BROCK
"Please!" The elf scout screamed.
"I don't understand why you're complaining," I said as I loaded him into the trebuchet, "I'm returning you to your army."
"Hold on to this tightly, Imperial, and don't release it too soon." Trenok grunted, tying the parachute straps to the terrified man's wrists.
"It won't work!" He cried.
I knelt to his level, and put a compassionate hand on his shoulder. "Progress is made by silencing doubters, little imperial. All great scientists of our time were once called lunatics for their ideas."
"
Great scientists?
" Trenok laughed, "What calculations did you make?"
"You don't need any of that math bullshit if you just believe in yourself."
"Inspirational. Will they carve that quote into the atrium of the library they name after you?"
"Being a smartass just means you have shit for brains, Trenok." I grunted, and began cranking back the lever.
The elf scout closed his eyes tightly, and began to pray.
"God won't help you, son." I said, eyeballing the trajectory with my thumb, "We're in a new age of enlightenment. Put your faith in physics, because air resistance is your only savior now. Ready?"
And before he could answer, I stepped on the release, and his scream whistled out of earshot as he flew through the air. He became little more than a dot in the sky, then his parachute opened, and he splattered against the cliffside.
"Damn," I grumbled as the lifeless figure tumbled to the earth, "I really thought it would work."
"Wait, you did?"
"That was just the first experiment." I worked my jaw contemplatively, "Maybe he was too light. If we tie three elves together, that would be about the weight of one orc, right?"
"The queen could just lift an orc up there with her mind."
"As powerful as she is, her capacity is still limited. Besides, we can't be reliant on magic to solve all our problems." I cranked back the trebuchet carriage, and the ogre behind us loaded a boulder into it. I kicked the release, and the great engine flung the boulder end-over-end across the field, over the rift, and smashed into a ballista atop Mid Fort. There was a boom, an explosion of wood and metal, and the flailing bodies of imperials cascading from the top. A cheer arose from our ranks, and the line of siege engines released their salvo all at once.
Scores of boulders and flaming missiles arced through the air. Some exploded against the cliffside, some sailed clean over the top, but a few met their mark, smashing into the walls and battlements of Mid Fort, sending debris into the air. No more than a minute later, the Highlanders answered. Great rocks and ballista spears rose from the top of the cliff, then suspended in the air for a moment before hurtling down. I braced myself against the trebuchet, and gritted my teeth, waiting, waiting, waiting. Then, there was thunder on earth. The trebuchet beside me exploded backward, the great beams tossed into the air like discarded driftwood, toppling with the broken bodies of ogres and orcs. A boulder smashed into the space next to me, the impact hurling me to my back, leaving a crater five-feet deep in the permafrost of the tundra. At the bottom of it, the red goo of what had been my loading ogre was splattered all over the crater walls.
The ground shook with impacts for ten more seconds, then all was silent. I glanced over at Trenok, who was standing nonchalantly beside the hole where our ogre had been.
"Do you think that's enough for this morning?" I asked him.
"I'm done if you are."
"Let's see what the old man thinks." I reached to my side, and pulled out Yavara's mirror. I tapped it once, and Field Marshal Shordian's face appeared.
"Brock, you're still alive." He grumbled, looking disappointed.
"Did you enjoy the wakeup call, Field Marshal? Or did you not have your hearing-aids in?"
"I pass kidney stones bigger than the rocks you're throwing at me."
Trenok laughed at that. "Why can't all Highlanders be like you, Shordian? The ones we get are always pissing themselves."
"They're also not very aerodynamic." I chuckled.
Shordian grunted. It might've been a laugh. "Where's your queen? She's usually there to play catch."
"Your engineers are so bad at ranging your weapons that she decided her talents were better used elsewhere."