Serpent Sword: A Steampunk Military Fantasy by Matthew W. Quinn

Author:Matthew W. Quinn [Quinn, Matthew W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-03-07T16:00:00+00:00

THE MOON LOOKED down like a half-open sideways eye as twenty-five men crept low across the open ground. Directly ahead, dappled in the silver moonlight, stood a skeletal metal mooring tower. No enemy dirigible floated there, for which Andrew was most grateful. He could see the tops of metal buildings around the tower, but not much more.

Harris raised his hand. Andrew followed suit. Soon the whole line stopped. Harris gestured for everybody to kneel. The men obeyed.

“Remember,” he hissed. “The plan’s not to get into the base, at least right away. We hit the balloon-poppers first, open a way in for the flyboys and force the freaks to dance to our tune. If they turn out to fight, we pull back and the dirigibles will give them a real nasty surprise. If not, then we go in.”

Andrew reckoned Hardy’s group on the Williams was doing the same thing, from a different direction. Just a matter of getting around the patrols any competent enemy would have.

Gunfire crackled to the east. Repeaters, the kind every Merrill trooper on the raid carried. Then came fire from regular rifles.

Just my luck.

“Goddamn it!” Harris snarled. “Everybody get down!”

The men flattened themselves on the grass. A moment later, several men in gray coats and blue trousers carrying repeaters rushed past. Andrew couldn’t see much in the dark, but he didn’t like the look of them. Beside him, Dodd raised his repeater and tracked the rearmost enemy.

“Not now!” Andrew laid his hand on Dodd’s weapon. “Killing troopers isn’t the plan!” Dodd looked at him, then looked at the backs of the gray-jacketed soldiers as they disappeared into the dark. His grip shifted on his repeater, but Andrew put a bit more strength into his hand until Dodd lowered the weapon.

A moment passed. “All right,” Harris whispered. “Now they’ve passed us, it looks like we’ve got a clear shot — ”

Gunfire split the darkness. Harris and Andrew threw themselves flat. One soldier Andrew didn’t know took a bullet to the top of his head. He fell gurgling onto his side, brains spilling onto the ground like soft, wet cheese.

“How the hell did they see us?” Andrew snarled. “They got eyes in the backs of their heads?”

“Knowing Blood Alchemy, they do,” Harris said. “We’re going to have company.” Andrew looked to his old squad mates. Owen was busy organizing some privates. Will didn’t look as eager as usual.

Three hunched figures appeared in the dark, carrying pistols in their right hands and gripping iron chains in their left. The chains led to something else in the darkness, several somethings that hissed ominously.

“Those aren’t dogs,” Harris said. “They’re something else — ”

Whatever the hunchbacks were holding leaped forward, long bodies whipping through the grass. A thick, fetid stench filled Andrew’s nostrils.

Rippers? Did the Blood Alchemy troopers have rippers? No, rippers walked too high. Whatever approached moved low to the ground. What could it –

Serpents of fur and fangs erupted from the grass. Repeaters crackled. That young trooper from Dodd’s poker game went down, a huge mouth engulfing his head.

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