Chapter 113: Armaments

‘Well so far so good,’ Saph had concluded. Project lathe was officially a success, and nothing too bad had been reported back from the combat wing. They had found some nests of nastiness here and there, which was to be expected in such a large forest. Especially while Kalestine was recovering. The unicorn was a big part of keeping the forest clean after all. Crucially though, the combat wing had found nothing worth pursuing and were considering starting recon runs going under the island to check if anything nefarious was to be found down there. Sapphire was kinda hoping it would lead to nothing, but the enemy had to have come from somewhere, so if not there then the wing would have to start fine combing everything. A procedure which would take months to complete. If they couldn’t find a lead on where the enemy had come from they would have to assume the attack had come from further afield. To be honest, that was Sapphire’s guess. It had certainly been the case with the group that had attacked Vulzan.

At least Tom had been beside himself with excitement when his precious machine finally came to life. Sapphire had tried to be kind, but she had a hard time figuring out why a thing that could make metal spin was so important? Surely a drill or a file could get the same job done, even if it might take longer.

She of course hadn’t said that. But Essy unfortunately had, which started a lengthy explanation of how this one machine, and the mill they were gonna be making next, represented the birth of industry or something. Apparently, it was all about how precisely you could do the job and making something perfectly round and straight. Saph had no doubt Tom knew best, so she had just nodded sagely, even if she still couldn’t fathom why that was so important. Tink certainly seemed to agree with Tom, even if Shiva was a tad skeptical about some of the claims. The workshop had also managed to turn out more of the new compound bows for the huntresses and even one smaller one made for the men to test out.

Dakota had been quick to start training everyone on the new weapons, Jarix’s hunting trips earning them the time they needed to do so. With the lathe complete, work had gone much faster on the mill. They had also cheated a bit on that one, getting started a little over a week ago on the motor for it and working in different teams on different projects. So by Sapphire’s estimates, they were not too far away from being ready to begin on the real deal.

Jacky had finally broken the subject of guns for the rest of the huntresses to Tom one evening. She came back hours later, wide-eyed and laptop in hand. She had asked the others to come sit with her at a table as she and Tom sat down. They had gone through a lot of different pictures, Tom and Jacky taking turns to explain what all the different guns did; pros, cons, what they could kill, and most importantly how difficult they were gonna be to make. That is to say, Jacky gave a few highlights and Tom then went into more detail. In some cases perhaps a little too much detail, but oh well. It was Tom after all.

The first project was, of course, gonna be Jarix’s machine gun, as promised. The question had been what kind and how to make all the ammunition for it. Tom wanted something slow-firing, but rather high caliber, which apparently just meant firing a big bullet. He hoped that would prove effective even against an armored dragon while keeping the ammo as cheap as possible. Zarko had been questioned quite a bit about how different dragons were protected, some of Jarix’s armor pieces being taken out to be measured and examined. The knowledge that there were indeed dragons out there with enchanted mithril armor, even if it was extraordinarily rare, gave Tom quite a bit of cause for concern.

He had seemed convinced that this fifty-caliber thing would be good enough for dragons though. But if he wanted special armor-piercing bullets to do it if the target was armored, and he made no promises against something mithril of that thickness. Saph guessed the armor-piercing bullets were a bit like the armor-piercing bodkins they had for the bows, in comparison to the broadheads used for hunting.

The whole idea of just what they needed for the rest of them had turned into quite the discussion. Eventually, it dragged near enough everyone who had a say in the matter into the grand hall to go over the ideas.

Tom said he wanted to keep the number of different calibers limited. One for pistols and these submachine guns he apparently thought were a great idea. One for rifles and light machine guns. And one for Jarix’s heavy machine gun and possibly some kind of big rifle, in case the dragonettes ever had to engage a dragon. He had considered going for something bigger when you only had one shot but that time slept. Then there were shotguns which he wanted more than one type of ammo for too. That didn't sound like ‘a few calibers’ to Sapphire, even if Tom seemingly believed this was keeping it light. She was used to carrying three different arrows at most. Then again, no one would be carrying more than one of the big guns anyway.

Even Jacky wasn’t sure what else she could want to ask for, except the ability to carry all of the ideas at once. That of course didn’t stop her from pressuring Tom to show them pretty much all the different guns he knew about. Dakota and Nunuk were less convinced, pointing out just how much work even all this was gonna be.

“We need somewhere to start. The first one, so to speak,” Dakota tried as they went over the collection of pictures. Sapphire thought the variety was incredible, and this was apparently not even everything. There were hundreds of different guns, all looking very different. It was almost like browsing the halls of the Hashaw mansion back in the capital. The fact that all of these had apparently been produced in large numbers was almost impossible to believe.

“And it needs to be able to do everything… Goddammit,” Tom replied, pulling at his hair, elbows resting on the table. “Submachineguns won’t pierce much in the way of armor, but 30 cal won’t do in full auto. Well, unless it’s a light machine gun, but no way we are making many of those. Semi-auto rifle?”

“Before you were talking about, what was it… a bolt action?” Dakota replied, with an apologetic shrug. It wasn’t her fault they apparently wanted the impossible, but well they just kinda needed that.

“In single shot with no magazine, yeah, to make it quick and simple to make. I wanted to mix them with submachine guns though. But what’s smarter? Make bad rifles and more of them or good ones and have it take longer.?”

“I… Where would you put your rifle?”

“Somewhere in the middle I think,” Tom replied as if that wasn’t a big deal.

“You are gonna make something better than your own gun?!” Saph broke out. That sounded awesome to her. To hell with not being able to bend the shot. With that kind of firepower, she didn’t need it.

“Yeah. We need armor-piercing, so 308 Winchester is my choice. We have some nasty targets to shoot at that like to hide behind metal plates. That’s a fast round and good at going through armor. 30.06 might be too much, especially for a machine gun later.”

“I bet I could handle it,” Jacky interrupted, crossing her arms looking confident.

“I’m sure you could, sweety. Believe me, 308 should be plenty fun.”

‘Sweety,’ Saph chuckled to herself. Not many could get away with calling Jacky that. Perhaps she should try to make a bet with him to call her cute. That would be funny as hell.

“I have plenty of 308 rifles to choose from. We want one with a lot of wood components since, well, it’s easier and cheaper for us to make. Preferably milled too. Redesigning a stamped gun would be a shit show. Might want something shorter than the M14. That’s really heavy too… wait no, that’s not so bad here… Hell, it might be a good thing… What about the FAL? I’ve always wanted one of those. A little complex though…”

Tom brought up a picture of a gun. It looked a lot like the others to Sapphire. There was only a little wood on this one though, and it looked big or at least long. After some fiddling, he got up a picture of the insides of the weapon, which looked like a labyrinth of bits and pieces to Sapphire, Linkosta pushing a bit to get a better look.

“I still don't get how that think machine works, but it sure is awesome! That thing though,” she went, pointing at the screen. “Looks really complicated.”

“Yeah… a man can dream though. Maybe this is better,” Tom got another rifle onto the screen, this one being a lot more wooden construction. Kulinger expressing his approval. “It’s a bit simpler, and if Jacky wants to get crazy, it can be made fully automatic too.”

“Oh hell yeah,” Jacky replied, clearly sold on the idea.

“That still looks like a hell of a lot of work,” Dakota noted, Linkosta nodding in agreement.

“Yup, we won’t be turning these out in a hurry. I have an idea though,” Tom replied, bringing up another picture. “Cheap shotguns to help defend the keep. They would wreak havoc in the corridors. And it doesn't get much simpler than a single barrel break action shotgun. It’s basically a slightly worse version of what Herron has. We would start with this.”

“And it will kill alright?” Nunuk questioned.

“Oh yeah. But I don't think it will do much to heavy armor… Well, maybe with slugs actually… Some kind of fancy slug could help. Give it a steel core and then...”

“Sounds useful,” Rachuck concurred as Tom trailed off. “A few of those to watch the skies and then clear the hallways if they get inside.”

“Exactly,” Tom replied, snapping back to reality.

“That’s all well and good, but wasn't my gun first?” Jarix questioned, clearly trying to sound as polite as possible.

“Right, that one I have already decided. You need this. No… no… no… There we go, that one,” Tom stated, pointing at the screen. Saph recognized that gun. It had been in Red Tails, on the bombers.

“That’s a lot of metal isn't there?” Dakota questioned.

“Ooh yeah, but it’s a mean, lean killing machine. The M2 Ma Deuce heavy machine gun. That thing has served for nearly ninety years… Okay, it may not sound like it, but that’s a lot. Remember the airplanes. It has served in countless wars, and we have made a lot of them, like really a lot. Many of which have outlived the people who used them,” Tom went as he picked up the laptop to show the image to Jarix.

“Yes,” Jarix replied with substantial enthusiasm, looking at the apparent legend on the screen like a kid at a new toy.

“Ooh yes indeed!” Jacky echoed. “That thing is gonna be awesome!”

“I’m guessing that one is good then?” Pho questioned, looking to Bo, who just shrugged.

“If it can shoot down metal planes, it should make mincemeat out of anyone dumb enough to get on my tail,” Jarix responded gleefully.

“Well big guy, looks like Radexi gets to be a gunner after all,” Zarko conceded, though she was sounding rather content for once.

“Would two be possible? Giving us one for the tower?” Rachuck questioned.

“If we want to spend the time and materials, sure. It’s gonna be rather expensive to run though. If it ever comes to a proper battle then it will eat ammunition.”

“Makes sense I guess,” the captain replied thoughtfully.

“And that is the first step. We need to start making bullets around here. Any volunteers?” Tom questioned, looking around at the crowd. Jacky, of course, had her hand in the air immediately. Saph stayed hers. She knew a boring job when she heard one, and they were likely gonna need a lot of these bullets for all those guns.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“What about Saph? We talked about that,” Jacky questioned, still having her hand raised.

‘Oh come on, I don’t want to make bullets all day,’ Saph cursed to herself as she put on a nice smile, looking at Tom.

“Right, Yes, fancy arrows. Saph how heavy of a thing can you… you know bend?”

“Oh… Like pretty heavy. A good size rock isn’t a problem. It’s tougher to do sure, but it does work.”

“Excellent, ‘cause I had an idea,” Tom replied, looking through some more pictures. Judging by Jacky, who had a wide smile on and was nodding intensely, Saph guessed this was gonna be good. “I wanna make that but for a bow,” Tom finally went, Sapphire, looking at the screen. She could not figure out what it was she was looking at as Tom paused for dramatic effect. “It’s an RPG; it shoots rockets. I just wanna take the warhead, a smaller version mind you, and stick it on an arrow shaft.”

“I’m guessing it goes boom when it hits?” Sapphire replied, looking at Tom, who was also rather excited by this. It was a fairly safe bet since, well, most things concerning Tom’s weapons went boom in some manner after all.

“Yup, but it does more than that. The pressure from the explosion instantly liquifies the copper cone in front of the explosives, which collapses in on itself, driving a stream of supersonic molten metal into the target. A headshot with that thing will kill anything. I don’t care how big the dragon is or what armor it has. It is dead.”

‘Oh hell yeah,’ Saph chuckled to herself. A rifle would have been cool, but if that was true, she was about to become the most dangerous dragonette to ever draw breath.

“I think that could work,” Saph replied courteously while wearing the most devious grin she could manage. Jacky cleared her throat a little, keeping her head high, looking like someone who expected a “thank you.” Tom looked back at her, seemingly a touch curious. “Thank you oh Jackalope the first revolver master… That was right, wasn’t it?”

Tom stifled a chuckle at that, Jacky looking a bit annoyed, opening her mouth to correct Sapphire before Tom cut her off. “I think that would be a cowgirl actually. Not the bedroom kind though,”

That took Saph a second to process before she broke out laughing, heaving for breath as Jacky looked at him with an expression that just screamed ‘What did you just say to me!?’ Most of the room ended up either laughing their asses off or looking genuinely confused.

“Why does using a gun have anything to do with cows?” Dakota had questioned clearly, falling into the confused portion.

“Yeah, that’s a long one,” Tom replied with a nervous chuckle, looking at the increasingly pissed-looking Jackalope.

“What is the bedroom kind? Please do tell,” Sapphire tried between breaths, tears welling up in her eyes by now.

“Well cowgirls are very enthusiastic, so they...”

“No,” Jacky let out, covering Tom’s mouth. He was also struggling not to laugh by now, Jacky looking like she was ready to drag him off and tie him up somewhere he couldn’t do any more harm.

“What’s the matter, Cowgirl Jackalope? Not quite what you had in mind?” Saph went, Jacky, switching her attention back to Saph.

“That is actually a compliment where I’m from,” Tom got out as he managed to pull Jacky’s hands away from his mouth.

“This is a strange place,” Bo let out, shaking her head,

“Oh it gets better, trust me,” Fengi replied, clearly also finding the whole thing hilarious.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Well operation ‘Boomstick,’ as Jacky had decided to name it, probably after he used the term one too many times, was officially in effect. The mill still wasn’t done, so that still took up most of the time in the workshop. It had been three weeks since the combat wing had left by now, and still nothing out of the ordinary. Archeon had finally come by on his little back and forth route. He explained away the delay by saying he had gotten caught up by something in the capital. Saph was of the opinion that he had snuck in some more stops along the way though. The news from the big city had mostly been good. The engineering guild already had the fancy new lighters in production, even if it was still rather slow going. Vulzan had been proud to present an award for ‘Distinguished service in the pursuit of knowledge' to be given to the inventor of the most marvelous pencil on behalf of the Royal Academy. On the other hand, the compass project had suffered a few explosive-related setbacks and was yet to get off the ground. Luckily though, it sounded like there had not been any fatalities. Not yet at least, and Vulzan didn't know if there had been wounded.

There had been a bit of money from the royalties and even the princely sum of fifty gold bundled up with the award for the pencil. Which was quite a bit of money after all. Tom had perhaps just kinda lost perspective of what things were worth around here with all the expensive things they were purchasing in bulk. The award money had gone to Tom since, well, he was technically the inventor… Though really it should probably have gone to Tink in Tom’s mind. It was his though and together with his poker winnings he actually had quite a bit of coin.

Until now he had spent it all trading for things. Tom decided that there was no reason to change a tradition, at least not entirely. The money was best spent on something nice rather than have it lie around, so he bought two big glass balloons of wine Vulzan claimed to have gotten for a good price, which apparently correlated to three gold for both. Tom made a mental note to have that shit tasted in small amounts before having a proper drink. But hey, there was like a hundred liters of wine there, so he had to have a taste at some point. Nunuk claimed it was likely perfectly drinkable but nothing special and definitely not on par with proper bottled wine. He also ordered some more brass because well why not. They were gonna need a lot of it.

It had been a quick stop though, the dragon only sticking around for a single night before heading off towards Deriva with much-needed supplies. They were also carrying a few building supplies for Hylsdal. The work crew scheduled to be on the next trip. The subject of who was gonna end up in charge of Hylsdal keep was apparently a hot one though. The line of succession was intact, making Lothal the lord of the keep. The kid was only eleven though, and his little sister was not even one yet. Regardless, Lothal's mother had been next in line to inherit the keep and Lothal was her oldest child so the line was clear. From the sound of it, his mother didn't even have any surviving siblings left, all having died either in the battle or long ago.

Some parts of Lothal’s extended family had laid claim to the keep though and they wanted to take in Lothal and his sister. There was even talk of all the kids being taken in. They would act as guardians until he was old enough to take charge as lord. To Tom’s surprise, Nunuk and Dakota had been rather opposed to the idea. They stated that chances were really high that the kids would end up puppeted into giving up the keep, unless it was some real fine people they were dealing with. In the end though, it was not their decision to make. Nor even their business to meddle in the affairs of another keep. That wouldn’t stop them from teaching Lothal what they could, trying to keep him from giving up his ancestral home without a fight. The kid was kind and definitely bright too, and he had a knack for people, so Tom was hardly worried about that part. His concerns were mainly that the poor guy seemed very stressed. He was working his ass off with the kids, having fully embraced the leader role for them, even Kiran was mostly subordinate by now. It stank to high heaven of someone with things to prove or maybe trying to not think about what was behind him. Tom could certainly understand the latter point of view, but he had no clue what he could do to help the kid/young man.

They wouldn’t know what was gonna end up happening with his home until the next shipment arrived. Chances were good there would be members of the family mixed in with the workers, or at least someone to help oversee the rebuilding to the family’s liking. And in the end, it would probably be up to them.

For now though, the focus at the Bizmati Keep was on keeping the momentum. The mill would require a fair bit more work from Shiva, but thanks to the lathe they finally had the means to make proper bearings and threading. The few screw rods Tom had brought from home were used in the lathe to facilitate that. If there was anything he knew it was that making a thread was only easy if you had one already. The fact they were making duplicate parts by now also meant a lot more work could be left in the hands of Tink and Shiva, Linkosta being busy with the work on their first mines.

That freed up Tom to spend some time working on the fabled ammunition production and operation boom stick. Fifty caliber was first, then shotgun shells, then 308. He already had the means to cast bullets in 44 magnum and 45/70 government, and he could reuse the brass for those for a while. But before he even got started, he needed to know what this boom powder mix did inside a gun. He had wanted to use one of the new guns, just in case, but time was not on their side. He had prepared a series of rounds for his revolver with increasing loads of the volatile substance, replacing the normal gunpowder. He had put together a makeshift jig to hold the gun with Kullinger’s help. Taking the contraption out onto the platform, aiming the gun off into the great beyond.

Jacky had been allowed to do the honors and pull the string. The first shot had been rather anemic as he had expected, but already at half load it had seemed like the gun was pretty close to normal. Tom fired another half load by hand, gauging the recoil back to back with a regular round. They certainly felt similar… ‘This is gonna be some badass 308,’ Tom chuckled to himself. Perhaps some filler would be good to avoid disaster, but it certainly worked. He refrained from firing the higher loads, taking them apart just in case they found their way back into the gun at some point. He didn’t want a blown-up gun after all.

The muzzle flash had been something to behold too. He really wanted to fire some at night just to see how much it would light up the night. An M2 firing this stuff would shine like a campfire being doused in diesel, that was for sure. The second problem that needed to be overcome was the primers. He had brought quite a few spares for his idea of using black powder and simple tools to keep his own guns going, but current plans required way more than he had brought.

That meant Blitz in powder form, discharged to reach the desired level of sensitivity. Tom took a few samples from the lathe’s power cell as the others worked. His quick little course in the simple machine having thus far kept everyone out of the infirmary. It turned out the stuff needed to be damn near discharged to get docile enough to not go off when struck by the firing pin. In the end he had timed it to be around 10% charge that yielded primers that could be dropped or even thrown around a little without going off. When he had Jacky chuck one at a wall full force, though, the limit had been found, as the miniature charge went off inside the dummy round. Still, that wasn’t bad. It was certainly more stable than mercury fulminate, that was for sure.

Jacky had of course been ecstatic at the news that they could likely soon start producing ammunition for the new guns and the weapons Tom had brought from home, which meant she may be allowed to use a few shots while hunting.

The molds for all the bullets were easy enough, but he would need fresh brass for the other calibers and That needed to be drawn out. To accomplish that he was looking at mechanical vices and things like that. The problem was it would take ages to make enough casings, and it would be hard work too, but it seemed like their only option. That is until Radexi came up with the idea to just use the eight-ton sleepy lizard that was lounging in the greeting hall whenever there wasn’t anything for him to do.

With a rather solid facepalm from Tom, he had set about designing a dragon-powered brass press that could churn out multiple stampings in one go. Tom just hoped the promise that much of the brass Jarix was going to be stamping was for himself would keep morale high as he discovered that there were 9 separate stampings required to make fifty cal casings, to be annealed between each stamping. Still, if Jarix put his back into it, they could probably do four at a time. And with some quick fingers to switch out the casings in the tool, they could likely make ten stampings a minute. Definitely enough to supply their needs in a hurry. Even for machine guns.

That left raw materials once again. Brass was costly, and they had bought quite a bit, but it would seem Vulzan would have to scrounge up some more for them in the future. More pressingly, they needed saltpeter and a lot of it. Tom had been reading up on the subject, and bat guano was apparently by far the best source… Now he knew there were caves around, he had seen some, and when he asked Apuma, the old man excitedly got out the maps he had. With Dakota’s and Nunuk’s help, they had found and marked a few caves where the huntresses had encountered lots of bats, usually when taking shelter from rough weather.

Jarix hadn't wanted anything to do with the bat guano. Tom only convinced Jarix to haul it back when he assured the dragon that he wouldn't have to dig it up, only carry it and that he would receive a thorough scrub down in the lake afterward. The simple fact was that they needed Jarix to haul the sheer amount of guano they needed. Tom crossing his fingers that they would find enough at the caves. Getting volunteers had also been tricky. Raulf had joined on mainly to take the piss out of those that didn’t want to go. Ray, of course, volunteered, and Jacky seemingly overcame her reluctance to spite Sapphire, which inevitably lead to the aimbotting archer joining in too. Radexi and Zarko didn’t get the choice, Jarix made sure of that.

It had turned into a proper shitty trip, with rain-catching them halfway there and following them home too. To say Jarix was pissed when they made it home was an understatement: liquid bat shit was literally running down his sides from the soaked through canvas bags they had used to store the stuff. At least he hadn’t been wearing his nice armor, because it would have been ruined forever. It didn’t help that Nunuk didn’t even want him or the rest of them inside until after they got rid of the stench.

The only upside had been that there was more shit in the cave than they had bags for, so the supply would last them a long time. The several hundred kilos of guano were dumped into some nitrite separators constructed according to a manual Tom had brought on ‘how to make black powder. DIY edition’

So, after a very thorough scrub down of Jarix involving soap, rain, and everyone who had been on the expedition, Tom had gone to check up on how Linkosta was doing with the first fuse for the mines. She was still working on how to reliably power the contraption, having found an enchantment in her old books that would heat up a thin piece of metal wire to the point it easily enough set paper on fire.

It needed to be perfectly reliable though. Any ‘bugs’ or whatever you would call that when it came to the enchantments and they might blow up a very unfortunate target, or nothing at all. Linkosta had been contemplating the plant idea, but the problem was there was no safety. Having a minefield centrally powered by a transmitter of sorts was also considered. You would simply strap the transmitter to your belt and turn it on to power the mines, with the power being drawn from the one holding the transmitter.

It would make the mines themselves cheaper and safer, but in the end, it would mean the mines weren’t on at all times unless someone was always carrying the transmitter, and going to sleep with enchanted stuff turned on was apparently the magic equivalent of looking down the barrel. It wasn’t like the mine was ready either though, so Tom just encouraged Linkosta to take her time and get it right. The mage endeavouring to try and meld the two systems somehow.