Target Practice, and the Mercenary from Eluria

## Target Practice

A gunshot rang out through the verdant forest. Crows were startled and flew away, and Void sat, kneeled on the ground, with his mentor. "Square your shoulders, all that fancy tech of yours won't be spit in the bucket if you can't get basic aiming down." Nikita pointed towards the tin can, sitting about 30 meters away with a nice red target painted right on it. His trainee, the young man with mist for a face, was visibly frustated, though his facial features remained hidden. "Nikita I'm telling you, this thing isn't built for that type of range. I meant for it to be close quarters-" Nikita didn't let him finish, snatching the revolver and firing in one swift motion. The slug sailed through the air and blew the can apart, and V could only look on in awe. "How the hell?"

Nikita put the revolver back in his hands, going back to his observation position. "Half the men in my militia could hit that with their eyes closed. You've got to get the muscle memory down or you'll just keep frustrating yourself. He pointed towards another can, with a cool blue target this time. "Now, show me you can keep up with the old dogs of war back in Eluria. The boot camps back home would've whipped you into shape faster than I ever could." Determined not to be showed up, V readied his revolver once again. One deep breath in, one deep breath out. He pulled the trigger, blasting the can into mere shards of shrapnel. "I knew there was a soldier hiding in there V. Any more of that and those offworld bastards will be running for the hills."

"Thanks Niki. That was some fancy shooting of yours too." Nikita laughed for a moment, feeling just a bit embarrassed from getting praise for doing the equivalent of a parlor trick. "So, about this operation at Shade. Are you sure you wanna go through with this V?" Nikita questioned. He couldn't see it, but he knew that the words made his blood run cold. "I'm certain Nikita. Whatever it takes, I want to get to the bottom of this... this *thing.* It's been with me ever since I put A-046 on ice. Something's been bothering me ever since that day. I'm taking the chance while I still have it, and I'm not gonna force you into it." Nikita wasn't fazed, "We've been through some serious shit V together, I doubt making an enemy out of the entire Grail is much worse."

Void smiled under the mist, and holstered his firearm and pointed towards the AV they took out to the woods. "Let's get back to Geo then. The Archivists task force is shipping out today."

## The Mercenary from Eluria

Nikita hit the ground running as soon as he and Void departed. He was going straight to his quarters to retrieve all the materials he needed, the Q-Pad, the keycard, and the confinement unit V had mentioned before. The aerodock wasn't too far from the housing section, so it was a short enough walk. He quickly gathered everything he needed from the room, taking a long look at his gun before deciding against taking it, leaving it in its case as he shut the door behind him. As soon as he got outside of the room, he got into one of the camera blindspots, and pulled out the Q-Pad. According to V, it was a tablet with software written by A-083 that was capable of disabling the cameras alongside the route Nikita needed to take. Alongside keeping his tracks clean, the Q-Pad was also Nikita's one-way ticket to accessing the silo he needed to get into.

With a tap of the screen, he crossed the point of no return. All the cameras were down across his route, and he had a clear shot to the monorail station. He got there as fast as he could without looking suspicious, greeting the little staff that were still in Geo back as they greeted him to avoid unwanted attention, and then he finally got to it. He took the Terminal 7 train since it was empty, pressing another button the Q-Pad to override the train's controls. Now, he was on a one way trip to Shade-I. Even at a high security site like this, there was light security as a result of the Winter Solstice Festival. Most, if not all of the security Nikita was going to encounter would be automated. If there were security guards anyways? He was told about a failsafe, only to be used as a last resort, that would initiate a false containment breach alarm on the far-side of the facility.

"Shit... shit shit," Nikita muttered to himself, the monorail finally arriving at the site. Even though he and Void were already past the point of termination of employment, it just now hit him. But he disregarded it in the end. *Nothing good would come from panicking now.*