Free The March North by Graydon Saunders Page B

see the ward-edgefine.
    Misty bits of map come into the standard, even Rust has trouble drawing with smoke, but lots of volume, probably the whole of the valley above the wall.
    The road goes from done to not done about two kilometres in front of the wall. There’s a messy pile of tools and wheelbarrows on the edge of the hard surface, like someone was trying for a barricade before they grew a brain. Below that isa mess; dirt, gravel, rocks, no obvious pattern or shape. It looks like they’re digging out the roadbed with shovels, which can’t be efficient. Not that fire-priests are good for building. If the big ward isn’t clever enough to let their stuff out, they might be out here because they figure they can take us.
    Or Rust; I wouldn’t want to get stuck behind a ward while giving Rust as long as neededto figure out how to break it.
    Being on this side isn’t a hugely better option for them.
    The road’s obviously connected to the wards, so we stay off it. Just because it’s not lit up now doesn’t mean they can’t. We do march up until we’re about even with the finished end, staying high on the valley while we do it. Grass, but no trees; this is probably not a very stable slope, and I’m worried aboutkeeping anchors into our footing the whole way.
    Captain, Battery.
    Battery, Captain
. Blossom sounds calm in drills. This has a lot of cheerful over the calm.
    Set up. Pretend your tubes are five-layer if that works. If it doesn’t work, don’t walk up the stairs, go straight to nine. Targets are the fire-priests. If you get trouble from the wall, switch two tubes to it. Notice before firing.
    Agreementcomes back from Blossom and the Master Gunner, bright and solid.
    Two, Four
    Captain
, twice, and you can tell it’s Radish and Hector. Don’t ask me how, but you can.
    Get to
 — that bit, there — 
and do a short wall and a ditch. Careful with digging. Give the artillery as much slope as you can.
Because once anybody’s inside artillery range they’re completely your problem.
    The lead platoons just startmoving; there’s a faint thread of acknowledgment but what I really get is flying dirt. I can get Twitch to talk to them about that if any of us live through this.
    One
.
    Captain
. Toby’s dead level best not to sound worried. Going up against six or seven companies worth of guys is
supposed
to be worrying, even when you’re pretty sure they have no equivalent to the standard. They’ve got
something
. It might just be craziness, but something.
    You’re local reserve on Two and Four; you don’t let them get flanked and you don’t let anybody get between the artillery and them. Dig how you like but don’t make it harder to pull back on the tubes for you
or
for Two and Four.
    Sir.
Very thoughtful, from Toby. Good. That’s not an easy job.
    Sergeant-Major
.
    Captain
. Twitch isn’t twitching at all now.
    You’re in command of the forward position.
Position
is a little strong, but the language insists you’re doing it right even when you’re trying to bail a swamp with a teaspoon.
    Sir
from Twitch, and fainter
sirs
from Hector and Radish and Toby.
    Just to Twitch,
Fall back on the artillery as required to avoid being overrun. The longer you can hold out there, the more time the artillery’s got.
    Gotcha
. Twitch is positively laconic; there’s a lot of people about to demonstrate murderous intent towards us all. Not quite as calming as going for Twitch specifically, but I suppose Twitch is confident that will happen in time.
    Battery, Captain. Battery ready.
    Captain, Battery. Range your targets.
    SHOOT!
Definitely happy over the calm. Whole battery, not just Blossom.
    The first shot is a fling, atfive; as much as a normal artillery tube can do for sustained fire. It makes some pretty lights. Doesn’t look like the fire-priests had to work for it, but they do get the two closest blocks of troops moving at us. Two and Four’s digging goes from brisk to downright hasty.
    Under the