“Oh! Excuse me, sir,” she’d turned and nearly ran into him, jostling the platters in her nervousness. “I didn’t see you there, sir. Please forgive me.”
“Hmm, no forgiveness is necessary, child,” Anderson purred, his eyes roving over her entire body. His finger came up and flicked the underside of her metal collar. “I can make this disappear, you know.”
Lucy didn’t buy his act for a minute. She gave him the sweetest Dixie smile that she could muster, while inside she shuddered in revulsion at his touch. “That’s very kind of you, sir, but I have to get these back to the kitchen.”
He grabbed her by the arm as she went to move past him, pulling her close. “I’m serious. Just say the word and this collar is gone,” he whispered into her ear.
“And what word would that be, sir?” Lucy asked hesitantly.
“I want you to be my wife.”
Unable to help herself, she looked up at him. “Why? You were going to have me thrown away into your breeder farm?”
He smiled down at her. “Oh, you are going to join me there, one way or another. Whether I buy you from Michaelson or find some other less legal way to do it, you will be mine. The daughter of Reverend Spence? Your family has helped me more though the years than they realize, with all the families they’ve ruined. With you by my side, I’d be in the perfect position to take over the last of their assets now that they’ve fallen from grace and are no longer helpful.” His hand drifted down to her belly and she felt a wave of nausea creep up. He squeezed possessively. “And with a baby in here, an heir would be indisputable. So, just say that you’ll be mine and you’ll have your freedom back.”
Lucy was in a near panic, but her eyes somehow detected Charity Carmichael… or to be precise, Charity Wolverton… in the crowd. Charity had become a slave to Mr. Wolverton to avoid being a slave to Lucy’s brother. Lucy’s free hand drifted up to her own collar to touch the metal. Would she really be free, or would she just trading one form of slavery for another? After all, how free would she be if she said yes?
She looked up at him, her defiance now showing. “No, thank you.”
Anderson’s face hardened as he jerked her once to get right into her face. “I will have you! One way or another!”
“You wouldn’t dare do anything with two Consortium officials here!” she shot back, now yanking her arm free. She managed to keep a hold of the dishes and platters. “Good day, sir!”
“Fine,” he said, grabbing her again. “Plan B it is.”
Anderson reached into his inner jacket pocket, and pulled out a device that looked like a box with dials and a wire sticking out of the top. He pressed a button and spoke into it. “Do it now.”
“Do what now?” Lucy asked, suddenly feeling fearful.
He smirked. “We have more guests coming to the party, my dear.”
***
“What the hell is that?” Deacon observed as he peered up into the night sky. The deep, rumbling whomp whomp whomp sound of old airship propeller engines filled the air, preceding a dark shape that moved through the night sky.
Gabriel squinted and saw the Ice Star on Sand and Blood symbol on the huge ramshackle rudder. He swore under his breath.
“Oh, sure, now, they decide to fucking attack!” he whirled around, calling to the guests as he started running for the doors. “Raiders! Get out of here now!” Turning to Deacon he added, “Whoever doesn’t get gone, get them inside and hole up.”
“Where are you going?” Deacon demanded even as he drew his own beamer from under his blazer.
“To get my armor on and to call for backup, that’s where!” Gabriel called over his shoulder. “Where’s your house fleet, anyway?” He was met with Deacon’s confused shrug.
He was up the grand staircase and in his suite in no time at all. Gabriel keyed the radio in his helmet as he jumped into his armor, grabbing the overhead hand holds to pull himself up before dropping his legs in.
“Emancipator! This is Messenger! Get yer ass up here to the Michaelson Estate, pronto! We’re under attack by raiders!”
On the other end of the line, Jaeger Emancipator swore. “I’ll be on my way, man. ETA twenty minutes,” he said in his smooth, velvet voice that never lost its calm demeanor.
“Better make it ten — they’re already hot and bearing those markings belonging to Auctor Frost that you told me about,” Gabriel urged him, locking down the chest piece and then grabbing for his helmet. He slammed it down on top of his head and twisted slightly to the left, locking it into place. The armor whirred to life, now under his full control. Inside his left arm, he gripped the firing mechanism for his arm’s Gatling gun. A single squeeze of the pressure grip got the barrels spinning around his forearm. All he had to do was jam his thumb down onto the trigger assembly for it to spit out white-hot death to anyone unlucky enough to be in its path. Now in his protective shell, Gabriel ran back out to the foyer, footsteps thundering in the hallway with each step.
***
Lucy was aghast as she was dragged along by the arm through the halls of the manor.
“You called raiders here?” she squeaked amid the commotion of guests and staff running this way and that, all trying to find cover or protection from the attack. “Just to get me?” There was beamer fire off to her left where Mr. Wolverton had upended a table, thrown Charity behind it, and started shooting at the party crashers.
“You failed to see reason, my dear,” Anderson said harshly.
“But they’ll capture or even kill people here!”
“And you could’ve avoided this had you just taken me up on my offer!” he snapped. “This impending bloodshed is on you! Not me!”
The thump-thump sound of cannons firing from overhead rumbled over the manor followed by a couple of explosions out front as some of the guests’ steam and motor carriages were destroyed, preventing people from escaping. More cannon shots rang out, this time closer as the raider airship got near. More explosions. People screamed and cried out in terror as they ran every which way for cover.
Lucy tried to twist out of Anderson’s grip to no avail. He kept a hold on her as solid as the iron collar she wore. “You can’t do this! Let me go!” she protested.
“I’ve been doing this for years and it’s all been arranged. After your master is dead, you go back to auction. Having ‘saved’ you from this vile raider attack, the Theocracy will be more inclined to let me have you de facto as you will have placed your trust in your savior.” He gave her a pointed look and smiled at her. “You will, of course, be gagged for those proceedings. Then it will be back up to Taylorsville where you belong, you Trollip.”
“I will never stop fighting you!” Lucy said. “The Consortium won’t let you get away with this.” She managed to pull back hard enough to get him to stop walking for a moment.
“The Consortium,” he sneered, turning on her, “will have forgotten all about this little incident once your Jaeger and that damn accountant out there are dead. I haven’t forgotten about Mr. Wolverton costing me the Carmichaels as well. While your brother would’ve had Miss Charity out there, I would’ve had my pick of her sisters once they were delivered to me. But then she had to go run off to Elysium and pick up that damn bean counter.” He jerked her arm again. “Now let’s go, wife!” He pulled her outside as they headed for his vehicle.
The raider airship now hovered high overhead and raiders were rappelling down on dropped ropes. They opened fire on the guests, many shots going high over heads to get them to duck or dive for cover. Their shots were expertly placed as they gunned down a few of the men while avoiding the women. Other raiders came in behind the first line to start scooping ladies up who were in anguish that their men had been shot. Anderson continued to boldly march forward until one shot came too close for comfort.
“Not me, you fools!” he bellowed at them. “Them!”
It was apparently the wrong thing to say as more shots came their way, causing Anderson to yelp in alarm and loosen his grip on Lucy
. Lucy took the opportunity to bolt. She had to find Gabriel or Deacon.
CHAPTER 15
Gabriel came out the front doors with his arm cannon up and firing. The raiders that were out in the open as they charged the estate were gunned down in short order. Those lucky enough to have been farther back ducked under cover and started to return fire.
Gabriel could easily take out any single raider. However, with multiple raiders firing back an assortment of beamers and rudimentary gunpowder firearms, he couldn’t have such luck. He knelt behind a long masonry planter that came up to his waist and took aim.
He wasn’t alone — there was a man cowering behind it as well. At first, Gabriel paid him no mind until he saw who it was.
“Anderson?”
Gabriel looked around and then grabbed the little weasel of a man by the scruff of the neck. “Where’s Lucy?” he shouted through his armor’s speakers.
Before the old raider airship arrived, Gabriel had been watching the exchange between Anderson and Lucy from a distance. When he looked back, they’d disappeared.
“I don’t know! I was escorting her to safety when the attack began and she ran off!” Anderson whined. “Don’t let them take me,” he begged Gabriel, tugging at his powered arm.
Gabriel slugged him with a vicious right cross to dislodge him. Anderson crumpled to the ground, unconscious.
“Been wanting to do that for months now,” Gabriel muttered as he got his head back into the fight.
***
Inside was bedlam as raiders came in from the north wing, having found that the side entrances preferable to the front doors. Lucy looked in every room for any sign of Gabriel or Deacon. Hell, at this point she’d settle for that accountant. Guests flooded back inside to lock themselves into whatever room they could find. Raiders were shooting men and taking women captive without discrimination. At one point, she even saw Lady Vickers crying over her husband’s prone and bloody body right before two raiders dragged her off kicking and screaming.
Lucy searched up and down the halls of the north wing, calling for both her Jaeger and her master. Lucy found herself all the way at the end of the wing and so she turned back, only to be cornered by a single raider who was leering at her. He holstered his weapon and walked toward her. Cornered and desperate, Lucy grabbed the closest weapon she could find — an old Calvary sabre mounted on the wall, which had been in the Michaelson family since before the Great War. The sword was heavier than she’d expected and it dropped straight to the floor with a loud thud despite her two-handed grip on the handle.
The raider stopped in his advance and laughed at her fumbling about with the antique weapon. It proved to be his downfall as Lucy wasted no time in swinging it up toward his head as much as she could. It embedded into the side of his neck and he stood there with a shocked look on his face as he started to bleed out. He tried to raise his pistol, but Lucy used all of her might to drag the sabre out of his neck to make a clumsy strike at his hand. This time, the sabre didn’t cut so much as it wound up breaking his wrist.
Before the raider could do anything, he dropped to his knees. Lucy could see that he was losing blood at an alarming rate. Without any further theatrics, his eyes glazed over and he pitched backward, dead. Letting out a roar of anguish at being attacked, she hit him again, and again, and again. She put forth all the anger, shame, and rage that had been pent up inside of her for months now. With a fury that she’d never known existed inside of her, Lucy pummeled the raider until he was a bloody heap on the carpet.
Maybe it was Anderson finally making his move on her that did it. Finally, she stopped with the saber up over her head as she was poised to strike again. Lucy stood over his lifeless body, her naked chest heaving from the sudden spike of adrenaline coursing through her system. Her mind worked feverishly as it processed what had just happened.
As reality hit her, she pitched over and retched into one corner… she’d just killed someone! Afterward, she wiped the tears and snot from her face the best she could. She wasn’t safe in the estate now. She heard the raiders all around the mansion, the cacophony of battle punctuating that fact, and the cries of the wounded and recently abducted, Lucy started to get the feeling that nowhere on the estate grounds would be safe. But, where could she go? Hearing the telltale sound of a Gatling beamer outside, she picked up her newfound saber and dashed down the hallway.
Two more raiders came out of a side room and ran right into her. The three of them fell into a tangle of limbs, her weapon bouncing out of reach.
“Grab her!” one of them said. “We gotta get back to the airship. The Dixie Air Corps is coming in!”
Lucy had started to get back up right as she saw the hand of the second one coming down to slap her hard across the face, momentarily dazing her. When she came to, she was being bounced up and down, her hands and ankles now bound. She realized she was being carried over one of the raiders’ shoulders as they dashed out of the estate.
“Gabriel!” she cried out as she was hustled off.
***
Gabriel’s blood froze as he heard Lucy’s anguished scream from somewhere off to his right.
“Lucy!” he breathed in horror. He stopped firing out the front door and charged down the hall that led to the north wing.
His radio crackled. “Messenger, Emancipator here. I just landed in the front lawn. The raiders are pulling back with prisoners in tow.”
“Already?” Gabriel was shocked — they hadn’t been here that long.
“Well, I took the liberty of calling the Dixie Air Corps,” Emancipator admitted. “The James Longstreet is in the area and they’re already closing in to assist us. They’ve already issued a challenge to them. The raiders will be easily outmatched in that dilapidated thing they call an airship.”
Gabriel burst out of one of the side servant’s doors and was met with a hail of gunfire. He lifted his gauntlet toward the retreating raiders. Reaching up behind his helmet with his right hand, he toggled the magnification optics. They slid down the front of his visor slits and his vision zoomed in for easier targeting.
“Lucy!” he called out as he watched her being carried away over the shoulder of one raider.
“That lady you’ve been doing the investigation for is here?” Emancipator asked.
Ignoring him, Gabriel gunned down any raider within his range while running full tilt for his girl. He wasn’t about to let her be taken.
“Gabe!” Emancipator shouted. “Watch out for those airship guns!”
“Ah, shit!” Gabriel planted his feet and skidded to a halt, looking up at the raider airship that loomed above him. It was just in time, too, as the starboard guns, already pointed downward, started firing. They impacted into the ground just in front of him and, had he still been running, he would’ve been vaporized. Instead, the explosions knocked him backwards. He pinwheeled in the air as he was thrown twenty feet back. He rolled with the hard landing, coming to rest up against the wall.
“Get up! Get up!” Emancipator was now next to Gabriel, hauling him to his feet.
“I gotta get her!” Gabriel struggled in his grip, though Emancipator’s brute strength nearly immobilized him.
“How far out is the Longstreet?” Gabriel asked, wincing.
Emancipator’s helmet shook back and forth, telling him that it wasn’t any time soon.
“We have to do something!”
“Calm down and take a deep breath, man. We’ll link up with the Longstreet when they get here and we’ll evaluate options,” Emancipator instructed and then grabbed Gabriel by the shoulders and shook him. “You get me, Jaeger?” he demanded.
“Yeah…,” Gabriel said, regaining his wits. There were others here that needed tending to. At least the captured guests were safe as far as the physical sense of the word went. “Let’s go see how bad it is and report this in.”
***
Deacon and Lucas had quickly constructed a makeshift bunker to protect themselves from the raging fight and didn’t
emerge until the raiders were in the now-ruined courtyard. Deacon looked around, astounded. Now the place looked like a warzone from the Great War — he couldn’t believe it. Deacon had to hand it to the accountant — the number of dead bodies on the ground was a testament to Lucas’ skill with a beamer. Lucas ran over to his wife who he’d thrown to the ground behind a table he upended when the fighting started. She nodded that she was okay and took his offered hand of assistance.
“Well…,” Lucas said, glancing over at Deacon, “I must admit that you sure do throw one helluva party, Michaelson.”
Deacon frowned and then ignored him as Gabriel walked up with another Jaeger in full armor. “You two okay?” Gabriel asked.
“Yes,” Deacon said and nodded. “Thanks to you and your friend here.” He stretched his hand out to the newly arrived Jaeger. “My thanks. I’m Deacon Michaelson.”
“Lincoln Powell, Jaeger Emancipator,” he replied, gingerly shaking Deacon’s hand through the power armor.
“And this,” Gabriel added, gesturing to Lucas, “is Lucas Wolverton, Consortium accountant out of New Eden.”
“You chose an interesting place to go vacationing, sir,” Lincoln quipped. “Usually people go down to Elysium for getaways, not the other way around.”
“Eh,” Lucas said with a shrug. “I heard that the Bay of Mississippi was nice this time of year… warm, slightly cloudy, and only a small percentage of a hail of gunfire.”
Lincoln laughed. “Ha! I like him!”
“So, what’s your plan now, gentlemen?”
Gabriel looked around as shell-shocked guests collected their wits and scattered belongings. “We’ve got to clean up, see to the wounded, and report this to the Consortium.”
Lucas waved them off. “Consider it called in. I can see to that here. Oh, don’t look at me like that. I might be a mere accountant to you high and mighty Jaegers, but I’m still a Consortium official, right? I’ll handle cleanup. You two should go after those raiders.” They all looked up again with nervous anticipation as the sound of another airship’s engines filled the air. Lucas looked at them. “Backup?”
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