Chapter 377: Practical solutions

The High Forge Complex, Central Continent

Orvek found Forge-Master Daren beside a finished leFH howitzer, arguing with a clerk over the next shipment.

“The sights travel with their guns,” the forge-master said, tapping the list. “If the crates do not fit on that wagon, find another wagon.”

The clerk hurried away.

Orvek waited until he was out of earshot before setting his satchel on the workbench.

“Forge-Master, I’ve returned from the goblin yards.”

Daren glanced at the papers protruding from the flap.

“You were sent to inspect one mounting.”

“Aye, and then the bastards started talking.”

Daren burst out laughing and slapped the dwarf on the shoulder.

“You weren’t expecting that, were you, you poor bastard? Come into the office. We’ll talk there.”

Orvek gathered his satchel, watching the forge-master with narrowed eyes.

“Enjoy the laugh, Forge-Master. I was smiling when they started, too.”

That earned another chuckle. Daren pushed open the office door and waved him inside.

“Then sit down and explain what cured you.”

A few minutes later, the Iron Gull’s drawings covered Daren’s desk. Orvek sat opposite him, rubbing the stiffness from his shoulder while the forge-master read Razzik’s request.

Daren reached the bottom of the page, turned it over, and found more.

“Rapid successive fire, a mounting that holds its aim, an aiming apparatus, and improved ammunition with both area saturation and armor penetration effect.”

He lowered the paper and looked across the desk.

“That’s a bloody good gun, Orvek. Where can I get one?”

“They’re hoping you’ll make it, Forge-Master.”

Daren’s expression went flat. He glanced at the list again, then set it down between them.

“Tell me this is a joke.”

“I asked them that myself.”

“And?”

“They wanted to know how soon we could start.”

Daren leaned back and rubbed a hand over his face.

“Of course they bloody did.”

“They’ve been giving it some thought.”

“Correction sir, they have given us the thought. Apparently, we are to provide everything else.”

Orvek pulled the ship drawing closer.

“Deks has smiths ready to work on her. I inspected the starboard station with him. We can reach the main supports, and they’re prepared to surrender troop space for the weapon and its ammunition.”

“That tells me we have room to investigate. It doesn’t tell me we need a new cannon.”

“It doesn’t,” Orvek admitted. “The conversation changed when Keldan asked how they intended to follow a moving Warhound.”

Daren lowered the request.

“Go on.”

“Razzik thought the gunner could follow it through the sight. Vessa pointed out that she’d be moving the ship beneath his feet. Then we discussed loading between shots, how long the target would remain in view, and what happened whenever she had to turn.”

“And someone decided firing faster would solve the lot.”

“Keldan suggested several shots during the same attack. The captain liked that.”

“I can imagine that.”

Daren pushed the request between them.

“Did no one tell him if the gun is pointing at the wrong place, a feeding mechanism lets him miss more expensively.”

Orvek’s beard shifted as his jaw tightened.

“Aye, Forge-Maste and if he has the right place in his sight while the crew is still loading, he gets to admire it.”

Daren looked up. The dwarf held his gaze.

“The aim needs work. So does the loading. We cannot dismiss one because the other is difficult.”

For a moment, only the hammering from the assembly hall filled the office. Then Daren drew a blank sheet toward himself.

“Fair. We keep rapid successive fire as a requirement. But we examine it alongside the mounting. I will not have one workshop building a mechanism that another workshop cannot fit aboard the ship.”

“That is what I came back to discuss.”

“Then why does Razzik describe it as a modification to the existing gun?”

Orvek rubbed his forehead.

“He called it a minor alteration before I left.”

Daren stared at him.

“I would have thrown him over the rail.”

“The ship was still in her cradle, Forge-Master. There wasn’t enough of a drop to improve him.”

A short laugh escaped Daren before he reached for the drawing again.

“Show me the station.”

Orvek pointed out the exposed supports, the space occupied by the old mana cannon, and the passage through which the crew would bring ammunition.

Daren studied his measurements.

“You have left this area unassigned.”

“Until we know what the weapon needs. Deks wanted to draw the whole installation immediately.”

“And you stopped him?”

“For now.”

Daren nodded at the empty space.

“Keep it that way. The mounting, feeding arrangement, and crew access must be considered together.”

He moved the ammunition sheet aside.

“Now, about holding the aim. Reinforcing the deck will help the structure endure firing, but the weapon will still move with the hull. The gunner needs a way to compensate without fighting the entire weight of the piece.”

“Nivra is examining whether their arrays can help.”

“Has she claimed they can?”

“No. Her existing arrays steady the ship and reinforce it. She knows that isn’t the same as keeping a gun trained on something below.”

“Good. I would rather hear a mage admit that than spend a month making a mounting around a promise.”

Orvek leaned forward.

“Then give her something definite to examine. If we send back ‘make the aim steady,’ she’ll ask which part of the movement we expect her to handle.”

Daren considered the drawing, then began writing.

“We arrange the first mounting study with Deks and Nivra together. They must establish how much the crew can manage and where assistance is needed. Nobody works out his half and leaves the other man to discover it doesn’t fit.”

“That includes your instrument makers, Forge-Master.”

Daren raised an eyebrow.

“Mine?”

“The goblins aren’t the only folk capable of making a beautiful piece that leaves no room for a dwarf’s hand.”

“My instrument makers will be delighted to hear your opinion.”

“They usually are, once they’ve finished swearing.”

Daren set the quill down and reached for the next page.

“This is where their request becomes considerably harder.”

Orvek recognized Nivra’s notes.

“The aiming apparatus.”

“They want something that follows the selected target and directs the weapon. We have only recently begun producing the ground sights reliably.”

“Then examine their second choice. An apparatus that calculates the settings while the gunner handles the aim.”

“That also requires work we have not done.”

“I didn’t say it was lying in a cupboard.”

Daren gave him a level look.

“You have spent a few days with goblins and returned as their salesman.”

“If they’d hired me, Forge-Master, I’d have demanded better ale. What Brizz served could strip soot off a furnace wall.”

Daren’s expression softened, but he kept his hand on the page.

“I am serious, Orvek. We understand how to make the sight because Elarion supplied the drawings. We are being asked to develop a device that does part of the gunner’s thinking.”

“Then we ought to begin finding out whether we can.”

“We ought to begin by identifying what it must know.”

Daren stood and took the leFH instruction book from the shelf.

“These tables already allow for differences in height. A target below the gun is not a new discovery.”

“Keldan told them the tables weren’t sufficient for the ship.”

“He was right. The firing position keeps moving. Its direction and height may change, and the target can move as well. We need a method suited to those conditions and most of all we are doing direct fire.”

He laid the book beside Nivra’s notes.

“The existing figures remain useful. Throwing them aside would waste what we have learned. But copying them into a magical device will not suddenly make them answer questions they were never prepared for.”

Orvek studied the open page.

“Could their observer provide the changing information?”

“Possibly. But could she provide it quickly and reliably enough? That remains to be seen.”

“Then we need Nivra speaking to the men who understand the calculations.”

“And Vessa,” Daren added. “The pilot knows what information the ship’s crew actually has during flight. An instrument that demands figures nobody can supply is an expensive ornament.”

Orvek grunted.

“I’d put that sentence at the top of the request.”

Daren wrote beneath the aiming requirement.

“We examine a calculating aid and automatic aiming separately. If the aid is achievable first, it should be useful to a gunner without waiting for the rest.”

“The captain will ask whether that means abandoning the better apparatus.”

“Tell him it means he may receive something useful before his beard grows long enough to rival yours.”

“He hasn’t got a beard.”

“Then he has plenty of time.”

Orvek chuckled, and Daren turned to the ammunition request.

Here, he read for longer.

“Improved penetration against Warhounds, and a wider destructive effect against massed demons.”

“They don’t want to struggle to hit the armored bastard and then discover the shell merely spoiled his paint,” Orvek said.

“And they are right to ask,” Daren said. “Hadrik’s report establishes what our explosive shells did to exposed guns and nearby ammunition. It does not establish what they will do to every Warhound they encounter or will they even work unless they start firing in direct line of sight.”

Orvek tapped the paper.

“They’re asking for something that doesn’t rely on a dead-center hit. Maybe a cluster design, or an air-burst shell that splits above the target into heavy penetrators—something that gives an area effect with enough punch to cripple a Warhound even in a near miss.”

Daren looked up, squinting.

“A shell that splits mid-air and still carries enough kinetic energy to crack demon armor? Maybe… but that isn’t something we can just whip up overnight. We’d got to try a few concepts first. Maybe a timed fuse by using an array, or sub-munitions with hardened penetrator cores.”

“Could work,” Orvek said. “Or maybe it just scatters the force too thin. But we won’t know until we test it.”

“Exactly,” Daren nodded, making a note. “We don’t promise a magic shell that solves every bad shot. But we can start testing whether a cluster-burst penetrator is viable. We examine the front’s accounts of actual hits and start trials on a shell that gives them some margin for error.”

Orvek tapped the second entry.

“What about the lesser demons?”

“The existing explosive ammunition goes into the trials. We compare its effect with what the goblins need before committing to another design.”

“They already have mana cannons for that work.”

“Which is exactly why I want a comparison. Why replace a useful weapon unless the replacement offers something worth having?”

“The ship may need to attack both kinds of target during the same flight.”

“Then investigate ammunition suited to each. We need not insist that one shell do every job.”

Orvek looked down at the drawing.

“And until that work gives us an answer, they keep some of their mana cannons.”

Daren pointed his quill at him.

“Put that in your account. They can study a new weapon without stripping every useful one off the ship.”

The dwarf drew the sheet toward himself and added the note.

Outside, a wagon rolled past the window with one of the finished leFH guns secured behind it. Daren watched it cross the yard before pulling the production schedule from beneath his ledger.

“Now we come to the argument that will matter to Karrek.”

Orvek eyed the crowded columns.

“How many men can you spare?”

“Fewer than this request deserves.”

“We could begin with a small group.”

“A small group of our best men. Those are precisely the men keeping these deliveries moving.”

Orvek folded his arms.

“And if we wait until nobody needs them, those goblins will still be losing ships when our apprentices have grandchildren.”

Daren’s expression hardened.

“I am aware of the losses. I also have requests from commanders whose positions depend on receiving the guns already promised to them.”

“I’m asking for a beginning, Forge-Master.”

“And I am asking you to help me find one that does not break the work we are already doing.”

Orvek fell silent.

He studied the schedule again, then pulled the Iron Gull’s drawing over its lower edge.

“Deks can keep the hull work at the yards. His smiths know the ship better than ours. Nivra can examine the magical assistance there, and Keldan can record what the crew needs from the weapon.”

“That leaves the new weapon arrangements and instruments here.”

“Let the relevant masters examine the proposal before we assign a permanent team. They can tell us which work needs their own hands and which can go to other craftsmen.”

Daren considered that.

“It would give me something firmer to put before Karrek.”

“And the goblins can supply people as well as requests.”

“They certainly can.”

Daren reached for a fresh sheet.

“I will ask for a joint study. We keep the current gun deliveries intact, identify the additional craftsmen required, and submit the cost before anyone promises a finished weapon.”

Orvek nodded slowly.

“Provided the study produces more than another stack of questions.”

Daren looked across the desk.

“You will be helping prepare it. I intend to hold you responsible for at least a few answers.”

“Aye, Forge-Master. That sounds more like the punishment I expected when I walked in.”

Daren gathered the pages into a folder, leaving the ship drawing open.

“Stay until tomorrow. We will speak to the instrument masters and the artillery instructors together. After that, you can return with a proper account of what we can attempt.”

“And a message for Brizz?”

“Tell him I want his smiths, his mage, and someone authorized to discuss the yard’s contribution.”

Orvek rose.

“He’ll complain about the expense.”

Daren finally smiled.

“Good. I have spent the afternoon doing it alone.”