Blood Shaper - Book 4: Chapter 34
“Fire in the hole!”
“’Fire in the hole!’”
Stepping over the clearly marked line behind the multitude of signs informing anyone who could read that this was the test firing range, that it was dangerous to be here, that no one should be here without authorization, and several more warnings, the first thing Kay heard was people shouting. It was a phrase Kay knew well, mostly from Mythbusters episodes, not from any real-life experience, and he immediately hardened a set of armor around his body.
Cindy spoke up before he could dive for the ground or do anything else drastic. “Don’t worry, we’re still behind ninety percent of the protections; I just beat safety into everyone’s heads. There’s no firing anything in the open without shouting out a warning while you’re testing it.”
A moment later, a massive blast went off, one that was somehow easily recognizable as a cannon firing, even though Kay had only ever heard a single one fired in his life at a performance of the Eighteen-twelve Overture.
Cindy hummed to herself as the blast echoed for a moment. “They only fired one piece. That either means they’ve wrecked the rest already, or they’re focusing on a specific one for some reason.” She smacked Kay on the shoulder and started walking, “You’re here to talk about cannons with our newest and only expert, so let’s take the opportunity to cross more than one point off your to-do list.”
“Tell me about Johnson; all I know about him is from the reports.”
Cindy snorted a laugh, “There’s no point going into detail since you’re about to meet him. Summing him up, he’s an experienced old timer ‘with more bullshit under his belt than years I’ve lived’. That’s a quote from the man himself,” She told him with a wry look. “He’s hard-working and dedicated and will be loyal to us as long as we’re loyal to him. We got him to come out here with promises of advancement and payment, both of which we’ve provided, so he’s been a crotchety, demanding old man who’s been working wonders instead of wandering off into the wilderness and reappearing somewhere else. His qualifications, I’m sure you already know, and you’ll get to experience his personality in a minute or two.”
“How did someone with Classes like his end up free for us to snatch up? He’s a multi-campaign veteran of the Isermani army with more than one tier-four Class involving siege weapons.”
“He’s hinted that he was close to hitting tier-five, although now he’s going to wait until he can include his new Cannoneer Class into it.” Cindy interrupted to add.
“Okay, with extra emphasis then, how the hell did we manage to recruit him?”
“He left the Isermani army due to ‘personal conflicts with a commanding officer’.“
“Which means?”
“Someone ordered him to commit a war crime, and instead of refusing and reporting the office, he and his crew beat the shit out of him.”
“That’s… not ideal but understandable, I guess?”
Cindy shrugged, “Haven’t had anything like that happen to me, so I have no idea. He refuses to tell me what the guy ordered him to do, though, so it was probably pretty horrific. Anyway, he gets recruited into a high-ranking noble’s personal troops and sets out with them to deal with some bandits that raised a fort along an important trade route and were raiding all over the place. They had a powerful earth mage of some kind who managed to build and actively reinforce the fortress against Johnny’s trebuchet. One siege weapon wasn’t enough to bring the fort down in a timely manner, even with the kind of boosts Johnny’s Skills could add, and some important people in the noble’s troops got injured or died in the battle. The noble decided to blame Johnny and basically ran him out of town. He spent some time looking for other work, but the noble was pissed enough to make sure he didn’t get a job with any other small forces outside the Isermani military and siege weapon. Classes aren’t something you can use to run off and be an adventurer. He decided to head east and took some temporary contracts with some mercenary groups or smaller armies to train their people, and that’s where we found him when we went looking.”
“He got burned by two different people in positions of power over him, which is where that ‘loyal to us if we’re loyal to him’ comment came from.”
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Cindy grinned at him, “You wouldn’t treat people like that, but forewarned is forearmed. He’s a wonder, and it’d be a big problem if we lost him.”
“He’s going to be in charge of all of our siege weaponry people in the army once we’re done setting up everything we need to produce cannons and have a steady training regimen set up. We aren’t going to have to worry about anyone with authority over him telling him to do something insane or blaming him for things that aren’t his fault.”
“Don’t forget that we’re functionally immortal as long as we keep advancing.” Cindy cautioned him, “Eventually, we’re going to have nobles and other people with real or perceived authority who aren’t going to be people you know personally and can trust, who might do dumb shit.”
“So? We just make sure he knows to report them properly if they try something instead of attacking them. If he does anyway, we punish him unless the circumstances call for giving whoever this hypothetical person who told him to do something unacceptable a well-deserved beating.” He gave her a long look as they crested over the last hill between them and the testing range itself, “It’s interesting that you assume we’ll continue to develop to that point.”
“We’re Outworlders; we intrinsically lack a lot of the information that natives will learn just by growing up here.” She replied with a shrug, “Everyone around us keeps talking about how powerful we could be as Class Line Progenitors. So I take the information other people give me, and then I use it to build my optimistic view for the future.”
“The seer has an optimistic outlook on life? That’s heartening.”
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my incredibly confusing dreams that allow me to predict the future, it’s that things generally tend to end up alright. So far, at least.”
The test range was a large stretch of open space between hills at the front and back to catch any projectiles that flew off course. A large swathe of trees had been cleared to make the space, and the logs had been repurposed as walls, targets, and, in the area set aside for cannon testing, protective bunkers. As Kay and Cindy made it to the bottom of the hill, they saw a group of people making their way out of one of the bunkers and over to a still smoking cannon.
It was, well, a cannon. There wasn’t anything particularly different about it compared to cannons Kay had seen in museums, although the back end did look a bit closer to the guns they were producing here than anything back on Earth. As they approached, he could see two locking pins get pulled out from behind two handles, then the person doing the work twisted the handles and pulled backward, revealing an opening big enough to load a cannonball in. He could only see the back of the head of the person, who leaned in and inspected the cannon closely.
“Is that him?” Kay asked, not recognizing what he could see of the man.
“Yeah, that’s old Johnny.”
The group turned to look as they approached, and Kay got his first look at their new siege weapon expert. He was a tall, skinny, half-elven man with slightly pointed ears and large green eyes. His long, wavy hair was brown with long streaks of white mixed in throughout. He was taller than Kay, but when he turned fully toward them, there was a noticeable hunch in his back that brought his head down a few inches.
“Well, I’m assuming you’re the Lord Kay, based on the escort,” The man said in a surprisingly raspy voice. “Nice to meet you. I appreciate the hire too.”
Kay shook his hand. “Nice to meet you, and I appreciate the good work you’ve been giving us, Mister Johnson.”
“Oh, aye, I bet you do. And feel free to call me Johnny or old Johnny. Johnson’s too long, and I never liked my first name.” He turned and gave the cannon a pat, “Too bad you weren’t a wee bit faster; you could have seen us test this lovely lady.”
“I’m sure you can fire her a few more times for me.”
“Oh, we can! Always good to test your weapons till they break, just to see how long you can use them. I’ve been learnin’ that’s extra true with these explosive fuckers.” He leaned against the end and stared at Kay. “Although, with how important ya’ are, I’m sure that’s not the only reason you’re here, and we can always do test firing after we talk. What do you need to get done?”
“Well, if you want to get right into it like that,” Kay replied with a small smile, “We need to increase production and training as high as we sustainably can across the board. The introduction of new weapons isn’t going to win us the war that’s coming, but it’ll help, and more troops are more troops.”
“Huh. Well, if ya’ give me a month, I can get Cannoneer to tier three, and that’ll let me speed up training up newbies. Development and production are only partly my business, and this baby here,” He smacked the open breech, “Is looking to be our current model, so talk to Quol about it, but we can probably get production underway pretty soon. You’ll have to find somebody else or have me train somebody to train any sailors you want to get Cannoneer, though; I ain’t ever going on a ship.”
“Uh-“
“Was visiting my uncles as a kid and saw a baby kraken attack a ship that was just leaving port. Had nightmares about it for years, and I’ve been terrified of the ocean ever since.”
“Well, I’m not going to force you onto a ship if you’re unwilling, so we can definitely find someone for you to train to go train sailors.”
“Good!” Old Johnny walked over to the bunker and grabbed a small woven bag full of powder. “Let’s fire the lady a few more times to make sure she holds together. Then we’ll see about me having a talk with some of your folks that are buildin’ the wall around Avalon City. I can probably teach ‘em some tips and tricks I know from bein’ on the side that tries to tear down the walls.”
