen. He gave her a sheet of paper with the training plan he wanted her to carry out with the understanding that she could change it as she saw fit. Linda also watched the men training and realized quickly that there was little difference between the two regimens. The men spent more time on attack tactics than the women, who spent more time on defensive tactics. Given their respective assignments, it made sense.
Linda had chosen her second in command, Shirley—Sarah’s daughter—based on observation. Shirley was aggressive and confident, taking to the drills as though it were second nature to her.
Linda explained to Shirley, “The most important skill we can learn right now is firearms competence. Each person has to be able to use their weapon with enough skill that they can hit a man at a hundred yards. So we’ll spend enough time practicing to make that happen. First, we run them through the basics of shooting without ammunition. Dry firing because we need to conserve ammunition. After they have the basics down solidly, they’ll be issued twenty live rounds to sight in and to practice with. If they can’t make it with those twenty rounds, they’ll be washed out. Better to not have incompetent shooters when the time comes than to waste ammunition.”
After several hours of basic rifle and shooting instructions, Linda had a fair idea of who would be successful, and only four or five women that she didn’t expect to make the cut. Those women would become field medics, given different training from Jennifer’s medical group.
On the firing line, Linda shouted, “Remember BRASS: Breathe in and let half your breath back out and hold half in your lungs; Relax your major muscle groups, as tense muscles will cause you to miss; Aim by picking a small portion of the target you want to hit, aim for a button if you can see one, or choose the center of the largest part of the target, and do not aim at the whole target; your Sight picture should be the alignment of three things, the rear sight will be aligned correctly with the front sight, and the target point you have chosen will be directly above and sitting on top of the front sight; and Squeeze the trigger slowly while maintaining your sight picture until the rifle fires. If you do it correctly, you’ll be somewhat surprised when the rifle does fire. If you jerk the trigger, you will pull the rifle off of the target and waste the shot.
“Then put another round in the chamber unless you’re using a semi-automatic rifle, acquire another target, and repeat the process. It is critical that you do not rush or get panicked. Slow, consistent, accurate fire is far more effective than slinging bullets and hoping for the best. You’ll be under intense pressure—worse than anything you’ve ever experienced in your life—when they’re coming at you shooting. Your adrenaline will be pumping, your mind will be panicky, and your fine motor skills will be out the window. In the heat of battle, you may develop tunnel vision. Presence of mind is what will kill the bastards; the bullet you send will be the agent of your presence of mind. How accurate and deadly you are is a direct result of remaining calm and following a sound shooting procedure. Remaining calm and following procedure is the most powerful weapon you have. Any questions before we commence the dry firing exercise?”
One hand went up. “Yes? Your question?”
One of the women stood and said, “I’ve heard that dry firing can damage a gun, is that not true?”
Linda replied, “That’s a good question. Sometimes, yes, it will,