Stargate SG-1: Steampunk

Chapter 18 - Under Fire

"WHERE THE HELL DID THAT COME FROM?" O'Neill yells as he picks himself up from the floor.

An explosion large enough to shake the ground in the bunker had knocked O'Neill to the ground.

"I don't know, Sir." the corporal on duty, also picking himself up, says.

He pauses as he looks over the shoulder of the radar operator who is surprisingly still sitting in his chair. 

 "I'm not seeing anything on the radar."

The corporal picks up one of the phones. After speaking into it he says, "Observation posts are not reporting anything coming up behind us."

"Where did it hit?"

"Main observation post says it was twenty yards to the east, in the trees. They heard the whistle as it came in. It was a big one."

An out-of-breath runner from the Sanctuum command tent enters the bunker. He has to take several deep breaths before he can speak. "Colonel, Teemurin wants to know how big the approaching enemy force is."

O'Neill hears the whistle of an incoming round. "Down," he yells.

They hit the floor as the shell explodes. A slight trickle of dust falls from the timbers making up the ceiling. They stand and dust themselves off.

"We don't see any ships on our radar."

A call comes in from the main observation post. "Colonel, for you. It's Cap Bundy."

O'Neill grabs the handset from the radio operator's hand. "Yeah, Al?"

"Colonel, I don't think these are coming from an airship. The trajectory is too steep. From what little I know about these airships, their gun batteries aren't able to fire with more than a few degrees of inclination. Unless they are doing something funky with their airships these shells are coming from a ground-based gun."

"You think they've set up a howitzer?

"I don't know if it's a howitzer, but yeah, something like that."

"Okay, thanks." O'Neill hangs up. "We're not set up to handle a heavy artillery bombardment like this."

O'Neill turns to the runner. "Tell your captain that we believe they've set up one or more land-based guns–"

The whistle of another round can be heard, though not as loud. After the explosion, O'Neill continues. "Somewhere across the river. We don't have any way to deal with it. Have him contact his airbase. See if they have anything in the area that can hunt the guns down."

The runner salutes and runs out of the bunker.

"What do you think, Colonel?" The lieutenant asks.

"Not sure. We aren't dug in enough for these shells. The slow rate of incoming tells me they may just have the one gun. Still."

After another explosion, this one closer, the lieutenant on the radar calls out. "Colonel, I've got one of the spotters on the horn."

O'Neill grabs the phone. "O'Neill here."

"Colonel, this is Corporal Knight. I think we've got something. It's not the gun, but with the rising sun we're able to see a small, manned balloon high in the air on the other side of the river. Looks like it might be three, maybe four miles away. It might be directing the fire for the gun."

"Can you hit it from your location?"

"No Sir, it's way out of our range. A hellfire might reach it, but with the haze in the air I don't know if a laser would be able to light it up."