Stage 1 Drive (VSmgAB)
Stage 1 Drive (Shift Happens)
Stage 2 Drive/Camp (Shift Happens)
Stage 2 Camp (VSmgAB + Shift Happens)
Stage 3 Camp (VSmgAB + Hillbilly Rollers + Aeromad + Ambassadors) Part 1, Part 2
Stage 4 and 5; “send it!”
Stage 6 and 7 “Catching Up” (VSmgAB)
Stage 8 Camp
As the HD-GVs were parked in camp, Kivenaal got on the radio and mentioned, “Give me a few minutes and I’ll set up some targets.”
While Kasiya hooked up their end of the cables and got them over to Valentin, and Rukari set up the grill they had to cook with while Kayden prepared burgers, Takaraya and Kivenaal prepared a shooting range with targets that had sandbags over the back to stop bullets from flying straight through.
It didn’t take long for there to be targets set out at 25, 50, 75, and 100 meters, and a few tables for setting weapons, magazines, and ammunition down on as needed.
Takaraya and Kivenaal returned to the truck to grab their rifles, returning to the range and setting their weapons down on the table.
Initially, not a lot happened for Valentin and Norse which quickly devolved into boredom, though our ‘Speshul Forces’ were once again sent over for target practice.
“Hello there. I hope you don’t mind us doing another round of aim-training, do you?” Constantin calmly inquired as the recruits were already underway readying their respective weapons for the task.
“Time to watch Jacques smoke us again…” William commented, prompting a grin from Jacques.
“Well if you lot actually had more than about four braincells, you’d be able to hit things.” he countered.
“He already hits everything, BUT the target.” Rohan chuckled, after which the group, barring Mary, continued throwing semi-serious insults against each other.
Not long after, Valentin also joined the lot:
“What are you doing here?” Mary inquired towards Valentin
“Am contemplating getting a hunter’s license given the farce that was last year’s run… might as well try, given the chance,” he said as Constantin flinched juuust a little, remembering the strong break-of-trust that year.
“Go right ahead,” Kivenaal said to Constantin. “It’s why the range was set up in the first place.” He looked over as Takaraya, dressed in a medium-green t-shirt with his mechanical arms showing, loaded a 20 round magazine into his rifle and racked the charging handle, before setting the weapon on safe. “Oh, good, we’re going to have Takaraya’s shoulder-fired artillery at the range,” Kivenaal quipped.
Takaraya glanced over at Kivenaal, watching as he loaded a handful of cartridges into his rifle, then shook his head. “And he says my rifle is shoulder-fired artillery. Sure, .45-70 isn’t as powerful as .50 BMG, but considering what your brother uses, my rifle is far, far from artillery.”
When Valentin joined the group at the range, however, Kivenaal and Takaraya were both a little surprised. “i’ll let Malavera know he may need to bring his rifle or pistol to the table,” Kivenaal said.
“No need, I have both here already,” Malavera said, walking over to the table with his rifle in his hands, and a rather large pistol in a hip holster.
“Hope i am not disturbing anyone with my glaring presence now…” Valentin said in reference to his almost snowman-like pale skin, “I have been thinking about getting into shooting for sport. Aaaand… it just so happens that there is a somewhat public shooting range here…”
Valentin did not dare to directly ask for a gun, given that he had fired a gun exactly ONCE, which ruined both wrists.
Mary solved that hesitation for him, though:
“So you wanna shoot guns? Truth be told, i did not expect you to be that kind of man,” Mary remarked.
“If i stick to doing the same thing, i am leaving potential ways of fulfillment on the table. And there is no harm in trying new things,” Valentin countered with great confidence.
“THAT is true… maybe i should try new things as well at some time…”
“No disturbances on our end. Between Malavera’s white fur and Takaraya’s shiny metal arms, we’ve got more reasons to apologize than you do, Val,” Kivenaal said.
When Mary asked if Val wanted to shoot, and Val confirmed it, Kivenaal looked up to Takaraya, then over to Malavera, and back to the table. The three of them, at Kivenaal’s unspoken command, set their rifles down on the table. “We’re not sure if any of them will work for you, Val, and they’re all a bit more powerful than would be ideal,” Takaraya said, “but they’re options.”
Confusion was written in bold across Valentin’s face once he saw three substantially sized rifles on the table.
“Umm… are we not jumping the guns a little? I have shot exactly once. That was yeears ago with a very undersized handgun. Undersized for my massive human paws, that is…” Valentin stumbled as he held out both hands, facing down, to exemplify the absolute size of these units.
In the meantime, the ‘Speshul Forces’ got to work, with expected results. While Jacques had a nearly impeccable spray pattern, most of the others barely managed to keep the shots on target at all.
“Well… The recoil on any one of these really isn’t that bad. Mine’s probably the worst, with the solid walnut stock,” Kivenaal said. “Weight’s your friend here.”
Malavera then added in, “Takaraya’s rifle’s the heaviest, though mine’s only a bit lighter than his. Kiva’s is the lightest, and knowing the twin-tailed devil himself, I know he’s loaded his ammunition a bit stronger than average.”
Takaraya sighed, then said, “Fairly simple controls on this. All the way up on the fire-selector is safe, all the way down is semi-automatic. You don’t want to be in the middle notch, that’s full-auto and could be dangerous. If you shoot all 20 rounds, magazine release is the lever under the trigger guard. I’ve got a spare magazine in my hip pouch.”
“Uhhh… right.” Valentin mumbled as he inspected Takaraya’s rifle, now that it was at least somewhat explained and thus the most familiar of the unfamiliar weapons.
“So. Gun is always loaded, regardless of what happens to it. Never point it at things you do not not want to hit. Finger only to trigger if i want to shoot… here goes…” Valentin spoke as a reminder to himself about gun safety and also as proof to the others that he knew it.
He then carefully shoved the other two rifles aside and inspected the remaining one. Eventually, he is in position in front of the table, kneeling on one heel with the respective other knee, the bipod of the rifle resting on the table.
Deliberate aim is taken before… nothing happens.
“Still on safe, Val!”, Mary shouts from three lanes over, before Valentin realizes himself and flicks the switch to semi-automatic.
Another moment of aim and a round goes down range. Much to his (and the recruits) surprise, the very visible impact site was not too far away from the center and certainly closer than most of what the recruits have managed to accomplish.
Immediately afterwards, Val got back up, as his left hand went to rub the pain out of his right shoulder.
“You lot are severely underselling the recoil of those things…” Valentin complained, eventually gathering his bearings and securing the weapon for the time being.
Malavera chuckled. “I guess it’s relative. Sorry, Val.”
Takaraya admitted, “To be fair, I did mention they were more powerful than would be ideal. And, well, I can’t honestly tell you how bad the recoil is.”
Kivenaal shrugged. “My sense of how bad recoil can be is skewed a bit. You want a shoulder workout, Rukari’s stupid little shoulder-fired cannon kicks like hell.”
Takaraya carefully picked up his rifle and put the ejected round back in the magazine, setting both neatly back down on the table afterward. “If you’re going to ask for a pistol, I will have to respectfully decline using mine. It might fit your hands, but… The recoil on it is going to be a fair bit more severe than most pistols.”
“Fucking thing shoots .458 SOCOM. For those who don’t know much about guns… That’s a rifle round meant to go in modified AR-15 and M-16 platform rifles,” Kivenaal grumbled. “Really good for making sore wrists later.”
“Coming from him, that’s serious, considering his usual choice of revolvers,” Malavera said. He pulled the Desert Eagle out of the holster on his hip and placed it on the table, then said, “Desert Eagle, chambered in .44 Magnum. Rukari has two in the more vicious .50 Action Express, but… I doubt you want to fire those.”
“You failed to mention by how much,” Valentin protested, tugging the collar of his shirt aside to check if the rifle left an imprint.
To his surprise, there, at least for the time being, was none, though the process of readjusting the shirt to not be all lopsided did peak someone’s interest:
“Uhm… if i am allowed to ask… what’s that for a tattoo on your chest?” Mary inquired, full of curiosity and with a remarkable lack of decency regarding private things.
Surprised, Valentin turned to face her: “For the sake of some people here, i shall stay cryptic. All i am going to say now is that it is a literal link to a somewhat recent, possibly life-changing event for me.”
Malavera glanced over and saw the QR code, though, knowing how much he disliked when people brought up the branded mark on his own left shoulder, he kept quiet about knowing what it meant.
Kivenaal, on the other hand, glanced over and said, “Oh, that’s a QR code. Val had that done after, well… Someone in a military van had an accident and ended up taking out a bunch of cyclists. No one died, as far as I know, but a lot of people got banged up rather badly. Val here has… I’d joke and say “as much titanium as Takaraya,” but… That’s not quite true.”
Takaraya looked over at Kivenaal, Valentin, Malavera, and Mary, then sighed. “Kiva, really? Val was trying to be diplomatic.”
Mary simply stood there, trying to piece things together for a while.
Norse, having heard this, got up from his spot near the generator car and power-walked over to the opposing side of camp, far out of earshot in case this conversation would go more detailed.
“Wait… a military van?” Mary eventually asked, trying to gather more information while not being seen as intrusive.
“From what i remember, it had military plates, but was otherwise a generic 9 seat van…” Valentin recalled, but was interrupted in trying to vaguely outline the nature of it.
“JACKNABBIT!!! GET OVER HERE!!! YOUR TURN!!!”, Constantin blared for basically half of camp to hear, after which Mary ‘promptly’ went over to do her round, resulting in the worst target pattern in recent history.
“Not your day ain’t it, Jacknabbit?”, he asked afterwards, crossing his arms in disappointment.
“Not anymore. Now… do you know about some soldier that apparently played bowling with some cyclists some time ago?”, Mary countered, which sent Constantin into an awkward silence for a moment.
“Truth be told, it created a massive Tsunami of controversy in the upper ranks because that soldier was not perceived to be the kind of guy to do that. Needless to say, he is presumably employed elsewhere, if at all and also doesn’t drive anymore,” Constantin explained.
“Can confirm the not driving part. Guy had his license revoked for that move. Rightfully so if you ask me…” Valentin added.
Kivenaal grabbed his rifle and settled in at the 75 meter target, lightly shaking his head as he saw the shotgun-like spread of Mary’s most recent attempt at shooting. He put 5 rounds downrange, making a fairly sensible spread on the target. “I’ve done better, and I’ve done worse. I’ll take it,” Kivenaal said.
Malavera then stepped up and casually put five holes almost-dead-center of the bullseye. “Target’s too close to be much of a challenge,” he admitted. “Granted, there’s not enough distance here to really get a good challenge in.”
Takaraya took his turn, seeming somewhat annoyed by a grouping that looked very much like Kivenaal’s. “Remind me next time to extend the stock. Apparently, it does help even if I don’t feel the recoil anymore,” Takaraya said, before removing the magazine, clearing the chamber, and setting the rifle on the table with the safety on.
“Holy mother of… would like to know what exactly happened, but at this point i am too afraid to ask…” Mary said in shock, at which point William could not stop himself:
“You really had to bring the memes into this?” He said, trying to hold back the amusement gained from shitty puns.
“Long story short, guy with the van tried to overtake our group of 40-odd people in a place where there was not enough space to pull that off, let alone pull that off safely. Ran head-first into some farm tractor poking out of a driveway. Got sent back across the road, taking half of us with it. If you want the long story, i can get the accident report to you. As per the tattoo, it literally is a link to an unlisted YouTube video that some first-time rider at GSCC made of the immediate aftermath. The direct link has just a black screen for visuals, to protect identities of the affected,” Valentin explained almost nonchalantly, which added more fuel to the fire for Mary, who thought that this must have been a semi-frequent occurence for Valentin and his friends.
As such, she just stood there, absolutely dumbfounded and trying to comprehend it all.
“Geeezzzzz… Hope you are okay,” Mary eventually stammers, the target practice for the others already being done with as they all listened in on the unfolding conversation.
“Other than a good two kilos in titanium holding a few bones and joints together, lots of scar tissue and a couple months in hospital, i am about as good as can be…” Valentin responded.
“And like… mentally?”
“Norse took the worst of it on that one, honestly…” Valentin said as he vaguely looked over to Norse, who currently was currently carving something out of a piece of wood with a vegetable knife, “…most of the info i have on how it unfolded came from third-party accounts. My own memory stops at the Van being next to me… and restarts in hospital.”
Malavera spoke up with, “I was the one who found out about it for the rest of the crew. I’d noticed that, well, he hadn’t been online for several days, and… I was worried.” He made his rifle safe, set it on the table, then grabbed his phone and opened up the file browser. “I… Saved an offline copy of the video, but, well, I’ll leave it up to Val whether to play it.” He looked over with his other head to see Norse, then added, “It… Might be a bit much for Norse to hear this. I don’t know, but I also know I’m going to feel awful if I ruin Norse’s day again.”
“I personally take no issue with it. Otherwise i would not have permanently linked it onto my clavicle. I created a local copy myself in case it comes up. Though i am warning you about listener discretion. The audio is entirely unfiltered,” Valentin said, once again glancing over at Norse, then pulling out his phone and doing the same as Malavera, “if he hears this over Robert the second, then he is deliberately eavesdropping.”
A moment of contemplation followed before Mary faintly nodded at both Malavera and Valentin.
Malavera then pocketed his phone for Valentin to do the playback of the file at a volume just loud enough for the immediate surroundings to hear.
Description of the Audio file; read at own discretion
The file itself initially is a mass of white noise, rattling and other random sounds before it somewhat stabilizes into a very disjointed choir of screaming and moaning overshadowing a few snippets of phrases muttered in shock by those physically uninjured.
A very distinct voice [Norse] can be heard shouting his lungs out in desperation, directed at someone that cannot be identified by voice alone. Another voice is heard in the process of hastily contacting emergency services, though the critical details are missing or unintelligible.
The mixture of above continues for another minute or so before a helicopter approaching can be heard. Eventually, all the moaning, screaming and talking is drowned out by wind noise, at which point the clip ends.
The immediate aftermath is pure and utter silence, only disturbed by Valentin returning his phone to the pocket it came out of.
When the file played, Takaraya gave a startled flinch, not liking how similar it was to the flight-recording data from his failed mission. The screams, the noise, the chaos, it was alarmingly similar. He took in a shivered breath, despite the warmth outside, closing his metal hands into fists in the moment. Thankfully, the file ran for only a minute, but it was clear to those who knew him that Takaraya had been a bit rattled.
Kivenaal looked over to Takaraya and cautiously put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay. It’s okay,” he said, just trying to help a friend.
Malavera glanced at Takaraya and then mentioned, “I’m sorry. If I had known you’d have a reaction like this… I’d have warned you in advance.”
None of the humans present managed to pick up on Takaraya’s flinch.
Though Mary eventually turns around to face Constantin and, almost ceremonially, hands him both the rifle and the sidearm.
Confused, Constantin takes both: “Umm… what is this about?”
“I’m no longer taking part in this bullshit! I’m done with this,” Mary shouts, also handing over minor items in the process.
“Can’t say that was unexpected…” Hans mumbled, the others agreeing more or less obviously.
It took a moment for Constantin to finish computing the request:
“Alright… this is a less than ideal moment, but in basic, you are entitled to leave at any time. If you have brought Civilian clothing, get changed and return anything that belongs to the Navy. If not, go procure some.”
Jayde startled as he heard Mary’s outburst, taking a staggered half-step on his way to the range for some pistol practice. “Okay, that was certainly unexpected,” Jayde said to himself.
“If you’d been here three minutes ago, it wouldn’t be,” Malavera replied.
“Right. She’s leaving the military because…” Jayde looked around at everyone there to gather all the information he could, then finished with, “I’d guess Val played the file behind that QR code.”
“You know, it’s fucking scary when you do that, Jayde,” Malavera said. “That perception of yours, combined with your intuition, how are you that accurate?”
“I was trained to do this, Mal,” Jayde said. He looked to Mary, his jade-green eyes glancing over her uniform for a moment before he then said, “I can loan you some money to get civilian clothes.”
“Should have gone into detective work with that kind of deduction…” Valentin comments, hiding the tattoo again.
“Do you have PayPal or something so that i can pay you back once we are done with this? Also, i don’t know for how much a set of clothes goes around here, so there’s that as well…” Mary asks, quickly being confirmed by Jayde regarding PayPal. Not long after, she finds herself with an assortment of coins, with which she heads off into town.
“She surely seems serious about this…” Valentin mentioned while watching Mary disappear behind some street corner.
Malavera looked to Valentin, then said, “I’ve suggested the same thing to him a time or two. Between his deductive skills and his other… talents, he could solve a lot of crimes… If it wasn’t for the fact that he wouldn’t fit in the uniform. Yes, that’s the reason he gave for not trying.”
When Valentin mentioned Mary seemed serious about leaving the military, Takaraya nodded and said, “We all have a breaking point.”
“Well that calls it for target shooting for now. Patel and I swap spots for the watch, so you’re with Dupont now. Apart from that, back to base.” Constantin ordered, at which point the range was vacated, leaving only Shift Happens and Valentin.
“I think i am going to try your handguns some other time…” Valentin noted “the rifles… at least yours, are too much for my shoulder to take.”
He then turned around and also headed back to his compartment, soon after joined by Norse, who seemed mentally stable, even if it was fairly obvious to him that the topic came up again.
“Not a problem,” Malavera said. “You ever want to do some pistol practice, just find me, I’ll gladly go to the range with you and we can take turns hitting targets.”
Takaraya left without a word, seeming somewhat lost in his own thoughts as he unloaded his weapons and put them back in the truck. Kivenaal and Malavera left a few moments later, and with the recruits gone as well as everyone else, Jayde sighed and holstered his revolver, returning to the trucks.
A few hours later, Mary returned with some new clothes and handed Jayde what was left of the money he’d loaned her after she’d bought what she needed, then returned to the compartment train to sort out her sleeping arrangements.
