>So, for the third time in less than three years the impossible has happened.
>The US government has started systematically confiscating firearms.
>The irony is that the order came from the man who supposedly wasn't going to touch people's guns.
>The whole thing might seem funny to some if the confiscation wasn't specifically targeting geists.
>This didn't sit well with a lot of gun owners & as such countless militias all over the country had sprang up to resist what to them was no different from the Holocaust.
>Now you were part of one of them & you were a mere minutes away from being branded as a terrorist.
>You don't really care. 
>Apparently severing a desantnik's jugular in close quarters combat now counts as a brutal execution of a prisoner of war.
%"Papa?", Aino whispers into your ear, interrupting your thoughts.
#"What is it?" you ask your sidearm.
%"That guy isn't going to be able to do it" she says, she doesn't specify who she's referring to, she doesn't have to.
#"For fuck's sake" you mutter as you crawl to the guy in question; a twenty-something guy holding a TRG-42.
#"Move over, I'll take it from here" you say to him, the plan was for him to snipe the machine gunners and/or anyone else posing a threat to your group.
>You had had your suspicions about his ability to do his job from the start. It isn't his skill you are worried about, nor is it the weapon or the distance; the targets are relatively close and the optics on the rifle are good.
>And that's the problem: the shooter can see his target clearly, making it that much harder to pull the trigger than with iron sights from the same distance where you can pretend you are only shooting at paper targets, for a normal civilian the task couldn't be harder.

>You aren't exactly Häyhä, but from this distance your skill is enough, and after everything you have been through you know you can pull the trigger.
>The guy complies and you take the rifle, he picks up binoculars and starts designating targets: one Ma Deuce and two GPMGs visible.
>You check the targets for yourself and frown when you see the GPMGs: PKMs, meaning there's a good chance they were confiscated, meaning there's a good chance they have geists. If there are more guards than you thought you may have to disable the machine guns, and you aren't confident in your ability to sever the belts. You'll have to hit the receivers, and if you do that the weapons will in all likelihood be beyond saving.
>Killing those fuckers won't be an issue, but hurting geists is another thing completely.
§"You ok Anon?" Mike whispers as he comes to check on you, he must have noticed the PKMs as well.
#"How sure are you that there's only a handful of them?" you ask.
§"Pretty sure, besides you have more than enough rounds to simply keep shooting anyone trying to use those machineguns, I doubt any of them can pose a serious threat to you with just rifles" he replies.
#"By the way, are you sure you want to do this while wearing that? You know what will happen to you if this goes South and you are captured wearing that" you say, referring to his MCCUUs. If he is captured it won't take very long for them to identify him & drag his ass to a military prison to await court martial.
§"I am in uniform precisely because of the risk, if I'm to be captured, I want it to be known that my belief in what we do is strong enough to attack a federal installation in uniform."
#"That isn't strictly speaking a federal installation though" you say.
§"Maybe so, but if I am captured I will be tried as if it were."
#"Point taken" you concede & Mike returns to his own post. You choose your first target; the child molester -looking man who can't seem to keep his hands off of the M2, for what ever rea-
#"You have got to be kidding me" you say as it dawns on you.
#"No headshot for you, let's see what a .338 to pelvis does to a grown man" you say as you flip off the safety and shift your aim.
"Twenty seconds" your spotter whispers.
>Once again you feel all emotion inside you disappear as you force yourself to breathe slower and more silently, not because you are afraid of being heard, but because it helps in reaching the right mindset.

>A couple hours later somewhere in North-Western Georgia.
§"So where now?" Mike asks from the commander's seat.
#"First to Cedar Bluff where we drive into the Weiss lake, we'll make landfall south-west of Leesburg, from there to Birmingham, Jackson, Shreveport and finally Texas, I doubt feds will be able to follow us past the state line should they still be on our trail when we get there" you explain the plan. 
>The raid had been a success & the ad-hoc militia had managed to save a lot of geists, after a quick 'clean-up' & cursory division of the geists into "back to their shooter" and "anywhere but here" the militia had split up, you and Mike piling into your ride with your own geists plus three rescues; a PKM, a Valmet M78 and the M2 you had seen on the guard post.
>As soon as the guards manning the posts had been shot the two machine guns had turned into their human form & sprinted towards the woods, they must have noticed the presence of other geists approaching & realized what was happening, the M78 on the other hand had been taken from a dead guard who hadn't been able to use her to shoot at the militia, it seems she had resisted being fired.
%"Papa, James is scared, please drive more carefully!" Aino pleads from the back, holding James' cat carrier in her lap. 
>You had gathered your most important things in your BRDM-2 before going on this mission, you have another load on a trailer somewhere in Arkansas headed for Texas, you weren't going back home anytime soon, not after this. 
>Williams had given you a heads-up just hours before the raid; Jackson had somehow caught wind of what Hilja and Aino were & had reported you to the police, Williams said he would have to pass the information to ATF and FBI, but he'd stall as much as he can. You had told him it wasn't necessary, by the time the Feds could mobilize you'd have other, more pressing problems.

>Williams didn't ask, but he probably guessed what those 'more pressing problems' were, you feel sorry for him, because of a bunch of retarded politicians good men are forced to do terrible things & all he can do is stay out of the Feds' way or abandon his duties and join the growing militia, for the time being he seems to have chosen the former.
#"I'm sorry Aino, James, this road is in a terrible condition & we need to get away from that place as soon as possible, we'll get to a better road in a couple minutes, I promise!" you say without turning your head, the night conditions combined with having to navigate using prisms in a self-imposed black-out means you can't take your eyes off the road.
§"I told you you should have bought that infrared camera when you had the chance" Mike comments your troubled expression, guessing the reason for it.
#"And I have told you that simple infrared goggles would suffice with the IR lamps I installed on the front, mine just broke recently & I wasn't able to get a new one in time."
§"You actually have installed IR lamps on this thing for driving in black-out conditions?"
#"Yes, I have" you reply as you see the landmark you had chosen beforehand as the spot to turn your headlights on & opening the shutters. Driving an armored military vehicle onto a well-traveled road with headlights turned off and armored shutters covering the windshield would be way too suspicious.
§"How long until we are in Alabama?" Mike asks.
#"Ten minutes, fifteen tops."
>Alabaman cops haven't started rounding up geists as of yet & don't seem too fond of taking orders from ATF, so your chances of getting through the state without problems look quite good, but you are still going to cross the lake by swimming rather than taking the bridge & risking an FBI roadblock at the southern end.
§"By the way, how good do you think the hillbilly armor you have added to the front and to the sides actually is?" Mike asks.
#"Good enough, I tested it."