“How can you see anything in all of this?” I waved my Krillman to try and dissipate some of the smoke and dust to no effect.

“Here, maybe this’ll help.” Esmil yelled, bringing a portable elp-lamp to bear. It was the size of an ice box and cast a sickly yellow light but it did illuminate the cramped interior of the turret basket.

Time was running out and that made my efforts frantic. No matter how I looked, I couldn’t find anything wrong with this part of the autoloader.

“Where does all this go?” I yelled over the steady racket of gunfire and machinery.

Wordlessly, Esmil pointed down a short ladder.

“Is that where we’re manually feeding it right now?”

He nodded.

“Then that’s where I need to be.” I slid down the ladder avoiding all the rungs and slammed to the floor. Esmil was right behind me.

Two men coated in what appeared to be coal dust smiled gratefully as I ducked inside and snapped quick salutes.

I stopped them from loading the next set of rounds and looked inside. “We need grease, hurry!”