On Target Gun Range and Store

He nodded. Suitable Philosophy for most.
" Fear of force does work in most cases." He trailed off for a moment." I guess the need for handling things quietly isn't there as it use to be." He switched topics with out missing a beat. " How did that weapon feel? Recoil aside, you seemed to be able to place rounds on target. Loading it with mirco-air-bursting munitions would give you suitable force for most in-country encounters. Ship to ship you may way to use Delayed micro semtex. Tho that would require slight modification of the weapon..." He seemed to trail off for a moment as if in thought.
" I could add a heavier barrel and add more weight to the lower receiver to reduce recoil at the cost of maybe 3/4 a pound.
Otherwise we can head back in and try and find something else."

"A heaver; recoil compensating apparatus would probably work well for me, but I still am partial to energy weapons." Elanna said before a second staffer came through the door out into the range.

"Commander! Commander! You're needed in orbit, we have unidentified contacts." He said, coming up to her and hastily whispering into her ear. At that moment she turned to Isaac and frowned.

"Apologies, but I must get going." She said, as she pulled out a small device that resembled a key fob for an automobile.

She turned to her staffer briefly. "Make sure this gentleman is compensated for his target." She said, and the first staffer nodded, as Elanna pointed the remote to the sky, and then she depressed the button.

"I'd suggest you stand back. I also appreciate the time you've taken to show me your weapons, I will return to make my purchase but for now I must depart."

Above them the clouds began to swirl, there was a crack of thunder, and a shaft of multicolored light enveloped by a vortex of temporal energies shot down from the heavens, enveloping Elanna and her two staffers.

There was a sonic boom, a thunderclap, and as quickly as everything came it disappeared, leaving scorched ground where Elanna once stood.

The man just took all that in for a moment, these folks were strange to be sure... He looked at the steel target, now riddled with holes, with a stony expression, calculating. Tho this could have just been his normal face for anyone knew.

" Welp, Anything you might be interested in? " He turned asking the staffer with a smile. " Primitive as most of my wares might be, there is surely something I can interest you in. Or maybe some armor or other such devices I provide...?" He said with a sidelong glance as he gathered up his weaponry and moved to head back inside.

Either way the staffer replied or didn't the cyborg would move inside to place the used weapons behind the counter to be cleaned later, or sold as the case may be.

Mason Walked into the gun store, his boots moved softly against the floor. he flicked the safety on his shotgun to "on" and walked up to the person by the counter. "I need about twenty boxes of ten gauge tripple aught buckshot, and a place to sight my scope" he said placing the shotgun and SCAR-L on the counter. and im here to see what else you have for sale.

he heaved a breath through the filter and coughed. it was obvious his voice was artificially enhanced. he stood tall with a fighter's valor. he walked around looking at the store's merchandise he picked up a fancy looking sniper rifle. "what's this?"

Isaac's eyes followed the new, masked man to the counter,still smiling as ever. Tho he stood very still, in a natural seeming position; but relaxed considerably when the man flicked the safety on his shotgun. Gas mask, bandoleer magazine pouches wonder what this gent plans on doing...

"I need about twenty boxes of ten gauge triple aught buckshot, and a place to sight my scope"

" Sure thing, I've probably got enough Federal to cover that... Oh that? That is a TPG-1 , probably one of my favorite rifles around here. Great shooter. "
Issac loved over the man's long rifle and raised and eyebrow. Not awful taste, a bit on the expensive side tho. A Trijicon combat optic, with a surefire suppressor.

" Basic range fee is 10 $, kill house is 30 $ , which one would you like?" as he spoke, Issac started gathering up the boxes of #000 buck. He waited for the man to answer before continuing his spiel .

" Sign there, print there. Would you like some 5.56 for that as well? " He asked nodding at the rifle.
He punched in a few keys and the total started to climb , 20 boxes, 210$.

"I'll use the regular range thank you." he replied he took off his back pack and pulled out two ingots of gold and a rifle case. he then put the gold back in the bag. he quickly pulled out a bag of platinum and steel coins. "in the case is a gauss rifle. don't ask were i found it. but let's just say the owner isn't alive anymore. the currency should cover the ammo and time in the range. keep the rifle as good faith gift. besides, i couldn't get a hold of ammo for it."

Issac's punching of keys slowed in the breifest of ways when the man took out two ingots... ingots of god... and a rifle case.
He nodded a bit. Taking in exactly what the man was saying and was faced with a moral dilemma , tho he'd deal with that at a later time.

" Sounds like a plan my friend. Range is out back, last lane are zeroing targets, I've got a couple spotting scopes you can use if you'd like. " He said, taking the ingots and placing them under the til of the cash register drawer. Issac opened the rifle case and gave the weapon a once over. Not exactly his sort of thing. He'd leave it alone for now but a tiny bit of him wanted to start tinkering with the weapon. He looked for a serial number, or some sort of manufacturing markings.

Issac placed and extra box of #000 on the stack, as well as a box of 55gr 5.56, just to be polite.

Mason walked back from the firing range about an hour later he threw about two platinum coins at the store owner. he then said. while placing a small communicator on the table. "if you need anyone to do anything for you. like those things you want to keep from prying eyes of the public while you're shipping it or you need any sort of item from somewhere give me a call on this. it's a secure network and can only contact my mobile."

he then walked out the door like he was never there...

Putting the gold away Issac took the rifle case and moved it behind the counter he'd dick with it later.
With only himself at the range at this point he moved back to what he had been doing before, making ammo and waiting for folks to show up.... That and mulling over the idea of keeping the stolen goods.

Issac sat at the counter, a single pistol bullet was held against the table until he flicked it away, knocking another nine into various directions. He was bored... very...very bored... With not work to be done, he had taken to stacking ammunition like match sticks as often as shooting it, the resulting towers could be seen behind the counter. One would think they'd never be bored with enough ammunition to lay siege to Terra, but , you'd be wrong.

The sun was practically scorching today as Asanj was first cleaning her former service weapon in various parts. She uh, wore a rather silly sun shade hat that honestly looked like a small umbrella on her head and was constantly apply sun screen. Not for the burns mind you, rather this much exposure could lead to rather unfortunate health complications down the line.

She had honestly just stumbled on this place when she was in Lorandor attending some very dull archeological lecture on the ancient Caldonian civilizations uncovered. She thought the concept of lost cities and customs would have been interesting but somehow they chose the most boring woman in the planet to be the key note speaker. It wasn’t a total lost though, as finally the very foreign looking firearm finally snapped into place. She HAD a license to handle it, she had honestly wasn’t sure if the notary would be recognized as legal on this world. She had to fill out a test before even going on the course today.

It felt like she was back in the police academy. Not only was she wearing that ridiculous thing on her head but she had some rather oversized safety glasses and big muffled earphones over her head making her almost look like some human muppet. Loading the first clip her first target was prop up at 50 meters… The continual pop of the handgun would be heard as she got in some very useful practice.

Photu was technically new to the licenses in her pocket. It was her pocket now after all so the things in it were hers too. At her new belt as was the gun she really wanted to use. After getting shot at with one enough one cared about shooting back. After buying some ammo that went in it she'd headed out to the firing range where she was supposed to practice. Her leather jacket and jeans creaked at the wide steps she took to keep her balance. Photu's tolerant hearing didn't flinch at the noise but it did drown out everything else. Her torso threw backward repositioning her feet to look at its source. Two hands? Okay.

The hand calloused by hard travel gripped a stand so she could spin back around. She was fairly good at imitating. She aimed at a target and pulled the trigger.

Click.

Did she forget something? Photu stood still wavering in the wind staring dumbly at the target while she went looking through her new library for more information. She had to know how to use the gun at some point.

That was one of the things that Asanj loved about this particular world. You could be shooting guns next to a cowboy! Cow-woman. In this sense? Cowperson? Hm. She cracked a small grin at the arrival of her new neighbor hearing a very familiar click of the handgun. Oh. OH! Hm.

This stranger needed to be school in some basic gun safety, she was still waving it around even after pulling her eye away from the sight. The woman who was currently dressed in the future version of yoga pants and a t-shirt (not a lot could be made different after all.) The umbrella hat wearing Asanj greeted with a friendly smile.

“Hello! Need some help?” She asked rather plainly.

Photu's head swiveled over after a moment, overshot, then tracked back. The eyes were glassy and didn't move at all. Her tongue even seemed reluctant to move caught suddenly in her mouth before the jaw got situated. The voice clearly paused to think and spoke like she had a speech disability with the woman's over-enunciation, "I uuused to hafve knowledge of how too fire the gun. Buuut I don't remember.... wheere it is right now. How do IIII make it fiiire again? I neeed to shoot back, maybe."

Two small holes in her hat became more level than the woman's downward gaze but Photu could see who she was looking at. Voices were hard. She needed practice to stop stuttering. Still, she was a little excited by how well she spoke. The woman smiled at the ground.

Oh god. Did she suffer some sort of brain damage in an accident?? That was a horrible thing to think but that was honestly the first strain of conscious thought that formed in Asanj mind. Mostly it was the way this stranger talked but more along the line of completely forgetting how to handle a gun. She sure that wasn’t actually the case. There was probably a simpler explanation.

“Well first.” She expressed happy to give out pointers. “You are going to want to stop waving your gun around. Always know where you are pointing that weapon at all times, heck I just put mines on the table when I am not using it.” She expressed. That was good practice. “It’s good practice. Always be aware of your firearm. You only want to use it when you choose to.” She tried her best to explain.

Otherwise she seemed to be having more technical issues. “Why don’t I take a look at your weapon?” She offered perhaps she could discover the cause of the misfire.

The women's head took a very tight angle downward to look at her gun. It had bullets inside, round part out, there were bullets inside. Photu didn't know much more about the guns. It had levers on the bottom, side and top. Well she wasn't going to see the meaning for them until after organizing the mess.

The woman gripped large pistol in her hand as Photu offered it to Asanj. The handles were a sandalwood that still had a faint scent curling up like the vinelike overlay going from wood up the barrel past an uncolored safety. Though seeing its sister weapon in the other holster the blueish steel was much heavier than it looked in the woman's hands. The heft was one of a disconcertingly high caliber.

The fingers on the woman's other hand curl alternately with her looking on. Except for the index that took a few to follow suit. Photu looked up but the wide brimmed hat still was pointed somewhat down, hiding her face. "It iis waas heavy at firrst. I found the parts tooo hold it rright. I will bee more careful. Is it brokeee now?"

Having guest at his range Issac was quietly watching from a seat at the rear of the firing range. The ladies both had licences, for what they were worth, so he had decided to let them be for the while, Besides, having an old grizzled man poking at you for poor shooting habits seldom kept customers, less they asked for it specifically. At first glance he would have guessed the old westerner would take to shooting like he did, but she fumbled with her weapon. A twinge of sympathy ran through Issac like a greased pike.
Having something that was part of you through and through and then suddenly being unable to use it hit a nerve with him...
Tho his old soft ass might just be spinning stories out of nothing, she could have just looked the part, lots of folks did and knew nothing about firearms, let alone how to shoot. The more modern, well modern for Issac, lady offered assistance before he could chime in. He watched quietly, tho did his best to seem disinterested by gazing through the shooting scope sitting on the tri-pod infront of him. He had set the target that his last guest had ruined out a good distance and was currently miling to target to get a distance for reference, before he used the laser range-finders anyways.

After a moment, he gave into his itch and chimed in.

" Might wanna start on something a tad smaller than those, 38' or 44 might be a bit much. Develops bad habits. " He offered in a mild voice.

Wow. The locals were really heavily arming themselves. With the history of this world and all its occupations and invasions she couldn’t say she wasn’t surprised by this. Asanj felt the weight of the small arm in her hand. She placed it on the table facing away from them at the moment as she took a moment to sort of more in depth inspect the firearm.

This was a very strange modification she thought to herself. Only that it was hard to grip the actual pistol comfortably but she supposed privately it was something more cultural between the two ladies. She snapped the safety for a moment, checked if it was loaded, see if the gun was properly clean. Nothing. Woah. This stranger didn’t know a lot about guns. She also sort of felt bad.

“I think we are going to go over proper gun maintenance first.” She proposed.

It was then when the old gun range owner finally spoke up. The foreign agent looking over registering the suggestion until realizing she was strapped with the damn heavy artillery in her other holster. GOD DAMN! “I didn’t realize there was such a need for this much self-defense out here in these parts.” She expressed earnestly.

She unload the gun and chamber putting the bullets to the side. “Uh. Hold up I have to get my kit.” She expressed handing her back the empty gun and bullets. “Follow me over to my range, I’ll show you everything you need to do to keep your gun in working order.” She offered looking back to the range owner

“Do you at all sell gun cleaning kits?” She asked him from across the range. It would be a seriously useful gift for this stranger. “Call me Asanj by the way.” She offered to the other woman.

The world was dangerous that Photu was sure of. Photu rememberd a part in her new library she liked about it. On one of piled up tables she nabbed the thought to play it back. The voice that emerged was Photu's but quite smoother.

Lost memory ignited a glassy stare that for moments looked like someone's still there, "Parts too dark and deep. Parts are dreams ever distant. All fools' souls mislaid."

The disjointed drawn out cadence returned, "I hearrrd that once I don't knooow where yet. I liked it. Therrre are daangerouus plaaaces here. Hidden. Dangerrrrous peepole go thhhere to shoooot at things."

She looked at Asanj then to Issac, "You can callll me... Photu. The toools are all I haaad on my... person. I like tools iiin good condition. Do you havve smaller guns tooo use?"

Photu ambled over closer to the spot Asanj had taken her gun. She posted note on her library's board to rummage around and find out where the woman lived. There had to be more tools there.

" Certainly do ," he said answering both their questions,"Tho I won't be charging for this one, been a while since I had pleasant folks out enjoying them selves, i'm not in the mood to spoil it" smiling as he stood he added " Be back in a moment."


It was really nice having some folk around the place, it did Issac a world of good to have some company around, his trips to the bar's in town seldom met with any decent conversation , and really were just exercises in futility.

The old cyborg came back with a wodden box tucked under one arm, and two revolvers in one hand , held by the barrels.

" Didn't know if the lady, miss Photu was it?" The name felt strange , as did miss Asanj 's but who was he to judge," preferred double action or single, so I brought both." He explained setting the two weapons down on a table near Asanj's and proceed to open the box which held various brushes, bore mops, and rag eyes , along with various lengths of brass tube to be used as cleaning rods.

" Both of em are .22 long rifle, so there will be next to nothin' in terms of felt recoil, very easy to learn on." He said digging through his cargo pockets. He set two small boxes of ammo next to the pistols.

The revolvers were nothing much to speak of, blued steel well worn by practiced hands, and dark stain walnut grips as smooth as drift wood.

" This one is double, that one is single" He explained gesturing to each pistol in turn. " The Double has a smooth 7 pound draw, nice and slow building that breaks like glass, and the single is like a 3 pound pull with almost no travel. Not that it means much to ne--- some folk anyhow. " He shrugged a bit, hoping he didn't over due it with jargon, or offend his guest.

Asanj didn’t know what she exactly meant as a ‘hidden’ dangerous place but she felt this conversation was giving her some particular insight. The umbrella wearing woman brought her over to her spot on the range, on the table in front of them was a small caliber handgun that was not only foreign in design but the material seemed more to be a composite plastic than metal. Where Asanj had come from they had synthesis a cheaper material to make the weapon a lot more inexpensive to mass produce. And also the gun didn’t melt like after two or three shots. This could take some heat and pressure.

“I only brought my old service weapon.” She described “Though it seems we already have you covered.” Turning her attention to the gun ranger owner who not only brought the kit but two more pistols on the range. It was a pretty damn good idea, she couldn’t help but smile sort of making room for the other to set the new material down. Right.

When thoughts came of home, it wasn’t some sort of address or house somewhere out in this desert. Rather took out of the skies and out of the atmosphere before slowly moving out of the solar system and into the stars themselves. Stars quickly began to link together in a pattern, only like a map that stretched further and further out until one star was highlighted at the very end of this trail. Home for her. The home she honestly hoped to come back when her assignment was over.

She examined the two small arms. “This is fantastic. Thank you.” She expressed “But I’ll like to show her what she needs to do maintaining her own firearm first.” She proposed. She motioned for Photu to move a little closer and watch over her shoulder. Her hands felt around the gun she had brought over from Photu spot on the range. Quietly and very slowly as to demonstrate she began to take the weapon apart setting it down component by component as she opened up her own kit showing very similar tools from the one that Isaac brought over.

“You should honestly do every day you intend to use your firearm. You don’t want it to jam or misfire when you need it the most.” She expressed to Photu. Her eyes flew back to Isaac “I think we’ll tryout the DA first.” She purposed. Lot more modern guns were using that system anyhow. Best to start there.

The library's peculiarities were something photu couldn't escape. Mostly that it shaped with a latent image the body expected. Part of that was two legs stood in front of the wooden desk for an itchy biped. She busily scribbled words on a piece of paper, "Rifle. Recoil. Pull. Travel." Thus the interest written it's crumpled in a four fingered left hand. Paused a moment to Look out the windows to see new metal tools near Asanj words outside heard by the woman echoed loudly in here. It didn't take much effort to nod. A dusty coffee machine on the desk receives the paper ball in its white-lined hopper then closed and turned on. It took her a week to figure that out but it didn't make sense yet. It needed time to brew and she'd see what came out. Back out a torn walnut door since patched over she returned to focus on the outside world.

Photu had the distinct impression of a earthy smell from the pot which distracted her for a moment that saw the woman's head moving about to reconnoiter her surroundings. Long guns! She recognized that those were bad at shooting small fast things close by.

The woman's tongue roiled a bit in her mouth before Photu got ahold of it and looked at Issac, "Yes, I can beee called Photu. Long guuns are riiiffles? Piiistols can usse the saaame bulllets? Less toools to carry. I reeemember they are baad at shoooting nearby fast... things."

The woman's alabaster face sharply arrived a smile, framed by small gaps in her auburn hair, looking at her hand tensing a finger. She relished the amusement of learning a new tool, "Leeever has diffeeerent force reeesistance. Diiirty gun tooo much friiiction. Okay. Less gravvvitic forces beeetter for haaands to move tools faaaster."

Hand collapsing inward to a ball the woman removes the other handgun and inspects the safety briefly turning the gun to one side. Deposited near to her other hand cannon and the cleaning tools she asks Asanj, "Whaaat doees thee oother lever do?"

Photu stepped close to Asanj head peering sharply down at the activity to look closely. A thin gap forms as the hat loosened at the front of the woman's head.

With a surprised smile Issac nodded as Asanj spoke, sure there were plenty of cases were a clean weapon wouldn't preform as well as a "dirty" one, but reliability was not one of them... well not enough to count for much anyways when it came to automatics or repeaters.
" Sounds like a plan, Imma stay outta your way then."
Curiosity sparkled in his eye as he casually gave Asanj's weapon a once over, about as sly as some men might look over an attractive young lady, likely a lock breech design. He'd have to ask her about it a bit later.

Seeing that Asanj' had basic weapon maintenance under her belt Issac chose to remain quiet , didn't want to step on her toes any.
Honestly he had a backwards way of teachin' folk, at least those he met on the range , teach em to shoot and let them clean their weapons, the the ground up class room style teaching method works well enough.

" Depending on what style, yes, there are several long guns that fire pistol cartridges, and some pistols' that fire rifle cartridges. I've got a couple of Lever action rifles you could rent, or purchase if you'd like. Tho I think we should focus on your carry weapon at the moment. Miss Asanj seems to have very capable hands , so I'll wander off for a bit." He said with a smile. Normally he was hesitant to leave rental weapons out , but since there were not many folks around and Asanj seemed to have the teaching bug , he went back into the shop and collected his rifle and shooting kit.

The cyborg came back a moment later with a large case , and shooting mat, he went about quietly setting up his shooting mat, and spotting scope in a lane a few stalls down. He hummed contently as he worked, happy as an artist at work.

Asanj took the moment to register the question. For a weapon so high in caliber it was a lot lighter in her hands as she expected. The umbrella wearing woman unloaded the gun like before inspecting the system. “I wouldn’t manipulate the lever at all.” She expressed “It cocks back to ready the bullet in the chamber but it works in such a way that squeezing the trigger prompts the lever to pull back until it clicks and then squeezing it a bit further releases it.”

She actually demonstrated for a moment very calmly squeezing the trigger slowly as the gun got prepped and then pushing it further for the hammer to fall down snapping into the chamber. “It’s important to never push the trigger all the way. You’re likely to hurt your hand like that. Always slowly squeeze the trigger. We’ll be sure to practice that during practice today.” Isaac was right. She probably did like to teach a great deal. Perhaps she should have gone into the education sector instead. She still could. Heh. Asanj imagined herself trying to teach a class of bored teenagers about math, or science.

“What exactly is fast and hard to shoot that you seem to need to prepare for Photu?” She asked the local. This practice honestly seemed like a necessity for the other woman. This particular region must be rough and disordered, honestly nothing like she was used to that Asanj could attest she was a very adaptive woman. As she asked she looked up to the woman seeing something that wasn’t…right beneath her hat.

She only stopped for a moment before snapping back into place Isaac the gun range owner speaking as he was sorting something out. Asanj couldn’t help but offer a light chuckle. “Thanks. You flatter.” She expressed. She was glad to take the compliment as she offered Photu the piece of her initial gun. She gave the other woman one of the tools she had been using. “You saw me do it. Now do as I do. I am going to do that for every part and then hand it off to you so you can do the same.” Asanj was a firm believer of hands on experience being the best way of retaining knowledge. Not data, but actually applied knowledge.

“Afterwards we are going to put your weapon back together.” She expressed. Also a very useful thing to know. She couldn’t help but wonder what exactly the owner was setting up not further away from their booth at the range. “What do you have planned over there?” She couldn’t help but ask.

The woman took the gun offered to her looking it over distracted by checking woody-smelling brown fluid pouring out of the machine in her new library. There wouldn't be something to read until it's done. Photu would have to learn on her own for now.

On her way out of the library a piece of floor gate way and her foot stuck. Half-way in and out Photu worked to remove her foot. The woman waggled two fingers in tandem for a moment while they came unstuck with the foot out of her foremind. The floor of the library was still full of holes. She'd have to do some more repairs; the last thing she needed is a hand freezing at inopportune moments.

Photu's sudden smile appeared to point again at the ground, "Thundddering cartriiidges for pissstols too? I havvvve heard thhhem. There arrre dangerous things innn sharp angles. Houuuunds. They hunnnnt people thaaat go when theeey aree not waaanted."

Photu frowned remembering state the library started after getting in, "Chiiiildren thaat take all thhhhe imppportant pieeeces from thiiings. I neeeed to shooot them. Geeet the peiccces back."

Tools were something she was more familiar with. Little brushes? Photu's hands moved quickly but jarringly with fair precision. She moved the little brushes through the holes. She liked metals better they were harder to move than new meat suits.

Photu commented idly at the difference, "Metal guuuns arrre much cleeeaner afffter they cooome apart. I seee how thhhey arrre put together."