novelzi 344 Range Day
344 Range Day
"Gentlemen." Donovan stepped up onto the hastily constructed wooden platform to a less than impressive audience, at least in terms of mood and apparel, but most were hand chosen by Leno for strength, marksmanship, or character. A hundred individuals, people who could have their time better spent chopping trees or tending to their herds and fields stood before him, and though many hadn't seen him before they didn't seem all that curious. "I take it many of you are wondering why I've interrupted your busy schedules, schedules I set in some cases. I also imagine there are more than just a few of you who believe I too have better things to do with my time."Nobody dared voice such an opinion, but he could see it on a few faces. Most were simply apathetic, following the whims of a ruler they had no gauge of character for. They would listen, they would follow, but they might not do so because they wanted to.
"I would like to inform those people that they are, in fact, correct. The truth is that I would have liked to delay this matter until my return, if only so I could keep an eye on everyone's progress without the pressing need for my input on the development efforts. A recent event, one I'm certain the majority of you are aware of, has accelerated my schedule for this particular matter. I have judged it cannot be put off any longer." A few of the crowd seemed to make the connection instantly, and muted conversations between them and those out of the know nearby began to crop up. "Leno?"
"Yes sir." The young man was basically the highest authority beneath Titanyana to many of the Nekh present, so seeing him serve as Donovan's squire by ferrying a bow and quiver led to some stiff ears and hostile expressions.
"While I am certain this weapon needs no introduction for my Nekh friends, I understand it is widely out of use beyond their number, so for those of you who may be in need of a refresher - this is a 'Bow'!"
Donovan held it up high for all to see. Some of the Nekh with orange and black hair like Leno's - those of the martial 'Red-Striped' clan - wore somewhat incredulous expressions congruent with an understanding of how hard a bow like this would be to draw.
"If those of you in the center would like to part a few feet so I may get a clear view of the target, I would greatly appreciate it." Donovan slid an arrow out and notched it, holding the bow at rest so as to imitate a form of trigger discipline. "Thank you. As it stands I am an amateur, and I could never forgive myself for killing someone so meaninglessly."
He gave them a few seconds to get out of the way, subtly gesturing for one of the shepherds to get further to the side with his head, before drawing and aiming. The target was a particularly knotty piece of timber deemed a waste of time to process into even firewood with a tunic 'worn' around it. Some waste fabric had been stuffed inside to give the garb volume and keep any arrows that hit in place.
A clean blow. Not quite center on, the fact it hung loose from the tunic suggested it hit a knot and bounced off, but it illustrated the point.
"As you can see, it can be used to shoot an arrow such that you may stab your foes from a distance. It might even be useful in defending against a slower invader, however I am reliably informed most of the nobles and knights of the various bickering realms possess an agility and dexterity great enough to dodge or deflect pretty much anything short of a solid wall of arrows, relegating it to use in hunting. Evidently, this would also make it less than ideal for handling those beasties beyond our barbed wire lattice."
Donovan fired four more arrows at the dummy, three of which managed to avoid the knots and stick into the bark. He needed more reference points for comparison.
"Leno?"
"Yes sir." Leno rushed back onto the stage to trade with Donovan, though even the Nekh would have trouble recognizing it as anything but a strange contraption. Once again, Donovan raised the bow above his head for all to see.
"This is a bow, albeit not of a variety anyone else has. This is an invention of my people, the Terrans. It is a mechanical construct designed to increase the accuracy and power of a given draw weight, allowing for an amateur to use one effectively and for a professional to operate a weight of draw beyond their normal capacity."
This arrow clearly sounded like it hit a knot, but this time it didn't bounce off. Donovan drew another, but did not immediately loose it.
"The bow I used before is not at my limit in terms of draw weight, however I can assure you holding a conversation at such a volume would have been impossible for me while at full draw. As evidenced by the results this one is of a similar strength, but I am capable of speaking with you as such while holding it at the ready. Those of you familiar with the utilization of a bow will no doubt be able to see the benefits to accuracy."
As if to demonstrate his point, Donovan landed another arrow right next to the first, though not as close as he might have liked. The third, fourth, and fifth arrows collectively got the point across, but even then nobody seemed surprised. This level of marksmanship was to be expected of anyone, and those unaware of that certainly got the point from their lack of a reaction.
"Leno?" Donovan did not mind this lack of enthusiasm. He had actually been hoping for it, especially considering the confusion at the weapon Leno exchanged the compound bow for.
"This, for my people at least, is the weapon that the bow. It also claimed the sword, and the spear, and the axe, and any other variety of melee weapon you can imagine except for, perhaps, the humble knife, though the knife was spared for its utility rather than lethality." Donovan slipped a magazine into the well, racking the charging handle while keeping the barrel pointed at the floor. "I suggest you cover your ears."
He gave those willing to believe him a second or two to follow Leno's example. He and Arc had gone for an integrated suppressor design out of consideration for the Nekh, but suppressed did not mean silenced, and a 10mm rifle round was bordering on the territory of 'heavy' weaponry.
The Nekh that failed to get their mitts over their ears in time practically convulsed in shock, those who had still flinched.
"Gentlemen, meet the 'rifle', your new weapon of choice." Those with a clear view of the stump could see the damage. There was no fancy arrow sticking out of it, but a hole had been torn clean through it, some of the filler fabric protruding through the exit wound. "It requires less skill to use, less strength to operate, and shoots a projectile magnitudes faster and more devastating than any bow ever could, not to mention accuracy. It is also far louder, however I am certain you will be to learn this specimen has been made quieter than it's unmuzzled brethren. I must assure you it is no less lethal in spite of that. You might think this comes at some cost. To some extent you would be right, but only in terms of material. Beyond the effort needed to manufacture and maintain a rifle, I can assure you it is superior in every-"
"-single-"
"-way."
Donovan had kept his grouping a little looser than he could have to make the holes on the backside more apparent.
"A quiver of twenty arrows is rather large and unwieldy. A magazine with twenty bullets could comfortably fit in most of your pockets." Leno took a magazine and held it above his head. "I've got seven such magazine on me, not counting the one already in the rifle. That means I can, with perfect marksmanship, hit targets 160 times before I need to restock. That also means I can be comfortable 'wasting' a shot or two to ensure a kill, something I don't think many archers would do. As you saw, I can also fire these off faster than a bow and arrow, much faster, but that isn't anywhere near the limit."
He shouldered the rifle again. Nobody left their ears uncovered this time.
"On the 'semiautomatic' setting, I can shoot about two bullets every second. This sacrifices accuracy in exchange for volume while keeping the gun largely on target. It's not the most effective method of doing so, however. That honor belongs to the 'burst' setting."
"Two bullets with every pull of the trigger, spaced a tenth of a second apart. They fire in such rapid succession that the recoil of the first bullet hasn't yet moved the gun much, making it more accurate than simply spamming the trigger on semiautomatic." Donovan ejected the magazine, twisting the opening towards them to demonstrate there were no more brass casings inside before slipping it back into a holster slot and retrieving its neighbor. "Should I give myself the remainder of that second to readjust my aim, I will have the same rate of fire but with greater accuracy."
Donovan racked the charging handle again, noting some excitement on a few faces. That was exactly the reaction he wanted.
"Now, I could again spam the trigger on 'burst' to achieve an even higher rate of fire, but there's a much better setting for when you absolutely positively need a motherfucker dead." "EARS!"
Donovan intentionally waited to shoulder the rifle, ensuring everyone had enough time to protect their auditory receptors. Surprising the nonbelievers with a round or two was fine enough for the shock value, but he had no desire to inflict permanent hearing loss to someone who wasn't fast enough to react.
"Three! Two! One!"
"CLEAR!"
Donovan engaged the safety and removed the magazine, lowering the barrel but not letting the cowling get to close to his leg. The suppressor was going to be hot after firing full auto like that, and it was too large to put a protective lattice over without making the weapon even more unwieldy. Arc ended up making the aesthetic choice of normalizing the suppressor and cowling diameters because of that, providing a relatively clean silhouette for what was unmistakably a skeletonized design. Despite all of the filler material being cut out to reduce weight, the rifle was still close to fifteen pounds unloaded. Not having polymers to fashion certain components out of was a good enough excuse for now, especially considering the 10mm round they fired was in the ballpark of two and a half times the mass a standard 7.62mm rifle would shoot. With their lower strength and physical endurance, they would struggle to make use of the rifle for extended periods of time.
"Now I am afraid you gentlemen will not be given access to a firearm capable of full auto for quite some time. As you may have been able to tell it is much harder to control, and the last thing I want is for you to shoot something or you didn't mean to just because you panicked and let the recoil get out of hand."
Donovan neither said anything about nor gestured towards the stump, but his meaning was clear. It would be all to easy for someone to end up like because you let your guard down. One or two might be survivable. Twenty? Not so likely.
Speaking of the stump, it was in pretty good shape give that it still had a shape. The tunic had not been so lucky. Given it was a waste item on its last legs this wasn't surprising, some number of the forty bullet holes simply completed the process numerous other tears and holes started, however it did not bode well for the other targets on the other side of the slope.
"Before I leave you to your instructors, I will first go over a few ground rules. These are to be followed no matter what. If I, or any of the instructors, see you violate them, you will be stripped of the privilege until the next round of training and punished severely. Am I understood?" Donovan could see a few were still dazed from the display or inspecting the target. None of them answered. "AM I UNDERSTOOD?!"
""YES SIR!""
"Good. Rule number one! Under no circumstances are you to point the barrel in the direction of a person or object you are not intending to shoot. I do care if you have the safety on. I do care if the chamber is empty. This weapon can and kill a man with the twitch of a finger, and it is to be treated as such ." Donovan made eye contact with as many people as possible while saying this. "I feel the need to make it known that count as a person, and as such you should not be pointing it at yourself. This means no looking down the barrel. This means no covering the end of it with your hand. This means no pointing it at your foot while holding it at rest. Am I understood?"
""YES SIR!""
"Rule number two! Every firearm you interact with is to be considered loaded and dangerous unless clearly flagged otherwise. This means that any time you pick one up, you are to do so understanding there may be a round in the chamber. This means that every time put one down, you are to do so understanding there may be a round in the chamber. This means that, even when you have fired all of the bullets in your magazine and are certain there can be no way there is a round in the chamber, you must understand there may, despite all laws governing reason and reality, still be a round in the chamber. This is because you are imperfect. Your memory and thoughts mean nothing in the face of the world, especially when you are exhausted or are too comfortable with your knowledge of the weapon, because it is exactly when you think you have done everything properly and have enough experience to know better that life will surprise you in a way you never imagined. Am I understood?"
""YES SIR!""
"Rule number three! Do not put your finger on the trigger until you are prepared to shoot. This should be obvious given rules one and two, but these are dangerous weapons with an immense potential for collateral damage. Should you have your finger over the trigger while you are feeling a bit twitchy, or if you were to bump into something, you could press down enough to trigger a discharge without intending to. I do not feel the need to explain why this is generally considered a bad thing. Am I understood?"
""YES SIR!""
"Rule number four! The final rule! When you are finally prepared to shoot and have a target in your sights, be aware of both the immediate surroundings of the target as well as what is behind it. As demonstrated, this weapon has no problem ripping a hole through a thick piece of wood, meaning the bullet continued on past the wood into the dirt behind it. Now I am no expert on the ability of living creatures to stop hunks of metal travelling faster than sound itself, but I believe it safe to say we are substantially worse at the job than wood. This means that you should be aware of what you might be hitting if you miss, and what you might behind your target even if your aim was true. Now, I will make a carveout for this rule specifically regarding encounters with the terribly large beasts we find in our company. If your buddy was a second too late in trying to get away, then subsequent ended up getting caught by some monster, I will not fault you for shooting through him to get to the thing trying to eat him. It seems reasonable to me that, at such a point where it's a consideration, his ass won't be surviving for long anyways. Does that seem reasonable to you?"
""YES SIR!""
"EXCELLENT!" Donovan stomped his foot, offloading the rifle to Leno. He might have made use of it, but this was the rifle meant for Leno, an unspoken gesture of trust. The primary firearm designed for Donovan was a bit more . . . exotic? Unorthodox? Strictly speaking it wasn't doing anything new for a firearm, it just made better use of his newfound strength to, in Arc's words, 'create tactical options traditionally prohibited for solo combatants'. "Now, gentlemen, I am afraid I must be leaving you. Fret not, though, the instructors are plenty qualified to teach you the basics, even if they are not the most familiar with these particular weapons. All I ask is that you remember those rules, and try to have fun with it."