Limitless Seas 2, Chapter 28.

Chapter 28.

“Fire as your guns bear, then reload with solid shot!” Larson shouted to the crew. They had floated a target on top of empty barrels and as the Sea Venom sailed past, the crack of the guns sounded one after the other.

“Absolutely pathetic! I give you the power to send a ship to the bottom in a single barrage and you can’t hit that target at a hundred paces,” Larson said, frustrated at the crew as they watched both shots splash into the water a dozen yards from the target. “Reload, come about and try it again, shift guns to starboard,” he ordered. The crew worked to wrestle the guns to the other side. Given that they only had two guns aboard they needed to move them to the side the enemy was on. Later, he envisioned rows of guns lining each side of the Venom, but for now, their firepower consisted of a pair of twelve-pounder smoothbore guns.

The crew was getting better at it, he had to admit. Each volley had gotten closer to the target, and they had even hit it once. With a new and untested crew, for the most part, they were still learning to work as a team. The process to shift the guns from one side of the ship to the other involved unhooking them from the ropes used to assist in controlling the recoil, rolling it on the small wheels to the other side on a moving ship. With four crew manning each gun, they did fine shifting the gun over with much sweating and cursing.

Once mounted correctly, the crew began to load. They were using full charges, the men needed to get a feel for the weapons, despite the sand they were wasting to do so. Each charge was measured into a canvas bag which was rammed down the barrel. The shot followed and then a crewman stuck a sharp needle through the touchhole to expose the sand inside. A small amount of sand was poured into the touchhole and the gunner stood ready with one of the ogre blood-infused stones lashed to a stick. Bug Bartholomew promised to rig a flint and pull rope on the guns, which would make firing a bit less labor-intensive.

“Fire as you bear,” Larson ordered. As the ship sailed past the target once more, the gunners hit the powder sprinkled on the touchhole with the stone. Immediately, the sand reacted with the ogre blood inside, igniting with a roar and giving off a small cloud of red smoke. This time, both shots hit the target, not dead center, but they were hits.

“On target! Dredge, make a note of these gunnery crews and see to it they receive an extra ration of rum with tonight’s meal,” Larson ordered. The two gun crews grinned and secured their weapons. Dredge and Larson had drilled the men extensively all morning and finally settled on the four teams that did the best to become the first gun crews for the Sea Venom.

“Sir, question if I may,” one of the gun crew asked. He was from the latest batch of recruits and seemed almost afraid to address Larson directly. The crew that had served with him previously knew that the captain was approachable, but the new hands were a bit intimidated by the four-armed naga that now ran their lives.

“Aye, what is it?” Larson replied.

“Sir, sorry if this isn’t appropriate, but some of the boys have been meaning to ask. Well, the question is, what makes these guns better than a ballista or catapult? They fire slower and are harder to use,” the man said.

“Good question, sailor, let’s answer that now. I apologize for not explaining it earlier, but I wanted you all to get a feel for the guns before I showed you why they’re so important. Take us in,” Larson said, ordering the ship back to the pier. It was time for the noon meal and while they had been at sea running gunnery drills, the third cannon should have been completed. If it was completed, Bug Bartholomew was going to arrange a demonstration of the weapon’s power for the crew.

Once they had filled their plates with a fish and potato stew that Gilroy had whipped up, Larson directed them to the draw where the third gun, as well as the dual armed ballista that had been on the bow of the ship. Two hundred yards from the weapons, a pair of targets had been set up. The targets consisted of five layers of wood planking with a shield and chainmail shirt strapped to the front of each.

“You, sailor, what’s your name?” Larson asked the man who had spoken up earlier.

“Sammy Chartwell, sir, but everyone just calls me Sand Crab,” the man said. Nicknames seemed to be almost assured with any of the sailors who had been at their craft for a while. Sand Crab looked like he was nearing thirty and had the tanned and leathery skin of someone who had been at sea for a good chunk of their life.

“All right, Sand Crab, inspect each target to make sure they’re equal,” Larson ordered. The man ran down and inspected each.

“They’re good, each is the same as near as I can tell,” Sand Crab announced.

“Chief gunner’s mate, take charge of the demonstration,” Larson ordered.

A grinning Dredge walked over to the ballista, cranking down both arms before selecting the bolts he wanted to fire. Once loaded the sighted in the weapon, finally releasing the first bolt, followed a second later by the other. Both slammed home with a clank, piercing the shield, the chainmail, and driving through the first of the five planks.

“That would ruin the day of any crew caught in its path. It could even buckle a plank near the waterline and cause flooding with a well-placed shot. Mr. Dredge, fire the gun,” Larson said. Dredge’s grin got even bigger as he pulled a team forward to load the gun for him. Once loaded, he made a few adjustments before firing at the target. With the loud boom that they were all starting to become accustomed to, the cannon fired. The shot moved too fast to see, but they could all witness the results. With a crash, the solid iron shot hammered through the shield, the chainmail, and all five planks before burying itself into the side of the draw.

“Right on target, sir,” Dredge said with pride.

“Well done, now as you can see, the ballista, could ruin a crewman’s day no matter what armor he was wearing, and will even cause the ship to spring a leak if hit in the right spot. The guns, on the other hand, destroy what they hit. Armor, multiple layers of a deck, hiding behind a shield wall, none of it matters to the cannon. It should also be mentioned that we’ve been shooting the weapons at short range to get you familiar with them and to build your skill, but the maximum range of one of these guns is over triple that of a ballista,” Larson said, murmurs of approval were heard from the crew. Larson waited for them to quiet down before continuing.

“What we hit with our gun’s gentlemen; we kill. That is why we’re working so hard on your accuracy. When the time comes, I need you to hit your targets. I need you to kill,” Larson said.

“You heard the captain, boys, get that grub down your gullets and get back aboard, we got some target practice to work on,” Dredge said.

Larson was glad to have the old and battered gunner on his crew. It had only taken the man a few shots with the four-pounder to instinctively know how to target the guns. He was a natural and Larson suspected the system that guided this world had something to do with it, granting the man skill with any type of siege weapon, including the newest ones that Larson had just helped to create. To his delight, Larson found that Dredge was also a natural at teaching others, which would cut down drastically on the training time needed before their next fight.

Felicia and Bug Bartholomew shooed him away after the noon meal, which was fine with Larson since he wanted more time at sea with their guns. When Tarley arrived with the Lost Soul, he would have to shuffle the crew around a bit, since he would need some of the trained crews on both ships. On second thought, he might just keep them aboard the Sea Venom, and opting to have all the guns on her might be the smartest call. That way, he could keep the best gun crews aboard and have Dredge continue to train them all while they sailed toward the pirate stronghold. He would have Bug Bartholomew bring supplies aboard and craft more siege engines for the Lost Soul while they were at sea. It might not have any guns, but the Lost Soul would have a full array of siege engines that were made by the talented two-headed ogre engineer.

They stayed out until evening, training the crews on gunnery, but keeping close to the estate. By the time they sailed back into the cove, the crew had burned through an entire barrel of sorcerer’s sand. Much less of the stuff was needed to fire the guns when compared to the gunpowder that he remembered, but their supply was still limited for the time being to the two dozen barrels they had liberated from Furious Fontaine. He was sure that Lucian would gather more, but it was unlikely he could scavenge it up by the barrel full.

Ammunition would also be an issue; they were down to a dozen iron round shot for the guns. They were easy enough to make, though, and Felicia had even trained a couple of crewmen to cast them at the forge when she wasn’t using it. Larson also wanted some grapeshot rounds created, which would involve casting multiple smaller shot packed in a canvas shell. Ideally, they would develop a metal case to improve the range and spread of the shot, but for now, he would accept a greatly reduced range for the chance to devastate the enemy up close. Bug Bartholomew and Felicia had designed a mold to cast smaller shot, and they would be able to place a score of half-inch iron balls into each round, more than enough to ruin someone’s day.

The four-pounder gun was still back at the estate, and Bug Bartholomew said he was working on different mounts for it, which would give them a chance to quickly shift it over to where it was needed. With only three or four main guns, they would have to rely on the slow process of bringing the ship about, or the equally slow process of shifting the guns from one side of the vessel to the other when needed. Things would improve as they had time to work on solutions, but for their current fight, they would be limited.

As they pulled into the cove, Gilroy was hard at work, grilling beef ribs over an open fire. The tantalizing smell of the meat hit them as they tied off the ship, but Larson made sure the guns were stowed away properly and the ship was as it should be before he let them head off for some chow. After filling his plate, Larson sought out Bug Bartholomew and Felicia, wanting an update on their progress.

“We’ll be ready to cast the fourth gun tomorrow morning and barring any issues it will be ready by the afternoon. I’d like some time to test it out, it’s the first one we're making using the new casting method that doesn’t require all of Narbos’ mana to create. The third gun is fully tested and ready to go, you can mount it on the Sea Venom whenever you’re ready. We’ve also had a team turning out shot all afternoon, and they keep at it tomorrow as well,” Felicia advised.

“Great, and if you’re not busy with the guns tomorrow, Bug Bartholomew, I’d like you to see about making a few siege engines for the Lost Soul. We’ll keep the guns on the Venomalong with the trained crews. When we return, there should be enough weapons to outfit both ships, but until then, it’s better to concentrate our firepower. Get a good night’s sleep and we’ll have an early start tomorrow,” Larson said.

The crew hauled the new gun aboard and squared it away before bedding down for the night. Larson made the rounds, talking with the sailors on watch, and the gnolls patrolling around the estate. The gnolls weren’t all that talkative, and many didn’t speak the common language of the land, but it was important to Larson that they see he knew they were out there keeping the crew safe.

When dawn broke over the horizon, Larson and the Sea Venom were already casting off for another day of gunnery and sailing drills. The crew was coming together, and they were becoming more accurate with every round fired. Dredge constantly pushed out the range of the floating target until they found the limit for their twelve-pounders, about a thousand yards. Hits were rare at that range, there were too many variables when firing a weapon at a moving target aboard a moving ship. Against fixed fortifications, it would be better, but until their gunnery or targeting systems improved, he’d have to get in closer. Larson could remember devices that did the calculations for him, and weapons that could strike ships too far away to even see, but the images were hazy and confusing.

At noon, the sails of the Lost Soul were seen on the horizon, and Larson brought his ship in to wait for them. The pier had been expanded a bit, and while there wasn’t room to come alongside it completely, the other ship could at least move into the cove and ferry crew to the pier aboard the ship’s boats. Once Tarley and his crew arrived, Larson called an officer’s meeting in the main estate. Amongst the crew of the Lost Soul, Larson spotted several in the armor and livery of Stratwall Harbor. They must have been the marines that Lord Buxton had promised.

“Tarley, how did your final recruitment efforts go? Is the Lost Soul fully provisioned?” Larson asked.

“Aye, sir, the hold is full of provisions, and while we’re not up to the number of crew we wanted, the Lost Soul does have forty-seven able-bodied crew ready for duty. This is Lieutenant Skarn, the leader of the Stratwall marines that we’ve been assigned,” Tarley said.

“Good to meet you, Lieutenant, glad to have you aboard. How many marines did you bring with you?” Larson asked, shaking the man’s hand.

“Sir, I have twenty-two marines at my command, sixteen equipped for melee, and six crossbow specialists,” Skarn said.

“Excellent, we’ll figure out how best to divide them among the two ships later. For now, see to your men and make sure they’re fed and have a place to sleep tonight. They can sleep anywhere they like, there’s plenty of open space around the estate, just stay out of the groundskeeper’s residence,” Larson said. The man saluted and marched from the meeting.

“Rather formal, that one, but seems a good man. His troops were more than willing to help out on the trip here and they knew their way around a ship. Now, sir, how about these new weapons you’ve told us about, do they work?” Tarley asked.

“Theys smashes stuffs ups good de does,” Bartholomew said with pride.

“Aye, we’re ready to smash stuff up good. The only issue is that we’ll only have four of the larger guns and a single light weapon ready before we sail tomorrow. I’ve decided to concentrate the firepower aboard the Sea Venom and load the Lost Soul up with every siege engine we have,” Larson said.

“I only have the catapult aboard now, but with the ballista from the Sea Venom, we’ll have something to fight with,” Tarley said.

“We’ll have a second ballista ready tonight, and one of the portable units as well,” Felica said. Larson hadn’t seen them working on the weapons, but they should be fairly easy for the ogre to construct, especially with access to a forge and smith for the few metal parts needed.

“Good, I’m not sure what we’ll face at the pirate stronghold, but we’re better prepared than we’ve ever been. We’ll reshuffle the crew a bit more, but I’m inclined to give Tarley the lion's share of the marines since we’ll be operating the guns. We’ll have longer range and the Lost Soul is more likely to be close to any boarding actions and the first to put ashore any assault teams. Before we finish up, is there anything we’re missing?” Larson asked.

“Just one thing Larson,” Felicia Burrowton said with a dopey smirk plastered on her face. Bug Bartholomew and I worked on something special while the crews were testing out the guns. It’s our first attempt at something you mentioned before, and Narbos did most of the work on the barrels, take a look,” Felica handed him an ornate box that looked like it might have once contained a fine set of cutlery. Instead of a set of flatware, the open box revealed a gorgeous pair of flintlock pistols. The barrels and the stock of the weapons were made from steelwood, and looking closer, even the mechanical parts seemed to be crafted from the same.

Larson picked up the pair of weapons with his lower set of arms, and they felt just right. A quick check of action showed that the ogre blood-infused stone that served as a flint for the weapons struck true and moved smoothly. The caliber of the weapons was larger than he expected, and he remembered pistols typically being of smaller caliber. Felicia handed over a couple of pouches containing shot and premeasured powder for the weapon.

“The sand is just wrapped in waxed paper; you may want to redo the cartridges if you plan to take these underwater. The sand will work fine even if drenched and we made sure to craft the pistols without any metal parts that might corrode. I hope you like them,” Felicia said.

“They’re beautiful, and what caliber are these, they truly feel like a hand cannon, not a pistol,” Larson asked.

“Well, we didn’t have much to go with, so we settled on a one-inch diameter shot size for them. I know it’s likely too big for the crew’s weapons when we get around to creating them, but Bug Bartholomew figured you could handle them,” Felicia said.

“They’re perfect, thank you. I’ll put them to good use against the pirates,” Larson said, genuinely touched that his crew and the blacksmith would put in the extra effort to give their captain a gift this impressive.

“Next time you’re in town, see if that tailor you worked with can make you some type of holster rig for them. For now, we can find a way to tie them down to your armor,” Felicia said. Larson put the weapons away after passing them around for the officers to inspect. He’d follow Felicia’s suggestion and get a harness rig with holsters for it and the cartridges as soon as he could. When the meeting wrapped up and Larson returned to his cabin. He couldn’t help looking at the weapons once more, this time, the system generated a prompt for him. These were even more special than he had first thought.

Larson’s Brace. This set of pistols is the first of its kind in this world and as such, the pair have become something more. Bound to their owner, these pistols yearn to follow the will of their namesake, making minute adjustments to aid in aiming and the finding of weak points. The pistols grant a bonus to accuracy, range, and critical hit chance. Firearms ignore most armor types and deal extra damage to magical protections.

Specially created for you, Larson’s Brace can accept your Imbue Weapon spell, allowing you to add a damage type to any projectile you fire from them as long as you possess sufficient mana. Made of steelwood, the pistols are immune to natural corrosion and have increased durability.

It was late and he didn’t want to disturb the sleeping crew with the sound of the pistols firing, but first thing, he was going to put some rounds through these and see how they performed. With Cassia now only taking ten percent of his mana, Larson would be able to imbue several shots, but he would need to restrain himself and leave a little mana in reserve for when things got up close and personal. They were as ready as they could hope to be, it was time to sail and take the fight to the pirates once more.