heist on silver knoghts bank. chapter Ten

The next chapter at last.

Sorry for the delay but I hope you enjoy.Over to you PD!

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The first thing Tesla said when Pry told him he needed to be gone was “Don’t be foolish”

It was the strangest thing Pry had heard. He expected to have been exiled or demanded to leave immediately. Even to have been vaporized by an angry mob of augmented humans for bringing danger to their doorstep.

Tesla grinned with intelligence “When will you lot learn that you can’t run forever? Your Pryderi gods damn Somerled!”

Pry stared at him with disbelief glad that they were speaking privately “How did you know that?”

“You don’t think it was odd did you? That someone was salvaging scrap around the king’s castle? Just as you fell into the dark cold water without an arm and half dead, I sent him and I have been following your progress ever since.”

“Why? How could you know?” a hundred other questions rushed through his head but he had no time to ask them all.

“I was there when your older brother started his reign. I was there when you father died. Hell I tried to keep him alive but you know the ways of the ruled. I couldn’t augment him and I couldn’t save him. So I turned my attention to you and watched as you became the man we needed. Its time Pry, time to take back what’s yours and end the divide between ruled and unruled. Starting with that Silver knight.”

Tesla chuckled after his speech “Besides” he continued “did you know that a silver knight’s heart can convert anything to energy. I need to get my hands on that.”

It took two days to fully fortify Worlds Edge. Now the coast was equipped and armed for anything. Its black stone walls were fortified by Fire Iron and sonic cannons longer than sea serpents were repaired, enhanced and pointed out to sea. Battery cannons lined the coast and a whole manner of weaponry emerged from the ground or came out of nowhere overnight.

Inside the walls men, women and those more mechanical than either were arming themselves with everything from muskets and rifles to sonic cannons and thermal lasers. Mechanical wolves and tigers were re-activated and prowled the coast, each one watching and sniffing any threat.

But what impressed Pry most about Worlds Edge was their air ships. It seemed they wasted no time in making their own air ships while he was away. The designs Pry created were replicated and modified.

“Two are out there now Pry.” Tesla explained as he showed him around “both the Romulus and the Nightcoat are searching for any signs of Kinetikos or its kind”

“The two wolves are impressive Tesla. But they won’t win any fights and not with a silver knight.”

“That’s why they are wolves Pry. They were built to hunt and fight when needed. If the prey proves too troubling they come back to warn the pack.”

On their first day Tesla had shown Pry and his crew the defences and their own ships. Only four were flying, two scouts and two warships, while another two cargo vessels were hidden in the dry docks. But the best was saved for last.

Hidden behind the mountains was Tesla’s own ship yard. And inside was the greatest ship ever constructed. It was ten times the size of Pry’s ship. Floors of plasma cannons and swivel guns bigger than an elephant were mounted underneath the hull. Long spikes and poles stuck out of the framework and wires covered the incomplete structure.

Tesla called it Zeus and claimed that it was the greatest thing ever built. Constructed with fire iron and Steel Wood. It was powered by three super heating engines and mobilised by several thrusters and propellers.

It was the perfect vessel to defeat the cogged giant.

The problem was that it was incomplete. Not only was the vessel still under-construction but it was impossible to provide enough power to sustain flight. Tesla did have a solution of powering it with lightning, a power source he is obsessed about harnessing, but the number of strikes required means it must always be in a lightning storm.

When asked how that could be possible he simply said “Well we’ll just make a storm”.

Tesla had shown Pry his designs for both a machine capable of manipulating the stratosphere to create a lightning storm and a way of harnessing and weaponizing that power by using metal nets and lightning rods with a series of electrical transformers.

Needless to say Pry understood none of it and Nikola said it wouldn’t be ready in the time they had.

On the third day everyone was waiting and watching the coast. A thick fog obscured their vision and no sign of it burning away. This was going to be a long day.

Pry found his crew on the Nautilus. Tesla had made excuses and vanished to his warehouse but he had outfitted the ship for battle and repaired all damages to the thrusters. If anything the ship had never been better. The automatic crossbow at the front was outfitted with explosive bolts. The port side was armed with a tesla cannon while the starboard was now equipped with a rocket launcher, Bomber hadn’t left its side and had decorated it with pink paint and ribbons. It was a mixture of cute and terrifying.

“Are you sure it was able to follow us sir?” Musket asked

“No doubt about it.”

“And is this really the right thing to do? We saw what it could do! We are putting all of these people in danger.”

“We need to finish this one way or another. We either run forever or take this thing down. I don’t think there are a better people to do it than the Edger’s.”

At the top of a nearby watch tower Gigoid stood, his eyes scanned and searched the horizon, buzzing as it focused and zoomed. His eyes were refitted with heat vision and it wasn’t long before the red lights from a ships engine were spotted.

Gigoid rang a bell and called out his report. Men and women loaded the cannons and waited for more orders. The ship was a Trimaran two of its cannons mounted on its outer hulls were pointing right at the sea wall and it was slicing through the water right for them without any indication of slowing.

But there was something behind it. Gigoid could see another, brighter light. Something hotter than the ships bellows. He focused on it and saw the vague shape of the silver knight.

“IT’S HERE!” he screamed as the first cannon shots smashed into the wall.

The wall held. It would take more than that to break it. But the blasts were deadly to everyone close by. The battery guns immediately locked on and fired, aiming right at the ship but each shot missed as there courses were warped and pushed aside. The less deadly artillery was ignored as they hit the ship causing little to no damage.

“What the hell is it doing?!” Peri shouted from his crossbow.

“It’s about to ram the wall” Pry responded. His voice was filled with despair as he saw their doom about to smash through the defence and allow the knight to enter.

One of the Edger’s air ships tried to block it off. It fired a barrage of missiles and energy blasts. But the ship’s shields were too much and its cannons ripped the airship apart in moments.

One of the wall cannons fired a lucky shot, destroying the port hull but it was too late to sink the vessel. It smashed into the wall, denting the metal and cracking the stone. When people thought the wall had held Schnee activated her ships last weapon. The pulse generator.

Every piece of metal was ripped from its moorings and sent flying to the ship. The ship bent and contorted as it was sucked into itself. Cannons smashed into the vessel and even some of the augmented were thrown to their deaths. When the pulse generator couldn’t pull anything else in the uranium torpedo’s detonated.

In the end the wall didn’t stand a chance.

As the people recovered and rearmed themselves the silver knight emerged from the dark waters. Its right arm spun and transformed into a large sonic cannon which effortlessly took out the Edger’s remaining airship.

Pry’s crew stood by their posts in shock. All their efforts, the might of worlds edge was nothing compared to the silver knight.

Pry had to take action and he knew what must happen. “Bomber, Musket get down below and take everything that explodes to the front!”

Musket turned and faced her captain. Fear etched on her face “W-what? Why?”

“Just do it! And I mean everything, ammo, gun powder, whale oil and even Bomber’s secret stash!”

“Whit-but-”

“No buts Bomber just do it. Peri! We are keeping that bastard busy. Let’s go people!”

“Captain! Are we about to do something incredibly stupid!?” Peri asked.

“Peri my good friend. When don’t we do something stupid?”

Within five minutes the front of the ship was packed with explosives, oil and anything from fireworks to cherry bombs. Peri was still firing a barrage of explosives at the Silver knight as it fired its own blasts. Pry steered the ship behind building and wreckages, the smaller ship being a lot more agile than the war ships.

“Captain, the whole thing is ready to blow. We should get off now!” Musket shouted through the intercom.

“I will be right behind you. I just need steer this and use the thrusters.”

His crew grabbed lines of robe and descended into the burning streets below.

“Promise me your right behind us captain!” Peri asked as he climbed over the side.

“You bet old friend!” But this was a promise he wouldn’t keep. Instead of joining them, Pry activated the metal shields which covered him and the helm before using the thrusters to smash into Kinētikos. The fireball engulfed the entire ship and the silver knight. Taking out the entire street and destroying everything in the way.

Rain drops patted on Pry’s face, bringing him back into the world. Smoke flew into the air and the skies were filled with black storm clouds.

Around him his ship lay in smouldering ruins. Looking to his left he could see what remains of his shield crushing his augmented arm. He tried to move, to free himself but pain burned through his body. His ribs were broken, a long piece of piping had impaled his right leg and it was sticking out at an odd angle. He couldn’t even feel the toes.

Pry’s breathing became erratic. His body was going into shock. But he has been like this before. He started taking deep gulps of air and added pressure to his leg. The rain was getting worst and if he didn’t get help soon he will bleed to death long before he froze.

“Well” he said to himself between breaths “at least it worked”

Kinētikos emerged from beneath the rubble. Pulling the burning tarp and throwing what remains of the fore deck off itself.

“Ah fuck it didn’t work!”

“Where are the Silver knight coins?!” Kinētikos boomed. Its armor was scorched and dented. He was damaged but nowhere near dead.

“Oh those?” Pry asked as if he didn’t know “I think I gave them to a good friend for safe keeping. I can’t quiet remember” Pry’s teeth began to chatter as the cold rain and shock seeped into his bones.

“Then there is no reason for you to live!” Kinētikos raised its arm to the captain as lighting filled the sky.