Inquisitor's Promise (Act Three, Chapter Twenty-Eight)

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 Twenty-Eight: The Final Battle

It was clear to Aeneas that Fyuria had grown desperate. Once Giovanni was freed from the Grey Globe’s control, the attacks on the Holy League’s positions had intensified. Giovanni’s fortress was one particular target as grey soldiers had started to converge upon it.

Aeneas’ first thought was to ask for reinforcements from the main army, but Sir Juan Carlos had responded that he could not spare his men. The Grand Knight too, had to deal with attacks from the Grey Globe with increased frequency and numbers.

At the moment, Sir Juan Carlos and Duke Caius’ forces were holding steady. But nothing could be taken for granted.

This was a frightening development for Aeneas. In Fyuria’s desperation, she had thrown caution to the wind and went for all-out-attacks. The Commander knew that she had to kick the Holy League forces out of the Grey Globe.

The major problem for Aeneas was that his supply line was in danger of being cut off. If that were to happen, it would be disastrous.

Pep had advised for Aeneas to keep going for one final roll of the dice. But this was opposed by Nikolai and Nineveh. The Tsar and Emperor did not wish for such a reckless move wherein failure would destroy all hopes for a successful invasion of the Grey Globe. As for the Swarm King, the loss of the supply line would be catastrophic for the Holy League’s swarm army as it would mean the loss of the cerebrates who kept the mental connection between Earth and the deepest part of the Grey Globe.

Heeding the advice of Nineveh, Aeneas opted to take the safer path. This would mean securing the supply lines. To that end, Aeneas divided his army into two. One to assault Fyuria’s Central Command, the other to maintain the supply line between the main army of Sir Juan Carlos and the vanguard army of Aeneas.

The supply line defense force was led by two men: the former bandit leader Jaya Satria and Imperial Captain Jack Paxton. In addition to the bandit posse already under his command, Jaya was given command of Aeneas’ phalanx soldiers. Meanwhile, Jack Paxton took about a quarter of the Imperial troops while the rest was put under the direct command of Empress Omaha.

Strengthening this defense force were half of Shaka’s pathfinders. They were put under the command of Louis van Zulu.

Rounding up the force was the group of Lektros warriors. Having fought under Pep’s command thus far, Nukok took over since the Archon was put under the attack force by Aeneas.

As for Giovanni’s freed grey soldiers, they were tasked with the sub-fortress’ protection. Serving as the forward operating base of Aeneas’ army, it was now under the most intense attack by Fyuria’s forces.

Aeneas would have preferred to have the grey soldiers be part of his attacking force, but it turned out that Fyuria had ensured that her Command Center was under her direct command which meant that no grey force could hope to enter and maintain its opposition to her.

The exception to this was Giovanni himself, as his chip was completely outside of the Grey Globe’s system.

The rest of the army were assigned to the attacking force. And they were now on the move.

As Aeneas and his attacking force approached the large metallic gate behind which lies Fyuria’s Central Command, the Inquisitor took a deep breath. This was going to be a tough battle, but he had come prepared.

While his army was resting in Giovanni Rossi’s fortress, Aeneas had learned from both Halpful and Giovanni the extent of the Grey Globe’s Central Command:

Calling the Central Command vast would be a severe understatement — it possessed a diameter of ten thousand calcio arenas or one hundred Lektros Domes. The Eye of the Commander, which contained Fyuria’s machine spirit chip, was located right in the middle of the Central Command.

However, there was a large chasm which separated the Eye of the Commander from everything else, meaning that ground forces wouldn’t be able to reach it. And it was far enough away that not even a sharpshooter of Shaka’s caliber would be able to hit it.

This meant that the crux of Aeneas’ plan required air power. At this point, he really wished that he could bring the space force inside the Grey Globe. Though he couldn’t complain with what he had.

Aeneas’ air force consisted of a squad of Imperial ace pilots, Aeneas’ machine spirit probes, the wyvern knights Antonio and Galatea, and Giovanni Rossi.

The last part was somewhat of a surprise for Aeneas, but a welcomed one. With the use of Halpful’s quantum communicator, Giovanni was able to independently manipulate some nanites to form a miniature ship. It was not as big as the grey form that Aeneas’ army had fought, but it was fearsome.

In addition to that, Aeneas and Kunoichi were to take part in the sky battle. Aeneas was to ride on Sancho Panza with Galatea, Kunoichi on Don Quixote with Antonio.

With all that taken care of, Aeneas was ready to break down the gate that barred his army’s entrance to the Central Command.

Dealing with this first hurdle were Nikolai, Omaha, Nineveh, and Lavinia. Nikolai stepped forward inside of his mechanicon while Omaha’s Stonewall Tank rolled in besides the walker. Then, Nikolai unleashed his machine gun fire at the gate while Omaha’s tank also blasted it with its cannon.

With the gate damaged, Nineveh’s avatar stepped forward with Lavinia who brought her prized swarm creature Anchises. Nineveh and Anchises the Swarm Creature then charged at the gate and punched through it.

Immediately, the gate fell down.

Before long, the Swarm Army advanced into the Central Command followed by the Imperial Ground Forces.

Nineveh’s swarm fought on the left wing while the Imperials under Nikolai fought on the right. Claws and steel, needles and gunpowder fought side-by-side against grey nanites.

From the back, Shaka and his contingent of pathfinders fired at their enemy in support of the main army.

Meanwhile, Pep fired electric bolts from high up at the enemy position. But he was ordered by Aeneas to hold his fire. He needed the Lektros to defeat Fyuria.

The grey forces put up a stiff resistance, but Imperial firepower proved to be too much for Fyuria’s occupying forces and they were wiped out.

But Aeneas knew that this would only be temporary. There would be more reinforcements. In addition to the gate that his army had entered through, there were also two paths from their position going to the left and the right. Reinforcements would arrive from there.

Thus, the Swarm army was tasked with defending the two paths against incoming grey reinforcements. This meant that they were divided in two parts: the right side commanded by Swarm King Nineveh, and the left side under Swarm Queen Lavinia.

As for the Imperial forces, they moved and was able to secure a beachhead for Aeneas’ ultimate operation. This was emphasized by the activation of a perimeter energy shield which protected the general area from enemy bombardments.

Within this beachhead, Halpful arrived with his quantum communicator which contained the machine spirit Giovanni Rossi. The recordkeeper was to act as the navigator for the mission, communicating with Aeneas on enemy movements.

With Halpful was Giulia, who had agreed to be his co-navigator. Of course, this duty also involved protecting him and the quantum communicator. This suited Giulia just fine who had her pistol and Pep’s lyonesse pack with her.

From the land’s edge, the Imperial forces engaged the grey forces who flew above the chasm below. Some of the flying grey forces took the form of Holy League aircraft, either Imperial or Venetian. Others looked more bestial, the original grey fighters of Atomia.

The Imperial soldiers were divided into three. On the left was Omaha’s Imperial contingent. On the right was Nikolai’s Slavian contingent. At the center was Shaka and his pathfinders.

As Nikolai, Omaha, and Shaka was clearing out the enemy flyers over the chasm, Aeneas was preparing his air force.

Aeneas looked at the four Imperial ace pilots assigned under his command. The Inquisitor only remembered their surnames: Lucas, Heinlein, Walker, and Carrasco. As for their faces, they were covered by their helmets. He was only able to identify each of them by their voices.

Each of the pilots took to their respective aircrafts: four sharp shaped planes. The missiles protruded from under the wings, as if begging to be fired.

There was also Giovanni and his miniature Seraphim-class starship. It moved sluggishly but it looked to be a formidable flying fortress. The Inquisitor was counting on Giovanni’s grey form to take the brunt of the enemy fire.

And then there was Pep. The blue Lektros and his ability to fly had served him well. It was because of it that the Archon was his ace-in-the-hole. He was to be protected until he could launch his strongest attack at the Eye of the Commander.

Aeneas then took his place, atop the mighty Sancho Panza as Galatea’s passenger. It felt like it was only yesterday that the lady knight was this clumsy girl who needed to be rescued from a group of bandits. But now she had been a very effective partner to her cousin Antonio.

Aeneas couldn’t be prouder of his beloved.

Speaking of the wyvern knight, the swift Don Quixote carried Kunoichi. The felinid girl made sure that she packed as many grenades, alondite bombs, and throwing knives as she could.

As for Aeneas himself, flying atop a wyvern meant that he would have to fight with his pistol. But he brought his testudo shield along and put it on Sancho Panza’s side. Just in case.

The Inquisitor looked to his nav-comm, he made sure that he was able to communicate clearly with Halpful and Giulia.

With the sky having been cleared by the Imperial forces, Aeneas launched his attack.

It did not take long before more grey aircrafts appeared to oppose Aeneas’ air advance. They appeared in large numbers, dwarfing his own.

Giovanni moved in first. Escorted by Aeneas’ machine spirit probes, the former sub-commander engaged the enemy headfirst. Giovanni’s ship took the brunt of the enemy attack as it was swarmed by the grey flyers.

Meanwhile, the Imperial pilots launched their missiles at the larger grey aircrafts. A dogfight ensued between the pilots and the grey planes.

Antonio moved in and engaged the bestial Atomian grey flyers. He moved in swiftly and was able to cut one of them in half. On the wyvern’s passenger seat, Kunoichi threw her knife at some of the grey flyers. It hit them dead on, buffeting them. She then followed it up with a grenade to destroy them.

As for Galatea, she moved to assist Giovanni. She commanded the wyvern to launch his fire breath at a group of grey flyers. Many of them were melted by the fire while others were sent reeling. Aeneas finished them off with several shots from his pistol.

Fighting in the sky was a new experience for Aeneas, but the Inquisitor had accounted for himself well with his sidearm.

At the back, Pep did his part by blasting away isolated grey flyers with his lightning bolts. The Archon wanted to do more but was strictly ordered by Aeneas to hold back. This appeared to be a good call by the Inquisitor as the Archon’s full power seemed to be unnecessary at the moment.

The four pilots were able to win their respective dogfights. Soon enough, the grey horde was wiped out.

Aeneas’ air squad moved forward. He could see the Eye of the Commander nearby. He was so close towards ending this battle once and for all.

But then his nav-comm beeped. It was Giulia. She came with a warning: more reinforcements. This time from below — from the abyss.

To add on to their troubles, he could see grey nanites grouping around the Eye of the Commander. It took the shape of a dragon. It was a gigantic dragon, easily twice the size of Sancho Panza. But it had one eye, the Eye of the Commander. Remembering what he had seen in the Dark Age Archive, Aeneas knew this to be Fyuria’s grey form.

There was also another group of nanites converging. It took the shape of a large eagle. It was half the size of Fyuria’s grey form, about the size of a wyvern.

This was where things began to go wrong for Aeneas.

The dragon launched a huge blast of laser at the center of Aeneas’ air force. Galatea was able to command Sancho Panza to move out of the way, as did Antonio with Don Quixote.

However, Giovanni’s ship was engulfed by the blast and was soon destroyed. Meanwhile, the planes of Lucas and Walker were partly caught in the blast. Half of their wings were severely damaged.

“Lucas, Walker, status report!” Aeneas cried.

“Can barely fly this bird straight,” Walker said.

“Same here,” Lucas added.

“Fall back,” Aeneas commanded. “We’ll take it from here.”

“Roger,” both pilots said in unison.

Giovanni then chimed in, his voice heard from Aeneas’ nav-comm: “Sorry about that, Lord Inquisitor. I was useless.”

“Nonsense,” Aeneas replied, smiling. “You did your part.”

But the Inquisitor’s troubles piled on. Hordes of grey fighters approached to attack Aeneas’ air force.

It was then that the grey eagle attacked Aeneas’ force. It saw Lucas’ damaged aircraft and pounced. It happened so quickly as the bird swooped in and smashed the plane into pieces.

Aeneas saw the attack as it was happening. He looked around desperately for Lucas, hoping that the pilot had ejected out of his ship. But he could not find him.

Lucas was dead.

The remaining two pilots, Heinlein and Carrasco, was eager to avenge their fallen comrade. The two Imperial pilots and the grey eagle soon engaged in a dogfight. The Imperials were quick enough to avoid the eagle’s strike, but the pilots couldn’t aim their missiles at the creature. It was a stalemate.

As for Walker, he was desperately trying to retreat, but he was swarmed by the smaller grey flyers. Thankfully, Antonio and Kunoichi came to his rescue. Kunoichi threw an alondite bomb at the flyers swarming Walker’s plane. Antonio followed up as Don Quixote flew quickly towards the enemies. Don Quixote destroyed one flyer with his claw and Antonio destroyed another with his lance. Don Quixote then blasted another one with his fire breath.

Walker was safe, for now.

But more grey flyers flooded in. Galatea and Aeneas attempted to hold them back with the help of the machine spirit probes.

But no matter how many were destroyed by Galatea’s lance, Sancho Panza’s fire, Aeneas’ pistol, or the probes’ lasers, they kept on coming.

Pep saw the events unfolding before him. He had done his part in destroy the grey flyers. But he had been holding back.

But as Aeneas’ air force was being overwhelmed by the grey flyers, he could hold back no more.

Pep charged himself with electricity until it was flowing out of him. With great speed, he destroyed the grey flyers one by one.

Galatea watched in amazement as Pep was clearing out the units that had seemed to be innumerable.

“I didn’t know Sir Pep is that powerful, Lord Aeneas,” Galatea said in awe.

“Indeed,” Aeneas said uneasily, grateful for the rescue but unhappy that the Lektros had disobeyed his order. “Regardless, we should focus our attention on our own enemies.”

“Right!”

And so, Galatea sent Sancho Panza to engage a large grey flyer. Meanwhile, Aeneas used his pistol to shoot down a smaller flyer.

More grey reinforcements came from the abyss. But Pep was prepared. He charged up the largest ball of electricity that he could. He then launched them downwards towards the group of flyers.

The grey reinforcements were destroyed completely. But Pep was left exhausted.

At this point, the dogfight between the two Imperial pilots was still ongoing. It was a stalemate still.

But then, the grey eagle saw Pep vulnerable. It lunged away from its opponents towards the Lektros Archon. And it struck Pep dead-on.

The two Imperial pilots engaged the eagle once more, but it was too late for Pep.

Aeneas watched in horror as Pep was taken down. But as he saw the falling Archon, Aeneas knew that he could still save him.

“Galatea!”

“On it, Lord Aeneas,” she said.

Heeding a command from his mistress, Sancho Panza flew quickly towards Pep’s falling form. Aeneas was able to grab Pep and brought him atop the wyvern.

The Inquisitor was relieved to discover that Pep was still alive. In fact, he was still conscious though he was barely holding on.

Fyuria’s grey form launched another large blast at Aeneas’ force, but everyone was able to dodge them in time.

Aeneas noted how the blast happened infrequently. It must have taken a lot of power to generate. He was also glad that the ground army was protected by their perimeter energy shield.

Back to Antonio and Kunoichi. Having secured Walker’s safety, Antonio set his eyes on the grey eagle. With quick speed, Don Quixote flew towards the eagle to assist the Imperial pilots.

And it was none too soon as the eagle had gained the upper hand against the Imperial pilots. It was able to separate the two. It then lunged quickly towards Heinlein’s plane. Knowing that he could do no more against the creature, he ejected out of his ride before it was destroyed.

Galatea saw Heinlein’s ejection and flew towards him. Sancho Panza was able to grab Heinlein’s seat with his draconic feet.

Seeing that her wyvern was becoming encumbered by passengers, Galatea moved back towards Walker.

Though the Imperial pilot’s plane looked ready to fall apart, he stayed on.

“Sorry I didn’t retreat, I thought you might still need me,” Walker said.

“And it’s a good thing that you didn’t,” Aeneas responded. “I got some passengers for you.”

Moving people from a wyvern to an Imperial fighter jet while both were still flying was a difficult endeavor, but Aeneas was able to get it done. Pushing through with his willpower, the wounded Pep climbed towards the top of the aircraft. As did Heinlein who got off his seat.

Escorting them back were the remainder of Aeneas’ machine spirit probes. Though the Imperial Ground Forces had cleared the path close to them, he could not take the risk.

And so, they were off.

The Inquisitor then activated his nav-comm and informed Halpful and Giulia of what had happened.

“What?!” Giulia cried frantically. “Pep!”

“He’ll be fine. Just fix him up when he gets back,” Aeneas said.

“Yes. Of course, Captain,” Giulia said, calming down.

“What now then, Lord Inquisitor?” Halpful interjected. “Wasn’t Pep supposed to destroy the Eye of the Commander.”

“He was,” Aeneas responded. “Now it’s Plan B. Carrasco is going to destroy it with his missile.”

“The Imperial pilot?” Halpful asked incredulously.

“He’s the only one left, we have to protect him now,” Aeneas said.

“Understood, Lord Aeneas,” Galatea answered, having listened to the conversation.

While this was ongoing, Antonio and Kunoichi were engaging the eagle with the help of Carrasco.

Antonio was having more success than the two pilots had been as he was able to engage the bird in melee. Don Quixote blocked the bird’s attack with his wings, Antonio followed up as he lunged with his lance.

The bird was struck and reeled. It then retreated away from Antonio.

But Carrasco was ready. Having stayed incognito, he saw his opportunity. He aimed his missile at the eagle and fired.

Carrasco’s aim was true, and the grey eagle was destroyed — just in time for Aeneas and Galatea’s return to the battle.

After quickly informing the remainder of the group of his plan, Aeneas readied his air force. It was just in time.

Aeneas grimaced as he saw reinforcements converging to protect the Eye of the Commander. However, he was glad that it was nowhere near as numerous as the ones that had threatened to engulf him before Pep went all out.

The Inquisitor knew that Fyuria had been busy carrying out attacks against other Holy League forces in the Grey Globe. He also remembered the sabotage operations carried out by CEO Honda and his ninjas.

It was clear that Fyuria was running out of nanites to throw at Aeneas, at least in the Central Command.

He was so close to victory, yet so far.

Aeneas soon received word from Halpful. The three men had arrived safely to the ground position. At the moment, Giulia was busy treating Pep’s wounds. A relieving news for the Inquisitor.

On the other hand, Aeneas also learned that the battle on the ground was as difficult as the air battle. The swarm armies under Nineveh and Lavinia found themselves getting pushed back by the grey soldiers. In response, the Imperial ground forces had to reinforce the swarm’s position to ensure that they were not overrun.

Aeneas knew that he had to move quickly, so off he went. His formation was rather simple: the two wyverns flanked the Imperial aircraft.

Galatea went first as Sancho Panza flew into the school of grey fighters. With his energy shield and armor, he was able to shrug off enemy attacks. He then countered with his fire breath. From the backseat, Aeneas fired his pistols.

With Galatea drawing the enemy, Antonio went in with Don Quixote. From the back, Kunoichi dropped an alondite bomb. The explosion sent much of the grey forces reeling. Antonio followed up as he destroyed the grey flyers with lance and wyvern claws.

The attack had opened up a way to Fyuria’s grey form.

Carrasco knew that this was his chance. He flew his plane through the enemy ranks. The Imperial pilot was close to his target. He only needed to open his targeting systems.

But then, Fyuria fired another blast from her grey dragon mouth.

The blast was aimed solely at Carrasco. Neither Galatea nor Antonio was anywhere near the blast. It was also not as large as the previous two. Clearly, Fyuria was desperate to ward off Carrasco.

Caught by surprise, Carrasco moved his plane out of the way just in time. But in his concern to avoid the blast, he was hit by a laser blast from a grey aircraft.

And now, the grey aircraft was tailing him. Carrasco knew that he was in trouble.

“You’re not looking good, Carrasco,” Aeneas called over his nav-comm.

“Yeah,” the Imperial pilot responded. “This bird’s not long for this world. But I can still hit the target.”

“Are you sure?”

“No promises from me.”

Aeneas knew that Carrasco was hiding something. But this was no time for second guessing. “Do it.”

Carrasco activated his targeting computer, but he knew that it wouldn’t do him much good, it had been damaged by the attack. He knew that he had to aim manually. And he did.

As the missile was fired from Carrasco’s plane, the pursuing grey flyer attacked once more. The missile was just able to escape the aircraft before it was destroyed by the laser.

Carrasco had sacrificed his life to defeat Fyuria.

Having gained a brief reprieve from their enemies, Aeneas and Galatea watched hopefully as they saw the missile heading towards Fyuria.

But it missed the target. It hit Fyuria, but not the Eye of the Commander.

“No!” Galatea cried in anguish.

At this point, a group of grey flyers converged upon Sancho Panza.

But a group of machine spirit probes arrived just in time. Having successfully escorted the three men, they returned to the fight and engaged the grey flyers.

The probes came at the most opportune moment as Galatea was shaken by Carrasco’s death.

Sancho Panza watched on as his allies fought the grey flyers. He wanted to help but his mistress was not giving him any orders. And so, he waited.

“Galatea!” Aeneas said as he turned her towards him. “What’s wrong?”

The Inquisitor was shocked to see tears rolling down Galatea’s face.

“Sir Carrasco.” She sniffed. “He died in vain, didn’t he?”

Aeneas frantically thought of a way to rally his beloved. But he was drawing a blank. He could only think of one thing.

And so, Aeneas brought his face closer to Galatea’s. And he brought his lips to hers. Just a quick peck.

“No one who died in His service died in vain, Galatea,” Aeneas said as he wiped the tears from her face. “I still have need of you for Plan C.”

“Yes, Lord Aeneas,” Galatea said obediently; Aeneas’ gambit had worked. “What’s Plan C?”

“Give me your lance,” Aeneas said as he pulled something from Sancho Panza’s side — his testudo shield. It had finally come to this…

As it turned out, Carrasco’s attack, though not fatal, was able to damage Fyuria considerably.

The dragon’s head looked ragged. Though Carrasco had missed the eye, he came very close to hitting it. Now, the eye was exposed completely.

When planning his attack, Aeneas had considered the possibility of using the probes to destroy the eye, but Halpful had dismissed it since their lasers wouldn’t be strong enough to destroy it. Thus, he would have to content himself with using the probes to keep the grey flyers occupied.

Meanwhile, Antonio and Kunoichi was taking on the bulk of the enemy forces. Kunoichi’s alondite bombs had proven to be very useful but she ran out of them.

As Sancho Panza flew towards Fyuria, Aeneas knew that he had a clear shot of reaching the Eye of the Commander. Failure to take advantage of this would mean the defeat of this battle. Perhaps not the war at large. But with Fyuria’s intensified attacks on their positions, it would most certainly mean the failure of the assault on the Grey Globe.

Aeneas knew that if he failed, the Holy League could hope for nothing more than a pyrrhic victory.

No. Unacceptable.

The Inquisitor would settle for nothing less than a decisive victory.

With the brawl going about in the air, Galatea was able to ignore the grey fighters who were occupied with either Antonio, Kunoichi, or the machine spirit probes.

Increasing her altitude as she flew, Galatea was able to get some height over the Eye of the Commander.

But suddenly, some grey flyers broke off from the fight below and pursued Sancho Panza. But Aeneas was not concerned, he knew this would happen and he had planned accordingly.

As he waited at the back, the Inquisitor knew that this was his time. He held his testudo shield with one hand and Galatea’s lance with the other.

Aeneas jumped towards Fyuria, leaving behind Galatea and Sancho Panza who now had to fend off the flyers. With momentum from Sancho Panza, he was able to cover the distance between the wyvern and the dragon.

There were still smaller grey flyers around the Grey Globe’s Commander, but Aeneas used his testudo shield to protect himself.

As Aeneas was within touching distance of the Eye of the Commander, he threw his testudo shield at a nearby grey flyer; it was in his way. The Inquisitor had effectively lost his weapon of choice, but he no longer needed it. With two hands, he thrusted Galatea’s lance into the eye.

The Inquisitor struck with such venom that he could feel his hands touching the metallic eye.

The strike was money! And there was a series of explosions all around Fyuria, each one bigger than the next. Unfortunately, the Inquisitor was caught within the blast zone.

As Aeneas was engulfed by the latest blast, he knew that he was going to die. Neither his energy shield nor his armor could withstand an explosion of this size.

Briefly, Aeneas regretted having thrown his testudo shield. Not that it would do him much good in the first place. Only a miracle could save him at this point.

But Aeneas was not panicked by his own death, he barely gave it a consideration. Instead, he thought of his father and how his promise to the late Grand Inquisitor was what had set him off on this adventure. And he was able to uphold it.

A promise fulfilled.

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