Chapter 341 - 334 — What the Blueprint Became

The first reports from the Alliance reached Lucien’s office before midnight.

He had already left standing orders with Cedric: anything transmitted through the new communication line was to be recorded, organized by subject and sent directly to him. Unless Venn specifically requested a conversation, there was no reason for Lucien to spend hours beside the communicator listening to officers reading reports across the shield.

By the time the first packet reached his desk, most of it concerned the Southwestern Army.

Maps showed the seventy-six miles already lost, the surviving defensive belt and the routes feeding the threatened junction. Separate sheets covered current strength, known demon concentrations and the reinforcements already moving toward the sector.

Lucien worked through those first. The figures were grim, but none surprised him anymore.

What caught his attention came later, buried inside the intelligence section.

He stopped halfway down one page, read it again, then slid it across the desk toward Cedric.

"What do you make of that?"

Cedric read in silence. His expression tightened before he reached the bottom.

"They are adapting the Warhound gun."

"That is how I read it."

The report had come from Alliance agents operating inside demon-held territory rather than from battlefield observers. Several months earlier, one of those agents had seen an unfamiliar cannon being tested near an demon forge supplying forces bound for Avarran.

At the time there had been too little information to identify it properly. The newer reports were much clearer.

The first weapon had apparently been crude, little more than a Warhound-pattern gun mounted on a reinforced carriage and fired from a reinforced carriage. It had not performed particularly well; one mounting cracked under repeated fire, while another damaged part of its recoil support after only a handful of shots.

The important part was that the failures had not ended the project.

The latest report described eleven unfinished artillery carriages inside the same area, along with several barrels matching the dimensions of the Warhound’s main gun. More importantly, the newer carriages no longer appeared improvised.

Their structure had been designed around the weapon.

Cedric placed the report back on the desk.

"They have moved past simply mounting a tank gun on wheels."

Lucien leaned back slightly. "Exactly. The first version was probably just an experiment using what they already knew how to build. Now they are designing a proper weapon around it."

That progression concerned him far more than the first test piece.

There was nothing mysterious about the idea itself. Once the demons had learned to manufacture the Warhound’s main gun, they already possessed most of the difficult components required for an artillery derivative: the barrel, breech, recoil system and standardized ammunition.

Removing the weapon from a turret only removed restrictions.

Cedric turned another page.

"The agents have not confirmed battlefield deployment."

"Not yet."

"But firing trials are continuing."

Lucien nodded. "And the number of incomplete carriages is increasing. That tells us someone intends to keep testing until the design works."

The report also noted that at least two workshops were now involved. One appeared to be assembling carriages, while another handled barrels and recoil components.

Cedric caught the implication immediately.

"Specialized production."

"Possibly. At minimum, they are no longer treating the project like a single workshop experiment."

That was the part Lucien disliked most.

An experimental cannon could fail repeatedly and disappear. Separate workshops producing different components suggested something more organized, especially when the demons had already shown that they could improve Warhound output from the original five machines a month to several times that rate.

Cedric studied the report again.

"If this works, they can probably build artillery faster than Warhounds."

"Yes."

A Warhound required an armored hull, engine, transmission, tracks, suspension and turret before its gun ever reached the battlefield. An artillery piece still required good metallurgy and reliable recoil equipment, but it removed several of the most complicated and expensive systems from the equation.

That did not mean hundreds of guns would suddenly appear next month. Demon production had grown gradually before, and Lucien saw no reason to assume this program would be different.

The danger was what happened if they solved it properly.

A few test guns could become batteries. Batteries could become regiments. More importantly, the same workshops learning to manufacture artillery from the Warhound’s gun were learning how to separate useful pieces of the stolen design and turn them into entirely new weapons.

Cedric rested both hands against the desk.

"You think they are beginning to understand the technology rather than simply reproduce it."

"I think we should assume they are trying."

That distinction mattered.

When the Veiled Church first stole the Warhound blueprints, the danger had seemed straightforward: the demons might reproduce the tank.

They had.

But the blueprint contained far more than instructions for assembling one armored vehicle. It contained an engine, transmission, suspension, gun, recoil mechanism, ammunition specifications, standardized fittings and manufacturing tolerances.

An intelligent enemy did not need a second stolen blueprint if it learned how to reuse the principles buried inside the first one.

Cedric looked toward him.

"Do you want Venn contacted?"

"Not personally."

Lucien pulled a blank sheet toward himself.

"Send questions through the communication staff. I want every report their agents have on this artillery project: when it was first observed, how many workshops are involved, whether any completed pieces have left the testing area, and whether they have seen ammunition stockpiles or transport movements associated with it."

Cedric began noting the requests.

"Anything else?"

"Yes. Ask for every piece of intelligence connected to industrial expansion around the Warhound program. New foundries, machine shops, ammunition plants, barrel works, anything that appeared after demon production began increasing."

Cedric looked up.

"You think artillery may only be the first derivative."

Lucien glanced back down at the report.

"I think assuming otherwise would be foolish."

The immediate situation on Avarran had not changed. The Southwestern Army still had perhaps twelve to eighteen days before its supply junction came under direct threat, hundreds of Warhounds were already fighting across the continent, and millions of demons were pressing against five enormous armies.

This report simply added another problem to the horizon.

He tapped the intelligence page once.

"Have this copied separately and included with the Southwestern packet."

Cedric gathered the completed reports.

"And the rest of what comes through?"

"Keep recording it and send the important sections here."

"If Venn asks for you?"

"Then call me."

Cedric left with the request sheet.

Lucien remained behind with the maps and the artillery report spread across his desk.

For several minutes, his attention stayed on the description of the unfinished cannon.

The Warhound blueprints had already cost Avarran dearly. What concerned him now was that the demons were no longer asking only how to copy the machine.

They were beginning to ask what else could be built from what they had learned.