(from the personal notes of Quarbani Singh)

Day 28

You can always spot someone new to our world based on their gear. As long as you’re kitted out with the largest, most powerful & intimidating firepower around, these Rambos think, they’ll always come out on top. Fortunately, a firefight always sorts this misapprehension out—either they just make it out alive, no thanks to their portable WMD arsenal & lesson learned, or they die.

There is one simple rule on this matter which, once internalized, will take you far. (which is to say, will keep you alive)

ALWAYS CHOOSE RELIABILITY FIRST. I recently went to one of my field safehouses which I maintain outside the city. I leave them available for my professional colleagues to also use; in return, they’ll often store equipment (which they understand may be used by me as needed). On this occasion, I discovered a rarity: an AS-50 .50 BMG sniper/anti-materiel rifle. Despite its less-than-pristine condition, I decided to trade off my well-maintained G3KA4 assault rifle for the AS-50’s superior range and stopping power.

Two hours later, I found myself on the south ridge of the Pala police precinct, lining up a long-range kill shot on the northern sniper tower. I pull the trigger…only for the blowback to crack the rusty upper receiver. Suddenly, this “super weapon”, able to put a fist-sized hole in a man from half a mile away, was nothing more than a lump of scrap whose parting gift was to mark my location with its final gasp. I was in the middle of a hostile situation with only a .45 pistol to defend myself. The mark was now secondary; survival took precedence.

It was a hard and very harrowing trek back to the safehouse. Trying to sneak past guards who seemed to hear every rustle in the trees, spotted you out of the middle of a bush, & never missed their marks. Running like hell when you were inevitably discovered. Scavenging “firearms” (which, more often than not, jammed & fell apart before the first clip was spent) to be used just to cover my retreat over miles of territory, covered with firebases housing infinite manpower.

As I dragged myself back into the safehouse hours later, threw myself onto the bed and patched my bleeding body up, I realized that I was lucky… but I’d also just learned that a big bad cannon is only as good as its ability to stay in firing shape under very harsh conditions.