#80: Banana Slug - Test to Destruction

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..............Test to Destruction........

The next few days was “WorldWarCuddleFish” some of the boys even managed to get permission to shoot them with their parents guns. That part had been interesting

Carl thought that was an interesting idea. If one gun was good then many guns were better? Size Mattered. The RowdyBunch had overheard here and there that Weldon, the farmer, had an arsenal by city folk standards.

Carl contacted Weldon. Sure enough that was true. Weldon was proud of them and rather enjoyed showing them off. He wasn’t about to let the kids use HIS guns but he didn’t mind popping few caps for a good cause and letting them watch. When he understood what they wanted to do.

Of course he called Shelby first.

“Most worshipful ArchMage and stuff” Weldon said.

“It’s Carl right?” Shelby said.

“Well yeah. As a matter of fact it is.”Weldon said’ He wants me to shoot one of those Drones you built the other day. I must say the one I have is working out just fine. It’s great for fishing. I can chase down a fish from behind and ‘zap’ grip it with those two long tentacles. I can be selective of which fish I catch. It beat’s the hell out of a rod and reel.”

“Thank you” Sheldon said “THAT is the kind of testing I had in mind. Not shooting it.”

“Yeah.” Weldon agreed. “That’s kinda what I thought you had in mind. I’ll tell the kids no.”

“On the OTHER HAND” Shelby said “ That just might be a bit of info that we need to have. What were you planning on shooting it with.”

“Oh, just the usual stuff” Weldon grinned. “I have the odd .22, .223, .38 special, .357 Magnum, .44, .45, 30-06, a few other larger rounds I use for elk hunting and the normal assortment of shot guns.”

“It sounds like you’re prepared” Shelby approved.

“And then there’s G’G’Granpa’s old Holland and Holland Double Rifle I got laying in a corner somewhere. I think it’s a 600 Nitro Express.” he said offhand.

Shelby didn’t choke. Not quite. He did have a little bit of trouble breathing for a minute.

“Ummm. Yeah. Just laying around you say?” He asked. The only H&HDR that Shelby had ever SEEN had been in a locked case in a museum. Something about being valued at a quarter million dollars.

Weldon just grinned, he loved this part.

“On second thought.” Shelby said “I think that a FINE idea. Please commend Carl for his foresight, forethought and watch the little devil like a hawk. That kid’s just not right. I’ll be there soon. Shoot the small caliber first. OK?”

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“I just talked to his munificent master the benevolent ArchMage” Weldon told the kids. “He said, and I quote ‘What the HELL! Carl? You wouldn't’ happen to know anything about that would you Carl?”

Carl kicked sand, if there had been any, and answered. “I’ve no idea what he’s talking about.”

“That’s fine. After he got over the shock he said that was actually a pretty good idea.” Weldon said “ He also said that we might need to know that kind of stuff one day. So here’s what we’re going to do. I’m even going to let you guys shoot a little bit. Under my CLOSE supervision of course. Is that cool?”

Of course it was. For the next few hours they had a lot of fun shooting the poor drones. They started with .22 pistols then gradually moved up the line. Amazingly enough some of the girls REALLY liked the .44 magnum revolver. Who’d a thunk? Then again these were NOT your normal kids, he thought proudly. They’d shot almost everything in his collection, which in truth, qualified as a arsenal in Texas. There were THAT many guns. The bigger rifles he didn’t allow the kids to shoot. Somethings are just silly. He shot the poor drone with them himself.

About that time Shelby floated in. ‘How’s it going Hoss?”

“I think the bear gun did some damage.” Weldon admitted, checking telemetric readouts. “Up until then it didn’t seem to be affected much.”

“Hang on. “ Shelby said “lets bring in in and have a look.”

The drone swam up to the house levee where they were all sitting. It shot out one of it’s long tentacles and Shelby pulled it ashore with them.

“Nope. See here? All the small calibre stuff barely penetrated. The bigger the bore the further the penetration. It appears that there is no ‘shock’ damage. The bullet’s don’t expand into tissue since there was no tissue, just microscopic balls, rods and air. In fact the bullets seem to have been sliced to powder.” Shelby muttered.

“That just makes sense “ Cody said “The drone is made of SSmoke isn’t it? In a manner of speaking it’s a lot like a Tinkertoy? Only really, really strong and tiny?”

Shelby looked at Cody. Cody just smiled. Cody didn’t want just everyone do know how smart he was. “I think the word you’re trying so hard to NOT say is ‘octet’ truss?”

“Oh I don’t know what that means” Cody said. “Is that what it is?”

“Yeah, that’s what it is” Shelby said. “And it’s made from Graphene so it’s way strong but it has a secret ingredient so it’s fireproof. So what’s basically happening is that the mass of the bullet pulls the ‘grippers’ loose but is being sliced and diced in the process by the very thin, very strong arms. Those arms are thinner than any razor ever made. Makes sense that the bullets get minced.”

Weldon bent over and looked at the damage.” you know. If I didn’t know better I’d say those ‘wounds’ are healing.”

“Yup.” Shelby said “ Just like OmniSuits. The grippers were pulled free by the force of the bullet. A lot of times that’s the only damage. The nodes are tough, like diamond. The default programming for a loose gripper is ‘hold my hand’. So it re-grips. The only place it can re-grip is where it got pulled lose. I bet I could reprogram it to eject the bullet pieces too.”

“Don’t see why”. Weldon said “ why cover up battle scars? Shall we complete the demonstration? I only have one gun left.”

“Go for it” Shelby agreed.

“Now we come to this beauty” Weldon said. Sherry had just handed him a BIG gun. “There are only one or two hundred of these babies in existence. It’s a Holland and Holland, double rifle, .600 Nitro Express. My granpa brought it back from Africa, so the story goes, something about a disagreement with a plantation owner who was running from past misdeeds. It’s a bit unclear what all my granpa did. He got around a bit. He was an old, old man when he died. I was so young I can barely remember him. Hell of a man from all accounts.”

It was the biggest rifle any of them had ever seen.

“I’d be astonished if this doesn’t do the job” Weldon said. “now just toss that poor thing back into the water. Have it go floaty-floaty out near the edge of the fog and I’ll shoot it a couple of times.”

He handed out earmuffs to the kids.

KA-BOOM! KA-BOOM!

The recoil rocked Weldon to his heels. The concussion almost put all the onlookers into shock. There was dead silence until:

“Yup... ya got it.” Carl said.

Amazingly enough the drone was still capable of returning to the levee. It still managed to lasso Shelby around the ankle and pull itself ashore.

“Don’t look so good does it?” Weldon said

“That’s not going to buff out.” Cody said in awe.

“Why did this gun do so much damage compared to the other ones?” one of the RowdyBunch asked.

“Because it’s a whole lot of gun shooting a whole lot of bullet real fast. That thing throws about an ounce of lead downrange at about thirteen hundred miles per hour, about three times faster than an airliner flys. It hits like a ton of bricks, literally, about 2,000 ft/lbs. of force. That’s a literal ton. ”Weldon told him.

“How bout some of you guys get this thing back to the shop” Shelby told the RowdyBunch”I want to examine it closer. This was definitely ‘test to destruction.”

He looked at Carl.

Carl looked around, ‘kicked sand’, and began to whistle.

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The Next Episode Is
#81: Banana Slug - SubConscious Talking…
The Previous Episode was
#79: Banana Slug - Time to Get Busy Designing…
The First Episode was
# 1 : Prologue…
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Book One: SoulStone
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