Rebuilding Science in a Magic World

As the morning dragged into mid-afternoon, all the boilers for cannons had been started, and I finished up all my checks in the fort on the beach.  Any moment we should start spotting the ships on the horizon.  In fact, I'd bet that the artillery embedded in the cliff can already see them.  I started pacing along the beach double checking our defenses.  I was anxious, as were most of the goblin troops.  The dwarven troops were more battle experienced, and even if they were anxious, they didn't show it.

They trained the goblins and hobgoblins on our island for months, but that didn't mean that we were actually a well-practiced army.  It just meant that we would fair much better than if we hadn't trained.  I'd carefully discussed potential problems with our defense with the dwarven commanders, asking about any potential for long-range magic or the potential for their own long-range cannons.  While there is a chance we might have to deal with some long-range magic.  Other than our rifled cannons, they didn't know of any long-range cannons.  As for magic, it seems like there won't be much of it, if it happens.

Long-range magic comes in two types apparently.  Magic that allows you to propel existing materials long ranges, and magic that in itself is long-range.  I've seen weak versions of the first type within the goblin population with the goblins who can magically throw items farther and faster than normal, which we've utilized for spear throwing.  This first type uses a lot less mana than the second type, but has drawbacks in that you need to have something to throw, and you have to deal with recoil.  Since you would need to deal with recoil, the ranges for anyone using that magic from a ship would make it unlikely that they could actually cause more harm with that than just firing their regular cannons.

The second type falls in a category similar to Zaka's fireball, or my improved earth spike, but much further range.  Those spells consume a lot of mana, and very few individuals have that sort of magic.  The dwarves estimated that at most five individuals invading would have that kind of magic, and they'd at most use it once or twice each before needing to recover their mana, which would likely take hours.  Even then, the range wouldn't be as far as our rifled artillery.  We should be more concerned with them using it to explode a path in our defenses on the beach through which to invade as they make landfall.

I checked my stats, trying to refocus myself on the rapidly approaching battle.  I managed to squeeze some time in for fishing and tree cutting over the last year to get myself in a more battle ready condition.

<MYTHIC LESSER EARTH DEMON>
Level: 76
HP: 3144/3144
MP: 1635/1635
Traits: Mana Affinity, Earth Manipulation, Improved Dexterity, Heat Resistance
Magic: Improved Stone Shaping, Tectonic Sense, Improved Earth Spike, Thermal Hands

I'm pulled back to reality as I hear some shouting.  I look up to the horizon and spot the tops of a few ships' masts.  I watch over a few minutes as more and more masts come over the horizon.  After not much longer, their masts come into full view, along with the ships themselves.  I start counting once it seems like no more are coming.

1, 2, 3, … 70, 71, 72.

72 Ships in total here.  I hope that's all of them, but I get the feeling that there are more, but they aren't visible from here.  If I had a force this comparatively large, I'd split it up to try to overwhelm any potential defense.  With 72 ships here, that would be somewhere between 7,000 and 50,000 soldiers, depending on the actual size of the ships, and how tightly they've packed the soldiers in.  From this distance, it's hard to gauge the size, but I can at least tell that some ships are bigger than others because they have more masts.  Which means we're probably looking at something closer to the middle of that range.  Maybe 15,000 to 30,000 soldiers.

Even if they know that we actually have 500 dwarves here in addition to our own force, a force of their size would already be large enough that splitting it would be worth it, which tells me that this force is probably already split, and the question comes down to how split they are.

I watch impatiently as they continue moving in toward this beach.  The only reprieve I have in my anxiety is that we should get the first shot in, rather than the other way around.  The artillery was given specific targeting orders.  It's hard to sink a large ship with a single shot, so they're supposed to try to sink smaller vessels first, with the exception of anything that seems like a flagship.  If it looks like there are very important people on a ship, then fire into it repeatedly.

With the exception of any command ships, there is another reason for targeting smaller ships first.  They can anchor closer to shore safely, which means less distance in row boats or other landing craft before soldiers actually make landfall.  If we sink the small ships, we make any future logistics work they want to do on the island in the next few weeks that much more frustrating.

After watching them approach for about thirty minutes, they were close enough that it would be worth it to use one of the small, simple telescopes I made.  Three telescopes were with the early warning watch groups up on the mountain who sounded the alarm earlier.  I have one, Zaka has another, and there are two spares, one in the new fortress in the middle of the city, and the other stashed away in the secret bunker.  Making well-shaped glass for even simple functional telescopes wasn't easy, but even Galileo recognized the military importance of the discovery as soon as he made his first one.

Looking at the incoming ships, over half of them were flying the same flag, but among the remaining ships, there were nine different flags.  It's just a guess, but the majority flag is probably Rathland's.  There is also a very clear flagship, larger than all the rest of the ships in the fleet by a noticeable amount.  Pointed forward off it's bow is a large, metal head of some unknown beast with it's mouth open.

I study the bow, interested in the design.  Whatever it is, it has a flowing mane, long fangs, a pair of wide-set ears, a snub nose, and four eyes.  As it approaches closer though, I can spot something else.  In the monster's mouth appears to be an exceptionally large and circular metallic circle.  A cannon.  Though it's quite a bit larger than a normal cannon.  People have used a lot of different sized cannonballs on earth, and if I use the dwarven cannons as a gauge for the size of this cannon, I'd say it fires a cannonball that would weigh at least eighty pounds if it was solid metal.

My concern, however, is that it would be entirely impractical to fire a cannonball that heavy.  What's more likely, and a little more terrifying, is if they have fused charges inside a cannonball shell of that size.  If that's the case, then they don't need to directly hit their target for shrapnel to kill personnel.  The bunkers on the cliffs should be fine given their design and altitude compared to the ships, but we'd be in trouble if that ship can fire on us here on the beach.  I signal to three goblins designated as runners, and I have two have them relay to the two artillery bunkers that the artillery are to focus on sinking that flagship if it fires the main cannon on it's front at any point, even if they have to aim a little further than normal, or if they occasionally miss.

The third runner's job is to go to a rear base where there are more runners, and make sure the other artillery pieces and bases on the island know what I've spotted here, and understand how to handle it if they see any more.  If it never fires, it might just be an intimidating design meant to make enemies afraid, which is why I said only fire on it if it started firing that cannon.  If it's just for design, then there is no point in wasting shells that could more easily sink other ships.

After another twenty minutes, my worries were confirmed as the ships got close.  The first shot wasn't fired by us, but by the flagship.  The mouth of the beast erupted in a mix of smoke and fire, then the smoke... dissipated? 

No, that wasn't smoke, it was steam.  I didn't have much more time to think though, as off to one side of the beach a little further back than our defenses, closer to the forest line, I heard a thud followed by an explosion, then smaller thuds as shrapnel rained down through the area.

I assessed the damage from where I stood using the telescope.  No one seemed injured as it missed us by a decent amount, but some of the shrapnel seemed pretty big, and was thrown far enough that if someone was unfortunate to be in it's flight path they'd be injured or worse.  The flagship was still a little more than a mile out by my estimate.  I was glad that I'd sent the runners to the bunkers.

Fortunately for us, the bunkers flanked either side of the invading fleet.  Within three seconds of each other, the two artillery pieces fired.  One missed the flagship, and the other hit, but only did some damage to the deck.  Though from what I could make out, it looks like it surprised the individuals on the ship who were frantically running about.

The flagship was fired upon a second and third time by both artillery cannons in the next minute.  Thanks to their design, reloading, aiming, and firing could be done relatively quickly by a skilled crew. Two more misses, one more glancing blow, and a singular better hit that penetrated a lower part of the hull.

Given there was steam from the cannon's mouth, I expected it to take longer for them to fire it again, but I was caught off guard.  Another blast of fire and steam came from the monster's mouth, and again, I heard a thud.  This time, closer to our defenses.  As it exploded, I heard someone yell out in pain.

Damnit!  Time to adapt our plan slightly.  It'd still be at least twenty minutes before we need to worry about any landfall.  I give the order to move the injured individual back to the fallback line, and then have the goblins take shelter in the trenches meant to slow down our opponents until the signal is given to return back to our defensive implements.

Another salvo from our artillery.  This time, both hit more solidly, both into the hull of the ship near the water line.  A few more of those, or a lucky shot, and the flagship should be down.  The only issue is that this is buying time for the other ships to get closer to shore.  I'd much rather have had the artillery sink a few small ships by now, but we can't afford to deal with artillery shelling us.  We need that flagship down.