“Cut this one down!” shouted Istung. The large tree fell and was sawed to a length of one hundred feet, then placed into a large steel machine with adjustable steel rings through which the tree was placed. The rings were placed about two feet apart from one another, the diameter of which could be decreased to as little as one foot or as much as twenty feet. The rings were held together by about five long pieces of steel, and they all rested on top of a large steel block over a hundred feet long.
Once the tree was inside, the rings were tightened snugly against it. At the end of each side of the long contraption were lids that came down onto each end of the tree. The lids had sharp blades protruding from them and were hammered into the ends of the tree. On the outer surface of the lids were large grooves into which an enormous screw was inserted, and the screw was attached to a gigantic wheel. Three of the strongest Moscorians went to each wheel and begin turning the tree. As they did this the bark was peeled off the tree neatly and evenly, just like an orange, by a series of razor-sharp blades attached to the steel poles covering the length of the tree. Once the bar was removed, the steel rings towards one of the ends of the tree were made tighter and tighter causing the diameter of the tree to become smaller and smaller, eventually coming to a point and looking like a sharpened spear.
At this point, Istung and nine other Moscorians carrying a long steel spike approached the pointed end of the tree and held the spike towards it. Kihlgun, the strongest of the Moscorians, approached the end of the spike and began pounding away at it with all of his might. The end he pounded on had a flat surface shaped like the end of a nail, about four feet in diameter. The length of the spike was doused with Plethor, a powerful lubricant. After about thirty minutes of pounding, cursing, and sweating, Kihlgun succeeded in driving the sixty-foot spike almost all the way into the tree. Now came the hardest part—although it was made easier by the Plethor—and that was pulling the spike out. Kihlgun stopped to rest for a moment. Once rejuvenated, he began pounding the opposite way on the end of the spike, thus taking it out of the tree one swing at a time. About twenty minutes later it had been removed. What was left was a six-inch-wide, sixty-foot-long, hollow shaft piercing the tree’s interior.
Kihlgun brought forward a large barrel of pheorite, a highly explosive substance, and Istung picked up the tool he was going to use to insert the pheorite. It was a long steel rod, much like the one that had been used to create the hollow shaft, but its diameter was less than half that of the hollow shaft. They poured the pheorite inside the shaft and then inserted the shaft inside the tree. The rod’s exterior was solid, but upon being violently shaken, small steel flaps moved aside across its entire length creating small openings through which the pheorite poured out inside the tree. Next, Istung proceeded to take small rocks and shove them inside the tree.
Next they hollowed out a portion near the base of the tree, leaving a large opening into which a heavy weight could be place. The Moscorians then spent several hours sanding the tree until it was smooth all the way around. The missile was now ready. All the Moscorians needed now was to make hundreds more of these and create the mechanism to launch them.
The first thing the Moscorians and Vechengschaft did was dig large shafts in the ground. These shafts were completely circular, and their diameter was nearly the same as that of the missiles themselves, but were just enough larger that the missiles could fit inside easily. Since the shafts were completely stationary and couldn’t be adjusted, Tristan knew they had to be careful to make the correct number of shafts at the correct angles. Tristan wanted three angles so that he could make the missiles land behind the enemy, onto the enemy, and in front of the enemy.
The mechanical principle behind generating the force to launch these wooden, pheorite-stuffed missiles into the air involved elasticity, the introduction of a very heavy weight, and then the sudden removal thereof. Across the opening of these deep shafts that had been dug into the earth was stretched a strip of Achenpulp. It covered the entire surface of the opening of the hollowed-out shaft, which was fitted with smooth steel. Prior to being inserted, the tree would be rubbed with the lubricant Plethor. As a result, its descent into, and subsequent ejection from, the smooth steel shaft would be nearly frictionless. Protruding from each steel shaft was a half circle of smooth steel onto which each missile would await being launched. The Achenpulp below the tree was thick enough that the weight of the tree itself was insufficient to cause the Achenpulp to bend.
This was where the temporary introduction of an extremely heavy weight came into play. The bottom of the tree was hollowed out for a specific purpose, holding a very large weight. Into this open, hollowed-out pocket at the base of the tree, five soldiers would push a two-thousand-pound, solid-steel ball. This sudden, unbearable increase in weight would cause the Achenpulp to stretch, and as it did so, the tree would then quickly descend down into the shaft, which was hundreds of feet deep.
At the very bottom of the shaft there was an opening to a tunnel the ball would roll roll into. It would roll through the tunnel and then exit at the bottom of the hill. This instantaneous loss of thousands of pounds of weight would allow the Achenpulp to stretch back to its original shape and position. As it did so, it would bring the wooden missile with it, and when the tree exited the Plethor-lubricated shaft, it would be traveling at several hundred miles per hour. It could also be coated with naphtha so that when the pheorite exploded upon impact, not only would the shrapnel go flying everywhere, the naphtha would ignite and spread fire.
Tristan demanded the Moscorians and Vechengschaft work quickly to construct the launch pads.