“Bolivar. The steamnaught may lack the charm of sail, but there’s a brutal loveliness in that steel hulk.”
The major nodded. He was thin and not quite so tall as the senator. His dark face was still and observant. His eyes moved frequently, but his expression rarely changed. Stoddard’s thoughtful stillness was the corollary to the boisterous flamboyance that the senator invested in his every move.
Stoddard found no great delight in the massive battleship that blotted out the sky on Ranger’s port beam. Its aluminum-burst engines boiled rancid smoke from multiple stacks. She wasn’t maneuverable and took ages to bring her boilers up to top speed, but she packed more firepower than the entire sailing airship fleet that darted around her.
Clark must have taken Stoddard’s silence for dissension rather than thoughtful consideration. He said with a pointed guffaw, “Ah. You’ve become argumentative on this campaign, Major. You’re old-fashioned. If I had a fleet of steamnaughts, I’d conquer the Earth. After we take care of these monsters, we’ll have a go at South America, eh? Fancy a house in Buenos Aires?”
Stoddard thought it best to give a brief chuckle, then asked, “You think they’ll come when we open up?”
Clark swiveled his telescope back to the black specks flitting over Wilmington. “Oh, they’ll come. Surprised they’re not here already. They know we took Savannah and Charleston. Hell, half these things came from there. They’ll fight.”
“Not so sure, Senator. Southern clans tend to be itinerant. Move with the season. They’re smaller and don’t have much love of territory.”
“No. This is the place. They’ll try to hold Cape Fear. From here north is real vampire territory.” Clark growled with anticipation, then shouted over his shoulder to the quarterdeck, “Captain, you may signal the fleet to commence operations!”
“Aye, sir!” Within seconds, colored flags ran out along the yards on Ranger. The frigate and the other escorting airships peeled away from the battleship’s mighty flanks to clear the gun ports. Ranger surged forward and below the goliath, like a slim shark guiding a whale. Bolivar shifted its course slightly.
“Bolivar may fire when ready!” Clark laughed. New signal flags ran out, and the frigate fired two loud deck guns, but they seemed loud only for a second.
Bolivar opened fire. Massive deep booms vibrated the air. Stoddard felt them roll over him as if they would crush his chest, and they drew a great rush of adrenaline from him. Smoke blasted out of Bolivar as the cannons on the port side roared. Nearly fifty steel monsters belched volcanic smoke in concert. The belly turrets fore and aft opened up too, throwing tongues of fire into the sky. The sound and power were unbelievable. The ship was an awesome sight.
Stoddard and Clark turned as one from the thundering Bolivar to the unsuspecting little town below. The whistling shells ended in explosions of flame. In addition to fire, oily green smoke puffed up around the city, and emerald clouds slowly rose and spread.
Small black shapes lifted into the air above the green haze. They rode the wind toward the fleet cruising over the jagged coastline. Soldiers on board Ranger crowded the side with rifles ready. Men stood at heavy machine guns mounted on the rails and in the tops.
Stoddard’s pulse throbbed in his head as he watched the drifting horde close. The vampires shifted in the air like summer insects, making it nearly impossible to draw a bead on them. Most of the creatures made for Bolivar until the escort ships peppered the sky with small-arms fire and shrapnel shells from their cannons. Stoddard felt the deck vibrate as Ranger’s guns opened up. The weapons fire drew the attention of the vampires.
Soon the air around Ranger and her sister ships was thick with vampires. Machine guns chattered. Bullets cut through the creatures tumbling in the air, who then maneuvered and righted themselves. It never failed to surprise humans to see vampires absorb massive damage and keep coming as if nothing had happened. It was easy for humans to panic and break if they were unfamiliar with it. The creatures seemed supernatural and undefeatable.
“Keep firing!” Clark shouted. “Keep at ’em!”
Stoddard pulled his long-barreled Colt Army revolver and shot into the masts, where vampires landed and crawled among the sails and spars like horrible lizards. The faces of the creatures were horrific. The vampires came ever closer, seizing the railings, crawling down the masts, and over the surface of the metal cage enclosing the dirigible.
“Shriekers!” Stoddard yelled, unsure if he could be heard over the thick gunfire. “Shriekers!”
He swung his glowing Fahrenheit saber at a creature as it tried to push through the line of troopers who were already being pressed back from the rail by savage claws and teeth. Some soldiers drew short swords and pistols for bloody close action. Others fired their rifles up into the yards to keep the creatures from dropping behind them.