The Iron Man - Chapter Two

The U.N. team arrived at the gates of Castle Oklev. Although it had only been a few months since the defeat of Saruman’s forces the castle was very overgrown with weeds. The Brigadier looked surprised when he saw this.
    “I thought you said you defeated Saruman’s forces only a few months ago.” he said. “This castle looks like nobody’s set foot in it for years!”
    “It is no longer protected by Saruman’s magic.” said Burns. “The ravages of time have finally caught up with it.”

    The Brigadier looked up at the drawbridge and all of the overgrowth covering it.
    “Now how do we get through here?” he asked.
    “Looks like your tanks will come in handy after all!” said Burns.
    The Brigadier radioed to the tank. They loaded a shell, and a few seconds later the drawbridge was blow away. The security teams entered, closely followed by Burns and the Brigadier. The scene in the courtyard was a total contrast to that which had greeted them on the outside. The courtyard was in perfect condition.
    “Looks like some of the magic survived.” said Burns.
    “I thought I’d be giving up all of this mumbo-jumbo stuff when I last saw the Doctor.” said the Brigadier. “Well never mind all of this stuff, we’ve got a job to be getting on with.”
    The Brigadier began giving his orders, assigning various tasks to various teams. While all of this went on Burns walked across the courtyard.
    “Where are you going Doctor?” asked the Brigadier.
    “Why, down to the dungeons of course.” replied Burns.
    “Are you mad? There might be something down there.”
    “Probably just a few rats and bats.” said Burns. “I was reading up about the dungeons of this place. I just wanted to see them for myself, and if you are that worried about my safety then why not come down with me?”
    The Brigadier huffed.
    “Very well then.” he said.
    He signalled to two soldiers. They followed him and Burns into the dungeons. The Brigadier was surprised to see flame torches still burning in the caverns.
    “Saruman’s magic again.” said the Brigadier. “And I thought he was in some other dimension somewhere.”
    Burns saw a light in the distance.
    “That’s no flame light up there.” he said.
    Burns raced off ahead.
    “Doctor! Wait! We don’t know what’s down there!”
    Burns paid no attention to the Brigadier, and a few seconds later he joined Burns in the large chamber. He was again surprised at what he saw. The chamber was forty feet high. It had been made this big to house something that was thirty feet tall. Burns looked up at the mighty creation. He looked up at a huge red metallic face with huge glass-like eyes. The head was connected to a huge body with massive arms and legs.
    “What on earth is it?” asked the Brigadier.
    “The Iron Man!” replied Burns. “It was built by the old Soviet Union during the latter stages of World War Two. It was considered almost invincible.”
    “But what was it doing here in Saruman’s dungeon?”
    “He was obviously going to use it in his plans for world domination, but never got round to it.”
    “Is it safe?”
    “There’s only one way to find out, isn’t there?”
    Burns walked up to the huge robot and began to climb the ladder that was on the back of one of it’s legs. The ladder took him into a small lift which took him to the control centre of the robot, inside it’s head. A few seconds later he was joined by the Brigadier. He found Burns sitting in the main control chair.
    “It’s a bit dusty, but everything seems to be in working order.” said Burns. “And from what I can tell it still has all of it’s original weapons on board.”
    “What weapons?”
    “Short range artillery, and…my god…!”
    “What is it?”
    “The Russians changed some of the weapons. This thing’s armed with short-range nuclear missiles, and they’re still armed!”
    “We’d better find some way of disarming this thing!”
    Suddenly the control panel came to life. Lights started to flash. Then a loud computerised voice rang throughout the room.
    “Primary program initiated. Begin launch countdown in thirty seconds.”
    “Do something!” shouted the Brigadier.
    “I can’t! I’m not an expert on these things. All I know is that we’d better get out of here as fast as we can!”
    Burns and the Brigadier raced out of the control room as fast as they could. They were soon out of the chamber as the Iron Man’s booster rockets came into operation. The huge robot crashed through the ceiling, through the castle until it was in the open. Burns and the Brigadier appeared above ground just in time to see the Iron Man fly off into the distance.
    “Better get in touch with the air force.” said the Brigadier. “I only hope they can stop that thing!”

    The Iron Man roared through the skies over Eastern Europe. Local air force bases had been alerted. However, they had not been told what to expect. Only two aircraft we launched, and they we shocked to see what appeared to be a giant flying through the air towards them. They did not know how to react. They froze, allowing the Iron Man to raise his hand and fire a repulser blast to attack the aircraft. The pilots only just managed to eject.
    As the Iron Man moved further and further away from Eastern Europe it started to show up on radar screens on air bases in the west. Word soon reached those bases, and after receiving orders from their governments they too launched their own aircraft, and even though the Iron Man had been built more than forty years before them they were no match for the huge robot. The radar stations, during the battle, were able to plot a course for the Iron Man - Great Britain.