Re: Steel and Gunpowder

Voss stared down into the White Jaws canyon. He was mesmerized by the immense size of the white monster below.

The giant glacier bear was tearing large chunks of meat from the dead boar with brutal force.

"Do not look at its teeth," Voss whispered. He forced his own hands to stop trembling as he unslung his rifle. "Even if King Konrad says its fat is thick, nothing can survive a concentrated volley of Swabian firepower."

After hearing such words, Klemens let out a whimpering gasp from the snow next to them.

"You are going to get us all killed," Klemens hissed. "I told you, weapons only make the ghost angry. We need to leave right now... We can find food somewhere else!"

"Shut up!" Voss snapped softly. "There is no ’somewhere else.’ Look at the basin! There are dozens of giant mountain pigs just sleeping in the snow. That is a hill of meat. The only thing standing between us and a warm feast is that oversized, overgrown dog."

Though Voss sounded confident, a small bead of cold sweat ran down his neck.

The giant white bear was standing on its hind legs now, sniffing the freezing alpine wind.

It was incredibly tall... easily over ten feet high.

"It knows we are here, General," Hans swallowed hard. He brought his rifle up to his shoulder.

"Then we do not give it a chance to climb up here," Voss said. He turned his head slightly to look back at the exhausted Jaegers crouching in the snow behind the ridge.

The Swabian soldiers quickly crawled forward. They pressed their bellies against the gray rock. They formed a long, horizontal line along the top of the cliff, overlooking the snowy basin below.

"Listen to me, Jaegers," Voss whispered down the line. "Do not aim for the head. The skull is sloped and too thick. Aim straight for the center of mass... Aim for the chest and the shoulders! We hit it all at once, and we turn that white coat to bloody ribbons!"

The men took long breaths, trying to steady their starving bodies. They pressed the wooden stocks into their shoulders. They squinted down the long iron barrels at the sprawling beast below.

Down on the white snow, the giant glacier bear dropped back down onto all four of its heavy paws.

It took a slow step toward the cliff face. Its black eyes locked onto Voss’s position.

"It is looking right at me," a young Jaeger whimpered. His iron barrel shook wildly.

"Hold your fire!" Voss commanded, keeping his own sights lined up on the bear’s broad chest. "Wait for my mark! Wait for it..."

The giant bear opened its bloody jaws, preparing to let out a roar to challenge the intruders.

"NOW! FIRE!" Voss roared at the top of his lungs.

A bright flash of orange fire lit up the top of the ridge. It was followed instantly by a choking cloud of smelly white sulfur smoke.

The conical bullets ripped through the air. They rained down toward the snowy basin like a deadly iron storm.

Voss peered through the thick white smoke. He expected to see the giant bear shredded and lifeless in the dirt.

Lying right next to the bear were the dozens of incredibly timid iron-tusks.

"Arghhhh! No! No! No!" Voss suddenly screamed, his eyes widening.

The deafening thunder of the Swabian guns had panicked the herd of giant mountain boars. The beasts, who had been peacefully sleeping in the snow, instantly woke up in a state of blind panic.

They let out loud, barking squeals. They thrashed their heavy bodies around.

"They are moving!" Hans yelled. He dropped his rifle and grabbed his head. "General! The meat is running away!"

The sweeping beasts, wholly spooked by the loud explosions, threw themselves toward the sprawling ice caves at the far end of the canyon.

Despite their enormous, fat bodies, they moved surprisingly fast when they were frightened. They scrambled on their hooves across the snowy basin, ignoring the giant bear and the men on the ridge.

One by one, the hills of meat dove headfirst into the twisting, narrow tunnels of the glacial caves.

"Shoot them! Shoot the pigs!" Voss roared, forgetting about the bear.

He reached for his brass cartridges with shaking hands. "Do not let them get in the caves! Damnit, reload!"

But it was too late. Reloading a Pattern-3 rifle took ten seconds. By the time the Swabian soldiers could cycle their bolts and push fresh brass into the breeches, the entire herd had escaped into the icy mountain tunnels.

The caves swallowed them up, leaving behind nothing but the empty snowy basin and a few scattered traces of trampled snow.

"Curse it all!!" Hans cursed at the top of his lungs. He threw his empty rifle into the snow. "We scared our own dinner into the mountain!"

Afterward, a devastating silence fell over the men on the ridge.

"It is gone," Voss whispered, his shoulders slumping in defeat.

"General Voss..." a Jaeger suddenly whispered. His voice trembled as he pointed a shaking finger down into the canyon. "The... the bear."

Voss snapped out of his depression. He quickly grabbed his steel mace and looked down at the spot where the giant white ghost had been standing.

The snow and gray dirt were heavily churned up. Dozens of lead bullets had smashed into the ground around the area.

But the giant glacier bear was nowhere to be seen.

"Where did it go?" Hans asked. He quickly drew his mace and looked around the empty basin. "Did we kill it? Did it run into the caves with the boars?"

"No," Klemens whimpered from the ground. The hunter was staring straight down the rock face of the cliff right below them. "It did not run away... it is coming."

Voss leaned over the edge of the ridge, looking down the jagged volcanic wall.

He heard it before he saw it. The heavy sound of long claws digging into solid stone.

Through the falling volcanic ash, Voss saw the monster.

A few of the heavy conical bullets had grazed its shoulders and buried themselves into its thick layer of fat. The white fur was matted with fresh red blood.

But the volley had not hit its heart or its thick skull. It had only accomplished one thing...

It had made the beast incredibly angry.

The giant glacier bear was climbing the cliff face toward them.

"Reload!" Voss screamed. He stumbled backward away from the edge of the cliff and raised his mace.

A huge white paw slammed onto the snowy ridge right in front of them, shattering the rock underneath it.

The bear hauled its body over the edge. It blocked the pale sunlight and cast a shadow over the soldiers.

Hans backed up, his mace raised.

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