Major Gears Trilogy by Mercier Einar

Author:Mercier, Einar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-06-27T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

THE UAS ADROA

“With the armament of ten Breguet Cannons and state of the art steel plating for armor, the UAS Adroa will finally give the skies back to the French.”

A gaggle of six portly men in three-piece suits and three Union aging generals moved along the metal catwalk behind the spokesman for Draftpipe Airship Company, leaning over the railings on either side to gaze down into the production bay. The spokesman was an athletic man in his late twenties and made in a year what the men behind him spent in a day. Their fringe affiliation with airship production was their only commonality, him through his job giving talking points about the vessels produced at the Salvage City factory and them through their funding of research and development for new airship designs. The spokesman would have much rather been home with his wife and three children and he resented that the financers of the UAS Adroa wanted to tour the facility during the late afternoon, but his supervisor had been expressly clear that their funding was critical to the project and so he forced enthusiasm into his voice and resisted the urge to check his pocket watch at every stop.

“The Adroa features a top speed of 180 kilometers per hour, thirty units of measure faster than the Northman Sky Karvi. Modern advancements in pipe engineering improve fuel efficiency by twenty percent- even with the full complement of ten Breguet gunners, thirty Union Regulars, and six-person crew,” the spokesman continued.

He was careful to keep his back to the rail as he talked, because the red and yellow glow from the forges at welding torches at ground level were known to cause what the workers called the devil’s glow, casting unintentionally sinister shadows across faces of those on the catwalk. As he looked at the features of the financers and the way the brass buttons on the military jackets glinted in the warm light, he was forced to concede the point- every one of them looked as evil as they were rich. The flickering light caught their pupils, making them look as though they were envisioning cities ablaze beneath the relentless firepower of the new vessel and smiling at the thought of the helpless screams rising to their ears from the doomed ground below.

“What color will it be?” One of the Union generals asked, his face devoid of any sign of humor.

The spokesman paused just long enough to process the question- his employment at Draftpipe Airship Company had informed him of the unfortunate fact that most generals were truly ignorant on almost every topic, but the Union required military approval for new war mechanisms and so they were included on factory tours. He was consoled by the sideways and skeptical looks the financiers gave the military officer.

“They will leave our factory with a coat of gray paint but can be painted any color, General,” the spokesman answered, working to keep the patronizing tone from his voice.

“Good,” the general replied, clearly pleased with himself for asking such an astute question.

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