>>6173561You feel like this is a good time to ask some questions. "What's all this for?"
He turns his gaze to the pseudo-building erected with gymnastic pads, locked into wall-frames for structure. "In Chicago, we would run stages to keep us fit for battle. Your <span class="mu-i">Black Swan</span> has permitted me to have authority to use this area for training and all the services that come with it. So I figured I would run myself through a gauntlet a few times. Stretch my languishing mind. Is this the kind of training you've done?"
You shake your head. "No, it was just sparring with fake weapons. We'd get a striking dummies for common aberration types. The Lorppo one had to be remade a hundred times."
"Then this will be good for you." He grabs his helmet and walks forward. "When they're done, give that stage two attempts. One to get the feel for the route, another to optimize it, to listen to your instinct."
Durant comes stepping up with a different version of that gun-sword-thing Gabe had before, but with a blunted edge for what you imagine to be training. But the presence of the revolver chamber and barrel, on a training weapon, still eludes you. Taking strange blue rounds from his aide, the Judge loads the gunblade. You figure you should ask about the kinds of ammunition you will be going up against.
Gabriel first feels he has to clarify that he doesn't use a typical "gun" in his swords. It's actually a variant of the Volt Machete, but more modular and able to propel different things from its barrel. Some of which are regular gun rounds, but mostly it's copper dust with an electric charge. He's interested in the acid the Stormwatch has been using for the Jarngreipr, and is considering making it a staple of his duties.
But to answer your question, what he has loaded now is a V-Ring compressed air shot. "Vortex rings." What the shot actually does is fire a vacuum sealed wad through the air that, at a certain point shortly after leaving the barrel, implodes, rupturing open and pulling air into it as it rushes forward, whereas normally that air would be just pushed aside. The aerodynamics end up creating a ring-shaped concussive blast which is useful for nonlethal engagement of enemies in close quarters, but larger calibers could easily end up sending people flying or blasting shields out of the way. Bothersome, but better than Birdshot or Buckshot. "Birdshot" being hundreds of tiny pellets, which fired from a large gun would completely saturate a target with skin-deep perforations, and "Buckshot" being larger, more lethal balls that can reliably kill man-sized targets who aren't properly covered.
To dissuade any fear you might have, he brings up, that the biggest weakness of a firearm is that it can only be pointed in one direction at once. In close range, only one person can be a threat unless the targets line up. A large sweeping axe might be a problem for multiple people, however. "Food for thought," he says.
