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"Your deeds have earned you a gift, and a star is falling."
Shit, that ethereal voice always sounds weird and seeing that orange light even weirder, but as usual I inform the others.
"Incoming Star Fall! Xuela! Incoming Star Fall! Fly and take a heading!"
Xuela drops what she is doing, and flies way as we start to look around. I've taken up my improved compass from a belt pouch and Xuela is flying away to get another fix from either a ridge point or the mountain inland depending on the distance to the Star Fall. Since I was notified the Star Fall should be close, but this is the procedure we have decided so might as well practise it. In the clear sky we see a red Star falling. Shit. Yeah, they damn alien bastards sure reward being savage instead of more noble pursuits like writing. Our camouflage coveralls are the red Star Fall that should have been awarded to Koru's raid group for the Lake Camp raid, but Xuela joink'd it. Although that is something we will keep secret. Apparently they looked for it for a very long time and there were even suspicion that one of them had found it and maybe hidden it to retrieve it later. Bad blood and suspicion in King's Camp. It is soon obvious that the red Star Fall looks to land in the Salt Boon cove, and the way it moves against the wind makes it obvious that Star Fall parachutes are guided.
"Savage blood thirsty alien bastard. Yes, I get it: You are trying to train us to kill for your entertainment. Like we're some damn animals."
Koru and Reiley gives me a look and share a silent moment, but Reiley knows and Koru is learning. I take a heading before the Star Fall disappear below the ridge line, and soon we see Xuela comes swooping back, and I just signal for her to try and get it. Hopefully it won't be too heavy, or else we have to go back there.
Shit. It will probably be heavy to force us to return. Bastards.
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It doesn't take long before Xuela returns carrying some kind of bulky camouflage pack strapped over her chest. She lands on the cliff, taking a few moments to catching her breath. Xuela really dislike starting on low ground without help from wind or height, and carrying something makes it worse.
"Arne, it was at the beach close to the ambush site. This have to be for you."
We gather around and the pack is in the same camouflage as mine and Reiley's coveralls. As I open it, it turns out to have a very high tech cammed and camouflaged crossbow inside, although it looks a bit weird with the forward facing limbs. There is a quiver with 16 bolts matching my other crossbow. I can't help but whistle. This is a serious piece of kit, and as I hold it up and try to aim, it fits my body well, with similar good adjustable sights as the other, and the balance is better. But the design is weird and why didn't we just get another one like my crossbow? Or a bow fit for Reiley?
"Is that some form of crossbow?" Reiley ask the questions on their minds.
"This is a very high tech crossbow with cams. We have similar in my world."
"Is that what your kind use in wars?"
"No. War for my kind is on a whole other scale than either of you can imagine, and this would not be close to good enough even for a common soldier. With a common infantry weapon I wouldn't have bothered with traps before ambushing Koru's group, even alone. They would have died within seconds from ranges where I would be safe. Those weapons shoot metal slugs like half a finger sized, faster than sound move, several times per second. Stuff like this is for entertainment or hunting for sport as even the biggest dinosaur would be easy to kill from afar with a powerful gun. Serious war is more destroying King's Camp with huge explosive arrows fired from here, or if it turned horribly bad; just instantly wiping out all life in the valley with a nuclear explosion vaporizing most, and hot enough to turn sand into glass and set the rest on fire."
Koru makes a disbelieving giggle, that quickly dies as she see Reiley, Xuela and Bokyli take my words serious. Why did we get another crossbow? Another bow like Climber's but fit for Reiley would have been better, and they agree with that. Xuela don't really have the arm strength to reload my lever crossbow and really like her lighter smaller Reiley made crossbow. And why this weird crossbow? Is it more powerful? It feels like I am being singled out and rewarded for that attack, but why? Actually I get it after thinking that, since I made the plan and thought out practically all the traps, designed innovative weapons and suggested we should attack even though we are few and smaller, and Reiley, Xuela and Bokyli all think I'm the leader of our group. And the damn alien bastards rewards bad behaviour. Xuela show us two new water bottles filled with water, and then holds out her hand, and from a small red bag shakes out four small rectangular shapes.
"These were also in the Star Fall egg, and there is also a bigger eight sided one in this green pouch, and there is another green pouch, plus a white with sewing thread and needles. So red Star Falls can contain many other things." And Xuela shows two very green pouches and a white.
I put the crossbow aside and take one of the objects from her hand and look it over. There is a flame symbol on the top of the sides, and a shining sun and wind symbol on one side with a belt clip on the other, but as I flip up the protective cover and push down on the yellow flame symbol button it produce a small flame - to the others gasps - so fairly obvious this is a small lighter. I wonder how long it will last.
"This is what humans call a lighter, and it is used to light a fire. You know I've mention my kind having different types of firestarters. You flip this up and just push here and it light up with a small flame. You might need to shield the flame from strong wind. But there will be a limited amount of times it will work until the fuel runs out or there is a malfunction. Actually, these symbols might mean it is a very high tech version that is recharged by the sun and wind. That would explain why it have this belt clip on the other side and a hole for a lanyard. This is a very valuable item, and we should treat them as such and not play with them."
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
They all nod, and they never seen the like before. Reiley point out the obvious: "Four lighters."
"Yeah. I suspect this is a bonus reward for us four using a fire weapon this morning, and 'the spirits' wants to make that easier so we can use Molotov's or other specialized fire weapons in the future. Without having to carry something like that smouldering coal in a pot solution with all its limitations."
"An incredible useful tool in everyday life, but only rewarded once we'd made a dedicated fire weapon and overcame the problem of using it against the enemy, and actually attacked with it."
Reiley's words and look at me carry a lot of meaning, and I flash back to our talk about a knife being a tool, and teaching children to handle with care. Reiley is starting to get it. Koru speak and ends our silent moment:
"King's Camp got a different kind of firestarter once we became 16, but that was a jagged metal blade tied to a metallic stick that gives sparks instead of a flame, and only one that King have and won't lend out. We used fire when we attacked Lake Camp, but we had to light it by rubbing wood on wood. If that red Star Fall reward going home from the raid was this small, it would have been very easy to hide the lighters from the rest of us. We expected something big and obvious like a weapon."
Koru doesn't get it yet, but that is a useful cover story. She did tell me about that firestarter when we worked in the cove, and it sounds like a normal firestarter striker and thus very useful. It is frankly a high tech piece of metallurgic kit as the stick should have a blend of magnesium and such in it. We take our lighters, and I will use the lanyard hole and clip to make sure my belt is threaded through the lanyard and the lighter is exposed to sun and air. We look in the first green pouch and the eight sided thing is a container that twists open and have a kind of nice smelling waxy vaseline like substance inside. I don't get the symbol on the top, and I am not alone.
"The bag and container is very green, so it might be a healing ointment?"
Reiley's suggestion makes sense, and Koru is willing to try. So she apply a bit of the ointment. Koru grimace just a little, and continue applying the ointment on the wound. That probably hurt a lot since Koru did any form of grimace at all.
"There is very little pain now and it feels kind of good, but numb. I think it is for healing. I'd be happy to apply it on the rest of my wounds. Should I leave the arm wound as it is to see a difference?"
We exchange looks and let her use the ointment, but tell her not to waste it as it might work on more of us and future wounds. If that is the symbol the DAB's use for healing or medicine we should probably change to that in our glyph language. Actually do we have a symbol for that? The green pouch contain what look like four toothbrushes, and four containers with tooth symbols on top, with what I think is actually toothpaste. YES! They don't get my joy, but I quickly show how it's done and it just feels wonderful. It's literally been more than three weeks since I brushed my teeth. They will try to brush their teeth, and if they don't want to use the toothpaste, I gladly will! This have been a good day!
As Xuela said the white package contains a sewing kit with a set of eight needles in two different thicknesses and two of the needles are curved which will help sew wounds and such. There are a pack of 8 bobbins with thread in different colours: Black, grey, white, red, yellow, green, blue and camo, where the thread shifts between green-yellow-brown. Nice. That will make fixing kit and sewing maps and so on much easier and prettier. Both Lake Camp and King's Camp have received sewing kits before as their weekly drop, which have made some complain, but I sure don't. Good stuff is good stuff, and this is strong thin synthetic thread with good colours. It would be stupid to complain about this or the two water bottles! Actually, why are the water bottles filled with water? I open one and a whiff is all it takes to make clear that this is high grade alcohol. There is no way I will drink it, as it might contain methanol, glycol or other stuff, but if we need to burn something or disinfect wounds? Really nice to have. The damn alien bastards really liked that we used molotovs. We can transfer the alcohol to other containers, but for now we'll keep it in the water bottles.
I return to playing with the crossbow, and look closer on the mechanism. I try to load it but the lever loading is a bit different and doesn't seem to work, and the bolt...
"No way."
I load a bolt and push down. It snap into what is now obviously an integrated magazine, and I load three more bolts. One in the ready position, and three below that will pop up. Dang. Okay, now I get it, as that would have been very nice on the other crossbow as reloading will be far faster. I continue to use the lever, but something is wrong as the string doesn't move although there is resistance that seems to be getting slightly tougher. Still no string movement after several tries, so I push the safety to the weirdly symboled next position while making sure to point the crossbow towards a solid wood beam. The string is quickly loaded followed by a muffled slight compressed air sound. Oh yes please! Please!
I sure don't want to loose these bolts or damage them, but we do have two archery targets we have used made from plenty of thick stacked leaves with bundled grass behind before the wood backstop. I back away as long as the cliff space allow before aiming. I push the safety to the arrow symbol, and squeeze the trigger. TWACK! The safety have jumped back to safe, so I flick the safety to the weird middle symbol and the string is loaded and another bolt pops up, followed by that slight compressed air sound. Yes! TWACK! Damn! This is a hell of a weapon. The sights are slightly off so I adjust it. The damn alien bastards must mess with the sights deliberately. The string won't load, so I guess I didn't pump it enough, so I do and it reloads. TWACK! A bit more adjustment. TWACK! Yes! It is a four shot semi automatic crossbow! Hell, the crossbow is even narrower across the limbs which is good in a forest, and more silent than the other! Most of the sound is the bolts hitting the target. I shoot a bolt with my lever-loaded crossbow just to compare, and have Reiley and Koru shoot one arrow each from their bows as power comparisons before we inspect the target. The four bolts have cut through the thick stack of leaves and grass like nothing and is stuck deep into the wood like I expected, and it might even have slightly more force than my old Star Fall crossbow. Koru's arrow have a bit less force, but far more than Reiley's.
Reiley hugs me and gives me a kiss: "That is a very dangerous weapon, and I am very happy you have it, and with so many good bolts."
"We have two very good crossbows, and with almost a dozen Star Fall arrows for each. I want you to use the first lever-loaded one."
"A bow or spear is better for carrying around all the time, and it is better to save your lever-loaded crossbow for future combat, but we will practise with it."
"Reiley, you should have Tiola's Star Fall spear. You are far better with a spear, and you should have a good Star Fall weapon since the bow was sadly too big and powerful. I worry for you."
"That I accept. Tonight you are also going to give me something else. Repeatedly and deeply."
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