With the Dagos ships knocked out of the sky, their soldiers were preparing to deploy the moment that they reached the ground. But that was what the Natural Sons were here for.
The Royal Guard standing near Dominic watched as the crystal he carried pulsed a dozen times in a pattern of short and long flashes, and then nodded in satisfaction.
"The Princess is headed to the south wall and requests that we meet her there.
The airships are in flight now, and they’ve proven that they are combat effective, so we will be heading to oversee the Regiment and the south wall’s defence team." He explained.
Dominic jogged along beside him as they made their way down the elevated roadways toward the battle. Everything in town had been shut down, there were no vehicles or pedestrians on the road, only men in local police and guard uniforms running in various directions, headed to their duty stations as everyone was called to action.
A few minutes later, they were watching the Princess get out of an ornate car, which must have escorted her to the edge of the city.
The whole Natural Sons’ Regiment was there, along with a few dozen local guards who were assigned to the crossbow emplacements along the city’s defences.
"Does the city have cannons?" Dominic asked.
"They’re being wheeled out now. They are kept in the towers under guard to prevent tampering and weather damage." One of the city guards informed him.
Dominic sighed. They were supposed to be in a state of readiness for an impending battle, not spending fifteen minutes rolling out cannons down the wall.
"Range to the downed airship is eight one zero metres." Dax, the Regiment’s executive officer, shouted.
The Nobles adjusted the slide on their rifle sights, and began to fire as the soldiers who had survived the early volleys departed the downed and burning airship, looking for cover.
There wasn’t much to be found, but from eight hundred metres, the accuracy of the riflemen was mediocre, and the majority of the shots were metres off target. Even with a rifled barrel and predictable construction, the wind and reduced projectile velocity at such an extended distance made it difficult to precisely aim.
Hitting stationary targets like the ship was easy. Hitting individual soldiers on the run was not.
"Where are the Cannons?" Dominic shouted as the Dagos soldiers began to regroup behind a hedgerow in the distance.
"Advisor, the first cannons are out, but the munitions carts won’t be here until all the Cannons are in position." One of the soldiers pleaded.
"Get crews on the closest cannons. I will load them. Range is seven five zero metres, aim for the hedges." Dominic instructed.
The cannons were on wooden chassis, with a single screw adjustment at the back. But the crew rapidly got them pulled in position and adjusted, so Dominic could use the Magitech Orb to load them.
He gestured to the closest four cannons, which he had loaded, and gave the order.
Smoke filled the air as the cannons fired, and a set of explosions threw dirt in the air in the fields near the hedges while the crews swabbed the barrels and pulled the cannons back into position.
Now, there were eight cannons along this section of wall in place, so Dominic loaded them all and gestured to the crews, so they knew they were included.
Again, explosions tore up the fields, but this time one hit the hedges, and halted the approach of the soldiers who had been headed for that location.
Princess Alexis came to stand beside Dominic as he reloaded the cannons and let the wall Commander give the orders.
"The next two airships are coming down near the same location. It looks like they’re planning to regroup." She explained.
Dominic nodded. "The Natural Sons are doing well, and now that the city finally has their cannons in place, they should not have any problems keeping the enemy out of siege range."
"Three airships will not be all of it. It’s all but guaranteed that they will have sent dozens for an attack on a major city.
But our airship Captains report no more Dagos vessels on the horizon. If we drive the enemy back to their ships, it will force the reinforcements to start from much further away than they had planned." Princess Alexis informed him.
Dominic took out his map of the area and traced the lines of the topography with his finger.
"The intercepted and downed airships landed on the south side of the city, but it should be safe to assume that the army will be arriving either from the north or the northwest. They were last reported at Staptontave, and we don’t have a location update after that."
Princess Alexis sighed. That was six hundred kilometres northwest. Even for the finest of off-road vehicles, it was a hard day’s drive. If they were coming down the road, they would have already encountered the standing army, under the command of one of the Princes, who were ordered to hold the river crossing and the road to Castle City, which was a much closer target than Burton.
"Commander, they’re digging in. They’ve got foxholes dug in the back of the hedges. Shall we continue to fire?" One of the artillery observers asked.
"As long as the Advisor continues to load your cannons, you continue to fire. If we can’t make them bugger off, we can sure as Sunday make them wish they had." The Commander ordered.
Dominic chuckled softly as he reloaded the whole wall worth of cannons. It was only twelve cannons, but the end emplacements were hundreds of metres away.
The city hadn’t been upgraded as a defensible fortress in quite some time, and it was intended to rely mostly on archers and crossbowmen to hold the wall, not cannon fire.
"How long can you keep that up?" Princess Alexis asked Dominic as he raised his hand again to signal that the cannons were loaded.
"Probably another hour. By then, all the defenders on this shift should have arrived, and the cannons will have their full supply of shot and powder in place for the next charge."
The Princess patted him on the shoulder. "Don’t work yourself too hard. You’re a Royal Strategy Advisor, not an artillery officer."