Tarnished Chapter 28 (Patreon)

After their talk, the pair headed over to the foreman’s office to retrieve the books.

Cassi tsked, “Seems like that man couldn’t do anything properly.”

“Is there a problem?” John asked, walking over to take the book she held out. He looked it over, and the text was nearly illegible. Even he had better handwriting than this.

“Are you still able to decipher it?”

“I can. It will just take me more time. Can you help me carry these back to my place? This building smells of unwashed feet and body odor. And I would prefer it not stick to me.” John chuckled at that. The building did indeed smell. He just hadn’t paid it much attention.

After grabbing up the stack of transaction logs, they made their way back across the street. And while he would have loved to sit and chat with her some more, they both had more pressing work to complete. He tipped his hat in farewell and made his way to Travis’ place to speak to him.

When he arrived, he found the man setting his fence back in place using the walker. John just watched as the man laughed while lowering the heavy machine onto the stout timber to push it into the ground.

“I’d like to see them blow my fence over now!” he declared loudly, making a few people stop before shaking their heads and moving away.

Considering how people reacted, John suspected this was a pretty normal occurrence for the man.

He waited for the man to finish cackling before shouting at him. “Travis!”

The man startled, yanking the control lever and making the walker spin nearly ninety degrees before he got control of it again. “Dammit, Smith! I told you not to startle me while I’m working.”

“Yeah, ya did. But I need to speak with you and I don’t feel like waiting around while you laugh madly at whatever thing you have envisioned in your mind.”

The man grumbled something under his breath so quietly that even John couldn’t hear what he said. “Fine. Just give me a moment.”

Travis moved the walker into an open space in his yard and set it down. Even after that, it took him a full two minutes of flicking levers and turning wheels before he finally hopped off the thing.

“Well, out with it. I’m a busy man too ya know.”

“You got any more rotary cannons hidden away?”

The man quirked an eyebrow and gestured around. “Does this look like an armory to you?”

“That’s not an answer,” John replied flatly.

The artificer let out a breath. “No. If I had more, I would have brought them out.”

“Can you make more?”

Travis scoffed. “Can I? Sure. They aren’t exactly complicated pieces of machinery. Will I? No.”

“What! Why not?”

“I don’t make weapons, John. Weapons only cause more harm than good.”

John pinched the bridge of his nose. “You literally used a rotary to gun down Harc’otti.”

The man nodded. “I have no issue using weapons to protect myself or the town. But I won’t make them.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. You were going to fix my rifle for me.”

“Speaking of,” the wild-haired man said before he ran off and came back with John’s rifle, all fixed up.

John’s mind broke for a moment. He was having trouble getting past this man’s arbitrary line for what he would and wouldn’t do. Eventually, his mind kicked into gear again and he responded. “So let me get this straight. You won’t build weapons, but you will fix them, and you will use them?”

Travis nodded like it was the most reasonable thing in the world.

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“WHY! Why do you draw the line at manufacturing weapons?”

The white-haired artificer bristled at John’s tone. “I already told you why!”

John shook his head, “No. That is a bullshit excuse. I want the truth.”

“It is not,” the man replied indignantly, crossing his arms.

John had had enough, he pulled his gun out and emptied the cylinder. The Artificer took a step back, looking uncertain. “Don’t make me pistol whip you, Travis. I don’t want to, and I’m pretty sure the last of Seline’s respect for me would go out the window if I hurt her precious uncle. But don’t think for an instant that I won’t if you don’t tell me the damn truth.”

“Fine. I don’t know why you need to get so upset over this. I don’t make weapons, because I can’t. Are you happy?”

“No. Explain.”

The man sighed. “Look, I can craft a gun. That’s easy. But I’ve never been able to get all the pieces to work together. My mind finds the task so dull that anytime I attempt it, I zone out and ruin the end result.”

“Then how did you fix my gun?”

“I just swapped out the stock. Everything else was still in working order.”

“Are you telling me, the entire time you’ve been in Ember Creek, you’ve never had to fix a weapon?”

“Of course I have. I just leave the reassembly to my niece. She has a wonderful eye for detail.”

“Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. Why not work with her to put together a few more of those rotary so we can defend the town?”

Travis paused to rub his chin as if the thought had never occurred to him. And hell, maybe it hadn’t. The man was quite scatterbrained, John was learning.

“I suppose that could work. But who’s gonna pay for it? That much material isn’t gonna be cheap. And I don’t take payment in Terminus Mining notes.

That was good because they were now worthless. “I will.” John reached into his vest and handed the man the diamonds. Cassi hadn’t needed them to kickstart the town’s coffers, so he had held onto them.

The artificer looked forlornly at the walker and John got an idea. “Unless you would rather trade?” So far, the walker wasn’t doing him any good. And the only person he knew who could operate it were Travis, and the two people who operated the train. And they weren’t exactly here. It's possible Seline could operate it as well, but he would need to ask, and she was still upset with him after what he did to that prisoner.

The words had hardly left John’s mouth when the man spoke. “Deal!” He tossed the bag of diamonds back to John. Damn things must be cursed, nobody wanted them. “I probably have enough material for three or four more rotary cannons. But…”

“But what?”

“But they aren’t going to punch through those suits. You may want to think about something a little heavier.”

“Like what? You’re the artificer here, you tell me.”

“A straight-up six-pounder would do it, but we don’t have powder. Although… hmm. I might be able to make a steam-powered cannon. Especially with Seline’s compression chamber design. It won’t have the same punch as a black powder cannon, but a six-pound ball of iron is still a six-pound ball of iron. It’s going to hit hard no matter what. If I make one of those, I’m only going to be able to produce two more rotaries.”

“You sure you can’t make more?”

“Not unless you get the mines going again. I have a bunch of brass and copper, but not much in the way of iron or steel. And I’ll need all four to make the rotaries and a pretty good amount of my available steel for the cannon.”

“Do you remember those armored walkers I told you about?”

“Yeah. I’m not making those. It’s a waste of resources and would make the one we have effectively useless.”

“Yes, I’m well aware of your dislike of that subject.” There had been a lot of time to kill during their trip out to the valley and back, and John had brought up the subject. Only to receive a scathing breakdown of how utterly useless those walkers were. “What about mounting a cannon to it? Like a ship?”

“Ships cannons aren’t mounted. Hmm… But a six-pounder is lightweight enough that it could be mounted to a sturdy swivel.” The man turned to the walker. “I could even upgrade the boiler and the air tank on the walker to support it. That would significantly cut down on materials.”

John could tell when he had lost someone’s attention. “Alright, you start work on that, I’ll go talk to your niece to see if she can give you a hand.” Travis didn’t reply. John was pretty sure he hadn’t even heard him or realized he had walked away.

That was fine with him. A few more guns would significantly help with the defense of the town. A mounted cannon would give them a much more mobile piece of artillery to move around where needed. The armored suits weren’t all that fast, faster than a human could run, certainly, but probably only half the speed of a horse. They also didn’t appear to be very maneuverable. So a walker mounted with a cannon should be able to easily outmaneuver them if they attacked.

He really hoped it didn’t come to that though, because one cannon might be able to dispatch a few of the suits, but if they brought enough of them, they could simply overwhelm it. John was banking on the fact that the Harc’otti didn’t have many of the devices. The reason for his optimism was simple. If they had more, they would have used them during the last attack. That didn’t mean they wouldn’t get more in the future though. Which is why he wanted the town prepared.

On his way to the jail, he spotted Seline, but the woman gave one look at him before stalking away angrily. He shook his head. She needed to get over this unnecessary grudge. But he wasn’t about to go chasing her around town to apologize for something he didn’t feel he did wrong. Instead, he asked Sheriff Blackwood to ask her about working with her uncle.

Coming from him, it would sound more legitimate anyway.

It had been a long day, and John was about to head home when his first fire broke out. A group of twelve men got into a fight near the foreman’s office. These weren’t Terminus Mining employees, they looked like independent miners. He grunted and hurried over to the altercation to put a stop to it.