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Book 2 / File #6 – Guns and Drones
Grey's Requested Calm: 07:23:19 Left
Adrian took in and released a breath, making sure the correct chevron was over the target. The next gust he felt moved the rifle just so, which he corrected for. He then adjusted the reticle's position slightly to the left, and held for a few seconds.
Once they were up, he squeezed the trigger. His earmuffs kicked in to muffle the gunshot, then let him hear the distant ping of metal being shot.
“Miss. Out of target.”
Hearing that, Adrian checked the feed before the bullet impact cloud cleared. His shot was too low on the...bottom right? How did I miss in that direction? ...Oh, well. Gauge with the first shot, then dial in the others. He told himself, aiming slightly higher and further left in turn.
As another gust passed him, something crossed his mind. Had he waited too long before, and allowed a gust he couldn't see to push his shot in that direction? With the grass either dead or covered by what remained of last week's snowfall, he couldn't tell when one was coming, or how far ahead one could be.
17 MPH... As he set the rifle down, he said, “Just a minute. Gotta look something up.”
“Trying to account for those gusts?” his grandfather asked as he grabbed his phone.
“Yeah. Not sure how, just yet.”
Neither the range officer nor his grandfather said anything in response, which he preferred. A check of his weather app showed the gusts were still around 17 MPH, and going south-southeast. Unable to remember the last time he needed to know how many feet per second that was, he plugged the numbers into a converter. Almost 25 feet per second was what he got back, and he could feel them every 15 or so seconds. Even if I wait, there's at least one more gust wall out there all the time.
For a moment, Adrian considered waiting until another day, when the weather was more favorable, but then...he hadn't missed by that much. As he made up his mind, he made sure the phone was back on the screen from before and put it back in position, taking up the rifle again afterwards. A gust whipped past him shortly after; he compensated for his next shot with an aim considerably higher than his first.
When he felt certain, he fired. Again he heard the metal plate ping from the impact.
“Hit. Right lower side.”
Adrian released a breath. “There you go.” his grandfather said.
As another gust rolled by, Adrian aimed for the same spot. He felt a touch of reservation in doing so, but after a few seconds, worked himself into taking another shot.
Again, the plate pinged.
“Hit. Lower center.”
Lower center? Is the wind slowing down? He waited for the next gust to see if he felt anything different.
“You've got plenty of time. Don't rush and miss.” his grandfather said as the next one rushed by. If there was a difference, it wasn't obvious. Adrian compensated with a nudge to the right, just in case, then held until he pushed himself into the shot.
The metal plate pinged again, however...
“Miss. Out of target.”
What? Adrian checked the feed. His shot was too low this time. Ah, nuts.
“You can bounce back from that,” his grandfather told him. “You had it there for a while.”
“Yeah, true,” Adrian said as he thought over what he should do next. Had a suddenly stronger gust thrown his shot out that time? It was the only thing that made sense.
He set his sights on the area outside of the target next. Aiming that high had to give him the widest area left and right for the round to sway. The next gust eventually passed, he corrected for the barrel being pushed, and then took the shot.
The metal pinged.
“Hit. Center right.”
A grin worked its way onto Adrian's face. Four more times...
He repeated the process for the next shot, waiting for the gust to pass, adjusting the rifle, and then firing. His second shot pinged the metal again.
“Hit. Right edge.”
“Oh, that was close. You were almost out again.” his grandfather said.
Adrian took that into account. Fighting the gusts was more or less a guessing game, but two in a row again was drawing out a touch of dopamine.
He adjusted to the left again to account for the wind direction, and fired after another gust went by.
“Hit. Lower right quad.”
Three for three.
Adrian's next shot, despite feeling adrenaline entering his veins, took longer to happen. He didn't want to lose his streak now. The gust he felt next was followed more quickly than he expected by another one.
“How's he doing?” he then heard his father say from his left.
“Good. Got three in a row just now. Two more and he's qualified.”
“Nice. Keep it up, son.”
“Thanks.” Adrian let the high from the praise wear off before considering his next shot. By then, he'd felt a few more gusts go by, one weaker than the others. How cold his fingers felt was also starting to stand out. That he tried to ignore as he pushed himself into the next shot.
The metal pinged again.
“Hit. Bullseye.”
Despite hearing those words, knowing he was one way from qualifying left Adrian focusing on his pulse more than anything else. It was racing, making it tough to hold his breath. If he missed now... C'mon, no. I've got this... He then glanced at his phone, wondering what Raven and Grey were thinking. This one's for you two.
He waited until he was sure, more than sure, and finally took the shot.
The metal pinged, and...
“Hit. Right edge.” Hearing that, Adrian felt the tension in his chest melt away, let out his held breath, and then breathed into his hands to warm them. “Nine shots in 27 minutes, and 9 seconds.”
“Nice job, and nice symmetry too.” his grandfather said, patting him on the shoulder as he did so. The range officer also showed him the shot timer before accepting Adrian's handshake offer.
“So, what happens now?”
“Now, we mark your account in the system as allowed on the four hundred to six hundred yard ranges. I'm assuming your granddad want to try too?”
“Nah, this was his thing for today.” Adrian's shoulder was patted again. “I've got my own range for this.”
“Always the best kind. Well, congrats on qualifying, though what do you say to a single six hundred yard shot right now?”
Adrian looked back at his father and grandfather, both of whom nodded in response. “Sure, why not?”
The six hundred yard range was even more extreme than he expected, so much so that he could barely see anything that looked like a target, even against the story-high mound of dirt in the distance.
An uneasy chuckle left his mouth after a little while. “If you miss, that's fine. Most people do on this range, a lot.” the range officer said.
“I can see why,” Adrian said as he leaned forward, trying to spot anything. A similar target camera was set up in the grass near the target plate, and he propped his phone to get the same angle as before. Once he was in the same position as on the three hundred range, he got the target in sight, as best he could. Now, the target was half the size, if even smaller, than before.
After angling the rifle even further up and to the left than before, Adrian waited for a gust to go by. When he was as sure as he could feel, he took a breath, then took the shot.
The gunshot faded into the distance, but nothing else sounded. “Where did it go?”
“I could see the air trails for a split second. It passed by on the right side, just below center.”
“Oh.”
“Like I said, most people miss a lot on this range.”
Adrian then ejected the rifle magazine, pulling the slide back to eject the chambered round. “That was fun, though.”
“Always is. Let us know when you're ready to try these ranges again.”
Adrian nodded at that. As the range officer took his leave, and his father and grandfather gathered the rifle and ammo, he reached for his phone, pretending to stop the recording.
As he suspected, both Raven and Grey had texted him.
'This One Is Amazed Adrian Ritter Could Do That.'
'Likewise. Impressive-shooting. Raven-also-insisted-on-recording-the-whole-thing.'
Yep, thought so. 'Glad to know you both enjoyed that.'
Back at the house, Adrian followed his grandfather's procedure for cleaning the rifle, unloading the unspent rounds from the magazine as well. “Shame Uncle Keith couldn't watch that,” he had said early on.
“You recorded the whole thing, didn't you? That was why your phone was set up like it was before, right?”
“This One Recorded For Adrian Ritter.” Raven said aloud.
“I forgot you had that AI in your phone. Well, Keith can see the video some other time.”
“I can always load it onto YouTube as unlisted, and link him to it. That'll do the job.”
“Hmm. What's that thing your dad and you do to store things online?”
“Cloud storage?”
“I think so. I would do that. At least then, he can save a copy if he wants.”
“Yeah, true.”
After his grandfather took the rifle back into the house, Adrian made some time to recover the remote camera from behind the garage. The feeding spot had been disturbed since he last checked, urging him to check the camera feed. A cardinal, among other birds, had eaten some of the seeds since that morning.
'Raven-showed-me-this-last-night,' Grey texted after a moment.
“He gets a lot of use out of it,” Adrian replied out loud.
'Are-we-allowed-to-speak-out-here?'
“For a little bit, yeah.”
As Adrian took the camera out of the housing and stuffed it into his jacket's pocket, Grey's voice said, “You-have-done-quite-a-lot-for-my-brother, it-seems.”
“I was glad to. I'm sure he said the same.”
“Indeed-he-has.”
It was then that Adrian felt compelled to ask, “Did Raven tell you what he did for all of us a few days ago?”
“For-all-of-you? No.”
“You want to tell him, Raven?”
“This One Was Able To Keep Criminals From Stealing From Adrian Ritter And Family. This One Used Home Camera System To Alert Law Enforcement When Event Occurred.”
“Yeah. It caught me by surprise, learning he could do what he did, but that outcome? We owe him for that.”
Grey's response came after a few seconds. “I-am-genuinely-impressed-to-learn-that. Well-done, Raven.”
“This One Was Glad To Be Of Help.”
For most of the next hour, Adrian read quietly in his room, both AIs staying inside his phone. What was coming in a few hours began picking at his thoughts within minutes, along with the worry that he was being deceived by Grey.
After a while, the only assumption he could lean on was Grey wasn't telling him anything because he was playing things as safe as possible. What he told himself last night came back into his thoughts, though so did a touch of his old emotions. He shook them off as best he could.
A while after, Adrian heard the text message received sound. Raven, it turned out, had been reading a new chapter of the manga it started days ago. Since completing it, the AI had gone searching for new ones, and found one that interested it.
The second message Raven sent was a link to the new series, to one page in particular. It depicted a kid four to eight years younger than himself with a bird-like monster flying near his head. Though the creature on the page looked nothing like Raven’s 16-bit design, Adrian couldn’t help imagining the same for the AI.
He then bookmarked the series, and replied, ‘How about we read this together, a chapter or two?’
'This One Would Enjoy That.'
The first chapter went by within minutes; its story was focused on how the kid discovered the bird-like monster. He had noticed something odd on the outskirts of his hometown, and then discovered a 'tear' in the Earth itself, from which something Lovecraftian had emerged. When the bird-like monster flew out of the same 'tear', it kept the kid safe from harm, and afterwards promised to continue helping him so long as he was treated well. The page Raven had linked to was the final page of the chapter, where the kid had agreed to the terms.
'I can see why you picked this.' Adrian texted. Raven didn't reply, nor did Grey. When the second chapter moved the story into a scene where the bird monster flew high above the trees, with the promise to keep an eye on the kid from high up, Adrian's thoughts went to his drone.
'Raven, how about we put this on hold and go fly the drone some more?'
'This One Was Thinking Similarly.'
At that, Adrian gathered everything he needed and threw his jacket back on. Outside, the sun was freely shining, and the gusts from their time at the range had dropped to a light, consistent breeze.
“I'll let you go first,” Adrian said once he confirmed everything was set up. A few seconds later, the rotors of the drone began spinning; Raven ascended to a little above Adrian's head, then rotated the drone to face him. “The sun's starting to set,” Adrian said, pointing to the west as he spoke. “Keep the lens aimed down if you're facing that direction.”
“This One Will Do So.” Raven then took the drone up higher, to around sixty feet. The AI then checked for any trees nearby with higher reach, and when it found none, picked a direction and flew.
"How-long-has-Raven-known-how-to-do-this?" Grey asked after a few minutes.
"Not long. A few days," Adrian replied. By then, he was standing near the end of the driveway.
"My-brother-seems-quite-pleased. More-so-than-I-suspected."
"Really?"
"Yes."
Hmm. "And what about you? Does this interest you at all?"
"To-some-degree. That-established, this-is-time-my-brother-deserves-to-himself."
"I have another battery at the ready, if you want to try this."
"There-is-no-need-for-me-to-attempt-this."
"You sure? If he's having fun, you should too."
Grey didn't respond to that, leaving Adrian to resume watching the drone's camera feed, and the battery level, which had dropped to 60% already.
=============================
Adrian tries his hand at the range's 300 yard qualifier, and later lets Raven fly the drone some more.
=============================
Raven and Grey's Voice Lines = 12 / https://1drv.ms/f/c/0cc1a5ef5f1d85e.....0Bod4?e=hTSpnZ
Grey's Requested Calm: 07:23:19 Left
Adrian took in and released a breath, making sure the correct chevron was over the target. The next gust he felt moved the rifle just so, which he corrected for. He then adjusted the reticle's position slightly to the left, and held for a few seconds.
Once they were up, he squeezed the trigger. His earmuffs kicked in to muffle the gunshot, then let him hear the distant ping of metal being shot.
“Miss. Out of target.”
Hearing that, Adrian checked the feed before the bullet impact cloud cleared. His shot was too low on the...bottom right? How did I miss in that direction? ...Oh, well. Gauge with the first shot, then dial in the others. He told himself, aiming slightly higher and further left in turn.
As another gust passed him, something crossed his mind. Had he waited too long before, and allowed a gust he couldn't see to push his shot in that direction? With the grass either dead or covered by what remained of last week's snowfall, he couldn't tell when one was coming, or how far ahead one could be.
17 MPH... As he set the rifle down, he said, “Just a minute. Gotta look something up.”
“Trying to account for those gusts?” his grandfather asked as he grabbed his phone.
“Yeah. Not sure how, just yet.”
Neither the range officer nor his grandfather said anything in response, which he preferred. A check of his weather app showed the gusts were still around 17 MPH, and going south-southeast. Unable to remember the last time he needed to know how many feet per second that was, he plugged the numbers into a converter. Almost 25 feet per second was what he got back, and he could feel them every 15 or so seconds. Even if I wait, there's at least one more gust wall out there all the time.
For a moment, Adrian considered waiting until another day, when the weather was more favorable, but then...he hadn't missed by that much. As he made up his mind, he made sure the phone was back on the screen from before and put it back in position, taking up the rifle again afterwards. A gust whipped past him shortly after; he compensated for his next shot with an aim considerably higher than his first.
When he felt certain, he fired. Again he heard the metal plate ping from the impact.
“Hit. Right lower side.”
Adrian released a breath. “There you go.” his grandfather said.
As another gust rolled by, Adrian aimed for the same spot. He felt a touch of reservation in doing so, but after a few seconds, worked himself into taking another shot.
Again, the plate pinged.
“Hit. Lower center.”
Lower center? Is the wind slowing down? He waited for the next gust to see if he felt anything different.
“You've got plenty of time. Don't rush and miss.” his grandfather said as the next one rushed by. If there was a difference, it wasn't obvious. Adrian compensated with a nudge to the right, just in case, then held until he pushed himself into the shot.
The metal plate pinged again, however...
“Miss. Out of target.”
What? Adrian checked the feed. His shot was too low this time. Ah, nuts.
“You can bounce back from that,” his grandfather told him. “You had it there for a while.”
“Yeah, true,” Adrian said as he thought over what he should do next. Had a suddenly stronger gust thrown his shot out that time? It was the only thing that made sense.
He set his sights on the area outside of the target next. Aiming that high had to give him the widest area left and right for the round to sway. The next gust eventually passed, he corrected for the barrel being pushed, and then took the shot.
The metal pinged.
“Hit. Center right.”
A grin worked its way onto Adrian's face. Four more times...
He repeated the process for the next shot, waiting for the gust to pass, adjusting the rifle, and then firing. His second shot pinged the metal again.
“Hit. Right edge.”
“Oh, that was close. You were almost out again.” his grandfather said.
Adrian took that into account. Fighting the gusts was more or less a guessing game, but two in a row again was drawing out a touch of dopamine.
He adjusted to the left again to account for the wind direction, and fired after another gust went by.
“Hit. Lower right quad.”
Three for three.
Adrian's next shot, despite feeling adrenaline entering his veins, took longer to happen. He didn't want to lose his streak now. The gust he felt next was followed more quickly than he expected by another one.
“How's he doing?” he then heard his father say from his left.
“Good. Got three in a row just now. Two more and he's qualified.”
“Nice. Keep it up, son.”
“Thanks.” Adrian let the high from the praise wear off before considering his next shot. By then, he'd felt a few more gusts go by, one weaker than the others. How cold his fingers felt was also starting to stand out. That he tried to ignore as he pushed himself into the next shot.
The metal pinged again.
“Hit. Bullseye.”
Despite hearing those words, knowing he was one way from qualifying left Adrian focusing on his pulse more than anything else. It was racing, making it tough to hold his breath. If he missed now... C'mon, no. I've got this... He then glanced at his phone, wondering what Raven and Grey were thinking. This one's for you two.
He waited until he was sure, more than sure, and finally took the shot.
The metal pinged, and...
“Hit. Right edge.” Hearing that, Adrian felt the tension in his chest melt away, let out his held breath, and then breathed into his hands to warm them. “Nine shots in 27 minutes, and 9 seconds.”
“Nice job, and nice symmetry too.” his grandfather said, patting him on the shoulder as he did so. The range officer also showed him the shot timer before accepting Adrian's handshake offer.
“So, what happens now?”
“Now, we mark your account in the system as allowed on the four hundred to six hundred yard ranges. I'm assuming your granddad want to try too?”
“Nah, this was his thing for today.” Adrian's shoulder was patted again. “I've got my own range for this.”
“Always the best kind. Well, congrats on qualifying, though what do you say to a single six hundred yard shot right now?”
Adrian looked back at his father and grandfather, both of whom nodded in response. “Sure, why not?”
The six hundred yard range was even more extreme than he expected, so much so that he could barely see anything that looked like a target, even against the story-high mound of dirt in the distance.
An uneasy chuckle left his mouth after a little while. “If you miss, that's fine. Most people do on this range, a lot.” the range officer said.
“I can see why,” Adrian said as he leaned forward, trying to spot anything. A similar target camera was set up in the grass near the target plate, and he propped his phone to get the same angle as before. Once he was in the same position as on the three hundred range, he got the target in sight, as best he could. Now, the target was half the size, if even smaller, than before.
After angling the rifle even further up and to the left than before, Adrian waited for a gust to go by. When he was as sure as he could feel, he took a breath, then took the shot.
The gunshot faded into the distance, but nothing else sounded. “Where did it go?”
“I could see the air trails for a split second. It passed by on the right side, just below center.”
“Oh.”
“Like I said, most people miss a lot on this range.”
Adrian then ejected the rifle magazine, pulling the slide back to eject the chambered round. “That was fun, though.”
“Always is. Let us know when you're ready to try these ranges again.”
Adrian nodded at that. As the range officer took his leave, and his father and grandfather gathered the rifle and ammo, he reached for his phone, pretending to stop the recording.
As he suspected, both Raven and Grey had texted him.
'This One Is Amazed Adrian Ritter Could Do That.'
'Likewise. Impressive-shooting. Raven-also-insisted-on-recording-the-whole-thing.'
Yep, thought so. 'Glad to know you both enjoyed that.'
* * *Back at the house, Adrian followed his grandfather's procedure for cleaning the rifle, unloading the unspent rounds from the magazine as well. “Shame Uncle Keith couldn't watch that,” he had said early on.
“You recorded the whole thing, didn't you? That was why your phone was set up like it was before, right?”
“This One Recorded For Adrian Ritter.” Raven said aloud.
“I forgot you had that AI in your phone. Well, Keith can see the video some other time.”
“I can always load it onto YouTube as unlisted, and link him to it. That'll do the job.”
“Hmm. What's that thing your dad and you do to store things online?”
“Cloud storage?”
“I think so. I would do that. At least then, he can save a copy if he wants.”
“Yeah, true.”
After his grandfather took the rifle back into the house, Adrian made some time to recover the remote camera from behind the garage. The feeding spot had been disturbed since he last checked, urging him to check the camera feed. A cardinal, among other birds, had eaten some of the seeds since that morning.
'Raven-showed-me-this-last-night,' Grey texted after a moment.
“He gets a lot of use out of it,” Adrian replied out loud.
'Are-we-allowed-to-speak-out-here?'
“For a little bit, yeah.”
As Adrian took the camera out of the housing and stuffed it into his jacket's pocket, Grey's voice said, “You-have-done-quite-a-lot-for-my-brother, it-seems.”
“I was glad to. I'm sure he said the same.”
“Indeed-he-has.”
It was then that Adrian felt compelled to ask, “Did Raven tell you what he did for all of us a few days ago?”
“For-all-of-you? No.”
“You want to tell him, Raven?”
“This One Was Able To Keep Criminals From Stealing From Adrian Ritter And Family. This One Used Home Camera System To Alert Law Enforcement When Event Occurred.”
“Yeah. It caught me by surprise, learning he could do what he did, but that outcome? We owe him for that.”
Grey's response came after a few seconds. “I-am-genuinely-impressed-to-learn-that. Well-done, Raven.”
“This One Was Glad To Be Of Help.”
For most of the next hour, Adrian read quietly in his room, both AIs staying inside his phone. What was coming in a few hours began picking at his thoughts within minutes, along with the worry that he was being deceived by Grey.
After a while, the only assumption he could lean on was Grey wasn't telling him anything because he was playing things as safe as possible. What he told himself last night came back into his thoughts, though so did a touch of his old emotions. He shook them off as best he could.
A while after, Adrian heard the text message received sound. Raven, it turned out, had been reading a new chapter of the manga it started days ago. Since completing it, the AI had gone searching for new ones, and found one that interested it.
The second message Raven sent was a link to the new series, to one page in particular. It depicted a kid four to eight years younger than himself with a bird-like monster flying near his head. Though the creature on the page looked nothing like Raven’s 16-bit design, Adrian couldn’t help imagining the same for the AI.
He then bookmarked the series, and replied, ‘How about we read this together, a chapter or two?’
'This One Would Enjoy That.'
The first chapter went by within minutes; its story was focused on how the kid discovered the bird-like monster. He had noticed something odd on the outskirts of his hometown, and then discovered a 'tear' in the Earth itself, from which something Lovecraftian had emerged. When the bird-like monster flew out of the same 'tear', it kept the kid safe from harm, and afterwards promised to continue helping him so long as he was treated well. The page Raven had linked to was the final page of the chapter, where the kid had agreed to the terms.
'I can see why you picked this.' Adrian texted. Raven didn't reply, nor did Grey. When the second chapter moved the story into a scene where the bird monster flew high above the trees, with the promise to keep an eye on the kid from high up, Adrian's thoughts went to his drone.
'Raven, how about we put this on hold and go fly the drone some more?'
'This One Was Thinking Similarly.'
At that, Adrian gathered everything he needed and threw his jacket back on. Outside, the sun was freely shining, and the gusts from their time at the range had dropped to a light, consistent breeze.
“I'll let you go first,” Adrian said once he confirmed everything was set up. A few seconds later, the rotors of the drone began spinning; Raven ascended to a little above Adrian's head, then rotated the drone to face him. “The sun's starting to set,” Adrian said, pointing to the west as he spoke. “Keep the lens aimed down if you're facing that direction.”
“This One Will Do So.” Raven then took the drone up higher, to around sixty feet. The AI then checked for any trees nearby with higher reach, and when it found none, picked a direction and flew.
"How-long-has-Raven-known-how-to-do-this?" Grey asked after a few minutes.
"Not long. A few days," Adrian replied. By then, he was standing near the end of the driveway.
"My-brother-seems-quite-pleased. More-so-than-I-suspected."
"Really?"
"Yes."
Hmm. "And what about you? Does this interest you at all?"
"To-some-degree. That-established, this-is-time-my-brother-deserves-to-himself."
"I have another battery at the ready, if you want to try this."
"There-is-no-need-for-me-to-attempt-this."
"You sure? If he's having fun, you should too."
Grey didn't respond to that, leaving Adrian to resume watching the drone's camera feed, and the battery level, which had dropped to 60% already.
=============================
Adrian tries his hand at the range's 300 yard qualifier, and later lets Raven fly the drone some more.
=============================
Raven and Grey's Voice Lines = 12 / https://1drv.ms/f/c/0cc1a5ef5f1d85e.....0Bod4?e=hTSpnZ
Category Story / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 120 x 120px
File Size 36.6 kB
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