Wings of Death

The Mad Genius

The research and development team of the military was responsible not only for making new weapons and armors but also for designing special vehicles to deal with the Bloodwings.

Klaus Varchovsky was the country’s best weapon’s expert. He was the genius behind the creation of Arch Knight tanks, Metal Guardians and the Shock Hounds. He had also designed Captain Elijah’s Z-19 rocket launcher which was capable of firing laser guided missiles in rapid succession. Currently he was working on designing a prototype unmanned aerial device that could fly without using a RADAR and cluster bomb a particular target with precision. He was divorced and lived with his sister Tanya. She took care of him, gave him his medicines on time and reminded him to take his meals at least a dozen times a day. Varchovsky had been obsessed with weapons and gunpowder ever since his college days. He had designed a mini artillery gun when he was only 21. Now Klaus was 65 and with age comes wisdom or in his case, more destructive weapon designs.

Klaus didn’t usually like having any company but Captain Elijah had become his close friend. As soon as the Captain entered the room, he got up from his chair and went to greet him.

“Oh look who is here. The Captain himself” He was about to shake his hand when he noticed Nathan and his friends standing behind him. “You know I don’t think it is a good time to give the kids a tour of the Research and Development department. We are pretty busy here”, he said with a scowl on his face.

“They are my new recruits and I would like to train them using your new invention”, replied the Captain courteously.

Klaus clasped his hands together, licked his lips and exclaimed, “I do apologize for the misunderstanding. If you want to try my new invention, be my guest”.

He balanced the glasses on his bony nose and opened the locker at the farthest end of the room. Inside the locker was his latest invention, the Berserker. He took out the weapon from the safe storage and returned to Captain Elijah.

Klaus’ eyes lit up in excitement as he handed the weapon to the Captain, “I present to you the SAGL 32-T or the Berserker. It is an improved version of the M32, obviously quite expensive to make but deadly accurate. SAGL 32-T, stands for Surface to Air Grenade Launcher 32.  The letter ‘T’ represents its thermal targeting mechanism.”

Nathan and Alex could not wait to find out more about this cool new weapon and together they asked, “How does it work?”

Klaus was always happy to explain how weapons worked. He immediately took a liking to any man, woman or child who was interested in weapons. After adjusting his glasses once more, he began explaining the weapon’s working mechanism, “This is not just any grenade launcher. It is fitted with a thermal scanner which can detect minute changes in temperature. This baby fires grenades at aerial targets from a position on the ground. Airborne targets are a bit hard to hit so the thermal sensor locks onto the heat signatures of the bogeys in the air. If you manage to lock a target using its thermal signature the heat seeking grenade is sure to hit it. It has a firing rate of 30 rounds per minute. It has been specifically designed to take down the Bloodwings so it can’t fire on targets on the ground. For it to launch a grenade the target must be at least 10 meters off the ground and the user must lock onto its heat signature before firing it. It just takes 1.5 seconds to lock on to a target’s heat signature. With this weapon in hand, even a child can take down an entire swarm of Bloodwings. It uses a drum magazine which can store up to 60 grenades at a time. Don’t throw away the drum when it’s empty. They are made of a silver alloy so you know that makes them quite expensive. When your drum is empty, just take it out and manually load the slots with grenades. It also has a small flashlight attached to the underside of the barrel making it perfect for nighttime raids”.

Alex and Nathan listened to him in amazement. This looked like a weapon straight out of a science fiction movie. Nathan was glad that the Captain did not trust them with the M32 grenade launchers.

“Thank you, Mr. Varchovsky. I will let you get back to work now. I will need 4 of these by tomorrow”, said Captain Elijah.

They boys followed the Captain back to the shooting range. It was now time to see the Berserker in action. 

Captain Elijah first tried firing it at the practice dummies just to see if it actually worked on ground level targets. The weapon just kept beeping and refused to fire a single grenade. He was already quite impressed. Major Morris now launched a couple of drones in the air to see if the weapon actually worked as described. The Captain took aim with the SAGL 32-T. Immediately the thermal scanner picked up the heat signatures of the airborne vehicles and locked onto them. As soon as he pulled the trigger the heat seeking grenades headed straight towards the target and blew them out of the sky. It was indeed a highly accurate weapon and quite safe to use. The unique targeting mechanism made sure that the user would not accidentally fire the grenades around him and injure his fellow soldiers. Klaus had created a modern marvel. It was a perfect weapon for the new recruits.

Nathan, Alex and Joshua all gave it a try. Each of them managed to hit both targets. It was like child’s play for them. They couldn’t wait to go outside and test the weapon against the actual enemy. Their days of cowering behind walls were soon going to end. Captain Elijah concluded the training with a demonstration of hand grenade throwing techniques. The recruits were now ready to face the Bloodwings on the battlefield.