Incline 28: The Veteran Artillery Officer

"You're fine, back to your feet!" I snapped to an exhausted man as I bullied him back into action. And when one gun crew suddenly found itself knocked aside by a wayward spell. I sprung into position and sighted the gun and finished their work. My body groaned and ached like everyone else's, but we had a job to do!

"BATTCOMM ROHLANT!" someone roared with such force it was as if a gun had suddenly detonated within the fortress!

"Valkinvar!?" I let out, perplexed as to why he was now here rather than making me more munitions!

"Gather your crew, we fire the mountain cracker now!" he ordered me, leaving me in a fit of ecstatic laughter.

"Oh, I've been waiting for this!" I let out as I went to the alarm I had set aside for this moment. Up until now, it had only been hurried drills. But, now, the time had come!

"Let's go!" the Valkinvar snapped as he shoved me away from the alarm as many others began to break away from their crews. Often, we would stumble and fall as the fortress shook and buckled. But from the narrow passes we found our opening. And we spilt out into the destroyed chamber of the mountain cracker as a battle raged on right outside.

"Wing-Head!" the Valkinvar let out worriedly as we watched our superior fight off the enemy as best as she could. She even took blows meant for the gun and the fortress walls...

"TAKE HEED OF HER BRAVERY MEN! DO NOT FAIL HER!" I roared out to them all as I took notes on the situation. And there was certainly a mess for me to wrangle at least one shot out of this mess. The previous attacks had unhinged the gun and torn it forward. Held up only by the grace of the Wing-Head!

Our usual equipment had also been reduced to sharpened spikes and useless piles of steel. Ammunition intended to be loaded by a crane would now have to be somehow handled by hand. And we completely lacked the stable platforms to do so! But I knew what I had to do.

"GO TO THE WEAPONS LOCKER, ASSIST HER!" I shouted up to the now-useless crew. I couldn't specify names, so I generalised with a wide gesture. Those who seemed confused were immediately shoved in the right direction. And some calming noises were soon heard as small arms started to pop off about me.

"REAR END READY!" the Loader called down to me as I passed by some others with an almost violent shove. I quickly made my way up to the control system, a truly one-of-a-kind machine that had managed to survive the gun being torn away. But the magic systems connecting it to the main gun had been stretched apart! I couldn't blame the engineers, but I wanted to throttle someone.

"GET ME SOME PATCHES ON THOSE POWER CABLES!" I practically screamed down to the men below before I went back to set everything up.

"Battcomm?" one confused boy asked me as he stumbled in.

"Stay there, when you hear the word, you press that button!" I firmly ordered this boy to do as I shoved him before the controls.

"Come on... Come on!" the Valkinvar groaned in frustration as his inadequacies shined on through at the worst time possible.

"What's wrong?" I asked him as calmly as I could despite the situation. It was a difficult thing to do, but heating up the pressure on this Valkinvar would not help us!

"The measurements! I can't get them right!" he nearly roared in fury as he wasted some of his magic on a violent strike against the stone.

"ONE OF YOU GET YOURSELF A MEASURING STICK AND A SAFETY HARNESS! MEASURE THAT BARREL!" I roared to the men before I noticed that they were all occupied with the gun or with helping the WIng-Head. So, I snorted in determination and forced my aged body up one of the few remaining staircases. I grabbed what I needed and suddenly nearly fell when an explosion tore away at the stone.

"I AM YOUR FOCUS YOU FILTHY HERETICS!" the Wing-Head howled as she lashed out with a magic wave of her own. While the annihilation of the enemy was appreciated, it only made her job harder. And she was already suffering as is!

I needed to hurry! Move as fast as I could! I had to get to that gun barrel! Not later, NOW!

So I discarded the safety harness and briefly climbed some railings. I then leapt out onto the decorative barrel and growled as I felt my arm suddenly experience a snap of pain. But I overpowered that vicious burn and forced my way up onto the trembling, shaking barrel and moved up it. Thankfully, it was so wide that it almost seemed like it was flattening out as I ran across it.

My stop was sudden and dangerous and I nearly lost my crucial piece of equipment. A simple, but trustworthy measuring stick. And I slapped it over the barrel, forcing it down against the recoil I had created. I carefully watched it without so much as squinting.

A trained artillery officer knew what he was looking at, and I was one. It took me no time at all to figure it out, but I couldn't just shout it back to him. So I discarded my tool and climbed into the barrel. And I slid down its grooved interior with a steady bump again and again.

"One and a half halfmans all sides!" I called down to him before I quickly ascended down with the available gun crew. Only to lose one when the building shook violently again and sudden magic sparks blew up around the cables. Yet only one man mattered right now. The Valkinvar called Lavauroas, my munitions smith!

"Okay..." he let out nervously as his trembling hands applied the magic to his latest batch of stone.

"Focus on this, not her." I told him bluntly as I blocked his view as best as I could to the fight outside.

"She needs me!" he reminds me as more danger-close magic blasts prove his point. A tremendous display of firepower just outside was hard to ignore. But we needed to get out our own, superior bang now!

"Stop! That's enough on the bank, now, follow my hand." I tell him as I start to measure out the tip of the shot for him. Carefully guiding him as if I were his father before I stepped back in pride. This was one mighty piece of cannon shot!

"LOADING NOW!" the gun crew let out eagerly as the Valkinvar took the lead on bringing the massive, ground-cracking shot towards the gun. But with how unstable the rigging was, he had to slowly fly up with the physically and magically dense shot.

"THE FIRING PIN IS DAMAGED!" the Loader realised, but it did not perturb me as much as it did him.

"CLEAR THE ROOM FOR THE VALKINVAR!" I scream out to all of the men until I felt my throat dry and tear under the strain. And as he loaded it up, I went up into fire control and stood by the young man as he waited for the order.

"What now...?"

"Adjust the guns angle by point thirty!" I order him as I begin to ignite the weapon as best as I could. This mighty gun had its own magic power to call upon, and I wanted it in both that Valkinvar and his creation.

"Angle set."

"Lavauroas, you may fire when ready." I told him with a surprisingly calm voice through the speaker as anticipation took over my body.

"About time..." he growled through the rippling, blinding magic that began to surge past him.

"Grab hold of something!" I warned the young man as I grabbed onto a nearby bar and braced myself against the walls of the room.

"FOR THE VALKINVAR!" Lavauroas roared as he brought back his glowing hammer. In one swift, powerful swing, he then smashed it right against the base of the shot and it boomed throughout the building, fortress and the plains! But a moment later, a different noise filled the air, that of a pained beast! I could not see it beyond the magic and the ceased fighting, but each booming tremor told me everything I needed!

"Reel you bastard, reel!"