Tinker peered through the scope in the direction she indicated.
"It looks like they're a way out still," he commented. "They could get here faster, but my guess is they're pacing themselves by those balloons, which probably means they won’t push ahead. It might give us about half a day or maybe a little more. Alert Hammerhand and he’ll know we should start to put defenses in place and get the village folk who don't want to be involved in the imminent violence as far away as possible."
"Understood." She reclaimed her weapon from him. "You could always simply find yourself a scope, you know. There’s no need to have a weapon in your hands."
"That might work," Tinker said. "I expect there will be one I can scavenge should we live out the night."
Barrios and his supporters were jostled and shoved away from the bunker and toward the town. She wondered what was in store for them but decided it didn’t concern her. They had betrayed their community, and the community would rightfully decide their fates. "We have friends with us," she reminded Tinker, relieved that Auburn had embraced the freedom and the challenge.
"Let's hope they live out the night too." He chuckled but it sounded grim rather than amused. "Run along, lassie."
Chapter Thirty-Two
It proved to be far more difficult to prepare for an attack than Jessica13 had imagined. There were enough points of entry to make it a nightmare to defend the town itself and Hammerhand finally decided they would remove the fighting from the streets.
It was a wise decision, as there was too much risk that Athena would simply order her men to set fire to whatever they could reach during the battle.
Moving out of the town presented even more difficulties. With even three of their Knights away to defend the other town and the numbers that appeared to advance on them, they would be heavily outnumbered.
Hammerhand could hold the center of a line but he was vulnerable to being flanked. After discussion, they decided to find a ravine or small defile into which they could draw Athena's people and contain them. Hammerhand and the flawless efficiency of the Knights he commanded would be more than able to wear the enemy down until they were left with nothing and no one to fall back on.
That would only happen if they weren't flanked and surrounded, however. Still, this plan would mean they only needed to worry about rocket-powered mechs that would be able to break free and move over them to position themselves to attack their vulnerable points.
The forest around Auburn gave them the kind of cover that would help them to a degree, and a few dips in the landscape in the area would be the best places from which to defend the town.
Most of Jessica13’s time was used to locate places where they could move easier and put barriers up that would keep all but the most agile or rocket-powered mechs controlled. Hedgehogs were placed all over the area to funnel any attack through the shallow ravine they would guide the enemy forces to.
A few might be able to get over them and a few others would be able to destroy the obstacles, but either necessity would take time and expose them to the kind of attacks the Knights were ordered to perform should anyone try to get around the funnel Hammerhand attempted to create.
The townsfolk were enthusiastic enough to find ways to help as well. A few had willingly learned, assisted by Tinker, how to operate the mechs of the three Lancers, whose pilots had volunteered to man those Athena's people had left as they knew their way around such volatile mechs. The townsfolk elected to join the combat effort in the safer mechs while the commandeered Cinders would be positioned in line with Hammerhand as they were useful to prevent the attacks of their similar counterparts.
She thought it was a little ironic that the biggest weakness that plagued Cinders was other Cinders since they were vulnerable from the same close distances they needed to be in for their attacks to do any damage.
They were interesting mechs, which required very interesting pilots. Not many Knights used them as their main mechs but there were those that knew how.
Surprisingly, a number of the local people also opted to join the battle lines as support, using the mechs they used in the field. It was a brave decision given that none of them had any battle experience, but they at least knew their mechs and should be able to adapt to the role demanded of them. They gathered around Tinker and listened attentively as he instructed them as best he could in the time they had.
It wasn't long before the sky above them began to darken, even though it was barely midday and should have been the brightest time of day. The clouds gathered like a dense blanket that blocked the light and made it difficult to see what was around them. Oddly enough, even with the clouds and the filters in her HUD, the glare was intense and it was difficult to look at the sky without shielding her eyes.
The balloons were still a fair distance away, but those who monitored the advancing mechs were quick to note that they pushed ahead of their airborne guides once they were within twenty klicks of Auburn. It wasn't long before Jessica13 could confirm that the vanguards had entered the forest and shortly after, they encountered the first barriers that had been set up.
It was interesting to watch them attempt to navigate through the obstacles that had been positioned in a tight enough pattern that any mech would need to sidle sideways to get through. Very few were actually built to move sideways and certainly none of the larger, combat-oriented ones. Those that could were the smaller, lighter versions that were invariably support and would not be able to mount an assault on their own.
For the
