Turret T17

Like some giant robotic crow the cry of the claxon had pulled Gunnery sergeant Kier from his sleep, he raced through the narrow grey corridors pulling on the last of his flash protection suit and rode the ammunition lift up into turret 17.

The watch crew already had the breeches open waiting for their shells to arrive from the armoury. Kier moved swiftly to the command position and lifted the handset there was a short buzz as the direct line to fire control connected. “Kier, Turret 17 awaiting orders” “Fire control, roger 17” came a thin metallic voice. He put the phone back on its cradle and watched as the last of the guns crew arrived, for a moment he wondered if this was another drill then across the turret the ammunition lift began to rattle again. 3 sleek half-ton high explosive cocoons emerged one at a time and were quickly moved across to the breeches by the gun crew using the overhead hoists, hydraulic rams sliding the shells home. Next came the charges, bales of explosive needed to throw the huge shells up to twenty one kilometres, once the breaches were closed he pressed the ready button and picked up the hand set again the thin metallic voice spoke “Bearing 125 degrees range 15 kilometres. Continuous fire” on the wall control panel the red ‘weapons hold’ light extinguished and the green ‘weapons free’ light illuminated. Kier placed the head set back and set the turret controls to the required position. Below hydraulic motors drove the turret to its desired heading while rams elevated the guns. One of the crew closed the blast doors in preparation of firing. As the turret moved Kier pulled down the secondary sighting periscope and swung it to see his target. He thumbed through the sighting magnification options and swore under his breath, the horizon was moving. A carpet of black Dresh bodies was running towards his position. Amongst the smaller soldiers were great lumbering creatures, the heavy artillery of the Dresh capable of spitting bio-acid or volatile chemicals as far as his guns. The turret came to a halt kier stepped away from the periscope and slipped his flash goggles on “Firing!” he shouted he and the crew bought their hands up over their ears, Kier kicked the firing pedal there was a sledge hammer concussion of sound as all three guns spoke as one. Before the shells could arrive at their target the blast doors were open and the ammunition lift was bringing the next load.

All around the city the defensive guns opened up, immense amounts of explosive tore into the Dresh assault and yet still they came a seemingly endless tide.