The void-squalls dropped from the rift in a shrieking spiral of black wings and crackling violet lightning.
Kenneth Drake had spent four weeks designing the upper overhead frame’s defensive outer edge.
To Kenneth, defense was not about heroic valor or dramatic speeches on castle walls.
It was about shape, muzzle speed, and overlapping kill zones that left zero dead space for an advancing enemy.
“In this height,” Kenneth had explained to Giles during the battery installation, “there is no air pushback to slow a projectile.
A one-pound heavy dark metal flechette leaves the rail-lance barrel at Mach two point eight and maintains that speed for six miles.
We don’t need heavy cannon balls. We need high cyclic rate and linked fields of fire.”
Now, Kenneth stood on the watching bridge. He watched the dropping swarm through his sight aiming cross.
