Devils Own ( A Steam Punk and Mystic Tale ) 1.7A

1.7.

Kassius had figured out the way in. Just before he was met by Lady Lilith, he had fashioned a novelty to going in. That opportunity came the next day, when he rode high into the clouds. He saw the large dirigible carrying the United Continents emblem which resembled a galleon being pulled up by four large balloons. Each balloon measured a hundred and fifty feet in length with about thirty feet across. The distance between the front and the rear balloons was fifty feet apart, but only the front ones had a crow nest on each. The balloons are controlled by maneuvering valves located in the hull, which were operated from the main gas pipes in the helm. The gas are measured their contents and managed to compensate for ship performance.

The ship was built with triangular duralumin girders forming a series of main rings, connecting by a series of longitudinal girders, with a square keel at the bottom of the hull, an axial corridor through the center of the ship, and a cruciform tail for strength and resilience. The material of the balloon skin was made from combined layers of glue onto two sheets of cotton to create the combined fabric. The engines are sixteen cylinder engines with an output of two thousand RPM each. The engines used compressed air to start, stopped, and reversed in flight. The engine drove the three bladed, twenty feet diameter metal propeller.  The engines were angle slightly away from the hull so that their propeller wash would not hit the hull.

There was an observation deck on the external side of the balloons. Each of the observation deck had a mounted machine gun on it. The four balloons pulled up the galleon shaped wooden hull with its triple level, and its sixteen twelve pounder cannons. On the upper deck was six mounted twin machine guns placed strategically. It held a crew of over hundred sailors.

It was one of the patrolling Destroyers dirigibles of the Lord’ protecting contingent assigned by the President which sailed the outer limits of the city boundary before it embark for its port at the dirigibles quay. They were called the with their awesome twelve cannons firepower on the hull side.

Kassius came in from the clouds, swooping towards the dirigible balloons. There were the sentries in the two main crow nests in the fore balloons, but the observers were caught in the setting sun which shone into their eyes from the rear. He had to time it well, or he would crash the bike onto the balloons. Once he was on top of the rear balloons, he pulled the lever to retract the wings, while he gunned up the engine. He had to do it to keep the bike on the balloon surface or he would just slip off by the wind draft. The bike touched the balloon surface and it roared on trying to go against the wind draft. He reached for the prepared hooks with the wires to reach for the cable lashing that crisscrossed the balloon. The cable secured the balloon to the galleon hull below. He grabbed hold of the cable and pulled at it with his hook towards the bike front portion. He slipped it over the bike the wires to secure it to the top. Once he had lashed on more hook wires, he was ready to descent from the balloon to the hull.

There was the side observation deck on the side of the lower side of the balloons which also performed as the machine gun nesting for swooping attacks. There was normally one gunner there, but on some occasions there may be two. He made his way down by rappelling down fighting for balance against the wind draft. He held on tight until he reached the observation deck roof.

The hatch to the deck was on the outside, and was normally latched inside. He secured the wire with the hook and laid his body over the top before locking right his leg onto a secure hold on the wire. He slowly crawled forward until his body was half hanging over the top of the deck. He could then peeked inside the deck through the windows and saw the gunner was alone. The gunner was covered in the thick knee length coat to secure him from the cold.

Kassius reached out with his left hand and released the spring loaded dagger. The gunner went down with the dagger embed in his chest. He then took hold of the window sill before he kicked off his leg secured holding. It was a timely movement when he forced his body through the window before he could be sucked out by the lashing winds.

Kassius landed on his shoulders, but he was grateful to make it that far. Now the moment was to wait till the dirigible reached its port. The handset on the observation deck rang. He reached for it, and answered it.

“Ja”, Kassius spoke into the handset.

“Erich and I are going back to the dorm. Are you following?”

“Nein”, Kassius replied. The handset went dead, which was either a confirmation or more bad news. He saw the dirigible slowly maneuver to the port side while more holding cables were dropped and secured.

“I am in.” Kassius smiled to himself. He waited his moment before he climbed out in the dark lights of the night. He dressed in the thick coat and lowered himself down with the rope ladder, and then landed onto the main deck. The deck was not guarded, while it was docked but there was an exception that day.

“Who’s there?” The sailor called out the challenge while approaching Kassius. The assassin release the dagger into the sailor’ throat. The sailor fell down to his knees but he was still alive. The assassin ran over and grabbed the sailor’ head to pull it back before he thrust the dagger in deeper. The earlier thrust did not go in deep as the sailor had on a scarf which blunted the thrust.

Kassius looked around to see if there were any more lookouts but there was none. He then proceeded to the main exit on the main deck to the port quay, where a small bridge was extended for the sailors to disembark. There were two sentries there at the quay standing not far from the bridge, but they were looking at the other way. He looked down from the deck, and saw it was a long drop to the bottom. The port was actually an extended platform build on top of a hill cliff, giving it an impression of a large mushroom head. He looked back to the sentries which were still looking in the opposite direction. The quay was dimly lighted at that time, and there were areas of dark shadows. He gauged the distance and then took the run. His feet raised on to the toes, ran swiftly down the bridge and across the quay area towards the nearest dark area. He made it without alerting the sentries, but there was a canine whose sleep he had disturbed. He thrust out with his right vambrace into the dog’s opened jaw stifling the bark. From there, he sneaked his way to the nearest exit out of the quay.