"But this Queen didn't understand the difference between equality and oppression."
"Honestly it wasn't difficult. He can definitely take the recoil and carry the ammo, it was just a matter of mounting it on his arm." Tecaelis gesture to the long barrel he built into Elic's right arm. Lucas face palmed as Tecaelis held up fifty millimeter shell and slid in into the chamber as Elic grinned wildly.
"Schnee, from now on you ask me before you make Elic anymore explosive." Stark stated dryly. Elic sauntered up to a small stall on the firing range. He got down on one knee and held up his new arm cannon at the target at the far end of the range.
"What's the range on this thing anyway?" Tecaelis shrugged.
"It depends on how high you hold it. At best you might get half a kilometer out of it, more than enough to hit that tinman at the end of the field." Elic grinned and two fingers curled into his palm and hooked around the rings built into his gauntlet. A second before it fired Lucas' aura flared and deafened the area, sparing everyone from losing their hearing. Elic's looked like a normal person shooting a high power shotgun as for the first time, Stark his entire dealing with the recoil. The target at the end of the range was now just a stub a metal that held the target. The two targets next to it looked like they would fall at any moment. The concrete wall behind it had a deep hole bored into it now.
"Fun," Elic said as he admired the mini-artillery cannon. "Hey, Lucas. My anti-mech gun beat your anti-mech gun." Lucas pursed his lips.
"Mine is a high precision, high powered, rifle capable of shooting a target four kilometers away. It is a product almost a year of intense development. Your is a cheap metal cylinder with a lump of lead stuff down the front of it, hastily made over the course on one night." Lucas gave him a look like he was personally insulted by the mere existence of the gun.
"You're just jealous I can put a gods-be-damned cannon on my arm!" Tecaelis was pouring over the design papers he had sketched as the two went at it.
"Hm… I might be able to increase the caliber without risking damage to the gun when fired. I'll have to toy with design, might need more quality materials to deal with the power. Maybe I could develop another way to reloaded it. Drum? No, too bulky. Maybe a magazine or chain feed. Hm, that would be more likely to damage…" Tecaelis began to murmur to himself about different automatic loading systems and how difficult the firing mechanism makes things. Suddenly a courier round the corner with a heavy package in his hand.
"I'm looking for Specialist Tecaelis Schnee and 2nd Lieutenant Stark Ironwood." Tecaelis practically jumped up in joy and ran for the package. The courier blinked as the package was covered in purple light and flew out of his hands and went to met Tecaelis half way. Stark shot him a look then shook his head.
"I am Lieutenant Ironwood."
"Ah, then I was told to tell you your transport is ready and as per usual your debriefing with happen via recording as you near the destination." Stark nodded and fished out a bit of Lien to toss to the courier. The man caught it and went to find his next delivery.
"Ha, I knew it would work." Tecaelis said in triumph as he held up a jet black mace and a bright silver gun. Tecaelis' semblance floated a belt over to Stark. It was decorated in black nad silver pieces with plenty of places to clip gear and ammo. Stark took the mace in his hands gave it a quick swing. It was longer than the forearm and the head had six blades like edges placed around the head. A gentle push from his aura caused the aura engine within to hum and whirl. The mace exploded outward became a spear with its head became a sharp point of six separate blades, their sharp points shining with silver. Stark gave a curt nod and switched it back to the mace before hooking it into place on his belt.
Next, he held up the gun. Its silver coat was almost hard to look at in the sun. The heavy machine gun had a chain clip extending out the side of it into a small box mounted to its body. As Stark maneuvered it in his hands to look over it made satisfying clicks, a statement to how heavy and complex it was. Stark turned it down range and opened fire on one of the targets Elic didn't destroy. He only held the trigger for two seconds, but over thirty round chewed-up the target. The recoil causes a clear hole in between the center of its chest and its head like Elic held it in his fingers and tore it like paper.
"You would not believe what strings I had to pull to get you that." Tecaelis said as he admired the silver weapon. "I had to throw your name and rank around, pressure a few people, threaten to telekinetically crush a guy private parts, mention the mission is almost directly from the Queen, even use Elic's name one time." Tecaelis smirked. "The guy seemed like he really wanted to create something better than Elic's grenade machine gun." Elic snorted but didn't say anything.
"All in all, some of my best work yet. I stayed up all night just trying to make it work, on only took a break to make Elic's arm cannon. The brain needs a rest like that." Tecaelis looked up like he could see his brain back there. "A single clip of one-hundred armour piercing rounds." Tecaelis held out another silver clip with a chain black bullets sticking out of it. "If you pull out the tripod the clip can be removed in place of Tecaelis used his semblance to levitate three massive bundles of bullets. "Five-hundred in just one of these. Elic, you're going to have to carry these." Elic grunted and opened a hidden pocket in the back of his armour. The three clips fell into the back of it with a hollow sounding thunk. Tecaelis made a face. "Just how large is that secret compartment." Elic just smirked at him walked away to start filling his aura injectors. Tecaelis rolled his eyes and turn back to Elic and his gun.
"And finally, its other form." Stark reached down to activate the aura engine because Tecaelis caught his arm with his semblance and hissed, "Not here! The things I put in the gun might even be legal. I had to call in favours all the way in Vale just to get the tech behind it to work. Just know that that gun will eat bullets like bloody candy! And that other form could go through the entire kingdoms Dust supply and still want more. Not to mention when you try to run it on your aura." Stark nodded, and for a moment it looked like that would be it. But then he smiled and said,
"My anti-mech gun is better than both of your anti-mech guns." Lucas gave him a poisonous look.
"His is a glorified slingshot. Your is an inefficient, bullet-wasting, inaccurate, wanna-t'ah-be gatling gun with a paint job to make sure every Grimm within ten kilometers sees ya. y'all don't have crap on Priest." Stark and Tecaelis looked at each other.
"Priest? Really?" Lucas smiled slyly.
"Because she'll make you pray." Tecaelis face-palmed and Stark just shook his head. Stark examined the gun and began collapsing it. Too many moving parts already to let the aura engine to fold it up, Stark guess. The barrel, clip, and stock all collapsed into a more compact lump of silver steel that hooked in the back of the belt, just below where his back would rest.
"Alright, every gear up and get ready. We leave in hours."
"Why two hours?" Tecaelis asked. "We could be ready in fifteen minutes, tops."
"That was before you gave a weapon will need a lot of Dust to power it." Tecaelis furrows his brow in confusion.
"You're going to get them to clear you for more Dust for a weapon that might be illegal for you to own."
"Something like that." Stark said as he left.
"Oh… Oh!" Tecaelis said as it finally clicked.
The entrance of the mine was just like how Stark remember it when he was taught what would have been his future job as a child. The elevator down was covered in a fine grey dust. Hundreds of armed guards patrolled the area, particularly around the minecarts full of Dust and ore. Workers still worked emptying those mine carts into thick and secure metal shipping containers. People still collapsed in between one job to from another and were hauled away just as quick. Either to return tomorrow or not for another few months. And women still sat in their offices in the building surrounding the mine entrance.
Stark found Salt in his old hideout in between two office buildings. After proving to the unsuspecting bodyguard patrolling the alley Stark was allowed to slip in the forgotten basement through a rusty down built into the ground. Salt wore grey clothing that had probably once been white with his feet one on the desk. He was talking through a highly coveted radio. Not even Stark had a radio capable of cutting through the ambient interference. And as far as Stark knew, Salt's radio might just hitch a ride on the powerful military signals.
"My gods," Salt said in disbelief. "Is it really Ironpick back to see me?" Salt's face split into a grin. "I thought we lost you to the military hippies years ago!" Salt threw his arms around Stark in a thick hug. Stark smiled and let him. "My, my, look at you." Salt said, hold Stark away from him. "Would you look at you. What do them marks there mean?"
"Means I'm a 2nd Lieutenant, Salt." Salt gave him a large smile.
"If your father could see you now… you two were the best pick swingers I ever had! Been have trouble get anyone half as good as you." Salt chuckled. "I remember Ole' Ironpick- er, your father, not you- swinging through three times as many blocks as a whole team of men. Of course, I remember you running packages three times as big twice as fast when you were small too. Something about squeezing into them small alleys no one else can use." Stark took Salt's hands off him but didn't stop smiling.
"I remember. It really wasn't that long ago. But, how's the illegal smuggling going anyway?"
"Better than ever! Ever since that new mine opened up in the west we have been squirrelling away more Dust than ever. And the kingdom herself in letting up on us. Got us a nice deal where they leave us alone if I don't trade to Vale, and even more so whenever I send things over to Mistral." Stark frowned but shook his head before he got distracted by his thoughts.
"I'm heading out on another mission and I got a new gun that going to need some fire power." Stark gestured to the collapsed machine gun strapped to his belt. Salt whistled when he saw the silver beauty.
"Have you named it yet? Bad luck for a gun like that not to have a name." Stark shook his head. "Ah well, it's gonna be expensive. The back alleys of Vale just released a new chem. Rampage I think they're calling it. They found a way to combine red Dust and blue Dust together somehow. Every dealer with his salt is trying to get a foothold in the new market." Stark nodded and reached into his pocket.
"Then I'll take yellow Dust." Stark dropped a small pile red Lien cards on his desk. Salt swallowed when he saw the bills. With a shaky hand he reached out and picked them up.
"Heh, I take it military life is treating you well?" Salt quickly put the red cards inside his grey coat. "I can get you fourteen kilos of the powder and a dozen crystals."
"Forget the crystals and just get me thirty kilos of the powder." Stark did an about face and started walk out when Salt called out after him.
"I meant what I said lil Ironpick, your father would have been proud. Proud your doing better, proud you didn't end up… down there." Stark nodded.
"I know he would have been."