Game of Thrones: The Path to Glory
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Chapter 2: Target Practice
A day later, Aegon was up and walking about the Aldecaldo camp, trying to make himself useful so as to repay his hosts' kindness for taking him in. Most of the time, he spent with Panam in her patrols. They spent a lot of that time talking; Aegon was eager to learn all he could about this strange new world he'd found himself and Panam was curious about the world Aegon came from.
"So, let me get this straight; your family actively practised incest?" the Nomad asked the young knight, her facial expression one of disgust and disbelief.
Aegon nodded in confirmation and replied, "As long as I can remember, although it wasn't unheard of for a member of the family to marry into a different house."
"But… brother and sister?" Panam made a disgusted face.4
"I'll admit it's not perfect and it does have a lot of problems," Aegon said reluctantly in admission. "A saying back home is that whenever a Targaryen is born, the gods flip a coin to decide whether they'll be mad or brilliant," he quoted.
"Right…" Panam muttered. "So, kissing cousins aside, there were dragons as well?" she asked.
"There were, past tense," Aegon said. "They all died out during the Dance of Dragons, slaughtered by the smallfolk in the Dragon Pit and the last dragon to be born was no bigger than a small cat and did not live for long," he recounted.
Panam hummed and said, "Guess nothing lasts forever."
"No, I suppose nothing ever does," Aegon said blandly. "So, this cyberware, chrome as you call it, what kind of things can you do with it?" he asked.
"There's a lot that cyberware can do for you, kid," Panam told him with a smile. "You can hack into databases, or even turn someone's own chrome against them. And that's just netrunning, the more physical cyberware can make you do things that most regular gonks can't," she said.
"Such as?" Aegon prodded.
"Well, there are Mantis-Blades; cyberware that stores telescopic blades in your forearms that when you open 'em up, you can slice and dice your way through almost anything," Panam informed him. "There's also things like Gorilla Arms; basically replaces your arms with cybernetic arms that increases your overall physical strength," she then said.
"Fascinating!" Aegon uttered in awe. "Does everyone in this world have such things?" he asked.
"Nah, not everyone, thank god, because there's a few things that keep most sane people from completely borging themselves out."
"Which are?"
"Cost for one; good cyberware costs a pretty eddie and only people who can afford the high end chrome are usually corpos," Panam informed Aegon. "Another thing that holds people is cyber-psychosis," she then said grimly.
"Cyber-psychosis?" Aegon repeated the word. "What in Seven hells is that?" he enquired.
"Basically when you have too much cyberware or you just have a really lower tolerance, it affects your mind. Makes you go insane and you attack just about anyone for no reason at all," Panam explained to him ominously. "Once you go full cyber-psycho, there's no going back," she warned him.
Aegon swallowed a lump he hadn't realised was in his throat. "I see…" he mumbled apprehensively. "And are there ways to avoid cyber-psychosis?" he asked delicately.
"Well, a way to avoid cyber-psychosis is to avoid completely borging yourself out or if you're suffering early symptoms, to downgrade and get rid of any unnecessary chrome," Panam replied. "That's about the only ways you can offset early cyber-psychosis," she said.
"I'll bear that in mind," Aegon nodded.
"Anyway, enough about that. You asked about guns, right?" Panam asked and Aegon nodded. "Come with me. I'll show you how to handle iron," she said to him.
"Iron? Are work with metal?" Aegon asked as he began to follow Panam.
"Something like that," Panam grinned as she led Aegon to the edge of the camp where a makeshift range was set up. The targets were set about fifty yards away and a table was laid out with all manner of guns. Aegon looked at them all; guns were an unfamiliar weapon to him, but from what Panam had told him, they had changed the scope of warfare centuries ago.
"Okay, first rule about guns in general is to not play around and treat them like a toy," Panam said her manner becoming harsh and stern and Aegon instinctively stood to attention. "Second rule is to treat every gun as if it's loaded with live ammunition. You with me so far?" she asked looking at Aegon sternly.
"I think so," Aegon offered uncertainly.
"Alright, we'll start off small," Panam told him as she then showed him the first selection. "Pistols are small handguns that come in four weights; light, medium, heavy and very heavy," she then said. "Generally all handguns can be held and fired with one hand, but it's preferable to use them using two hands to hold them steady in case the recoil throws off your aim after the first shot," she explained.
Panam then picked up one of the pistols and showed it to Aegon. "Colt .45 Peacmaker; one of the guns that holds the title of 'Gun that won the West,'" she declared. "Takes .45 calibre ammunition, single action and in the hands of a skilled shooter, very reliable," she stated.
"Well, I imagine reliability is something people expect from a weapon," Aegon remarked.
"They certainly do," Panam said with a smile. She then began to demonstrate to Aegon how to load the gun and then hold it. She then pressed the gun into Aegon's hands; the weight was a surprised to Aegon and he nearly dropped, but Panam quickly caught it before it fell from his grasp. "Heavy, ain't it?" she joked.
"It is, more than I expected," Aegon admitted as he fumbled with the gun, making sure to face the targets on the range. Panam then stood close behind, moving as if to embrace him from behind, her hands on his, guiding his actions. Aegon tried not to think about the older woman's assets pressing themselves into his back and he almost flinched as he felt her warm moist breath blowing into his ear as she whispered to him.
"Bend your knees a little, one foot facing forward," she instructed breathily to him. Aegon did just that while trying not to let his cheeks go red from the breathy sound of Panam's voice in his ear. "Hold the grip in both hands, then with your thumb pull back the hammer," she then told him. His breath shaky, Aegon grasped the grip of the revolver in both hands, his knuckles bone white which Panam pointed out saying, "Don't grip it too tight, or you might end up straining yourself. Just a nice, firm grip."
Aegon nodded slowly and relaxed his grip before pulling back the firing hammer with his thumb. The mechanism clicked slowly as the hammer was pulled all the way back.
"Good," Panam whispered almost sensuously to Aegon. "Now, this is the tricky bit," she then informed him. "With the front sight on the barrel; that little bit of metal there, aim it where you want to shoot," she said.
Aegon then moved the gun barrel to the nearest of the targets, but a dozen feet away, moving the front sight onto the centre of the board. "Now, slowly squeeze the trigger, don't pull it, just squeeze it," Panam whispered in his ear. "Here's a tip; breathe in slowly then as you squeeze the trigger, breathe out," she advised.
Aegon took in a deep breath of air and then slowly began to exhale, squeezing the trigger as he did so.
A loud crack of thunder followed by a flash of flame coming out of the barrel of the gun surprised the young knight who almost dropped the weapon but Panam quickly caught it. The bullet did not hit the centre of the target where Aegon had been aiming for, but hit the corner of the painted board.
"Not bad," Panam complimented him.
"How? I didn't hit where I wanted to!" Aegon complainted.
"You still the target," Panam corrected him.
"But not where I wanted to!" Aegon stressed.
"It takes practice to get good," Panam said patiently to the young knight. "I mean, it's sorta like practicing swordsmanship; you don't get good the moment you pick up a sword, you have to work at it, right?" she added.
"I suppose so," Aegon conceded as he looked over his shoulder at Panam who hadn't moved from her spot behind him. "Do you mind?" he asked her.
"Mind what?" Panam said playfully as she pressed herself up even further into Aegon's back.
Aegon sighed before saying, "So, what other guns are there?"
Panam the showed Aegon some of the other guns they had available. One gun in particular caught Aegon's attention; the Nomad .44 magnum lever-action rifle. "Ah, see this has caught your eyes, huh?" Panam asked him playfully as Aegon looked over the rifle. "Another gun that holds the title of the gun that won the west," she said theatrically.
"It's interesting," Aegon said slowly.
"Yeah, there's hundreds, probably thousands of different but all similar styles of the lever-action rifle or carbine," Panam said. "This one takes .44 magnum rounds; pretty hefty round that packs a punch. A lot of Nomad outriders favour it, and it's reliable," she added.
"May I?" Aegon asked looking at Panam who nodded and began to instruct him how to use it.
After teaching the young knight how a lever-action rifle was used, Panam stood back to let Aegon try it for the first time. Bracing the stock against his shoulder, Aegon aimed the front sight bead on the dozen yard target. Slowly racking the lever to move a fresh cartridge into the firing chamber, Aegon looked down the sight at the centre of the target. Inhaling a breath of air, Aegon firmly squeezed the trigger while he exhaled. An even louder crack of thunder nearly burst his eardrums again, but he had braced himself for it although the recoil kicked the barrel upwards.
The .44 magnum bullet hit a few inches above the centre of the target. "Damn!" Aegon cursed his luck.
"You still hit the target," Panam comforted him. "Get a bit more practice and you should be a good marksman in no time," she said encouragingly.
"Let's hope so," Aegon muttered dryly before he asked, "Do you happen to have bows? Crossbows even?"
"Bows? As in bow and arrows?" Panam said and Aegon nodded. Pursing her lips, the Nomad added, "Don't know if we have, but I can look in our armoury." She then left and ten minutes later, returned with a bow and quiver of arrows. "An old Eagletech sport bow," she informed Aegon. "Probably not the best bow, but you should be able to use this."
Aegon took the offered weapon, noting how light it was. Holding the grip of the bow in his left hand, the knight took one of the arrows out from the quiver noting its artificial materials. Placing the notch on the shaft where the plastic flights were and resting the neck of the shaft on top of the grip, Aegon aimed the arrow at the thirty yard target. With a flex of the muscles in his right arm, Aegon pulled the arrow and the bowstring back until the braided cord strained and creaked. Breathing in slowly, Aegon exhaled as he released the bowstring.
With a sharp twang followed by a rasp of aluminium on plastic, the arrow zipped through the air and the carbo-glass broadhead buried itself deeply in the centre of the target.
Panam raised her eyebrows at this in surprise. "Not bad. You're definitely from a world of knights," she joked. "You wanna teach me how to use a bow like that?" she asked playfully.
"So long as you keep teaching me how to use guns," Aegon shot back.
"Deal!" Panam replied as she held out a fist with the pinkie finger extended.
"What are you doing?" Aegon asked staring at Panam's strange gesture.
"A pinkie promise," Panam said as though it were obvious. "They don't have that where you're from?" she asked in faux-shock.
"Not as far as I am aware," Aegon said with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Hook your pinkie finger around mine," Panam then educated. Extending out his fist, albeit with his pinkie finger out, Aegon then hooked the small finger around Panam's who then tightened her pinkie finger around his and giving a brief shake.
"There. Now's it's official," Panam told him with a grin. "Now, show me how to use a bow and arrow. I fancy myself being the next Robin Hood," she boasted.
"Very well. Let's start," Aegon said with a smile as he began to teach the Nomad woman the finer points of archery.
TO BE CONTINUED…
A/N: There! After little of a year of not touching this, I've finally updated it! I apologise for the long wait, but real life and other projects got in the way, plus work was kicking my ass as I've taken on extra duties with earlier start times so I've been waking up much earlier than I want to just to get ready and go to work.
And I apologise for this chapter being so short, but I wanted to get something out even if there is not much or rather no action at all in this chapter. Hopefully the next chapter will have some action; maybe Aegon goes with Panam on one of her supply runs and they get waylaid by some Raffen Shiv? I'll play around with it and see what comes out the next time I write a chapter for this.
And that's about all I have this minute, so I'll leave this here and catch you all in the next one.
Be kind to one another,
Angry lil' elf.