Production of the TRAC 1 started in the 2030s and it quickly became the best selling rifle in the 21st century.

By the time production of the TRAC 2 started over 14 million, and counting, TRAC 1s had been sold. The success of the rifle was largely owed to it's extreme versatility, it can be used in almost any situation, and it's unique smart technology, which was both cheap, precise and easy to use.

This has also meant that the rifle became extremely popular among militias, insurgents and has to a large degree replaced the AK-47 as the most used weapon in the world.

Terran Arms, the producer of the TRAC 1, has faced harsh criticism for selling to pretty much anyone with no regards for how the weapons might be used. However they have been able to avoid any major consequences due to how important of an export the TRAC 1 is to the FIM.

Written post /r/worldpowers reset.


[Midday 28th of September 2059]

"Straighten up Private! You have to be able to hit that target right in the bulls eye if you want to make it in the 1st regiment!" Korra barked at one of the recruits at the target practice.

She was enjoying her new job as drill sergeant, it was a lot easier than being a fire team leader and she could stay at the base. Although it was a little more boring, shouting at recruits was all well and good but it couldn't really replace the thrill of working together with one of the top units of the FIM army.

The 1st regiment was something special, it was the regiment that had seen the most fighting in all of the FIM army. It had been battle hardened like no other regiment, and was even competing with the INUE special ops unit.

Although of course the FIM army in general did not have much experience when it came to war, and like most people Korra was glad that was the case. She had seen the destruction war had wrought to many places, and did not wish for anything like that to hit New Caledonia or the Solomon Islands.

No what they had been doing were mostly small scale operations.

The biggest operation she had been part of was throwing a few under equipped pirates out of Djibouti and restoring the government. Otherwise they had every once in a while found a small pirate holdout in the pacific.

Before Korra had even been born the FIM had taken upon itself the task of keeping the pacific pirate free. Actually that was before the FIM had been formed so it was the New Caledonian government. But that policy had continued up until this day, and pirates were becoming hard to find in the pacific anymore. It was probably hard to hide from the thousands of drones that were launched each year to scour the pacific for anyone attempting to break international law.

"Come on sarge'! That target is one and a half kilometers away! How do you expect me to hit it on bulls eye?" The recruit cried out. She was going to have to show him how it was done.

"Give me your gun." Korra ordered the recruit. "Why?" He asked in a disrespectful manner. "I said give me your gun. That's an order do I need to repeat myself?" Korra said sternly. "Yeah it's my gun why should I give it to you?" This was getting out of hand.

"THAT WAS AN ORDER PRIVATE NOW GIVE ME YOUR FUCKING GUN OR IT'S ONE MONTH OF CLEANING THE TOILETS FOR YOU!"

The private looked almost frightened. Korra didn't want to bother with waiting for him to get to his senses. She took the gun and ripped it out of his hands.

She plugged it into her HUD, she was going to show that spoiled brat. Numbers such as the amount of bullets left in the magazine, trajectory of the bullet and the distance to the target appeared in front of her eyes on her HUD. She adjusted the zeroing and then took 4 quick shots, all of them hit the bulls eye.

"Keep trying private. We are going to switch to the TRAC 2 on the 5th of October, you have to be able to hit bulls eye with the TRAC 1 by then." Korra said and handed him the rifle back. "Sir, yes sir." The recruit answered reluctantly, she was going to fix that.

"Also get down and do 100." She ordered him. "What you can't do that!" He exclaimed. "You better bloody believe I can. Now follow my orders or it will be 200."

"Sir yes, sir." The recruit said reluctantly again. Hopefully he would get the lesson this time.

"I'll leave you to it then, I have a rifle release to attend." Korra said getting up. "You're going to the TRAC 2 release sir?" The recruit asked as he rested on the ground. "Did I tell you to stop?" Korra said sternly, the recruit quickly got back to his push ups. "And yes I am. I'm going to be one of the army representatives there to show off the functionality of the rifle, and hopefully draw in lots of buyers."

There had also been some talk of her becoming a tester for Terran Arms but she couldn't really talk about that. "Well then I hope you have a good time sir." The recruit said, Korra detected something that might have been a hint of sarcasm and almost gave him another scolding. But he was still doing push ups and she decided it wasn't worth her time.

"I'll see you around private." Korra said and turned around to walk away from the firing range.

. . .

[Early Morning 29th of September 2059]

Asami was starting to get a little tired.

She had spent the entire day preparing the TRAC 2 display model for the big night. She had calibrated the targeting computer, tested the recoil reduction, checked the barrel, tested the coils, configured it to work with the HUD, tested all the various attachments, she nearly lost a finger while testing the automatic bayonet, and checked every single bullet for any imperfections. Then she had done it all again 10 times until she was absolutely sure that everything was working as intended, and then a last time, just to be sure.

This was expected to be Terran Arms' biggest seller yet.

They were anticipating that they would sell at least a million rifles this year. There would be people attending from all around the world, national armies and PMCs alike, to buy the most advanced rifle ever created.

There was quite a bit of pressure for everything to be perfect.

Asami had been working on this project for some 3 years now. It was her first real project since she graduated from the Nouméa Institute of Engineering. Terran Arms had practically hired them the moment they got their diplomas. She, like a lot of people in her class, had been in talks with Terran Arms about getting a job since long before they graduated.

Nearly half of the class had been hired by Terran Arms and the others had been hired by Nanite Systems, she only knew of a few who had gotten employment elsewhere. It's no wonder that those companies were pouring millions into the universities.

"Hello are you the one who's supposed to run me over what's going to happen tonight?"

Asami was ripped out of her memories by the question, which came from behind her. She turned around quickly to answer.

The question had come from a woman, she was dark skinned, maybe she was Kanak? A little shorter than Asami, her body was clearly well trained, the mark of many years of military service, Asami had also seen on the veterans that had come to Terran Arms to test prototypes, she was around her age and wearing the gala uniform of the FIM army, It consisted of a jacket, which was blue with white shoulder guards, red linings and silver buttons, formal blue velvet pants, and a blue, white and silver military cap to top it off. It also had several ribbons on it.

"Yes I am, my name is Asami and who are you?" Asami asked after she had completed her inspection of the woman. "Drill Sergeant Korra of the 1st regiment of FIM army. At your service." Korra said sternly, and raised her hand to her head in a military salute and slammed her heels together.

Asami was stunned by suddenly being addressed as if she was the Sergeants superior officer, and didn't really know what to say or do. There was also something familiar about her name that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

The Sergeant must have seen her face and quickly lowered her hand and returned to a more casual position, with her legs a little further apart.

"Oh I'm sorry, it's just I have never been to anything like this so I wasn't quite sure what I had to do." The Sergeant answered.

She collected herself and answered. "Don't worry I haven't been to any business things like this before. Anyways follow me so I can show you the rifle."

She turned around and started walking over to the rifle. Korra quickly jogged up along so she was by Asami's side. "Do you know why they decided to give me the role? I know there were a lot of others who applied and many of them had more combat experience than me. Wouldn't it make sense to have the best soldier in the army here?" Korra inquired.

Asami had herself thought about it and wasn't exactly sure. "Well they haven't actually told me anything about it. I was just told to show you the gun but I have heard some talk. I'm going to guess it's because they want someone who isn't old and grizzled and could put potential buyers off, but who also still has a nice title with and isn't just a private." Asami explained.

"Yeah I can understand why they wouldn't want some of the ones who are fresh in. They would think of it as free time and with the lack of respect for authority New Caledonia's youth has it would be a nightmare." Korra said smiling as if she was making a joke, a joke Asami didn't really get.

"Yes, and I also suspect it was because they wanted someone who looked good doing it." Asami continued, it was far too late when she realized what it of course would be interpreted as.

"Pardon me? Are you trying to flirt with me?" Korra said surprised. "Oh no no no! I did not mean it in that way at all! I meant like you're really strong and that would look good when you're showing off the rifle." Asami hoped that Korra didn't see her blushing. Korra raised an eyebrow first but then laughed with a lopsided grin.

"Okay I'll believe you but I'll say in return that you're pretty easy on the eyes yourself."

Asami didn't really know how to react, but they were at the table with the TRAC 2 now anyways so she could talk about something else.

. . .

[Late Afternoon 29th of September 2059]

"Hello and welcome! Today we will be demonstrating the capabilities of Terran Arms' newest product. The TRAC 2 infantry rifle! With me I have Sergeant Korra of the 1st regiment. She has served for 3 years now, but she has never had her hands on this rifle before today." The Terran Arms CEO said enthusiastically.

Jean Marc had always been a bit special, and even today seemed nervous. Korra hoped the CEO didn't break while she was showing off the rifle. Although she was very careful to not show any doubt.

She had learned during the years how to maintain a very convincing poker face, and how to not break your pose. Currently she was standing in a strong pose with her legs spread apart and planted firmly on the ground and her hands behind her back. She probably looked quite threatening.

Jean Marc went on to explain some things, something with financing, and while she was doing it Korra looked out over the crowd.

There were at least a hundred people here if not more, she had thought it would be a smaller thing with some big investors but this almost looked like a night club. One of the more fancy ones with dress codes that Korra didn't visit, she tended to spend her nights closer to the harbor district.

Were they all representatives from different nations? Because if that was the case then they would definitely be selling more than 1 million rifles. Well that would only be good then. Most of the money are going to go straight to the FIM's treasury anyways.

The CEO gestured towards the rifle, which was standing on display on a glass table in front of Korra. It seemed like they were finally at the part where Korra had to demonstrate it.

"Now I would like to demonstrate the capabilities of the TRAC 2 to you. As I said Korra will be doing this." She messed that one up Korra thought, but she went to pick up the rifle.

It was very light, even lighter than her TRAC 1, she judged it to be somewhere around 2 kg. Her judgment was quickly confirmed to be true by the CEO. "The TRAC 2 is extremely light to allow for greater accuracy and for ease of use. It weighs in at 2 kilos without any attachments making it even lighter than the TRAC 1."

Korra then picked up the HUD glasses laying next to the TRAC 2. They looked almost like ski goggles but they were more see-through. She connected them to the little beige computer on her back with a wire and then to the TRAC 2.

"The TRAC 2 is of course built with PFBI in mind, and can easily connect to a HUD and help gather data." The CEO explained as a video feed from Korra's HUD showed up on a giant monitor behind her. She made sure to not look at it.

The HUD was a bit slower to start up than normal but once it did it was showing a whole wealth of information. The gun was calculating the exact location of where the bullet would hit and it's trajectory. It was constantly scanning the environment around her and looking for traps of any sort, and she could see how many shots were left in the magazine. Currently 50 bullets.

"Now if you would follow me I will take you to the Terran Arms' testing range so you can see the gun in action."

The sound of chairs scrambling around and people getting up could be heard as everyone in the crowd got up from their chairs. Korra noted that they looked like they were designer made.

Then the CEO started walking towards a big glass door. Korra of course followed her.

She must have been right when she thought she looked intimidating because a few of the guests took a few steps back when she passed them.

They reached the testing range which was located in a large hall. There were many ply wood buildings scattered around it, some concrete structures and some targets. It reminded her a lot of the training range back at the base, which she still held the time record for. But Asami has been very clear that this was not a race but she had to demonstrate the weapon.

She walked over to the start of the laid out course she had to follow and readied herself.

"Now I will let you watch Sergeant Korra run through the course and demonstrate the capabilities of the TRAC 2." The CEO announced. She almost sounded a little relieved that the spotlight

She ran to the first post. There was a ply wood wall she ran up behind. On the other side of it were some targets. She took them out in quick succession. The metallic sound of the coils could be heard and the clang when the 7.62x51mm tungsten bullets hit their targets echoed through the hall. It was easy. She barely had to think about where to aim, the gun found the optimal solution for any of the targets in milliseconds.

She advanced through the course, the guests were hopefully impressed with her shooting.

On the next post she was supposed to act like she didn't know about what was about to happen.

It was inside a concrete house. She went up a flight of stairs where at the top a tripwire was waiting. The gun alerted her with red flashing on her HUD, and she jumped over the tripwire with ease. Then at the top she turned a corner and on the other side waited a dummy mine. She jumped backwards behind the corner and the dummy mine 'exploded' with a laser light indicating where it would have hit.

She then got out of the cover and continued on her path. She ran out onto a balcony from where she could see the floor of the hall. There were many steel targets, some of them were moving on rails and she even saw a few CUGV drones walking around on their six robotic legs.

It was time to demonstrate the recoil reduction technology. She aimed at the first target and pressed the trigger.

The gun shook a little but nothing major. The targets fell in one burst. She suspected that the CUGVs were there to demonstrate the penetrating power of the bullets. They were taken down with only a few bullets.

The ammo counter was showing 23 bullets left and it was time for the last demonstration. She vaulted over the wall of the balcony, and landed with a thud on the floor.

She ran over to a concrete wall which on the other side of there was an open door. The door opened up into the New Caledonian hills and far away the gun located a target. It was 3,730 meters away, and the gun quickly found the firing solution. She crouched down and took aim carefully. The metallic sound of the coils could be heard again and a few seconds later she saw on her HUD that the target was down.

"I hope that showed you the power and versatility of the TRAC 2." The CEO concluded. Korra was sure of one thing. She was looking forward to getting her hands on one of her own.


The TRAC 2 would go on to take the title of best selling rifle in the 21st century from the TRAC 1 with over 24 million rifles sold. When production of the TRAC 1 was stopped 16 million rifles had been sold. By the time of the release of the TRAC 3 in 2081 the TRAC series of rifles had surpassed the AK series as the most produced rifle in the world.