Devils Own ( Steampunk and Mystic ) 3.5

3.5

Kassius’ Eagle could not fly as there was maintenance to prepare it. He stood there while the crews went about it, and the Attila then had gone into battle. The open ramp door was closed for fear of a projectile hitting the inside of the lower deck. He waited and undergone all those barrages that were dropped on the Attila. The crews went about their preparation despite the barrages.

“Flyer, we got the Eagle ready, but she had no bombs.” The crew member told him. He looked to the clawed hooks and shrugged his shoulders. He gunned up the steam engine, and then the crew lowered the ramp. They pull off the blocks which held the Eagle on the deck. The Eagle taxied down the deck and it went plummeting down.

“Wowee!” Kassius shouted as the Eagle went diving down. He had taken off but the steam engine had stalled. He had no choice but to extend out the wings. It worked and the Eagle went gliding in a slower descent, but he had controlled. He pulled at the plunger which was connected to the steam engine. It kicked in but the steam engine remained dead. He pulled at it several times, and finally it kicked in but it will take time to get the steam up to power the propeller.

It was then the Pegasus approached by firing at the portside.

“Damn!” Kassius swerved the Eagle into a tight turn and then spin into a dive. He wanted to build speed for his next move, which was to back spin into a climb. The Pegasus saw his descent and followed suit, but it misjudged the next move. The Pegasus saw the Eagle spin to glide up and it went into a counter move of a barrel spin to give it avoid it. It was a good move, as the Eagle was caught in the vortex of the barrel. Before Kassius could react, the Pegasus had cleared his fore. By then the Eagle engine had kicked in and the propellers were working. It was time to counter the moves by the Pegasus. Both flyers went to a wider turn to move their flying contraption into position. It was a confrontational approach then when both flyers decide to call each other lies.

The Pegasus took the first cue to fire the machine guns at the Eagle. Kassius did the same with his gun. He could see the tracers of the bullets that were approaching the Eagle but it did little damage to the wings. At the last hundred feet, the Eagle pulled away to the portside. When the Eagle had pulled away, Kassius had released the triple claw hook on its chain. He had also unlocked it so that the hundred feet chain was on a free fall. It went swinging in the sky towards the Pegasus. The chain got tangled into the wings and part of it hit the propeller. That caused the Pegasus to stall and went into a barrel dive.

“One down!” Kassius shouted out but the Pegasus was not alone. There was another Pegasus on overhead prowl for the same prey. It saw the first Pegasus went down and the flyers on the other Pegasus dived down with its gun shooting. Those bullets ripped into the Eagle wings and tore sections of it. Kassius then swerved off to seek cloud cover. The Eagle made it and hid itself in the clouds while the Pegasus in its pursuit also leveled at the clouds. It was to be a game of hide and seek while both flyers seek each other out.

At one stage, the Pegasus flyers saw the Eagle below their starboard at a distance of a hundred and fifty feet. The gunner flyer could not traverse the mounted machine gun. Instead he took up the rifle from beneath his seat to fire. The shots hit the Eagle’ propeller but it was not damaged. The Eagle picked up speed and dived into a nearby cloud for cover. The Pegasus gave chase but it missed the Eagle on the predicted flight path.

Then the surprise appeared before the Pegasus.

It saw the Eagle in its flight path and three hundred feet. It stepped on the pedals to increase the steam power, and sped towards it. It was approaching the Eagle on its stern, when it noticed the larger hull holding speed next to it at a hundred feet.

It was the Attila.

The four cannons on the Attila roared to life aimed at the Pegasus.

The combined firepower shredded the Pegasus in its flight. When the other ships saw the Pegasus went down, the klaxon for retreat was blown.

The Free Traders had won the battle.

The Attila landed on the plains where the Eagle had landed earlier. Kassius approached the dirigible and was given a hero’s welcome. While he met the captain, the other crews got off and pushed the Eagle back to the hull of the Attila.

“Don’t you concern yourself on that?” Captain Amos smiled. “We will get more pilots for her. And more of her type to fight the enemy.”

“Captain, we need to leave.” The First Mate called out from the helm. “We got a ship coming in with the sun behind them. I think it’s the new Thor’ design.”

Captain Amos signaled the immediate evacuation but he turned to Kassius.

“The Guild members will have to go on their own from here. I cannot take them with me anymore.” Captain Amos spoke up. “It’s too dangerous for all of you to be on aboard. More to it, you are five miles from the bay. There is a sea port. Get a ship and you could sailed over to the Islands.”

The words were given out and the Guild members all evacuated from the Attila. The wounded was also evacuated along side with supplies and weapons. Then the Attila took off to the sky. They set off with Irina leading them but Kassius was not with them. He was still on the Attila.