THE REBEL ENCAMPMENT, such as it was, had not been prepared for a fast, careening hovercraft to fly into their midst all at once, without any prior notice or warning. Nor had they expected, while shaking off their afternoon naps, for two very small people to come out of the back of the craft, firing blue blasts of energy everywhere. Yet, that is exactly what happened when Kenneth ran out of the suddenly-stopped hovercraft, shooting at anything that resembled a human being. More often than not, his aim missed the mark.
He shot a man as tall as his father had been, perhaps six feet tall. All the people around the encampment were shorter than the giants to which he had become accustomed. He wondered at that even as Savannah joined him, laying down a blanket of fire across men that scrambled for what Kenneth saw were old-fashioned muskets with sharp, polished bayonets fastened at the end of each.
Unquill and Wikal soon joined the fighting. With their accurate aim, they struck rebel upon rebel. Bodies lay sprawling across the encampment. One managed to get a loud, crackling shot off before Wikal stunned him into unconsciousness. A metal ball from the man's musket passed by Kenneth and into the hovercraft where it lodged itself in the back of Unquill's seat. Wikal urged them forward past the encampment.
A short distance away, a machine so large that Kenneth thought of it as a battleship meant to travel across land, sat in the middle of a grassy plain. The white machine, spotted here and there with green paint, stood in three segments. The bottom segment, the widest of all, floated above ground as Kenneth had seen the hovercraft do. The grass beneath it had turned yellow and brown. The second segment, sitting atop the first, proved smaller than the bottom segment yet larger than the top segment. Four round, black discs had been embedded on either side of a closed hatch. Kenneth thought these might be where energy beams shot out from. The top segment, smaller than the bottom two, served a purpose Kenneth would not have guessed. Both sides slanted to meet in a sharp point at the top. On either side, solar panels basked in the rays of the sun, collecting energy. The tank, Kenneth realized, was solar-powered.
Wikal lead the charge to the tank. Shouts sounded from behind them, together with rifle blasts. The two giants reached the tank first. By the time Kenneth arrived, Wikal had already managed to open the hatch. Kenneth turned around, breathless, to see a horde of normal-sized, poorly dressed human beings descend upon him. He, Unquill and Savannah fired into the crowd of rebels. Men fell to the ground, even while more men, heedless of trampling their compatriots, rushed forward.
Wikal shouted, "It's open, hurry inside!"
Unquill lifted Kenneth inside. The interior of the Turtle proved less spacious than the hovercraft. Wikal's head brushed against the ceiling. Shouts of anger, more determined now, ordered Wikal to stop what he was doing. Savannah followed Kenneth, then Unquill, then Wikal. Blood dribbled down the side of Wikal's face from where a bullet had caught him on the temple. He wiped it away with the back of his hand, then sat down in the lone seat in front of the tank's control panel.
With the door still open, a snarling man with greasy hair climbed onto the edge of the hatch, his firearm upon his back. Kenneth fired at the man. A blue burst of energy struck him in the forehead, knocking him unconscious. Yet, he did not fall off the hatch. Shots rang outside, some of which struck the side of the tank. Savannah and Unquill joined in firing at the prone figure clutching the hatch. A barrage of blue beams struck him until finally, the force of the attacks threw him off.
The hatch pulled upward. Groans of dismay, together with curses in a language Kenneth did not understand, resounded outside. The hatch closed. Kenneth kept his weapon trained on the door. He didn't let himself relax until he heard the tank's motor start up. The engines roared to life, so loud that Kenneth put his hands to ears to block out the sound. Slowly, the tank began to move.
Wikal directed his first shot at the hovercraft. A red laser jumped out from the cannon to pierce the hovercraft's side. The hovercraft exploded in a ball of fire. Wikal then laid down fire all about the encampment. With six screens showing the exterior of the tank, Kenneth saw bodies explode in place when struck by the tank's fire. One shot went low and tore a man's leg off. He fell to the ground, screaming. Another laser beam went straight up through a tent, sitting it on fire at once. Disorientated women ran out of the tent, fleeing in every direction.
A group of men had been assembled to stand against the tank. They stood in formation, muskets at the ready. The first row of men knelt on the ground while the second, standing behind them, took their aim. The second row fired. A cloud of smoke gathered around the rebels. Round, dark bullets plinked off the shell of the Turtle. The back row then knelt while the first row took aim and fired. More smoke gathered. More bullets resounded like hail on the tank's hull.
Wikal turned the tank about, a process that took a long time- at least a minute. During this minute, both rows of rebels knelt, reloading their weapons. To one side, a man wearing a tall, red conical hat fired a revolver at the tank. One after the other, the shots bounced off- dink, donk. Wikal let loose a laser blast into the midst of the rebels. The red laser tore bodies apart, some of which burned after they had been cut in half. Still, those who survived the first blast, now spattered with the blood of the dead, continued firing. Wikal fired twice more before the rebels could not resist any longer.
A larger group of rebels fled before the tank. Wikal fired into them, killing some, disorienting the rest. Soon, their discipline broke. Every man broke formation, running in all directions, ignoring the orders of a man riding a dappled brown horse. Kenneth, who saw their disadvantage, sat down on the floor, ready for it all to end.
More slaughter followed. Slaughter was the only word Kenneth knew to describe the one sided battles that followed as the land battleship sought out and killed groups of men who, judging by their reactions, never expected the tank to fire upon them. Men died, and died, and died. A camera displaying a rear view showed the encampment they had rushed burning. Black smoke billowed up into the sky.
WITH THE ARMY'S BASE CAMP IN SIGHT, Kenneth saw men standing up and cheering. They left their posts by their cannons to whoop and holler at the machine coming their way. When the first laser fired in their direction, they stopped cheering. Bewildered expressions gave way to downright panic. One man turned his cannon around to face the tank. The cannon discharged a heavy black ball, which sailed high. The cannon ball collided with an energy barrier protecting the solar panels at the top of the tank. The barrier diverted the cannon ball aside. It landed on the left of the tank, where it exploded and let loose streamers of intense white fire.
As the rebels ran, the energy barrier surrounding the army's base camp came down. Soldiers in white uniforms rushed out, firing blue energy pulses from devices attached to their palms. No one asked the rebels to man their posts. Nor was there anywhere for them to go. To a man, they were either rendered unconscious by the soldiers in white or cut down by Wikal inside the tank.
When all was over, the field outside the base camp was a bloody, smoking ruin. Bodies- and body parts- lay scattered about. When Wikal opened the side hatch, an acrid, awful smell filled Kenneth's nostrils. He gagged upon it, bending over. Savannah brought the her shirt up over her nose, revealing her stomach. Unquill coughed.
Pavun, with his helmet on and a sword in hand, strode towards the tank with a broad smile on his face. He called out, "Ho there! Well done!"
Unquill grasped Kenneth beneath the arms and placed him upon the ground. He did the same for Savannah, whose eyes watered from the smoke. Wikal said to Pavun, "Mission complete, Indigo. I now return custody of the 161 Williamsport Turtle number twenty-seven, nicknamed 'the Reaper' to you."
Pavun shook Wikal's hand, then bent down on one knee to shake Kenneth's hand. Kenneth shook the man's index and middle finger. Pavun laughed. "You have discharged your duty with all the courage I expected from you, citizen Yardrow. With the Reaper now in the army's possession again, I have no reason to detain you any further. When the Estonite shipment arrives, I will recommend that you be on it. The transport will take you as far as the transfer station in Alexandria. Does that sound agreeable to you?"
Kenneth made a face. "Where's Alexandria?"
Pavun chuckled, standing back up to his full height. He said, "I believe the people in your time called that region of the world Egypt."
Savannah put her hands on her hips. She groused, "Don't I get a say in it?"
Pavun laughed again. "Of course you do, of course you do! Is there anywhere else you want to go?"
Savannah said, "Home."