Chapter 3: The Plan
Once we're through the mud, things are a lot easier, but it's still only an hour and a half before dusk by the time we finally meet the others. Clairwil's the boss of this crew, and when we find him, he's cleaning his rifle, and doesn't bother to get up and help.
"You took your time," is all he says.
"You try dragging this thing through a swamp," says I. Rodin grunts in agreement, and that's that. We wheel the cannon into place, drink a bit of water, then gather round and go over the plan.
We need the cannon because there's a carriage due to come up here around sunset, which isn't too long from now. The carriages ferry supplies up to the hamlet – stuff like food, bandages, medicine. More importantly, though, they sometimes carry magical trinkets for a shop someone set up in the hamlet, and Rodin's "inside man" way south in the next town – whoever he is – told us this one's got something real nice, though he didn't specify what it was.
The problem is that they've started armouring the carriages these days. Maybe we knocked too many over, and they got wise. Not just that, but past year and a half or so they've started travelling with a whole crew of fortune-seekers hopin' to find jobs up at the hamlet – and those bastards are always spoiling for a fight. With Clairwil's boys, there's twenty of us now (well, seventeen, since the matchman and both loaders have to stay with the gun), so we can take 'em, but there's still the carriage to consider.
That's where the cannon comes in. A good cannonball will kill the horses and knock over the carriage, then you can hit 'em with grapeshot a few times before we go in to finish off any survivors. Easy as pie.
We got two issues, now.
First is that this cannon's too damn big for the job. A sixteen-pounder's deadly on a battlefield, and it's great for putting holes in buildings, but a direct hit from the heavy shot will punch right through the carriage and wreck all the valuables inside. I mean, it'd also punch through all the bastards inside and make a lovely gory mess, but there's no profit in that.
Second is that since we lost most of our ammunition in the swamp, we only have two solid shots. This means that our aim has to be bang-on, because if we miss both shots, that's it: the carriage gets away, and we're left with squat. It also means that because we lost all our grapeshot, we'll have at most one piece of solid shot to soften them up, and that assumes we don't miss the carriage first time. That means it'll be a much tougher fight.
Our plan for the first problem is to aim low, so the shot bounces off the ground a few times before it hits the horses. Cannonball uses up some of its energy that way, so it'll crush the horses and maybe the driver without obliterating the carriage. The trick is to angle it so it bounces off the ground without plowing right into the dirt and stopping, or bouncing so high it overshoots the carriage, but I assume the crew know what they're doing.
Second problem can't be helped: we'll just have to make sure we hit them. Once we stop the carriage, we'll fire our second round if we've still got it. Then Clairwil and the fusiliers will hang back and lay down some covering fire while everyone else charges in, with Guy in the van 'cause he's the toughest we've got.
"Right," says Rodin at last. "This is as good as it gets."
"Yeah," I nod. "Let's do this."