Well here's my shot...
A Clockwork Scarab #0
Classified Location, Kuwait Desert
Commander Harris walked past the line of M1 Abrams Tanks before stopping at the vehicle at the end of the line, a dark haired woman dressed in combat trousers and a leather jacket, a lit cigarette clamped between her lips. The very sight of this blatant sloppiness made Harris’s blood boil, but he knew that despite what he would like to do to Naomi Barnes, he hadn’t the rank to enforce it.
“Miss Barnes, can I have a moment of your time please?” Harris asked, as Barnes shot him a withering look before sheading her jacket to reveal a black leather bra, and a tattoo of a gear wrapped around her belly-button.
“No, I’m almost sure that this will take more than a moment.” Barnes stated gruffly, before breathing a jet of smoke from her nostrils. “What do you want Harris, and make it quick, you’re cutting into my smoking time.”
“We have a new problem heading this way at an alarming rate.” Harris announced, as he placed a folder on the tank.
“You really think I’m going to help you, I’m R&D and you are a w****r, we really don’t gel well.” Barnes replied as she slid down the front of the tank and picked up the folder. “Who is this chica, some up and coming Arab terrorist? And what the hell is this, some kind of Sci-Fi bulls**t?”
“Until recently Zara Hussein was an engineer in the British Armed Forces, but she defected recently siting religious regions. She was a Muslim but we now believe she has converted to some old pagan faith, in intelligence circles she is known as ‘the Scarab’.” Harris informed her, as Barnes climbed up to the main gun of the tank and untied a shirt wrapped around the canon, before shaking it out and slipping it over her head. “She recently commandeered a L11 Scorpion Excavator that was digging the foundations for a new oil refinery in Egypt and weaponised it.”
“So what, you assume that just because she was a Muslim you think she’s going all jihadi on us? You’re not just a w****r any-more you’re a racist, because of that I’m going to call you Commander Bigot. So Commander Bigot where did this data come from?” Barnes asked, as she straddled the canon, before stretching out seductively on the weapon.
“Need to know, you don’t. All we need is for you to destroy Hussain before she destroys this base and anything in it.” Harris ordered, as Barnes pursed her lips together before sitting up and glowering down at him.
“Not interested, now excuse me I have work to do, the government is intent on wasting billions on damage on new weapons rather than health care or solving global warming, and I intend to make them regret every cent they are spending on the XM-15 Goliath.” Barnes stated, as she flipped up the hatch of her tank, and shot Harris the finger before sliding inside. “Now if I were you I’d move out the way before I ‘accidently’ set off the coaxial 40mm grenade launchers, I can be so clumsy in the cab at times.” She warned, as the arming light of the launchers activated.
“The Scorpion Excavator, it weighs 210 tons and can demolish this base in minutes, artillery and air-force assets are not allowed to fire out of the base, that means you are the only defence we have and honestly…I don’t think you and ‘Goliath’ can handle it.” Harris announced, his eyes fixed on the grenade launchers as a stream of cursing sounded from inside the tank’s hull before Barnes popped her head out of the hull. “Have I got your attention?”
“That was a low blow Commander Bigot, a real low blow!!”
**
The Goliath rocked as it rumbled forward, the drone controls keeping the armoured vehicle rolling towards what seemed like a moving mountain in the distance. Taking a slug from the can of Italian beer she had smuggled into the cab, Barnes ran over the camera view of the Scorpion Excavator rumbling towards her. At 30ft tall, the machine was immense, each one of its eight legs causing shockwaves as it walked towards her, its bright yellow armoured hull stained with dark save for the area around the cockpit, the tinted hardened glass hiding the face of the pilot.
“Calling you Goliath was a stupid idea.” Barnes told the tank, as the 155mm gun raised itself into position. “If anything we’re the 60 ton David in this conflict.” She added, just as the incoming fire warning sounded, the drone operator back at base swinging the tank left to avoid the projectile fired from the back of the Scorpion. “S**t what was that? This thing is meant to be a glorified JCB right? How come it’s firing at me?!!” She screamed, as the projectile landed and detonated only twenty meters away, shrapnel bouncing off the tank’s armoured hull.
“Uh it looks like one of the exploration probes the Scorpion is equipped with.” A voice over ‘Goliath’s’ radio answered. “It’s possibly been packed with mining charges to make a home-made artillery shell.” The operator back at drone control added, as a second probe bomb came flying towards the tank, the shell landing a few feet in-front of ‘Goliath’, metal shards and sand spraying over the tank.
“Will one of you nerds please just fire on that thing!” Barnes snapped, as the 155mm gun pivoted round again and fired, the shell impacting on the Scorpion’s front left leg, the blow causing it to shudder and collapse to the desert floor, a wave of dust and sand storming forward from the crash site. “You A-Holes,” Barnes swore, as she looked at the forward hull mounted camera feed, “You sent me out to do that?! Anyone could have taken out that rickety pile of trash!” She swore, as the intensity of the blowing sand increased. “And now I’m stuck out in a c****y sandstorm!”
“Miss Barnes.” Commander Harris stated over the radio, his eyes fixed on a local weather report displayed on screen. “Wind strength isn’t sufficient enough to raise a sandstorm that powerful. Additional drone feed will be online in forty seconds, standby.”
“Standby for what Commander Bigot?” Barnes asked, as something glowed in the heart of the sandstorm before a beam of light lanced out and slashed across ‘Goliath’s’ Hull. Cursing Barnes felt the tank reverse, as the light faded and the ground rumbled.
“Okay drone feed confirms that the sandstorm is localized, the Scorpion may still be operational.” Barnes droned.
“May be operational? It is operational and it has got a space laser!!” Barnes screamed, as the Scorpion emerged from the blowing sand, the light from the chin mounted laser revealing the chunk of armour chewed out of the leg that Barnes had fired upon. “Open fire on its legs again!” She ordered, as the Scorpion shot at Goliath with the laser, the sand fusing to glass as it missed its target by a few meters.
“Sand exposure has jammed the gun’s rotational system.” Harris stated as he covertly pressed a button on the computer controlling the 155mm gun. “You’ll have to rely on Goliath’s additional armaments.” He added, as he watched the Scorpion take up position, the laser recharging ready for another shot. “If Barnes should succeed in beating that thing send an A-10 to finish Hussain’s job.”
“And if Hussain should win?” The drone commander asked, his voice shocked at his new orders.
“Same thing, today I remove one terrorist and one pain in my arse, and I know which one I will be most glad to be rid of.” He added, as ‘Goliath’ opened fire with the automatic 30mm cannon, the rounds almost comically bouncing off the Scorpion’s hull. “Switch everything to manual and close base to drone communications, one way or another this is the end of Naomi Barnes, Unit 17 of Project Shift Gear.” He ordered before walking away from the drone control room.
**
Barnes jabbed at the communications button as the ‘Goliath’ Tank ground to a halt right in front of the Scorpion, the massive excavator towering over her. “Hello Commander Bigot? Anyone are you there?” She yelled. “Hey stop with the silent treatment assholes!!” She yelled.
“American Tank, this is the Scarab, exit your vehicle and surrender.” An accented voice ordered over the radio.
“Bite me Beetlejuice!!” Barnes spat back. “Where the hell are those jerks!!” She spat, as she activated the coaxial grenade launchers, a hail of high explosive rounds exploding on the Scorpion’s hull with enough force to rip armoured plating off its body. With a groan the excavator turned and lumbered away, sparks and smoke radiating off the massive vehicle. “Hah take that b***h!!” Barnes yelled, only to see the Scorpion stop.
“You said to bite you.” The Scarab stated calmly, as a massive toothed claw on the end of a pneumatic arm that made up the Scorpion’s ‘tail’ slammed down onto the roof of the Goliath. With a sickening scream the armour buckled slightly, before it was replaced by a clunk, as the excavation arm picked up the tank and threw it nine foot across the desert floor until it came to a stop, its belly orientated up into the air.
“S**t, what the hell!!” Barnes yelled, as the Goliath's computer systems beeped a warning, as the excavation arm slammed down again, the teeth on the claw stabbing through the armour and ripping it off the tank. Blinking in the desert sunlight, Barnes thought she saw something diving out of the sun before a defining sound filled the desert with the roar of a 50mm auto cannon and rocket strikes. As they faded a dull groan sounded, “Oh that son of a b…” Barnes cursed, her words lost in the boom created when the Scorpion detonated, heat and shrapnel chewing through her body as she struggled to free herself from the destroyed tank.
**
Naomi groaned and opened her eyes to see a steel toe-capped boot before her. Straining she pulled her left arm out of the wreckage, the skin burnt off to reveal a metallic appendage.
“Bite me Girl I assume?” A familiar voice asked causing Naomi to look up at the speaker dressed in blue overalls, her long dark plated hair draped over her shoulder whilst vivid green eyes stared down at her. “You and I have something in common.”
“I doubt it,” Barnes snarled as she dragged her body out of the wreckage, only to look back and see her legs and left arm had been ripped away by the explosion.
“We were both betrayed by the people we served, unless you believe this was an accident.” The Scarab stated, as she bent down to examine Barnes’s metallic skeleton, the scarab pendent around her neck gleaming with cool green light. “Ironic, I serve the craftsman Path and you are one of the crafted.” She added, as she picked Barnes’s remains up by her arm and looked her in the eyes. “Help me find the man who killed my men and I will facilitate your revenge.”
“Who do you want dead?” Barnes hissed.
“An agent called the Inside Man, he works as an assassin and thief, stealing military secrets and killing high ranking officers and individuals of interest.” The Scarab stated. “When he ordered the artillery strike on the desalination plant the joint British and Egyptian task force I was with, he called himself Major Harris.”
“Commander Bigot?” Barnes asked, “You mean I was working for the bad guy?” She hissed, “That’s it, he’s dead...isn't that right…partner?”
To be continued as part of Tales of the Black Case Book
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