The Prophet stiffened a little, and Jessica13 could tell he wasn't used to being spoken to like that. Fortunately, he seemed willing to move past it. "You must understand, of course, that such a thing has been attempted—and failed miserably, as well. While none would say the lives of those who tried were lost in vain, they were unable to breach even the first line of defense of the city, and thus made it difficult to know what lies within."
"What kind of defenses are we looking at?" This time, it was Hammerhand who interjected.
"The kind that even I, with my eight companies of mechs and vehicles, wouldn’t pose much of a threat to. You saw how they were able to assail the city with artillery. For the primary defense, they use the height advantage of the spire you can see from here. The aeries provide defense for sixteen heavy artillery mechs—heavier than anything I have ever seen in my years on this Earth. They can deliver enough power to obliterate any attacking army that advances. I have seen the effects of those mechs firing. If you approach the bunker yourself, the craters in the earth will be evidence enough for you as well."
The Knights’ leader sighed and shook his head. "We do appear to be at an impasse, then. We cannot leave Auburn to the mercy of those who would attack once more, and we cannot take the offensive to them either."
"There is something to be noted here." Levi paused to accept one of the same small silver cups the Prophet was drinking from. "Auburn is important to them. It is why they have committed so many troops to attack it and why they chose not to raze the town to the ground as they have in the past. Perhaps its food is the reason for that. I cannot imagine that an underground city would be able to feed itself properly, and they must therefore exploit those around it to survive."
Hammerhand's eyebrow raised as he accepted one of the tiny silver cups. "Well, that's something at least. If nothing else, we could starve them out."
Chapter Forty-Four
Jessica13 looked at each of the men in the room and tried to determine if they were serious or not. They talked about killing and attacking a large city that possessed the kinds of defenses she had only read about in the instructional texts on how land-based defenses were designed to ward off attacks from space.
Hell, the Katyushas the Prophet had made mention of had been designed to hit targets over the horizon. Of course, those mechs were made to be piloted by five or six people and could very well tear craters in the ground below.
And they talked about attacking it. The impossibility of surviving the assault on Auburn came to mind but comparing the two was like comparing apples to oranges that could destroy five or six mechs in a single shot.
She studied the group quietly and it seemed like they all came to the same realization as her. The sheer concept of trying to attack the Citadel bunker—or FEMA City, as he called it—was daunting. Even thinking about it sent a small chill into the pit of her stomach.
The Prophet continued after he’d given all present enough time to digest his words. "It is said that FEMA City was built with making starships in mind—the kind that rose into the skies to combat the Invaders. A dry dock, one might say, but with the sea above instead of below."
Everyone else in the room nodded, understanding the metaphor. She had no idea what a dry dock was, but she nodded as well because she didn’t want to seem ignorant to the people present.
"That makes sense," Tinker added. "They wouldn't have put those Katyushas simply anywhere but would have positioned them mostly in strategic locations, places that would need to be maintained in case of a battle. The sheer amount of energy needed to launch their projectiles… I can't even calculate how much power could go into that."
"One megajoule per every kilogram being launched," Jessica13 interjected when she recalled the texts she had been able to read. "The Katyushas were designed with a complex magnetic system to launch their projectiles, which usually weighed around five kilograms each. They heated them in the barrel without compromising the barrel itself, which allowed them to fire faster than if they were fired through explosives or fuel. The single downside was that the rounds needed to be loaded and locked into place by hand, with the calculations run by the main control of the mech. A skilled crew could load maybe five rounds a minute. Each Katyusha has two barrels to fire from, with three separate crews of two—two crews reload the barrels and one makes the calculations that would allow it to fire accurately."
She looked up and realized that the entire group had gone quiet and most eyes were on her. All but Levi, who looked away and took a sip from his tiny silver cup.
The Prophet grinned openly and nodded. "Yes, yes. Very good, child. How did you come by this knowledge?"
She looked at Tinker, who shrugged.
"They had them in instructional texts in the bunker where I grew up."
"They didn't teach me any of that stuff," the mechanic muttered.
"No one taught it to me either. I was digging around to find schematics on the Minato and they had the texts mixed in at Sanctuary's hard drives."
The Prophet still looked rather pleased that she had gotten the right idea from what had been shared. "Excellent. Excellent. The knowledge of the weapons is very good, indeed. Anyway, as we now know the power in the weapons that we would face, you should know what those defend. And of course, what they do not."
He dragged a handful of larger maps across the floor between them and
