Chapter Forty-Four - Cover

Trying to plan around an attack that involved goblins, especially goblins on foot, was surprisingly easy.

The first step was knowing where they were coming from.

The second was getting a clear line of sight in that same direction, preferably with decent cover.

Goblins ran at everything, and it was a rare goblin that was clever enough to look for a place to hide when shooting at you. They were far more likely to run at you while firing everything they had.

Still, underestimating them was asking to be killed by some lucky shot, or stabbed in the back by a goblin that got lost and followed the sound of gunfire back.

I looked around, not so much at the ground, but at the spaces above. “There,” I said.

One of the warehouses on the southernmost side of the trainyard had a flat roof with a bit of a lip to it. Flat roofs needed access, if only to brush the sand off every so often.

“That’s where you’ll be stationing yourselves?” Shane asked.

I nodded. “Clin and I,” I said. “I’ll get Caroline to park herself over there.”

I gestured off to the side. One of the hangars not too far from the warehouse I’d pointed to was opened up, and a couple of flatcars were sticking out. Decent cover for a mech, even if they would only reach up to Sally’s hip. Better than nothing, I figured.

Best of all, it was partially out of the way. Caroline would have a good sightline on the main yard, and one side of the core storage building. Clin and I on the roof would see the rear and another side.

“Got it,” Shane said. “I’ll park myself over there, with my boys helping along.” He gestured to the other side of the storage shed.

We’d be covering it on three sides, then. With the main trainyard open on one end covered by us, and the narrower street on the other side protected by Shane and his crew.

“Can your boys block off the alleys around the shed?” I asked. “Or you can stuff something over it?”

“Right, not a bad idea,” he said. “I’ll tip over a cart, stop the goblins from getting to it from the far side. They’ll either come through us, or go around and come out on the far end of the trainyard. Easy pickings.”

“Let’s hope,” I said.

Shane gave me a sloppy Dreggar salute, his fist thumping his opposite shoulder before he spun back towards his mech.

I turned to Clin. “Get on that roof. If there’s no easy access, find a ladder.”

“I suppose I can do that much,” Clin said. “Will you be joining me?”

“Yeah. You’re liable to miss every shot, but you might just send one or two of them scampering while I do all the work.”

The elf didn’t visibly react, other than his ears twitching a little. Still, I had the impression he was amused. I watched him go before I jogged over to Caroline.

I was counting bullets as I went. I had a few in my lever action, and a pocketful in my coat. That was about all of it though. Not nearly enough to get very far. I wasn’t expecting that many goblins to show up.

Reaching Caroline, I climbed up Sally’s front, then grabbed at the edge of the opening in the front of the mech. With Caroline not trying to move any, and with the sun at my back, it was easy to see into Sally. There was a surprisingly nice bit of cool air flowing out of the mech. Good temperature control, I guessed.

“How are you handling things?” I asked.

“I... am handling them,” Caroline said. She didn’t sound as confident as I was used to hearing. “Sally is a little tipsy, I think.”

“Sally’s doing fine,” I said. “She seems like a good mech.”

“Does she? I feel a little clumsy.”

I shrugged a shoulder, then I tried to coach things with Caroline’s way of seeing things in mind. “Sally’s getting used to a new pilot, and you’re getting used to her. Give it some time. Maybe go for some practice walks around town?”

“Going for walks sounds nice,” Caroline said. “The goblins, are they coming?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Look, there’s a spot I want you to park yourself in, just a little bit behind you. I’ll guide you there, alright?”

“Sure. Why am I going there?” she asked.

“Cover. Don’t want you standing out in the open if we can avoid it. I don’t know how sharp you are with Sally’s guns, so let’s get you somewhere where you can take your time firing, alright?”

I was sure Caroline knew the mechanics of firing. She definitely knew more about how her guns worked than most pilots ever bothered to figure out. Then again, most stopped at ‘bullet comes from the hole.’

Caroline had a bit of trouble moving over, and I had to call out for her to stop before tripping over a rail, but she was getting better. A dozen more hours in the pilot’s seat and she would definitely get the hang of it.

But we didn’t have that kind of time.

Once Caroline was parked in place, I tried to give her some advice. As it turned out, Sally had a targeting system that was a whole three generations newer than whatever Rusty had. She just had to put a dot on the thing she wanted dead and pull the trigger. I figured it was more complicated than that, but she had a chaingun and a cannon. Both weapons were rather generous when it came to things like aiming.

I thumped Sally on the side and jumped back down before running over to the warehouse I’d pointed Clin to. The elf had found a step ladder which was just tall enough to allow him to jump up onto the roof.

Bastard didn’t consider what would happen to someone shorter than him. Or for that matter, how to get down.

I sighed and started poking around. Fortunately I found a ladder in an unlocked toolshed and climbed onto the roof before pulling it up after me.

The front and back edge of the roof had a small parapet around it. The roof itself wasn’t level, rather it had a slight slope, maybe twenty or so degrees. Not so much that it was hard to walk on and join Clin on the end facing the trainyard.

“Nothing yet?” I asked as I knelt down next to him.

The elf was on his stomach, shotgun tucked against his arm. “Not yet,” he said.

I nodded. Good.

I slung my rifle off my back and gave it a quick once-over. Had to make sure it was in decent shape.

“Do you think they’ll be coming?”

“Maybe,” I said.

I leaned down, rifle placed on the edge of the roof. I looked ahead, then closed my eyes. The roof was damned hot, baking in the sun as it was. Not the most comfortable place for a rest, but I’d manage.

“They’re in the city,” Clin said.

“Hmm?” I asked.

“You can hear them.”

I started listening a little more. It was easy to drown out the constant gunfire and the occasional booming explosion. They were happening across town and, frankly, gunfire wasn’t all that uncommon in Daggerwren. Practically expected.

That amount of it wasn’t though. Lots of little pops, followed by the longer rattle of machine guns and the repetitive plinking of crank-fed guns.

Sometimes, there would be a bigger explosion. A mech cannon firing, or some explosive going off.

I glanced away from the trainyard. It was so damned easy to get used to some little area and forget that the world outside that bubble still existed. Smoke was rising into the sky, and even though it was daytime and bright out, I could see the coloured flashes of munitions going off.

They weren’t even all that far off.

They also weren’t my problem yet.

“Just settle down, Clin,” I said. “We’ll have plenty to do in a bit.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” the elf said.

I snorted and patted him on the shoulder. “You’ll do fine.”

“Should we... talk?” he asked after a long couple of minutes passed.

“What, like about the weather?”

“I don’t know. Most of the small talk I’ve trained to do are about things that I don’t think would interest you. Unless you have a secret fascination with elven politics or sports?”

“I might,” I said. “But that’ll have to wait. Something’s going on.”

***