Inquisitor's Promise (Act Three, Chapter Twenty-Seven)
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.
Chapter Twenty-Seven: A Sub-Commander
Everyone was shocked to hear the childish voice of the Grey Globe’s Commander. It was not the menacing voice they had expected from one who was responsible for the deaths and slavery of so many.
Aeneas had expressly commanded that only Galatea could talk to her. This suited everyone just fine, especially Pep who wanted nothing to do with this.
“Fyuria?” Galatea asked.
“Why did you call for me?” Fyuria asked flatly.
“I want us to stop fighting,” Galatea answered.
“Impossible.”
“I know your promise to your papa,” Galatea said. “But we’re not the same Terrans who killed your people. Surely you know that!”
There was a brief silence from the other side. “There were things I didn’t expect. But this changes nothing.”
“This changes everything!” Galatea cried. “I know your story, Fyuria. Believe me when I tell you that I would help you get justice if this was still the Dark Age!”
Aeneas knew that the others would object to Galatea’s statement. He raised his arm so as to tell everyone to keep quiet.
Once again, there was a brief silence from the other side. And the Commander of the Grey Globe spoke once more.
“Lady, what is your name?”
“It’s Galatea. Galatea de la Mancha Aquilana.”
Aeneas resisted the urge to intervene for the moment. The Inquisitor was impressed at how his beloved had managed to say that last word without a hint of hesitation. On the other hand, Aeneas couldn’t help but feel that it was presumptuous for her even if the two of them had been betrothed for quite some time.
“You’re like my mother, Galatea. So kind,” Fyuria said in sadness. “But it’s too late. I’ve done too much to turn back. I must fulfill papa’s final wish.”
“Hold,” Aeneas interjected. “You’ve done too much? What do you mean by that?”
“Who is this?” Fyuria asked in confusion.
“My name is Aeneas. Please answer my question,” the Inquisitor said authoritatively.
“I’ve killed so many people, Aeneas. But worse than that, are the people I’ve trapped. I can hear their screams,” Fyuria said.
“And you felt that you’ve gone too far. All you can do is fulfill your papa’s wish,” Aeneas stated.
“Yes,” Fyuria said. “And after that, I can silence their voices for good.”
“That’s not how you deal with your guilt, Fyuria,” Aeneas chastised. “It’s never too late! And I’m more than willing to give you a second chance.”
A soft laugh could be heard from the communicator. “You sound just like my father, Aeneas.”
Aeneas was taken aback. Not sure how to respond, he remained silent.
Fyuria continued on. “At first, father thought we could make peace with the Terrans. But the Terrans wished for our destruction. Then, mother was killed by Terran bombs. And he despaired.”
Struck by a sense of ancestral guilt, Aeneas looked down in shame. “I’m sorry.”
“You have wasted your time, Aeneas,” Fyuria said. “Goodbye.”
And the line was cut.
Knowing that dialogue had failed, Aeneas knew that he had no choice but to kill Fyuria. It was as simple as that. After all, the Commander of the Grey Globe had made her decision.
As for Galatea, she too understood what needed to be done. That didn’t make it any easier. But she found comfort from the unlikeliest of source, Pep.
The lady knight sighed as the Lektros Archon was approaching her.
“You were right, Sir Pep,” Galatea said in shame. “My apologies for wasting our time.”
“Even so, I am glad that you two talked to her,” Pep responded.
“Really?”
Pep nodded. “Now there is no more room for regrets. Now we know that we have no other choice.”
In response, Galatea smiled at the towering man next to her. At least now they were both on the same page.
And so, Aeneas and his army continued their march to the fortress ahead. A large metallic door was blocking their path. But this was no problem as Nikolai’s mechanicon quickly broke down the gate.
The Grey Globe sub-fortress was not what anyone in Aeneas’ army had expected. It was a lush green forest, an ecological preserve. If it wasn’t for Halpful’s Grey Globe schematics, Aeneas himself would have been shocked too.
However, it was clear that this forest was not natural. A quick look up showed artificial lights rather than the sun.
Aeneas knew that this was not the time to rest. He made sure that everyone was moving in battle formation. Shaka and his scouts moved in first. It did not take long for Kunoichi to report hostiles. Moments later, Shaka and his pathfinders were engaged in a skirmish with grey soldiers.
Aeneas moved quickly. He made sure to move his army in one large line. On the left wing was the swarms under Nineveh and Lavinia. On the right wing, Imperial ground forces under Nikolai and Omaha. At the center was his motley crew of phalanx soldiers, former bandits, machine spirit probes, and wyvern knights.
With Pep’s band of lektros soldiers following closely behind, Aeneas’ army moved as one. Though it was difficult with the hilly terrain.
Aeneas’ main army arrived just in time to see the skirmish. Having done their job, Shaka and his pathfinders retreated to safety behind Aeneas’ main line. But their battle was not finished as they took their place on the hills.
Aeneas finally saw the main army in full. He saw that they looked very similar to a ground army that the Venetians would usually field — phalanx soldiers not too different to Aeneas’ division; and there were several airships in the sky; one of them looked like a Seraphim-class starship, though only in shape rather than size.
Halpful, who had taken a great risk in entering the fortress, informed Aeneas that the mini-Seraphim ship was the ‘grey form’ of Giovanni Rossi. Not dissimilar to a swarm avatar.
As for Giovanni himself, the ‘Eye of the Sub-Commander’ could be found at the far end of the fortress — high up on the walls beyond the forests and the hills, and just behind the mini starship. Based on the Grey Globe’s schematics that Halpful recovered back in Meridian, the Inquisitor knew that this eye contained the sub-commander’s machine spirit chip.
In order to take control of the sub-fortress, Aeneas and his army must destroy that eye. But this was going to be tricky. The Inquisitor’s Army had the disadvantage in terms of aerial combat. Which meant that Aeneas had to play to his army’s strength: his ground forces.
Consequently, he needed to take out the enemy’s ground forces first. To that end, Aeneas sent the swarm under Nineveh and Lavinia towards the grey soldiers on the ground.
Aeneas watched on as he saw the swarm taking on the grey phalanx soldiers. He saw Nineveh’s avatar, a large reptilian monster of thirty Imperial feet. One swing of its arm was able to scatter the enemy’s formation.
In contrast, Lavinia’s avatar was much more elegant. She moved quickly with her swarmlings and lunged at her enemies. With her knife, she was able to cut down two grey soldiers. As the enemy soldiers moved to attack her, she moved back and sent her swarmlings to fight for her.
Meanwhile in the sky, the grey ships continued to move towards Aeneas’ position. Aeneas sent Antonio, Galatea, and the machine spirit probes to engage the smaller ships. Once again, the wyvern cousins used their respective strengths to deal with the ships. Galatea and Sancho Panza were able to draw many of the ships to them. Meanwhile, Antonio and Don Quixote deftly took out the enemy with their speed.
But the mini-Seraphim-class ship continued its steady flight towards Aeneas’ army. It launched missiles and bombs at its enemies below. The blasts took out some soldiers, but Aeneas himself remained steady.
Meanwhile, the Imperial ground forces focused its fire on the large ship and its retinue. Nikolai used his mechanion’s machine gun and aimed it upwards. On the other hand, the main cannon of Omaha’s tank could not be aimed straight upwards and so she focused on screening the enemy ground forces away.
Despite that, focusing their fire to the sky left them open to the enemy’s phalanx soldiers. To protect his Imperial allies, Aeneas sent his own phalanx soldiers and Jaya’s spearmen to protect them. They formed a line that that spanned from the center to the right wing of his army.
As for Kunoichi, she remained hidden as ordered by Aeneas. Taking advantage of the battle chaos, she was able to move between the trees and brought herself behind enemy lines.
She could see the ‘eye’ of the sub-commander Giovanni Rossi, but it was out of her reach. The walls were too flat and too high up for even her to climb. As she saw the battle between the swarm and the grey soldiers, she wished to help but she had her orders.
At the back, Shaka and his pathfinders began shooting at the large ship. They were not the only ones. Aeneas activated his testudo shield’s turret and began to fire skywards at the ship. Meanwhile, Jaya and his bandit riflemen followed suit as they too fired on the ship.
Pep’s band of Lektros warriors helped out also. Nukok and the stronger lektros warriors fired their electric blasts at the ships in the sky. The weaker warriors were sent to help with the screening of the enemy ground forces from both Aeneas’ division and the Imperial ground forces.
As for Pep himself, he had been ordered not to engage by Aeneas.
After a sustained period, the combined firepower dealt at the large ship finally destroyed it. Aeneas looked at the large explosion that engulfed the sky with joy. But he knew that the job wasn’t finished yet.
Destroying the ship wasn’t enough, it was only the grey form of Giovanni Rossi. The eye needed to be destroyed. Otherwise, it would only be a matter of time before another ship took its place.
Pep grinned as he knew that this was his time to shine. Using his electric power, he was able to get himself off the ground. It took more energy to do so than in the Lektros Dimension, but he was able to keep it up. He then flew quickly towards the eye.
But the eye still had its guardians. These grey probe-shaped aircrafts began to attack Pep. The Archon was able to dodge their attacks.
Aeneas was prepared for the eye’s defenders, however. That was why he put Kunoichi, still hidden, where she was. Seeing the action up above, the felinid girl took out a purple-colored grenade. It was an alondite grenade, an experimental weapon made by the Zaibatsu. Kunoichi then jumped from the tree towards the wall. She then jumped once more and threw the grenade at the grey aircrafts.
There was purple explosion. The drones were not destroyed, but they were reeling from the alondite and struggled to move.
Pep saw his opportunity and launched a lightning blast which destroyed the drones. Now, the Archon had a clear view of the Eye of the Sub-Commander.
The Lektros Archon then generated a large ball of electricity. He then launched it at the eye. Pep struck his target dead on, causing a large explosion that destroyed it.
From below at a tree, Kunoichi saw the eye being destroyed and started to celebrate. But then she caught a flicker of blue light coming out of the sky. Curious, she jumped up and caught it.
It was a chip — its center was a bluish glow. Kunoichi was not sure what she had caught but knew that it could be important.
Back in the sky, an exhausted Pep was flying unsteadily. Nearby, Galatea was ready to help. Sancho Panza flew to Pep, allowing the Lektros to ride on the wyvern.
Meanwhile, Aeneas scanned his surroundings. The grey soldiers fighting his army was falling apart and melting right before his eyes. The Inquisitor knew that they were made out of nanomachines that organized themselves based on their respective commanders.
With Giovanni Rossi taken out, their organization disappeared.
The battle was won, but Aeneas knew that that he had little time to rest. He quickly had his soldiers set up camp and secure the fortress.
And so, Aeneas was only one step away from defeating Fyuria and fulfilling the promise he made to his father. But he soon learned yet another aspect to his war against the Grey Globe when Kunoichi approached him with the chip that she had recovered.
Aeneas knew exactly what Kunoichi was holding as soon he saw it. Quickly, he gathered the members of his inner circle and Halpful.
“Is that what I think it is?” Galatea asked.
It has to be,” Aeneas said. “It’s Giovanni Rossi’s machine spirit chip.”
“We shall see,” Nikolai interjected.
“Gianni,” Giulia said hopefully.
“Nope, not jealous at all,” Pep muttered to himself.
Halpful put the chip into his Quantum Communicator. The recordkeeper explained to everyone that his communicator was able to store various types of data, including machine spirits; it was this ability that allowed the machine to carry out its numerous functions. As the recordkeeper was giving out his explanation, Aeneas, Nikolai, Nineveh, and Giulia nodded in understanding, Galatea and Kunoichi listened in awe, while everyone else was confused more than anything.
And with the explanation out of the way, everyone watched in anticipation to see what would happen.
Then, a blue holographic of a man appeared. Everyone looked on in awe, given the rarity of holograms outside of the Great Pyramid.
“I’m free?” the holographic man said.
Giulia recognized him immediately.
“Gianni!” she cried happily.
“Giulietta?” Giovanni asked. “It’s been a while, isn’t it?”
Giulia smiled. “It has.”
“And you look as beautiful as ever,” the machine spirit said flirtatiously.
Pep looked ready to blast the communicator and was about to yell at Giovanni, but Giulia beat him to the latter.
“You fool! I’m a married woman now!” Giulia said angrily as she showed her blue wedding ring. “Every soul in Christendom knows that!”
“Oh,” Giovanni said, stunned.
“I guess they don’t have access to the Domain in the Grey Globe,” Lavinia quipped.
Giovanni shook his head but then grinned. “Oh well. There are lots of cuties who had been assimilated. Maybe one of them will give me her love.”
Aeneas shook his head as he listened to the conversation going on. To think that the man they had rescued was a skirt chaser. Much as he wanted to stay out of this, he knew that he had to move the conversation along.
“Never mind all that, please tell us what you know about Grey Globe!”
And so, Giovanni did. Right after they all made their introductions to one another, Giovanni told them of his experience as an assimilated soul in the Grey Globe.
Giovanni told Aeneas’ group of his horrifying experience after his assimilation. Having destroyed a good amount of the Grey Globe vessels, the Venetian pilot was deemed by Fyuria worthy to be her sub-commander. But being a sub-commander was not a blessing for an assimilated soul, quite the opposite.
As a sub-commander, Giovanni gave out orders to attack planets and assimilate souls in the Electrosphere. He could still remember when he bombed a farming village whose inhabitants had opposed the invaders from the Grey Globe.
Giovanni wished nothing more than to stop, but he couldn’t. He could speak out against it but whenever he tried to act differently, he couldn’t. Against his will, he was forced to fight his own people. It was as if he was possessed, but he was fully conscious of his possession.
As Giovanni continued to give his explanation, he grew more distressed. Unpleasant memories of his actions resurfaced.
“I’m a murderer. A mass murderer,” Giovanni said before he paused. If machine spirits have tears, he would have cried.
“It’s not your fault Sir Giovanni,” Galatea said comfortingly. “You were not in control of your actions.”
“Your fight is over, Lieutenant,” Aeneas said. “We’ll get you home. You have more than earned it.”
But Giovanni shook his head. “With all due respect, Lord Inquisitor. I refuse your offer. I want to fight.”
Aeneas was taken aback by the machine spirit’s declaration. “Fight?”
Giovanni nodded. “While I was assimilated, I made friends with the souls here. Those who were imprisoned with me… I want to do my part in freeing them!”
“But you’re only one machine spirit,” Omaha interjected. “Not much you can do by yourself.”
“Not exactly, Empress Omaha,” Giovanni said. “When you destroyed my eye of the sub-commander, you didn’t just free me from the Grey Globe’s influence. You also freed the others who had been put under my command. Basically, we’ll be those grey soldiers you’ve been fighting, but on your side.”
“There could be thousands of them, maybe more. It is like we have another swarm army for the Holy League,” Nineveh pointed out.
“Yes,” Giovanni said. “My fortress is only one of many. But surely you need the help.”
Aeneas considered his options. He could not afford to pass up this opportunity. Though he had one more question to ask.
“And these people, they’ll follow you willingly?”
“Almost to a man.”
“Then welcome to the team, Giovanni.” Aeneas smiled.
The Inquisitor then reached out his hand for Giovanni to shake before he realized that his interlocutor was a machine spirit. Aeneas quickly took his hand away and pretended to make gestures with it.
But it was too late. Everyone had noticed his embarrassing display and Aeneas could hear chuckles and snickers all around him.
Embarrassment aside, Aeneas was happy. He had gained a powerful ally in a former Grey Globe sub-commander. And Fyuria was so close to him now.
Aeneas had tried to reason with the Commander of the Grey Globe. But it was not meant to be. She had chosen the path of damnation. She had to be taken down, much as it would pain Galatea.
The final battle awaited the Inquisitor and his army.