War: A Tanki Story

Epilogue: Masterpiece

The rain lashed against the window pane of Lynus' empty room. Blueprints lay scattered on the floor and a few chickens lay sleeping on the couch. A tiny model of the Enerdrive with a Viking hull drove around the ornate wooden tabletop, blasting at other scrap metal tanks which were trying unsuccessfully to freeze it.

Bryan entered the room, closed the door and sighed. He stared glumly at the pile of papers and scrap material in the corner. Seeing him enter, a chicken leaped up from a mini beanie and ran to his feet, looking up to him expectantly.

"No, Corny, I do not have any Nushies," Bryan told the now grumpy chicken, who sulked back to his beanie, landing on it with a muffled thump.

Bryan choked and coughed. Corny's jump onto the beanie had launched a cloud of smoke into the air. He stumbled and fell onto the pile of objects in the corner. After the dust had settled, Bryan glanced at his surroundings. One of the Hornet-Firebirds on the desk could not see thanks to a dirty windscreen and had crashed to the floor. It lay in a heap of scrap metal. Dickens picked it up and began fixing it. He looked at Bryan for encouragement, but he was too preoccupied with something else...

A stack of letters was hidden beneath the pile. Bryan flipped through them quickly, skimming the pages. Who are Jonathan and Gabriel? He wondered.

He found the last letter, which was printed on blue paper, and it went like this.

Dear Lynus,

You may not be able to read this letter, but I'm hoping you can anyway. Jonathan and I have found something wonderful. We need to talk to you as soon as possible. Can you see us at sunset during the Winter Solstice? We know where your base is, just ensure we don't get killed.

The blueprints you sent us of the Enerdrive were terribly complicated, but I managed to figure it out anyway. It is rather powerful, but there's something that puzzles me.

The invention would have been perfect if not for that single nuclear reactor connected to the ammo tank. When it runs out, the atoms are split and causes a great IMPLOSION... and if I spotted it I'm sure you would have too.

You planned this, didn't you?

Alas, I have no power over your actions. In fact, nothing I say now can impact you at all. But you knew that this was how you could finally defeat the enemy. I can't figure out whether you were heroic or plain dumb. Nevertheless, I respect your decision- you did what you thought was right.

It won't matter anyway.

You're dead, aren't you?

Regards,

Gabriel Yap

"Sir, we have incoming!" a Benign shouted.

Bryan looked outside the window. Through the snow and the glaring sun, he could see two tanks with M3 Railguns slowly traveling towards the gates. They had an unfamiliar symbol on their hulls and Bryan checked the stamp on the envelopes- they matched.

Gabriel and Jonathan looked at up at the window where Bryan was. He quickly dropped the letters and dashed down the staircase. The guards were ordered to open the gates and Bryan walked forward to greet his newfound allies.