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When the materials arrived, Asad began pressing his soul into them. He could leave the actual firing of the mortars to the two lads in the bunker with him, though. If their position came under attack, it would be better if he was free to directly engage the enemy.

After the mortars and shells were infused, he tried to contact the targeting center over the radio, but there was only static now.

Someone had started jamming them. Some form of attack was probably going to arrive soon, then. That was useful information to know, which why he often liked to use the most vulnerable radio first.

Asad couldn't claim to be very technologically savvy himself, but he knew that his kin had recently developed several new types of jamming-resistant radios, all apparently using different techniques.

So when he opened the corner cabinet, he had a veritable buffet of devices to choose from. The first one he picked didn't work, either, but the second one did. Maybe Haqq would be able to explain precisely why that was, but all Asad cared about was getting through to observational support.

Sure enough, they already eyes in the sky for him, along with coordinates for the mortars.

Asad still remembered a time when mortars didn't have any kind computational assistance built into them, but he wasn't about to complain about things being better back then.

Before they could fire, however, he spotted a change among the group of vending machines.

A brightly lit sign rose of out of the sand at the center of them. In Valgan, it read: "DON'T SHOOT. COME HAVE A SNACK."

'...They can't possibly think that's actually going to work, can they?' said Qorvass privately.

Asad didn't even want to answer that. "Fire," he said.

And the first shell went flying.