“Hi there.” Jake said sticking his hand out. Hai bowed quickly as was customary for his Japanese heritage and shook Jake’s hand. “Hi yourself.” he replied. “Tour?” he said glancing at Bjorn and Sven with a grin. Sven winked back.
Hai turned around and pointed up at the smelter and said “That’s the furnace and smelter. It’s hot. Don’t touch.” The Hai pointed at the big noisy machine at the back of the building and said “Rock crusher. Wear earplugs.” Then he pointed at the machine in front of the smelter and said “Molten metal goes in, powered steel comes out, then it goes up into the silo outside. Got it? Good. Tour’s over. Race you to the mine shaft!” and took off running. The guys laughed and took off after Hai with Jake in the rear.
The run across the gravel and into the cool air in the mine shaft felt good after the long drive. They ran onwards into the dimly lit tunnel for a hundred meters, then stopped to catch their breath. The tunnel branched off into three directions and Hai led them into a smaller side tunnel about eight meters tall and four meters wide, close to the width of one of the mine digging machines and forming a pointed arch. Hai pointed further down the tunnel at a noisy digger working away and explained it’s operation for Jake.
“The whole ridge is basically all Hematite and variants on that, all loaded with iron ore as far as the eye can see. We picked this spot on the ridge because of the trace elements located here. This tunnel follows a seam loaded with nickel, manganese, tungsten, and a lot of the other elements we need to make different alloys. There is even a little silver and gold mixed in, but not enough to make much of a difference. Mostly we make the basic steel alloys you guys need for your fabricators.” Hai explained. “We get carbon for making coke for the furnace from a small logging operation my uncle runs a little further east of here.”
Hai picked up a rock from off the floor of the tunnel and pointed to the dark red streaks and dark crystals in the sample. “Can you see the silver gray nodules in this one? Those are Specularite and are almost solid iron oxide. My Dad thinks the ridge was a volcanic seam that opened up when the continent split open a few million years ago. The iron in this ridge is why the original settlers decided to start a colony near here twenty years ago.” Hai handed the rock to Jake to take with him.
“Why are the arches pointed?” Jake asked, changing the subject.
“It has to do with shear flow, the way the forces are directed down through the rock from above. We remove all of the rock material in the top of the arch that would be in tension in a rounded arch. Rock fractures in tension and causes cave ins, rock in compression is stable and solid. The pointed arch makes sure all of the rock is in compression, so we don’t need reinforcement beams or structures most of the time. That’s also why the tunnels are spaced further apart, to prevent stress concentrations in the rock walls. We have plenty of ore, the seam here is massive, so we can easily space out our tunnels and save the costs of shoring up the roof.”
Most of that went right over Jake’s head. The guys had started walking back out of the tunnels towards the light outside, but had to dodge an automated ore truck that was headed back into the mine for another load. “The ore trucks will stop and not run you over most of the time.” Hai commented after the truck went by in a cloud of dust. “They have collision avoidance systems, but sometimes the sensors get too much dirt on them to work very well. It’s better to just get out of the way when you see one coming.”
Picture Pack: Ore Truck
“Hey, I’m thirsty” Bjorn piped in “can we get something to drink?”
“Oh. Sure, let’s go into the break room. We’ve got everything under the sun in there.”
The guys found some drinks and snacks in the refrigerator in the operations building and had a bite to eat, then listened to Blacky, one of the mine workers playing his guitar in the corner. It sounded like Blacky should have been a musician instead of working in a dusty mine, he had a knack with the acoustic guitar that bordered on mystical. Jake was envious of his talent. After a snack the guys headed back outside to take care of filling up the hopper in the Ripsaw’s trailer with metal powder and head back towards the ranch.
Chapter 4 “Bant Hunting” –––––––––––––––––––
The guys waved at Hai as they drove out from under the Fe26 Mix hopper and turned the Ripsaw back towards the road out of the clearing and back under the arched trees. The vehicle wasn’t as fast as it was before, now that it was pulling a substantial load behind it. With the hopper full of metal powder, the trailer now weighed more than the Ripsaw did. Bjorn had to be more careful and drive slower down the winding road, the bumps now had a greater effect on them as they negotiated through the ruts in the low spots in the road. The trailer would pitch, causing the ripsaw to bob up and down.
After reaching the main road Bjorn turned the Vehicle south back onto the two lane road and proceeded to speed up some. “Alright guys, start looking for a good spot so we can pull over and do some target shooting. We’ve got to get Jake up to speed on the rifles before we throw him into a herd of Bants.”
After another kilometer or so Sven pointed ahead at an open grassy area with a hill behind it. “How about over there?” Sven asked. “That looks like a nice spot.”
Bjorn nodded and pulled the Ripsaw off the road and up an embankment onto the flat grassy area off to the right side of the road, with the right side of the vehicle facing the hillside. He shut down the engine and unbuckled his harness. Jake followed his lead and unsnapped his harness. Sven unbuckled too and proceeded to undo a set of latches Jake hadn’t noticed along the bottom edge of the side window. “Jake, open the latches next to you.” Sven said. “We need to get the window open.” Jake had no idea the window opened. Jake unlatched three more of the latches next to his seat and said “now what?”
“Push!” Sven said. The two pushed on the window, which hinged up and out of the way, latching neatly up outside the roll bars. “That’s cool” Jake added.
Sven reached up above the window and unlatched the big rifle and pulled it down. He sat back in between the front seats on the large, wide glove box and proceeded to slip the rifle onto a post that stuck up from the lower window frame. “Yah gotta get the rifle down onto the pin to hold it in like this.” Jake noticed the pin fit into a ball swivel built at the center of the rifle, allowing it to pivot up and down some, and sweep from left to right. There was another mount in the center of his part of the window too. “Get the other rifle down and put it onto the swivel.” Sven said while sighting down the barrel of his rifle at the hill fifty meters away.
Jake did as he was ordered and got the second rifle down, but almost hit Bjorn in the head with it. It was heavier than it looked. Sven helped him get the rifle seated on the mount, then pointed at the compartment in the side of the Ripsaw below the window. “Hand me one of those clips.” Jake reached into the well and felt around inside and found an ammo clip to hand to Sven, who promptly checked the safety and inserted it into the rifle. Sven pointed at the sight gage for propellant tank located on the side of the butt of the rifle. “Check your level and tell me how much is in your rifle.”
“Uhmmm, it’s about at the ¾ mark” Jake said slowly as he watched the liquid level rise and fall a little as he moved the rifle to get a better angle.
“Good. Now check the safety and make sure it’s on safe. Black is safe, red is ready to fire.”
“It’s black and on safety.” Jake repeated.
“Good. Now get out a clip and insert it into the rifle.” Jake had a little trouble getting the clip aligned correctly, but he got it in after a couple of tries.
“OK. It’s loaded.”
“Good. Now pay attention while I show you how to fire this beast. First, the trigger has two positions. You pull the trigger back until it clicks, that loads the propellant into the firing chamber. When you want to fire, pull the trigger the rest of the way. If you pull the trigger all the way in one move it takes a mo
ment before the gun will fire, it has to prime the firing chamber first.” Sven thumbed off the safety, took aim through the reflexive sight at a rock part way up the hill, pulled the trigger back until it clicked (making it really obvious) then pulled the trigger. Boom! Sven hit the rock, but winced at the loudness of the rifle.
“Oh yah.” Sven said. “I forgot about the ear plugs.” Bjorn laughed and pointed at the ear muffs he had on and mouthed something, pretending like Sven was deaf. “Har, har, very funny old bean.” Sven said back at him. He reached into the glove box and retrieved two sets of ear plugs and handed one set to Jake. Once Jake had his earplugs in, Sven pointed up the hill. “Now pick out a target and let’s see if you can hit it.”
Jake selected a big black rock and took aim through the reflexive sight, putting the red dot on his rock. He pulled the trigger back until it clicked, held his breath to keep from wobbling, and pulled the trigger. Boom! The rifle spat out the round and hit the rock with a visible puff of dust.
“Hey, not bad.” Sven commented. “Now pick a smaller rock and let’s see you do it again.”
Jake repeated the process and hit another rock.
“OK, you can shoot.” Sven said. “Now let’s play a game. Call out your target, 25 meter shots are one point, 50 meters is five points, 75 meters is ten points, twenty points for 100 meters. I’ll go first.”
Sven picked a rock at 50 meters and popped it quickly. “Five points.”
Jake took his turn, and hit a 50 meter shot. “Five points.”
Sven selected a branch on a bush at 75 meters, carefully took aim, and hit it on the edge. “Yes! Fifteen points, my man.”
Jake picked a brown rock at 100 meters. “Dang! Missed.” Sven grinned, he knew now Jake wasn’t quite the hot shot he thought he was.
After a half an hour of shooting, Sven was up substantially over Jake, but Jake was getting better at it. Sven switched out the reflexive sight for a large scope and showed Jake how to compensate for distance using the reticule. Each tick mark represented 50 meters of distance. Sven had Jake try a few long shots, out 400 meters or more. There wasn’t much of a breeze, so they didn’t really go over how to compensate for side wind. It took a dozen shots, but Jake started to get the hang of it. Long shots were a LOT harder, he had to really concentrate in order to keep from jiggling and missing the target.
“Bants are hard to approach, even though they aren’t really afraid of us. You’ll have to manage a long distance shot if you’re going to hit one” Sven instructed. “We’re going to be nice today and let you take the shot. You only get one, the Bants will run at the first shot and we’ll never catch up to them, not out here we won’t.”
“How long of a shot?”
“I dropped my last one about four hundred meters. Think you can do that?”
“I’ll give it a try. What if I miss?”
“You’ll just have to wait and try again in a week or two, old bean.”
Bjorn took a few turns shooting long range as well, just to keep in practice. He yawned and said “OK guys, let’s go find some moving targets. I’m getting bored watching you two waste lead on rocks and sticks.”
Sven nodded. “Jake, put the safety on, pull the clip and put your rifle up on the rack.” The way the rifle worked mechanically, a round wasn’t chambered until the trigger was pulled and it clicked. The big rifle was single shot, not semi-automatic. It took Jake a minute to find the clip release, but he managed it without needing help. With the rifles stowed, Sven pulled the window release and shut the side window, then the guys re-latched it and buckled in. Bjorn started up the engine and pulled the vehicle back onto the road heading south. “All right guys, it’s your job to spot the Bants. They’ll be off in the grass, probably up near the tree line.”
Jake leaned into the window on his side of the vehicle behind Bjorn and strained his eyes on the horizon, but he couldn’t see anything that looked like a big water buffalo. He wondered if Bants were taller than the pampas grass and if he would even be able to see them at all. Sven was doing the same out his window. “Nothin yet.” Sven commented.
After driving a few more kilometers the guys crested yet another rolling hill and Bjorn slowed down. The savannah dropped away below them making it easier to see the landscape. Bjorn stopped, then pointed off to the south east to their left at a low point where Jake could see the shimmer of water in the grasses. “Sven, get out the field glasses and check that marsh down there.”
Sven had a pair of binoculars in the glove compartment, which he used to scan the lowland terrain below them. “Nope. Nothing down by the marsh.” He scanned wider, trying to see if there were any animals at all on the savannah below them. “I can see some smaller deer-like beasties down by the water, but nothing that looks like a Bant. Those deer’ll be long gone before we can get close enough for a shot. They disappear in this tall grass.”
Jake found a pair of binoculars in one of the compartments in the back and took a long look around. “What are those big humps sticking up over there?” he said pointing north east along the ridge they were parked on. The mounds were more than a kilometer away.
“Nothing, we’ve been faked out by those dirt mounds before, some type of termite mound or something.” Bjorn stated. Just then one of Jake’s termite mounds started to move. “Hey wait… there’s one.” Bjorn added. “Action stations!” Bjorn hollered. The guys quickly unlatched both side windows, swung them up out of the way and retrieved the rifles. Jakes rifle went out the left window on the rear mount, while Svens went out the right side in front. Bjorn pulled the Ripsaw off the road and Sven headed up out the top hatch. Jake started to follow, but Bjorn stopped him. “He’s just going out to unhitch the trailer. Start reloading the empty clips, the fresh rounds are under your seat.”
Jake fished the empty clips out of the compartment and figured out how to open up the seat bottom, which was full of boxes of steel rounds for the rifles. Sitting in the opposite rear seat, he began reloading the clips. “Hand me one.” Bjorn asked “I can reload too while Sven is busy out back.” There were five empty clips, thirty rounds each to reload.
Sven had climbed down the back of the Ripsaw and had proceeded to lower the stand and unlatch the trailer hitch. It took a few minutes to crank the stand down far enough to release the hitch, but he got it. He finished the job and clambered back in, but the other guys weren’t done reloading yet. “Check the propellant tanks.” Bjorn directed. Sven fished a bottle of propellant out of the side compartment and refilled the tank in the butt of the rifle through the top cap, then refilled Jake’s rifle too.
“Topped off and ready to go!” Sven said.
“All clips reloaded and ready for action!” Jake added, slamming the seat cushion back down and retaking his position behind the rifle. Bjorn strapped himself back in and put the Ripsaw in gear and began moving forwards slowly.
“Keep your eye on the Bants, I’m going to try and get as close as I can without spooking them. Let me know when one raises it’s head and looks our direction.”
Sven climbed up and sat on the roof with his legs down the hatch. Jake watched expectantly out the window as Bjorn crept the vehicle closer to the huge animals, the Ripsaw wasn’t exactly a very stealthy vehicle. Bjorn managed to get within about three hundred meters, when several of the large buffalo popped their heads above the tall grass and snorted. Bjorn stopped the Ripsaw when Sven called “Stop.” down the hatch, but not before a few of the Bants began trotting up the hill away from the vehicle. Bjorn couldn’t see much from where he was down low in the seat. Jake figured there were about twenty or so by the number of heads that popped up out of the tall grass.
“This is about as close as we’re going to get.” Sven called down the hatch. “These guys are skittish and about to bolt.” Sven reached out in front of the hatch, unlatched a bracket, and pivoted a metal stand up into place in front of him. “Jake, hand me your rifle.” Jake handed up the big rifle with the scope on it, and w
atched as Sven hooked it onto the metal stand. “Get up here, you can’t shoot anything from down there.” The grass was indeed too tall to see over. They wouldn’t be shooting anything out the windows here. Jake clambered up out the Ripsaw and took over the rifle. Sven was looking through the binoculars at the small herd, he called out “Range to target, 346 meters.”
Picture Pack: Bant Herd
“How do you know that?” Jake asked quizzically.
“The binoculars have a laser range finder in them. You put the cross hairs in the right lens on the target and hold down the button on the right side. The range shows up in the right lens.”
“Oh. I didn’t know that. Let me try.” Sven handed him the binoculars and Jake checked the range to the nearest Bant in the group, it was about 348 meters away now.
“Shoot it in the back of the head.” Sven instructed, “The steel round won’t damage your trophy too much, and it’ll drop him quicker than hitting him in the heart.”
Jake gave the binoculars back and went back to the rifle, finding the nearest animals in the scope. He picked out one of the nearest animals and tried to steady the scope reticule on the target, but the animal turned away from him. His hands were shaking a bit, he was so excited. His heart was pounding in his ears, as he tried to calm down and steady his aim on a different Bant. Taking a deep breath, Jake finally took the shot. Boom! The rifle retorted, startling all the animals into a mad dash up and over the hill away from the sound.
“Did I get it?” Jake shouted expectantly. He couldn’t see anything in the dust and tall grass the animals had kicked up.
“I think so.” Sven said slowly. “Let’s go find out.”
Bjorn headed the vehicle slowly in the direction of the dirt mounds while Sven and Jake hung onto the railings on the top of the vehicle. The ground was pretty rough, but the bumps didn’t force Jake and Sven into coming back down into the vehicle. It took a few minutes to close the distance, then Sven hollered “Hey look! You actually got one. You lucky bastard!”
The Styx Strikers Page 4