Valen departed shortly after, instructing Adrian to return to his training and asking him to thank Sergeant Varnell for indulging his peculiar request.
Not gone for long, Adrian had still managed to miss Varnell's explanations and returned to his group bemused and more than a little frightened.
"Keates, get over here!" Caitlin called to him, waving frantically.
Adrian quickened his pace from a jog to a run, and stopped beside Caitlin, who was frantically trying to pry a piece of metal out of an open hatch in the gun. "Glad you're back, I can't get these clowns to make sure the shell is set before they close the hatch. Hurry up and get us whipped into shape."
"Caitlin, I just got back! I missed the instructions," Adrian argued, but he still crouched down near the gun just as the broken piece of metal was extracted.
"It's just like a Salamander. Just bigger, with fewer moving parts. Put the shell in, check the fit, close the hatch, latch it shut, angle it to where I tell you," Caitlin explained in a single breath, speaking so quickly it sound like a single word. "Now hurry up, I think Gerald's going to start calling his shots soon."
"Just like a Salamander..." Adrian murmured. "I can work with that."
"Is the barrel clean?" he asked aloud, to the recruit who had just pulled out the shattered casing of the last shot.
She shrugged in response.
Adrian paused for half a second, willing himself to consider what the people he knew would do in a moment like this. He recalled his single, horrifying meeting with Madam Ghally, and the vicious brutality she showed herself capable of.
He thought of his boss, Stenman Xavier, a quieter and kinder man, who would comfortably order fingers broken or limbs removed to even a small challenge to his authority.
His thoughts lingered on Colonel Redgrave, whose presence and tone seemed to inspire obedience. And last, to his own instructor.
"That's not an answer, gunner! Get the brush behind you and stick it in the gun," Adrian barked, pointing to the cotton mop just behind the other recruit.
To his surprise, she moved as if an actual soldier had just barked an order, nearly throwing herself at the mop and running it back to the gun.
She shoved it inside until the mop was visible through the open hatch at the end of the gun. "Rotate it clockwise!" Adrian shouted, louder than he needed to.
She complied immediately, spinning the mop and pushing pieces of metal and glass to the surface. As she turned, Adrian carefully scooped the pieces and flung them away.
"Barrel's clear, where's the next shot?" Adrian asked.
"Here. Round-shot," Caitlin said, pointing to a small stack of cylinders nearby.
The cylinders Caitlin was point to were a dozen small tubes, a little shorter than Adrian's forearm. It was a steel ball cupped in cloudy glass, with an inch-high base that glowed with an eerie, blue firelight.
Adrian picked one up, relieved to find it cool to the touch. He set it as gently as he could into the gun, careful to keep his fingers clear of the sides of the hatch.
He then slid the casing as far back into the gun as he could, until he was confident the shot was set firmly. Stepping back, one of the others set the latch closed, and Adrian called out,"gun's hot! Dremora, do we have our target?"
"Old tool-shed, eight hundred and uh..." Dremora replied, staring down the gun's sights. "Eight hundred and fourteen yards. Take us down, two degrees."
Adrian glared at her and said, "missed the briefing, remember?"
"Cinder and ash! Small wheel on your right, wind it clockwise. One full revolution for each degree!"
Adrian gripped a large metal wheel at the front of the base stand, and started spinning it slowly. He carefully left his thumb in one spot, to mark each full rotation. He noticed quickly that the bar had no markings to indicate the wheel's position.
"Is that where you want it?" Adrian asked Caitlin, as he reached into his pocket. Pulling out a small bit of loose thread, and tied it around one part of the wheel.
"That will do!" Caitlin exclaimed, her smile a twisted and frightening imitation of humour.
"Clear the gun!" Adrian shouted, as he and the others stepped behind the weapon.
The gun's roar nearly made his heart stop.
The blast rippled through his body like a boulder dropped into a puddle, forcing the air from his lungs and sound from his ears. For a long moment, as he staggered and sputtered, all Adrian could hear was a dull tone, as if some irritating child were playing a single note on a toy, endlessly.
"Hellfire's embers!" Adrian exclaimed, as his hearing began to return.
"How'd that feel?" Caitlin asked him.
Adrian had to consider for a moment, as his heartbeat slowed to a manageable mania. He was surprised at the answer he was able to give. "Superb," he admitted.
"See? I told you, you're a natural at this," Caitlin said, approvingly.
"And we hit our target, on our first try," Adrian remarked.
There was little left of the small shed they had been aiming at. The roof was visible, lying on the ground, but the walls had been scattered like shredded paper and littered the nearby area.
"As if I was going to miss," Caitlin smirked.
"Excellent shot, Miss Dremora," Varnell said, somehow having approached them unnoticed. "Except that last shot misfired, and you've been injured. Your next target is that old water pump station, just to the left of your last target. Start firing."
"Aye, ma'am," Keates replied immediately, as he twisted the latch and opened the Valkyrie. "Barrel's clear. Load round-shot."
Almost immediately, someone dropped another shot into the cannon. Adrian set the latch himself, closing the weapon. "Push forward near that front wheel, while I push backward from this one. We need to swing this gun."
"Aye," was all anyone said in response, as they threw themselves into pushing the heavy metal tube. It gave inches grudgingly, barely creeping out of its position even as Adrian felt his vision blur with the effort he was putting into shoving the massive gun.
"Heavy beast, isn't it?" Varnell asked. Adrian was panting hard, waiting for his vision to focus. One of his compatriots had even fallen to the ground.
"I think Golems scare me a little more than they ever did before, ma'am," one of Adrian's compatriots remarked. Eric Aelbon, Adrian remembered after a moment.
"Why is that?" Varnell asked.
"This gun is extraordinary. And it's barely enough to stop a Golem," Eric replied.
"You have a sensible perspective, recruit," Sergeant Varnell said, nodding approvingly. "The City's power has only ever been just enough to stop our enemy. We've never won handily. We've never had a victory that didn't cost hundreds of thousands of lives. Except the First, and then it was only because there weren't enough of us to kill in such numbers."
"Even for the Crafters?" Eric asked.
"Even for the Crafters. Their strongest members are capable of carving their way through a building the way you or I could carve our way through a piece of paper. I once ordered one to-" Varnell stopped suddenly.
"I'll tell you the story after you finish your training," Varnell said.
"Aye, ma'am," Adrian said, as he crouched down and stared at the sights.
"Up two degrees," Adrian said.
Eric wound the handle, titling the muzzle of the cannon up. "Two degrees up."
"Gun's hot. Stand clear!" Adrian ordered, as he took hold of a thick rope, and pulled to release the hammer.
The Valkyrie roared, hurling itself backwards nearly half the length of the gun. It rolled to a stop right in front of Adrian, who rested a foot on the frame as he watched the distance.
There was a puff of dirt kicked into the air well beyond the water-pump, with a ruined trench below it.
"You aimed too high, Keates," Dremora said, from behind him.
"Really? We didn't tilt the gun that much," Adrian replied.
"Valkyries loaded with round-shot can reach one and a quarter miles. Effective range is only three-quarters of a mile-"
"Dremora," Varnell cut her off, though the old soldier didn't seem upset. "I'm afraid you and Raeth are the only two people in this company who came to us with the math background for cannons. We'll happily teach anyone we think can make the cut, but today's exercise is to reinforce the idea that I expect any and every soldier in the City to be able to operate these guns."
"Aye, ma'am," Caitlin replied.
"Keep practising. I expect you all to be able to load or adjust these weapons in your sleep by the end of the day," Varnell said, as she marched away.
Adrian noticed, just as Varnell started marching, that someone was coming down the stairs. A soldier, judging by the uniform, but one wearing a light green band around her arm.
"Messenger," Caitlin said to him, pointing at the figure marching down the stairs. "The armband means military courier. Pretty sure the message announcing the Sixth had started wouldn't be green."
The messenger met Varnell at the bottom of the stairs, saluted crisply, and handed her a small piece of paper, before she turned and started jogging back up the stairs.
Varnell stopped for nearly a minute, reading the paper, before she started marching back towards the guns.
"Recruits! At attention! Open the hatches to your Valkyries now!"
Adrian immediately opened the hatch and left it open, before standing at attention and facing Sergeant Varnell.
"In a few days, you will be acting as the ceremonial guard for a small celebration that will be held nearby," Varnell announced. "The Bureau of Lands and Cultivation is celebrating the successful reintroduction of Coffee shrubs. As uneventful as many of you might find it, this represents another small victory against the Gloam, and a tribute to the legacy of the people who first collected the Seed Bank over four hundred years ago. You will all be fitted for parade uniforms, and will carry live weapons and ammunition in addition to your swords."
Varnell waited a moment for her words to sink in before continuing. "I expect you all to comport yourselves as the soldiers you aspire to be. This does mean you'll need to pack the ammunition up before the end of the day. The Valkyries can stay put, but I can't have this much ordinance left out in the rain."