by Tom Jones
The fox sat in his storefront while he held a SIG Sauer MCX Spear in his hands. Arcades pulled the charging handle of the rifle back a few times before looking to the left side of the rifle and pulling the second charging handle back. Jason watched as the fox looked into the chamber of the rifle as he continued to pull the charging handles back and forth, “Why does that rifle have two charging handles?” Arcades paused for a moment before looking up at the wolf, “SIG put both there because some people like using the AR style charging handle while others like having it on the side. Personally, it doesn’t really matter to me.” Jason looked at the tan-colored rifle and studied it, “When did that gun come out?” The fox looked back at the rifle briefly before replying, “The US Army adopted it a few years ago in order to eventually replace the standard AR-15 platform they’ve been using since the 1960s. SIG had prototypes of this back in 2019, but this is the final production version. Since this company has an FFL and an SOT, I bought it directly from SIG themselves. They shipped it to me from their factory in Newington, New Hampshire.”
The wolf sat down next to the fox who was already sitting on the counter. After moving his tail out of the way, Jason looked at the suppressor attached to the barrel of the rifle, “Which suppressor is that?” The fox answered as he began to unscrew it, but he then changed his mind and screwed the suppressor back onto the weapon, “SIG’s suppressor. The US Army wanted it so that their M4 successor would have a suppressor included by default rather than something you attach later.” The wolf looked at the magazine well of the rifle, “Is that a .308? It looks a bit larger than something that shoots 5.56.” The fox raised the weapon upwards to allow him to grab a magazine from his right using his left hand. Once he grabbed the magazine, he moved it back to his left to show Jason, “Good guess, but this rifle is chamber in 6.8x51mm. It’s supposed to be the US Army’s newest caliber that they want to phase out 5.56x45mm with. It’s the beginning of 2030, and I still don’t see them doing that anytime soon. AR-15s are still way too plentiful.” Jason looked at the rifle’s overall shape, “I think I might’ve seen you with this before, but I kept thinking that it was just a .308 MCX or something.” The fox nodded and replied, “Some of the earliest prototypes of the Spear were just MCXs chambered in .308, so that’s not too far from reality.”
Jason held out his hands to non-verbally request the weapon, and Arcades obliged by handing it over to the wolf. As the wolf inspected the weapon, he asked the fox another question about it, “How long have you had this gun?” The fox held a magazine in his hands, “I got that rifle in less than a month ago, but I just got the ammo for it today. 6.8x51mm really ain’t all that common yet, especially for civilians like ourselves.” Jason flipped the sights down before popping them back up again and looking at the sight picture, “This thing really looks like an AR-15, though.” Arcades nodded, “Yeah, it’s based on the original SIG MCX from 2015, and the general shape of the MCX was based on the AR-15 to begin with. I’d call it a cross between an AR-15 and an AR-18. The actual system inside the thing works basically like an AR-18. Anyways, the bolt on the Spear still locks back and has a bolt release just like the regular AR-15, but it has a side charging handle so you can reload it a number of different ways. It also features ambidextrous controls, so both righties and lefties can use it without too much trouble.” The wolf pulled back the side charging handle before locking the bolt back by the use of the traditional bolt catch that one would normally see on an AR-15. Jason looked inside of the empty chamber, and he could see through the bottom of the lower receiver since the weapon did not have a magazine inserted.
The wolf looked at the top rail and asked, “Are you going to put a sight on this?” Arcades replied, “Not yet. I’m about to go out and shoot it for the first time. Wanna come with me? I’ll let you use it as well.” Jason smiled and said, “Sure, I’m curious to see this in action. How many rounds do you have, mate?” Arcades looked at the two loaded magazines he had for the weapon, and he then looked at a third magazine which was still empty, “I got about five hundred rounds of 6.8 in total, but these magazines only take twenty rounds each. I’ve got forty rounds loaded so far across two magazines, but I still have to load one more mag.” Jason looked past the fox, and he saw an open box which Arcades grabbed a few rounds of 6.8 out of. He watched as Arcades took the last empty magazine and began to load rounds into it. As Jason studied the shape of the magazine, he asked, “Do those magazines only fit into the .308 pouches?” The fox nodded, “Uh-huh. Yeah. It’s kinda an inconvenience. You see, .300 Blackout was made to fit inside of your STANAG compliant 5.56 magazines, and they even had a few other 6.8 calibers that would have been compatible as well. However, the US Government wanted 6.8x51mm specifically, and that has the same length as a .308 round.”
The fox continued to speak as he continued to load more rounds into the magazine, “You remember the FN SCAR 17 right? That weapon is chambered in 7.62x51mm, and the magazines are just about the same size as the ones the Spear takes. In fact, you can buy an upper for the SCAR 17 that takes 6.8 instead of .308, but I haven’t done that yet since I don’t really see a need to do that in the first place. The Spear is the only 6.8x51mm weapon that I have at the moment. I kinda bought this one just because I wanted to try out 6.8. We still have a long, long way to go before 6.8 becomes the new standard instead of 5.56. Germany replaced the majority of their G36s with the Haenel Defence MK 556, and that’s basically just another piston-operated AR-15. Even the US Army hasn’t even gotten that far yet replacing their own AR-15s. Heck, most of the AR-15s that they use are still using lower receivers from the 80s and 90s.” Jason continued to listen to the fox’s miniature lecture, though his understanding of all of the concepts which the fox described were not too fleshed out. The wolf did not come from a culture which embraced the private ownership of firearms of any kind.
After Arcades filled the magazine to its maximum capacity, he grabbed the other two magazines he had, and he placed them into his cargo pockets once he stood up. The fox commented on his pockets, “I’m glad I wear these shorts. I can stick plenty of ammunition in these without using a chest carrier or rig.” The wolf stood up as well, and he still had the MCX Spear in his hands. Jason looked over at the XMP-1 that was on the wall, and he asked the fox, “Kurt, why did the Foundation make their rifle use 5.56 instead of 6.8? Don’t they have connections with the US Government?” Arcades looked over to the rifle on the wall and said, “They probably had plenty of 5.56 before they made it. Many of the Foundation’s guys didn’t even wear the latest and greatest equipment. They had UCP, and the US Army completely phased that out in 2019. Well… That’s when they officially phased it out. Some members of the National Guard still wear UCP-patterned IOTVs and ACH helmet covers from time to time.” Once the fox finished speaking, he looked back over at Jason to see if the wolf was satisfied with the fox’s answer. Jason nodded to acknowledge Arcades, “Alright. Are we ready to go?” The fox replied, “Yep. Let’s go try it out.”
Arcades unlocked the back door to his range, and he held the door open for Jason to exit the building while still holding the MCX Spear. After both of the anthros exited the building, they moved over to the range they had set up. Arcades and Jason both approached one of the shooting corrals, and the fox emptied the magazines from his pockets onto the wooden table. Jason looked down range, but he could not see any target, “Um, Kurt?” The fox stacked the magazines on the table as he answered, “What’s up?” Jason sat the rifle on the table next to the magazines and said, “What are we shooting at?” Arcades looked down range, and he could not see any target to shoot at, “Whoop, silly me! I still have to go and get a target. Wait right here for me, alright? You can load the Spear if you want. It operates the same as an AR-15. Just insert the magazine and pull back the charging handle. Well, either charging handle…” The fox realized that he was about to go off on another tangent, so he refocused his attention back to the task at hand, “I’ll go get the targets.” Jason acknow
ledged the fox as he walked back into the building to get some targets, “Fair dinkum, mate.”
As the agent read the manual for the Trijicon AccuPower, he flipped a page and noticed a small piece of paper sliding out of the manual. The human looked down at the piece of paper after it fell completely out of the manual, and he placed the booklet on top of the dashboard as he went to retrieve the paper that fell out. The agent grabbed the paper and examined it: It did not take him long to realize that it was a gospel tract. The human crumpled up the tract, opened the door of his car, and he threw it as far as he could while he angrily expressed his opinion on Arcades, “What a fucking bitch. Piece of shit fucking fox.” Right before the human could close the door of his car, he saw some movement coming from Arcades’ firing range. The agent grabbed a pair of binoculars from inside the center console of his Taurus, and he looked through them to see Jason was standing at the range placing a magazine into the MCX Spear. The human quietly spoke to himself as he watched the wolf, “Who the fuck is this?”
Arcades exited his building carrying more than just a few targets. In his hands, he also held ear and eye protection for both him and Jason. The fox approached the wolf, and Jason was standing in front of the loaded rifle he placed back on the wooden table. Arcades placed the targets on the table as he handed the wolf the Oakley SI M Frame 3.0 glasses which he preferred. Arcades placed his own Oakley SI Radar EV sunglasses over his eyes, and the wolf put on his own glasses as well. The fox gave the wolf a pair of electronic earplugs that filtered out loud sounds made with the same technology that human-worn over-ear hearing devices utilized. When both anthros put the electronic earplugs in their ears, they were just about ready to get started. The fox grabbed a staple gun from the side of the shooting corral, and he took a target as he moved down range to staple it to the support cross. The cross itself was damaged from all of the rounds that many shooters fired through it in the past. Arcades stapled the target to the target cross, and he returned to behind the firing line to hang up the stapler. The wolf picked up the loaded MCX Spear and asked the fox, “Who gets to shoot first?”
Arcades shrugged, “You can go if you’d like.” The wolf looked at the target which was only sitting about twenty meters from where they were both standing. Jason looked back to Arcades, nodded, and he then looked back down range as he raised the MCX Spear at the target. The Spear was definitely heavier than Arcades’ Salient Arms GRY, but it was a bit lighter than a weapon like an AR-10 or HK417. The wolf flipped the fire control group to the middle position, semi-automatic, and he looked down the weapon’s sights as he prepared to fire. Arcades stood at the wolf’s five o’clock position while he waited for Jason to take his shot. Jason moved his finger into the trigger guard, and he then began to pull the trigger slowly. Within another couple seconds, Arcades heard the supersonic crack as well as the shot itself as the round left the suppressor. The round impacted upward and offset to the right of the target’s center. After firing, Jason flipped the weapon’s selector back on safe and placed it back down on the table.
The agent was now in view of both Arcades and Jason. As he looked through the binoculars to watch both anthros, he saw Jason then hand Arcades the weapon and watched as the fox proceeded to fire a few suppressed rounds at the target. Even though the suppressed weapon fired supersonic ammunition, the agent was unable to hear the gunfire due to him being inside of his vehicle. The agent watched as Arcades switched the weapon to fire fully automatic, and he saw the fox empty the rest of the first magazine into the target. The agent could not see the target from his viewing angle, and he was only in view of both Arcades and Jason. Once the fox finished shooting at the target, he picked up the second magazine from the table, ejected the first magazine, and inserted the second magazine into the Spear before placing the empty magazine to the left of the remaining full magazine. Arcades debated on pressing the bolt release button or pulling the charging handle back to chamber a round, but he decided to simply press the bolt release button.
With a fresh magazine now inserted into the MCX Spear, the fox aimed the rifle at the target, but he hesitated for a moment and safetied the weapon, “Are you sure that you don’t wanna shoot it more? You only took one shot.” Jason approached the fox as Arcades lowered the weapon and turned around while making sure that he was not pointing his rifle’s barrel at the wolf, “You bought the gun, though.” Arcades replied, “Yeah, and I want to share it with you.” Arcades outstretched his arms while still holding the rifle, “This one’s not too bad to shoot. Less kick than a .308, but still more than a 5.56. How about giving it another shot? We still have another full magazine.” After a few seconds, Jason reached out to take the rifle from the fox, and Arcades relinquished the weapon to the wolf.
With the rifle now in the hands of Jason again, the now unarmed fox stood aside to allow for the wolf to stand back at the firing line. Jason raised the weapon and pulled the trigger. The trigger did not move, and the wolf briefly looked at the weapon to see that the safety was still set to safe rather than fire. Before Jason could switch the rifle off of the safe setting, Arcades spoke, notifying the wolf of what he had just figured out for himself, “It’s on safe.” Jason flipped the selector to the semiautomatic position, and he aimed the rifle back at the target again. After lining up the polymer iron sights with the target, the wolf pulled the trigger and took a shot. The round Jason fired landed down and to the left of the bullseye, but Arcades still congratulated the wolf of scoring a hit on the target, “There you go! Looks like you hit it.” The wolf adjusted his shooting stance and brought his right elbow inwards to help him manage the kick of the rifle. After curving his thumb around the weapon’s top rail, he prepared to take another shot. The wolf fired again, and he hit the target yet again. The fox gave his feedback to Jason, “That’s a hit. I saw it hit directly above the center.” Jason, confident with his current shooting stance, took two more shots in rapid succession. The first round landed right above the bullseye again, but the second round did not land on the paper.
“I saw one of those hit. Make sure you have a firm grip on the handguard, and that’ll help you stay on target. Also, make sure you don’t get knocked off balance.” The wolf responded to the fox’s advice by widening his stance slightly and trying a different grip on the Spear’s handguard. Even though Jason was wearing eye protection like the fox was, he still flinched every time he took a shot. He had always been one to flinch because of close gunfire, but he was still alive even after raiding the Foundation. Apparently his flinch reflex did not do too much against him when his skills were actually put to the test. The fox watched Jason fire one more round before speaking, “Do you want to try fully automatic fire with that? Switch your selector to the third position.” Jason lowered the barrel of his rifle, but he still kept it pointing down range when he asked the fox, “How many rounds do I have left?” Arcades tried to mentally recount how many rounds Jason fired, “I think you’ve only fired about five or six rounds. You should have a bit more than ten rounds left.” The wolf flipped the selector to the automatic position, and he braced himself before holding the trigger down. Jason had fired a fully automatic weapon before, but this was his first time firing one chambered in 6.8x51mm. The wolf fired at the target, and he did land a large majority of his shots on the target he was aiming at.
With the weapon falling silent after running out of ammunition, Jason turned the weapon over to the side in order to see that the chamber was locked open since the magazine was empty. Arcades approached the wolf with a smile on his face, “Not bad, not bad. You handled that like a champ. Do you want to shoot the last magazine or do you want me to do it?” Jason located the magazine release, and it was in the same place as one would find the release button on an AR-15 style weapon. The wolf depressed the magazine release, and he removed the magazine from the lower receiver. Jason placed the magazine on the table, and he saw the fox’s black-furred arm in his peripheral vision reach out to hand him the last magazine. The wolf noticed
that Arcades was now offering him the magazine, so he decided to take it and insert it into the rifle. Arcades stood back; he did not want to get hit by hot shell casings. The fox watched the wolf pull the side charging handle of the MCX Spear, and then he watched as the bolt dropped to load a new round into the chamber.
“Why not try fully automatic again? You know what to expect this time. I bet you’ll be able to get all of those rounds on target,” the fox suggested as he took a single step back away from the wolf. Jason briefly looked at the fire selector group of the MCX Spear, and he could see that the weapon was still on the automatic setting. Jason took a knee this time, and he lined up the weapon’s sights with the paper target. The target had accumulated a fair number of holes on it thanks to all of the rounds which both anthros fired. The wolf stabilized himself while he crouched on one knee, and he then kept both of his eyes open as he held the trigger down. The suppressor did its job by not only suppressing the weapon’s sound to a somewhat reasonable degree, but it also helped the wolf keep the rifle on target since there was not as much gas blowing upwards to distort his vision. Within mere moments, the final magazine was now empty, and the wolf stood back up while he removed the magazine from the firearm. Arcades took out his hearing protection since there was no more live ammunition around, but he kept his sunglasses on, “That was really good! I think you hit it almost every single time. Great job!” Jason sat the final empty magazine with the other two magazines, and he safetied the weapon before placing it on the table. The fox pointed to the wolf’s ears, “We’re done here. You don’t need those earbuds anymore.” Jason removed the electronic earplugs from his ears, and he handed them to the fox who pocketed the hearing protection in his cargo shorts.
