An enormous figure of a walking machine was steadily moving through the battlefield, despite the chaos of fighting. Approaching a defensive line, it looked like a real titan, who descended to the earth to carry the punishment on humankind. Each step of spider-like legs caused a real tremble, both in the ground and the hearts of soldiers.
Having eight of them, it only moved two simultaneously before making a pause to stabilize its positions. Such non-fluid motions could seem slow from a distance, but in fact, they were not in the slightest. Just the sheer length of each step was enough to cover a noticeable distance. It wasn’t surprising, taking into account its over 15-teen story building height at a bare minimum, as Robert couldn’t be sure without any objects near it to compare. And the dots that represented supporting infantry seemed too tiny for that.
The cubic torso had a head on top, which looked like a both commanding and observing room for the gigantic machine. It was constantly rotating from side to side as if it had limited sight, so in that way, it could be useful. The confirmation came several seconds later when Rob’s allies had finally used artillery against an incoming threat.
The first explosion coincided with a sound of alarm. The loud banging sound from the impact of the huge round against the armored machine was only starting to fade away when the next one came, turning everything into an almost continuous stream of hammering noise. The mech stopped its motions, planting all its legs into the ground. Shaking from the outer force that was attempting to crash the figure, it was readying its response.
The clouds of smoke came from behind of torso, signaling the increased load on engines. All five arms of the mech began their movement. The lower pair of limbs created additional support from behind by leaning on the ground, while the higher pair and the central, which was protruding from the chest, raised far above its head. Squeezing his eyes, Robert focused on the palms for a couple of seconds before he finally realized what they were.
It is an artillery gun…
The whole palm was turned into a moving shooting port. Adding the advantage of height, which could boost the range by a lot, and being in a safe position to aim, was enough to turn this advantage into a result. The moment the mech started to shoot, Rob saw explosions on the horizon, confirming his fears. The first cases only started to fall on the ground, but the shelling strength against the mech had already decreased by a lot. The whole palm trembled from the force before jerking back using inbuilt compensators in the mechanical arm. The reload didn’t take long and a new shot followed.
Damn… Wait, the captain must have some kind of a binocular.
The search didn’t take long, but by that point, only the mech was shooting. Using the magnifying instrument, Rob looked closely at the arms. Despite being covered with thick armored plates, they still had small gaps through which he could notice the movement of the crew inside. Turning his attention to the result of the shelling, Robert found a scorched dent, marks, and only one single hole. That was everything that his allies had managed to achieve by using an artillery fire. The mech, on the other hand, despite having only three big canons, was much more precise in shootings, confirming that the crew was definitely carefully picked.
I guess the mission’s goal is right in front of me… Fuck! At least it’s basically a huge walking tank. Mechanical, it fully depends on a trained crew. Thick armor grants enough protection against artillery rounds while supporting infantry excludes any attempts to get inside. Still, the bombs might do the damage because of a higher amount of explosives. However, that’s why it has dirigibles for air coverage. Damn, the beastmen managed to create a real armored fist to penetrate the defense with ease… Another confirmation of the fact that we are losing the war.
Robert sighed, thinking what to do. Even if his squad managed to blow up the production line of such a weapon, it wouldn’t change the trend. Kingdom had long ago lost an initiative, barely holding the lines against the enemy. The preparations for grand operations appeared to be futile as once again the beastmen were faster in their actions while gaining a technical advantage in weaponry. Still, despite unpleasant odds, the year in service had made this war his, and he couldn’t think about him being neutral after all the losses of comrades-in-arms he had experienced, all the personal stories he had heard, and animal atrocities with prisoners he had witnessed. That was the reason why such a situation couldn’t be ignored even by him, literally the outworlder.
If everyone pushes to their maximum ability, we will eventually break the spine of the camel, no matter how strong it is. So, let’s do my part to fullness.
Nodding to himself with a smile, he started to turn the wheel, directing the dirigible to the mech. Robert wasn’t confident in his ability to control the aircraft on the proper level, but from his amateur view, it didn’t look too difficult. At least for the aimed task. It took around a minute to set a course before Rob fixed the wheel in its position and hastily ran to the engines, jumping over the corpses. Restoring in his memory Mason’s instructions, he spent some time observing a much more complex system that was used in bigger dirigibles.
The rows of indicators, showing pressure, temperature, and other parameters in different parts of the machines overloaded his mind for a few seconds. It looked like a real cabin of a plane with multiple handles, levers, buttons – everything to make it as unfriendly for newbie as it possibly could. Luckily, the main controlling instruments had written marks near them, showing their purpose. Therefore, after scratching his head, Rob managed to increase the speed of the airship, while lowering its altitude. He wasn’t sure that everything was correctly done, but the image of a gigantic machine was slowly increasing in size. It was enough for him, so he directed his attention to the bombing compartment, immediately heading there.
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Pulling the long handle that was located on the most visible place, Rob opened the bomb bay doors only to be frozen for several breaths by the image of moving ground underneath it. Plowed by many explosions, filled with remnants of broken weapons and soldiers, it was once again strewn with fresh bodies of the enemies, fallen during the current assault. Despite being familiar, it was too terrible to become a usual situation, each time reminding me that it is not just bodies, but dead persons, who had families, their wishes, their dreams. Still, they preferred to come to the Kingdom land just with rifles in their hands to set their own order. Robert wasn’t sad about their death in the slightest. No, he was pressed by the cost of stopping invaders as further, still hidden from his sight, there lay bodies of defenders, who gave their lives in an attempt to protect their families from being killed by beastmen.
You will burn in hell, fuckers!
Cursing his enemy, Rob grabbed the first bomb before putting it into the dropping mechanism. The noticeable weight, easily comparable to a human’s body, tried to pull him down to the floor, but he was strong enough to move it by himself. After the first one, the second followed. Then third. Robert didn’t stop until all available chain was loaded, resulting in five lethal gifts ready to be used against the mech. However, despite a long wait, the scene of the ground hadn’t been replaced by the desired figure of the enormous war machine.
Where is it?
Feeling anxious, Rob hastily moved out of the room and leaned over the bulwark to assess the situation. All he could see was the very same field, which was littered with familiar consequences of intensive battle. It was still ongoing, sounding with gunshots, angry yells, or painful screams. However, by this time, hidden from view, it almost turned into a background noise. If not for the visual confirmation behind his eyes and high volume, Robert could even think that it was just the wind, playing with his imagination.
Turning his head from one side to another, he noticed no signs of the giant mech. On the other hand, the land appeared to be too near for his liking, approaching with a steady pace and threatening to turn into a crash quite soon. The thought about running back to the engines and control wheel to correct the course was shoved away after a short consideration. At least until he would check the other side of the dirigible and find the stupid machine. Not wasting a second, he quickly turned around and moved through the bombing compartment, paying attention not to trigger anything before the right moment.
Crap, I lowered the thing too much. Damn hard to control everything by myself… Where the fuck is that shit... oh, fuck!
Stepping out from the room and raising his gaze up, Robert was met with a huge mechanical three-finger palm that covered the whole surroundings with its sheer size. Enormous, and made from thick metal, it was approaching with lightning speed, not giving any time to react. Wide spreading its fingers, it grabbed the hull of the dirigible a moment later. Just the impact had thrown Rob to the floor, but it was the cracking sound of wood that sent him into panic mode. The following hollowing sound sounded like a wounded beast on a death door.
Rob barely managed to stand up, when he noticed another motion on a periphery of his sight. In the center of the huge palm, tight between the giant fingers, there was another mechanism, which suspiciously looked like a huge jackhammer. And the latter was already moving back as if readying before the charge. In the next moment, it spanged forward, crushing the neighboring room into small pieces and sending wood chips all around the surroundings. Fortunately for Robert, he was fast enough to cover himself with a shield, protecting his body from multiple fragments.
Still, the shockwave had sent him into a stupor. It was broken after his ears caught the sounds of gears, moving the jackhammer back into the starting position. Glancing around at the rows of bombs, his face distorted in a grimace, turning his thoughts into an untranslated series of obscenities. Rob’s body was already moving on its own, forced to act by a survival instinct. Boosted by the activity of the huge palm that was clearly changing its position to aim into a different spot, it was yelling at him to be faster. And he was.
Screwing the unplugged detonators on the two nearest bombs into charged position, Robert ran directly to the bulwark. Jumping on it in one swift motion, he felt all his hairs rising up at incoming danger. His heart skipped the beat. Despite that, his movement hadn’t paused at all, and he pushed himself up, once again summoning the wings in an attempt to catch the airflow to avoid being blasted.
I am like a batm…
The dumb thought was interrupted by a huge explosion that threw his body forward, momentarily breaking whole his concentration together with a conjured construct. Rob literally felt his brain crashing into his skull from inside, instantly darkening the surroundings. He still made an effort to stabilize his position in the air, but the whole world turned into a real kaleidoscope of images, each dramatically different from the previous. However, they were changing so fast that he couldn’t even focus on any of them. The fact that he was in constant odd motion, which made him sick, while his head was threatening to break apart from the pressure inside and his ears were hearing a single constant sound of metal gong, didn’t help at all.
Then he crashed into something hard. Rob clearly heard as quite a few bones inside him snapped before shattering like a dropped glass cup against the floor. It could be just his imagination, and everything wasn’t that bad. However, he didn’t have an opportunity to check as the wave of pain had covered his consciousness completely, washing it away with a single pull. Rob’s last thought was to cover himself with a conjured shield to hide himself from the enemies. His disoriented mind attempted to send a mental command, but the result was unknown as the whole world had already turned into a single dot of light. It flicked several times, fighting for its life, and disappeared a moment later, irrevocably losing the battle.