Alcingeria Volume Two Chapter Twenty: The Conflict At Semera Part Two

It seems that there just might be a way to destroy the IG-90, but no means. Interesting...

Chapter Twenty The Conflict At Semera Part Two:

Saturday July 24^th 1690

I now understood. The IG-90 wasn’t going to take Semera by itself. It was there to decimate our main defenses and break through the gate. The vampires had begun following the IG-90 when they left Stavon, but they must have went into hiding shortly after. Perhaps it was the plan all along, maybe their plan changed. Regardless, they were waiting for the signal that the IG-90 just gave.

And they were coming up fast. My friends and I ran into a nearby house.

            “Stand firm! Hold your ground!” Allan shouted.

            “Should I use my magic?” Walden asked.

No one responded, we all looked to Robert. I seemed a little scared, but he composed himself.

            “Yes. We can’t risk losing Semera. It’s too strategically valuable. Tabatha, use your magic too.” He finally said.

            “Are you sure?” She asked.

            “I am. Just… You know how Yutsa reacts to witches. Try to be subtle. If you see someone dying from a wound, heal them. If someone’s been attacked by a vampire, leave them.” Robert told her.

This seemed hard to swallow for Tabatha, but she nodded.

            “What do we do Robert?” I asked.

He looked around, the spark of leadership about him, just like old times.

            “Don, make sure Tabatha doesn’t get killed. If we lose her, the battle will tip in favor of the vampires.” He said.

            “On my life.” Don agreed.

He and Tabatha ran off.

            “The rest of us need to find a way to take out that metal beast. Without that, the vampires won’t stand much of a chance.” He said.

            “Agreed.” Macalister said loudly.

            “Easier said than done. That thing is massive!” Erin objected.

            “We have to find a weakness of some sort. It has to have something.” Robert pondered.

Just then, Stella lit up. She became more animated as she spoke.

            “There is!” She exclaimed.

We looked to her, puzzled.

            “What? What is it? How do you know?” Erin asked.

            “When I was in Ignacio’s custody, I eavesdropped on Ignacio and his engineers. They were talking about this thing that would help them take Semera. They also said that the design was a bit flawed.” Stella recounted.

            “Did they give any specifics?” Robert pressed.

Stella wilted and shook her head.

            “Then does anyone have any ideas?” He asked everyone.

Just then, we heard people screaming. The vampires were here. We all wracked our brains. We looked out the window and saw vampires attacking people everywhere. There weren’t an overwhelming number of them, and the guard seemed to be holding their ground for the time being.

We also saw the IG-90. It had begun moving once again and crawled its way through town.

            “The thing that makes it such a threat is its gun. If we can somehow eliminate it…” I trailed off.

Robert shook his head.

            “No, the vampires could still use the thing for cover. We need to completely destroy it.” Robert told us.

All the while we were talking, the sound battle filled our ears. It felt wrong to be hiding in here, but I convinced myself that wasn’t what we were doing. We sat in here thinking about how we were going to win this battle.

Erin looked out the window once again, and she snapped back to us.

            “The metal belts on the side, the tracks, that’s how it moves!” She exclaimed.

            “That’s right! If we can immobilize it, we’ll stand a better chance of taking it out!” Robert joined in.

            “There’s still the matter of actually destroying it.” Stella added.

Robert nodded grimly.

            “The thing destroyed the cannons, and I don’t think Semera has any as backup. If they did, they’d be set up by now.” He sighed.

            “Plus, how would we go about knocking out the tracks?” I asked.

There was a moment of silence. We had no cannons, so destroying the IG-90 was going to be impossible.

            “We’ve wasted enough time here. We’ll think of something later. For now, we need to help the guard fend off the vampires.” Robert said, standing up.

We all got up and walked out of the house. All around us we saw vampires killing people, but it wasn’t a complete slaughter; Horrace and his men had made good on their errand. They brought the stakes. They were in a few carts where the guard could access them easily. We all charged for one of the carts. We stuffed out pockets.

            “You guys, where have you been?” Allan asked with a laugh.

            “We were thinking about how to destroy the IG-90.” Robert said, staking a vampire as it charged him.

            “And?” Allan asked, dodging a vampire, rolling and staking it upon getting up.

            “Nothing, unless you have any more cannons.” Robert replied.

Allan staked one vampire, then another. He was quick, efficient, and deadly. My friends and I held our ground too, but the soldiers were not doing as well. They had a moderate casualty rate, but refused to give up their ground. They stood and fought. After staking a few more vampires each, my friends and I watched as the oncoming vampires retreated a little, waiting for the IG-90 to advance. When it did, a number of them used it as a shield against musket fire.

            “The thing’s getting closer!” One of the soldiers yelled.

            “Stand your ground!” Allan ordered.

We stood there, fear gripping every one of us by the throat. Just then, the thing stopped abruptly. As soon as it did, the vampires charged out from behind it, and from behind houses farther back. The attack resumed.

            “Here they come.” Robert muttered.

The vampires were noticeably fewer in numbers than before, but there were still a lot. Enough to turn the tide of this battle. They came all at once and everyone was forced to retreat farther back into the city.

            “This isn’t looking good!” Erin shouted across the street to Robert and I, who were taking cover behind a house.

            “If only we had cannons!” Stella cried from next to Erin.

The vampires took their time advancing, but they got to where we were quickly enough. They didn’t expect Robert and I to be where we were, away from the other soldiers. Two of them came around the corner and we each took one on. We both grinned and nodded to each other, taking up the same positions and repeating our strategy when two more came around. By then, Robert suggested we move. We found our way in behind another house off to our right, out of sight of that road.

            “Follow me, we’re going to take them by surprise by coming up behind them. Are you ready?” He asked.

I nodded, gripping a stake in my right hand.

            “Right then, now!” Robert said, swinging around the corner of the house.

We quickly made our way between houses and along the enemy’s flank. We advanced until we were absolutely sure we passed them. We then broke out of cover and onto the road. We came up about twenty feet behind the IG-90, which was still stopped behind the advancing vampires. We’d never seen it from the rear before, and we saw something odd; there was a window back there, roughly a foot square. I looked to Robert and he nodded. We began creeping up to it. We saw people inside the thing. They were talking to each other, but we couldn’t tell what they were saying. Just then, a familiar face turned around and looked at us. His eyes widened in shock, then his face contorted with rage.

It was Ignacio.

Robert immediately drew his flintlock, took aim and fired. His shot pinged off of the rear, missing the window. Just then, a metal plate slid over the window. There was a depression on the surface though, indicating that the window wasn’t as thick as the rest of the body.

The thing turned around slowly and swung its gun around to aim at us. We dove back behind a house just as a shot from the gun decimated the cobblestone street we had just been standing on. We ran back to our original position behind the house by the road, and we saw that Erin and the rest of the soldiers had moved up a bit. We caught sight of Allan fighting two vampires at once, both of which he killed with ease.

            “Allan! We have very important information!” Robert exclaimed.

He turned around.

            “What is it?” He asked.

            “We found that thing’s weak point!” I exclaimed.

Allan frowned. He turned around and staked a vampire that was coming at him and took cover behind a nearby house. We followed him.

            “What did you just say?” He gasped.

            “That’s right. We found its weak point. It’s a small window in the rear.” Robert stated.

            “You’re serious?” Allan asked.

            “Yes, but it still doesn’t do us any good without cannons.” He responded.

Allan nodded.

            “Right then. We’ll continue the defence as normal. Hopefully when the vampires are defeated, the IG-90 will retreat.” He sighed.

The three of us rejoined the fray, staking vampires as they advanced. They were downhill from us, so we had a bit of an advantage. They tried going for our legs, but they received sharp kicks. Once or twice I was pulled off my feet and Allan had to bail me out. We fought on. Musket fire rang out now and again, although by now the soldiers had figured out what they were up against and most abandoned their guns.

Author's Note

Please tell me what you think