“That’s a big ship,” Ally commented, looking at the object of all of their fascinations. Vague hints rang through Mae’s mind, telling of airships similar to the massive construction in front of them that were built on Earth. Despite the similarities, the airship-- closer to a zeppelin than a blimp-- did not fly because of the majority of its volume being gas. Instead, it simply hovered in the air, covered in plates of clocksteel and hosting large guns all across its mass. Every one of those guns were spitting shrapnel and shells at the similarly sized fortress. All the while, columns of sub-skiff sized land craft approached, firing cannons that looked pathetic in comparison to the craft above them.
The fortress, in response, hosted a massive shield surrounding the entire camp and a few feet around the walls. On those walls, large guns that looked slightly cobbled-together sat, firing their own shells so quickly that their barrels were glowing red hot from the heat, “Yeah, it is, Ally,” Mae replied, “But that’s also a big shield, a big army…” She pointed upwards, “And a big dragon.” As if on cue, a roar cut through the air, so loud that Mae could feel it in her bones. A green blur shot from the safety of the shield and tore into the zeppelin-like airship. Metal tore and the blur soon disappeared into the massive craft.
Not a moment after it disappeared, the craft detonated with an explosion that ripped through the sky with such power that even the Clockwork land craft, a thousand feet below it, were blown over. The shield held, but the dragon was not so lucky. The silhouette of the dragon, smoking and burnt, fell from the craft, heading towards where the small skiff was.
“That is a good start to things,” Tisi remarked, “I suggest that we guard the dragon for now.” She flapped her wings and took off, flying into the sky. Mae and Ally followed after her, leaving their hosts behind as they made a dash to the falling figure of the dragon. Mae, turning around to get a glimpse of their hosts, noticed the four staring blankly at the falling dragon. She turned and ignored them.
Mae looked at the moon, nearing the zenith of its arc across the sky, then turned to Ally, “Ally! Open the box and let the ‘Necs out!” she shouted, both she and Tisi falling in behind Ally, “But make sure they don’t approach the dragon! We don’t want friendly fire!” Ally merely nodded, throwing the metal box towards the group of approaching… something. The Clockworks were a motley group of multi-limbed monsters, skeletally-framed animal-like Clockworks, and normal units like Scouts and Snipers.
The box traveled a few feet before the lid flung open and a pair of Talonecs appeared from the shadows of the box. With them, a pair of beams lit up the night. The first slammed into a millipede-like Clockwork, sending its front half carrening to the side while the back half tumbled. The second slammed into what Mae was pretty sure was a Headhunter and sent it sprawling back a few steps. The shot had burned a hole in the Clockwork’s armor, revealing the gears and sprockets beneath.
The two Talonecs continued to fire into the crowd of approaching Clockworks, slowly backing up as bullets and slugs either dented their armor or ricocheted off without effect. Ally was about to swoop in to assist the Talonecs, but Mae held the fury’s shoulder, “Let them get the experience for this.”
The other two chuckled, much to Mae’s confusion, “No matter how far we go from the system, we have just made one for ourselves, huh?” Tisi asked.
“While there’s no doubt a philosophical debate in that,” Mae replied, “We have a battle to watch.” The other two reluctantly nodded and watched the battle. While the furies were talking, the horde of Clockworks had overrun the Talonecs’ original position, pushing the two revealed necromechanical hybrids back to nearly the soon-to-be landing point for the dragon’s battered body.
In that moment, the shadows sprung to life at the sides and behind the horde, manifesting in a, if Mae were to be dramatic, dazzling display of metal and magic. Beams of light shot out by the hundreds, crushing and cutting and burning the many different Clockworks present in the horde. Some turned to the sudden ambush with the characteristic emotionlessness of machines, launching bullets and rockets, while others simply continued with their charge.
The two Talonecs that acted as the bait in the ambush melted into the shadows and peeled off from the fight, merging into the rows of their comrades. The Clockworks, with nothing in front of them, wheeled around and charged at the lines of enemies behind them. Unlike when there were only two Talonecs, the flanking undead had enough numbers to employ a feature that Mae did not know they possessed. A line of black shields sprung out from the Talonecs’ left arms. The front row adjusted the grip of their rifles to use them like spears, using their left arms to brace and raising the bayoneted rifles high.
The first Clockwork slammed into the shield wall. Mae heard the dragon fall to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust, but neither she, nor any of the combatants seemed to mind. The Talonecs did not break from the attack, and the large-armed Scout was quickly slashed in twine by the blade of the Talonecs behind the front line. More and more Clockworks slammed into the line, but the undead met them with frantic slashes and unbreakable shields.
Then the Headhunter smashed through the left side of the then-combined line, pushing two lines deep into the legion before it was boxed in by a combined shield and pike wall. The Clockwork smashed into the shield wall, trampling on the undead beneath its feet as more and more slashes and shot wounds appeared on its body. Then, at that moment, the rest of the Clockworks slammed into the line as well, driving a wedge into the line and nearing the boxed-in Headhunter.
“So, what do you think they’ll do?” Mae asked, “They’re a lot more organized than I expected, but I have a feeling that they’re just itching to tear into those Clockworks,” she remarked. She knew that for a fact, since the little desire in the back of her mind whispered that it wanted to be down there, with enemies on all sides and with nothing but battle to look forward to.
Tisi pointed towards the back lines, “They must be running low on light crystal mana by now. My guess is that they begin to flank and use their bayonets to avoid reloading.”
Ally also pointed at the battle, though at the Clockworks instead of the Talonecs, “They’re going to fight ‘em. And I’m joining them!” she shouted, diving with a flap of her wings. Mae sighed, shaking her head and reigning in her artificial battle-lust. Tisi seemed to do the same. Mae watched as Ally dove into the middle of the horde, grinning madly, and began to shout at everything around her, slashing with her sword. In that moment, the Talonec line became jagged with bayonets and the undead rushed their mechanical foes.
The disciplined and organized shield wall devolved into a hectic, frantic, chaotic melee, with Clockworks and Talonecs falling to the ground with slashed armor, dismembered limbs, and burnt interiors. Ally whooped so loudly that even Mae and Tisi, far above the fight, could hear it over the whines of beam fire, pops of gunfire, and screeches of colliding blades, “Dammit…” Mae muttered, “We’re going to lose a few at this rate.” She raised her rifle, taking aim at a certain Headhunter, which was still boxed in by a group of Talonecs, and fired a beam down at it. She did not have any special lenses-- since Fara developed the dwarven beam gun into a mass-producible weapon without the need for lenses-- so she was using a pair of generic ‘Heat’ lenses that she found not being used.
The lenses were the right choice, however, as the head of the Headhunter was rapidly melted into slag. The machine fell, crushing the poor Talonec it had been using as a foothold. Mae winced, but turned away. She then felt a hand touch her shoulder. Tisi pointed at the Headhunter just as it was thrown from its place on the ground. From beneath it, the Talonec rose, gripping its gun and charging into the melee, even with a broken arm and, no doubt, many crushed mechanisms. “That was quite the show,” Tisi remarked, holding her staff high, “But watch this.” She then hovered a hand over the staff’s head. A series of sigils appeared on the gold-decorated staff head and, with a rush of mana going into them, spat out a rain of fire.
Mae glanced at Tisi, “What’s the point of doing that? The Talonecs will probably get more hurt than the Clockworks.” Tisi smiled, pointing towards the fortress. Mae turned and saw what Tisi was pointing at. A small convoy of small skiffs emerged from the gates and were rushing towards them. The dust had mostly settled at that point, but the fire made it clear who was defending the dragon and who was trying to kill it. Bullets and magic bolts were shot from the skiffs, slamming through the metal of the Clockworks while only occasionally ricocheting off of the shells of the undead.
Sighing, Mae lined up another shot, and put a melting hole through the head of a Clockwork Soldier. After another shot, she turned another Scout’s leg to slag and after a third, she sent a horse-like Clockwork sprawling as its leg tore from its body. She kept firing, letting beam after beam turn the little company of Clockworks into rivers of metal.
By the time the dust settled, the small group of skiffs finally reached the battlefield. Mae flew down to greet them, turning as she descended, “Tisi, get all of the ‘Necs together and do a headcount. See how many we lost, and how many need more than an hour to regenerate.” Tisi, probably not wanting to deal with the living allies, simply nodded and flew away.
Mae turned back to the group of living people. The leading one was a knight. From Gribnik. She sighed in her mind. The best case scenario was that the knight would be cold and callous to her. The worst would cause an international incident, but she did not dwell on it for too long; she and her mistress were not long for Granulous, so there were few long-term consequences that did not involve violence that the knights could use.
“Greetings, ma’am,” the knight said, “Are you perhaps the talented mechamancer who created this fine army?” he asked. His tone was respectful. And a bit wary. It struck her as odd; since her only experience with the knights was when they were being rude to her or her mistress, she did not expect them to have the capability to be polite to anyone other than their feudal lords.
Mae shook her head, “I am not. I am, also, the death knight of my mistress, the lich Mori Athanatos,” she replied, noticing how they subconsciously grabbed at their weapons, “Please do not make threats. We have a numbers advantage, not to mention a technological and quality advantage. So, could you let us into the fortress so we can speak to the high command?”
“And take the dragon to the hospital!” Ally shouted from somewhere in the tangled pile of scrapped limbs and thrashing Talonecs still trying to remove themselves from the mess.
“And take the dragon to the hospital,” Mae sighed, looking at the still-wary expressions on the knights’ faces.
“Well… we’re going to have to talk to our superiors about this and-”
Mae held up a hand, “Fine. You can go talk to your duke or whatever and waste time, but if another wave of those tank-things shows up while you’re dallying, we’re not staying to defend you. Got it?” The knight nodded quickly, rushing back to their skiffs and going back to the fortress.
Mae glanced to the side, looking at the dragon that the knights had so gallantly ignored. She sighed. She wished that they could just ignore the fortress full of living people and head straight for the Hive. It would make their jobs a lot easier. At that moment, Tisi flapped her way over to Mae, landing in the sand without a sound, “We didn’t lose anyone, surprisingly enough. The undead bits are still there, but some of their shells are a bit busted. We’re just going to need to wind the bottom gears while they recover, though. I’d say that they’ll all be ready by dawn.”
Mae smiled, nodding to Tisi. That was one good piece of news, at least. She may have to deal with near-dead dragons, cowardly knights, and endless hordes of killer robots, but at least she had 300 immortal soldiers backing her up. She could do a lot with them, but she still had to do her mission. Sighing, she looked back to the fortress and waited for the people within to let them into the safety of their walls.
Howldawg· Jun 6, 2022
