Amnesia

[Dawnika Snow]

As Ballad seemed entranced with her arsenal, Dawn was sure how to react to his silence. While waiting for a reply, she returned a confused glance. Perhaps his home world was not so familiar with modern technology. She had assumed, seeing as how Ballad carried a revolver, that his society was advanced enough to know a gun when they saw one. On the other hand, the mere sight of her rifles and other weapons made his jaw drop into the snow. After many seconds, Ballad finally responded.

“I yearn to see them in action, goddammit! There’s bound to be something worth hunting in these fields, something like…” Ballad paused to think of anything that would be a suitable mark, “A troll.”

Dawn smirked a bit. She wasn’t very familiar with mythical beasts like trolls, but she knew the only thing she needed to know - Trolls bleed, they die and they’re not morally good. A perfect target. The assassin pulled the carbine from its holster on her back and held it ready for combat. “Trolls is it is then.” She replied stomping off ahead of her cohort, who walked slightly faster than normal pace to catch up. It seemed Ballad was too excited of this new experience to refrain the rudeness of being assertive with questions, and Dawn was too much of a bragger to not boast about how fucking awesome she was. His first question actually reminded her that her equipment had not been properly loaded.

“How do they work, precisely?” He asked, eyeing the black rifle in her hand. It’s deathly appearance reminded Ballad of crows somehow.

The vigilante grabbed a magazine from her pack which separated all her ammo by weapon accordingly. She held out the small block of metal that housed rifle bullets for the gunsmith to see. “Unlike your revolver, bullets are fed through a rifle by something called a magazine - this here in my hand.” She explained, “It goes here.” With a satisfying click sound, the magazine locked into place and cocked back the bolt. “Pulling this here, loads the next bullet into the chamber.”

The green gunsmith couldn’t form words to explain how awestricken he was. His revolver seemed as useful as a butter knife to cut steak compared to what was the steak knife in the metaphor. Seeing as how Ballad was speechless, she continued.

“This is an Assault Rifle, as I explained in the Nexus. A preferable weapon for longer ranged encounters.” She placed it back where it belongs and pull her sniper rifle out of its holster. “This is my baby, a sniper rifle. I named it Epsilon Oriens. It is designed to fire heavy duty bullets from over a thousand meters away. A well aimed shot is capable of blowing off limbs with .50 caliber bullets.”

After loading the sniper with its respective ammo, she snatched up the shotgun where her sword previously rested. “This is a shotgun. The beauty of CQB. It takes ammo called shells or slugs, and fires in a wide area called a spray. It’s loaded in the bottom and pumped to ready the next shot.” She explained as she loaded each individual shell in the barrel. “And lastly is the pistol. It works practically the same way your revolver does, without the revolver and instead a magazine. So, what do you think?” She asked as she replaced the pistol with her shotgun, ready to blow away anything that might randomly attack them.