ANOTHER CHRISTMAS SNIPPET, THIS TIME FROM THE WONDERFUL PEN AND MIND OF TEEL JAMES GLENN!!!
From “ The Clockwork Nutcracker” by Teel James Glenn
cCopyright 2010 by T.J. Glenn
The crowd at the mid-winter ball was both appalled and excited by the conflict that was about to take place before them.
Duke Stahlbaum stepped up now; his daughter held at arms length behind him and spoke to the Baron of the castle. “My dear Baron,” he said, “perhaps this is not the time and place for such a display.”
“Shut up, Ernst,” the Baron said with venom. “I have had to listen to your uniformed opinions for months while I needed you to organize this fete but that is done.” He looked at the other man as if he were an insect to be crushed. “This night I announce that I Arn, Baron Von Wertvoller am assuming the position of Kaiser of the German Empire!”
The announcement stunned those in the room, including Karl Drosselmeyer and Godfrey used that distraction to attack the nutcracker-dressed man.
Karl parried the first attack at the exact instant that the high windows of the ballroom shattered and a dozen armed steambots burst into the room though the floor to ceiling windows.
The crowd of guests screamed as one, men and women equally frightened and shocked by the sudden assault. The guardbots stationed along the wall of the ballroom spun at the unexpected intrusion and drew their sidearms but had no chance to use them as the guests panicked and raced toward the doors blocking their field of fire
“It’s the Kaiser’s troops!” The Baron screamed. “Guards to arms!”
The tide of the panicked occupants swept up Karl and separated him from Godfrey in the rush.
“No!” Karl thought but he could not fight the tide of the panicked crowd and was carried toward the hallway to the privies. He could see Godfrey pushed back by the crush of the panicked crowd and move back toward hi father.
Maria tried to run into the crowd toward Karl but the Baron Wertvoller grabbed her. When her father tried to intervene the Baron stuck him and one of the Baron’s personal guards stepped in to beat the man to the ground.
Meanwhile the attacking steambots moved to engage and overwhelm the four guardbots that were in the room by sheer numbers. The screams of the fleeing crowd alerted the outer guards who attempted to enter the ballroom by the main door but the intruders had barred it to keep them at bay.
Outside the shattered windows the dirigible that the intruders had swung in from could be seen hovering, great plumes of gas raining down from it into the courtyard. The guards in the yard dropped before anyone could even raise the alarm or don gasmasks.
The intruder steambots in the ballroom were armed with an odd assortment of hammers, swords and improvised weapons made from garden tools, but were relentless in their assaults on the guardbots and blocking the door. They did not attack any of the people in the room, however and in fact several stopped motion when their movements would have brought them into collision with humans.
In the midst of the fleeing crowd Karl Drosselmeyer felt his body continue to revolt against his control, stiffening more with each step. He ignored it, his mind on Maria behind him in the chaos of the ballroom. He moved out of the fleeing guests by the door. As the last of them poured through the door into the corridor and in doing so kept more guards from entering the room Karl slammed the door and used a standing sconce as a bar to keep it closed.
Then he turned to race back across the room and face Godfrey for once and for all.
Several of the Baron’s personal guard came charging with blades in hand toward the door obviously intent on unbarring it to let in their compatriots.
Karl Drosselmeyer brandished his own blade to deflect the first assault from the leader and then sprang into an on guard to face the squad.
The guards stopped as one, stunned by the revealed image of the intruder.
His uniformed figure was a startling and bizarre sight that froze the men where they stood. His British Royal Horse Guard uniform with blue jacket, white trousers and black bicorn hat was nothing to shock them. Rather the startling thing were his features; they were fully inhuman in white and red now. Immobile of expression and wide-eyed the face of the intruder was nothing so much as a Kabuki-like mask.
Karl used that shock to his advantage and charged the men with his sabre describing a deadly arc through the first two before they could react. The other four guards sprang at him like a pack of wild dogs but he had no fear, only anger.
He used the men’s own confusion as a weapon against them and soon there were only three opposing him.
“Stop,” Godfrey yelled from the dais. “I am not done with him; let him pass.
The cavernous ballroom was occupied by only a dozen other souls standing amid the carnage of the destroyed invader steambots. The Guild Sci-magician that had been at the front door now stood among the shattered invaders shaking his head.
“My Lord,” the alchemist said. “I do not understand, these are not warbots—they are household bots converted by a Sci-magician!” Outside the shattered windows Karl could see that the dirigible had been cranked down on landing ropes to hover a few feet above the courtyard.
Godfrey Von Wertvoller stood on the dais at one end of the ballroom surrounded by his personal guard and loomed over the single, delicate figure that was now hastily bound in a chair before him.
“Maria!” the Karl moaned as he charged across the room at a full run. He skidded to a stop at the foot of the dais.
“So you came back you coward,” Godfrey said. “I don’t know what this chaos was all about but it has only wetted my appetite to cut you open like a Christmas ham.”
Karl could hear the guards behind him come to a stop and unbar the door. He knew there was no escape that way. “I don’t want to leave this room without her,” he thought. “So it doesn’t matter.”
“You are the coward, Godfrey,” he called. His voice had a strange tinny quality to it yet it rasped like wood on wood. “You decoyed all these people here and lied about your feelings for Maria-loathsome as they were-for your father to make a sneak attack on our government? That is an act of cowardice! Binding a helpless girl; that is cowardice!”
“No one calls a Von Wertvoller a coward.” Godfrey said as he advanced down the stairs.
Several of the Baron’s personal guard came charging with blades in hand toward the door obviously intent on unbarring it to let in their compatriots.
Karl Drosselmeyer brandished his own blade to deflect the first assault from the leader and then sprang into an on guard to face the squad.
The guards stopped as one, stunned by the revealed image of the intruder.
His uniformed figure was a startling and bizarre sight that froze the men where they stood. His British Royal Horse Guard uniform with blue jacket, white trousers and black bicorn hat was nothing to shock them. Rather the startling thing were his features; they were fully inhuman in white and red now. Immobile of expression and wide-eyed the face of the intruder was nothing so much as a Kabuki-like mask.
Karl used that shock to his advantage and charged the men with his sabre describing a deadly arc through the first two before they could react. The other four guards sprang at him like a pack of wild dogs but he had no fear, only anger.
He used the men’s own confusion as a weapon against them and soon there were only three opposing him.
“Stop,” Godfrey yelled from the dais. “I am not done with him; let him pass.
The cavernous ballroom was occupied by only a dozen other souls standing amid the carnage of the destroyed invader steambots. The Guild Sci-magician that had been at the front door now stood among the shattered invaders shaking his head.
“My Lord,” the alchemist said. “I do not understand, these are not warbots—they are household bots converted by a Sci-magician!” Outside the shattered windows Karl could see that the dirigible had been cranked down on landing ropes to hover a few feet above the courtyard.
Godfrey Von Wertvoller stood on the dais at one end of the ballroom surrounded by his personal guard and loomed over the single, delicate figure that was now hastily bound in a chair before him.
“Maria!” the Karl moaned as he charged across the room at a full run. He skidded to a stop at the foot of the dais.
“So you came back you coward,” Godfrey said. “I don’t know what this chaos was all about but it has only wetted my appetite to cut you open like a Christmas ham.”
Karl could hear the guards behind him come to a stop and unbar the door. He knew there was no escape that way. “I don’t want to leave this room without her,” he thought. “So it doesn’t matter.”
“You are the coward, Godfrey,” he called. His voice had a strange tinny quality to it yet it rasped like wood on wood. “You decoyed all these people here and lied about your feelings for Maria-loathsome as they were-for your father to make a sneak attack on our government? That is an act of cowardice! Binding a helpless girl; that is cowardice!”
“No one calls a Von Wertvoller a coward.” Godfrey said as he advanced down the stairs.
Then he turned to race back across the room and face Godfrey for once and for all.
Several of the Baron’s personal guard came charging with blades in hand toward the door obviously intent on unbarring it to let in their compatriots.
Karl Drosselmeyer brandished his own blade to deflect the first assault from the leader and then sprang into an on guard to face the squad.
The guards stopped as one, stunned by the revealed image of the intruder.
His uniformed figure was a startling and bizarre sight that froze the men where they stood. His British Royal Horse Guard uniform with blue jacket, white trousers and black bicorn hat was nothing to shock them. Rather the startling thing were his features; they were fully inhuman in white and red now. Immobile of expression and wide-eyed the face of the intruder was nothing so much as a Kabuki-like mask.
Karl used that shock to his advantage and charged the men with his sabre describing a deadly arc through the first two before they could react. The other four guards sprang at him like a pack of wild dogs but he had no fear, only anger.
He used the men’s own confusion as a weapon against them and soon there were only three opposing him.
“Stop,” Godfrey yelled from the dais. “I am not done with him; let him pass.
The cavernous ballroom was occupied by only a dozen other souls standing amid the carnage of the destroyed invader steambots. The Guild Sci-magician that had been at the front door now stood among the shattered invaders shaking his head.
“My Lord,” the alchemist said. “I do not understand, these are not warbots—they are household bots converted by a Sci-magician!” Outside the shattered windows Karl could see that the dirigible had been cranked down on landing ropes to hover a few feet above the courtyard.
Godfrey Von Wertvoller stood on the dais at one end of the ballroom surrounded by his personal guard and loomed over the single, delicate figure that was now hastily bound in a chair before him.
“Maria!” the Karl moaned as he charged across the room at a full run. He skidded to a stop at the foot of the dais.
“So you came back you coward,” Godfrey said. “I don’t know what this chaos was all about but it has only wetted my appetite to cut you open like a Christmas ham.”
Karl could hear the guards behind him come to a stop and unbar the door. He knew there was no escape that way. “I don’t want to leave this room without her,” he thought. “So it doesn’t matter.”
“You are the coward, Godfrey,” he called. His voice had a strange tinny quality to it yet it rasped like wood on wood. “You decoyed all these people here and lied about your feelings for Maria-loathsome as they were-for your father to make a sneak attack on our government? That is an act of cowardice! Binding a helpless girl; that is cowardice!”
“No one calls a Von Wertvoller a coward.” Godfrey said as he advanced down the stairs.
Several of the Baron’s personal guard came charging with blades in hand toward the door obviously intent on unbarring it to let in their compatriots.
Karl Drosselmeyer brandished his own blade to deflect the first assault from the leader and then sprang into an on guard to face the squad.
The guards stopped as one, stunned by the revealed image of the intruder.
His uniformed figure was a startling and bizarre sight that froze the men where they stood. His British Royal Horse Guard uniform with blue jacket, white trousers and black bicorn hat was nothing to shock them. Rather the startling thing were his features; they were fully inhuman in white and red now. Immobile of expression and wide-eyed the face of the intruder was nothing so much as a Kabuki-like mask.
Karl used that shock to his advantage and charged the men with his sabre describing a deadly arc through the first two before they could react. The other four guards sprang at him like a pack of wild dogs but he had no fear, only anger.
He used the men’s own confusion as a weapon against them and soon there were only three opposing him.
“Stop,” Godfrey yelled from the dais. “I am not done with him; let him pass.
The cavernous ballroom was occupied by only a dozen other souls standing amid the carnage of the destroyed invader steambots. The Guild Sci-magician that had been at the front door now stood among the shattered invaders shaking his head.
“My Lord,” the alchemist said. “I do not understand, these are not warbots—they are household bots converted by a Sci-magician!” Outside the shattered windows Karl could see that the dirigible had been cranked down on landing ropes to hover a few feet above the courtyard.
Godfrey Von Wertvoller stood on the dais at one end of the ballroom surrounded by his personal guard and loomed over the single, delicate figure that was now hastily bound in a chair before him.
“Maria!” the Karl moaned as he charged across the room at a full run. He skidded to a stop at the foot of the dais.
“So you came back you coward,” Godfrey said. “I don’t know what this chaos was all about but it has only wetted my appetite to cut you open like a Christmas ham.”
Karl could hear the guards behind him come to a stop and unbar the door. He knew there was no escape that way. “I don’t want to leave this room without her,” he thought. “So it doesn’t matter.”
“You are the coward, Godfrey,” he called. His voice had a strange tinny quality to it yet it rasped like wood on wood. “You decoyed all these people here and lied about your feelings for Maria-loathsome as they were-for your father to make a sneak attack on our government? That is an act of cowardice! Binding a helpless girl; that is cowardice!”
“No one calls a Von Wertvoller a coward.” Godfrey said as he advanced down the stairs.
