Chapter CXXVIII – For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth.

11th of Winter 5859
In front of the Copperworks, Libertycave

“Okay, old man, what odd contraption do you have today?” A simple question, asked by an irritated maid café maid turned revolutionary catgirl wizard who was bothered by the fact that she had to walk out in the cold and wake up early today. She was standing in the middle of an empty field that had been cleared right outside of the copperworks, wondering what was so important there. There was a stick resting on a table, the “odd contraption”, which looked out of place in the otherwise empty space.

“Young lady, you are true that this is a contraption, but I assure you that this is not an odd one. Behold!” Brown handed the stick to Ayomide “A staff!”

“A…” Ayomide held the stick up. She swung it around, it was a normal stick, she flipped it around, it was still an ordinary stick, she stuck it into the ground, it kept being an unnoticeable stick “…stick. Old man, I thought we had advanced from needing to use these.”

“No, no, pay attention young lady.” Brown unstuck the stick from the ground. The part of the stick with a metal end, that had a concave hole carved into it, had been obscured by the snow. “Hand me the green crystal that you have, if you could.”

“Alright?” Ayomide took the magic green crystal out of her pocket. She carried it around – it proved occasionally useful both as a flashlight and a flashbang.

“Now…” Before accepting the crystal, Brown took an oddly-shaped knife out of his coat. The knife had no handle, though it had a metal ring welded to its bottom. He stuck this metal ring onto the flat metal part of the staff, twisted it around, and it fit like a glove. “First, the bayonet.” Then he took the crystal from Ayomide, and it too managed to fit on the concave hole that had been constructed specifically for it. He handed the newly magically-capable staff back to Ayomide “This was a little gift from the folks over at the copperworks. A staff, bayonet and all!”

“Oh, I’ll have to give my thanks to them.” Ayomide took the rod back, rested it on the ground, and smiled. Holding a crystal barehanded was a bit of a bother, as it had a tendency to slip out of her hand. She flicked her cape, rested one hand on her hip and held out the staff with an even bigger, and dumber, grin on her face.

“Young lady, what are you doing?” asked Brown, upon observing Ayomide trying to look cool.

“Fashion, old man. I am doing fashion. You wouldn’t understand it.” Ayomide straightened her cape and returned to acting normal “So, is there any other reason why I have been called to this field?”

“Yes, there was. The reason just hasn’t arrived yet. They’re a bit late…” Brown had been tapping his boots on the ground impatiently since Ayomide’s arrival. “Or we’re too early. Either way, let us wait.”

It took half an hour before another soul appeared before their eyes. It was Rabanowicz, accompanied by Watanabe who was carrying a weapon. Ayomide didn’t really know what it was, but she found it to look similar to John Brown’s otherworldly M1. “Excuse us, the people over at the printworks needed some help with their printing press.” Watanabe greeted Brown with a polite bow, almost dropping the weapon he was carrying.

“Is that… a replica of the rapid hand canon that the captain has?” Ayomide was amazed. Just being able to produce a few of these would be devastating!

“No Madame Ayomide, it is a simpler firearm. A musket. Believe me, I disassembled and looked through the M1 – it operates with very intricately-cut parts that’d take perhaps years for a craftsman to make, with a self-reloading mechanism that I couldn’t figure it out. I couldn’t even figure out those tiny little metal bullets: they contain a substance, an explosive which is not gunpowder, that I nor anyone else have any idea to make.” Rabanowicz sounded infatuated with the semi-automatic rifle, and she could go on about what little she had figured out for hours. However, there was other business for her to do. “Anyways, this musket is closer to the hand canons of this realm than the M1 of Brown’s realm. A simple thing, that you should be able to figure out.”

“So simple in fact, that we have a manual for it, illustrated by yours truly.” Watanabe handed a freshly-printed arms manual, a very thin one, to Ayomide. “That was our plan for today: to see whether this musket is suitable for mass use.”

“Hmm…” Ayomide quickly skimmed over the manual. There were a few illustrations in it, showing off how to operate the musket. She found the soldiers in the illustrations to be odd: they had really big eyes, she’d call it cartoonish if cartoons were a thing in Gemeinplatz, and odd proportions with very soft-looking cheeks. “Do we need this? We can train the men ourselves without the need for reading.”

“Or, young lady, consider that we could save time on training by giving such manuals to the men. We do need to act swiftly and efficiently if we want to get out of this mountain intact.” Brown took a few steps back to give Ayomide space. “Now, let’s see if you can figure this out.” He also handed her a flask of gunpowder and a few small balls made out of lead.

“I sure can.” Ayomide held the musket in one hand and the manual on the other. “First…” Ayomide rotated the cock halfway, which was essentially the safety for these flintlock weapons. Then she turned the gun around muzzle-up, poured a bit of the gunpowder down the muzzle, and then put a lead ball on it. She had to ram down the lead ball with a ramrod that was conveniently stored under the barrel of the flintlock. After few clicks, and clanks, and the lead ball was in. Finally, she had to turn the gun around again, to let it stay horizontally, and pour a bit of gunpowder into the flash pan. Ayomide turned around towards the onlookers “I think that’s ready to-”

Brown screamed “Young lady, don’t point a loaded gun towards anyone you don’t intend to shoot!”

“Ah, right, shouldn’t do that.” Ayomide pointed the gun instead towards an empty wall belonging to the copperworks. “Am I okay to fire?” She turned the cock further, until it made a click, upon seeing Brown nod. The next part was familiar to the few crossbows she had seen: push the trigger and-

BOOM!

Ayomide fell on to the ground from the unexpected recoil. “Crap, my arms…” There was a great cloud of smoke in front of her, and the wall of the copperworks had a new hole in it.

“Are you fine, young lady?” Brown held Ayomide’s hand and helped her get up “You’ll have to get used to it, and mind your manners while using them. These muskets kick back like a mad donkey.”

“They sound as loud as one too” added Ayomide, her ears ringing. “Ow.”

“Unfortunately, we can’t make gunpowder explode quietly. Unless…” Brown took a look at Ayomide and her staff. “…we don’t use gunpowder. Like the air canon, but smaller… an air gun, those were a thing. I’ve seen a few used for hunting back in the United States.”

Rabanowicz intervened “We don’t need anything special for Ayomide. A musket sans firing mechanism would work for her. Maybe with an extra chamber in the breech to hold a few bullets.”

“That’d be quite nice. Something rapid firing like the captain’s… to blow up slavers more efficiently.” Ayomide raised the musket and jolted it up several times as if she was firing it rapidly. “Like that.”

“That may be a bit more difficult, but I’ll try to figure something out. For now however, I need to assist the people over at the copperworks to make sure that they’re producing these muskets properly.”

With that, the four people in the flat field dispersed to do their own thing. Quietly, and efficiently, the Republic had entered the age of gunpowder warfare.