Living organisms were governed by matching load-bearing mechanics to civil building works.
An entity grew to thirty feet in length and forty tons in mass. Then, the square-cube law exerted merciless body-leverage discipline.
Its limbs needed massive cross-sectional area to resist bending moments. Its exoskeleton had to function as a stiffened tube-shaped pressure hull capable of resisting external water-pressure rock pressure.
At Milepost Seven point eight, two hundred yards behind the shattered heading, Captain Kenneth Drake held the forward defensive line.
His boots were planted firmly on the crushed dark rock ballast between the steel rails.
Behind him, two dozen guard post veterans took cover behind a double-tiered breastwork of heavy sandbags and discarded iron railway ties.
Each soldier was equipped with a heavy steel breastplate, a sealed canvas breathing mask. A ten-shot repeating crossbow loaded with hardened iron-hard metal-tipped bolts.
“Keep your spacing at six paces,” Kenneth ordered in a low, controlled growl, his iron pacing rod tapping against the rail head. “Don’t bunch together.
