Land Cruiser Act 1- The Arrival Of The Mobile Fortress

Chapter 8- Skirmish

Director: This should be a good place to set up.

Director: Deploy reconnaissance drone.

*Pop*

*Thunk*

The bulged breastplate from Director's armor suddenly pops off and falls onto the ground.

Director: Is that it?

Suddenly, the plate buzzes and four extrusions extend from each corner with four more deploying underneath which lifts it off the ground as if they were stands or outriggers. A blade on each extrusion deploys and spins counterclockwise. The plate is revealed to be a quadruple winged drone with red visors looking around as if they were eyes.

Director: Ah that makes sense. No wonder my chest was so bulky.

Helmet: The visor on your helmet is equipped with virtual reality capabilities in order to see through the optical sensor.

Director: Does it have an external screen perhaps? So Alicia can see what I see?

Helmet: Affirmative, chest cavity has a 1080p mini monitor. Activating now.

The place where the drone popped out lights up. It reveals the video feed from the drone. Alicia is fascinated with the OLED screen and looks into it.

Director: That should do it.

Alicia then points towards a table and chairs covered by the shade of an umbrella. They walk towards it and they both sit down in order for Director to be seated while Alicia watches. Then Director presses buttons on his wrist watch as the drone responds.

The drone flies forward and stops at the top of the artillery positions. Director presses a button on his wrist and the drone becomes virtually static in the air allowing for a good view on the fully traversable camera mount.

Below, the artillery men are seen rushing to reload their guns as soon as possible after having fired their shots. Men hurriedly crank the arm of their catapults using bars of steel while others stabilize the guns to prevent them from rolling off.

After a while the arm of the onager is lowered sufficiently with the bucket placed horizontally where a rock, roughly the size of a human head, is placed on.

Artilleryman: Guns are loaded!

Artillery officer: Fire!

The soldiers all pull on their lanyards at the same time, the arms quickly release their tension and move forward. Loud thumps are heard as the arms violently hit pads on the center of their mounts, the resulting energy causes their payloads to be flung in unison through the air and outside the walls.

As the volley begins to rain hellfire on the Stags, the artillerymen repeat the rearming process for the next volley to follow. The drone flies over the artillery positions and aligns itself above the battlement, arrows fly below in volleys with each one being followed quickly by the next.

The downpour of arrows are coming from two rows of archers. The first row fires off its arrows first and is followed by the second while they reload. This method allows for a great amount of sustained fire.

Meanwhile soldiers carrying quivers filled with arrows go about and try to keep the supply of munitions somewhat constant as arrows are used faster than they can be replenished. Officers walk along the parapets to shout and embolden the men to keep fighting, the morale boost is apparent with the men shouting in response and sustaining fire despite the non-stop arrow slinging action taking a toll on their bodies and strained long bows.

*Thump*

Another wave of rocks are thrown into the air by the catapults. A rock passes by the camera, narrowly missing the drone.