Shooting Range

Space stations were weird places, I quickly understood. Despite the fact that we were in a metal ball when the elevator opened, a lively forest appeared before us. It was like a farmers market with people selling wares and shops open on either side of the street. Sure, there were more alleyways, and I saw people with collars on tending the trees and plants. But the atmosphere was lacking the exotic impersonal feel that I was expecting.

What I was expecting was a metal cyberpunk landscape. What I got was a lush community feel of an upper suburbs park street. The only contrast to this was the rough-looking men and women moving around. There were also dozens of different species around, and I found a dog person and a cat person who looked a little different from me.

"Oh, A Rish and a Cat-kin encountering each other," Ura said with something of loathing, "Please, Sleepy Wonder, don't kill her," Ura said, looking at me with a sigh.

"Why would I kill her?" I asked with curiosity as we stepped out of the elevator, and Ura froze.

"Don't your races hate each other?" Ura asked, looking a little stunned.

"Either I hit my head and don't remember," I said, covering up my ignorance, "or I just don't care about those things," I told Ura, much to her surprise. "Come on," I said, changing the subject, "I want to shoot some things.

"Typical Rish'an," I suddenly heard a woman say with contempt in her voice, "Giving the Cat-kin a bad name because we look similar. Put away your fucking guns for once." I heard that voice continue as I saw the cat-kin I had noticed a couple of seconds earlier.

I looked at her and shrugged, "Why would you care what I enjoy doing?" I asked to the Cat-kin, not really caring at this moment what she thought. This was another moment of that racism that this race faced, and I couldn't help but wonder about the difference between me and the other cat-looking humanoid. She had cat ears and looked like a person in many ways, except I noticed more fur around her arms now that I looked at her. I also noticed some on her legs and couldn't help but wonder more about her.

Instead of asking, I turned to Ura, "Let's go," I told her, and Ura smiled, now the surprise fading.

We both walked past the Cat-kin woman who seemed primed for a fight leaving her stunned. We walked down the seemingly stone walkway for a distance of at least half a kilometer before we were in front of the gun range. Nothing could be heard from it, and Ura led us inside, where the atmosphere changed. The nice upscale street with foliage was gone, and we were in a workshop-type place as Ura walked forward to a man with a snake head. His back was arched, and he had two arms that seemed thin on such a thick body.

"Howshh Cansh I Helpsshh yousshh toodayshh," The Snake man asked.

"Ammo and a rental pistol for me. My Rish friend here will also be looking for a targeting room and workshop to experiment with a new weapon," Ura said with a smile.

The Snake man looked at me, and his smile broadened. "Noshh, Customershhh ish ash goodsshh ash a Rish'an Locktor customershh," He said slowly, clearly struggling with the language. "Howsh, Muchsh?" He asked.

"I need Five point six two ammo, and if you have different forms of ammo, I would like to try them all," I told him honestly.

The snake man started to put out boxes and boxes of ammo with large labels on the side. Armor piercing, Hollow-point, Anti-personal, Explosive, Electrical, Buck? My mind paused on the buck ammo, and I couldn't help but be interested in what I would like to be shot out of my assault rifle.

"Two Magazinesh of eachsh to startsh?" He asked.

"To start," I replied with a smile,

—-

Current Balance:

Federation Credits:200700

—-

Five credits a bullet. That wasn't too bad, I guess, and I quickly followed up with six magazines of my sniper's ammo.

—-

Current Balance:

Federation Credits:200400

—-

"That should be enough ammo for me to figure out some things in the experimental area and make sure my scope is perfect. What you want for ammo, Ura?' I asked, turning to her.

"Give me five hundred rounds for the pistol, and I will probably rent out something else after," Ura said to my surprise. Seemed she wanted to blow off some steam, and the snake man was happy.

"Rightsh awaysh," He said, pulling out a large-looking pistol that looked like it had some power behind it. A second later, he had five large boxes of ammo for it before putting it in a basket, "Thesh experimentalsh stationsh ish thatsh way," He said, pointing out a door saying workshop and test firing area. "Yoursh roomsh ish roomsh, threesh," he said and handed me a swipe card. I took it, and Ura and I stepped away from the counter. I stopped for a second, turned back, and picked up the ammo that the snake man put in a basket for me before turning back and following Ura.

"So what do you want to do?" I asked Ura looking at her before looking at the separate areas we would head to.

"Take this," Ura said, passing me the bounty tablet, "I will call you on it if we need to meet up. It also has an emergency call button on it if something happens. I need to blow off some steam shooting for a bit. When Cramped up in the ship for a couple of days, I like to blow my steam off in a couple of ways; plus," Ura looked haunted, "Since when I met you, I feel like learning some self-defense is good. A pistol is a good start." She finished.

I was surprised by her, and I felt proud of her. It was one of my problems with Canada and its self-defense laws that made me think about moving somewhere else in the world. I loved that she was taking the lead, not being a non-combatant. If I let one person through by accident, that she could at least shoot them or delay them so I could help out was a great thing.

My smile made her face turn a little purple, and I said a moment later, "Okay, That is good to hear. Call me or come join me if you want at any point. I will be working on and off on my rifles," I told her with enthusiasm, and Ura smiled.

"See you soon," Ura said, departing to a different part of the gun range, and I moved to the experiment area. I kept my pistol and shotgun loaded and didn't have plans for them for now. With the tablet in hand, I took the separate entrance and swiped the card into room three. I brightly smiled as I saw the place and wished we had it on the ship.

There was a large long area with a long five hundred meters ranging center with a holographic area in the background. It seemed that it could project longer distances and calculate the ranges or something. I wasn't sure, but I was interested in finding out. The range had a moving track for targets and a computer on the side to track information, it seemed.

On the opposite side was a workbench with a sign above it saying that all the tools there were tracked and checked. I smiled, knowing what it meant to break their tools with that sign up, and I brought my rifle over and started to fill up a magazine with ammo.

It didn't take long after setting things down for me to fill a mag with hollow-point rifle ammo. I moved over to the computer, started setting up the traps and made the bench come up to a nice position for me to set things down on if I wanted to. I changed the targets to humanoids and set it to calculate aim and numerical values based on where I wanted to aim. For now, the center of mass is where I wanted to aim, and I set up everything to where I wanted. I grinned and set myself up, and quickly noticed the earmuffs. They were shaped in this weird way, and I brought them over to cover my ears.

Instantly as I put them over my ears, they suctioned on, and my head hurt. They caught up in my hair, and I felt the overwhelming urge to toss them off. A second later, the ear covers were off, and I felt like I was almost having a panic attack when I put them on. Not only did it hurt to have them on, it felt like there was a primal urge to tear them off.

I frowned as I looked at my hands as they almost instinctively moved after I put them on for a second and realized this might be part of the species I chose. I couldn't help but wonder if I disliked the thought of the game controlling a feeling on that. It was common in games to put up debuffs like fear and others. Somehow it never caused PTSD or anything, but it always felt wrong as you didn't have any control over it.

Instead of thinking more, I sighed, picked up my gun, and flattened my ears instead. I looked down at the target and set my gun to single fire. I propped the assault rifle on my shoulder and aimed at the center of mass with a ten-point marker, and the first shot left my new customized rifle.

Bang!

The gunshot was not loud to my flattened ears, and I relaxed as my ears acted like natural earmuffs when flattened. I could even lift them right after shooting to hear if anyone came in. I smiled and looked down the range and realized that I had missed it. I wasn't sure if it was me or my arms, so I started to fire in single fire.

Round after round missed the ten despite me being dead center on it, making me frown more. I finished at the tenth shot, cleared the magazine and the bullet, and set to work.

The sights were messed up, but the gun was shooting properly. I quickly got to work on my rifle and started to set up the gun while lying down to ensure I knew how much it was off by. It took an hour before I got the sights right, and I finished the first magazine. I started to reload with a smile on my face feeling a fascination for guns that I didn't have in real life. Guns in the real world were like guns in this game, but I wouldn't be taking away human life in this game.

I knew I wasn't a killer in this virtual reality despite how realistic Virtual reality had become in the last decade. Galaxy online was something completely new, and the realistic NPCs were something I would have to come to terms with later. For now, the crafting system has me so intrigued with the customization. I was learning real-life skills for this game, and I set to work on it like I was preparing for final exams.

After getting everything right for the single fire, it was time to check the burst, and I went to blowing more holes in holographic things. Still, each time you punished a hole in them, you could set the setting to you could see the damage it would do. They had done a lot in this, and I found that the assault rifle with hollow-point ammo was dangerous to unarmored foes. It blew a hole in them, and from the reading on the computer, getting hit by one would mean immediately needing medical attention for them to survive.

For my final burst, I put it against light armor. I realized that Hollow-point sucked for anyone other than unarmored personnel as the damage only caused some kinetic damage that, at best, would feel like a mosquito bite. It seemed that I needed to keep multiple types or not have hollow-point at all.

Sure, the only opponents so far have been unarmored, but I doubted that would continue. This was a tutorial, and this was probably as good of a time as any for me to learn more about the different types of ammo.

I grinned and set to work with the assault rifle, learning even more about how it works.