LIGHTNOVELONLINE 221 Real Steel
Diana rubbed her temples as the ringing in her ears subsided. Donovan had mentioned the possibility of this happening, but she had mistakenly believed that he had taken the proper measures to avoid it and was only informing her as a formality. That was just the type of person he was when it came to her health and happiness, and it had ended up hurting her in this situation.
No, blaming him was the wrong thing for her to do here. If he had genuinely believed there to be a good possibility of this happening, he would have informed everyone of it. Donovan wasn't the best at presenting or talking to a group, but he had the bare minimum of courtesy to warn everyone of an incoming 'bang'. Diana could be confident that this was not part of the plan.
Diana pulled Titanyana into a hug, slowly rubbing her back and neck as she tried to recover. Titanyana's ears were vulnerable to sounds of such extreme magnitude, she was clearly in a great deal of pain because of it. Fortunately, if it that could be called the correct descriptor, there shouldn't be anything left in this presentation of Donovan's that she hadn't already learned from their little meeting. Chances were Titanyana would be interested in the specifics of damage dealt, but that information would be presented at a later date.
"Are you okay Titanyana?" Diana had a feeling that this little call of hers would fall on (literal) deaf ears, but it couldn't hurt to try. As expected, Titanyana was unresponsive. Diana moved her hands up to rub Titanyana behind the ears. It was unlikely that this would do anything to ward off the ringing or deafness she was experiencing, the goal was to calm her down. "Just calm down, it won't last long."
Permanent hearing damage wasn't out of the question, especially not when an analysis of Nekh biology had yet to be performed, but Diana didn't think that one incident would do too much to her. That sort of thing usually only happened under sustained or repeated loudness.
". . . we are going to have to invest into some ear protection for the little kitties, aren't we . . ." Diana couldn't help herself from referring to the Nekh in a cutesy manner. Their ears were just so endearing, any mention she made of them naturally devolved when she knew nobody could hear her. That didn't mean she wasn't speaking about a serious concern though. Neither she nor Donovan had really brought it up yet, but for all their similarities the Nekh did not have the exact same anatomy - the ears were just the most obvious.
If they were to be expected to work in an industrial environment, then the Nekh would absolutely be needing some form of ear protection. Unfortunately, Diana was not privy to any dedicated accessory that would protect a cat's ears as reliably as the variety of ear muffs available to humans. Much the same, helmets supplied to the Nekh would have to be different as well. With ears on the top of their head, what amounted to an elongated hollow hemisphere would be insufficient if they wanted to maintain the ability to hear. They would almost certainly require some form of hole or protrusion in the helmet in order to allow space for their delicate ears, some sort of hard mesh or fabric being along the front face to allow them to hear.
There was also the question of their tails. From what Diana had observed, Titanyana didn't strictly require a hole for her tail to push through whenever she sat down, but she did seem a little bit uncomfortable whenever there wasn't anywhere for it to go. Clothes would need to be tailored around it, elastic bands around the waist would most likely pinch against the base of the tail, and Donovan would definitely have to consider the safety of having an exposed tail when working around, say, chemicals. Diana trusted that the Nekh would grit their teeth and accept the discomfort of 'tucking in' their tails to some sort of protective clothing, but she would prefer to make them comfortable if at all possible. A happy people were more likely to maintain a favorable view of their leadership, small and generally inconsequential aspects like the safety and comfortability of supplied clothing factored into that.
There was another concern that had recently begun to brew inside of her mind though, one that started to form shortly after she had begun to soothe Titanyana.
Guns, more specifically ballistic weaponry, usually utilized a loud bang of sorts in order to operate. Those loud bangs could also damage hearing. Those loud bangs got better at damaging hearing the larger those weapons got.
How was Donovan going to go about an artillery corps?
She had to admit that she didn't know the most about that whole area of warfare, but she understood the big cannons to be an important part of the war Donovan wanted to wage. Gunpowder was cheap, cheaper than missiles, missiles that had been made to be off-limits to him anyways. Diana knew that Donovan had soured on the prospect of an early air force because of that, the logistics, training, and resource complications of an air force not able to make use of smart weapons. Apparently the use of precision artillery strikes and mechanized mobile infantry would provide a similar level of material efficiency until a sufficient amount of manpower and resources could be dedicated to the training of pilots and ground crew.
This meant that the Nekh would be exposed to the deafening roar of artillery, something which would most likely prove to be undesirable given how Titanyana had reacted.
Diana shook her head. That was a question for later, a question for Arc and Donovan to think about. She didn't know where to start, so she wouldn't try. What good would stressing out about something she couldn't fix do? Instead she turned her attention to something she could help with, namely performing damage control for this mess.
"Donovan?" First things first, call out to him and grab his attention. This gathering was, ultimately, his responsibility. It would reflect poorly upon the two of them if she got overly involved and took over the presentation. Well, maybe it wouldn't be bad, especially not if the alternative was a nightmare caused by Donovan's insufficiencies, but it would certainly stain his image.
Donovan tore his eyes from the Arboreal Maiden, his disposition softening as he did so, and gave Diana his undivided attention. He could hear her, he was listening. Hopefully everybody else would be deaf for a little bit longer.
"Maybe give them a few minutes to gather themselves, then we can inspect the damage to the plate before sending off the Jakobis." Diana didn't speak as loudly as she could have, depending on Donovan to read her lips for the most part. He nodded, probably having decided on something similar, before returning his attention to the tablet.
- - - - -
The Arboreal Maiden had closed her eyes almost immediately after the bang reached her ears. She wasn't harmed by the blast, perhaps her ears had rung for a few seconds but nothing more, but she wasn't in pain. Really, she wasn't closing her eyes because of anything Donovan had done, this whole mess was her fault. She didn't need to open her eyes to know Donovan was staring daggers at her, she could 'see' him just fine.
At this moment she was really wishing she had pieced together why Donovan and Arc had requested information about how far the atmosphere around the Great Csillacra went. She had presumed that they were looking to avoid getting too close and being subjected to drag or gravity. There really wasn't a good answer to that question, so she had responded with 'it depends'.
That answer wasn't necessarily wrong, the atmosphere absolutely did vary in difference from the branches. In fact it varied quite wildly. In some places it was as thin as ten meters, closer to the core it went out to a few kilometers. Here, the atmosphere and gravity extended out anywhere from 300 to 600 meters, but there was a reason they had asked the question. Donovan didn't care about the gravity, and he could not give a shit about the effects of drag on the projectiles even if he tried. The Pegasus was more than capable of counteracting those forces, it was designed to operate within the atmosphere and gravity of a planet.
Embarrassment was an emotion the Arboreal Maiden had not felt in an eternity, and here she was making a mental note to make a heartfelt apology for her lack of understanding. By all rights this debacle should have been avoided, she should have just given Donovan the answer to the question exactly as he had worded it. A failure to put together 'atmosphere' and 'colossal shotgun' had resulted in a situation where his audience had been needlessly subjected to a sizable concussive force.
Opening her eyes in the moments Diana tore his attention away, she prepared to make a wordless apology. Once his attention returned to her, she bowed ever so slightly. Now she needed to do something to make up for her fault, something to grant him an excuse and shift blame to herself. Someone could die on her watch, and so long as she accepted responsibility for the act the perpetrator would remain blameless. A little bit of noise would be no problem.
- - - - -
Donovan pressed the 'X' at the top right of the tab he had open, closing it. He then proceeded to stow away the tablet in his bag, he shouldn't be needing it for the foreseeable future. From now one, everything he needed to do could be handled by verbal commands to Arc through his watch.
"Ah, sorry again for that everyone." By now it seemed like the majority of the audience had recovered, meaning it was time for him to continue. "I tried to make sure that the Pegasus was far enough away to avoid that from happening, but obviously I was off in my calculations."
"Please do not lie to the crowd, Donovan." The Arboreal Maiden stepped up and made her way down, her words eliciting a few gasps from those less in control of themselves. "I failed to provide you with the information you requested. The fault lies with me."
Upon reaching the bottom, the Arboreal Maiden turned around and politely bowed to those attending, expressing her apologies. Once she had completed her bow, she tapped lightly on the surface of the branch with her stave. A wooden protrusion, a vine of sorts, extended from the ground. It wrapped around her stave before the end found rest under her palm.
". . . the atmosphere around the Great Csillacra in this region extends to a range of 323 meters, however it slowly extends this range to embrace objects within almost a kilometer on instinct. I apologize for not telling you this earlier."
". . . Apology accepted, I guess." Donovan sort of regretted adding that 'I guess' to the end of his sentence, but he was understandably still a little bit irritated at her. He was even more irritated now that he knew just how quickly that information could have been made available to him. "Let's go check out the damage to the plates and send our damage assessment crew on their way. I take it all of you can stand?"
The rising crowd told him the answer to his question was 'yes', though a few people were somewhat slow to do so. The most notable examples were the Montaug and Librarian, who seemed to struggle more on account of their age than anything else. Titanyana and Diana were also a bit lethargic to stand up, but given that they were so close together that was to be expected.
"Let's see some splash!"
THWACK
"Not the time for that, retard!"
Donovan rolled his eyes and sighed at the clown show that had started the moment he turned his back. Evidently, one of the Jakobi brothers had decided that the situation required levity.
"I-isn't this the time to see the splash though?"
Or maybe they were all just that stupid. Honestly, Donovan might have found their little display humorous had he not just exposed everyone to a blast with insufficient ear protection available to them. As Lebenstrum had said, now just wasn't the time.
Regardless of the intelligence level his entourage displayed, Donovan stepped around the upright plates and - "Yikes. . ." There was a sizable crater in the plate, the center being about knee height. A line of splintered bark had formed underneath it, the remains of the plate spalling, where fragments and particles of the face-hardened steel broke free due to the instantaneous unloading of stress around the area of initial impact. Indeed, while the rest of the plate appeared to be relatively smooth (if a bit warped in places from the shockwave), the area in the immediate vicinity of the crater appearing more along the lines of sandpaper.
"Oh my!"
"Wow."
"How scary. . ."
Several outbursts and remarks of concern came from those who rounded the corner, the sign that this was a wholly unexpected result to them.
". . . is that really sword's metal?" A voice of doubt made it's way to Donovan's ears, a voice that belonged to the Marshall. "It looks like, almost liquid? Perhaps it isn't real steel?"
Donovan caught the distinct sound of metal rubbing against leather, someone was taking their sword out of the scabbard. Donovan made no efforts to stop him. If he wanted to break his arm trying to prove his hypothesis that these were not, in fact, steel plates, that was his prerogative. He only hoped that nobody would be hurt if the blade snapped.
KRrk
"Mrrgh!" The unmistakable sound of a brittle blade snapping tickled Donovan's ears, followed shortly after by a grunt of pain and frustration from a disgruntled Marshall. Even if he had put his full power into it, Donovan was certain the outcome would have been the same.
"Idiot." It was all he could say in response to the Marshall's vain attempt at penetrating that armor. Donovan didn't necessarily mean to disparage the Marshall for it, he could sympathize with his curiosity, but jumping straight to attacking before consulting Donovan on it was just about the stupidest thing he could have done. "Did you honestly think you were going to pierce that? Even if it was just plain iron I doubt you would have gotten farther than that."
"Hmmm." Sheathing what little of his sword remained attached to the hilt, the Marshal flexed his hand a bit in order to stave off the pain. About five inches of his shattered sword remained impaled in the plate, an embarrassing show of his defeat in the face of the dense chunk of metal. His effort amounted to maybe an inch of penetration, impressive for sure, but not really worth the damage to his hand, sword, and pride. "I guess I was mistaken . . ."
