Ariel returned to her starting position, bewildered.
James pointed to the doorway "Number 31, what is your objective of doing a step centre?"
"Sir," said Ariel, "first is to give myself a quick sight of the room, so I can decide if we are entering or not. If the situation is undesirable, we can back off and try something else, instead of all of us dying."
Ariel paused, thinking more. "Secondly, open fire on threats that I can engage who are in the centre of the path, this helps us to clear an immediate threat, this helps when we are in a dynamic entry scenario where we don't have time to do pieing, say there is a time sensitive target."
"Bravo," commended James. "So, what is the risk involved for you as the point man?"
"I will be in the fatal funnel," said Ariel.
"So, are you prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for your comrades and risk being shot?" asked James.
"Yes sir," replied Ariel without hesitation, true to her sweet girl reputation.
James chuckled, "I knew you were a cinnamon roll, but fortunately for you, you don't have to die."
James prepared his URGI rifle, entering the room using the same path as Ariel, and step centre, but his movement is more fluid and less rigid.
"You don't want to literally stop in the door way in step-centre," coached James. "Remember, a step-centre cannot be a stop-centre."
He went on to explain how this would allow her to either keep her momentum moving in, allowing her to keep her forward push on the hostiles, or pull back fast enough.
"Also, mind if you demonstrate again what you did when you entered the room?" he asked, turning around to face Ariel straight away.
Ariel did it again. James immediately ran forward, pushing her down.
"You are leaning too far back when you pull your gun back," he coached. "If someone were to run into you, say a panicked civilian or worse, an enemy, there is high chance you will either be stalled at doorway, impeding your assault, or worse, pushed down," he said, helping Ariel up.
He then took her position, and showed the correct posture, asking Ariel to do what he did earlier. Ariel then also charged at James quickly, only to be instantly pushed aside by James's aggressive forward push.
Ariel nodded, understanding her mistake. Under James' watchful eye, she executed the motion again, this time moving in correctly, pushing forward. The other 3 cadets followed suit.
Soon, the 4 of them arrived at another doorway. This door is bigger than the previous one, a larger door allowing 2 people to enter at the same time.
Nanami watched the 4 with a smiling grin, looking at them taking a typical buttoning method of entering the room: Ariel entering from the left side of the room, moving to the left, while Clara entered from the right, moving to the right Giorgio and Louis followed suit in the same order, this allows them to move in through a larger doorway while keeping their backs covered by each other.
"Faster darlings faster!" yelled Nanami, the 4 ran faster, moving into the rooms, where now targets started popping up. Ariel fired on a target downing it, Clara quickly moved to the left, opening fire on the next one that popped up next.
Louis however missed his next shot, the bullet landing next to the target, barely causing any damage, grunting, he quickly followed up a shot again. Next to him is Giorgio, whose main issue is not accurate shot placement, but rather he is not following fast enough, not able to catch the targets as they appeared.
"Number 92, you need to be faster," coached James patiently.
Soon the 4 finished the kill house, the 4 stepping out, all sweaty and worn-out, removing their high-cut FAST helmets, with a high-cut ECH for Louis, and a Mehler H2S helmet with a ballistic visor capable of stopping shrapnel and small arms, perfect for Ariel's role as the point man, or point girl if you will, pouring sweat on the floor.
"Next 4, ready!" said James.
Sean, Carl, Erika and Albert readied themselves, moving in…
(An hour later)
"Not bad," smiled James. "You all did quite well, some mistakes and unproficiencies were made and noted, and you all quickly corrected them."
The 20 cadets looked at each other proudly, things really seemed different for them at the ATC stage, the instructors are behaving like saints and coaches now, gently handholding and guiding them on, a far cry away from the brutal drill masters they had gotten used to in the previous 1-month long selection phase.
All except for Sean, who kept himself on his toes, his instinct as a veteran kicking in, clearly sensing that something is amiss. He turned around, and true enough, Albert "trust no one" Cheung is looking at him with a half smirk, signalling that he too, shares his worries.
"Now everyone had at least a go, shall we go again? Everyone more confident and we speed things up?" asked James with a smile, showing all of his pearly whites.
"SIR, YES, SIR!" yelled the cadets in unison.
"Alright," grinned Nanami, picking out Erika, Giorgio, and 2 other cadets. "First 4 stand-by!"
"Go!"
The 4 moved into the kill-house, soon a series of loud gunshots were heard as the 4 cadets mowed their way through the targets, hitting them left and right. Very soon, they exited from the kill-house, all smiling smugly.
Erika checked her SG-553 rifle, removing the magazine and pulling the charging handle back, then pulled the trigger, releasing the spring and then engaged the safety, letting her rifle, which is fitted with a 4x Trijicon ACOG sight with an upper Trijicon RMR red dot sight, a PEQ-15 laser, a foregrip and a weapon light, to rest against her Crye JPC plate carrier.
Giorgio too, is ecstatic, still holding his HK-416A5, fitted the same way as Carl's, albeit with a single Eotech EXPS holographic sight as opposed to Carl's Eotech EXPS + magnifier combo.
"That was fun," she smirked, calmly stretching her body, "went in guns blazing, those punks didn't stand a chance," she grinned.
James threw an amused smirk at them, and asked if the other 2 feel the same. The 2 readily nodded along, clearing their guns as well.
James' expression turned cold.
"One more f***ing time, all of you clowns are out," he scolded. Amid the confused and shocked expressions of the cadets, he pointed to the target boards now rolling out, tethered to poles placed on small, discal, Roomba like robots.
The 4's hearts sank upon realising what was wrong:
None of the targets were armed. Some of them looked like they were holding guns, but in reality, they were holding something else completely harmless, like a water bottle, or even empty handed, just posed like they are holding guns.
And all of them have bullet holes on them – head, chest, neck, torso.
Nanami looked amusingly at one target board of an African woman holding a water bottle like a gun. "Her head" was literally obliterated by bullets that were made by 4 different firearms, only a piece of her "face" remain hanging, draping off the rest of the target board, flopping in the air like an accusatory flailing of the arm – an indictment at the cruelty of her "attackers".
"On the bright side," mused Nanami with a kind of grim, punchy irony only veterans that have seen and dealt death and violence can deliver. "This pretty lady can never feel thirsty again, great job!"
Erika, Giorgio, and the other 2 cadets lowered their faces in shame, unable to bear the reality of what they have done. If this was a real mission, they just executed so much civilians with such quick efficiency that even Vanguard terrorists will call them talented.
"Now that's a kill-house," remarked Sean.
"Wrong time bro," whispered Louis.
"Sorry," apologised Sean.
"Are you all going to remember this lesson?" asked James sternly.
"Yes, sir", replied all of the cadets grimly.
"Never shoot an unarmed target," chided Nanami. "Make sure you pause before pulling the trigger, just like how a lady should always pause before going the next step with her betrothed."
That was not the ending of the endless shenanigans that the instructors threw at the cadets, really emphasising the high stress reality and chaos of CQB:
"Breaching!" yelled Albert, MP5A5 raised, the laser on his Steiner CQBL illuminating the target in front of him as he ran into the room — an automated motion sensing turret with a machine gun turning towards him.
A buzzing burst of simunation bullets later, Albert is on the floor, his JPC plate carrier and FAST high cut helmet giving off yellow smoke, and he lay on the ground, convulsing from the non-lethal but painful impact of the bullets.
"HELP PLEASE, MY GIRLFRIEND IS THAT WAY!!" screamed an instructor acting as a hostage, desperately clinging onto Clara, who is trying to clear the room.
"CALM DOWN AND GET OFF ME!!" yelled Clara, agitated, using the butt of her rifle stock to smash the instructor off, and in the chaos, an instructor playing a terrorist appeared, "killing" them both.
Giorgio and Carl approached the kill-house, HK-416A5s raised, seeing a man ran out, flailing his arms wildly.
"CONTACT!" yelled Carl, opening fire, gunning the man down as yellow smoke rose from him.
"WHAT THE HELL MAN, HE AIN'T ARMED!" exclaimed Giorgio.
Carl calmly picked the man up, unzipping his jacket to reveal a bomb vest.
"Oh," said Giorgio, then he realised that there is a timer on the bomb vest.
Before he can warn Carl, a bright flash and a loud bang consumed the 2. When both finally regained their sense of sight and hearing, they are staring at each other, yellow smoke rising from their bodies.
"FYI," said the instructor role playing as the suicide bomber. "Who said suicide bombers can't use a time controlled bomb?"
Eddie moved into a room, left hand holding a shield, right had raising his FNP90, using the Steiner CQBL laser on it to passively aim.
Then out of nowhere from a place of cluttered junk, an axe came swinging out, smashing into his shield, catching Eddie by surprise as the Inari instructor posing as a terrorist brutally smashed it against him, channelling Cosmic Energy into the axe to increase, the impact, literally generating outbursts of energy as it hit Eddie. Paralysed by fear and the suddenness of the ambush, Eddie is pushed down, firing his P90 erratically.
"BANG! BANG! BANG!" a quick flurry of shots erupted behind Eddie as Louis panickily fired his HK-416A5, and soon, yellow rose out of the instructor, and Eddie.
"Sorry," apologised Louis profusely at his friendly firing.
"Yeah…don't fret it…" muttered Eddie as he still lay "dead" on the floor, not recovered from the stress and shock, and the pain of being peppered with simunation rounds.