The ascent was not violent. It was terrifyingly gentle.
The Leviathan did not roar like a rocket. It floated.
"Drop ballast," Andar ordered.
Sandbags were cut loose. The massive ship rose into the dark morning sky. The ground fell away. The people of Winterfell looked like ants.
In the gondola the Greatjon gripped the aluminum railing until his knuckles turned white.
"It is unnatural," the giant Lord muttered closing his eyes. "Men belong on the ground. Only birds belong here."
"Open your eyes Lord Umber," Robb Stark said.
Robb stood at the front of the glass enclosed bridge. He looked down at his kingdom.
It was white. Endlessly white.
From two thousand feet up the North was a painting. The Wolfswood was a patch of dark moss. The Kingsroad was a thin scar.
"Course North," Andar told the helmsman. "Full throttle."
The two engine pods roared to life. The wooden propellers spun into a blur. The ship shuddered then began to move forward.
They were flying at sixty miles per hour. Faster than any horse. Faster than any bird.
"How long?" Robb asked.
"Six hours," Andar checked his watch. "We have a tailwind."
The Wall
Castle Black was burning.
The attack had lasted for three days. Mance Rayder had thrown everything he had at the gate.
Jon Snow stood on top of the Wall. He was bleeding from a cut on his forehead. He leaned on his sword Longclaw.
"They are coming again!" Grenn shouted pointing down.
Below them the wildling army covered the earth. One hundred thousand torches lit up the haunted forest.
But the real threat was at the gate itself.
"Giants!" Pyp screamed. "Mag the Mighty!"
A massive shape emerged from the trees. It was fourteen feet tall covered in shaggy fur riding a mammoth that was even larger. Behind him were three other giants carrying a battering ram made from an entire ironwood tree.
"Archers!" Jon yelled. "Fire!"
Arrows rained down. But the giants wore crude armor made of boiler plates scavenged from shipwrecks and layers of mammoth hide. The arrows bounced off.
"They are going to breach the gate!" Alliser Thorne shouted. "Prepare the oil! Boil them!"
"We are out of oil!" Jon replied. "We used the last barrel yesterday!"
The mammoth slammed into the outer gate.
CRASH.
The heavy oak timbers splintered. The Wall shook.
"Hold the tunnel!" Jon ordered. "If they get through the tunnel the realm falls!"
The brothers of the Night's Watch drew their swords. They were tired. They were few. They knew this was the end.
Then the wind changed.
A low humming sound drifted down from the clouds. It was not the horn of winter. It was a steady mechanical drone.
Thrummmmmm.
The giants stopped. The wildlings looked up.
"What is that?" Tormund Giantsbane asked shielding his eyes. "Is it a star?"
A dark shape descended through the cloud layer. It was huge. Bigger than a dragon. Long and grey like a shark swimming in the air.
Searchlights mounted on the gondola clicked on.
CLICK.
Two beams of pure white electric light cut through the darkness. They swept across the wildling army blinding thousands.
The beams focused on the giants at the gate.
The Gondola
"Target acquired," Andar said looking through the bomb sight.
He saw the giants clearly in the circle of light. They looked confused freezing like deer in headlights.
"We are directly overhead," the navigator reported.
"Open the bay doors," Andar ordered.
The floor of the airship opened. The cold wind rushed in.
"Drop stick one," Andar said. "Salute the King Beyond the Wall for me."
The bombardier pulled the lever.
Ten black canisters fell from the belly of the ship. They tumbled end over end straightening out as their fins caught the air.
Down below Jon Snow watched the black raindrops fall.
"Take cover!" Jon tackled Samwell Tarly to the ice.
BOOM.
The earth erupted.
The first bomb hit the mammoth directly. The massive beast simply vanished in a pink mist.
The shockwave knocked the giants off their feet.
Then the rest of the stick landed.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM.
A line of explosions tore through the wildling vanguard. Fire and shrapnel shredded the front ranks. The ironwood battering ram was turned into toothpicks.
The noise was deafening. It echoed off the Wall magnifying the sound until it felt like the sky was cracking open.
"Gods save us!" A wildling screamed dropping his axe. " The sky is falling!"
Panic ensued.
The mammoths panic easily. With fire raining from above the surviving beasts went mad. They turned around and stampeded.
They trampled the wildling infantry. Thousands of men were crushed under the hooves of their own war beasts.
Up in the airship Andar watched the chaos.
"Circle around," Andar ordered. "Bring the rifles to bear."
The Leviathan banked slowly.
Fifty riflemen lined the windows of the gondola.
"Free fire," Robb Stark commanded. "Drive them back to the trees."
CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK.
From five hundred feet up the riflemen rained accurate fire onto the chaotic mob below. They targeted the chieftains. They targeted the wargs.
It was a massacre.
Mance Rayder
Mance stood on a hill overlooking the slaughter.
He saw his life's work dissolving. The army he had spent twenty years uniting was breaking apart in twenty minutes.
He looked up at the grey demon hovering above him.
"You cannot fight thunder," Mance whispered.
He saw the giants running. He saw the Thenns dying without even seeing their killers.
"Blow the horn," Mance said tiredly.
"The Horn of Winter?" Tormund asked hoping.
"No," Mance said. "The retreat. Blow the retreat. Before we are all dead."
The horn sounded. A long mournful note.
The wildling army turned and ran. They fled back into the haunted forest trying to escape the circle of light.
Castle Black
Jon Snow stood up.
The battlefield was silent except for the groans of the dying and the thrum of the engine above.
The massive airship lowered itself slowly. Ropes were dropped. It hovered just above the courtyard of Castle Black.
A rope ladder unrolled.
A man climbed down. He wore a heavy wool coat with a fur collar and a strange metal pistol on his belt.
Jon recognized him.
"Andar?" Jon gasped.
Andar landed on the snow. He was followed by another man. A man with red hair and a bronze crown.
Jon dropped to one knee.
"Your Grace," Jon said to his brother.
Robb walked over and pulled Jon up. He hugged him fiercely.
"You held the line Jon," Robb said. "You held it."
"I had help," Jon said looking up at the Leviathan. "What is that thing?"
"That is the future," Andar said.
He walked to the edge of the Wall and looked out at the smoking craters in the ice.
"The wildlings are broken," Andar said. "But they are just people running from something worse."
He turned to the North.
"The real enemy is still out there. And they do not fear bombs."
"The White Walkers," Jon whispered. "They are coming."
"Let them come," Andar said.
He pulled a crate from the supply drop that was being lowered. He pried it open with a crowbar.
Inside were new weapons. Heavy weapons.
Water cooled machine guns. Flame throwers.
"We have industry Jon," Andar said. "We have fire. We have steel."
He looked at the dark forest.
"We are going to turn the Wall into a fortress of the industrial age. And when the Night King arrives we will show him that winter burns."
[Quest Complete: Death from Above]
[The Wall: Saved]
[Wildling Army: Routed]
[New Unit Unlocked: Aerial Bomber]
[Reputation: The Sky God]
[System Alert]
[The Long Night is approaching]
[Time remaining: 30 Days]
[Prepare for Total War]
Andar looked at the red text in his vision.
"Thirty days," Andar said. "To build a defense against the apocalypse."
He turned to the engineers.
"Start the trains. Bring everything we have. We are going to build a kill zone that will make the Doom of Valyria look like a candle."
.…..
Author Note
Hi guys! Thank you for reading my fanfiction.
I wanted to let you know that I'm releasing bonus chapters for Power Stones. Here are the goals:
25 Power Stones: 1 Bonus Chapters
50 Power Stones: 1 Bonus Chapters
75 Power Stones: 2 Bonus Chapters
100 Power Stones: 2 Bonus Chapters
Thanks for the support!