CHAPTER 116: AERIAL SUPERIORITY

"The first concern is whether the two Airships that we outfitted last night will be enough to hold the line and prevent the city from being bombed. Military intelligence suggests that they intend to fly over the city and drop explosives on us." Princess Alexis continued.

It wasn’t a bad plan, Dominic had to admit.

He had been planning to do the same thing to them.

"There are ten more airships on the way here to be retrofitted. They have the cannons and a magician on crew, they just need the Magitech Orbs. Advisor Dominic, I will ask that you prepare for that.

Colonel Wilkes, I need you to oversee the Wall Defence efforts, in coordination with Commander Dax and General Merlot of the Natural Sons.

I will be in meetings with Marquis Burton all morning, in the command room on the top floor of the Keep. When you need me, come directly there.

Both of you will have one guard assigned to shadow you for safety, no questioning that decision, and no sending them on errands."

Dominic smiled at her insistence. That reprimand was certainly not for him, but for Colonel Wilkes, who oversaw the Princess’ Personal Guard. He did not look happy about it, but it was better to move in pairs when you needed things done, and there were seven more members of the Royal Guard assigned to Princess Alexis and her safety.

"Did we get all the answers we need out of yesterday’s captured assassin? Or has that been postponed given recent events?" Dominic asked.

"We got all that we need. He is being held beneath the Keep for the moment. Now, we all need to be off. Marquis Burton isn’t a military man, and he needs assistance."

Dominic and Colonel Wilkes nodded, then exited the room with a Guard right behind them.

Dominic found the majority of the Techno Wizards just where he expected, sitting in a room beside the guest dorms at the airship docks.

"Gentlemen, on Royal Orders, we have work to do. There are ten more airships coming in, all equipped to match the two currently in the air. All they’re missing is the Magitech Orb and a Techno Wizard to show their magician how to use it properly.

Ten new airships is our minimum for the day, That’s one new Orb created by each of the experts here. If we can make more before they arrive, that’s even better, and they can be handed off along with the duty to operate them to the next airship wing to arrive after this one." Dominic explained.

The group of eccentric magic users all laughed and lifted various optical devices and magical goggles from their faces.

"We are way ahead of you, Advisor. We’ve got twenty of them made already. Twenty-four if you count the four extras that went up with the men in the defence ships.

We thought that it might be good for every magic user to have one, just in case of injury or damage.

If you’re going to make an extra, now is the time. We will try to make another batch before the airships arrive, just in case we can get a third mage on board to increase our firing rate if we get surrounded." One of the Techno Wizards, a man with shockingly green eyes, explained.

"Well, that makes my life easier. I will stay here while we make one more round of Magitech Orbs, and then I will return to the Marquis and the Princess to update them on your progress."

The green-eyed magic user laughed. "Let me ask you something, if you can answer honestly, Advisor. Who was it that requested you have us make more Magitech Orbs than we need? The Princess, or the Marquis?"

Dominic shrugged. "Princess Alexis. I don’t believe that she has conferred with the Marquis yet this morning, but I wasn’t privy to any meetings they might have had later last night."

The Techno Wizards all laughed, as did the Royal Guard assigned to Dominic.

"I take it there were no meetings?" Dominic asked.

"Marquis Burton retreated to his safe room with his wife for the evening just before the sun went down." The Royal Guard clarified.

The Techno Wizards had to try not to laugh. It was standard procedure, as there had been an assassination attempt earlier in the day, but it was the Ranking Noble who should have been moved to the safe room.

That would be the Princess, not the Marquis and his wife. Dominic knew that much from his crash course in etiquette.

That course was becoming much more relevant by the day, he noticed. It had seemed like such an esoteric training course at the time, but now, he couldn’t even rule out someone actually challenging the Princess to a formal Duel.

His mind was distracted as Dominic sat down to start work on another Magitech Orb of Self Loading Cannon Rounds, as the Techno Wizards were calling it. But everyone was doing the same thing, working from the same pattern, and it built a sense of familiarity and camaraderie among the small group of magic users.

They were most of the way finished when the sound of approaching airships had the ground crews running about, preparing to resupply the new arrivals.

The platforms were meant for a maximum of four airships at a time, so either they had to get the Techno Wizards and supplies on board quickly, so they could cycle them through, or find a way to platoon the airships together to pass supplies to the far end.

Storage Devices had limited capacities, and the airships needed to carry large supplies of shelf-stable food and water, plus repair supplies, fuel for the propellors, and anything else they were short on.

"The first to finish are the first to head out. Leave your last creation here with me and I will pass them to the next group along with instructions." Dominic ordered.

"Of course, Advisor. No offence, but when things start to get hairy, we’d all rather be on an airship than in the city under siege." The green-eyed man joked.

"At least that way, there will only be one or two people shooting cannons at you at a time, and not an entire Mechanized Field Army." Dominic replied, getting a dark chuckle from the others as they finished their work.