Wyatt rode the stolen horse like it was well… stolen. The poor animal was nearly ready to drop when he hopped out of the saddle outside of Travis’ compound. He could tell from the noises coming from within that his Deputy and the artificer were still there. That couldn’t be good.
He rushed around back. “Seline, Travis, are the weapons ready? We’re out of time!”
“Almost!” the wild-haired artificer shouted as he scrambled beneath the walker’s wooden platform to attach something. “I can’t guarantee it’ll work for long though, we haven’t had time to test it.”
“We’ll have plenty of targets to test it on shortly. Seline, get that thing fired up and ready to move.”
“Yes, Sheriff,” his Deputy replied as she stopped fiddling around with something on the far side of the machine and scrambled over to the controls.
Wyatt hurried over and climbed aboard the platform, finally noticing what she had been working on. “You installed a rotary on it as well?”
“We figured if they swarmed us, it would come in handy,” Seline responded as she started moving levers and turning wheels.
“Good thinking.” Wyatt moved over to the half-assembled rotary. He may not know much about artificer tech, but he could assemble a weapon.
As Travis worked to finish up the cannon and Seline started to fire up the boiler, Wyatt quickly and efficiently assembled the gun.
Despite having the easiest job of the three, he was the last to finish. Travis hopped aboard and scooted his niece out of the way. “You go prep and man the cannon, I’ll operate the walker.”
The girl gave a quiet huff, probably looking forward to piloting the machine, but she didn’t argue. It was probably for the best. Wyatt didn’t trust Travis to aim and fire the cannon, and Seline had better eyes than him.
“Strap in! This is not going to be a smooth ride.” At the crazy artificer’s words, Wyatt looked around for something to secure himself. It seemed they had anticipated a rough ride as there were several leather straps situated near the gun mounts.
He fiddled with them for a moment before figuring out they just clipped onto his belt. The belts seemed to allow for plenty of movement back and forth to operate the weapons but he was more worried about getting thrown off the side. He tested the length and found he could just reach the edge of the platform with a little slack remaining. Assuming the harness didn’t yank his belt off he supposed something was better than nothing.
As he was attaching the second belt, the walker jerked skyward, reminding Wyatt of those damnable elevators in the city. They always left his stomach feeling queasy when he rode them. He pushed down any discomfort he felt as he grabbed one of the ammo tubes for the rotary. It clicked into place just off to the side of the sights.
With his gun ready, he glanced over at Seline to see how she was doing. His Deputy had the cannon tilted straight up and was dropping the six-pound iron ball into the opening. Much like his gun, hers had a pressure gauge. Only instead of a single gauge, it had four. One for each pipe that led to the pressure tanks nearby. That tank fed into a thick leather hose that ran to the back of the cannon.
Sweat started to slick his hands when he thought of what would happen if those tanks or hoses burst. It was why he never much liked operating these types of guns. They didn’t just use pressurized air, they used pressurized superheated steam.
“Who’s gonna shovel the coal?” Wyatt asked.
Travis tapped a strange-looking sphere behind him. “Don’t worry about that, I got it covered.”
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
Before he could ask, the walker quickly moved from the yard, eating up the distance to the edge of town with quick strides.
He had raced horses as a kid, so he knew they were moving quite fast.
They soon came to the end of the street and had to turn. When they did, they were nearly face-to-face with one of those armored suits. The man was facing down an alley, but their arrival hadn’t gone unnoticed. The armored man was turning toward them when there was a loud *pop*. The walker lurched back slightly and Wyatt got to watch the cannonball slam into the surprised armored form to devastating effect.
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Those bastards might have armor thick enough to stop normal bullets, but six pounds of iron slamming into the chest plate left an impression. The nearly direct center shot caved in the thick bronze armor sending the poor bastard inside careening away from the alley, and whatever unlucky person was trapped within.
A moment later, Smith popped his head out. He looked at the suit, then back at them before holding up three fingers and pointing back the way he came. Wyatt nodded.
“Travis, take us to the other side of the block, we got three more armored suits to deal with.”
The man reversed the walker and they turned back down another street to make their way over.
As soon as they entered the street, the three armored forms spotted them. One even fired its steam rifle their way. The only thing that reached them though was a gust of hot air. Wyatt fired the rotary, its rounds pinging off the three suits. It didn’t do much but make them flinch in surprise, but it gave Seline time to line up her shot. The walker rocked again and the cannonball slammed into one of the armored form’s legs, tearing it clear from the body.
Wyatt wasn’t sure who screamed louder, the man who had his leg torn clean off, or Travis. “Gah! Don’t destroy them, girl, we need them for study.”
“Dammit, Uncle! We’re in a battle for our lives. We can worry about the damn automatons later!” The man grumbled but swung the walker around.
The two uninjured men were quickly closing the distance. And they would soon be in range to fire those steam weapons at them.
Wyatt removed the empty tube and clicked another in its place before swiveling the gun around and trying to shoot the moving targets while they were also moving. It was easier said than done as shots went wild as the walker lurched back and forth with each step.
“I can’t hit them if we’re moving this much!” Seline yelled.
“I can’t stop, they’ll catch up,” Travis replied.
But that wasn’t really true. The walker was much faster than the suits. “Stop at the end of the road and get ready to turn. Seline, you won’t have much time.”
The girl nodded, trying to keep the small cannon aimed at the oncoming armored forms.
“Almost there, get ready!” A few seconds later, the walker came to a rocking halt. But it wasn’t jerking side to side.
He fired off the remaining tube of ammunition, missing more than he hit. One of the forms juked sideways to try and throw off Seline’s aim, but the armored forms had much the same limitations as the walker did. Instead of moving gracefully sideways, the man faceplanted into the street.
Seline couldn’t have asked for an easier target. She fired. The cannonball impacted the dirt just short of the form, before bouncing off the hard-packed ground and into the top of the helmet, crumpling it in like a tin can.
Wyatt winced as he saw a spray of red exit the opening in the helmet. It was safe to say the man was dead. “Go!”
Travis turned the ungainly machine ninety degrees and took off once more as a stream of boiling water impacted the building right next to them.
Wyatt grimaced as the heat cooked his skin. Travis and Seline both screamed as the heat rolled over them but despite the pain, Travis kept the walker moving. Seline looked like she wanted to fall to the deck and clutch her face and arms but she stopped herself.
Wyatt whistled, getting her attention. She looked over at him, tears in her eyes. “If you can feel it, it isn’t that bad. Just like a sunburn. You can do this.”
The girl nodded and picked up another cannonball. She was careful not to touch the barrel with anything other than the thick leather gloves she wore. He didn’t blame her. The cannon had to be putting off a serious amount of heat by now. Which wasn’t going to help the burns she just received.
They quickly outdistanced their pursuer on this new street but the man never rounded the corner. They couldn’t go back, he was probably waiting just out of sight.
Instead of playing by the rules of the armored figure, he told Travis to take another route. They took a circuitous route around until they were back on that original street. Instead of stomping into the street with abandon, they slowly entered the intersection. The walker wasn’t exactly quiet no matter what they did, but it was significantly quieter when it wasn’t running full out.
By the time the armored form turned toward the sound, Seline already had him in her sights, and she was pissed. The round struck right for where the legs met the torso on the metal body. From the tenor screech that erupted from inside, her shot had done its intended damage.
They moved through the town, finding only one more armored form. They managed to kill the last attacker, but not before he had slaughtered a dozen Ember Creek citizens. Wyatt also put the rotary to good use clearing up groups of roaming Harc’otti. The land-bound warriors had no defense against his gun, and other than the occasional arrow fired their way, had no way to attack them or even get close. And once Seline switched to grapeshot, they didn’t even get to fire arrows before they all fell over dead.
Once they realized the enemy had been driven back, Travis quickly moved the walker back to his yard and under a water tower. He threw open a wooden trap door on the center of the platform and opened the valve on the tower, letting water practically flood the area they were standing on.
“What the hell!”
“Sorry, Wyatt. I had to get water in this before we ran out.”
“Whatever,” he grumbled. “Seline, how are your injuries?”
“They hurt, but I can manage.”
“Let me take a look,” He unbuckled himself and walked over to her. The woman’s face and arms were red, but there were no blisters. “You should be fine. Go see Doc as soon as you can though. He should have a cream to help with the pain.”
She nodded and the pair of them waited for Travis to finish up and put them on the ground so they could get off. It had been a long day, and it wasn’t over yet.