The pack animal carrying the two humans moved slow, keeping Trevor and Nina a safe distance to the rear. In contrast, Trevor spied Fromm at the head of the second wave with his rifle held high and waving his men forward.
Exactly where a leader is supposed to be.
Meanwhile, the Behemoths weathered the withering fire from the battlements and pounded at the gates with their armor-plated shoulders. A few even launched their extending jaws to batter away at the barrier.
The gate held…it held…it bent ever so slightly…the metal hinges and locks groaned from the strain…the guns in the guard towers intensified, ripping more of the attackers into bloody pieces but the monsters did not stop.
Then came the first crack in the middle of the two heavy doors. The constant smashing of the Behemoths from their bodies and their punching jaws was too much. Even as guns and grenades turned another ten of their number into gory piles, the creatures focused on the task.
Trevor recognized that blind determination, that blind loyalty. He often witnessed it in his army of K9s back home.
Finally, both doors of the gate gave way, one falling flat to the ground with a heavy impact, the other swinging open.
The mass of smiling Behemoths-some stacked on top of one another in their hunger to punch through the wall-hovered at the open portal for a moment. The streets of the city lay ahead; streets of dirt and gravel running between the obsidian peaks of the Geryon buildings and the sad remnants of Chaktaw architecture.
Across from them waited the last line of defense before anarchy: one hundred Golems of the Steel Guard in tight formation with their camera-eyes glowing. Yet somehow those beaked robotic skulls did not look so horrid in the face of Fromm’s pets.
Overhead, the massive solitary propeller at the rear of the three-pronged Geryon air ship revolved, the big blades turning slowly and providing the vehicle forward momentum.
The Chaktaw rocket planes made another series of runs, each from a different direction. Despite their speed, the attackers suffered another casualty from the battleship's anti-air batteries. A damaged fighter careened into a flat spin like an out of control bottle rocket before falling to the city in a gold and black fireball.
Below, the Chaktaw infantry advanced to support the Behemoths as the latter rushed the Steel Guard. Those machines opened fire with missiles and heavy shells, shattering several circular maws and ripping away armor plating. Two…five…a dozen Behemoths fell by the time the horde reached the defenders…and smashed their line under a sea of armor and teeth.
Behind that vanguard of Jaw-Wolves, Chaktaw rifles found targets along the walls and short-range artillery hit Geryon infantry forming for a counter-attack.
Trevor expected the Jaw-Wolves and the Chaktaw soldiers to fan out once they breached the wall. Instead, the column of Behemoths and the following infantry stayed tightly formed and advanced along the main street, bulling through any opposition.
Suddenly, a burst of light caused Trevor to avert his eyes, as if he had accidentally gazed into the sun. It seemed the battleship had brought its main gun to bear, sweeping a stream of energy into the lead elements of the assault. In an instant, a score of Behemoths disintegrated leaving behind charred, lifeless shells.
Despite this show of power, the advance did not falter. More Jaw-Wolves took the place of their fallen comrades with no hesitation. Behind those monsters came row upon row of determined Chaktaw soldiers.
Overhead, the fighter planes did their best to draw off the blimp. Their guns rained across the surface of the battleship even as its anti-air batteries responded with methodical shelling.
Another of the flyers exploded in mid air.
Two planes remained. Small odds against the lumbering juggernaut yet those planes did not panic, did not shy off. Instead, they accelerated and whizzed over and under the dirigible at speeds approaching supersonic.
Nonetheless, another stream of energy hammered down from above, cutting a swath across the main thoroughfare. Not only were Behemoths and infantry melted alive, but many of the black buildings along the street crumpled and fell creating a chaotic mass of flames and dust.
One of the Chaktaw rockets strafed the bow of the giant air ship. Sparks flew from the dish-shaped energy weapon and it fell dark, obviously knocked out of commission, at least temporarily.
Fromm led his men forward through the crater lined with glass that had been his vanguard moments before. The number of Behemoth carcasses scattered in front of the city wall and along the center road began to pile up, but Fromm still counted dozens of the creatures in the attack's spearhead and hundreds more in reserve hidden behind the mountains to the west.
Trevor and Nina, on back of a pack animal and in the midst of another column of infantry, entered the city. Their ride wobbled around bodies and bones of Jaw-Wolves and stamped over the broken pale and black Geryon defenders as well as the metallic remains of the vaunted Steel Guard.
Far ahead at the tip of the spear, the battering ram of an army finally did disperse. Three distinct groups moved in three different directions. Two groups each headed for one of the big, rectangular structures.
The main group-with Fromm at the lead-aimed for the dark building that sat atop a wide pedestal, apparently the heart of the Geryon garrison.
A pair of Golems and two squads of infantry blocked his path taking cover in the ruins of an old Chaktaw market and behind a pair of armored, tracked vehicles that played the role of Geryon tanks.
Fromm met those defenses with a dozen Behemoths and three times that number in infantry, some armed with portable rocket launchers.
A fierce firefight ensued. The Golems stopped two of the giant beasts with well-placed missiles. The tanks opened fire with smaller versions of the dirigibles’ main energy weapon, frying another Behemoth and forcing much of the approaching infantry into cover.
For a moment, the Geryon infantry cheered. The buzz of electronic chatter from their ball gag like communicators sounded akin to a futuristic football team celebrating one good play. It would be the only good play of the day for the Geryons.
The wave of attackers once again poured forward. Portable rocket launchers hit and disabled both of the tracked vehicles. Chaktaw guns found their marks in the leather and metal uniforms of the defenders.
Then the Jaw-Wolves moved in for the final kill. The remaining enemy troops actually ran-not retreated-but ran. One was gobbled whole from behind as an extending jaw clamped over his screaming body.
The Golems held their ground only to be overwhelmed by small arms fire, grenades, and missiles.
Fromm moved his shock troops to the Geryon command center. A pair of his soldiers approached the heavy black and silver door at the base of the large pedestal. They attached round devices resembling thick gears. A moment later those gears whirred to life and spun-drilled-into the surface of the door. Sparks and smoke billowed from their rapid movement; metal flaked away from the door.
The devices buried themselves into the door, stopped, and then they exploded. The surface of the bulkhead rippled as if liquefied, then fell into pieces like shattered glass leaving only a thick cloud.
A torrent of enemy fire shot out from the confines of the building.
Two Chaktaw wearing tube-like back packs attached to hoses took position to either side of the open door frame and waited. Fromm rolled a round device between his men into the cloud. A second later a brilliant flash and sparks erupted, followed by the garbled cries of Geryon defenders.
The two back-pack-wearing soldiers fired a wide stream of gushing acid swaying that stream side to side like firemen dousing flames.
More screams and a sickening sizzling sound.
While the Behemoths could not fit into the tight confines of the building, Fromm sent his troops rushing inside. They met a handful of disorientated and injured Geryons still trying to protect a spiral stair case in the center of a round chamber. That last band of pitiful protectors was brushed aside and fell next to the melted remains of their comrades caught in the acid bath.
As Fromm’s force climbed those stairs, the floating Geryon battleship’s defenses scored another critical hit on one of the flying attackers. The fourth of the original five fighter planes was swatted from the sky. Its thin frame broke into two pieces-one burning-and fluttered to the ground.
Trevor and Major Forest on lizard-back moved toward the center of town where the battle seemed to enter its final stages. Trevor did not have to see the fights at the front lines to know that things went well for the Chaktaw; he could practically smell their victory among the stench of burning metal carried on a crisp ocean breeze
