1 day since the last chapter…

Beastmen Plains, Broken Wing Canyon

 

A beastman that had wings for arms was flying through the sky, his feathers were dark and he had vicious talons for feet and a large hooked beak. In ancient lore, these could have been likened to harpies with no human traits, and the one in the lead looked like a crow. The group he was leading was only a few hundred beastmen, and their destination was a small beavermen settlement in the bottom of a canyon. This was due to a provocation they had received, instead of a cart of food from the beavermen, they had sent a cart filled with their shit.

 

“Those beaver’s need to be taught a lesson!” The large crow beastmen called out loudly.

 

“I want to know where those damn creatures suddenly found such large balls! We need to put them back in their place!” An owl beastman called.

 

“Father is furious, we need to make an example of them!” a falcon beastman said.

 

He was the largest beastman in the pack, but he wasn’t in charge since he had just come of age, this was his first time accompanying a hunting group. A Warband required over a thousand beastmen to be an official Warband, this was too small for that but he needed to get experience. The leader was the crow beastman who was much older than him with more experience, he was the oldest son of the Falcon king. It was only in the last 20 years that the Falcon King had come into power, he was born shortly after this event when his father defeated another beast king to take over his position.

 

The large mountain behind them was the location of the Falcon King’s kingdom, it was one of the largest packs of flying predators. At the base of their mountain, a canyon formed that was the home of these beavermen, it was a large log fortress designed to protect against monsters. In the talons of several beastmen were balls that were formed from oil, and grass that they called tarballs, some of them also had heavy rocks that had ore inside of them taken from the mountain. A flying beastman that looked like a rooster with a long tail and an orange coloration was being escorted in the hunting band.

 

It was a rare breed that was able to breathe fire and conjure flames, it‘s job was to light the tarballs that they planned to use to smoke out the beavermen. Occasionally smoke could be seen coming from its hooked beak, an omen of its ability. Its orange and red coloration was incredibly striking, and it was easy to spot within the pack. This was Snow’s thought’s as she pulled the trigger on her new 50 caliber anti-material rifle with a scope.

 

BOOM!

 

The muzzle brake caused smoke and pressure to explode out the sides and around her furry body, assisting with the recoil as a bullet went flying with a Mach cone. The pressure from the bullet sent pressure into her chest and made her feel breathless for a second. In less than a second, she was able to see the torso of the colorful flying beastman begin to bloom as the bullet made contact. Then a large bloody flower was created as an exit wound large enough to fit an arm through was violently ripped open. Blood and pieces of meat flew into the air as the chest and most of the organs contained within were dragged out the back of the flying creature.

 

It wanted to scream but it couldn’t, and in less than a few breaths the light had already faded from its eyes as it began falling from the sky. A piece of heated brass was ejected out of the side of the gun as the bolt unlocked and slid back to eject a round and slide a new one into the chamber before locking. The rifle was being supported with a bipod, and Snow had used her paws to dig a small hole to fire from, this gave her even better elevation. Throughout the canyon, hundreds of foxes had done this within the cliff walls.

 

A smile spread across her face as she pulled her rifle into the small fox hole and waited and watched the birdmen in the sky. It didn’t take too long before she heard another shot and saw blood and viscera go flying into the air in a straight trajectory. This was followed by another brightly colored birdman falling to the ground from up in the air, this also caused the hunting pack to start panicking.

 

“What happened, why are they dying?”

 

“Are they dwarves?!”

 

“It can’t be dwarves, this area has gophermen living here!” 

 

“Head to the ground, there is no cover here!” The leader of the hunting pack called out.

 

As if the snipers had been keeping their ears peeled for anyone who gave out orders, the moment the large crow beastman finished talking, several bullets hit him from multiple sides. His chest, his wings, and even his head were reduced to feathers and falling viscera. Snow smiled as she pulled her rifle back into her small hole and began counting in her head. After every shot the fox snipers were told to count to 600 in their head, this was to avoid firing too often so that they could be easily spotted.

 

“Drop the rocks and fireballs! Get into the valley!” The large falcon called.

 

Having watched the old crow get ripped into pieces in front of him caused him to panic and he said this as he started diving. It was good that he did because he felt something fly past him that was moving too fast to see. Cold sweat began to cover his body as he started driving towards the ground with the other birdmen. The loud cracks continued from along the valley, these were followed by the deaths of their comrades.

 

The Falcon beastman looked around as he dived down into the canyon, but the beavermen had heavily deforested the area. The gaps between the trees were large, and saplings of various sizes could be seen planted around the areas where trees were removed, and even the stumps and roots were pulled out. A change had also taken place to the valley, and the birdmen could see that logs had been dragged over the ground creating long loops of flat area. If Rex was here he would say they looked like dirt roads, and the reason these were built soon became clear.

 

“""Cheese and Beer!””” Muted voices of mousemen could be heard cheering loudly behind the gates of the beavermen fort, and soon logs fell creating a ramp.

 

Mousemen wearing rough sewn clothes, from fabric brought by the succubi and sewn together by mousemen workers, came running out of the large structure that looked like piled-up logs. They had harnesses made from rope that ran back and connected up to a wooden wagon that they were pulling like a dog team. In this large wagon with large wooden tires was a metal tripod that connected to a large machine gun. A pair of these makeshift vehicles were soon pulled out of the large wooden structure, one with a succubus pilot and one with an elven pilot.

 

“Go! I will show her the incredible marksmanship of the succubi!” Kira said as her tail worked the charging handle after she charged the bolt on the machine gun.

 

On another wagon Welch could be seen operating a similar large machine gun, these wagons were originally prepared to go onto the wall, but how could they expect such a wimpy response from the Falcon King. It looked like the foxes would pick them off before Kira or Welch could even get there. These carts were just created when the two realized there was less than 500 beastmen sent to answer their provocation. Now the carts used to deliver supplies to the Falcon King had been repurposed.

 

Welch was also holding onto the handles of a large machine gun that was belt-fed. The wood shook under the cart as they raced down the dirt roads on the large wooden tires. The mousemen were pulling the wagons in large groups, these were the ones who wanted to join Greko’s army that couldn’t be armed because they didn’t have enough weapons for them yet. The various flying beastmen could also see these wooden carts racing towards them with the two female gunners, they could also see the looks of challenge and derision the mousemen showed them.

 

The Falcon King’s son was looking around the valley frantically as he kept hearing loud cracks and then he would see a member of the hunting band fall into a pile of blood and feathers. All around the valley, he could see signs of gophermen on the valley walls, which were small holes that led into their tunnels used for ventilation that they could crawl into. He was occasionally seeing small iron barrels stick out of some of these holes, he was also sure that these were where the sounds were coming from.

 

He thought that going into the valley would allow them to avoid the fire from the enemies hiding inside of the valley, but he realized this was a mistake. Just like with arrows he should have discovered the range of them and flown above them, but then he recalled how high over the valley they were when they started losing people. He shook his head to get rid of these doubts and instead tried focusing on what was around him.

 

“Hey, something is coming!” 

 

“Look, carts!”

 

“Wait… why are the mousemen coming with an elf and a succubus?!”

 

“Have the beavermen betrayed us by joining the elves and the demons?!”

 

“Why would the Elves and the Demons work together?!”

 

The order had fallen apart in the Beastmen’s ranks as they huddled together as one bullet was fired after another from the cliff face. That was because an instinct that flying beastmen had compared to birds on Earth was grouping up under duress and tightening their formations to look bigger and more threatening. They had also begun fighting in an attempt to get into what they felt like was safer positions inside the middle of the group. This tightening of the formation only made the fox's jobs easier, while only a handful of the foxes had 50 caliber rifles, the range and power of these rounds could penetrate many targets.

 

Inside one of the various holes in the cliff, a female fox with dark gray fur could be seen as she pushed her rifle back out the opening of her foxhole. Many of Lunas’ followers had become tired of the status quo, they wanted to change the way they were viewed and rake in the respect they deserved. They didn’t like being called ‘Vixens’ and treated as the centerpiece in some harem, as they were complimented on their fur. Many of them were collected by the many other powerful leaders who all coveted the position of Beast King.

 

BOOM!

 

The trail of fire left her rifle and the bullet flew faster than the eye could see right into the group of beastmen. A large caliber bullet went through the side of a large birdman’s head, who was brightly colored and right into the chest of another. The first beastman had his head crumble into a bloody pulp, while the other had a large hole carved through his torso. Both fell to this large caliber bullet, the foxes were told to place priority based on their colors, the brighter they were the more dangerous they could be.

 

Before the beastmen could get any reprieve though, the two wagons made their way into firing range. Only a few meters apart and traveling at incredible speed over the flattened ground, they soon began firing their large-caliber machine guns. Both women had completely serious expressions as they used the sights to draw the lines of fire into the large group of birdmen. These modified machine guns that were used for flying targets had a blistering fire rate of 1,000 rounds per minute and a drum that housed a 300 round belt.

 

Brass began raining over the sides of the carts that were smoking from the recently spent gunpowder. The Falcon in the pack immediately released his breath in fright when he heard the chain of explosions that was so rapid he could not hear a pause in between them. He chose to turn and start madly gaining altitude as the machine guns slowly moved their streams of fire into the group of beastmen. Blood and feathers began to rain from the sky as soon as the bullets from the two large machine guns intersected the group.

 

“It is like a red fountain.” The falcon said in horror.

 

Many of the other bird beastmen began to realize that grouping together was the wrong move, and they began desperately flying in every direction as screams and squeaks filled the air. It was hard for him to imagine just how many of them died in the brief half a minute that the machine guns fired into the large group of beastmen. Now there was less than a quarter of the large hunting band they started with.

 

On the two wagons, both women were eyeing each other angrily.

 

“I killed way more of them than you did, you just spooked them and split them up!” Kira yelled at Welch as she quickly began loading a new belt into the machine gun.

 

“What?! You are the one who aimed only at the center and ignored all of the other ones, it is your fault they got away!” Welch yelled out at her, she was also reloading.

 

“Damnit, they are almost out of range, at this rate the foxes will be the winners!” Kira said in anger.

 

“You didn’t piss them off enough!” Welch accused.

 

While the two women were arguing and reloading the large machine guns, in the air the Falcon King’s son felt relief for the first time as he was nearing the edge of the valley. He felt like if he could get out of this valley he would be safe, he needed to bring as much information as he could to his father from this battle. Just the way they approached this battle had been a mistake.

 

“We didn’t even get to see more than the Braverman's gates.” He muttered in horror.

 

He suddenly thought of all of the gopher holes they had converted to hide weapons inside of.

 

“They are nefarious creatures, they lured us in and took advantage of our confusion.” He said in anger.

 

“They will pa-” He started when he jerked in the air, and a shock flashed across his face.

 

Looking down as he stopped moving his wings, he saw that his chest had a large hole scooped out where his organs once comfortably sat. In particular, his heart and his magical stone were missing, and he found himself falling back towards the valley as he felt his life draining out. Outside of her foxhole standing tall and proud was a gray fox holding her rifle.

 

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

 

Reaching forward, Snow hit the magazine release and let the empty magazine hit the ground next to some empty shells. Reaching behind her she reached into a pouch that sat belted under her tail and pulled out another large magazine and shoved it into the magazine well. Hitting the bolt release caused it to slide forward and chamber a new round as she started following another birdman. She quickly released her breath as she started another string of kills.

 

BOOM! A large hole opened in the side of a large beastman’s head that caused it to fall apart, it died instantly. She then quickly moved her scope onto another target and began leading it slightly before she pulled the trigger again. BOOM! The large bird with a long neck and a wicked beak suddenly began screaming and spinning in the air as one of his wings disconnected from his shoulder. She then saw another birdman who was moving towards her position, she even smiled at him before she pulled the trigger again. BOOM!

 

This time the bullet hit the target at his narrow waist, this birdman looked like a crow and was the son of the leader of the hunting party. Unfortunately for him, the thing that made him feel like a man was what she had targeted, fortunately, though he did not have to live for long enough to suffer. His wais began falling apart as a hole opened and rapidly expanded, causing both of his legs to fall off and for his balance to falter. Snow watched him plunge towards the ground as she began to run up the hill on two legs and used the large gun and began scoping in another target.

 

These large-caliber rifles were not something the succubi could use like this, that was why they used a smaller caliber. The beastmen didn’t have as much of an issue with the recoil and they could fire these weapons while moving. BOOM! A bullet went tearing through the air, and right through the back of a flying beastman who looked like a large pigeon. His final act in life was to release a large ball of white and gray feces that began to make its way towards the ground.

 

It wiggled and wobbled as the semi-liquid pile of poop fell and splattered on its target, the machine gun in Kira’s hands. She had barely seen this deadly projectile in time to move back and avoid getting covered in this weapon. 

 

“NOOOO!” She yelled in despair, as she tried to choose between continuing to shoot and placing her hands on the machine gun, or trying to find something to wipe it with.

 

Her mouth began to open and close like a fish out of water, as she looked down and saw that she had no extra clothing she could remove and sacrifice to clean her weapon. A short distance behind her chariot a white and gray body landed on the ground lifelessly, however, a look of dignity and pride could be seen on his face. In his final moments, he had done his race proud, as he managed to jam a machine gun. Welch also looked over and sneered at her as she began firing her gun towards the fleeing birdmen.

 

Kira watched as brass began flying out of the side of the machine gun, and stared at her weapon in rage, suddenly she saw her salvation and quickly moved to the edge of the wagon. Her tail lashed out like a snake, and a loud tearing noise filled the air, as she used her tail to pull the clothes off of a beaverman they were passing in the wagon. She smiled in triumph as she used her tail and quickly began mopping the muck off the weapon with a determined look. Nodding several times as she discarded the stained cloth she tossed it carelessly off the side of the wagon.

 

Splat!

 

“ARRRGGGHHHH!!!” A beaverman roared in horror as the shit-covered rag splattered over his face.

 

Kira suddenly felt anger as she shot down one target after another using short bursts of machine gunfire. She had so many hours of practice on these weapons, but she had lost so much time, the mocking grin on Welch’s face was also pissing her off. Her teeth grit and she felt anger building as she desperately kept shooting down targets, she knew that tomorrow they would be attacked again. When that happened, they would be sending the majority of their forces, so they needed to reduce the numbers as much as possible.

 

“Why did they send us so few?! I can’t beat her now!” Kira said in horror.

 

The pride of a succubus warrior was as large as it was heavy, it almost mirrored the weight on her chest. She felt angry that she couldn’t bring herself to stick her hands in the ‘fire’ and continue fighting. This was the first time she had found a situation that had so thoroughly tested the succubus love of firearms. She wondered if she would need to conduct a new kind of training that even she would need to attend.

 

Meanwhile, a short distance away from the battlefield, a succubus from the S.F.S. was sitting with paper and a clipboard. She was watching the wagons with their turrets, and she suddenly felt like the gates to succubus greatness were right in front of her. A weapon was slowly being designed, it was so simple, yet so incredible. She also thought that she might need to change her underwear, she wondered if she was making history.

 

It was a large and armored shell, it had several hatches that allowed its succubus crew into its safe armored body. It traveled using ‘tracks’, metal rolls that moved over the wheels, just as Kira’s husband described it! He had described them as bars but she felt like flexible chain-like sheets made more sense, but he seemed to always know better. The real highlight of it though was the large cannon built onto a moving base, it looked incredible and was based on the shore defense cannons.

 

She looked down at the wagon, then she looked at the piece of paper and suddenly felt a warmth in her chest.

 

“It’s more than a weapon, we could live there!” She said this as she wrote two words over the top to denote its name, she wrote “Big Sister” for its name.

 

When she thought of how fast the flying beastmen were compared to her, she realized that the succubi didn’t have a way to escape. They needed something to protect them when they needed to flee from the air, and several inches of metal seemed like a great place. She kept adding more and more to it, and soon it became a monster of a tank that would have been a giant compared to anything on earth. It would have a weight close to 85 tons(~77MT), more than any tank that had been used on earth and most of it was armor.

 

“I have increased my succubadass level! I broke through!” She said this happily as she looked at the large weapon.

 

Using a similar engine to the ones that were used on the ships, its armor was plates of cold iron that were over 2 feet thick(~700MM) in some areas like the front and top. Her breathing was getting ragged, as she quickly finished writing her idea down onto paper. 

 

“I wonder if I could get someone into the plating factory if I had someone submit this to Kira’s husband?” She muttered as she looked at the blueprints.

 

***

Meanwhile…

Succubus Homeland, Weapons factory

 

“Guffrey, you guys have gotten so much faster at this,” Rex said as he watched dirt being moved out of a massive hole using a crane.

 

“I have been learning from Bob, do you see those cables?” Guffrey said pointing.

 

Most of the ground around the large landing flat field that the succubi used to make weapons had slowly been transforming as the ground was replaced by concrete. They made a giant flat panel that would act as the finished roof of the underground weapons factory with a large hole in the center, they then ran thick metal cables into the walls of the volcano and into metal pillars to support the ceiling. Then they made an open chamber at the bottom and dropped all of the dirt in one large last.

 

“You are using them to support the ceiling we are standing on until you can finish the floor in the bottom,” Rex said.

 

“That is right, we will finish the floor then move in giant pillars to support the ceiling and the future floors,” Guffrey said. “This square hole here in the middle of the structure will be left open for a series of lifts.”

 

“I feel like you took the round structure and made it square,” Rex said.

 

“I did more than that, this will have multiple floors for factories, we will move ore into the bottom floor and move it up one floor at a time and in the end, we will be left with whatever product we want,” Guffrey said.

 

“Then we can test it up top and if it works we can decide if we are leaving it here or shipping it out,” Rex said. “Do you know why it is important to distinguish from now on?” 

 

“Why do we distinguish between leaving it here or shipping it out?” He asked.

 

“Right,” Rex said.

 

“No, why?” He said.

 

Rex reached towards his waist and grabbed the firearm he was carrying, he then placed it on the table, Guffrey carried one himself.

 

“This is pretty small, isn’t it?” He asked.

 

“It is.” Guffrey agreed.

 

Rex’s hands moved quickly and mechanically as he disassembled it into its various pieces across the table. He smiled in satisfaction as everything was taken apart, he then began moving the parts around in the shape of a gun.

 

“A gun has a lot of empty space inside of it, so does almost every single machine. The mousemen will need farming equipment, and the foxes will need mining equipment, the beavermen will also need things even though Bob seems convinced of the opposite.” Rex then pointed at the pieces. “When you strip something into its parts, it is possible to fit a lot more of it inside of shipping crates, then you only need a place to put it back together.”

 

“Then why even assemble it in the first place?” Guffrrey asked.

 

“You need to test it,” Rex said flatly.

 

Guffrey felt his jaw drop, this was because he was thinking of the process in his head of building something just to disassemble it and build it again. He tried to figure out how it would be possible to convince the succubi of this when he said something even more shocking.

 

“Most of this process will be done entirely by machines, we will do little to none of the work,” Rex said. 

 

“That is possible?!” Guffrey asked.

 

“Of course, Bob can now do most of the building, and I am not needed at the oil refinery now that Blue’s children are there, I can focus on what I love now,” Rex said.

 

A smile spread across his face as he watched the crane move one large scoop after another as it moved the rubble out of the hole. He could already see the multi-floored factory being formed with various production machines placed everywhere. What had started as a weapons factory was slowly evolving into a massive factory to produce production tools. 

 

“Just what are we going to be building here using all of this space?” Guffrey asked.

 

“It is possible to make a breastplate just by taking a sheet of metal and using a large punch to just punch it into shape in a single move,” Rex said.

 

“That is possible?! Guffrey asked.

 

“It is, but we would need somewhere to make these punching machines, and then somewhere to set them up. “ Rex said, as he pointed to the different floors. “We will have 10 floors with the bottom two being used for smelting and shaping stock, but from there we will do almost no casting anymore.”

 

“Why not?” Guffrey asked.

 

“It is too slow for our needs now, we will only use it for things that are difficult to machine,” Rex said. “Mana-powered engines are incredible, they work better than I could have believed. This place will take full advantage of it.” 

 

“Won’t that mean we will use a lot of fue-” Guffrey started but Rex held up his hand to silence him.

 

As if on cue they heard the sound of one of the shore defense cannons firing at a poor defenseless monster who was swimming by the island. This one did not die instantly and they could hear a tragic roar sound out from the ocean, this was soon silenced as a second cannon shot fired, finishing it off. The loud wail was silenced, and peace was once again brought to the island, this caused Rex to stare flatly at Guffrey.

 

“When it comes to things like food or mana, you don’t need to worry. The brave succubi who man the shore defense cannons would never let us go without.” He said this with a straight face.