by S. S. Engle
“What’s going on sweetheart?”
“I think a shorter list to give you would be what’s not going on right now.”
“You didn’t say a single thing during the entire meeting. That’s unlike you not to interject at some point.”
“What we’ve done, what we’re about to do, it’s going to have lasting effects.”
“That’s the idea.”
“What if we’re destroying a clue along the way? What if we tear something apart that can’t be fixed? Then my father’s treasure will never be found.”
“We don’t need it anymore.”
“Did you raid a bank I don’t know about?”
“We are moving forward in another direction.”
“So, all that hard work you’ve put in for years, was it all for nothing?”
“I hardly call it nothing. Working on that treasure hunt brought me back to you. I wouldn’t take any of that back. And once this is all said and done, and Asa is dead, then we can get back to looking for what your father left for you. But killing Asa must be our top priority. I need you thinking clearly this morning.”
“I am thinking clearly.”
“Let me reword that, I need you focused sweetheart. And not on everything, just the task at hand. There’s too much at stake to be sidetracked. Have you spoken to the women about what they’re going to do?”
“I mentioned it. They aren’t the best navigators for the most part, but luckily we don’t have to go that far.”
“While I have the men scouring the city during the bombing raid I need the coasts secure to avoid a possible escape by the Ringers.”
“We will secure them. And Harlan told me he’s going to be at the palace. So, you have to avoid hitting it.”
“He told me too, and I already warned the men it’s off limits. Harlan wants to try and evacuate any innocents and hide them there until we can get a Dreadcrank force in there to extract them.”
“The only Dreadcrank force able of extraction would be the Lydia. You’re going to be the last one in the air, aren’t you?”
“Somebody has to be. I have the most skilled men on board with me. We’ll be just fine. We’ll squeeze the Ringers into the O’Brien mansion. If anything goes wrong and someone has to bail out of the mission early everyone knows to meet back at the palace as soon as possible. That goes for you and the women as well. We’ll use it as a basecamp. As far as I can tell the Ringers are oblivious to how extensive that basement really is. It’ll be safe from the bombs and fires down there. Harlan will be in charge, so it’s in good hands.”
“You two are getting along quite well now, aren’t you?”
“You can feel free to take the blame for that anytime you want.”
“I make no apologies.”
“I assumed so. Now the plan is still to be on Engia’s borders by sunrise. That’s five thirty. So, we’ll have to leave within the next half an hour at the very least in order to make it on time. Can you be ready by then?”
“We can be ready as soon as I leave and walk over to the submersibles.”
“Excellent! Just a word of caution for you and the women.”
“I’m all ears.”
“Be careful when you reach the coast. There’s not going to be any men with you, and I don’t want any of you to be taken advantage of. “
“We know the Ringer type better than you give us credit for.”
“I just want to stress caution. Don’t trust the appearances of a man if he tries to help you. Even salt looks like sugar.”
“We can more than handle ourselves. But thank you for worrying.”
“Make this one count sweetheart.”
“I intend to. We’ll hold the coasts as long as you need us to. But don’t take your sweet time coming with reinforcements. We’ve woken the city up now. We no longer hold the element of surprise.”
“We no longer need it.”
Something about the way he smiled gave Kassidy a resurgence of confidence she’d been lacking for a while. They broke from the empty meeting house and went to their respective stations. Luca was in the airfield running down the hot air balloons check lists for takeoff. All the bombs had been loaded, and metal debris from the junkyard was going to be used as accessory debris. The Lydia was laden down with tons of extra bombs and debris, and was going to lead the next wave of assaults on Engia. Once Luca set off that was Kassidy’s signal to load the submersibles. Small three person crafts capable of flight, splashdown, and underwater maneuvering. They were unarmed in their small structure, but Rusten Island had been stripped of most of its weapons for the women to take on shore with them. Lots of boxes of extra ammunition were carried with Kassidy. She was riding alone due to the extra weight. Leading her own force of rebels, she set herself loose of her ropes and floated downstream as the river on the island flowed over the edge. It was a less than graceful tumble down into the oceans below, but they were properly secured inside to make successful splashdown within a fifty-one second drop. Kassidy counted with clenched teeth and a death grip on her controls.
Upon landing, Kassidy remained on the surface to count the women who followed her. Seventeen submersibles in all, nearly fifty women had volunteered for the assault to secure the coasts. After a successful, and soaking wet splashdown, all the submersibles had made the drop successfully. Kassidy had to split their force to cover the entire coast, which stretched around half of the city. She assumed the safer side would be to take and hold the harbor on the southern end of the city by the train depot. She however stayed with the half of the force that was more than likely going to have their work cut out for them. Only the airfield and the O’Brien mansion was on the western side of the city, but seeing as how that’s where the Dreadcranks were trying to corner the Ringer, there was going to be a hotbed of activity awaiting the women as they came on shore. With a deep breath and an insincerely huge smile Kassidy took to her controls and dove underwater. There was no turning back now. It’d take less than half an hour to get to the shore line in good weather, but the wind was blowing harder as the sun got closer to cresting the horizon. It was making for rough waters ahead. As Kassidy pushed forward she hoped the men in the air were having a better go at things.
Anxieties were at an all-time high on the Lydia. The men could only keep up their macho facades so long as the women were around. Now that they were just amongst each other, the very real fears of being shot down again were creeping into every conversation Luca heard. The incessant pacing back and forth on the top deck was driving him insane, and he could only imagine what was happening below decks. Harlan was coming down with air sickness, a new development Luca was dreading would spread at the worst possible moment. In an effort to contain himself Harlan was locked inside Luca’s main quarters, sitting on the ground, barricaded between the wall and the desk. Luca couldn’t even see him from the outside windows. But as light began to break over the envelope up above the confidence of the men grew. Smoke could be seen rising from all parts of Engia. There was hardly anybody down in the streets doing anything to mend what had been torn apart. Steam was escaping mangled pipes in buildings, the outer wall was black and charred. Hoots and hollers of success could be heard all behind the Lydia as more and more balloons got closer to see the fruits of their midnight raid. Luca was pleased with the increasing morale, and dropped the first series of bombs along the street in the center of town where most of the utility factories were located. The cheers of joy from the Dreadcranks were deafening. It was even enough to pull a frightened and sickened Harlan from his hiding place.
“You’ve looked better O’Brien.”
“It’s begun.”
“It has.”
“Are you planning on dropping all of these bombs on the city?”
“Every single one.”
“There won’t even be a city left to live in after this. Why are you going to such great lengths?”
“Kassidy saved me by coming back when she did. I know she didn’t intend on it, it
just sort of happened. She put me back on course. She reminded me why I got started in all of this in the first place. She saved the Dreadcranks. Now it’s my turn to save her.”
“How is destroying the city saving her?”
“If I can kill Asa and all that he cares about, she’ll finally have closure for her father’s death. It’s the least I can do after everything she’s been put through. Now pay attention and get yourself to the rigging. I’m going to dock at the palace and let you off before making my go around of the city.”
“What’s my assignment?”
“I hadn’t planned on giving you one.”
“Please?”
“Secure the palace.”
“Then what?”
“Head to the coast and make sure the women are safe. We’re going to try and squeeze the Ringers all into the mansion. Then we can strike one location and make a lasting impact. I know it’s your home but…”
“That mansion has never been my home.”
“Good. Then we have nothing to worry about.”
“Lucky wait!”
“What?”
“Where is Kass going to be?”
“I let her decide that. But you can bet she’ll take the hardest stretch of coast for herself. You know how she hates to lose.”
“Where is the most difficult stretch of coast to secure you think?”
“If you’re asking me that now then you’ll never be able to help her.”
5
In what should have only taken a half an hour to reach shore, Kassidy and her team of women were still roughly five hundred yards out by an hour’s time. It was six thirty, and the heavy concussion blasts from the bombs were getting fewer and farer in-between. The sun was well up by now, and casting shadows on the beaches up ahead. The current was too course to stay underwater in the shallow approach so Kassidy made the executive decision to surface, and steer her landing force ahead that way. However, that led to their discovery much earlier than Kassidy had originally planned. Diverting her half away from the O’Brien mansion spared all but one of the submersibles. They were headed towards the airfields now, where the beaches were barricaded with metal bars and posts to try and keep the tides at bay for the usual air traffic up above. It was a hindrance now, and not one Kassidy had been looking forward to. But at full speed ahead she shoved her submersible through the first barricade she came up against, and ran herself aground onto the sandy beach. Now the real fight began.
As soon as Kassidy surfaced the Ringers from the shore began to take their posts in the airfields. All along the stretch of coastline there was a steady string of fire and steam coming from the city. Kassidy knew as the first to land she had to make some sort of formidable stand to encourage the rest of the women they could actually accomplish what they set out to do. There was no way they could fail. Their men were counting on them to secure the beaches. In her own submersible Kassidy was loading weapons in rapid fire succession. She had guns with bullets for long range, steam guns with water canisters for short range. Getting to the water though right now was an issue. The salt water from the ocean would cause the steam guns to malfunction after a few minutes, so she didn’t really want to rely on them to heavy if she didn’t have to. Her knife from Asa was tucked securely in her thigh sheath, and her corset was tied extra tight. She pulled her hair back from falling down in front of her eyes as she was loading extra clips to tuck away in her corset and thigh sheath band.
The seas were doing the women absolutely no favors as they abandoned the idea of being able to land on the beach as Kassidy had done ahead of them. By pulling herself up on the sand she rendered her getaway useless. Still aware of the possibility they’d have to turn tail and run, the rest of the women stayed just off shore and chose to wade through the last bit of surf and get through the barricades that way. But the Ringers held high ground over the beaches that sloped down into the ocean. As the women came out of the submersibles they were being shot on sight. Their bodies were bleeding into the submersibles, and into the water. Kassidy was watching the waves crash around her and the blood tinge in the water was disconcerting as she took a look around. The women didn’t stand a chance. Without finishing loading her weapons Kassidy emerged out of her submersible, half in half out, using it as a shelter as the women charged forward. The Ringers were picking them off too fast, and women were using bodies of their friends and family to shield themselves. Kassidy saw one girl, barely sixteen, running back towards the safety of the water and get shot in the back of the head. She dropped like a rock in a puddle. Her body flopping back and forth until the tide was able to pull her away.
Kassidy could not have foreseen such a one-sided slaughter. She felt personally responsible as each woman fell to her knees. The Ringers were showing no mercy as the women screamed for help. Kassidy jumped out and crouched down into the sand, crawling now on her elbows with a stash of guns in a sack dragging behind her tied to her knee. Across her arms, she had a long gun, with an extra clip in her mouth ready to go. She dug herself in on a natural hill in the beach and took in the carnage around her to see where she needed to strike out in front of her. To her left and right the shots were coming from the same central location. The flight control tower in the airfield. She sighted in her gun and took aim, but before she was able to fire off a single shot she was tossed to her side like a rag doll. The ringing in her ears was incessant, and blocked out all other noise of the women, fight, or the waves behind her. Women were rushing forward on both sides of her, but it looked like it was happening in slow motion. She was on her back now, and staring up at the sun. As she brought her hand up to try and shield her eyes a bullet just barely missed her, and whizzed between two of her fingers. That brought her back. She rolled over, covered in gritty wet sand, and began crawling forward again on her hands and knees. The bag of weapons still dragging behind her but her gun was a little farther away. A grenade had been thrown, nearly right on top of her. She could see the hole and debris in the sand where there used to be a hill she’d been using for cover. Now she had to take shelter behind the bars of the barricades, and the short three-foot cliff that rose to the airfield’s main platform.
Upon reaching the dwarfed cliff face Kassidy tugged her bag alongside her and opened it up. Again, she put the extra clips in her corset and mouth, and cocked her hand gun for rapid fire. She took position much faster than before and targeted all the windows in the tower. She busted all six facing her, and the return fire was halted for a few minutes. In a massive rallying cry, Kassidy jumped up onto the platform first, and was quickly followed
by women all along the coastline convening on the Ringer stronghold. There were hot air balloons now to take refuge behind. One by one Kassidy dodge attack after attack to come up to the tower base. Dead Ringers were left behind her like a tail of breadcrumbs. As the women followed her and had her back they finished any job Kassidy might have left undone. A group of four of them charged up the spiral staircase inside and managed to break the door down by shooting the hinges off their frame. But the tower had been abandoned with only six dead men left inside to have anything to show for it. Being short on ammunition as it was Kassidy let off only three victory shots out of the windows she had shattered to signal to her supporters that part of their mission had bene achieved. But the beaches were a grisly sight to behold form her vantage point now. The tide mark on the sand was blood red, and women’s bodies were strewn about like seaweed. Submersibles were still bobbing in the surf, some further out than others, barricades were broken, and grenades left gruesome debris of questionable nature. One girl behind Kassidy threw up upon seeing such a sight.
The women’s work was far from done though. Kassidy had split up their force in half, one to take the south end and one to take the west end. She could not see or hear how the women in the south were doing in the harbor, but she knew her post on the west ad achieved a pyrrhic victory. Only half of their half was secured as of yet. While they held part of the coast and the airfield,
there was still the corner of Engia where the O’Brien mansion was gated off. From up in the tower Kassidy could see the men running in from the streets and the alleys. That mansion was going to be hell to take. Up in the air most of the men in the hot air balloons were on the farther end of the city. Bombs were still being dropped. She could hear the blasts but not see them. The smoke was so thick, black and choking that up in the tower it was a fairly hostile environment. Kassidy didn’t stay there for long. Her fight was going to have to take place back on the ground. She reunited with her sack, slugged it over her steam scarred shoulder, and huddled the women around a hot air balloon for cover. They were going to have to charge the mansion, but without the intention of taking it. They had to convince the Ringers that they had to make a stand all collected together, but the women couldn’t go inside. With a future plan in place Kassidy sent two women as runners to try and reunite with the other half of their force in the harbor and tell them to push for the mansion. They’d be squeeze din on all sides, then the men would make their strike overhead. Kassidy was setting everything up as she was told to do. She just hoped everything on the men’s end of things were going as smoothly.
