Goldenclaws Lead Airship
The Goldenclaws Commander stood at the front of the bridge, one gloved hand resting on the brass railing as his eyes swept across the world below.
Snow-covered forest stretched endlessly beneath them—dark trees dusted in white, broken only by the faint lines of frozen rivers and jagged stone. Each of the airships mirrored his vigilance, drifting in a loose formation as their crews scanned for movement.
Nothing.
No muzzle flashes.
No smoke.
No armor silhouettes.
Too quiet.
And then—
THUNK
THUNK
The sound was dull, almost unimpressive. Not an explosion. Not a cannon strike. Just… impact.
The deck vibrated faintly underfoot.
Several officers stiffened.
"What was that?" someone muttered.
Another THUNK echoed, closer this time.
"Over there! Three o'clock!" an officer shouted, pointing sharply.
The commander raised his telescope and turned.
There—on a clearing carved out of the forest—seven figures stood plainly in the open.
Light armor.
Slim frames. Fast silhouettes.
"Enemies confirmed," the officer said. "Light steam-armor."
The commander watched them calmly through the lens as one of the armors fired again, its hand-cannon flashing briefly.
"Commander," the airship captain said, already tense, "permission to return fire."
The commander lowered the telescope.
"Granted."
---
Forest Area, South Side
"Well," Cinderclaws said cheerfully, lowering his smoking hand-cannon, "seems like they got our invitation."
Above them, the airships shifted formation, massive shadows sliding across the snow.
"Sir," Dancer reported, glancing skyward, "all airships are heading this way."
"HAHAH!" Cinderclaws laughed inside his cockpit. "They really ain't holding back, aren't they?!"
KABOOOM!
A cannon shell detonated behind them, sending snow and frozen dirt spraying into the air.
Cinderclaws, Vixen, and Dancer didn't even flinch.
The other four soldiers, however, exchanged uneasy looks.
"Uh, Sir…" one of them said, voice tight, "shouldn't we move now?"
Cinderclaws tilted his head slightly, as if genuinely confused.
"Huh? Why?" he replied. "There's still so many kilometers between us. It needs a lucky shot to actually hit us."
"One lucky shot, sir," Vixen emphasize calmly. "They only need one."
Cinderclaws paused.
"Hmm…" He considered it. "…fair point."
KABOOOM!
Another shell slammed into the ground closer this time. Dirt rained down against their armor.
"Well, alright then," Cinderclaws said easily. "Let's scatter now!"
"Yes, sir!"
The seven of them broke formation instantly, sprinting into the forest in different directions.
As Cinderclaws turned to follow his own route, his voice came through the comm one last time.
"Remember—keep firing at them once in a while," he said. "And strictly don't wander to the north side of the forest!"
"Yes, sir!"
---
Boulderhelm Base, Underground Hangar
"Ma'am, the decoy team has engaged enemy airships," a voice reported over the comm.
"Very well," Hilda replied. "Wait until the airships pass you. Only shoot the ones busy firing at the decoy team. Don't let them realize your position."
"Yes, ma'am."
Dwordoug shifted uneasily.
"Uhh… Hilda," he said, glancing toward the ceiling, "hasn't it been a while since your corridor team reported?"
Hilda frowned.
"Tch… you're right."
She keyed the comm.
"Corridor team, sitrep," she said. "…Corridor team, come in."
Silence.
Her jaw tightened.
And then—
KABOOOOM!
The explosion came from above. The heavy shutter leading to the corridor burst apart, metal screaming as it was blown inward.
"Shit…" Hilda muttered.
One by one, menacing black armors stepped through the smoke.
Four armors.
Then a fifth appear—larger, heavier. The crawler leader.
A gremlin clung to its left shoulder, hissing furiously.
"How did they survive the gremlins?" Dwordoug muttered.
The crawler leader raised his right arm.
FWOOOOSH
A burst of flame engulfed the gremlin instantly.
"KIIII—!"
It was incinerated.
"Oh," Levi said. "That's how."
"SHOOT THEM!" Hilda roared.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Rifles barked across the hangar, bullets sparking uselessly against heavy armor.
"…Kill everyone," the crawler leader said flatly.
"Yes, sir," the others replied.
They spread out, returning fire.
Hilda stormed away from the table.
"READY THE STEAM CANNON!"
"B-but ma'am!" an engineer protested. "If the boiler explodes inside, it could kill half the people here!"
She grabbed him by the collar and yanked him close.
"WELL IF THOSE ARMORS AREN'T STOPPED," she snarled, "ALL THE PEOPLE HERE WILL DIE, YOU IDIOT!"
She shoved him away.
"GO FUCKING PREPARE THE CANNON! I'LL OPERATE IT MYSELF!"
"Y-Yes, ma'am!"
The engineer ran. Hilda followed.
Levi and Dwordoug watched her go.
"Well," Levi sighed, "I guess that's the end of our tea time."
"Mr. Minister," Dwordoug asked, voice strained, "can't you use some of your power to fight them?"
Levi shook his head, gesturing to his cane and injured leg.
"I'm terribly sorry, council member. I'm still not recovered enough to run around."
He hesitated.
"And if I changed into my true form here… it would be me who killed everyone by squeezing them to death."
"Hilda…" Dwordoug murmured.
Suddenly, he turned and sprinted away with Shawshank still strapped to his back.
"Oh my…" Levi frowned deeply. "Please don't do something rash, council member… Murica still needs you…"
---
Forest Area, North Side
The surface team lay low, watching the airships bombard the decoy team in the distance.
"How about that one?" a soldier whispered, pointing.
"No," another replied. "The airship next to it can see the shot."
"Can you hurry up and decide?!" a prisoner hissed.
Three gremlin cannons stood ready.
"Ah, fuck it," the first soldier muttered. "Let's just shoot the first one!"
They rushed into position.
"Ready…"
"FIRE!"
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
All three cannons fired.
"All shots connected!" an engineer reported through his telescope.
"All right!"
"We're getting good at this!"
They immediately began disassembling the cannons.
And then—
BOOOM!
One of the targeted airships exploded midair.
It veered sharply, slammed into another airship—
KABOOOOM!
Both spiraled downward, burning.
"Whoaah…" an engineer whispered.
A prisoner yanked him down.
"Stop lingering in open space!"
They vanished into the woods.
---
Goldenclaws Lead Airship
The commander furiously watched two of his airships fall in flames.
"Sir… we're down to eight airships now," an officer reported.
"Tch!" the captain spat. "How can an armor shoot down an airship?! And we can't even hit them—they're too fast!"
The commander studied the terrain.
The forest is surrounded by tall mountains.
Only one clear path.
"Tell all airships to relocate," he ordered. "Head above the water. Put distance from the forest."
"Are we… going to bombard the entire forest, sir?"
"That's right," the commander said coldly. "Something else is firing at us from there. We will burn them all together."
"Aye, sir!"
---
Forest Area, North Side
The airships pulled away.
"Tch… they finally realized," Cinderclaws muttered, watching them go. "But downing four of them isn't so bad either. Kukuku."
He flipped his comm switch.
"Cupid. Comet," he said calmly. "You see them? Now it's time for you to play."
"Yeah, we see them, Director," a female voice replied. "We're moving as soon as they finish repositioning."
"Copy that," Cinderclaws said. "Don't take too long."
---
Underground Hangar
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
The underground hangar shook as cannon fire echoed endlessly through the cavernous space. Smoke hung thick in the air, lit intermittently by muzzle flashes and sparks ricocheting off steel walls.
Two armored soldiers tried desperately to hold the line.
They fired again.
BOOM BOOM BOOM
It didn't matter.
The Crawler team advanced methodically, their black armors moving with cold precision. The difference was obvious. These weren't rookie soldiers.
They were elite Goldenclaws.
KABOOM KABOOM
The two armored soldiers were cut down within seconds—one blasted through the chest plate, the other spun violently before collapsing in a heap of twisted metal.
"Kill everything that moves," the crawler leader ordered calmly through the comm. "But keep looking for Dwordoug Axebreaker."
"Yes, sir," the others replied in unison.
They continued forward, formation tight, angles covered, eliminating resistance as they moved. Soldiers tried to retreat. Tried to regroup.
It didn't help.
One desperate soldier yanked a dwarven hand grenade from his belt, lit the fuse, and hurled it toward a crawler armor.
The crawler pilot side-stepped effortlessly.
KABOOOM
The grenade detonated behind the soldier instead.
The crawler turned and fired.
The soldier dropped instantly.
"Heh," the crawler pilot muttered, "they don't even try to cook the grenade first."
And then—
HISSS—THUNK
Pain exploded through his gut.
The pilot froze.
He looked down.
A perfectly round hole punched clean through his cockpit.
Through his armor.
Through his gut.
"What the… fu—"
The crawler armor stiffened, then toppled forward, crashing lifelessly onto the hangar floor.
---
Across the hangar, a long cannon barrel smoked faintly.
"One down," Hilda said.
She stood braced behind a massive tube-shaped weapon—the Dwargonia Prototype Steam Cannon—its design crude yet terrifying.
The cannon resembled an oversized Winans steam gun from America's civil war era, but this was something far more obscene. Instead of a modest pressure system, it was fed by a ridiculously massive boiler, reinforced and roaring with Dwargonia's enhanced coal.
Where Earth had failed to made steam weapons strong enough—
Dwargonia hadn't.
The boiler hissed violently as pressure built inside, gauges trembling under the strain.
"Prepare for the next shot!" Hilda barked.
Two engineers rushed to the furnace, yanking it open and shoveling enhanced coal inside. The fire flared white-hot. The meter needles crept upward.
"Ma'am," one engineer pleaded, "please don't wait too long to shoot!"
"Yeah—yeah! I remember!" Hilda snapped. "Otherwise the boiler explodes if I don't release the energy!"
She steadied the cannon, eyes locked on another crawler armor advancing through the smoke.
The gauge climbed.
Higher.
Higher.
At exact time it reached the red—
Hilda pulled the trigger.
HIIISSS—THUNK!
The projectile slammed into the crawler armor, tearing its entire arm clean off in a spray of metal and steam.
But it didn't go down.
The armor staggered, then slowly turned.
Its remaining weapons locked onto Hilda.
"Tch!" she hissed. "HURRY UP—BURN MORE COAL!"
---
Goldenclaws Lead Airship
The airships completed their repositioning above the open water, engines humming steadily as they turned to face the forest.
Far.
But safe.
"Commander, formations complete," the ship captain reported.
The commander nodded.
"Aim at the forest," he ordered. "Begin the barrage from the deepest end and sweep toward the cliff. Don't give them any escape routes."
"Aye, sir," the captain replied. "All ships—aim deep forest."
Cannons rotated in unison.
"…FIRE!"
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
The bridge windows lit up as the forest below was swallowed in explosions. Trees shattered. Snow vaporized. Earth and splinters blasted skyward.
"Continue the barrage," the commander said coldly, "until no trees can be seen."
Suddenly—
"Uh… Commander? Captain?" the madar officer called out. "Our madar suddenly detected two new vessels nearby."
"What do you mean 'suddenly'?" the captain asked sharply.
"Before there was nothing. Then they appeared—instantly."
"Direction?" the commander demanded.
"East, sir."
The commander strode to the bridge window and raised his telescope.
Nothing.
Then—
A ship's hull slowly emerged from behind the cliff.
Then another.
Two vessels.
Dwargonian cruisers.
"What…?" the airship captain muttered. "Why are those cruisers here?"
"Seems like they have been waiting there with their engines off" The commander said
"Are they attempting a desperate attack now?" the captain scoffed. "They can't even reach us with their cannons."
The commander frowned.
"Wait…" he said. "Where is their cannon?"
As the cruisers fully revealed themselves, the difference became clear.
No long, single-barreled main gun.
No massive siege cannon.
Only a compact, unassuming weapon mounted prominently.
It didn't look threatening.
But for anyone from Earth—
For any pilot who had ever studied air warfare—
That silhouette was unmistakable.
The shape of the mount.
The barrel.
The stance.
An oversized Bofors autocannon.
Dwarven style.