Chapter 9

"Timely Arrival"

Innsbruck, Southern Austria

December 2nd, 1916

It took two days, multiple breaks, and a drop-off of the surviving prisoners at some sort of prison camp, but Deryn had finally reached the last leg of her journey. In the distance, flanked by a towering mountain, stood Innsbruck. Moira and the other rebels definitely had their spirits brightened by the sight, with a few whoops and hollers being thrown around by her exhausted group. Some even dropped their gear on the ground, just to take a breather.

"See, Dylan? I told you it wouldn't be that much longer!" While everyone else had stopped, Moira carefully sat Fitzpatrick on the ground and stretched her legs. "Just a few more miles, then we can get some rest!'

She never really doubted that they would make it to Innsbruck, but she had wished the trip had been a wee bit shorter. Training to be in the British Air Services prepared her for a lot of things, but hiking long distances over muddy hills wasn't one of them. "Good, my barking legs are killing me!"

Speaking of legs, Deryn couldn't help but notice that Moira was stretching hers awfully close to her. Figuring it would be better to give her some room, she backed up to that dog-like fabrication they had been carting around.

"So, what'd you say this was again?" she asked Moira, remembering that at some point she probably had brought this up.

Now noticing Deryn's distance, she got back on her feet and coaxed Fitzpatrick onto her glove. "We call their type chimeras. Our docs say that around half a dozen different life strands go into their creation, but I only know about the hunting dog strands. God only knows what else she's made of." She extended her free hand to the two-headed beastie, who happily began licking it. "One thing's for sure: they don't go down easily. Seriously, I've seen them take a dozen rifle rounds before they give out!"

From what she saw, it wasn't that intimidating of a sight, what with its misshapen legs and starved appearance. Then again, it could just be Darwinist ingenuity at it again, creating a deadly hunter that looked harmless to its prey. It certainly wouldn't surprise her at this point.

"We should get going," Moira said to everyone around her. "The sooner we get back, the sooner we can get some real rest."

It only took a couple moments to everyone to get their bearings and resume walking. As it had been since their departure from the camp, they walked along an uneven, rocky dirt path that she guessed hadn't been widely used in years.

Deryn had to admit: Alek had grown up in a beautiful country. As soon as she got far enough away from the cities, she was greeted by lush (or, as lush as it could be before winter) foothills, a bright and clear sky, and the brisk mountain air. In contrast to the destruction around Graz, Innsbruck looked peaceful and serene. If she didn't know any better, she would have a hard time believing that there was a war going on in this region.

The disruptor in her hands squirmed around once again, reminding her that she was still, in fact, carrying it. Strange to think that such a small beastie could have the power to knock out Clanker walkers, even if they were lightly-armored. If they were breeding these fabs on a massive scale, then it was no mystery as to how they were beating back the Austrian Clankers. Take away their advantage with machines, and that would shoot down a huge chunk of their options for fighting.

When they had gotten within a half-mile of Innsbruck, Deryn noticed that a bunch of odd-looking machines were scattered around the perimeter of the city. "Moira, what are those things? Wrecked walkers or something?"

"Not exactly. Here, look a little closer." Moira grabbed Deryn's shoulder, turning her towards the closest one. "They're the city's anti-air defenses. See how all of the turrets are angled upwards? There's a network of tunnels connecting these to the city, and we always have a crew ready to man them."

They didn't exactly look like the anti-air weapons she was used to. Aboard the Leviathan, the go-to way to fight off aeroplanes and airships was to bombard them with needles from the flechette bats, and if that failed, use the strafing hawks to divebomb them. "They look like Clanker guns from here."

Moira shrugged, and said, "Well, they sort of are. Every one of them was salvaged from walkers that were destroyed or captured. Ms. Gottschalk said she didn't want them to go to waste, so we're using them against Austrian air raids."

That seemed far from the "pure Darwinism" that she had overheard a few rebels advocating on the way down. She was tempted to bring that up, but decided against it. She had already gotten on their bad side once, no need to tempt fate again.

"I know what you're thinking: 'Moira, doesn't that go against everything that Ms. Gottschalk stands for?'" she said, almost like she had sensed Deryn's doubts. "Well, she may be a Darwinist, but she's also a realist. She knows that they don't have the money to buy those kinds of fabs from England, and they haven't got the tech to fabricate them here. So, until the Clankers are kicked out of Austria, we'll settle for using their weapons against them."

"Why not just use these beasties for shooting down planes?" Deryn asked, waving the disruptor's side towards her.

"Well, they tried to do that early on. But I hear the shocks from that little bugger don't have the best of range. It just disappears when it goes too far without hitting anything, which is why we had to be closer to take down those walkers." She sounded like she didn't quite understand the logic behind it herself. "The only explanation I ever got from the docs was that its electrical bolts work a lot differently than lightning, but they never went into detail about that."

Abruptly, Moira stopped her pace, holding her hand up to signal everyone else. Deryn looked ahead; they were a few steps away from the barricades that encompassed this entrance into the city. In the distance, elephantines pulled loads of cargo while tigeresques carried armed men and civilians around the streets. Barely any of the characteristic smog from Clanker cities was in the air, either. If she ever had any doubts about whether they were Darwinists or not, they were gone now.

"We're here," Moira cheerfully whispered.

Two of the stationed guards left their posts and approached the incoming group. "Just leave the talking to me, Dylan," Moira advised her, "this will only take a moment."