"Sergeant, you seem fine. I'd like to do a follow up after the mission just to be sure. If anything hurts or does not feel right before the mission, let me know," said Laura.
"I will," said Phaedra. She left the medic to tend to Avel's wounds and approached one of the drones standing nearby. She ordered it to bring the weapon locker and follow her up to the roof. Once there, she unpacked the weapon and began to assemble the huge rifle.
Once the rifle was completed, Phaedra set the weapon up on its bipod near the edge of the building's roof. Placing a pair of earplugs into her ears, she went prone behind the W3301, grunting from the soreness that seemed to be present all over her body. She noticed that the targets had been put into place by the drones at a very far distance from her location. Phaedra tested the feel of the weapon, adjusted its sights and general settings before she pulled back the breech and loaded a single dummy round. Without using her optic implant, Phaedra systematically checked the windage and other information on the display, fired one round, reloaded, and then made small tweaks to the weapon's settings. The recoil was massive, and the report from the W3301 was deafening, but all in all it was a fantastic weapon.
Satisfied with the weapon's performance after eight dummy rounds, Phaedra broke the weapon down, cleaned it, and then returned it to the case. When she returned to the briefing room, Phaedra transfered the W3301 to a more portable weapon case and placed it amongst her other gear that had been gathered for the mission.
With a sickening crackling noise, Phaedra stretched out her neck and then went to the locker room to start preparing for the mission. To any of the squad she would pass, she would say, "We will be departing very soon. Ensure you are prepared."