Chương 128: Chapter 127 – Avenging Angels

Another automaton gunner tried to climb through the window, but Therza caved in its torso with a golf-swing of her hammer. Shots from outside began to pepper the façade. Roxy got her shield between Therza and the window as slugs started to clang off the metal plate.

"Go!" she shouted up. Cole led up the stairs, rifle at the ready in case there were any surprises lurking on the upper floors. He circled around the open staircase with Howie and Therza close behind. At the top of the second floor, part of the third floor had caved in, leaving a section of the hall open to the elements. Cole scrabbled up over the rubble onto the rooftop where clockwork Elliot was already hovering." I see the dreadnaught. Its signal is getting stronger."

Therza walked to the edge of the platform, dropping down so as to not present a silhouette to the bots on the beach. Cole joined her. About five hundred meters west of their position, the terrain dropped sharply. Highways extended a bit further but created ramps out into the water that the automaton naval transports were using to disgorge loads of Hextant's mindless soldiers. They all glowed with the quickening signal from the dreadnaught's core.

Beyond, far offshore, the dreadnaught launched more boats and more of the multi-engine air transports. The city's defenders had a lot of guns focused on the roads ramping down into the water, cutting down bots by the dozen while others fought at the front line in a brutal melee with shields and spears, swords, or short guns. But the automatons were gaining ground and it looked like an endless stream of fresh tin coming from the massive automaton ship.

Spellcasters threw everything from lightning bolts to shearing discs of energy at the transports, disabling as many as they could before they could make landfall.

"Jeez, there's no end to 'em," said Howie. Therza looked out in despair.

"This is a disaster," she said.

"This city is going to be nothing but tin by sunset. What can your world even do against something like that?" Even with the majority of the city's disparate factions banding together, this would be a devastating and protracted battle against an unrelenting enemy. LouixCorp had provoked Hextant by bringing Elliot over to challenge its control of the Lewis Field, and even if they defeated this dreadnaught, there would be another. And another after that. But for now, they had one dreadnaught.

You dealt with the problem you could see, and then you moved on to the next.

"Are we close enough to paint that thing?" asked Cole.

"Should be," said Alexa." There's too much vibration like this,"Elliot said." I gotta land." The clockwork drone set down on the roof and reconfigured, folding in on itself until it returned to the vaguely dog-like quadruped form. This time it had a piece extending from its back with the aperture of a military laser. Alexa shook her head.

"This was part of a tech upgrade evolution for Archie that I took for the radio equipment. I never thought I'd end up using the laser designator off-world. Hold on, this is going to take a charge." In true LF armament fashion, the laser wasn't an invisible infrared beam. It was a red, glowing death-star laser visible to the naked eye, yet somehow not burning out their retinas. It lanced out of the clockwork familiar with visible recoil that, even with Cole's C in physics, he knew it shouldn't possess.

The beam shot up into the sky for miles. Elliot dug the familiar's feet in and forced the beam down. It fought him, but he got it centered on the dreadnaught, drawing a straight line to the automaton warship. Stolen novel; please report." Someone's trying to call you, Cole," said Elliot, speaking with apparent effort as he kept the beam focused. His voicebox crackled again, this time with Chief Dabir's voice." Airborne, River-1, you up? We just saw the mother of all lasers hit that ship."

"River-1, this is Airborne, that's us. We've got Werner ready for extract."" Good copy, heading to your position for precious cargo pickup." Cole looked out to the south. He couldn't see the riverboats yet, but they'd be on their way.

"You got comms with Hamilton, tell 'em to send the package," said Cole. A bright flash over the water far to the south sent two rings of lightning arcing through the clouds.

"Wow!" shouted Howie.

"Da' fuck was that? You see that?"" I think they already got you lima charlie, Airborne. Uncle Sam's avenging angels en route." Cole squinted at the lightning rings. Then his eyes widened.

"I don't fucking believe it…" Cole pointed at the dreadnaught where the distant laser was starting to lose focus.

"Elliot, keep that laser on target as long as you can," he said, squinting at the bottom of the cloud deck." You got it," said Elliot. The clockwork body shifted, parts of its mass traveling down the legs to form spikes that shot into the ruined rooftop, further anchoring it. The thunderclap from the lightning reached them, vibrating the rubble on the roof. Then a dull roar began to mount behind it. Cole rested his rifle on the edge of the roof and willed his gun for magnification.

He peered through the row of magnifying membranes until he spotted a pair of dark flecks moving against the underside of the cloud deck. Aboard the dreadnaught, dozens of gun positions opened up, spitting heavy fire and flak up into the sky.

"Cole, what is it?" asked Therza.

"What are they shooting at?"

"Like he said," said Cole, grinning.

"Angels."

"Wait, that wasn't hyperbole? LouixCorp was right? Your world actually has—" Therza's question was cut off by Earth's timely answer. A pair of bright flashes burst from the side of the dreadnaught. A cloud of smoke and flame roiled from the impacts, and the concussion raised walls of water that stretched up higher than the dreadnaught itself. Just a few seconds later, the low whumps of the bombs reached them, rattling the rubble. Despite the danger, Howie stood up and cheered.

Elliot's laser fizzled out and the clockwork familiar slumped." That's all I can manage," he said. The massive ship listed to the side as one of the pontoons crumpled. Fire and smoke billowed out of its interior. The two jets turned east toward the city. In the intervening distance, the islands of blinking blue lights that represented quickened automaton soldiers winked out one by one, the disruption eventually reaching the beachheads. A massive cheer and war-cry went up.

The automatons weren't giving up by any stretch, but it seemed that without the direct oversight of the dreadnaught's hex core, a lot of the fight had gone out of the tin soldiers.

"Great job, Elliot," said Cole. In the air above the assault boats, several of the flying transports exploded as they were struck by missiles at practically point-blank range. A half dozen massive transports carrying hundreds of automatons between them plummeted into the water. The jets continued on, flying low over the water. They screamed overhead just a few hundred feet off the deck, delta forms cutting through the air like knives. Everyone turned to watch them, Howie continuing to cheer and wave.

Surprisingly, Elliot joined in as well, jokingly chanting " USA! USA!" until the sheer noise of their engines drowned out all sound. After flying a few more miles into the city, the two jets vanished in another pair of expanding lightning clouds.

"Were those airplanes?" asked Therza, mouth hanging open as she stared after the jets. Cole couldn't help but grin.

"What, Hexighast doesn't got airplanes?"

"Not ones like that," she said. She looked back out over the water.

"During the war, the Air Corps never got a bomber within three miles of a dreadnaught." She looked at Cole with a new wariness.

"Just how strong is your world?" Howie punched Cole in the shoulder.

"That was fuckin' awesome! Hey, you think those pilots were actually attuned? Probably not, right? But man, if they are, that's so fucking cool."

"Come on," said Cole.

"We're not finished yet. The dreadnaught might be dead, but we've still got to get Elliot out of here."" Umm… I hate to be 'that guy', but, uh…" the clockwork familiar tapped a foot nervously at the ground. Cole looked down at the robot carrying their rescue.

"What is it?"" The dreadnaught isn't… exactly dead."