Training, training, more training. Graak and Kregg were back in their element, training humans how to board and seize warships on the far side of the moon, out of the prying eye of amateur observers. Planetside, Kazak continued making life miserable for the Tallest but interesting for Dib, helping him refine his own set of power armor. The way the young man took to shooting and tactics…Adams had a point, Dib had it in him.
Though there was something of a test and an experience Kazak wanted to give him. The first nudge past the threshold he's been behind so far. Live fire, against a live target. The two ventured out towards Montana, deep in the woods, far away from civilization, a perfect hunting ground. An elk or a bear, Dib was going to take down one or the other.
The sniper himself was clad in camouflage, his own Swiss G11 he's come to enjoy being his choice of rifle for the trip as his Mk 23 rested in a thigh holster. Dib, on the other hand, had a much more suitable piece for the task, his trusty Armalite he's grown accustomed to, but with a custom built upper receiver with a 6.5 PRC barrel, another gift assembled by and from the cool alien uncle. The beast would be Dib's for the taking with Kaz around more for guidance and dealing with any potential wolves.
Similarly dressed as Kazak in his own camouflage, altered and fashioned with guidance, the young man remained still in their shared ground blind behind a fallen tree. Before them lay an expansive view of mountainous terrain dipping into the valley below them and rising to crest another set of peaks in the range. Hands stuffed in the pockets of his jacket, he focused on preserving body heat against the biting frost of early morning at-altitude.
"H-h-ow are you not c-cold?" He whispered, wary of his volume to not alert game nearby as instructed prior.
"Layers," aside from the camouflage, the man had insulated gloves, wool head scarf, and a wool scarf wrapped around the lower half of his face, a camouflage cap with ear flaps topped it all off. He whispered himself, pausing to take a breath, a cloud emerging from the scarf as he exhaled. "But, if you must know, yeah, part of my face is cold. You kinda learn to deal with it as a sniper."
"I c-c-can't feel my f-face. I layered like you s-s-said to." Dib continued to shiver, focusing on deep, slow breaths to not have vapor cling to his visage and begin freezing.
Forcing himself to focus against the biting chill, the young man's breathing thoughtfully slowed. Deep, drawn inhales and slow exhales. Kazak wasn't reacting adversely to the cold, nor should he. Complaining accomplished nothing.
"Y-you ever been anywhere c-c-cold like this? In s-s-space, I mean. Before coming here."
"Vort, colder than this, first joined these guys, armor didn't do much for the weather." The sniper looked around at their surroundings. "I tend to just focus on the mission, take my mind off the conditions around me. More important things to worry about than getting ganked by your enemy or nature itself. Pretty thankful for the Vortian suit, though, keeps me comfortable when I wear it."
"That's where the SIS guys are from, right? Vort?" The human pursued, genuinely curious. "Is it like Earth?"
"Yeah, their homeworld…and kinda yeah. Multiple biomes, different terrain. Traits of a habitable world theirs and yours share in common…maybe what Irk was like too for all I know."
"That's where you're from? Irk? I know, Irken, Irk and all that but the Empire's got a bunch of worlds, doesn't it?"
"Originally? No, nobody's born on Irk anymore. Devastis, that's where I originally came from. We don't even create ourselves naturally. It's all automated, controlled by machines. They create us, mandate when we come out, get a PAK slapped on us, shunted straight into training for some predetermined job and then that's just what we do."
The sniper's visage changed underneath the layers he was wearing but what he was feeling wasn't apparent, eyes of steel to keep from betraying his inner thoughts. Anger at what was robbed from him and everyone else, sorrow of missing out on so much, hatred for those he once served, and yet a desire to stay where he is now. Finding himself, coming to something he was good at outside of being a sniper, the time on Earth was definitely an eye opener.
"Something I wouldn't wish even on my worst enemy."
"...oh…sorry to bring it up." Dib's attention averted awkwardly, attempting to focus across the valley for any signs of movement. "You guys coming to Earth and all, I've learned about your…people? I was going to say history and culture, but…yeah…"
Frustrated more at himself and his social bumbling, the lad's gloved hands rubbed at his face in exasperation.
"What I'm trying to say is I know about Irken, but not you…or Tak…or any of the others. The individuals. All of you may as well be mythological creatures from the the cosmos across space and time to me…but you're here, on Earth…and acting like all of this stuff is just…normal."
"Not much about me to know, aside from what Tak said on me possibly being the most anti-social Irken alive. Sniping operations, losing spotters along the way, Praxxus on the first round, part of the initial strategic insertions onto Vort before I met Vult. Now I'm here and this life is just…it's peaceful, different. It's mundane but ranching is definitely not boring in the least. If this is what normal is, I like it."
Dib sat in quiet contemplation for several moments before turning his attention back to the camouflaged Irken mere feet away.
"Is Tak your girlfriend?"
That made him stop and think. Were they? What was this whole thing with relationships? That whole territory was still…odd to him. The concept was just confusing to a man like him who preferred solitude, and yet something came about, but anything official?
"...I honestly can't tell you. I don't even know myself. There's…understanding, companionship, oddly enough trust. I…don't know, though. This whole thing with romance is far beyond my understanding."
"I dunno, the way both of you act around each other seems like you are to me…according to how humans do stuff, that is. Is it because it's universal or because you've learned it from staying here on Earth?"
Another pause as the sniper had to think once more. "I…don't know. If what you say it's true it sort of just…happened. I never intended it. I don't know if she ever intended it. I just don't know. This wasn't something we were ever really meant for under the Empire."
"That's why you're here, isn't it? Why all of you are doing what you're doing?" Dib reasoned, earnestly surprised by Kazak's reactions and responses to his queries. "That's the sort of stuff all of you are fighting for, right?"
"The others yeah. Me? I just want to shove my foot up their ass and bring down that whole bastardized regime. Whether I make it to the end or not hasn't ever crossed my mind." The words coming out of his mouth made him pause once again. "...I guess I don't really have any sort of an aftermath to look forward to with any of this if I make it through. Never really wanted any part of it. I wanted to end the Empire and just walk away from all of it if I made it through. Just wanted to be alone, probably with the horses now that I've been around them. Maybe the others are right, probably am a real asshole."
"Well…you have Tak, don't you? Friends, people you care about? Anyone?"
"...You'd have to ask her. I don't really know entirely what's between us. Aside from my friendship with Vult, though? No. Nobody. I'm in this world alone and I'm going to end up going out that way too, that much I'm certain of." Certainly a dark outlook he held, but he keeps everyone at arm's length if not more, or has until recently, yet the view largely remained the same, albeit with some hesitation now that circumstances changed.
The lad sat stonily in silence. A myriad of thoughts and feelings danced about the forefront of his mind. Loner as Kazak was, to which he related throughout his childhood, they had much in common. That commonality apparently was finite as the extraterrestrial spoke of where everyone stood in his life. Guiltily, a pang of sorrow welled up being so casually snubbed and set aside.
Rather than brood, dwell, and skulk about it, Dib's expression furrowed into a glare, pushing his glasses up his nose as he looked to Kazak. He had a right to know and was going to remain persistent. One of his defining traits.
"If that's the case, then why did you bring me all the way out here with you? You don't take just anybody with you anywhere like this. If I'm nobody like the rest then why?"
A single, quiet laugh escaped the veteran sniper.
"Unless we both literally die at the same time, we both die alone. I suppose maybe you've grown on me. I mean I taught you how to be a sniper. If I let you loose, you'd probably take Grimm out if I could get you within sight of that son of a bitch." Friends? Maybe Tak was right, he may have had some after all, small in number as they are.
"You taught me how to crawl around in the dirt, hide really well, and to shoot a gun…still more than anything my dad's taught me." He admitted with reluctance. "I'm not a professional like you."
"Don't sell yourself short, you could get pretty good at this." The sniper paused, lowering his scarf to take a drink from a canteen before covering his face again. "That why you like hanging around me all the time? I really that much more involved in your life?"
"You, Tak, and the others are the closest thing to friends I've got. Everyone at school calls me crazy and makes fun of me for believing aliens exist and all that paranormal stuff I like. "Fake science", my dad calls it. Wants me to do real science like he does…you have any idea how hard it is to stack up to the smartest human alive?"
A humorless laugh under his breath escaped him with a shake of his head.
"...in a weird, twisted way, I guess that makes Zim one of my friends too. Social outcasts and all that."
"I'd say I'd love to prove your old man wrong but I'm sure that'd cause way more headaches than it's worth. But, shit, I wouldn't go so far as to call Zim a friend more…problem child in need of management. Perhaps with some two by fours."
"You think unhooking him from the Control Brains would fix him or make him worse?" Dib queried, morbidly curious.
Before Kazak could answer him, the sharp crack of dry branches snapping under foot pierced the morning air. Both of them immediately fell silent and their heads tracked to its source. Ahead of them on the downward slope off to the right of their blind, movement through the thickets and brush rustled against evergreen branches.
Unsure of what they were dealing with just yet, that didn't stop Dib from discreetly slipping into position behind the scope of his rifle resting across the fallen tree. Whatever it was, it was sizable to break limbs so soundly with its weight. The young man took a deep breath, remaining calm as adrenaline surged at the excitement of a potential big game target after hours of lying in wait. Remaining focused, he calmed himself with final equipment checks. A final rest adjustment, lowering magnification of his mounted optic, and gloved thumb resting atop the safety selector of his rifle.
Kazak looked out through a pair of binoculars, simple Earth tech but more than sufficient for the job. After some moments waiting, a large elk emerged. A fine bull with eight point antlers, a fine first for Dib if his own opinion played into it at all. The sniper grinned, the moment all of Dib's training put him through came to this moment.
"All right, just like usual, clear your mind, steady your breathing, aim for the vitals like I told you and he should come down."
The massive animal filled Dib's sight picture. Thick fur, sweeping antlers, and absolutely huge compared to the average man. Mentally, Kazak's words of wisdom leading up to this moment struggled to take hold as his crosshairs danced and jittered erratically. Apprehension filled him as he mentally processed what he was doing. A living animal now lay in the path of his rifle and they with the intent to take its life. Not a static target, but a creature and its entire existence.
The hesitation had the sniper glancing over at his young friend. First one's always the roughest; even his first, he recalled all those times in the simulators and nothing could prepare him for the real thing, but everything fell into place after honing his instincts to pull the trigger whenever needed.
"Cycle of nature, if it's not us for this guy it'll be some mountain lion or someone else. So long as you put your shot right and make it quick, no need to make the thing suffer needlessly."
Dib didn't respond. Kazak spoke the truth, he knew this. That didn't make it any less of a challenging mental hurdle to overcome. Watching someone else pull the trigger and do the deed was entirely different from doing it himself. His only response was a deeper inhale and shaky exhale in an attempt to calm his hammering heart in his temples. Reaffirming his grip on the rifle, his thumb manipulated the safety selector to "Fire" with an audible click. A noise so subtle but unnatural enough to see the elk's head perk up in their direction. He froze. Seconds passed, the animal all but staring directly back at him through his optic.
"...I…I c-can't." He hoarsely whispered with a swallow, mouth unbearably dry.
"Yes you can. Breathe, squeeze, kill, breathe again." It was easy for the sniper to say, many have fallen at his hand already, "First one's always the toughest, trust me, I know."
Despite his reassuring words, Dib's crosshairs erratically danced across their quarry at-range. Pulse pounding in his temples, he struggled to swallow and steady his aim. The mental mantra repeated countless times over within his mind. Breathe, squeeze, kill, breathe…breath, squeeze, kill, breathe…breathe…squeeze-
The still, cold morning air silence shattered with a deafening crack of the lad's rifle thundering across the valley in a rolling echo. Dib winced at his ringing ears, struggling to bring his rifle back down onto target for confirmation. Nothing in sight. Where was it? Did it run off? Had he missed?
Kazak grinned, giving a reassuring pat to Dib's shoulder. "Come on, kid, you did good." The sniper rose, headed out and towards where the elk stood initially.
The young man's disbelief at Kazak's encouraging words quickly dissipated after the short trek to where they spotted the creature from their blind. An evident blood trail of bright, vibrant red and then only a hundred feet away, the creature lay on its side having succumbed to the sudden tideway torn through its body. The marksmanship skills he taught Dib paid off, clean hit, even if it wasn't an immediate drop of a target it was a kill all the same.
Rifle slung across his back, he looked to the Irken marksmen-made-mentor. "Is it…dead?"
"You see any vapor coming out of its nostrils?" The sniper asked, rhetorically, "Yeah, it's dead."
"I-...yeah, guess not." He sighed, focusing on catching his breath from the rush of adrenaline still lingering throughout his system. "Now what?"
"Well, the next step would be to do some initial field cleaning, bring it back to our cabin, do the rest there."
Something of a sense Kazak developed over his years fighting tripped his senses. A cougar, sensing the free kill, advanced close enough without their notice. But both the Irken and the young man stood in the way. Kazak was quick to act, the Swiss bolt action clearing his shoulder and leveling. A loud crack and report filling the air as he fired the first shot, wounding the creature. A quick work of the bolt saw a follow up and the large cat sliding to a stop at his feet.
"...Before you ask, no, I didn't have the safety on, and don't you ever do that yourself."
All of it happening so quickly, Dib was left in equal measures of awe and terror at the close encounter with one of the area's apex predators. Nature, beautiful as it was dangerous, but more importantly, Kazak's incredible reactions and drilled practice with a rifle separated both of them from a grisly fate in the middle of nowhere.
"...right…sure…" He managed, shakily nodding. "So…uh…field cleaning?"
"Yes, let's get to that. Going to be plenty of good eating for a while here."