RTA Book 2: Against Ruin's Fate - Chapter 6

Len, Christina, Clyde and several other engineers reworked the engine design, sketching components and calculating power requirements. When they finished, the engine’s shape had changed drastically to make it easier for components to be pulled out, and newer enchanted versions put back in.

“That should be at least the first three versions,” Christina said. She glanced around and lowered her voice so only he could hear. “Why are we doing this?”

“We need to do some moonshot projects. If we’re only focused on the things that need to be done. We can’t see what could be done,” Len said. Also, he could see that the engineers needed something to work on that wasn’t military logistics. It had been a hard a long journey since they left Goran.

They were supposed to be home weeks ago. Instead, they were in a mountain base creating weapons and ammunition to make sure that mana mutated creatures didn’t dig them out to kill them.

“We need something else to work on that’s fun, and useful,” Len grinned.

She rolled her eyes and shook her head, but there was a glimmer of a smile there.

"It'll work," he assured her. "We've seen similar principles in our previous timeline, just never implemented quite this way." He didn't mention that those technologies had emerged decades later, after much more research and testing than they had time for now.

A commotion near the chamber entrance interrupted them. Corporal Jameson burst through the archway, face flushed from running.

"Sir, scouts have reported unusual creature activity at the northeast," he reported. "Rick told me to find you."

Len's expression hardened as he stalked out of the room. It didn’t do well for someone to see the NCO’s running around. That’s when you truly knew mr. shit had been formally introduced to mrs. fan. "Numbers?"

Jameson shuffle hopped to keep pace with him.

Troops were being roused from the barracks and jogging for the entrances into the pillbox tunnels. Everyone in the complex turned to watch them cross the open ground that the turntable took up.

"At least sixty identified, with more gathering. They’re heavily mana mutated."

This was what he'd been afraid of—creatures getting abnormally strong. Stronger than they could deal with in a stand up fight and their defenses weren't ready.

"Sound the alert," Len ordered. "I want all non-combat personnel moved to the inner chambers. Combat teams to defensive positions. Where's Rick?"

"Overseeing the turret’s installation in the east battery."

“Good, that’s where I’m heading. Where’s Lieutenant Adrian?”

“Western battery, or the pillboxes around it. The turrets haven’t been laid in yet.”

Len grimaced, making the barrels was easy, building the turret to hold them and installing them was a massive pain.

And now we might be out of time.

“Be about it,” Len said.

Jameson pulled out his sound talisman.

Len kept up his pace, people moving out of his way as he moved through the corridors.

Soldiers rushed out of their quarters carved into the rock of the main cavern, pulling on their gear. Their faces grim as they ran for the tunnels.

Civilians paused what they were doing—feeling the tension in the air.

Joe Xinta whistled, catching their attention. “Keep the ammunition lines running, clear up what you’re working on and be prepared to run ammunition as your needed!”

Len jumped, using his will to grab onto the cut out firebase worksite—reaching a doorway nearly at the top of the cavern with steps going down the worksite. Len landed and walked through the opening, hearing people grunt with effort.

He could hear the spitter and shoulder cannon fire.

“Good!” Rick’s voice echoed through the corridor. “Its fused!” Two more sections!”

A man ran into the corridor Len walked through, he nodded to Len and grabbed one of the shells in the corridor. It was as big as a barrel and made from stone. He tilted it on its edge and rolled it into the room beyond.

Len walked out behind him, another man running for the corridor and the rounds.

Len came out into the eastern battery, it was a cavernous space with apertures looking out at Halem Forest. Divider walls broke up the different firing positions—parts of guns waiting to be assembled within.

All the people in the space were working in one bay, several men rolling a section of barrel up to the four sections that were already banded together with metal cuffs and secured within its cradle. Three more men were rolling rounds from the corridor into the bay and two more were holding metal cuffs.

“Lift!” Rick called out.

The section was picked up and placed at the end of the growing barrel.

Cuffs were pushed around the barrel which Rick hit, the Cuff fusing together and tightening around the barrel in a single band.

“Last one!” Rick called out.

Len grabbed onto the remaining barrel section with the others, rolling it into position before grabbing onto it with his hands and will.

“Lift!” They hauled it up and pressed it against the other barrel.

Cuffs clanked into place and Rick hit them.

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You have earned: 231 XP

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“Release!” Rick said.

They moved back away from the gun. It was a behemoth. Six sections in total, each steeping down to the next for a total length of nine meters. At its heart was steel sheet enchanted the same as the shoulder cannons, to draw in and compress air, creating a section that would accelerate anything pushed into it. Compressed and enchanted stone was wrapped around that to hold its shape and support the weight of the barrel itself and shells. 

Its cradle design was taken from a train car, it rested on steel wheels upon steel tracks.

Heavy steel screws moved the gun sideways and vertically.

“Len you’re on loading,” Rick called out, moving around the piece with a critical eye. “Push it up to its firing position.” Rick said, tapping it in a few places with his hammer before he was satisfied.

The men grabbed onto the cradles handles and got the gun moving.

“Slow the pace now,” Rick said.

Len ran back to the shells, he grabbed one of the steel nose fuses and spun it with both hands onto the round, making sure that it was tight and secure—mana starting to flow through the high-explosive enchantments.

“Have three of them with fuses screwed on,” Len told a man that had finished rolling in another shell.

“Understood chief!”

Len rolled the shell on its edge as the barrel pushed out of the aperture and came to a halt at the end of its tracks.

Pins were dropped and brakes applied—locking it all into place.

“Grab your spitters and use the other openings!” Sergeant Edwin leading the group barked.

The soldiers ran for their weapons as Rick put an activation key into the side of the barrel.

Despite the urgency, they both knew that rushing could be fatal. Artillery was unforgiving of mistakes.

The air in the space rushed into the cannon as Rick moved the two wheels that shifted his point of aim while he peered through the aiming scope.

“Keep Len supplied with ammo!” Rick called out.

The pressure equalized—held within the barrel’s sections, the breach was open and Len could see down its length to the bottom of the mountain.

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Ability Unlocked: Far-Sight

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Skill: Ranged

Grade: Journeyman

You adjust how far you can see and clarity at will.

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The first defensive line of pillboxes were engaging the enemy—tracers lancing across the dwindling space between them. Creatures fell, but more replaced them, advancing in irregular patterns that made targeting difficult. The smaller, faster units began circling around the flanks, testing different approaches.

Strong and tricky, not a good combo. Len studied the artillery piece itself.

They’d never test fired the barrel. He’d made it stronger than it had any right to be. Same for the cradle.

The first soldiers to reach the other openings opened fire with their spitters, drawing Len’s attention to the battlefield below.

A wall of flame cut off one flanking attempt, while stone spikes erupted from the ground to impale creatures in another group. The magic was effective, but Len could see the mages already showing signs of strain—these spells drained energy quickly in sustained combat.

Rick held onto his wheels, the barrel stopping its movements.

“I’ll hand-load for now, take too long to set up the loading system.” Len squatted, getting his hand under the bottom of the shell and another along its length. He heaved it up.

“Ready,” Rick moved the wheels some—his voice distant.

Len felt a familiar tension settle over him—the clarity of impending battle focusing his thoughts.

“Fire!” Rick yelled.

Len raised the round and shoved it forward with his palm, the momentum he gave the round, amplified by the barrels as it shot out of the end of the barrel.

Wind picking up as the enchantments compressed more air for another shot—Rick turning the wheels to aim.

Len turned back to see a line of civilians, as well as soldiers. They’d made a human chain with the shells, ending right behind him. One man at the third shell back with fuses.

The man behind Len rolled the shell up. Len took it and lifted it. “Ready!”

“Fire!” Rick yelled.

Len hurled the shell into the open end of the barrel, disappearing.

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You have earned: 1,363 XP

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Skill: Ranged

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Level: Expert

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You can select 4 Ranged Abilities

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+1 to Body

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“First hit good!” Rick called out.

“What the fuck?” Edwin yelled. “Three o'clock, halfway up the slope. Creature just ate another and its transforming!”

“Must’ve eaten its core,” Rick strained as he worked the wheels. “Adjusting aim!”

Len used his Far Sight again.

The creature’s body was changing—carapace thickening visibly, limbs elongating, spines erupting along its back. The transformation took less than thirty seconds, and when complete, the creature was nearly twice its original size, its shell now reflecting rifle fire that would have penetrated before.

It snatched up another dead creature around it and ate it whole, its body shifting once more.

“Mana mutating in real-time!” Len said.

“Once they get a taste for cores, they start eating as many as they can find!” Rick yelled over the sound of the barrel moving.

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You have earned: 5,874 XP

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“Fire!” Rick yelled.

Len lifted one of the heavy shells, throwing it into the barrel. Decades of muscle memory from another life guided his hands.

He turned grabbing another shell that was wheeled to him.

“Fire!” Rick yelled.

Len rose up and threw the shell into the cannon’s breach and turned back, getting another shell.

He stood up, ready with the shell.

An explosion blossomed in a sphere of orange fire. The enlarged creature that had consumed its comrade's core was at the epicenter, blown apart by the direct hit. The concussive wave threw bodies like rag dolls—leaving nothing behind.

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You have earned: 7,941 XP

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“Think we have three more shots before this mounting gives,” Rick said.

"We’re getting hammered Western Pillbox three!" Mackie’s voice came over the sound talisman. Tight with control and also understanding of how tenuous his situation was.

“Mark your position!" Rick started rotating the piece to the left.

A flare shot up from the eastern defensive line, giving them a clear target reference.

Len got the shell ready in his arms. Rick braced the wheels, the gun jostled in its cradle from the rapid movement.

“Its gonna be a fucking close one Mackie, get your head down!” Rick yelled. The gun settled.

“Fire!”

Len threw the shell up and through the barrel with all his strength, turning and grabbing another to look through the barrel.

Something groaned in the cradle. Rick tapping on it, releasing a tight exhale which didn’t mean anything good.

The shot landed right before the pillbox—among the creatures trying to claw their way inside.

Bodies flew in all directions, and the wall itself remained intact, blackened from the near-shot and pitted with damage.

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You have earned: 3,254 XP

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“Group eating one another one-clock!” Edwin called out.

Rick worked the gun. “Fire!”

Len tossed up the shell and moved to get another.

“Edwin, your my eyes, you call out the targets I’ll put a round there. I want the largest concentrated groups near our pillboxes. Anything eating anything else and mutating is after that!” Rick said.

“Eastern pillboxes, one hundred and fifty meters infront!” Edwin yelled.

Rick rotated a metal groaning coming from the cradle. Rick looked under the gun.

“Shit! My elevation screw is warped,” Rick cranked the traversing wheel instead. “Fire!”

Len threw up a shell and sent it on its way.

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You have earned: 2,847 XP

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The screw only took two more shots before it snapped.

"That's it for the artillery," Rick said, already moving away from the now-useless weapon. "I'm heading to the western flank. They need reinforcement. Edwin, you and yours on me!"

“I’ll head East!” Len called out.