Hiss of the Steam

Hiss of the Steam Chapter 5 - Semifinals

We were awoken by a loud knock at the door and Elliot yelling at us.

 

"Oy! You two awake in there? We need to get going!"

Amber nearly trampled me jumping out of bed.

 

"Shit! Mark, get up! We need to get going! We're late!"

she yelled. I, however, was still lying on the ground holding my stomach, which had been pummeled by her feet. Amber was already pulling on her boots. "Damn it, Mark! We can sleep later!"

 

Brushing off my uncourteous wakeup call and shaking my head, I forced myself to get up and put on my gear. Amber ran over to the door to let Elliot in.

 

"What are we waiting for?" he asked.

 

"Mark decided to sleep in."

 

“Damn it Mark! we can sleep later!” Elliot exclaimed, repeating Amber’s words.

I again shook my head, deciding not to point out that my stomach wouldn’t be able to digest anything for a week.

 

As soon as I was ready I was rushed out the door to Elliot’s shop.

“I have added some upgrades this time round,” he explained. The golems looked about the same as the last ones, except for a few “upgrades”, as Elliot called them, and were much bigger than the last ones. “I have replaced the wooden joints with iron so that they won’t just break apart. And I cast them twice to add some strength to the armor. So, what do you think?”

 

He paused, expectantly looking at me and Amber. Amber was more focused on a spider web in the corner than Elliot’s explanations, and I, being half asleep still, was nodding off. Then Amber then looked back at Elliot.

 

“Ah! Right. I think it needs guns in the arms,” she said, slightly unimpressed.

 

After one hell of an argument between Amber and Elliot and an ice cold bucket of water for my head, we set off from Amber’s house and found ourselves at the north edge of town. We saw tents in the distance at what looked like a Hazy Skies toll booth, but this one was bigger than the one I saw before. At least five tents, each one probably housing up to three people.  

 

“What is the plan for this one?” Elliot asked, pulling out his crossbow.

 

"I say we send the golems first again. We get them to trash the tents, then we charge in to finish off the residents," Amber said with a confident smile on her face.

 

"Sounds like a plan," I said. Amber began to count down on her fingers from five. When she hit zero, Elliott ordered his golems to smash the tents. They charged in and brought down the supports holding up the first pair of tents, resulting in loud exclamations from the people inside. They began to run towards the next two tents, but their occupants had already awoken and were working on taking down the golems. The bullets they fired, however,  just bounced off the new and improved giants. The mechanized fighters took out four of the thugs, but then the tides turned.

 

We had joined the fight and I noticed one of the fighters run back into one of the tents. At first I thought it was out of cowardice, but then he reemerged with a large metal pack on his back that had a red glow to it. From the pack, two tubes were strung to two nozzles on the wearer's arms. I instantly recognized it as a prototype flame thrower the Icarus Heavy Response Team (IHRT) had been working on. The IHRT is who the local law enforcement call when they are in way, way, way over their heads. They are a special branch of the military also known as The Archangels. The Archangels don’t care about collateral damage and will kill anything that isn't an Archangel. The flame wielder awkwardly ran behind one of the golems and let loose a fiery inferno that was able to melt straight through the heavy plating. The gun and the pack itself is made of tungsten (which is a very common element in Icarus.) The flames had a temperature of  around 3000 degrees Fahrenheit due to a constant supply of O2, plus some coal and another unknown substance. The golem had no time to react as the heat burned a hole right through it’s chest, destroying the mechanisms inside. The golem fell, and the other rushed to its aid, but was also melted down.

 

We had finished off the other thugs, so we turned to the flame wielder. He was still incinerating the golem’s body, so Elliot took out a bolt from his satchel and charged at him. He was about 10 feet away when the flame wielder turned and fired. Elliot was able to jump out of the way of the heat. (Seeing as the flamethrower was still a prototype, it could only fire up to seven feet.) He smiled, then created a wall of fire between us and him and ran off. Elliot and I got up to go after him, but Amber stopped us.

 

“Leave him. Doug is probably out extorting people right now, but he will be back at some point today. Besides, we can’t touch him when he has that thing on. Let’s wait here for him.” We reluctantly agreed and sat down.

 

We only had to wait about 13 minutes before we heard an unknown voice say, “Holllllly shiiiiiit.” A large figure stepped into the charred clearing. He surveyed the area, looking around at the burnt tents and bodys. "Goddamn it!" he shouted, kicking a piece of blackened wood. He fell to his knees and put his handson the ground in front of him.  Amber stepped quietly out and drew her gun.

 

"Hands up, Doug," she said, putting the barrel to the back of his head. He sighed, sat up, and put his hands behind his head.

"What do you want from me? You sure as hell ain't lookin’ for hire. You killed all my men."

"We need information on Mick."

"How do you... Ohhhhh. You're that girl who blew up the base that one time, aren't ya?”

“Yeah, that was me. And unless you want me to do the same to your head, I recommend you give us the information we need,” she said.

 

“Hell, I don’t care much for Mick so... You know the high-rise at the south edge of town? He has an office on the top floor of that.” He then scoffed and said “Good luck.” Amber put down the gun and walked back to us.

“Well? Let’s head out,” she said, heading off in the direction Doug had pointed us in. We followed suit. Now it was time for the finale. At least I hoped it was.

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Authors notes: Very short chapter but a lot of action and more to come! I did my research on the melting point of the metals and decided that tungsten was the only matirial with a high enouph melting point to with stand a fire that can melt bronze (what the golems are made of). However it's quite rare in our universe, so... F you I'm a writer, it's all over Icarus. XD (god I love power).

Editor’s note: Hooo boy are you in for something! The reason the last bit of conversation wasn’t separated by spaces is because...I don’t know exactly. Maybe cause it’s one of my favorite conversations.  Again, stay tuned for… quite the chapter!