Three Square Meals Ch. 040

"Smart thinking," John said, nodding approvingly.

The girls moved up into position on the firing range, and checked their weapons one last time before giving John the thumbs up.

Alyssa turned to face Jade, and beckoned her over.

*Careful,* John thought to her immediately, worried that any suggestion that the Nymph try using a weapon might set her off.

*It's okay, she's just going to be in charge of the targets,* Alyssa replied soothingly.

"Now Jade, will you be our beautiful assistant for this demonstration?" Alyssa asked her sweetly.

Jade nodded eagerly, and then walked over to join them. "What do I have to do?" she asked curiously.

"Just stand by the target control panel by the wall, and then randomly hit one of those ten buttons that Dana has rigged up. I'll tell you telepathically every time I want you to hit a button," Alyssa explained calmly.

"No problem!" Jade replied, and stood poised by the panel.

John walked up to the firing range, and looked out down the lanes, his anticipation building for what they were going to show him.

"Okay, go!" Alyssa called out for his benefit, and four target dummies appeared at differing distances and locations along the range.

"Brrt!" the four assault rifles chattered simultaneously, as each girl fired a three round burst at her target.

With a quick few glances, John looked at each of the four targets and saw that they had all been hit by the three rounds. The more intriguing thing however, was that two of the targets had appeared in Alyssa's lane on the left, and yet each girl had clearly been designated, and then hit, her own target dummy.

Ten seconds later, the targets disappeared before another four reappeared, and a heartbeat after that, the four rifles chattered in sync and all four were hit squarely. This time there were three targets at differing distances in Dana's lane, one crouching, another slightly to the left, and the last dropping from the ceiling. Yet, just as before, every single one was hit a moment after they appeared.

They began to speed up, with the target dummy groups coming more quickly now, until they were a blur of reappearing and disappearing target silhouettes. Each set was mown down by the instant responses from the deadly fire team, with flawless and silent coordination between them. They only paused briefly to reload their magazines before the indiscriminate slaughter of target dummies began once again.

There were a couple of slipups that marred an otherwise astounding display of target allocation and execution, but it was still staggering nonetheless. When the firing ceased and they were obviously done, he applauded them loudly.

"Bravo, girls, that was the craziest team shooting I've ever seen!" he said approvingly.

Rachel pulled off her helmet, letting her long tawny brown hair fall down around her shoulders, and he could immediately see she looked unhappy.

"I'm so sorry! I screwed up a few times, and messed it up for you girls," she said with chagrin.

Alyssa removed her helmet and put it aside, along with her rifle, before placing a reassuring hand on the upset girl's shoulder. "Don't feel bad," she said comfortingly. "That's the first time you've tried following my telepathic commands, and it's going to take a little getting used to."

"You still hit 96 out of your 100 designated targets!" Calara said proudly.

John nodded his immediate agreement. "You only started shooting two weeks ago. To have become this good so fast is astonishing," he said, as he walked over to her and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Thanks guys," Rachel said, looking relieved.

John turned to the rest of them, and nodded appreciatively. He then said, "You girls have done a spectacular job with your training, thank you for taking it so seriously. I almost feel sorry for the poor bastard who tries to board us next time."

Calara and Dana removed their helmets and beamed happy grins at him, revelling in his praise of their efforts to improve their marksmanship and teamwork.

"Want to try us out?" Alyssa asked him coyly. "This pride of lionesses need their lion after all."

"You bet your pert little ass I do!" John said with a grin, and he strode over to the weapon rack to pick up a spare XR75 rifle.

John grabbed a couple of caseless ammo clips, and tucked them into his belt, before slamming the third clip home into the bullpup magazine slot. He walked back to join them, taking one of the shooting lanes in the middle, and the girls fanned out so that he was flanked by two on either side of him.

"So how do I coordinate with you girls?" he asked them eagerly.

"Just pick your target, and we'll adapt accordingly," Alyssa told him confidently. "If you want any one of us to specifically aim for any particular target, just think it, and I'll pass on the information."

John nodded his understanding, and then adopted a firing position. The girls had put aside their helmets, but they all reloaded the magazines on the rifles so they were ready to go.

Alyssa turned to Jade and grinned at her. "You get the idea now. Just hit buttons as fast as you like, two at a time if you want, and we'll see how we do. Sound good?" she asked her eagerly.

Jade nodded enthusiastically with her hands poised over the buttons.

"Okay, go!" Alyssa called out in her lovely clear voice, and the coordination test began in earnest.

Jade started them off slowly, to make sure that John working with them wouldn't cause a problem. He picked his target and fired, and a split-second later, the four girls would each send three rounds slamming into target dummies. They had no problem with the initial slow pace, so she started pushing the buttons faster and faster, with dummies appearing then getting rocked by caseless rounds a second later.

John just focused on sighting on one target at a time, then moving on to two as the frequency increased, and finally moving on to calling out three targets in his mind at a time. The girls worked around him seamlessly, avoiding his targets and shooting the others to bits in flawless coordination. They went through all three clips before he raised his hand to signify he was out of ammo.

"Holy shit!" he exclaimed in genuine astonishment, his heart pumping after the excitement of the intense shooting. "I've never even heard of that kind of instant target allocation being possible for fire teams before, and certainly not with such unerringly perfection. You girls made it seem effortless!"

He replaced his assault rifle on the rack, checked the safety, and then walked back to join them, before bowing his head deeply to them all. "You continue to amaze and impress me as always girls, thank you for an incredible demonstration," he said, his voice full of respect, feeling touched at all the hard work they had put into this.

The girls looked delighted at such a positive reaction from him, and they eagerly high-fived each other, with the echoing clang of Alyssium armour plated gauntlets crashing into one another. The only one who wasn't celebrating enthusiastically was Jade, who stood aside, looking a little forlorn.

John noticed the fifth member of his group of girls looking sad and left out, so he went over to put an arm around the Nymph's shoulders, and leaned down to plant a comforting kiss on her dark green cheek. He watched the other four girls celebrating with a broad smile, and let them enjoy a long, well-earned moment of self-congratulation with each other. When they had all settled down and were smiling at him happily. He backed away from Jade, to give her plenty of space.

"Jade, why don't you show Rachel why you don't need to use firearms?" he coaxed her gently.

The Nymph's face lit up into a sparkling smile, her sadness disappearing like clouds evaporating before a glorious summer's day. She nodded at him eagerly, and her body shimmered in a dark green haze. Just like that, she was gone, and a massive nine-hundred pound green tiger appeared in her place.

"Holy fuck!" Rachel swore in a shocked voice, her eyes as round as saucers.