Far above, the skies were filled with that gigantic blimp and its escorting wings of planes, several score in number, mostly transports with a dozen or so accompanying fighter planes to those in the know. And yet the mighty fleet with its air superiority seemed content to remain at range over this strange fantasy city...and instead rain parachutes down upon the city.
It's almost peaceful at first, although the screams of the crowds of people quickly put an end to that once the locals noticed the invasion force in the skies above them. Hundreds and hundreds of parachutes continue to deploy from planes, even from the great blimp, and the soldiers beneath them descended with machineguns and rifles of a curious make.
They didn't get within rifle range without a challenge, though.
Audibly, coughing booms rose from the city. The group from the Tardis was even close enough to see one of the sources of the booms; atop a roof rose a long barrel of wrought metal affixed to a primitive but completely functional artillery piece, for those who would even understand such a thing. A gunner crew operated the machine, ejecting an empty shell and loading in a full one. They lit a trailing fuse with a torch before lighting another much shorter fuse. One of the crew sighted upwards with a telescope and called out numbers while another spun a wheel to rotate the flak cannon. The small fuse finished and the whole mechanism shook as a shell blasted forth, sped into the sky by some kind of chemical propellent.
Fire rained upwards and downwards from the sky in the minute after, as the city's flak cannons detonated in great bursts. Some caught the parachuting troops, shredding many, while others rocked several of the lower flying airplanes, causing one to catch fire on a wing and fall from formation.
But the exchange went both ways; the fighter planes broke off from their escort and angled for flak cannon positions, lining up and launching rockets and machine gun fire. The blimp itself disgorged a spew of missiles that slashed down towards the city. Some of the cannon shells intercepted them but others struck home. The Tardis crew could see great gouts of smoke and ash thrown up into the sky.
None here, though. For this neighborhood was apparently the destination for a number of the parachuting troops. And it was here that the invaders met their first resistance.
@littlekreen
Flynn's powers seemed beyond comprehension but her effects were unmistakable. Shells flew from the tip of that floating dagger and explosions rocked across the first wave of parachuters, catching parachutes and troops on fire alike. Soldiers were thrown askew and quickly the line of parachutes disintegrated from the orderly descent into a chaotic mass of chutes going every which way.
Some began to fire their rifles downwards towards the party; spec fire for the most part as their range was still poor. Still, bullets cracked into stone streets and Thea's demand they move to the tavern made splendidly good sense.
@Snowtwo
As the party began to move, Lavaetain conjured forth fire and launched it skyward. It flew right through the Nazi ranks, a brilliant bolt streaking firework-like into the sky in a remarkably attention-getting way. Far, far above, it exploded in a spectacular conflagaration of light and ash.
The blimp flew on, even higher evidently. But everyone in this city surely saw that eruption.
@Amber Franklin
Meanwhile, Thea had already identified the flak cannons as...well, flak cannons. They corresponded to no known manufactor and they were clearly machined using inferior technology. The evidence suggested someone else had come here with knowledge of how to make such things and put this city's infrastructure to work building these out. A reasonable defensive measure, although probability calculations suggested the fixed defense weapons would likely be destroyed in this exchange.
An analysis of the deployment pattern was also interesting. Plainly, the invaders were scattering troops all across the city, possibly to strike fear into the citizenry or possibly to hide their true objective. Approximately 75%, however, were being deployed to converge on a towering structure remarkably close to this neighborhood. Probably why these streets weren't being subjected to rocket attack and why so many soldiers were projected to land in this area. It's virtually certain, however, that their real goal is that towering stone structure she can spot in the sky line.
@Wiggin @Amber Franklin
The Desert Eagles have a conventional effective range of about 200 meters, particularly when fired into the sky. Computer targeting makes it possible to accurately hit well beyond that range but the distance traveled could rob the bullet of much of its power, wounding or failing to penetrate armor as the case may be.
And yes, magnified vision revealed the descending troopers were wearing armor. Shot fired knock the soldiers askew but don't appear to kill them at far range. Thankfully, they worked rather better for puncturing parachutes.
As did Trigger's offer of a laser rifle. The weapon has enough stopping power to kill individual soldiers, although there's only enough time to kill half a dozen or so before their descent comes close enough to make massed machinegun fire accurate enough to be a real danger.
Thankfully, that tavern near by provides easy access to a roof, which is sufficiently dense to provide protection from conventional hand-held weaponry...though not from those airplanes. In the meantime, it was now ideal conditions for the use of those Desert Eagles and they work to good effect, even against that dense body armor.
@The Wanderer @Wiggin
As for David and Trigger, there's time enough to get to that tavern, flip over some tables for cover and set up points of defense before the flying Nazis are close enough to be hit by a bow or a sidearm.
And descend they do. The crowds have already largely fled inside buildings or down the streets but the crackle of rifles mixed with screams out there suggest the Nazis are still finding prey. These Nazis don't look much like their historical depictions, though, wearing full body armor complete with helmets and masks to provide comprehensive protection.
A well placed arrow still puts several down, however. As do the various weapons employed by the Tardis crew.
Unfortunately, the success of their defense of this tavern was not lost on the swiftly mobilizing German forces out there. Dozens begin to converge on the building, the closest laying down suppressive fire to buy time for their companions to be close enough to engage as well.
This position is in danger of being overrun.