Fic, Dreadnought, Part 7 of 8, Ryan, 15
Nov. 6th, 2020 07:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fredbassettTitle : Dreadnought, Part 7 of 8
Author : fredbassett
Fandom : Primeval
Rating : 15
Characters : Ryan, Claudia, Becker, Lester, Lorraine
Disclaimer : Not mine, no money made, don’t sue.
Spoilers : None
Word Count: 20,000, split into eight parts.
Summary : Waking up in the Permian under a pile of rock wasn’t a high point in Ryan’s life, nor was jumping out of the frying pan into the fire, but then help comes along from a very unexpected direction.
A/N : This fic was started four years ago for the![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
primeval_denial art fic challenge for this wonderful artwork by the very talented ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tli. Naturally, it grew into an utter monster all too quickly and when it became obvious I’d never finish it in time, I wrote The World After as a prequel.
Much to Ryan’s surprise, their luck continued to hold. The tower’s defenders were not expecting sabotage from within and clearly Lester’s disappearance had not yet been noticed, but it was only a matter of time before the knife wounds on some of the bodies on the outer defences were noticed. Wherever possible, Ryan and Lorraine tipped the bodies of their victims over the walls, and Ryan wished he’d thought to do that with the first few men they’d dispatched. He hoped that mistake wouldn’t come back to haunt them.
Lorraine proved to be a brave and resourceful companion, quick-witted, fearless and utterly ruthless when the occasion demanded. She matched him kill for kill, but it was clear that she took no pleasure in the work. It was simply a means to an end. And the end was survival.
They worked their way around the outer defences, taking out as many gun batteries as they could, either turning them onto the tower or – in some cases – simply heaving them over the walls. Ryan was impressed with how much mayhem they’d been able to create. Confusion was everywhere, and he added to it as much as he could, yelling orders and expecting to be obeyed. His old sergeant in Hereford had often told him that if you put enough confidence into a command, most soldiers would simply jump to obey. The trick was not to entertain any self-doubt, something that Ryan was not usually troubled with, even now, deep in enemy territory with no extraction plan in place, he was still demanding – and receiving – obedience.
Exfil wouldn’t go amiss as he couldn’t see them keeping this plan up for more longer, but there was no one who could get close enough to extract them from this battlegroumd.
“Ryan!” Lorraine’s voice was low and urgent. He felt her hand tugging at his sleeve. “Did you see it?”
“See what?” He’d been looking up at the battlements above them. Smoke was rising in the still air, and he could see a red glow against the night sky.
“A flare, to the east. I think they’ve made it out.” Her eyes were bright with the flush of success.
“One of the ships will need to get down to them. We’ve got to keep this lot busy a while longer then…” Ryan slung the M4 off his shoulder. “I need a firing position.”
Lorraine looked around. “There!” She pointed at a tall tower rising into the air from the level they were on. It looked like a spotter’s position, but whoever had been up there seemed to have joined the general melee on the walls as he couldn’t see any movement on the walls.
Ryan turned the options over in his mind. They’d done well so far by keeping moving, but the airships he could see already peeling off from the fleet would be a sitting duck for any of the gun batteries that were still operating.
They were moving to an end game now and Ryan knew he had to give the craft the best possible chance of picking up Becker and Lester.
“Get back inside. Ditch the blood-stained clothes and look like you’re terrified. There’s nothing to be gained by both of us getting nailed.”
The look she gave him wouldn’t have been out of place on the face of his old drill sergeant. Withering didn’t do it justice.
“I’m not going to dignify that suggestion with a reply.”
Despite the situation, Ryan grinned. “I think you just did. Last chance…”
“We stay together.”
He wasn’t going to waste more time in discussion. If he was going to die, it would be an honour to do it beside this determined, courageous woman.
“OK, let’s do this.” Ryan started to run for the door at the base of the tower. A man turned to them, a heavy pistol in his hand that resembled the old broom-handled Mausers. Ryan’s Sig cleared the thigh holster in one smooth movement, and he put a bullet into the man’s head, resisting the urge to double-tap. The man had barely stopped moving before Lorraine was dragging the pistol out of his grip and relieving him of any spare ammunition.
Ryan grabbed the collar of the man’s jacket and hauled the body into the open door at the base of the tower. Using the torch attachment on his rifle, he was pleased to see that the door could be barred from the inside by dropping a heavy wooden rail in place. While he was dealing with that, Ryan heard booted feet clattering on the stairs.
“Mine,” Lorraine murmured. She quickly checked the magazine in the heavy-calibre pistol and nodded in satisfaction. A moment later, she took up position at the bottom of the staircase and waited.
The footsteps came closer, and a voice called out, “Bill, what the hell are you playing at?”
“Help…” Lorraine’s voice sounded weak and terrified. She dragged one booted foot along the flagged floor and let out a pained sob.
“What the…?” A man stuck his head around the bottom of the stairs and stared into Lorraine’s resolute brown eyes a second before she shot him between his own pair of surprised – and a second later, sightless – eyes. She watched him crumple to the floor, dead before he’d even had a chance to realise he was in danger.
There was no hint of triumph on Lorraine’s face, just sadness.
She turned to Ryan and asked, “What now?”
“I pick off as many of their gun batteries as I can from here and you try to keep me alive.”
A faint smile quirked her lips. “Sounds like a good plan.”
Ryan took the stairs two at a time, his Sig in his hand, but they encountered no more opposition. A trapdoor led up onto the battlemented roof. Ryan stayed low, keeping his head below the metre and a half high wall as he looked around for a relatively safe firing position.
His eyes widened in awed surprise. As Lorraine climbed through the hatch he said quietly, “We’ve hit the fucking jackpot.”
In the middle of the roof sat one of the anti-aircraft guns Ryan and Lorraine had just been taking out of action. The tower wasn’t a spotting tower, it was an artillery emplacement. The sleek lines of a heavy, matt grey gun barrel mounted on a tripod on top of another revolving platform were balm to eyes that itched with fatigue. He elevated his initial estimate to ‘fucking awesome’. Instead of one barrel, there were five cylinders welded together into one deadly whole. This wasn’t a single shot wonder; it was a weapon of war capable of wreaking havoc at long distance. There was even a large chest of belt fed ammunition against one wall.
“Hotchkiss revolving cannon,” Lorraine said.
“I think I’m in love with Mr Hotchkiss.”
“Miss, actually. Miss Jane Louisa Belladonna Hotchkiss. Her brother Tennison designed the one you were using earlier, but Jane preferred something more than just a one-shot wonder. Share value in the company increased exponentially when this came onto the market.”
“Definitely not a one-shot wonder,” Ryan said, settling himself behind the cannon and checking how the belt feed worked. It seemed simple enough. Weapons of mass destruction usually were. “This little beauty’ll have staying power, and that’s what we need right now.”
Ryan slid the strap of the M4 off his shoulder and held the carbine to Lorraine. “Do you want to give this a go?”
She shook her head. “Not while I still have ammunition left. We can’t afford to waste bullets while I trial a new weapon.”
She had a point. Besides, they had something with infinitely more clout now, and Ryan was determined to put their new acquisition to good use.
And so began their desperate attempt to disrupt the stronghold’s assault on the fleet. Ryan harnessed the devastating power of the Hotchkiss revolving cannon and trained it on the other gun batteries, none of which had been expected an assault from within their own fortress. Ryan was as sparing as he could be with the ammunition at his disposal, but even so, the tower’s remaining gun emplacements started to fall, one by one, while the airship that had broken away from the main fleet descended to the plain.
The fortress commanders were slow to realise they were under attack from within. The darkness played into Ryan’s hands as all that could be seen was the spit of fire from the muzzle flash of their respective weapons, and those were masked by repeated flashes from around them. As part of their cover, Ryan sent the occasional forward-facing burst of fire just to keep up the illusion of combat directed at Claudia Brown’s valiant crews, but each time he aimed too low to be any threat to the airships.
Lorraine kept watch, but so far there had been no threat to their activities. Confusion reigned and they exploited that to the full.
“Has that airship picked up yet?” Ryan asked, as he swung the gun platform around for one more shot at a gun emplacement high up on the towers that was menacing the Dreadnought, so far to no avail, but he had no idea how long Claudia Brown’s luck would hold, and anything he could do to buy her the space to pick up Becker and Lester would be worth the price.
“She’s rising again!” Lorraine told him. “They’re getting away!
Ryan flung his weight sideways, swivelling the platform back towards the plain. He aimed well below the fleet, but the muzzle flash would be in the right direction, confusing – he hoped – anyone who might be watching them. He fired repeatedly, strafing the ground, the shots posing no danger to any airship in the fleet.
When the dead man’s click of an empty barrel came, Ryan thrust himself out of the gunnery seat and grabbed Lorraine by the arm. “Time to exit stage left….”
She looked at him, questioningly. “You’ve got a plan?”
“Maybe. How suicidal are you feeling?”
“I’d prefer to avoid any extravagant gestures if I can.”
He grinned. “Good. Can you get us out of her to the entrance to the tunnels without being seen?”
“Almost certainly not.”
“Good. Let’s get moving.”
She sighed. “You really are an exasperating man at times, Captain Ryan.”
“So I’ve been told. But I’m still alive, so that must count for something.” He slung the M4 across his back and picked up one of the blunderbusses that Lorraine had taken off the dead men. Without further explanation, he jogged down the stairs and unbarred the heavy door. Before venturing out, he stooped to pull a leather cap off the head of one of the dead men. It was too big but would have to do.
Outside the tower, men ran around carrying ammunition boxes. An idea formed quickly in his head and Ryan acted on it, taking the stairs two at a time to reach the top of the tower. He pulled the lid down on one of the empty wooden boxes that had held the belt-fed bullets for the artillery he’d taken over and dragged it down the steps. He quickly slung his M4 in the chest, hiding the unfamiliar weapon from any prying eyes. Lorraine grabbed the handle at one end and took the lead, with Ryan holding the other end.
They joined the chaos, unnoticed by the defenders on the wall.
Lorraine picked her way through the mayhem that she’d been instrumental in causing. No one questioned them. Ryan occasionally barked orders, telling men to get out of their way in harsh, clipped tones that provoked rapid and unquestioning obedience. The real test would come when they left the walls and ventured back inside the citadel.
Their luck seemed to hold and they drew no comment or challenge. Lorraine moved with easy confidence and Ryan fell into step behind her, holding the handles of the ammunition crate, Their faces were in shadow and they avoided all eye contact as the ran though the darkened corridors.
“Men needed on the outer walls!” Ryan yelled, whenever they met anyone coming towards them. “Move it! We’re taking losses there!”
By the time they had to abandon the crate and make their way down through the bowels of the citadel, they’d already started to pass fewer and fewer people and the rest of the journey passed in an adrenaline-fueled blur until they reached the empty corridor that Ryan recognised from his arrival in the rocky fortress.
“You’re not joking, are you?” Lorraine said, as they came to a halt by a section of blank wall, several floors below the lowest of the outer ramparts.
“Not known for my sense of humour when it comes to certain death,” Ryan said, trying hard to ignore the pain from his injured leg, and the fact that Lorraine’s hastily applied dressings were now leaking blood.
“Your motivational speaking is rubbish.”
“So I’ve been told. I normally just rely on yelling orders loudy.” He used his knife to cut a strip of fabric from the cuff of his jacket and quickly twisted chunks of it into crude earplugs that would be better than nothing as they ran through the noise zone. He handed two to Lorraine. “Don’t waste ammunition. Only a headshot stands a good chance of taking them down. We need to move fast and kill as many of the fuckers as we can. Stay close to me.” He flicked on the under-barrel torch on his M4. “OK, let’s get moving.”
She operated the lever to open the secret door and waved to Ryan to take the lead.
The earplugs took the edge off the excruciating pain of the noise being projected into the tunnels. Ryan ploughed on down the steps and started to retrace his previous route as fast as he could, trusting to Lorraine’s ability to stay hard on his heels. He caught glimpses of the skeletal predators, but none of them were close enough or determined enough to warrant the expenditure of precious ammunition.
Sweat stood out on his skin with the exertion but he did not dare slacken their pace. Once they got out of reach of the noise, that was when the danger would become acute. For now, they could rely on the creatures sensitive hearing keeping them at bay.
Ahead, Ryan could see the rockfall that had almost barred their way on the way in through the tunnels. Their troubles would really start now. He would have to trust to Lorraine’s ability to shoot straight, and his own, for that matter.
He pulled the material plugs out of his ears and she did the same. “It’s not far to the other side. Just don’t let the fuckers grab you as you go through.!
“I’ll do my best,” she panted. “You don’t want much, do you?”
“Peace and goodwill for all?”
“Fuck that,” she responded. “I’ll settle for staying alive.”
“Thought you might.” Ryan dropped to his hands and knees, ignoring the pain from the hard rock, and started to move as fast as he could in the constricted space left between the roof fall and the talus cone of rubble. He pushed his rife ahead of him, the torch beam shining in front of him as he wriggled and thrutched, ignoring the drag on his increasingly tattered clothing.
The sudden roar of a gun blast behind him sent a jolt of adrenaline through his system. Through the ringing in his ears he heard Lorraine let rip with a string of curses that would have sounded more at home on the lips of one of his fellow captains in a world that he would almost certainly never see again.
He kept moving. That was all he could do.
Around him, the passage enlarged again, and he knew he’d come through the collapse. The danger would increase tenfold now.
Claws raked his back. Ryan twisted on the ground, bringing up his rifle and sending a three-round burst into the head of the hairless fucked that had tried to jump him. Bone and brain matter sprayed his face. Ryan dashed a hand across his face and came up into a squatting position, throwing the light from his torch around the chamber. Predators scuttled away like cockroaches, clinging to walls and roof as easily as they scurried across the floor.
With no immediate danger threatening, Ryan cast the beam of his torched back into the rockfall, trying not to blind Lorraine as she wriggled through with dust-coloured grace and another burst of creative swearing. Around him on the floor lay the remains of the predators he’d shot when he and Becker had forced their way through the fighting creatures on their way to the collapse. Some of them had now been partially dismembered, no doubt providing food for their own kind. Apart from eating each other he had no idea what the fucking things lived on in these barren tunnels. Maybe they were chucked food and treated like the world’s ugliest guard dogs.
Ryan held out a hand and hauled Lorraine to her feet, then dropped to one knee and fired another burst as a deterrent into the hole that she had just vacated. A hefty kick at the fractured roof of the low crawlspace was rewarded by a large block dropping to block the way, trapping any soul stealers pursuing them on the wrong side of the collapse.
Ryan still stamped mercilessly on any hope before it even had time to make itself felt. They had a long way to go before getting out of the tunnels, and if his hunch proved wrong, they might still die in the godforsaken tunnels.
“Can you carry on?”
Lorraine was covered in dust and dirt from the scramble through the rocks but the determination in her eyes told him all he needed to know. Together, they made their way on through the mix of tunnels and natural cave passage as quickly as they could, Ryan’s torch beam lighting their way. His biggest fear in the larger caverns was the bastard things dropping on them from above but so far they were making good progress.
They had limited ammunition and even more limited survival choices. Going on was all they could do, even if it did mean facing almost certain death. Ryan grinned ruefully in the semi-darkness. He’d not expected to survive this mission but giving up had never been his style.
The scrabble of claws on the passage wall alerted him to trouble looming.
Lorraine’s reaction time was incredible. The shotgun in her hands boomed and the predator dropped, its brains spraying the walls. He admired her ice-cold calm.
They kept moving. So far, they’d been lucky. The creatures had only come at them in ones and twos, but they were running through their ammunition at a faster rate than he liked. It was time to change weapons. Ryan paused for a moment and pulled out the nail gun Becker had given him and stuffed the spare cartridges into a pocket. It was an ugly sod, reminding him of some of the early Eastern bloc machine pistols.
Something crashed into him from the side, knocking him off balance. The stink of fetid breath was far too close for comfort. Ryan twisted around and shoved the nail gun between the slavering jaws, pulling the trigger. A burst of iron nails ripped through the soul stealer’s brain and it fell backwards, spindly arms and legs flopping like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
The gun might be ugly, but it was certainly effective.
With the M4 tucked under his left arm acting as no more then a torch, he kept hold of the nail gun. He’d keep the carbine and the shotgun for longer range work when they hit the largest of the caverns. It was easy to lose track of how far they’d come. The mined tunnels were largely featureless, the areas of natural cavern were a jumble of fallen blocks, some of which they were forced to clamber over. They came under determined assault twice. Ryan now sported a long rip in his left sleeve, matched by a corresponding gash in his flesh. He barely felt it over the adrenaline rush in his system. He just hoped the blood tracking down his arm wouldn’t foul his grip.
Lorraine was limping now from a slash across her thigh. When he suggested they pause to bind it, she shook her head. “No time, need to keep moving.”
The only thing in their favour was that the noise of their weapons provided a temporary respite as the creature’s ultra-sensitive hearing was disrupted but they had to be lucky all the time. The predators only had to be lucky once. A strike to the neck would almost certainly be fatal and if claws or teeth nicked a major blood vessel, they would bleed out on the passage floor.
Ryan dashed the back of his hand over the sweat running down his forehead. The tunnels were oppressively warm in places and at times it was hard to breathe. He suspected some build up of carbon dioxide but that was the least of his worries. He could tell from the echo of their footfall that they were fast approaching the largest cavern where the fucking things had swarmed liked hornets on his way in with Becker.
He stopped and turned to Lorraine. “If they take me down, just run.”
“If I said the same, would you do it?”
“Has anyone ever told you you’re stubborn?”
Her dark eyes flashed with humour. “My first boyfriend. I dumped him the following day. You didn’t answer my question, Ryan.”
He gave it up as a bad job. “It’s been a privilege to fight by your side, Ms Wickes.”
“It’s been a privilege to fight by yours, Captain Ryan.”
Side by side they stepped into the chamber.
Author : fredbassett
Fandom : Primeval
Rating : 15
Characters : Ryan, Claudia, Becker, Lester, Lorraine
Disclaimer : Not mine, no money made, don’t sue.
Spoilers : None
Word Count: 20,000, split into eight parts.
Summary : Waking up in the Permian under a pile of rock wasn’t a high point in Ryan’s life, nor was jumping out of the frying pan into the fire, but then help comes along from a very unexpected direction.
A/N : This fic was started four years ago for the
primeval_denial art fic challenge for this wonderful artwork by the very talented tli. Naturally, it grew into an utter monster all too quickly and when it became obvious I’d never finish it in time, I wrote The World After as a prequel.Much to Ryan’s surprise, their luck continued to hold. The tower’s defenders were not expecting sabotage from within and clearly Lester’s disappearance had not yet been noticed, but it was only a matter of time before the knife wounds on some of the bodies on the outer defences were noticed. Wherever possible, Ryan and Lorraine tipped the bodies of their victims over the walls, and Ryan wished he’d thought to do that with the first few men they’d dispatched. He hoped that mistake wouldn’t come back to haunt them.
Lorraine proved to be a brave and resourceful companion, quick-witted, fearless and utterly ruthless when the occasion demanded. She matched him kill for kill, but it was clear that she took no pleasure in the work. It was simply a means to an end. And the end was survival.
They worked their way around the outer defences, taking out as many gun batteries as they could, either turning them onto the tower or – in some cases – simply heaving them over the walls. Ryan was impressed with how much mayhem they’d been able to create. Confusion was everywhere, and he added to it as much as he could, yelling orders and expecting to be obeyed. His old sergeant in Hereford had often told him that if you put enough confidence into a command, most soldiers would simply jump to obey. The trick was not to entertain any self-doubt, something that Ryan was not usually troubled with, even now, deep in enemy territory with no extraction plan in place, he was still demanding – and receiving – obedience.
Exfil wouldn’t go amiss as he couldn’t see them keeping this plan up for more longer, but there was no one who could get close enough to extract them from this battlegroumd.
“Ryan!” Lorraine’s voice was low and urgent. He felt her hand tugging at his sleeve. “Did you see it?”
“See what?” He’d been looking up at the battlements above them. Smoke was rising in the still air, and he could see a red glow against the night sky.
“A flare, to the east. I think they’ve made it out.” Her eyes were bright with the flush of success.
“One of the ships will need to get down to them. We’ve got to keep this lot busy a while longer then…” Ryan slung the M4 off his shoulder. “I need a firing position.”
Lorraine looked around. “There!” She pointed at a tall tower rising into the air from the level they were on. It looked like a spotter’s position, but whoever had been up there seemed to have joined the general melee on the walls as he couldn’t see any movement on the walls.
Ryan turned the options over in his mind. They’d done well so far by keeping moving, but the airships he could see already peeling off from the fleet would be a sitting duck for any of the gun batteries that were still operating.
They were moving to an end game now and Ryan knew he had to give the craft the best possible chance of picking up Becker and Lester.
“Get back inside. Ditch the blood-stained clothes and look like you’re terrified. There’s nothing to be gained by both of us getting nailed.”
The look she gave him wouldn’t have been out of place on the face of his old drill sergeant. Withering didn’t do it justice.
“I’m not going to dignify that suggestion with a reply.”
Despite the situation, Ryan grinned. “I think you just did. Last chance…”
“We stay together.”
He wasn’t going to waste more time in discussion. If he was going to die, it would be an honour to do it beside this determined, courageous woman.
“OK, let’s do this.” Ryan started to run for the door at the base of the tower. A man turned to them, a heavy pistol in his hand that resembled the old broom-handled Mausers. Ryan’s Sig cleared the thigh holster in one smooth movement, and he put a bullet into the man’s head, resisting the urge to double-tap. The man had barely stopped moving before Lorraine was dragging the pistol out of his grip and relieving him of any spare ammunition.
Ryan grabbed the collar of the man’s jacket and hauled the body into the open door at the base of the tower. Using the torch attachment on his rifle, he was pleased to see that the door could be barred from the inside by dropping a heavy wooden rail in place. While he was dealing with that, Ryan heard booted feet clattering on the stairs.
“Mine,” Lorraine murmured. She quickly checked the magazine in the heavy-calibre pistol and nodded in satisfaction. A moment later, she took up position at the bottom of the staircase and waited.
The footsteps came closer, and a voice called out, “Bill, what the hell are you playing at?”
“Help…” Lorraine’s voice sounded weak and terrified. She dragged one booted foot along the flagged floor and let out a pained sob.
“What the…?” A man stuck his head around the bottom of the stairs and stared into Lorraine’s resolute brown eyes a second before she shot him between his own pair of surprised – and a second later, sightless – eyes. She watched him crumple to the floor, dead before he’d even had a chance to realise he was in danger.
There was no hint of triumph on Lorraine’s face, just sadness.
She turned to Ryan and asked, “What now?”
“I pick off as many of their gun batteries as I can from here and you try to keep me alive.”
A faint smile quirked her lips. “Sounds like a good plan.”
Ryan took the stairs two at a time, his Sig in his hand, but they encountered no more opposition. A trapdoor led up onto the battlemented roof. Ryan stayed low, keeping his head below the metre and a half high wall as he looked around for a relatively safe firing position.
His eyes widened in awed surprise. As Lorraine climbed through the hatch he said quietly, “We’ve hit the fucking jackpot.”
In the middle of the roof sat one of the anti-aircraft guns Ryan and Lorraine had just been taking out of action. The tower wasn’t a spotting tower, it was an artillery emplacement. The sleek lines of a heavy, matt grey gun barrel mounted on a tripod on top of another revolving platform were balm to eyes that itched with fatigue. He elevated his initial estimate to ‘fucking awesome’. Instead of one barrel, there were five cylinders welded together into one deadly whole. This wasn’t a single shot wonder; it was a weapon of war capable of wreaking havoc at long distance. There was even a large chest of belt fed ammunition against one wall.
“Hotchkiss revolving cannon,” Lorraine said.
“I think I’m in love with Mr Hotchkiss.”
“Miss, actually. Miss Jane Louisa Belladonna Hotchkiss. Her brother Tennison designed the one you were using earlier, but Jane preferred something more than just a one-shot wonder. Share value in the company increased exponentially when this came onto the market.”
“Definitely not a one-shot wonder,” Ryan said, settling himself behind the cannon and checking how the belt feed worked. It seemed simple enough. Weapons of mass destruction usually were. “This little beauty’ll have staying power, and that’s what we need right now.”
Ryan slid the strap of the M4 off his shoulder and held the carbine to Lorraine. “Do you want to give this a go?”
She shook her head. “Not while I still have ammunition left. We can’t afford to waste bullets while I trial a new weapon.”
She had a point. Besides, they had something with infinitely more clout now, and Ryan was determined to put their new acquisition to good use.
And so began their desperate attempt to disrupt the stronghold’s assault on the fleet. Ryan harnessed the devastating power of the Hotchkiss revolving cannon and trained it on the other gun batteries, none of which had been expected an assault from within their own fortress. Ryan was as sparing as he could be with the ammunition at his disposal, but even so, the tower’s remaining gun emplacements started to fall, one by one, while the airship that had broken away from the main fleet descended to the plain.
The fortress commanders were slow to realise they were under attack from within. The darkness played into Ryan’s hands as all that could be seen was the spit of fire from the muzzle flash of their respective weapons, and those were masked by repeated flashes from around them. As part of their cover, Ryan sent the occasional forward-facing burst of fire just to keep up the illusion of combat directed at Claudia Brown’s valiant crews, but each time he aimed too low to be any threat to the airships.
Lorraine kept watch, but so far there had been no threat to their activities. Confusion reigned and they exploited that to the full.
“Has that airship picked up yet?” Ryan asked, as he swung the gun platform around for one more shot at a gun emplacement high up on the towers that was menacing the Dreadnought, so far to no avail, but he had no idea how long Claudia Brown’s luck would hold, and anything he could do to buy her the space to pick up Becker and Lester would be worth the price.
“She’s rising again!” Lorraine told him. “They’re getting away!
Ryan flung his weight sideways, swivelling the platform back towards the plain. He aimed well below the fleet, but the muzzle flash would be in the right direction, confusing – he hoped – anyone who might be watching them. He fired repeatedly, strafing the ground, the shots posing no danger to any airship in the fleet.
When the dead man’s click of an empty barrel came, Ryan thrust himself out of the gunnery seat and grabbed Lorraine by the arm. “Time to exit stage left….”
She looked at him, questioningly. “You’ve got a plan?”
“Maybe. How suicidal are you feeling?”
“I’d prefer to avoid any extravagant gestures if I can.”
He grinned. “Good. Can you get us out of her to the entrance to the tunnels without being seen?”
“Almost certainly not.”
“Good. Let’s get moving.”
She sighed. “You really are an exasperating man at times, Captain Ryan.”
“So I’ve been told. But I’m still alive, so that must count for something.” He slung the M4 across his back and picked up one of the blunderbusses that Lorraine had taken off the dead men. Without further explanation, he jogged down the stairs and unbarred the heavy door. Before venturing out, he stooped to pull a leather cap off the head of one of the dead men. It was too big but would have to do.
Outside the tower, men ran around carrying ammunition boxes. An idea formed quickly in his head and Ryan acted on it, taking the stairs two at a time to reach the top of the tower. He pulled the lid down on one of the empty wooden boxes that had held the belt-fed bullets for the artillery he’d taken over and dragged it down the steps. He quickly slung his M4 in the chest, hiding the unfamiliar weapon from any prying eyes. Lorraine grabbed the handle at one end and took the lead, with Ryan holding the other end.
They joined the chaos, unnoticed by the defenders on the wall.
Lorraine picked her way through the mayhem that she’d been instrumental in causing. No one questioned them. Ryan occasionally barked orders, telling men to get out of their way in harsh, clipped tones that provoked rapid and unquestioning obedience. The real test would come when they left the walls and ventured back inside the citadel.
Their luck seemed to hold and they drew no comment or challenge. Lorraine moved with easy confidence and Ryan fell into step behind her, holding the handles of the ammunition crate, Their faces were in shadow and they avoided all eye contact as the ran though the darkened corridors.
“Men needed on the outer walls!” Ryan yelled, whenever they met anyone coming towards them. “Move it! We’re taking losses there!”
By the time they had to abandon the crate and make their way down through the bowels of the citadel, they’d already started to pass fewer and fewer people and the rest of the journey passed in an adrenaline-fueled blur until they reached the empty corridor that Ryan recognised from his arrival in the rocky fortress.
“You’re not joking, are you?” Lorraine said, as they came to a halt by a section of blank wall, several floors below the lowest of the outer ramparts.
“Not known for my sense of humour when it comes to certain death,” Ryan said, trying hard to ignore the pain from his injured leg, and the fact that Lorraine’s hastily applied dressings were now leaking blood.
“Your motivational speaking is rubbish.”
“So I’ve been told. I normally just rely on yelling orders loudy.” He used his knife to cut a strip of fabric from the cuff of his jacket and quickly twisted chunks of it into crude earplugs that would be better than nothing as they ran through the noise zone. He handed two to Lorraine. “Don’t waste ammunition. Only a headshot stands a good chance of taking them down. We need to move fast and kill as many of the fuckers as we can. Stay close to me.” He flicked on the under-barrel torch on his M4. “OK, let’s get moving.”
She operated the lever to open the secret door and waved to Ryan to take the lead.
The earplugs took the edge off the excruciating pain of the noise being projected into the tunnels. Ryan ploughed on down the steps and started to retrace his previous route as fast as he could, trusting to Lorraine’s ability to stay hard on his heels. He caught glimpses of the skeletal predators, but none of them were close enough or determined enough to warrant the expenditure of precious ammunition.
Sweat stood out on his skin with the exertion but he did not dare slacken their pace. Once they got out of reach of the noise, that was when the danger would become acute. For now, they could rely on the creatures sensitive hearing keeping them at bay.
Ahead, Ryan could see the rockfall that had almost barred their way on the way in through the tunnels. Their troubles would really start now. He would have to trust to Lorraine’s ability to shoot straight, and his own, for that matter.
He pulled the material plugs out of his ears and she did the same. “It’s not far to the other side. Just don’t let the fuckers grab you as you go through.!
“I’ll do my best,” she panted. “You don’t want much, do you?”
“Peace and goodwill for all?”
“Fuck that,” she responded. “I’ll settle for staying alive.”
“Thought you might.” Ryan dropped to his hands and knees, ignoring the pain from the hard rock, and started to move as fast as he could in the constricted space left between the roof fall and the talus cone of rubble. He pushed his rife ahead of him, the torch beam shining in front of him as he wriggled and thrutched, ignoring the drag on his increasingly tattered clothing.
The sudden roar of a gun blast behind him sent a jolt of adrenaline through his system. Through the ringing in his ears he heard Lorraine let rip with a string of curses that would have sounded more at home on the lips of one of his fellow captains in a world that he would almost certainly never see again.
He kept moving. That was all he could do.
Around him, the passage enlarged again, and he knew he’d come through the collapse. The danger would increase tenfold now.
Claws raked his back. Ryan twisted on the ground, bringing up his rifle and sending a three-round burst into the head of the hairless fucked that had tried to jump him. Bone and brain matter sprayed his face. Ryan dashed a hand across his face and came up into a squatting position, throwing the light from his torch around the chamber. Predators scuttled away like cockroaches, clinging to walls and roof as easily as they scurried across the floor.
With no immediate danger threatening, Ryan cast the beam of his torched back into the rockfall, trying not to blind Lorraine as she wriggled through with dust-coloured grace and another burst of creative swearing. Around him on the floor lay the remains of the predators he’d shot when he and Becker had forced their way through the fighting creatures on their way to the collapse. Some of them had now been partially dismembered, no doubt providing food for their own kind. Apart from eating each other he had no idea what the fucking things lived on in these barren tunnels. Maybe they were chucked food and treated like the world’s ugliest guard dogs.
Ryan held out a hand and hauled Lorraine to her feet, then dropped to one knee and fired another burst as a deterrent into the hole that she had just vacated. A hefty kick at the fractured roof of the low crawlspace was rewarded by a large block dropping to block the way, trapping any soul stealers pursuing them on the wrong side of the collapse.
Ryan still stamped mercilessly on any hope before it even had time to make itself felt. They had a long way to go before getting out of the tunnels, and if his hunch proved wrong, they might still die in the godforsaken tunnels.
“Can you carry on?”
Lorraine was covered in dust and dirt from the scramble through the rocks but the determination in her eyes told him all he needed to know. Together, they made their way on through the mix of tunnels and natural cave passage as quickly as they could, Ryan’s torch beam lighting their way. His biggest fear in the larger caverns was the bastard things dropping on them from above but so far they were making good progress.
They had limited ammunition and even more limited survival choices. Going on was all they could do, even if it did mean facing almost certain death. Ryan grinned ruefully in the semi-darkness. He’d not expected to survive this mission but giving up had never been his style.
The scrabble of claws on the passage wall alerted him to trouble looming.
Lorraine’s reaction time was incredible. The shotgun in her hands boomed and the predator dropped, its brains spraying the walls. He admired her ice-cold calm.
They kept moving. So far, they’d been lucky. The creatures had only come at them in ones and twos, but they were running through their ammunition at a faster rate than he liked. It was time to change weapons. Ryan paused for a moment and pulled out the nail gun Becker had given him and stuffed the spare cartridges into a pocket. It was an ugly sod, reminding him of some of the early Eastern bloc machine pistols.
Something crashed into him from the side, knocking him off balance. The stink of fetid breath was far too close for comfort. Ryan twisted around and shoved the nail gun between the slavering jaws, pulling the trigger. A burst of iron nails ripped through the soul stealer’s brain and it fell backwards, spindly arms and legs flopping like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
The gun might be ugly, but it was certainly effective.
With the M4 tucked under his left arm acting as no more then a torch, he kept hold of the nail gun. He’d keep the carbine and the shotgun for longer range work when they hit the largest of the caverns. It was easy to lose track of how far they’d come. The mined tunnels were largely featureless, the areas of natural cavern were a jumble of fallen blocks, some of which they were forced to clamber over. They came under determined assault twice. Ryan now sported a long rip in his left sleeve, matched by a corresponding gash in his flesh. He barely felt it over the adrenaline rush in his system. He just hoped the blood tracking down his arm wouldn’t foul his grip.
Lorraine was limping now from a slash across her thigh. When he suggested they pause to bind it, she shook her head. “No time, need to keep moving.”
The only thing in their favour was that the noise of their weapons provided a temporary respite as the creature’s ultra-sensitive hearing was disrupted but they had to be lucky all the time. The predators only had to be lucky once. A strike to the neck would almost certainly be fatal and if claws or teeth nicked a major blood vessel, they would bleed out on the passage floor.
Ryan dashed the back of his hand over the sweat running down his forehead. The tunnels were oppressively warm in places and at times it was hard to breathe. He suspected some build up of carbon dioxide but that was the least of his worries. He could tell from the echo of their footfall that they were fast approaching the largest cavern where the fucking things had swarmed liked hornets on his way in with Becker.
He stopped and turned to Lorraine. “If they take me down, just run.”
“If I said the same, would you do it?”
“Has anyone ever told you you’re stubborn?”
Her dark eyes flashed with humour. “My first boyfriend. I dumped him the following day. You didn’t answer my question, Ryan.”
He gave it up as a bad job. “It’s been a privilege to fight by your side, Ms Wickes.”
“It’s been a privilege to fight by yours, Captain Ryan.”
Side by side they stepped into the chamber.
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Date: 2020-11-06 09:38 pm (UTC)That was fantastic action, and I'm loving both the characterisations and the companionship of both Ryan and Lorraine. Fabulous interaction.
Bloody brilliant.
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Date: 2020-11-07 05:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-06 10:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-07 05:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-07 11:45 am (UTC)*chews nails*
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Date: 2020-11-07 05:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-07 11:52 pm (UTC)Love the blood and struggle.
I think I need a lie down!
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Date: 2020-11-08 05:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-09 10:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-09 10:44 pm (UTC)I'll pop the final part up tomorrow!
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Date: 2020-11-20 09:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-21 03:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-12-27 09:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-12-27 03:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-07-03 02:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-07-03 03:52 pm (UTC)