The Abyss of Time

Chapter Fifty Nine

     Lucy was poised to leap out at the tank when she saw the machine gun spin around to aim at something behind it. She didn't know what had attracted its attention and didn't question it. Her body was already primed and ready to attack so she was able to run forward without losing any time, reaching the steel behemoth before the machine gun could spin back around towards her. If the machine had still had two machine guns she would have been dead, but it was likely that the lucky strike from the perimeter weapons had only extended her life for a few moments.

     She slapped the grenade against the tank and spun away, almost bumping into one of the soldiers who'd had the same idea. The machine gun targeted the soldier and a hail of hot lead almost tore him in half but it gave Lucy the chance she needed to get back under cover just as her grenade detonated with a sound like a whip being cracked. The hemispherical casing was shattered, flying apart in a rain of shrapnel to reveal a hole that had been punched clean through the plate of steel from which a tongue of white flame emerged.

     The tank seemed unaffected, though, except for a momentary pause in its forward motion which Lucy imagined was caused by the machine's cybernetic brain running a diagnostic check to see how badly it had been damaged. The answer seemed to be not very much because it resumed its forward motion, both its remaining weapons scanning for targets. The soldiers had had time to dodge around to its far side, though. The side that its ruined machine gun would have been defending. The gap in the machine's defences allowed them to slap more granades against the tank and they blew one after another, each one making the tank shudder as if in pain.

     The tank still came on, though, and Lucy began to despair, fearing they had nothing powerful enough to stop it. Tanks were normally fought by other tanks, or by other, equally powerful weapons. Infantry only attacked them as a last resort of desperation. Desperate is what we are, though, she thought, her hands tightening on her rifle. We just have to find its weak spot.

     The tank fired its plasma cannon and the pile of lander wings was blown into flying fragments of jagged metal and human bodies. The machine gun fired at each of the bodies in turn, making sure of them, and then the tank turned with a metallic grinding of steel caterpillar tracks. The machine gun fixed on a soldier running desperately for a nearby tent and shot him from behind.

     Lucy aimed her rifle at the tank, thinking that maybe she could fire through one of the holes made by the grenades. Ridiculous to think that there was anything to damage at the bottom of those holes that hadn't already been destroyed by the grenades, but she was out of any other ideas. Then she saw Simon's body lying on the ground in front of her, an activated grenade still held in each hand. Without taking the time to think about it, she snatched the grenades out of his still warm hands and ran for the tank. It was facing away from her, its machine gun still searching for more victims. Reaching the tank, Lucy slapped the grenades against its rear end where there was some kind of hatch. Then she turned and ran.

     The detonations of the two grenades were almost simultaneous, and as the sound died away it was replaced by silence. The war machine had stopped moving. A soldier who'd been about to be shot by the machine gun stared at the smoking barrel aimed straight at him as if unable to believe he was still alive. Then he turned and ran back towards the bunker, his crotch stained where he'd lost control of his bladder.

     The other soldiers hesitantly emerged from hiding, staring suspiciously at the tank as if fearing it was some kind of trap. "Is it dead?" asked the asian looking woman.

     "Let's make sure," another soldier said. He aimed his rifle at the machine gun and fired, followed by the others. Soon the weapon had been reduced to slag and the soldiers followed up by destroying all its remaining eyes. Then they attached more grenades to its caterpillar tracks and blew them apart. Even if the tank was somehow still alive, it was now blind and immobilised. They couldn't hope to do more with the weapons they had.