Iron Storm

Iron Age Prompt for May 17, 2023

I always feared that I would be forced to live a simple, boring life. Long days in an office seemed to dominate my future. God, how I wish that had been my fate.

There was something else that I had assumed, something else I had been dead wrong about. I had always seen our neighbors to the north as backwards. Afterall, they were under the thumb of a dictator. Little did I know, they were making advancements in the field of aviation, along with other military technologies. I suspect that few realized this. How else were they able to take our government completely by surprise?

They appeared this morning, looming overhead like the anvil head of a thunderstorm. We stared up at them in awe. What could they be? Then the fighters and bombers that they carried launched. The swarm descended on the city, raining down bullets and bombs on the factory district.

My nation’s aircraft were outnumbered and outgunned. And yet, they fought bravely. I recognized the squadron leader by the red paint on his wings. I watched as he steered his crippled machine into one of the hostile dirigibles. His last-ditch attack must have damaged something vital, as the zeppelin fell out of the sky.

Now I’m at the local police station. They’ve given me a gun. We’ll board the crashed airship and capture it. Perhaps our scientists and engineers can learn from the wreckage. Maybe we can even the playing field.

I won’t lie. I’m afraid. It isn’t just the thought of going into battle. The thing that really eats away at me is when I think about the rumors of how fanatical our new enemy can be.