Inquisitor's Promise (Act Three, Chapter Thirteen)

The Holy League had been united, but the Grey Globe continued to move towards Earth. Aeneas and the members of his inner circle knew they had much to do and little time to prepare.

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Chapter Thirteen: Nest of Golems

Morning couldn’t come quick enough for the Tsar. The bags under his eyes were evidence of his lack of sleep. But the same could not be said for his wife, who had slept like a baby.

“Morning milord,” Omaha said sweetly as she handed her husband a cup.

The Tsar eagerly took the cup and drank the coffee inside. “That’s better.”

“It’s a little hot, you know.”

“I know.”

Omaha frowned. “I can tell the night wasn’t kind to you.”

“That sortie was a trick!” Nikolai said angrily. “They never had any intention of breaking through our defenses.”

“Makes sense,” Omaha responded. “Otherwise, they’d send more golems. They want to tire us out, make us stay awake all night.”

“That didn’t seem to have any effect on you, though.”

“I have confidence in you, milord,” Omaha said, giving her husband a smile.

Nikolai couldn’t help but smile in return. “Thank you, darling. If the black cats think they can defeat me by mind games, then they have another thing coming.”

As the Tsar was setting up his attack on the Ziggurat District, he made sure to switch around his soldiers. The troops who were at the frontline that night were brought to the back. They were replaced by those from the rearguard.

The exception to this were the Tsarina’s Imperial Expeditionary Force. Captain Paxton had assured her that the troops were as fresh as they could be. Furthermore, they had stayed behind at the camp with Omaha during that nighttime battle.

Because of that, Captain Paxton and his forces had volunteered to take point and scout the enemy strongholds at the Ziggurat District.

As Captain Paxton flew over in an Imperial helicopter, he saw troop movements. Before long, he saw golems. This was a surprise to Paxton. While the troop movements simply confirmed what the scanners had shown, the golem had been registered as an enemy tank. If the Captain was not angry at the technological deception of Imperial scanners by the black cats, he would have been impressed.

Thus, Captain Paxton began relaying what he had learned to Omaha over the brick. But Paxton’s aircraft was detected by a nearby golem. That golem began firing missiles at the helicopter. Knowing that they were in danger, the helicopter pilot began flying away towards Lake Azov to elude the golem.

But as the aircraft flew over the lake, it was struck by the golem’s missile. The helicopter tumbled towards the lake and crashed.

Back at the camp, Omaha began sobbing as her communications with the captain was abruptly cut off.

“Paxton…”

The nearby Nikolai attempted to comfort his wife, but she was inconsolable.

“He had a wife and six children, milord. Six! How am I going to tell them?” she asked.

“The same thing we always tell the families of the fallen. You know this about war,” Nikolai said.

“I know this about war. Even so…”

But Omaha was cut off as Nikolai’s brick had beeped. Nikolai answered, and was surprised to learn the identity of the caller — it was none other than Captain Paxton himself.

“Paxton!” Omaha cried joyfully.

“How did you survive?” Nikolai asked.

“It was fortuitous, sir. The Caribbeans of the Ciqarran regiment happened to be near our crashing spot. They rescued us from our watery deaths,” Paxton explained.

“Unbelievable,” Omaha muttered.

But Paxton’s tone was sad. “Most of us were unscathed. But the pilot, he didn’t make it.”

“He will be remembered,” Nikolai assured.

“Yes, sir. Your orders?”

Nikolai smiled. The Tsar understood why Omaha was so fond of Captain Jack Paxton. “Fall back, soldier. Your fight in the Azov is finished.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Omaha sighed in relief, and tears were falling from her eyes. This war had claimed many lives, but at least Captain Paxton would be spared.

“You can go to him if you want,” Nikolai told his wife.

Omaha shook her head and smiled. “No, milord. My place is here, with you.”

Having everything settled, Nikolai launched his attack on the Ziggurat District. Tanks, vehicles, and infantrymen rushed through the Azovian walls. Imperial aircraft flew through the district and began bombing enemy positions on the ground.

Knowing of the large numbers of golems to be faced, Nikolai called in all of his aircrafts to converge towards the Ziggurat District.

The Imperium’s air superiority allowed Nikolai to have an easier time dealing with the golems. This was shown when a golem was felled by one punch of Nikolai’s mechanicon after having been blasted by Imperial air strikes.

Once the golems were weakened by gunfire, from the ground or from the air, Nikolai and Hannegan were able to take it out in a one-on-one fight.

Backed up by Omaha’s tank, Nikolai confidently moved with his mechanicon towards the Ziggurat. Next to him was his old friend, Emperor Hannegan in his own mechanicon. As they advance towards enemy positions, they couldn’t help but feel that they were invincible.

Nikolai was finally just within a grasp of the Ziggurat. That accursed building had been visible from afar ever since he had invaded the Azov, and now the prize was his for the taking. His last obstacle: five golems converging at the location.

Nikolai knew that this would be a tough fight. As he had advanced through the Ziggurat District, he had made sure to pick off the golems where they could be ganged up on together with his old friend or where they’d be taken on a duel with a mechanicon pilot with the help of the smaller Imperial units.

Key to the Tsar’s golem isolation strategy was the Imperial ground forces who were able to pin individual golems in one place and the Imperial aircrafts who were able to bomb them from the sky. This partnership even took down its fair share of golems without help from either Nikolai or Emperor Hannegan.

Being able to isolate these golems had been key towards the Tsar’s successful advance through the Ziggurat District. But that was no longer an option with the five golems blocking the gate to the Ziggurat’s garden.

Knowing that there was no way around taking on all five of these golems at once, Nikolai opted for a frontal assault.

The Tsar knew that he had to pick his target carefully. One of the five golems was an anti-air golems, the same kind whose missiles had almost killed Captain Paxton. Another one was an artillery golem. Its weapons were able to launch devastating strikes from afar. Nikolai knew that this particular one also had Imperial and Slavian blood on its hands. The remaining three golems were melee golems, focusing on fighting with its giant fists.

There were also Azovian felinid soldiers supporting these golems, but they were of little concern to the Tsar.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Emperor Hannegan said to Nikolai. “I’ll take on the golems on the front, you deal with the ones at the back.”

“Old friend…”

“This is an order, from your Emperor.”

Nikolai shook his head but did not argue. Sending his Tsarguards to assist the Emperor, Nikolai stayed back as he saw his friend moved first.

With his mechanicon armed with two fists for each hand, Emperor Hannegan blazed through Azovian gunfire and punched the golem straight on its chest. Another other golem moved to attack Hannegan, but he blocked the golem’s attack with the other hand. A third golem advanced but it was halted by the Tsarguards.

At the back, the Imperial soldiers and the tanks began firing at the golems’ position.

Nikolai used this opportunity to maneuver behind the golem lines. With the melee golems’ attention fixed towards Emperor Hannegan, Nikolai reached the rear golems with no trouble.

The Tsar used his machine gun to attack the anti-air golem. Aiming his gun at the rocket batteries, the Tsar opened fire and destroyed it.

Having taken out the enemy’s anti-air capabilities, the Tsar then ordered his aircrafts to move in. Afterwards, Nikolai threw a punch at the artillery mechanicon. He then followed it up with his machine gun, destroying the artillery golem with the help of newly arriving Imperial and Slavian bombers.

As the Tsar turned his attention to his old friend, he knew that he had done his job not a minute too soon. Emperor Hannegan’s mechanicon looked ragged. A combination of melee attacks, artillery strike, and small arms fire had done significant damage to it.

On the bright side, the Emperor had taken down one golem.

Moving quickly to assist, Nikolai fired his machine gun at one golem who was in a fist fight with Emperor Hannegan. This destroyed the golem. One more to go.

The last golem was the one who had earlier been kept at bay by the Tsarguards. But the Tsar’s bodyguards were unable to keep the golem back as it had used its size and weight to power through their pike and shot formation. They were able to recover their formation in time to engage the golem from the flanks, but the construct was more interested in taking out Emperor Hannegan.

And then, the golem landed a punch that hit Emperor Hannegan’s mechanicon straight on the chest. With the mechanicon having taken so much damage earlier, it was unable to sustain this particular hit. The mechanicon fell on its back, right next to Omaha’s tank.

Emperor Hannegan had fallen in battle.

Enraged, Nikolai rushed madly towards his enemy. The Tsar threw his giant fist towards the golem. This was enough to send the golem backwards. The golem ran towards Nikolai to counter, but Nikolai took out his machine gun and opened fire. He fired until his gun had overheated.

Nikolai would have finished off the golem with his mechanicon’s fist, but the Imperial Sky Force was also eager to avenge their Emperor. The dark construct was soon engulfed by bombs and collapsed to the ground.

There were no more golems barring their way to the Ziggurat.

Of course, there might be some Azovian soldiers defending their ‘temple’. But that was nothing that couldn’t be handled by an infantry fireteam.

At the moment, the Tsar was more concerned for his Emperor. His old friend.

Nikolai looked towards Emperor Hannegan’s fallen mechanicon. He could see that its cockpit was opened. Right next to the Emperor was his daughter, the Tsarina Omaha. Her and a cohort of Imperial soldiers.

The Tsar knew that he did not have much time.

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