Ato showed great restraint by not claiming credit for new developments in the construction of ballistae. Maybe she hadn't directly helped, but Massi had only come up with the idea because of the ongoing argument he and Ato were having.
Though the new and semi-portable ballistae the skirmishers took from Haven weren't as powerful as regular ballistae or as portable or long range as the much smaller stationary crossbows, they were a significant upgrade to the amount of force that could be applied to the portable walls used by the Lord’s House.
A portable, stationary crossbow could be disassembled in less than a minute into seven, fairly light, pieces. One of these extra-portable ballistae could be disassembled in a minute into two, fairly heavy pieces and a sled. Or in two minutes into four, fairly heavy pieces.
It would have to be good enough. Especially given that there was no chance of making collapsible catapults or trebuchets.
‘Now you’re arguing it’s too dangerous?’ Massi was shocked, appalled, and smug.
‘No, I’m arguing that you're an idiot,’ Ato said. She got more chuckles than Massi had.
‘Well then, wise sage, enlighten me,’ Massi said, making a valiant effort to win back the crowd.
‘Their crossbows will outrange us,’ Ato pointed out. ‘Even if they lose some people to our bows and crossbows, it’ll be worth it to take out the ballistae.’
‘Why not just stay in Lookout?’ Massi continued his influence campaign by leveraging an injoke that he was technically the butt of.
‘Who’s to say that they know we have ballistae?’ asked a man called Casm.
Ato counted on her fingers. ‘If we drag them in, they’ll spot us. If we put them together outside range, they’ll see us. If we put them together in range, they’ll see us.’
‘We could make a barricade,’ Massi said. ‘Put them together behind it.’
‘How fast can we make a barricade out of sand?’ Ato asked. There was muttering.
‘Do it in the farmland,’ Pest said.
‘Defend the diggers with the crossbows,’ Heft said
‘Big enough barricade will disguise our numbers,’ Pest said.
‘Crossbows can shoot more than far enough,’ Heft said.
‘I hate to argue against myself,’ Massi said. ‘But there’s nothing to stop them hitting the barricades with their ballistae. Remember what happened last time?’
‘We didn’t have a barricade,’ Heft said.
‘If we make it thick enough, even a ballista won’t be able to shoot through it,’ Pest said.
The last attempt the skirmishers had made to attack the siege, before they’d gone to Outpost, had ended when the walls parted for a second and a ballistae had skewered Orsad and Jathar, and destroyed the stand on one of the stationary crossbows.
‘Won’t that take...’
‘Time for an experiment,’ Ato declared, cutting Massi off.
Really, it was a pair of experiments. One was to see how quickly a barricade could be set up, the second was to find out how thick it needed to be to stop a ballista. The results were very encouraging.
It turned out that the practice at quick barricade construction wasn’t very necessary. A two-metre stretch of barricade was just reaching three metres high by the time the turtle only five hundred metres away reacted at all.The wall opened to reveal not a ballista, but two tiers of crossbows covered by shields, who fired a single volley at more skirmishers approaching the barricade from behind.
Two shots from the stationary crossbows were enough to close the wall back up. The sappers at the barricade diverged from the plan slightly, and made the barricade thicker before they got back to making it wider. The first ballista shot from the turtle vindicated the decision, as it sank in all the way to the vanes, but not enough to protrude from the back.
Only the occasional shot from the stationary crossbows was needed to keep the growing number of sappers safe from the crossbows in the turtle.
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The ballistae had not actually been tested on the portable walls carried by the Lord’s House. Haven had done its best to make replicas, and the ballistae had been enough to punch through those, but in the same way the Lord’s House had not been able to capture a stationary crossbow, no one from Haven had laid hands on one of the portable walls.
It took just shy of an hour for the ballistae to be set up on the barricade. In the meantime Ato had won two more arguments, and was sufficiently convinced that they were ready to begin.
Ato was aware that a number of people were annoyed with her. The first ballista could have opened fire a good forty minutes ago if she wasn’t so good at arguing. She didn’t care.
Replicas had been sufficient.
The first ballista shot slammed through the wall down to the vanes. A chorus of shouts joined the ambient chanting that was really the worst part of the siege. The second ballista shot split the wall across the middle. Several people would have said that Ato being right all the time was the worst part of the siege.
Though the rubber, chain, and padding were more than enough to keep the wall from collapsing, the lining was not sufficient to stop the quarrels from the stationary crossbows.
The third ballista shot was enough to tear the wall open at the bottom, an off-centre stationary crossbow quarrel was enough to tip the smaller side of the wall over, partially onto the soldiers within. The fourth ballista shot tore the centre out of the turtle’s own ballista, which had been loaded, but abandoned in favour of holding up the wall.
Three stationary crossbows, two ballistae, and ninety-one archers were enough to clear out the inside of the turtle as they struggled with the collapsed wall, destroyed ballista, useless catapult and mounting bodies of their comrades.
There was still enough time for the skirmishers to completely disassemble the ballistae and leave before the turtles on either side could make it over to back up their target.
Ato was a little annoyed. She had been hoping to get her hands on the remaining mobiles walls. She was quickly enough swept up in the glory of victory, and decided that they could try again next time.
One of the many advantages of the massive tower in Lookout was that they could see what the soldiers in the turtles were doing, and they could tell the skirmishers out in the sand about it with a nice, big, flashing light.
The second of the many advantages provided by the massive tower in Lookout was that it forced the Lord’s House into a complete stalemate. If the turtles tried to get any closer, the stationary crossbows in the top of the tower could fire through the open tops of the formations.
It was not a surprise when the skirmishers tried the same manoeuvre again that they found an opposing barricade built within the turtle to defend against the ballistae. It was only a mild surprise to discover that a quarrel from a stationary crossbow could make it all the way through the barricade. It couldn’t do much once it was through, but it was useful information.
Among the many wonders facilitated by Haven’s stationary crossbows was the capacity to get a shield-breaking projectile through a hole small enough to fire a crossbow through.
The turtles could blind themselves by building barricades outside their walls, and thus make themselves temporarily safe from ballistae until skirmishers either broke down their barricade or, more simply, hurled a burning mix of pitch and tallow into their midst. Or they could lose a wall and make themselves stationary with a barricade built within the walls that had only very slightly more visibility than the destroyed wall.
Ballistae might not be as accurate as bows or the stationary crossbows, but with enough care, they can fire through a bow slit in a barricade.
The Lord’s House lost six walls and nearly four hundred soldiers before they discovered the perfect middle ground. A barricade could be built to support the mobile wall that would render it very nearly impervious to ballista fire without blinding the inhabitants of the turtle.
Despite the renewed stalemate, the extra-portable ballistae eventually spelled the end of the siege.
Ato made Ora a pretty impressive clay sculpture for her 21st birthday. Whether or not it was Ora’s favourite birthday gift, it was objectively the best. Ryoko only got her a kiss.
What exactly prompted Ato, sitting near Ora’s birthday party and scrutinising the siege, shadow cast long across the sand by the setting sun, to have a sudden realisation is unclear. But have a sudden realisation, she did.
‘We should go to the Lord’s House,’ Ato announced.
Massi sighed.
‘The Mistress strikes again,’ Ora chuckled.
‘What are they going to do? Dig a tunnel from Outer Light to Lookout?’ Ato derided the very concept. ‘It can only be worth so much effort, people, supplies to continue a pointless siege, surely.’
‘I’ve said it before,’ Ryoko said, clapping Emen on the shoulder. ‘Really skipped a sibling.’
Emen smiled. ‘What do I need a brain for these days? She’s alive.’
‘I am alive,’ Ato proclaimed. ‘And I can think enough for the both of us. He’s just here to look pretty.’
Emen posed for effect.
‘It’ll be harder to ambush them, sure,’ Ato said. ‘But if we drag the ballistae out to the supply lines, we can actually do something about the extra soldiers and walls and supplies. They can’t build barricades all the way down, can they?’
‘They could,’ Massi said, begrudgingly. ‘If I must protest.’
‘But a constant stream of troops, supplies, shields, walls, siege engines, and sappers is completely infeasible,’ Ato pointed out, reasonably. ‘Plus, they can’t see out to predict when we’ll push the barricades over on them.’
‘Oh, Ato, you’ve perfectly defeated my argument again, you tiny genius,’ Massi deadpanned.
Ato pointed a threatening finger at Massi. ‘One day, I’ll be taller than you.’
‘And on that day I will disappear into the sand forever, my purpose fulfilled,’ Massi grinned.
Ato clapped her hands together. ‘Alright then, let’s go.’
Ora grinned. ‘In the morning, Ato.’