Chapter 376: — A Moving Target

Goblin Airship Yards, Central Continent — Three Days Later

Before you start reading some info plz read-

Name and Role 1.Brizz-Yardmaster 2.Razzik-Captain 3.Vessa-Pilot 4.Deks -Goblin master smith 5.Nivra-Goblin mage(hope that helps you know who is who and what he does)

Brizz was halfway down the workshop steps when the howitzer rolled through the yard entrance.

He had expected another letter asking for drawings, costs, or permission from somebody who would demand both. Instead, two hauling beasts brought the gun past the timber stacks, followed by a wagon carrying ammunition boxes and six artillerymen.

“Leave the lifting chains ready!” he shouted toward the eastern gantry.

A dwarf riding beside the wagon driver raised one hand.

“Do not listen to him,leave the gun on the ground.”

Brizz slowed.

The dwarf climbed down, collected a leather satchel, and approached with a human officer beside him.

“Master Orvek i presume,” he said. “Forge-Master Daren sent me to inspect your proposed mounting and this is Lieutenant Keldan who commands the instructor crew.”

“Karrek that old coot approved the trial?”

” Not the words i would say but he approved lending you a gun and while forgemaster daren would like it returned in a condition that still resembles one.”

Brizz glanced toward the Iron Gull.

“We haven’t broken anything.”

“Then I’ve arrived at an excellent time.”

Orvek handed over the authorization and looked toward the workshop.

“Is there somewhere we can eat while you explain this?”

“The cook’s serving stew,” Vessa called from behind Brizz.

“Does it contain meat?”

“Depends how well you know the cook.”

Orvek sighed and followed her. “Three days on the road, and I’m still negotiating for lunch.”

Inside, Razzik cleared a space between the ship drawings and spread Hadrik’s report across the table.

Keldan read it while Deks brought over the proposed gun layout. Nivra joined them with the records of the Iron Gull’s ward arrays.

“We want to replace one mana cannon for the trial,” Razzik began. “If that works, we’ll consider the remaining positions.”

“What do you intend to fire at?” Keldan asked.

“Warhounds first. Their artillery and supply wagons when we get the opportunity.”

The lieutenant set down the report.

“From what height?”

“High enough to keep our crews alive,lets say thousand feet for now” Vessa replied.

Keldan looked at her, and she pulled the Redwake’s loss account from beneath the drawings.

“Our mana cannons can tear through a crowd. Against a Warhound, we have to get closer before the gun crews can place their attacks properly. By then, the bastard below has a much easier shot at us.”

“And the bombs?” Orvek asked.

Razzik pushed the loss account across to him.

“From high up, they scatter. We can cover a stretch of ground, but an individual Warhound can come through without a direct hit. Bring the ship lower and we improve our chances.”

Vessa rested both hands on the table.

“So do they. The Redwake was turning away when they broke her hull,painful lessons.”

Orvek stopped stirring his stew.

For a moment, the only sound came from the yard, where a hammer struck repeatedly against an iron bracket.

Razzik tapped Hadrik’s report.

“I heard our new guns destroyed a battery from beyond a ridge. If we can put that kind of accuracy with precision strike capability aboard the Iron Gull, we might finally attack without having to fly down their throats.”

Keldan studied the proposed layout again.

“Then I need to see the gun station before anyone starts lifting.”

The old mana cannon still occupied its starboard mounting.

Deks had ordered the surrounding panels removed, exposing the supports beneath it. Chalk marks showed where he thought the new weapon and ammunition chests could stand.

Orvek crouched beside the opening and examined the frame. Deks knelt opposite him, pointing out where the supports joined the ship’s main ribs.

“This carries the existing cannon’s recoil,” the goblin said. “We know what it can take.”

“That gives us somewhere to begin,” Orvek replied. “It doesn’t tell us whether the new gun loads those supports in the same way.”

“We can add bracing.”

“Probably. I want the measurements before I tell you how much.”

He straightened and looked at the chalk outline.

“The complete field carriage is going to be awkward here. It was built to stand on the ground, with room around it for the crew. Your passage gives us much less freedom.”

Deks scratched out one of his marks.

“So we keep the gun assembly and examine a different mounting.”

“We examine it,” Orvek agreed. “Daren hasn’t authorized me to promise you a finished ship cannon.”

Brizz folded his arms.

“How many signatures does it take before somebody’s allowed to have an idea?”

“One,” Orvek said. “But the difficulty starts when somebody has to pay for it.”

While they spoke, Keldan moved to the gun opening and looked down toward the wagons below.

“How much freedom do your gunners need to have to aim beneath the ship?”

Deks showed him the existing cannon’s arrangement.

“The new mounting would need to give them enough room about this whole front section unless we modify the gun,” Keldan said. “The field gun wasn’t designed around this opening or your deck after all. We must check where the breech and recoil travel would go as its angle changes.”

Razzik followed his gaze from the opening to the chalk marks.

“Suppose we manage that. There’s something else I’ve been wondering.”

He held one hand level, then tilted it toward the yard.

“If we point the barrel down, what’s keeping the shell from sliding out?”

Vessa turned toward him too.

“I’d prefer to hear the answer before we start flying over our own soldiers.”

Keldan first looked at them making a face like asking what kind of idiots are you then beckoned to a gunner waiting by the boarding ramp. The man brought over a practice projectile from the equipment wagon and laid it on the cleared bench.

The lieutenant indicated the metal band around its body.

“This ring you see here is the driving band. The projectile seats firmly where the rifled bore begins. It doesn’t lie loose inside a smooth pipe.”

“So shutting the back isn’t what holds it?” Deks asked.

“The breech closes the rear essentially. The projectile’s fit and seating prevent it from simply falling through the muzzle.”

Razzik examined the band, then nodded.

“All right. That answers that.”

“We’ll still check the loading arrangement for the angles you propose,” Keldan added. “But pointing a rifled cannon downward doesn’t automatically turn it into a bomb chute.”

Vessa glanced at Brizz.

“There goes our cheapest conversion.”

Brizz ignored her and turned to Orvek.

“If the shell stays inside and the frame can be strengthened, what’s stopping us?”

Keldan placed his hand on the practice projectile.

“Hitting the Warhound.”

Razzik’s expression tightened.

“That is why we asked for the sight and the firing tables.”

“They’ll help us understand the gun,” Keldan said. “They won’t give us Hadrik’s results merely because we bring them aboard.”

He led Razzik back toward the opening.

Below them, a wagon was crossing the yard. Its driver leaned sideways to shout at a worker carrying a stack of planks.

“Hadrik’s guns stood at known positions hitting known positions both of which are stationary.” Keldan continued. ” The gun crews could calculate the shot while both ends remained where the observers had placed them.”

“Our ship won’t,” Vessa said.

“Yes and neither will the Warhound.”

Razzik watched the wagon turn around a timber stack.

“We can keep watching it through a spell.”

“Yes but the shell takes time to reach the ground. The place your mage sees now may be empty when it arrives.”

Nivra stepped closer.

“I can follow a moving target as long as it moves straight.”

“And while you’re following it, this deck can tilt,” Keldan said. “The gun moves with the ship. Your speed, height, and direction also affect the shot. The ground tables don’t account for all of that simply because the target is visible.”

Keldan remained beside the opening, watching a wagon disappear behind a stack of timber. Then he turned back toward Razzik.

“Perhaps we should begin with something that gives the gunner more chances.”

Razzik lowered his hand from his brow.

“What do you have in mind?”

“A cannon that can fire several rounds in quick succession. If the first shot misses, the gunner gets another opportunity before the Warhound has moved far or your ship has carried him past it.”

Vessa straightened slightly.

“Without waiting through a full reload after every shot?”

“That would be the idea.”

Razzik glanced at the practice projectile on the bench.

“Like the clips our riflemen use? Put several rounds in and fire them one after another?”

“Something that keeps several rounds ready to feed,” Keldan said. “A magazine, perhaps. The exact arrangement would be for the smiths to work out.”

Orvek looked up sharply.

“Would it?”

The lieutenant gave him an apologetic smile.

“I did say perhaps.”

“A useful word. Officers usually put it immediately before something expensive.”

Deks had already picked up the practice projectile. He turned it in his hands, examining its weight and shape before setting it down again.

“We could look at a feeding arrangement,” he said. “But a box of shells won’t make the rest of the gun ready for the next shot.”

“The riflemen still have to work their bolts,” Orvek added. “You’re asking us to take over part of the loading work as well as keep the ammunition close.”

“Can it be done?” Brizz asked.

“I can tell you that it deserves looking at. I cannot tell you that this howitzer will do it after we attach a box.”

Razzik stepped back to the bench.

“Then we investigate a version meant for the ship.”

Orvek studied him for a moment before nodding.

“That is a more useful request.”

Nivra rested her hand against the exposed support beside the cannon.

“And the aim? If the deck tilts at the wrong moment, several rounds could all miss.”

“They could,” Keldan agreed. “We still need a gunner who can keep his aim close to the target. Faster firing would give him more opportunities to hit and less waiting between them. It wouldn’t make a badly aimed gun accurate.”

Vessa looked through the opening toward the yard.

“But it might let him finish the job while I still have the target on his side of the ship.”

“That is what I would want to test.”

Razzik felt some of his earlier enthusiasm return. The proposal still carried uncertainties, but he could picture a gunner using it. A missed shot would no longer necessarily consume most of the opportunity they had worked to create.

“How many rounds?” he asked.

Orvek immediately held up a hand.

“We haven’t agreed on the weapon yet.”

“I was asking what would be useful.”

“And I am asking you to remember that somebody has to lift the ammunition aboard, find room for it, and make the arrangement function while the ship moves.”

Deks gave the practice projectile a small push across the bench.

“Let us work out what we can handle before you request a chest that feeds itself.”

Brizz rubbed his chin.

“That does sound convenient.”

“It would also sound heavier when you had to carry it,” Vessa said.

They soon returned to the workshop, where Orvek reclaimed his bowl and discovered that the stew had gone cold.

He stared into it while Deks cleared space for a fresh drawing.

“Your gun may eventually fire faster,” the dwarf muttered. “My lunch has achieved the opposite.”

Razzik pulled the Iron Gull’s plan toward him.

“What do we need to establish first?”

“Whether we can make a suitable gun and feed arrangement without consuming half this deck,” Orvek replied. “We can study the leFH we brought and see what is useful. Anything we propose beyond that will need Daren’s involvement.”

Deks nodded.

“I’ll compare it with the station we have. We already intended to change the mounting.”

“And I need to examine what repeated firing would do to the ship’s movement,” Nivra said. “Our reinforcement arrays may protect the supports, but that doesn’t automatically mean the gun stays easy to aim.”

Vessa pulled out the chair beside her.

“You’ll have the flight records. If you need the gun crews’ accounts, I’ll bring them.”

Keldan leaned over the table.

“The trial should also tell us whether quicker follow-up shots actually help. If the gunner loses his aim after every discharge, we will have gained very little.”

Razzik nodded and reached for a blank sheet.

“Then that is what we ask Daren to help us develop.”

Brizz glanced toward Hadrik’s report.

“What about the howitzer standing in our yard?”

“We still need to examine it,” Orvek said. “It gives us a real weapon to work from. We can learn considerably more from that than from arguing over a report.”

“And the six-gun conversion?”

Razzik placed his quill against the parchment.

“Waits until we know what one station requires.”

Brizz reluctantly drew the proposed layout closer and folded it along its existing crease.

Razzik began the new request. He described the intended role and the need for several shots in quick succession, then left space for Orvek and Deks to add their findings. He made no claim that they had already solved the mounting or the aiming.

When he finished, he passed the page to the dwarf.

“Is that clear enough?”

Orvek read it, then looked across at Keldan.

“You introduced this as something easier.”

“For the gunner,” Keldan replied.

Orvek pushed the cold stew aside and reached for Deks’s charcoal.

“Aye. I should have asked which poor bastard you meant.”