Discovery: Adjustments

“Jarvis, order the teams to cease firing,” Cecile said, poking into the crow’s nest.

After the dragon’s neck and wing vaporized, Jarvis shoved his gun at his teammate and rushed to Cecile, catching her by the shoulders. “We can’t stop using these weapons.”

Cecile ripped Jarvis’s hands from her and thumped his chest. “If you keep them running at this rate, the upgrades won’t matter. They’ll blow up.”

The closest gunner’s hands slipped from the cannon’s grips as he backed away. “What did you say?!”

“Keep those dragons off the wall!” Jarvis spun around and lowered his voice. “I thought your upgrades fixed that problem.”

“This kind of continual fire wasn’t part of my design.” She planted her hands on her hips before gripping the collar of his shirt and forcing him to look at the cannons. “Stop overusing these guns!”

Jarvis pinched his nose as he shook his head. “What are the odds they’ll detonate?”

“You want to risk blowing the cannons up?!”

Jarvis steered the engineer against the doorframe and pitched his voice so only she could understand him. “We’re dealing with about a dozen dragons ferrying minotaurs and trolls over the walls. Our regular rifles can’t harm those beasts. Those odds matter.”

Cecile kneaded her forehead and groaned. “With this kind of load, the odds of catastrophic failure rise to somewhere between ten and fifteen percent.”

“Can we keep them from exploding?”

Her shoulders fell as her back hit the doorframe. “Before the cannons blow up, they will start whining. As soon as you hear the whine, fire one controlled shot to bleed off the charge, then turn it off.”

“That’ll prevent the weapon from detonating?”

“No, but it’s the best chance to keep them intact.”

“Be an extra set of ears,” Jarvis said as he urged her inside the crow’s nest. As she stumbled into the chamber, he pulled out a radio. “Fenton, how are the walls?”

“The cannons are the only reason the worst hasn’t reached us.”

Wincing, Jarvis tapped the device against the doorjamb. “Stop beating around the bush and spill!”

“Those monsters never run out of corpses to throw at us. The moment we kill one, three more climb over the bodies.”

“Roger that,” Jarvis said, kicking the wall. “Keep doing your job, and I’ll see about thinning the horde.” Jarvis shoved the radio into his belt. He marched across the room and spun Cecile away from the gunners. “How difficult will it be to adjust the cannons?”

“That depends,” Cecile said as her eyes flicked toward the nearest cannon...