Pre-Race Camp (VSmgAB + Shift Happens)
Stage 0 Drive (VSmgAB)
Stage 0 Camp; Part 1 (VSmgAB)
Stage 0 Camp, Arrival. (Shift Happens)
Constantin and his companions headed over all the way across camp to the HD-GVs of Shift Happens.
Lucky for the ‘Speshul Forces’, Kivenaal was already setting up some lanes of various ranges, complete with paper targets to shoot at.
“Good… evening?” Constantin said, pulling out a pocket watch that had been gifted to him by Jayde a year prior. It displayed local time and confirmed that it was nearing sunset.
“Yeah. Evening. Would you mind if me any my band of merry men make use of your work here for some target practice?”, he inquired with the five recruits behind him in a ‘line’.
Most of them seemed excited to ‘get to shoot guns’ again, except for Jacques, who was mostly indifferent to the plans at hand.
Kivenaal smiled, then gave a light nod. “Yeah, go ahead. It’s why I set the range up in the first place, so that people can do a little target practice. I’ve got targets out at 25, 50, 100, 200, and 350 meters, so, we’ve got everything from reasonable pistol range to some real good distance targets.”
Jayde walked over, wearing a heavy fur coat and fur-lined boots as he stepped up to the range with Kayden close by, wearing a more form-fitting black jumpsuit under his normal “street clothes” from before. “Do you guys mind if we get a bit of practice in?”
Kivenaal stared at Kayden, then said, “I have no idea how you’re not freezing already.”
“Thermal regulation suit,” Kayden said, pulling up his t-shirt long enough to show the sleek black material underneath. “Keeps you warm in the cold, cool in the heat.”
“Cannot deny you also taking part. It is a public range, after all. However, i had a bit of a thought with this: The five remaining beds are not formally assigned yet and one of them has a bigger bed than the other four. Whoever gets the smallest spread with the Pistol 88 at 25 meters and the AK4 at 50 is winning the big bunk. I hope you are okay with us practically blocking the 25 meter lane for a while, followed by the 50m one.” Constantin explained, now also getting Jacques in on the excitement.
“What about you? It would be unfair for you to just get a free bed!” Hans protested in typical rules-lawyer fashion.
Constantin then thought about it and then placed his rifle onto one of the tables, followed shortly thereafter by the ominous silver suitcase.
“You’re right. It would be unfair, which is why i won’t be shooting the standard-issue stuff.” Constantin replied as he unlatched the two buckles from that case, opening it. Within, a fancy-looking raw-carbon fibre compound bow presented itself, neatly encased in form-fitting foam so as to not damage it in transit. The lid had a slew of little tabs which contained one arrow each.
The recruits looked into the box and were confused.
“A bow? Fine by me.” Hans commented, thinking that losing against an archer would be practically impossible, a sentiment echoed by the others as well.
“So. If the range operators are okay with it, we start with the 25m round using the Pistol 88. You engage the target with 5 shots, the worst of which is discarded. The remaining four count towards your score. Once done with a set, notify the other, civilian lanes for safety and we can go tape off the shots. Understood?” Constantin spoke with an amount of authority rivalling a US Army Drill Sargeant, though he also looked towards Kivenaal to confirm that his plans were indeed possible without annoying anyone.
Kivenaal gave a nod. “We’re used to having to stop every so often to tape up targets or replace a very-well-shot one. The way we’ll make our weapons safe is “weapon holstered, hands visible,” at least with pistols. Rifles will either be on their slings or on the table. Your crew can do as they’re trained, this is just how we do things so no one gets shot in the ass. If you’re using the 25 meter target, I’ll just get Kayden and Jayde to hit the 50 meter target with handguns.”
“Well, there goes my accuracy,” Jayde muttered to himself.
“You’ll do fine. Remember, last time you said you couldn’t hit the damn target, you landed one right in the bullseye, Jayde,” Kayden replied.
“I’ll be fair,” Kivenaal said, “and not compete with the two of you. Nor will I take on the longer range targets today. I shot a lot yesterday, so… Time for other people to have their turn.”
Jayde, however, gave a smirk as he looked at Constantin’s bow. “I’ve gotten a little archery practice in over the year, but I’m still shit with one of those,” Jayde admitted. “Takaraya’s decent, but… Well, he’s drawing 175 pounds and has a certain… Inherent mechanical stability on his side. That said, furthest I’ve seen him shoot is 100 meters.”
“If I were smart,” Kayden said, looking to Jayde, “I’d make him bring his compound bow out here and get a little physical therapy going, but… Somehow, I don’t see that going over well right now.”
“We can also start with the 50 meter round using our Automatkarbin 4 rifles, if you prefer.” Constantin offered, to which it was made clear that the Pistol round was the first one for the recruits.
“We go in descending order of height. Reynolds, you’re up first.” he then told the recruits, who did think ahead far enough to sort themselves as soon as the order was known.
William stepped up to the lane, placing his rifle onto the table ahead of him, soo after, he drew the handgun, making sure that adjacent lanes were clear, followed by readying his gun.
It was apparent that they were not routine-shooters, since WIlliam took his fair share of time, eventually sending 5 shots downrange towards the target board.
Afterwards, he secured the gun and holstered it, declaring ‘the enemy’ to be defeated.
Once the 50 meter lane was finished as well, they went to the board and checked the results:
“I tried, i promise!” William reasoned, seeing a wild spray pattern on the target board covering most of it’s mockup torso.
“You tried to miss?” Constantin countered, handing a roll of little stickers to William, “Get going, then…”
He then noted down the results onto the packaging of aforementioned roll, discarding the worst shot as previously announced while William went about plugging bullet holes with sticky dots for the next person.
Kayden and Jayde gave a smirk, immediately launching into a game of rock-paper-scissors to determine who went first. Jayde’s paper beat Kayden’s rock, so he stepped up to the table, calmly drew his .44 caliber revolver, and took his time with his shots, deliberately forcing himself to use the double-action heavier trigger pull to get used to it.
After discharging five rounds to match the five shots from the recruit to his left, Jayde calmly swung open the cylinder, emptied out his five empty shells with his thumb holding the one good one in place, reloaded his revolver, then holstered it.
As they walked down to the target, Kayden stared at it, then said, “Okay, and you say you shoot like shit? That’s all five on the damn target, Jayde. Five in the chest of something human sized. If you can shoot half as good under pressure, that’s still good for self defense.”
“Beginner’s luck, I guess,” Jayde admitted, patching up the target with pieces of tape, before they returned to the tables so the next recruit and Kayden could have a go. He looked to Kivenaal, then asked, “After Kayden does his round with the pistol, mind if we borrow your rifle?”
“Sure. Kayden, you think you can manage with my long stock, or will you need a different weapon?” Kivenaal asked.
Kayden grimaced, then said, “I’m not sure. If it had a collapsing stock, I’d say it’s fine, but that’s solid walnut with no adjustments. I’ll try, but… I’m going to be shit with that rifle.”
As William returned to the others, he was met with a solid amount of laughter.
“Talk about being a good shot! A shotgun has less spread than you do!”, Rohan ridiculed, with most of the others also digging at William for his poor accuracy.
The next recruit to step to the line was Hans, who repeated the process William just did. Despite having gotten the exact same training, he seemed more confident in aiming, which was proven by the results.
Unlike William’s “whole body” spread, Hans managed to condense the pattern into the size of a dinner plate.
Upon returning, he obviously was proud of his achievement, supported by the others who have previously seen him shoot marginally better than William just did.
Kayden sighed, racked the slide on his heavily modified Colt 1911, then took aim at the 50 meter target and cracked off five shots. When they checked the target, Kayden groaned. “I hit the human sized target 4 times,” Kayden admitted.
“And you shot the stand,” Jayde pointed out, poking the target frame with his cane.
“So, rifle next? This is going to suck,” Kayden said, patching up the target again and then returning to the table.
“I mean, we’re shooting twice their distance with handguns, you can’t compare ours to theirs,” Jayde admitted. “And even with rifles, we’re using a lever-action rifle with a suppressor on it instead of whatever one of those is,” Jayde said, motioning to the rifle on the table.
Hans was proud of what he did until Jacques went for his turn. Everyone knew that he was a good marksman and the only actually competent recruit of the group, thus serving as a benchmark of sorts to the other less-than-stellar ones.
He sent his group of shots down the lane and EVERYONE knew that there was no point in discarding the worst shot because there was no ‘worst’ shot.
It turns out that he managed to arrange his hits into a near-perfect circle which could be covered by the rim of a small cereal bowl.
His return was less triumphant than Hans’ was, mostly due to the result being expected, normal even, for him.
“Of course the frenchie knows how to shoot…”, William grumbled, giving up all hope of getting the bigger bed, just like everyone else.
“Right, let’s see how we do with this,” Jayde said, accepting Kivenaal’s rifle.
“I put five in there, so, it’s ready to go,” Kivenaal said. “Just cycle the lever and take aim.”
Jayde nodded, then took his five shots, grimacing each time as he sent .45-70 Government rounds downrange. “Son of a bitch, that thing kicks hard,” Jayde grumbled, setting the rifle on the table. As they checked the target, Kayden chuckled. “How are you better at this range with a handgun than you are with a rifle, Jayde?”
“I don’t shoot rifles, that’s how this happened,” Jayde said, putting stickers over his five very scattered holes.
“I mean, in your defense,” Kayden said, as they walked back to the table, “your target looked a bit like the first guy’s over there. When’s the last time you shot a rifle?”
Jayde thought for a bit, then said, “You brought me to the gun range and we tried that, what was it called? “AR-15?” That was the last time.”
“Oh, right, that time that you pulled the adjustable stock off the gun three times trying to get it to fit your shoulder,” Kayden recalled.
“Yeah, that one,” Jayde admitted. “Haven’t shot a rifle since, until today.”
“Jacknabbit, your turn.” Constantin called out, just for nothing to happen.
“JACKNABBIT!”, he repeated, finally getting her out of her supposed slumber and stepping to the line.
“She really want’s that ‘Valentin’, it seems. Ever since he bench-pressed 160 kilos, she’s been distracted or lost in thoughts or something.”, William commented once Mary was out of immediate earshot.
“Gotta hand it to him, he’s well-built and obviously not a dumbfuck like some guys over here…” Jacques noted while ‘discreetly’ motioning towards Rohan in the process.
“I’m not dumb! I’m just… mentally challenged.” Rohan protested, at which point William, Hans and Jacques burst out in laughter.
This obviously delayed Mary further, since she did deserve the same amount of relative silence as the others did.
Eventually, she sent her set of 9mm Parabellum into the paper, ending in a similar style to William, but less extremely so.
“Not last. I’ll take that.” She noted once she was back with the others.
Kayden picked up the rifle and grimaced as he tried to shoulder it, glad that Kivenaal had reloaded it while they were busy fixing the target up. “Kiva, your rifle is obnoxious,” Kayden grumbled, trying his best to shoulder it up, aim down the sights, and still maintain something resembling proper form. He took his five shots at the target, set the rifle down, then, once the range was clear, walked down to look at his target.
“One. Two. That’s what ended up actually hitting the target. Third one in the target stand. Don’t know where you sent the other two,” Jayde said.
“Kiva’s rifle stock is too damn long for me. And, no, I’m not going to try to borrow another rifle, that’s on me for not bringing something more appropriate along,” Kayden admitted as they returned to the table. “So, what now?” Kayden then asked.
“Let’s let these guys finish out their shooting so we can use the 25 meter target and pistols. Trying to shoot at what could be considered “borderline unreasonable” pistol range is… Well, clearly we’re struggling with it,” Jayde admitted.
“I’m struggling. You killed it,” Kayden replied.
While Shift Happens was already done with their runs on the 50 meter lane, two people still had to do their sets on the 25 meter one.
One of them was the last recruit, Rohan Patel, who dutifully approached the lane and readied his gun. Soon after, five additional casings were strewn across the floor, adding to the 20 more already down there.
As they went to check for results, reality struck him and all the others:
Out of five rounds discharged, one was actually on the target, with a second apparently having strafed the target backing board, creating a little nook in it’s edge. The other three rounds went deep into the iced-up backstop, nowhere to be found.
“You are in no position to complain about my accuracy in ANY situation ever again. You MISSED the fucking target!!”, William said out loud, once again sending the others into a hysterical laughing fit.
“How did you get past the simulator at this rate?”, Hans chimed in inbetween breaths, barely holding it together.
Rohan meanwhile was just distraught, seeing as conditions weren’t exactly favorable. Though this still did not stop Constantin from taking a stab at his showing as well,
“I have seen quite the number of people wo needed some time to get things right. Though i don’t have Marty McFly’s number, so that’s out… Anyway, my turn, then.”
As Constantin readied himself and the ‘unfair’ weapon he was using, the recruits went (almost) silent again, eagerly watching what the ‘big guy’ would come up with.
Compared to those using firearms, Constantin took far longer to finish his set of five, with each shot taking a good two minutes to do.
Eventually, the last arrow flew into and through the plywood target backboard, ending in all five arrows randomly lying about in the snow next to the 50 meter lane’s target.
“Uhm… Anyone have some tape? 18mm caliber arrowheads are a wee bit oversize for our stickers meant for 7.62 NATO…”, he inquired as the bow went back into it’s suitcase.
Kayden stared at the target after Rohan managed to somehow do worse at 25 meters than he did at 50 with a rifle that was too big for him. “Okay, I guess I’m not that shit at shooting,” Kayden admitted.
When Constantin then did his round with the bow, Jayde smirked and just watched, seeing five arrows neatly punched through the center of the target. As Constantin asked for some tape, Kayden handed over the roll they were using. “There you go. We have to cover everything from 9 millimeter to fucking .50 caliber, so, we just use tape. Couple strips of that should do it.”
“.50 caliber still is 12.7mm in diameter, but thanks,” Constantin commented as he went into the lane to tape off his results. Afterwards, he went further down the lane to collect his arrows, which were remarkably easily located due to the contrast of black shafts in a mix of blueish-white snow and ice.
He handed back the tape to Kayden and faced the recruits again:
“Alright. First off, Mullern and Dupont had actual results that would be considered ‘good enough’, while the rest of you…” he said, pausing for an intense starte at Rohan, “should probably get a shotgun for patrol, else not hit anything… Regardless, same order, Automatkarbin 4 at 50 meters, 5 shots, worst discarded.”
With the instruction spoken, William then got about readying himself and the gun again after the pathetic showing with the pistol.
Kayden chuckled. “Yeah, we didn’t bring any anti-tank guns with us. Yes, Kivenaal actually owns a few.”
“They’re big, awkward, heavy, and not practical at all for anything reasonable,” Kivenaal admitted. “I bought a couple different ones as collector’s pieces. Occasionally, I do a little casual target shooting, but even then, not very often because, well, they kick like getting hit by a freight train, toss dust and dirt and sand everywhere when you fire them, and cost stupid amounts of money per shell.”
Jayde shrugged. “I have little use for rifles, personally,” he said. “At reasonably close range, I have a .44 Magnum. At point blank, I can do a lot of damage with these,” he added, extending the claws on his right hand for a moment, retracting them soon after, “and if you’re outside of pistol range and threatening me, well… I’ll still try that shot with a pistol.”
Kayden looked to Kivenaal, then asked, “You probably know more about our truck’s contents than anyone else. Did we pack a semi-automatic rifle with an adjustable stock? Because if so, I’d love a crack at the 100 meter target, but if we don’t have one, well… It’ll be pistols, 25 meters.”
“Whatever floats your boat, i guess…” Constantin shrugged before watching William send his 5 rifle rounds downrange. In the meantime, Jacques and Rohan cleared off spent casings from the now vacant 25 meter lane.
The result was actually presentable, with a dispersion pattern about 4 or 5 inches in diameter.
Similar results came from the other soldiers, with Mary seemingly having a less-than stellar range-day, having spread her shots to about a foot on the target.
This was nothing compared to Rohan again, who repeated what William did in the Pistol round, spreading his results across the entirety of the target.
Once again, Constantin finished up with his bow, repeating the results to the point where one could accuse him of having swapped the target boards in secret.
“Suffice to say, one of the bigger beds is mine,” Constantin spike nonchalantly as he returned with his 5 arrows in hand.
“And the other goes to our resident AWP, i assume?” Hans inquired, having little hope of getting it for himself.
“Given that he is the only truly competent marksman with both weapons, that was kind of obvious now, wasn’t it?” Constantin replied, watching Jacques form a Smug Face rivalling that of Jeremy Clarkson.
“Have fun collecting brass, then. First round of watch starts in 15 minutes.” he added, the recruits going around and picking empty casings off the ground.
Kayden shook his head after hearing back from the walkie-talkie, “Unless you want to borrow Rukari’s shotgun, Takaraya’s .50 BMG assault rifle, or Malavera’s sniper rifle, we didn’t pack a spare rifle you can use.”
“Looks like we’ll be taking a few shots at the 25, Jayde,” Kayden called out.
Jayde shrugged, stepping up to take his five shots, putting four close to the bullseye and blowing out Constantin’s tape job, and one mild fly-away about two inches low. “Damn it. Jerked the first shot again,” Jayde grumbled.
After a quick patch job, Kayden took his turn, managing an only-slightly-less disasterous run at the target than Mary’s 25 meter pistol grouping. “Well, I fucked that up,” Kayden admitted. “And, no, I’m not even going to blame the weather, I just can’t fucking shoot straight today.”
“You need more range time, Kayden,” Kivenaal replied. He stepped up to the table, drawing one of his revolvers with his upper right hand, then fired his five shots, ending up only a little less accurate than Jayde had.
“Well, what’s your excuse?” Kayden quipped.
“Jayde shot with two hands, I shot with one. Of course I’m not going to be as accurate as he was,” Kivenaal replied, before patching up the target.
Kayden, Jayde, and Kivenaal watched as the remaining soldiers and Constantin took on the 50 meter target, with Kivenaal shaking his head at Rohan’s absolute disaster on full display.
“How the hell can Jayde shoot a tighter group on the 50 meter target with a revolver than Rohan did with a rifle?” Kivenaal asked, seeming surprised by how bad Rohan had done.
“As I said, “Beginner’s luck,” Kivenaal. I’d bet, right now, 50 Syrkals, I couldn’t do it again if I tried,” Jayde replied.
“I have no fucking clue. And he’s the one mocking others for THEIR bad aim.” Hans commented, pointing at Rohan who, by this time, was sat at the end of the row of tables ,sulking at how the others were making blatant fun of his firearm incompetence.
“Regardless of how shitty anyone’s job was. Jacques and I get the bigger bunks.” Constantin confirmed once more before turning around for the present Shift Happens crew, “We are done here, for the most part. Unless you need me… or us… for anything over here, we would get to what we are here for.”
“One moment, actually,” Kivenaal said with a smirk. “Jayde, I’ll take that bet. Double or nothing: You land one shot on that 100 meter target, you’ll get $3600. That’s 100 Syrkals worth.”
Jayde groaned. “Fine. But if I’m pushing my distance, I have a request. What’s the furthest target everyone here thinks they can hit? Your choice of weapon, your choice of target, 5 shots.”
Kayden shrugged. “I’ll go with what I managed: I hit the 50 meter target. I know I won’t land a shot on the 100 meter one, so I’m not going to try.”
Kivenaal looked at the targets, then said, “I’ll go with maybe on the 200 meter target, my rifle.”
Jayde walked over to the 100 meter target’s lane, then asked, “Anyone else feel like picking a target and going for it?”
Kivenaal smiled, then said, “Anyone wants the 200, I’ll gladly share. No way in hell will I hit the 350 that’s down there. Maybe on a dead-calm day, but not in this crap.”
“I can try for the 200 meters, but the wind is less than ideal… In good conditions, i can aim well past 300 meters somewhat consistently.” Constantin commented, dragging his suitcase across the row of tables to the 200 meter lane.
Likewise and without a word, Jacques joined him there, feeling brave. Hans instead elected to try the 100 meter one, with the others not even trying due to how poor their aim was in the earlier rounds.
Jayde took his place at the 100 meter target, drawing his revolver and aiming downrange. Deciding he’d need all the help he could get, he cocked the hammer back, choosing to fire his 5 shots in single-action for the lighter trigger pull, waited for a brief pause in the wind, and fired five times.
Likewise, Kivenaal took his five shots at the 200 meter target, regretting being cocky and challenging Jayde already as he tried to hit that rather-distant target with only the assistance of his precision rear iron sights to try making a difference.
When they walked down the range to check their targets, Jayde was outright shocked to see that, not only had he gotten all five shots on target, they were vaguely grouped into the center-of-mass, meaning in an actual fight, those would have been useful shots.
Kivenaal, on the other hand, found the only shot he’d made that had gone near the target was a hole in one of the sandbags helping keep the target frames upright. He looked over at Jayde and groaned. “Really? “I couldn’t do it again if I tried,” and then you kill the 100 meter target? That’s not “beginner’s luck,” Jayde, that’s training.”
The two of them stepped back to allow Constantin, Jacques, and Hans to do their rounds after patching up Jayde’s target. Kivenaal shook his head, then said, “Yeah, Jayde’s properly scary with that pistol. I’m a man of my word, Jayde’s earned $3600 fair and square, and I’m not stupid enough to “double or nothing” that one on the 200 meter target. At this point, he’d probably do it just to spite me.”
“I’m not stupid enough to take that bet. I might take 5 at the 200 meter target out of curiosity, but… That’s beyond the effective range of my revolver,” Jayde admitted, reloading his gun and holstering it.
For another time, Constantin stepped up and readied himself, taking a good 10 minutes to send his 5 arrows downrange. But as predicted, the grouping was still very tight, save for a wild one that went way left due to a gust of wind.
“I’m happy with that, given the shit weather.” he remarked before heading out to collect his arrows and tape off the holes, which was far less annoying this time since none actually went through the target, instead being stuck to it.
Jacques followed suit, finishing off with what could be described as ‘marginally effective’ at best.
“Yeah the weather is shit… I also went try-hard mode earlier…” he said once he returned from fixing his results.
In the meantime, Hans went about his 100m rifle attempt, which went even worse than Jacques just did at twice the range.
“Try-Hard my ass…” he grumbled, “You not being in a sniper squad of sorts still is beyond me…”
“Failed rank exams. Thrice. Am redoing basic because of it.” Jacques replied, watching Hans head to the target board.
Kivenaal chuckled. “If you guys want to see someone take on the far target, I can call over Malavera and let him know you lot want to see him shoot,” Kivenaal said.
Jayde glanced at Hans’ 100 meter rifle pattern, then asked Constantin, “Is this an improvement on their usual, or similar to what they usually do, or have they gotten worse? I mean, I know that my results are a bit skewed - I live in the United States, after all, so I have access to shooting ranges at just about any time I want - but somehow I don’t think I should be out-shooting soldiers with rifles when I’m using a pistol.”
“The average recruits shoots better than he - or anyone else barring Dupont - does. Not as tightly as him, though. Their lack of aim is part of the reason why they are here. Dupont serves as a benchmark of sorts.” Constantin explained, which did not surprise anyone amongst his ranks, given that this was information that they were given ahead of time, “There’s no chance i am even trying the 350 meter one, so i shall drag the dunce club and myself back to base and get on patrol. Is about time as well…”
With the range time over and beds assigned in a totally fair and reasonable manner, the group went back to their trailers, with Jacques and Constantin staying outside and patrolling camp soon after.
The others made use of public electricity powering trailer AC and got cozy within until their turn came.
” Carol puts on a full smile
)
