Chapter Forty-Three - Counting on Luck

I’d been in my share of fights. I knew how I felt before things went down.

Most of the time, I was pretty calm about it. I didn’t have time to worry or fret or be afraid. That kind of stuff got in the way of thinking things through, and that meant you were all the more likely to die. You could get the shakes once you’d won.

Sometimes a fight was dull. The conclusion was too damned obvious, the fight mundane. Those were good fights. Hard to screw up. I’d taken out entire goblin clans or hunted down some beasts without ever really engaging with the fight.

There were fights that started with your heart thudding and adrenaline giving you a mad buzz. The ambush the other day was like that. No time to think, barely any time to act.

All that was to preface how strange my situation was.

I wasn’t afraid, or nervous or bored. I was downright embarrassed.

Caroline took a step forward, her foot hitting the ground at an angle, and staying that way. She wasn’t shifting her pedals to flatten her foot. She stopped, then swung her arm out as a counter-balance while moving her other leg up.

She dragged the limb forward, digging a little furrow into the ground until it was in front of the other.

“I don’t know how to say it politely,” Clin began. He stood next to me, both of us watching Caroline as she walked towards the gate. “But she is terrible as a pilot.”

“She is,” I said. I was geared for war, which wasn’t saying much. Pockets full of ammo, quick-loaders all set up, and my rifle slung over my back.

Clin was as ready as he could be too. His pea-shooter loaded, and his new shotgun swinging by his hip.

It was strange to miss Rusty so much when the mech was just a few dozen paces away, but that was how things were working out for us.

“With any luck we won’t have to deal with any goblins. We’ll just be wasting the afternoon away, and Caroline will have a reason to get some practice in with her Sally.”

“You put a bit too much stock on luck,” Clin said. He walked past me, then jogged ahead until he was in front of Caroline. He started to help her, or at least tried. Gestures and encouragement. She probably needed it.

I sighed and jogged over to them when Sally nearly tipped over. I caught the edge of the mech’s hip, put a foot on its knee joint, then used that to grab onto its arm. I moved my feet away before they could be crushed, then sat myself down on the chaingun on the mecha’s right. “Can you hear me?” I called.

A slit clunked open on Sally’s front. I could only-just make out Caroline sitting pretty inside. “Help?”

I shook my head. “You’re going to need to learn how to walk and fight on your own terms,” I said. “Ain’t no two mechs that are alike. You of all folk ought to know that. But I can give you a few tips.”

“I’d love ‘em,” Caroline said.

It was a bit unorthodox to be giving someone a crash course while they were already in the mech, but I didn’t fuss over it. She wanted to learn, at least, and every bit of improvement helped.

Caroline made it out of her yard and into the deserted streets of Daggerwren. She figured out how to walk without dragging her feet, at least, and we were making alright time.

The streets weren’t as empty as they’d been that morning. A little surprising. I expected folk to be hiding. Instead a lot of them were running about, and more were gathered in little clumps, trading quick gossip and glancing around nervously.

I saw a handcart roll by, the back filled with ammo crates. They were heading towards the centre of town.

So, people were starting to prepare here. A little late for it, but maybe the news hadn’t gotten around until the goblins showed up?

Hard to justify that. Maybe the sheriff didn’t need panicked people knocking at his door while he set things in motion?

We arrived at the train station and found a crowd waiting there.

Maybe calling it a crowd was too generous. There were some twenty-odd folk, some milling around, others waiting with luggage sitting by their feet. Were they hoping the train would show up to save them?

I couldn’t talk with Caroline while she moved. She needed all of her focus just to avoid crashing, and even the slight incline of the road leading past the station proved a challenge for her.

Sally pointed ahead, nearly overbalanced because of the motion of the arm, then stumbled a few steps before returning to a steady step. I shook my head while looking in the direction Caroline was pointing in.

The back of the station had a large area filled with tracks criss-crossing every which way and hangars where some old train cars sat waiting. The buildings across the yard looked like warehouses, tin walls and large doors on their sides. A few utility mechs were parked in the shade.

In the middle of it all was Timothy.

The mech was down on one knee next to a platform, Shane and his two friends waiting atop it. The taller man was gesturing across the yard to a tower off to the side. A place for the conductors to direct the trains from? It would make a good position to fire from.

We approached just as the shorter guy in the group ran off, a rifle in hand. “Hey,” I called out.

Shane moved to the edge of the platform and looked down at us, then at Caroline. “You here to help?” he asked.

“We heard that if the place goes up, half the town will go with it,” I said. “The half we’re staying in.”

Shane nodded. “That’s about the whole of it, yeah. Is that Caroline in there?”

“Yeah. That’s Sally, her... project.”

Shane eyed the mech, still a little ways away, then me. “She’s shit.”

“She is,” I said. “But she’s safer in there than out. At least from a few goblins.”

“Right,” he said before rubbing at his chin. “I sent Greg out to see what’s what in town. We’ll know which direction the bastards are coming from.”

“You don’t think the town will manage to stop them?” I asked.

“Some, sure,” he said. “But not all, especially if the goblins intend on coming here.”

I looked around. The trainyard was mostly empty. Some good cover to be had with the cars sitting around, and lots of nooks and crannies around with the hangars and such, but still, not much for a goblin to want. “You know something I don’t?” I asked.

“You were there this morning with the sheriff,” he said. “I recall you mentioning the goblins had gnomish equipment.”

So, he’s seen me. “I might’ve said that, yeah,” I said.

“Then it’s just as probably they have a gnomish plan too,” he said.

That made some semblance of sense. Why just throw a few hundred idiots at the town when they could be idiots with a plan. It’d need to be a simple plan, owing to goblins being goblins. There was no way they could hold the town. Too many folk with guns and knives, not enough goblins, even if there were twice as many as we’d thought. So the entire attack was a waste. It’d weaken Daggerwren, sure, but not take it out.

Hitting the core supply might change that.

Blow up a section of the town, injure a whole lot of folk and destroy more homes. Likely start a fire. Even with the Long Knife still flowing, putting out a fire was a chore.

“That makes a lot of sense,” Clin said. “The town would be devastated, and even if they fight off the goblins entirely, the fuel to escape with the next arriving train, not to mention the rails to turn it around, would be missing. If you’re caught here, then it’s without fuel, except what little you can harvest from the goblins and the dead.”

“And then the gnomes can sweep in and wipe the rest of the town out with minimal losses,” I said.

“But why? Daggerwren itself is hardly a threat, or any sort of grand prize,” Clin said. “Unless this place has a gold-mine beneath that I wasn’t aware of, there’s nothing here for the gnomes.”

“It’s close to their territory, has water and walls, and a direct link over rails to Flatbluffs.”

Shane nodded. “It could be a staging ground. If we can stop the goblins though, and get word out to the Flatbluffs, we might be able to make it unappealing.”

I nodded. “Which building’s the core supply?”

Shane tilted his head to the side, gesturing at a squat brick building some dozen meters away. It didn’t look all that tough.

“Guess we’ll set up around here, then. Come on, Clin, let’s settle Caroline down somewhere where she won’t make a mess of things.”