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Wellspring Arms & Meditation Center, Friday

He had all the paperwork checked and ready in a file - and it was nothing to do with Rumekistan for once. Cable made a few digital copies while Jan bounced on his knee, giggling and hitting the table with a doll. He peered past her towards the door.

The Help Wanted sign was no longer situated near the door, but the open sign was.

[[ flying ocdless and SP today ]]

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"So then we can't guarantee that my shields will even buy me an extra round," Karla said thoughtfully, chewing on her lower lip. "Though your cuffs do jave a Black shield built in we could possibly try. Hmmm..."

She was thoughtful for a few more seconds, then asked, "What's a specialty rifle? I thought all rifles were designed for the same thing?"

Killing.

"They are, but this one is still built on a standard G3 design. A specialty sniper rifle uses bullets that are specifically designed for killing people at range. Like the .338 Lapua which is effective out to about 1500 meters. Or the 12.7mm which we technically class as an anti-material rifle because you use it to kill vehicles."

She nodded down at the PSG-1. "But this has a much better rate of fire. It's always a trade-off."

Confused Karla was confused. "Killing vehicles?" she asked. "I thought you no longer used horses or livestock to pull carriages anymore."

Which always made explanations of 'horsepower' that much more confusing.

"It's a metaphor. But... imagine how much power it would take to destroy a car in one hit. If you hit a human with one of those, even in the arm, it tends to kill just because of how much damage is done."

Karla flinched. "That much trauma would send someone into shock, allowing them to bleed out," she said, wholly a Healer for the moment. "Assuming the pain didn't trigger some kind of fatal attack in the heart or the brain."

"Yes. A hit from a 12.7 will literally take off someone's arm. But it's slow firing, so if a shield stopped the first bullet, you might not be able to get the second one off f ast enough."

Triela tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Though if you had a team of two..." The Agency did a quite a few jobs with two-person sniper teams.

Karla tilted her head to one side, thinking. "I don't know how good my shields will stand up to this, then. Still, only one way to find out, huh?"

An instant of concentration and then a scintillating Sapphire shield appeared over the target. "All you, Triela."

Triela nodded and settles into a proper firing position again. It took her a second or two to get comfortable, settle her breathing, and site. Then she squeezed off another five rounds in rapid succession. It was overkill for an unshielded target, but she still didn't have a solid feel for just how much Karla's shields could stop.

Definitely overkill, as the first bullet shattered the shield upon impact. Karla winced, but wasn't all that surprised. It was a much bigger gun than the G-3 after all.

"That answers that question, then," she yelled, ear plugs still in. "Wanna test the Black?"

"Probably a good idea," Triela agreed. After all, that would give her some idea of how protected she was.

Karla held her hand out for Triela's cufflink and then waited for Triela to give her the clear to walk down the range to the target. She wasn't going anywhere until that giant rifle was pointed away from her vital bits.

...Which, with that gun, was everything.

Triela flicked the safety on and locked the bolt back (ejecting the live round in the chamber) before looking left and right on the firing line. She knew they were the only ones there, but better safe than sorry. "Range is clear," she announced as she detached her cufflink and hnaded it over.

Karla was not proudly smiling at herself for following range etiquette. It was a trick of the light.

...Someone had a rough week, okay, and was taking her victories where she got them.

It was a decent walk down to the target, at least for an indoor range. Placing the cufflink directly below the target, she let three drops of blood fall onto a shield she'd created over the it.

When she was halfway back to Triela, she vanished the shield, allowing to blood to hit the cufflink directly. Immediately, a translucent Black shield appeared over the target.

"I had to make sure I was out of range before activating the shield," she explained when she got closer. "Otherwise, I might have gotten stuck there."

Which would have really put a damper on the whole shooting thing.

"That would have been awkward," Triela agreed with a smirk. She waited for Karla to get behind her before she chambered a new round and flicked off the safety.

"Ready?" she asked, glancing over at Karla for confirmation.

Karla finished putting her ear plugs back in and then nodded. She couldn't help the small smile that was forming though. She wasn't sure how much damage the Black could take, but she was really hoping it would be enough for Triela to be impressed by.

Again Triela settled the rifle against her shoulder and sited. Then ripped off another five rounds and straightened to examine the target.

Except that nothing had happened. The shield was still there, and didn't even look noticeably different. "Hmm." She frowned. That was a lot of power.

She glanced over at Karla and raised an eyebrow.

The smirk was a little bigger now. "The shields are fine," she said immediately. "Not even scratched. Maybe we should try shooting some more?"

Butter couldn't melt in her mouth.

Triela rolled her eyes, but a thorough test was a good idea. She ejected the magazine from the rifle even though it wasn't totally empty, and replaced it with a full one.

"Ready?" she double checked before sighting again. This time she leaned harder into the rifle and fired continuously until all twenty rounds were fired. Twenty shots in about fifteen seconds.

...

Karla could tell better, but the shield looked... fine.

"Do you have a bigger gun?" Karla asked. "Like one of those vehicle-killing ones you mentioned before? One of those might be able to do...something? Maybe."

"Not with me," Triela frowned. "I have a DSR-50 with the rest of my gear, but I didn't think I'd need it." And... given how poorly the PSG-1 had faired... Triela sort of suspected that even .50 caliber rounds weren't going to help.

"What we really need is an anti-tank rocket..." But... she suspected that Mr. Summers wouldn't be a huge fan of those on his range...

"So...think these will be useful then?" Karla asked, giving Triela a happy smile. "You'll be able to stand in the middle of a gun battle and ignore everything you want. For days, even."

A smile slowly spread across Triela's face as she thought about that. It was the kind of expression that wasn't really calculated on making anyone feel comfortable, and coming from a girl who looked thirteen made it all the more unsettling.

"I suppose I can come up with a use or two for it," she allowed. Hostage extraction just got a whole lot easier.

"Though... is it two way? Can I shoot out of it?" She hadn't thought to ask because she hadn't thought the shields would be all that useful. But this changed things.

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