At a spot beside the table without a proper chair was Vaulty, a multi-ton, four-legged golem crafted from a combo of ancient advanced magitech and a conglorate of trapped souls. He’d originally been Throne’s minion, although we’d broken him out of that enslavent, and the two had since reconciled. Enough to work together without violence, anyway.
Vaulty could access most of the mories and skills of the various souls that inhabited his armored fra, all of whom were Delvers of a decent level in life. Their experience had a heavy skew towards weapons design, field tactics, and general logistics, but also multiple lifetis' worth of other professions, from accounting to dicine. He was tentatively our main advisor for internal military structure, but we didn’t pigeonhole his role at these etings.
Vaulty was also one of the most potent pieces of artillery in our employ. He wasn’t just a gun expert; he was a gun. Whether that made him better than non-gun gun experts, I had no idea, but there wasn’t a lot of competition. The Littans had cannons of both black powder and magical flavors, Hiwardians had sothing similar on their giant airship and fortifications, but nobody really had rifles or handguns as I knew them. Small arms weren’t yet prevalent in Arzia, but Vaulty ca from a ti and place where they had been.
Then again, the Zng rifles were basically weird wands, and Arzia had plenty of wands. I tried not to get bogged down in the technicalities of it. Arzian wands were like flintlock pistols compared to the semi-automatic rifles that were the Zng wands.
Fuck it, this analogy sucks. Moving on.
“My contributions are best outlined in conjunction with physical examples,” said Vaulty, his deep voice reverberating from deep within his chassis. “I would like to petition that my portion of the eting be held within the armory.”
“All right,” I said. “Etja?”
“All in favor?” she asked, throwing a hand into the air. It was unanimously agreed to take a field trip. The possibility of seeing things explode may have helped with the vote. Personally, explosions were my favorite way to spice up a eting.
Grotto teleported the entire council to the armory, where we all appeared in rapid succession. The last to blink into existence was Lena, the recently emancipated Littan rebellion leader and prospective governor of Closetland’s capital city (new na pending). She appeared with a soft squeak and so vigorous whisker-twitching. The lithe, grey-furred woman was the only person present who wasn’t so sort of mana-infused superorganism, System entity, or walking magical weapons platform, so she had the least experience being shuffled around via physics-defiling planar portals.
The woman was halfway into a defensive crouch before she got her bearings, and her expression of surprise morphed to sothing calr as she stood back up. That quickly evolved to shock as she took in the room, before she shifted her stance, settled into a relaxed pose, and tried to mask her intimidation.
Surrounding us were racks on racks of Zng Spatial ‘Break’ rifles, and three rows filled with suits of Zng Prismatite-infused carbonweave armor standing at attention. The latter had caught Lena’s attention at first, and her initial fear was understandable. They were fully enclosed sets of armor with tall, thin body proportions that didn’t match anything the Littan would have been familiar with. To Lena, it had probably looked like a platoon of inhuman warriors was staring us down, before she realized they were inert.
Aside from the Zng tech, we also had several weapons the party had looted throughout the years–the ones unique enough not to sell–all floating in individual stasis fields, the Closet’s version of inventory slots. A longbow was surrounded by a field of crackling electricity, the arcing bolts frozen in ti, a staff emitted a foreboding cloud of cursed darkness, a set of javelins wept blood–nothing too special, but with interesting weaves the crafters among us could study.
Then there was a sprawling ss of tubes and wires connecting to a giant vat of pulsating flesh. I didn’t recognize that one. Weird, but not weird enough for to interrupt the eting and ask about.
Beyond the smaller weapons was an area the size of a large aircraft hangar. To one side of that space was a big fuck-off cannon, twenty feet tall and fifty feet long even in its half-assembled state. I did recognize this one, although I wasn’t sure how we’d gotten our hands on it.
“Did we steal a Force cannon from the Littans?” I asked. Understanding whether we’d engaged in any grand theft and industrial espionage was worth interrupting the eting over.
“Negative. Etja replicated the critical weaves from mory. Grotto, Throne, Nuralie, and I are in the process of recreating the one we thought most effective.” Vaulty’s servos whirred as he turned to look down the length of the cannon. “The technology is amusing, but inefficient for its cost and size. The battle station control chanism is more impressive. It has yielded valuable insights into mana dampening and matrix attenuation.”
So, industrial espionage, but no grand theft.
I was fine with that.
After answering my question, Vaulty moved to a work table, picked up a Zng rifle lying across its surface, and tossed it to . I caught it and looked it over, noticing it had been heavily modified from the versions sitting on the racks.
“We have constructed new stocks, grips, and triggers for use with the Zng ‘Break’ rifles, to accommodate modern-era humanoid hand structures. These can be used to retrofit the existing arsenal.” Vaulty pointed to a few targets and dummies that had been set up at different distances across the large space, which I was realizing now was a weapons range. “Please test it for usability.”
I stepped forward so that everyone else was uprange of , tucked the rifle against my shoulder, and aid it towards a bullseye about midfield. That seed like a good choice to 1) not miss, and 2) avoid getting ribbed for firing at the closest target. I rested my cheek lightly against the stock and sighted down its length.
The Zng had longer arms, more fingers, and less thumbs than a human. The unmodified rifle had been impossible to hold and shoot with any accuracy. The modified version I now held felt as comfortable as any rifle I’d fired on Earth. I hadn’t been a gun nut, but I’d made it to the range at least once a year to get my yippee-ki-yays in. I felt comfortable with the basics. Ř𝐀Ŋ𝖔𝖇Еꞩ
I pulled the trigger. There was no kick or recoil, just a brief, satisfying vibration letting know the weapon had fired. Splinters shot out from the target in a sudden vortex, and a hole the size of a baseball appeared, slightly low and to the right of dead center.
“Damn,” I said. “Anticipated recoil and pulled down before the shot.” I looked the rifle over again. “Still making that mistake even with superpowers.”
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“A few hours with the rifle will eliminate that habit,” said Vaulty. “Your Strength score is also high enough that recoil from a normal kinetic projectile weapon would barely be noticed.”
I nodded at Vaulty’s comntary, but I had no real desire to master this kind of weapon. “Can a regular person use this?”
“Yes. The artificial mana matrix bypasses the normal connection that magic items make with an entity. A mundane humanoid can fire the rifle without harm. However, there is still so concern with prolonged exposure to elevated mana levels.” Vaulty held out a thick, tallic hand, and I passed the rifle back to him. He pointed to a spot just ahead of the trigger guard, where there was a rectangular seam. “While the Break spell within the rifle is low mana-use and insufficient to harm a mundane person with its secondary effects, the weapon still contains a mana reservoir which serves as a stand-in for a standard magazine.”
Vaulty glanced over at Lena, then said, “Please take five steps back.” Lena complied, taking five big steps back. Vaulty returned his attention to the weapon, sliding a finger down the right side of the seam. It popped open at an angle, revealing a chamber containing a simple wand. I caught a faint trace of excess Dinsional mana with my mana sight, but only because I’d been prid to look for it. Otherwise, the light venting would have registered as background noise.
Vaulty caught the wand before it slid all the way out. “This is not harmful while it remains within the weapon, but exchanging the wand within the weapon’s core will expose the user to a brief burst of excess mana.” He tucked the wand back into place and snapped the cartridge shut. He put the rifle back onto the work surface. “I recomnd that mundane individuals avoid reloading the weapon.”
He motioned for us to follow him to the next work station over, where another rifle lay. This one shared so similarities to Zng design principles, but diverged enough that it was clear this was more than a modification to an existing gun.
“We have developed a comprehensive design schematic for the production of new rifles using the Zng artificial matrix technology. Mana weaving will require five ruby chips per new rifle produced. Assuming unlimited funds, the primary bottleneck will be finding a competent wandmaker with adequate ti for scaled production.”
“I can make wands with the Break spell,” I said. “But I don’t have ti to pump out hundreds of wands.” I gestured to Nuralie, whose whole body had coiled up like a spring at Vaulty’s ntion of an uncapped budget. “Our master of coin would probably object to the use of unlimited funds, as well.”
Nuralie nodded in return, then said, “I am familiar with the weapon since I helped to design it, but I think it is worth showing the rest of the council how much the rifle enhances a mundane person’s lethality.”
I raised an eyebrow at Lena. “Feel like shooting sothing?”
The Littan walked slowly towards us, glancing at Vaulty to make sure she was safe to approach. The golem motioned her forward and picked up the newly made rifle. It was shorter than the Zng weapons, keeping the matte black appearance but with several fuchsia stripes along its length serving as an obvious visual differentiator.
Vaulty pointed to a target about fifty yards away, a dummy wearing a full set of steel plate armor. He spent a few minutes giving Lena a safety speech, then gently assisted her in holding and aiming the rifle. Vaulty kept close, able to intervene if Lena accidentally did sothing dangerous, but let Lena hold and fire the weapon on her own.
The weapon made no noise, but a whoomp ca from the armored target, along with the sound of twisting tal as a hole ford in its armor. Vaulty showed Lena how to properly engage a safety on the rifle, then took it back from her. After, we all took a walk down to the target.
Vaulty let us get a good look at the puncture in the armor, the edges of which were bent and mangled. The golem flicked a couple of buckles, and the wooden dummy’s cuirass fell away, revealing that the damage wasn’t limited to the armor. A fist-sized hole went through the dummy’s abdon, and would have severed the target’s spine, had it had one.
“Miss Lena, do you have any combat training?”
“No,” she said, eyes wide as she stared at the damage she’d wrought.
“Five minutes of instruction,” Varrin said, “and she could kill an armored knight from a hundred paces.
“True, but leaving Miss Lena to her own devices with the weapon at this ti would be grossly irresponsible. Additional training would be required to avoid friendly fire incidents, but the ti commitnt for attaining competency with this weapon is closer to learning a spear than a sword.”
“It can also hurt Delvers,” Nuralie added. “The Break spell is designed to overco armor and resistances, but the trade-off is that the damage is low.” Pause. “We believe a squad of ten ordinary soldiers could eliminate a Delver with a Fortitude of 10 without issue, assuming that they see them coming.”
“Agreed. My recomndation for an adequate peaceti defense force requires one out of every one hundred citizens to be enlisted. Double during cold war periods and triple for hot. Given Closetland’s current population, the existing retrofitted Zng rifles are sufficient to provide arms to enough mundane service mbers to et this quota. However, it would be wise to begin production of additional rifles ahead of the explosive population growth I expect we will see in the coming years.”
Vaulty pointed to the rows of dark armor. “We have made similar progress with the Zng carbonweave, which contains a variety of non-magical defensive features. However, the portions of the armor that are usable by mundane individuals require complex chemical compounds. No existing civilization possesses wide-scale manufacturing capabilities for advanced chemical synthesis.
“Absent those manufacturing capabilities, materials would need to be produced by a Delver with several relevant intrinsic skills, such as Nuralie. Alternatively, Grotto or Throne may be able to handle these functions in a more traditional manner, in which case processing facilities would need to be constructed. I have passed along relevant information for either approach.”
“How good are those non-magical defenses?" I asked. “I assu creating chemical plants isn’t cheap. Would the investnt needed to make this stuff be worth it?”
“A mundane individual in a full suit of non-magical Zng-style carbonweave would effectively be untouchable to another ordinary person. Steel weapons and other mundane arms available to current civilizations would be rendered harmless. Against Delvers and other magical beings, the defenses beco significantly less viable. A Level 1 Delver with a relevant intrinsic skill at level 10 would generally be capable of killing a mundane soldier wearing this equipnt with a single well-placed strike.”
“But they’d be unstoppable against normal infantry?”
“Correct.”
Xim stood in front of one of the armor suits and flicked it with her fingernail. “One-shot kills and invulnerability against the rank-and-file,” she said. “It doesn’t matter whether the people wearing this stuff can fight Delvers themselves; what matters is that the enemy would have to send Delvers to deal with them.”
“Or their equivalent,” I said, thinking about the United. “Still, forcing soone to field their elites to deal with our infantry is a pretty big tactical advantage. What do you need to make this happen?”
“The imdiate recruitnt of a talented wandmaker, along with one or more Delvers possessing Engineering, Alchemy, or appropriate alternatives at a minimum skill level of 40.” Vaulty whirred to look at Nuralie. “And a significant budget increase.”
“We can make that happen,” I said. I rubbed my beard, running through all the Delvers I knew. “Didn’t we rescue a crafter who’d been trapped inside that ninja warrior Delve last year?”
“Yep!” said Etja. “But he was the one who jumped anyti he tried to talk.” She frowned at the mory.
“That rogue Delve Core ssed him up pretty good,” said Xim, “but we got him to a dedicated healer who deals with brain injuries. I can check in and see how he’s doing.”
“We can look into Seinnador as well,” I said. “He’s more of a rchant than an engineer, though.”
“Excellent. Moving on, I have submitted a proposed military structure, and will now provide an overview.”
Vaulty then went on at length about a potential military apparatus, after which he moved to another area he’d found reason to explore.
The first of many.
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