4.5
“Gentlemen, we
are to be invaded. But the Citadel would not be that easy. We had other attacks
before, and always come up winner.” Merlin had led them to what may have been a
control center. It had all these panels with levers on it. On the wall in front
of it was a series of closed sliding panels. It was manned by twenty staffs
which were moving the levers. The place starts to vibrate and then the sound of
the gears and crunching chains reverted through the walls.
“We will now
raise the Citadel now. Time to take the fight to the bastards.” Merlin cursed
out. “Call up the Beasts.”
Derreen stole a
glare at her father but he had walked out of the center. They all followed him
out and were soon stood by a sliding panel in the wall that was twenty feet in
height.
“Gentlemen, the
Beast.” Merlin threw the lever that worked the sliding panels.
The Beast rolled
out on the moving platform. It was a gigantic form of a human frame with its two
upper limbs and a triangular case on the bottom part like a pear shaped body
form. On the chest casing, there was the seat designed for a single occupant.
The driver once seated will pull the metal panel located on the left side to
cover his front. On the panel was a series of levers to operate the Beast. The
Beast crews rushed to arm the unit. A set of twin machine gun was loaded on
each of those upper arms, with the ammo belt linked to the rear ammo case that
held two thousand rounds. On its right shoulder was a sling that was fed by the
incendiary bombs from the conveyor belt from the bomb case at the lower limbs.
They nicknamed the explosives ‘testicles’.
“We have a
hundred and fifty of these across the Citadel walls, and will drive the
dirigibles off the sky. You saw them as window openings outside, until they
slide open and the platform move out for the Beast to work.” Merlin explained.
“Those levers on the driver panel allowed it to swivel either arms vertically
or horizontally in ninety degrees. There are also levers to tilt the platform
to leverage on the sling shot. It also can swivel like the guns but it’s
independent of the upper body frame.”
“Care to take a
seat, Assassin? My driver is not available.” Merlin offered the Beast to
Kassius.”
Kassius jumped
to the chance while Merlin led the others to other part of the Citadel.
“For the rest of
you, I will assign you the ring seats.” Merlin led them to the other level,
while the Citadel was still raising it up. The rumbling and crunching stopped
and Merlin held the trio to wait before the sliding panels. These were twelve
feet in height and when opened, it showed them to be at ground level. The
Citadel had unscrewed itself upwards to the ground and then leveled at the
ground level before its panel opened up to reveal their defenses.
“Grab a
Stinger.” The Stinger was similar to the Scorpion but instead of a machine
gunner at the raised platform, but it held a sling shot which will propel the
incendiary with chemical bombs. On impact, the bombs act like the sabot, while
its chemical will burn through the metal armor before the incendiary explosives
take over.
“I will drive.”
Lucas jumped on to the truck and gunned up the engine. Irina took to the front
machine gun on the bonnet while Derreen manned the sling shot.
“We got twenty
shots.” Derreen updated the others, and then Lucas drove the truck out. Merlin
had entered the tower and took the metal cage to the top. He will coordinate
the battle from there. It was then the troopers appeared over the boundary with
the Scorpions and Dozers. Above in the sky at the horizon, the Second and Third
Fleet appeared with their individual complement of the Dreadnaught, two Destroyers,
four Frigates and seven Pegasus flying alongside.
“They brought
twice the numbers to hit us.” Lucas counted the dirigibles. “Anyone asked for a
Healer yet?”
“Shut up and
drive. I counted ten Dozers, and …”
“Shut up both of
you.” Derreen added in.
No comments:
Post a Comment