A Slice of Destral

• 24 September 2025

A collection of Legerian short stories taking place in Destral.

This Damn Job #

By Michael Daffern

“I hate to say it, but I think we’re torqued” groans the foreman, sighing and looking up the snapped wires. The warehouse’s overhead crane looms dangerously. The last lift failed catastrophically, causing the lines to snap and the crane to derail; now perched precariously.

“I’ve run the numbers,” the engineer beside him ponders out loud, rubbing his chin while staring off into the middle distance. “I think the crane’s safe where it is. But it’ll take about 6 weeks to get it back online”. He raises his eyes to the unfinished project in front of them. Scaffolding surrounds the 20-foot hard-light accelerator, perched atop a rough recoil-frame. “We can’t take that kind of schedule hit”.

“Not when the desert’s getting more chaotic every spark’n day, and the founders’ breathing down our necks, we can’t!” The foreman rubs his forearm in frustration and paces around the warehouse. He scowls at rows of pallets, laden with tonnes of steel gears, shafts, and pipework. “I think we need to pound on the door of the Lancer Guild and hire some Elementalists. Someone specializing in wind. Or magnets - do they do magnets?”

“Ferromancy,” The engineer mumbles, scanning over his booklet of drawings. “I don’t think I’ll get funding for it. The director at the Institute for Technological Elementalism holds a grudge against casters. I think that’s what drives him. He’ll tell me the propulsion team’s two weeks out from jet-powered skids, but they’ve been two weeks out all year”. He taps his steel-toed dress shoes against a 3ft diameter steel ring, knowing it needs to go 35ft in the air tomorrow, and sighs.

“Blasted bearings, boy! We all have our gripes, but he can’t let that get in the way of this schedule if we ever want the Gun Guard project off the ground. Tomorrow I’m going over to the guild. Looking for magnet-mages or whatever. You better secure funding before they’re on the job site”.

The engineer sighs, nods, and the two leave the warehouse for the night.