Chapter 167: Mortars Prepared
The village was little more than ruins at this point, but it had been made of stone buildings, so there were at least walls to keep the wind down as the soldiers found places to sleep.
It was early, which allowed Dominic a few hours to get some work done.
He had a wooden post the size of the grenades, and large blocks of clay in his storage cube. If he pressed the clay over the post, then added a pair of support legs and a baseplate before activating [Clay to Copper] he could make the launching tubes in a matter of minutes.
The outsides weren’t pretty, and the thickness wasn’t perfectly uniform. But they weren’t as high-pressure of a barrel as the rifles were, just an aiming tube for the mortar grenades.
He assembled twenty of them for the evening, and then went looking for Commander Dax.
"I have mortar tubes and grenades for the team. I haven’t tested the orb that made the grenades yet, but they should work. Don’t mind the outside, the inside of the tubes is perfectly smooth."
The Commander chuckled, then examined the mortar launcher.
"That should be good enough, and the finger holds on the tube will make it easier to carry, even if they weren’t intentional. I don’t want to test it tonight, but if we find an enemy tomorrow, we will test them quickly during the battle.
If they work, we can deploy more of them.
There are more of them, aren’t there? Twenty mortar launchers is pretty good, but the enemy is already in rifle range when we can start using them. So, they’re best for a surprise explosive wake-up, followed by a rifle barrage."