Inquisitor's Promise (Act Two, Chapter Seven)

Aeneas has to keep his promises. His father's mission will be completed. And while he's at it, he will become Galatea's lord and Inquisitor. But love and politics are an explosive combination.

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Chapter Seven: Seraphim-class Ship

Aeneas couldn’t believe his eyes when he first saw the Lepanto. The Inquisitor knew that Seraphim-class ships were the biggest ship type that the Venetians could produce, but he never thought of how big his new ship would actually be. It was mind-boggling to say the least. His Holiness was clearly pulling out all the stops to defeat the Grey Globe.

Like all Seraphim-class ships, the Lepanto was three Imperial miles in length, one in width, and one-half in height. This ship was so big that his previous airship would be able to fit inside. The Lepanto had a rectangular shape, distinct from the ovoid airships that usually dotted the skies of Earth. The bow and stern were clearly indicated by the sharp shape of the former.

More impressive than its size was the ship’s crew capacity. The ship was able to house about thirty thousand men in total, not counting their family members. The ship has its own internal market, law enforcement, manufacturing, church diocese, and many other aspects of civil society. If Aeneas’ previous airship was a mobile village, the Lepanto was a flying city.

All this was a lot to take in for the Inquisitor who had to deal with the issue of personnel management. As expected, most of the ship’s crew were Venetians. However, a significant number of foreigners could also be found. This was to be expected since the Commonwealth was known for their Foreign Legion and had a history of assimilating foreigners into their society.

Aeneas made sure to remember the names of the crewmen that he would interact with the most. One of them was Admiral Mario Riva, the captain of the ship. The other was Commander Giuseppe Deere, Chief Engineer of the Lepanto. There was also Lieutenant Giulia de Medici who was in charge of the ship’s medical bay.

Nepotism and meritocracy worked hand-in-glove in Venetian society.

Those were the ship crew. As for the soldiers, Aeneas had to bring his own. While the Lepanto had their own contingent of ship security personnel, they were not close to being enough for the Inquisitor’s mission.

Consequently, Aeneas brought in his initial troops of Nepolians, Romans, Mediterranean orcs, and other mercenaries that he had already recruited. This suited him just fine since they had served him well thus far. Their phalanx formation, though not as flexible and powerful as the Imperial manipular formation, allowed Aeneas to hold the line effectively.

And of course, Shaka’s marksmanship had been invaluable.

The issue was the lack of numbers. Even after Aeneas had integrated his soldiers with the Venetian crewmen, the Lepanto filled less than a quarter of its troop capacity.

The answer to this problem was Lavinia’s pacifican swarm army. Except that this brought its own problems. The integration of Lavinia’s swarm with the rest of Aeneas’ army would always be problematic. The surface dwellers of Earth were never fully comfortable with the swarmlings. Being non-human and non-sapient, the swarmlings were used by the deep ones of Pacifica to overwhelm their enemies in battle. These creatures made for great allies, but their alienness meant that they were distrusted by most.

This was not helped by Lavinia who brought on ‘cerebrate units’ to help with further coordination within her swarm. Recognized as humans with capacity to reason, these brain-shaped and stationary creatures could direct swarmlings from a distance just like a deep one. To accommodate for the increase of the swarm, Aeneas made sure to dedicate a whole section to the Lepanto to the housing of Lavinia’s swarm.

This endeavor forced Aeneas to take a good look at the structure of the Lepanto itself. The ship was divided into three decks: the top, the middle, and the lower. The top deck was the location of the ship’s bridge. It was also the location of the hangar, where aircrafts were parked, and the barracks, where the soldiers lived and trained. Meanwhile, The ship crew’s quarters were located next to the barracks.

The middle deck was the location of the civilian section of the Lepanto. The families of the crew reside in the middle of the Lepanto. This meant that the main lounge and other amenities could be found here. The hospital and the medical bay were located side by side at this section of the ship. This was also where the ship’s three chapels were located, with the main one located at the very middle of the ship.

The bottom deck was the maintenance section of the ship. This was where the engines and the electro-reactors were located. It was from here where the thrusters at the stern and the ship-wide perimeter energy shields were powered. Next to the engines were the artificial gravity and life support system which allowed the ship to not only space travel but also to stay in the upper reaches of the Earth’s atmosphere. The bottom deck was set up as to allow emergency landing if needs be. Out of the three decks, this part of the ship was the least populated.

Aeneas realized that the stern of the ship outside of the thrusters could be repurposed to house Lavinia’s strengthened swarm. The top section was to be used as Lavinia’s quarters, the middle as the location of the swarmlings and the cerebrate units, and the bottom for the means to maintain the system. And of course, a specialized entrance for this very section.

As expected, this measure was met with a lot of pushback:

“This is a foolish plan, Captain!” Giulia said bluntly.

Doge Norberto was more measured in his criticism. “Giulia can be harsh, but she’s right. You will make for yourself a segregated ship where Lavinia’s swarm have free reign at the back. If she should ever turn against you, you will have a terrible revolt on your hands,” he warned.

The Inquisitor accepted the validity of this criticism, but he trusted Lavinia. He had known the girl ever since they were both small children.

For Aeneas, there was simply no way for Lavinia to ever turn against him.

No way.

Thus, was the Inquisitor’s army when he first obtained the Lepanto. But even with all of his troops, their associated ancillaries, and Lavinia’s swarm creatures, the Lepanto remained underpopulated. Aeneas was not sure what to expect in the Lektros Dimension. Out of an abundance of caution, he decided to bolster his army.

But recruiting would take time, even longer than the time needed for the repurposing of the Lepanto’s stern side. At this point, Aeneas remembered a certain someone who had offered to help him should the time comes.

Time to make good on that offer…

“Thanks for joining us, Your Highness,” Aeneas said to the man in front of him: Tsar Nikolai of Slavia.

The bearded man smiled in response. “Don’t mention it,” the Tsar said gruffly. “I’ve always wanted to go the Moon, especially now with all this hoopla about the Lektros.”

“Even so,” Aeneas said. “I am aware that by answering my request, you are putting your own goals to the backburner.”

“You mean the Azov?” the Tsar asked. Nikolai then laughed heartily. “Don’t worry, those black cats will regret ever conceiving the idea of secession from the Holy League. I think of this little operation as the means to train my troops for the Crusade to come.”

“Glad to hear of it,” Aeneas said. The Inquisitor grinned confidently, believing that his chance of success had increased significantly with the Tsar’s assistance. “Now I would appreciate it if we can move quickly.”

Fortunately, the Tsarguards of Slavia were a disciplined and orderly group of men. The elite bodyguards of Tsar Nikolai were equipped either with lances or rifles, preferring to fight in a pike-and-shot formation. But the most notable equipment they had was a giant robot known as a mechanicon, a recovered Dark Age technology. Standing at about twenty Imperial feet, this gargantuan machine gave much needed firepower to the Inquisitorial Army.

After quite a bit of preparation, the Lepanto finally made its maiden launch from the Venetian Arsenal.

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