Shattered super-soldier

“So, so I just press this?”

“Hmm… Not exactly, if you just press it you can end up jerking the trigger which shifts your aim off target, you want to keep your target lined up and slowly squeeze the trigger until the gun fires”

“Hmm… That, that sounds strange…”

“Yeah, I was told it has to do with building a habit to prioritize aiming over getting the shot off and if you make a habit of jerking the trigger it can be very hard to get rid of it, once that has been committed to muscle memory one can start to shave target acquisition time off”

“But, but I don’t have muscles that hold memory?”

Matthew nodded and showed a thin smile

“That’s true, but you do have habits, like how you generally shift your line of sight in the same direction as I do when there's a lull in our chats”

Alina froze for a few moments before she spoke in what sounded like a fluster to Matthew

“I-Is that, that so?”

Having figured out she was embarrassed but acting too dense to figure out why, Matthew changed to topic back to the task on hand, teaching Alina how to fire the coil rifle in her arms

“Alright, so the reason I am teaching you this stuff when you could just have Aea download a targeting algorithm and weapon handling program onto your body is because while these things are good, they aren’t all-mighty and tend to mess up when faced with unexpected situations, when you need them the most”

Alina nodded, she didn’t want to take the easy path either, though her motivations were a lot purer than Matthew expected

‘When Matthew teaches me, I get to spend more time with listening to him talk’

Unaware of Alina’s motivations, Matthew continued teaching her how to handle the coil rifle, the two had found themselves with some free time on the current day, the 9th day since establishing the basecamp had arrived and the ground penetrating radar had finished construction and the medium caliber rail gun turret was a few hours away from completion, things were moving along smoothly and so Matthew had declared a half day break which Alina had insisted he teach her how to handle a coil rifle

“Alright now bring your cheek in to rest on the rifle and line up the forwards and back sights in your sight, keep both eyes open to not lose sight of your surroundings, then after you spot your target and line it up you can put your finger on the trigger and slowly squeeze it”

Alina followed Matthew's instructions and silently lined up her sight and squeezed the trigger until an internal speak made a loud click sound out

“Great, that was a good first dry fire, if I were to nitpick one thing it would be that you still jerked the trigger somewhat which brought you off target as you fired”

Alina nodded, she understood that Matthew’s focus on safety by practicing with a weapon that wasn’t loaded from his apparent experience as an instructor, but it still made her feel a little funny inside when he had stated he didn’t want her to get hurt

“...Got, got it”

“Alright, let's run it from the top again”

Matthew guided Alina though the multiple step process of proving a weapon clear as he went over each part’s function before he moved onto fire and voltage selection then firing positions and posture and had her line up another shot again before slowly squeezing the trigger once more

“Great, you are improving fast”

Alina nodded before she asked Matthew

“What is the, the difference between your coil rifle and this, this one?”

The coil rifle Alina was using to practice was the one Matthew had made first, only all the things Aea had originally shaved off to save material had been added to it which included a heat sink, a passive cooler and the electromagnets shielding, along with the 4 stack 4mm magazine which held 60 rounds the thing looked mostly like an assault rifle with the only notable difference being the 33cl soda can size capacitor being mounted directly on the bottom of the hand guard right in front of the magazine and the lack of any bolt which wasn't needed since the coil rifle fired caseless ammunition, one could of cause also point out the electromagnets which looked like small lumps on the four side all along the barrel that were partially hidden by the hand guard

But still it looked mostly like a modern assault rifle, in comparison Matthew’s coil rifle looked more than a little different

“Oh, you mean this one?”

Matthew took the coil rifle off his back where it was magnetically locked in place showed it to Alina, the best description of the overall shape would be a lever action rifle, this included the lever behind the trigger too, but it also featured an ejection port along with 2 capacitors locked inside the stock and a 3rd located under the fore stock, along with magazine placed half on what would be the receiver and half on the fore stock right behind the 3rd capacitor the coil rifle looked nothing like the one Alina was using

“It’s because it is a different model than the one you are using, this is a high caliber coil rifle, it shoots 60mm rounds, I think it was originally a sports rifle, right Aea?”

[Affirmative, the schematic in my internal database shows as much, the original was a low voltage 2mm rifle which could be cranked to charge the capacitor via the lever]

“Right, my memory is still a little fuzzy on the technicalities, but this is a highly specialized coil rifle with many unique quirks while the one I have you training on is as basic as it gets, when you become familiar with the basic one you will be able to operate this one with a decent level of proficiency too”

Alina nodded and looked at her coil rifle, then at Matthew’s and asked

“But, but why have different types?”

Matthew thought for a few moments before he pointed to the fire selector of Alina’s rifle

“Right now your rifle is set to low power, I was originally going to go over this doing practical moving and shooting training but most coil rifles have a automatic rangefinder which sets the voltage of the rounds automatically, this makes the charge on the capacitor last as long as possible, but it also have a few downsides”

“Like what..?”

“Advanced sensors can pick up the laser that most coil rifles uses as rangefinders which means suddenly your enemy knows you are aiming at them, combine this was active shielding and a somewhat competent combat A. I. and now all your shots are getting perfectly blocked using minimal energy, in comparison my 60mm has no rangerfinder and I can manually fine-tune the voltage”

“Then why don’t you, you just use maximum voltage every, every shot if you don’t have to worry about power?”

Matthew nodded and considered Alina’s question for a few moments before he spoke

“Well, that puts extra strain on the whole system and sometimes you have to worry about overpenetration, you wouldn’t want your round to go straight through your target, the building behind him and the next one before hitting a civilian”

Alina nodded and asked another question

“Then why, why does it shoot a larger round… Doesn’t that, that use more energy?”

Matthew nodded

“Yep it does, but with the bigger rounds come more stopping power and room for different ammunition options, some of which can be specialized for different targets and work differently with different voltage”

Matthew pulled the lever down and slightly to the left before snapping it up which loaded a round he removed by cycling the ejection port and showed it to Alina

“This is a sub caliber round, it is basically the same caseless 2mm round your rifle fires, but by overcharging the voltage this projectile can almost reach hypersonic velocity and go through pretty much all armor at any visible range”

Alina nodded and Matthew fed the round back into the magazine before he selected another round to be loaded and ejected it to show it to Alina

“This a normal 60mm slug, it's pure metal and due to the increase in mass it is the opposite of the last round, it travels slower, thought it is still supersonic, but it packs a larger punch, in the further when our industrial output increases we will be able to make incendiary and explosive rounds for the 60mm too”

Alina nodded and thought over what Matthew had told her for a few moments before she asked

“Are, are we really going to need that?”

Matthew shrugged and voiced his simple military man reasoning

“It’s always good to have options, whether that is being able to penetrate a meter of reinforced steel or depositing enough kinetic energy to completely liquify a person on a single impact”

-

Alina nodded and continued to follow Matthew’s instructions while learning more about the craft he had spent his life perfecting while she communicated with Aea on the side

‘Bring up the origin of the schematic’

[Which schematic, mistress?]

‘Of Matthew’s coil rifle’

[Origin schematic patent registered filled in intergalactic court of patterns on new uniform standardized age 1103 by count Eirmal planetary administrator of Eirmal IV]

‘... A planetary administrator? So he rules a planet?’

[Affirmative, the Trerubic empire delegates administrative roles to nobility in much the same way as a feudal society on this planet]

‘...Hmm, so what was the intended purpose? Was it really sports shooting?’

[Affirmative, count Eirmal was a great advocate for marksmanship and hunting]

‘I see…’

Alina was about to move on when she asked an offhand question

‘Was Matthew born on Eirmal IV?’

[Yes, though original records have been redacted due to the Eirmal penance, biological readings suggest Matthew Rockwell was born about 20 years before it started]

‘Wait, what is this penance?’

[Bringing up all available data on Eirmal penance…]

-

“---Alright now slowly squeeze the trigger when you are ready”

Matthew waited for Alina to complete the excise for a few moments before he realized she had frozen completely and called out to her

“Alina?”

Alina jerked out of her daze which caused her to squeeze the trigger as she shuddered and quickly apologized

“S-Sorry about that, that Matthew…”

Matthew showed a patient smile and asked her

“Want to take it from the top again?”

Alina nodded and continued learning from Matthew while she continued to review the heavily redacted observation records from the 27 years of the Eirmal IV blockade, every gruesome detail that was followed with numerous image files documented the horrors beyond mental comprehension that had taken place on Eirmal IV in sickening and clearly statistically perverse detail

Alina felt a strange sensation which washed over her every sense as she continued to look through the documents, it took her only a few moments to remember this normally biological fueled sensation as nausea, she held no illusions that if she had a stomach she would have thrown up by now

‘...I have to see it… See all of it… To learn more about Matthew… My beloved’