A Sharp Action

"Faster! I can hear the howls!" Lieutenant Makarov yelled into the speaking tube that let out in the engine compartment of his cavalry roller. "I can see the flames!" He could also hear the howls of the Treemen, and as the roller cavalry tore along the coastal ledge road, they could hear the gunfire as well, and the occasional stray shell whistled overhead as the dying rig fought valiantly to fend off the giant apelike marauders. The Lieutenant called up two of the other rollers from the rear.

"Haarbit! Rin! Flank me! Hit 'em hard in the middle!" He roared through the megaphone as he directed the steersman toward the center of a knot of twelve or so of the bestial giant figures, who were using crude sling-like devices to fling boulders at the rig and its defenders, while another group repeatedly rammed the side of the locomotive with a large tree trunk, apparently intent upon knocking the rig from the road and onto the rocks of the shore far below. The three rollers smashed into the knot of slingers, their main guns blasting away while their officers struck with the boom-like pivoted longsabers from the command hatches. Half of the remaining twelve rollers followed suit, while the other half fanned out and encircled the slingers and the rammers, picking off individuals and slashing away as well.

Then one gant, bigger than the rest (perhaps the alpha male), stepped into Makarov;s path, and swung a club made from a redwood trunk into the front of the Lieutenant's roller, stopping it dead and making Makarov lose hold of the longsaber; it swung uselessly to one side, leaving the young officer wide open...