Inquisitor's Promise (Act Two, Chapter Twenty-Six)

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 Twenty-Six: Bandits from the South

Aeneas scrambled to gather his army as quickly as he could in an attempt to catch up with Galatea. Making use of his shuttles, he transported many of his troops through the air and moved on quickly to Pahlawan Hill.

The hilly terrain made for a difficult trek. This meant that Omaha was unable to bring her Stonewall tank to battle. This was a shame, but not a big deal as the Inquisitor had the forces to deal with the bandits. Instead, Aeneas gave Omaha command of his army’s artillery. This suited the princess just fine given that the artillery was an Imperial unit to begin with.

Another problem involved Nikolai and his forces. Because the bandit encampment was perched atop a cliff, he couldn’t bring his mechanicon to the encampment itself. But Nikolai had a contingency plan to deal with this. In the course of the Lepanto’s journey in San Felipe, Nikolai made sure to take out the mechanicon’s giant fist and machine gun and replaced them with cannons, essentially turning his mechanicon into a mobile artillery unit.

As for the Tsarguards, they were positioned in front of the artillery units to protect them from a possible bandit sortie.

As for the attacking force, Lavinia and her swarm were to be the tip of the spear alongside Aeneas’ phalanx-formation troops. Pep would stay behind their lines, protecting them with his electrical barriers.

With Omaha at the artillery, Captain Paxton was given control of the Imperial troops. Their mobility and firepower would be key in taking control of the encampment. As Aeneas and Lavinia’s units took the brunt of the attack, Paxton’s troops would move in.

As for Shaka and Kunoichi, Aeneas was not sure at the moment. He knew that the pathfinder had served him well thus far. Meanwhile, the felinid ninja had potential. But he decided to put this issue aside for the moment.

As always, Giulia would stay at the back. Her ‘medic squad’ was tasked with retrieving any wounded soldiers and bringing them back to the Lepanto.

As his army was approaching the encampment, Aeneas knew that the bandits would most likely learn of his army by now. Nikolai’s mechanicon was a dead giveaway to begin with. Of course, Aeneas didn’t mind. He didn’t plan to catch them by surprise anyways.

Regardless, the Inquisitor made sure to send Shaka and Kunoichi ahead to scout for his army.

The pathfinder and the felinid ninja made their way to a hill that overlooked the encampment. Having been issued a binocular each, both Shaka and Kunoichi paid attention to the layout of the place.

Shaka could see that the encampment was large. Not only that, but it also had its own perimeter energy shield. They looked less like bandits and more like an invading army.

“Look!” Kunoichi cried. She pointed to the southern end of the encampment: there was a wyvern flying and a tomboyish girl riding it. And she seemed to be in an argument with the bandits. At the back was their leader, a bald, burly man with an eyepatch; his brown skin was typical of men from the Nusantara. He had a sword on his left and a pistol on the right.

“That’s the Inquisitor’s girl all right,” Shaka said, referring to the tomboy. He then turned towards Kunoichi. “Can you hear what they’re talking about?”

Kunoichi nodded. She knew that Shaka was referring to her ears. As a felinid, she could hear from a much greater distance than a baseline human.

But still, they were far away. Kunoichi had to concentrate just to make out what they were saying:

“I won’t ask you again, brigands! Stop your villainy and return all the things that you have stolen!” Galatea commanded.

“I refuse. What will you do then, girly?” the bandit leader asked derisively.

“You have left me no choice, I will charge!” she cried. “Let’s go, Sancho Panza!”

“What?” the bandit responded. “You’re crazier than I thought!”

Galatea then charged head on at the bandit leader. But the bandit leader remained calm and raised his arm to signal. The bandits then raised their spears to protect themselves and the bandit leader from the wyvern charge.

Upon seeing the wall of spears, the wyvern stopped its charge short out of self-preservation. However, Galatea was not prepared for the sudden stop in her mount’s movement. She was thrown into the air and crashed into a large crate. Its content spilled over, rice.

“Grr, that was our food supply you dumb broad!” the bandit leader said angrily.

“What about the wyvern, boss?” one of the bandits asked.

After throwing away its mistress, the wyvern seemed aimless. It was simply flying around, not doing anything.

“Leave it alone, it won’t do anything to us. It’s probably still in shock that its mistress tried to get herself killed,” the leader answered.

One of the bandits moved closer to inspect the crash site. He dug through the rice and found the knight’s fallen form. He then took her out of the crate to inspect her.

“She’s definitely out for the count, she won’t be getting up anytime soon,” the bandit said.

“Idiot girl,” the bandit leader muttered. He briefly thought his next move before he continued on. “We’ll nurse her back to health. She’s probably some knight’s daughter or something. Might get some good ransom out of her.”

 But boss, she’s a pretty one,” the bandit pointed out.

“And?”

“You know where I’m going with…”

The bandit wouldn’t be able to finish his sentence. Taking offense, the bandit leader had shot his subordinate with his pistol. Clutching his chest, the bandit fell over dead.

“We’ll nurse her back to health,” the bandit leader repeated menacingly.

But before the other bandits could respond, one of them was incinerated by wyvern fire. Sancho Panza had charged back in defense of its mistress. The bandit leader himself barely avoided death as he dodged the wyvern’s charge.

“Take that beast down!” the bandit leader commanded.

The bandits took out their weapons. The riflemen began shooting at the beast. However, their shots failed to penetrate its energy shield. There were also the wyvern’s armor and thick hide to account for. The wyvern then went on a rampage as it tore through the bandits.

In response, the bandit spearmen charged at the wyvern. Seeing this attack coming, the wyvern flew to the sky and incinerated them with its fire breath.

Back at the hill, Shaka and Kunoichi knew that they had seen enough. They quickly contacted Aeneas’ nav-comm and let him know what had happened.

“I see,” Aeneas said, doing his best to remain calm. A part of him was relieved that he did not witness first-hand what his scouts had relayed to him, but he knew that he had to hurry now. His mission was no longer to find Galatea, but to rescue her.

“Permission to speak, sir,” Shaka spoke up.

“What is it?”

“I wish for Kunoichi and I to attack the southern-end of the encampment,” Shaka said. “With the wyvern getting their attention, we can do a lot of damage.”

“And rescue Galatea,” Kunoichi added.

“But how are you going to get there?” Aeneas asked, referring to the fact that the encampment only had one entrance.

“Don’t worry, sir. This cliff is nothing compared to the rocks I’ve climbed back in the Draka,” Shaka said.

“And I’m a felinid,” Kunoichi added.

“Then go for it,” Aeneas said. “Just stay away from the other areas, I’m having Nikolai and Omaha bombard the whole place except for the south.”

As Aeneas put away his nav-comm, he made one final check of his army before he could attack. In the meanwhile, the artillery bombardment had just begun.

The repeated Slavo-Imperial bombardments slowly chipped away the bandit encampment’s energy shield. It did not take long before it was gone entirely.

The gate was next. Omaha’s Imperial artillery and Nikolai’s mechanicon made short work of that also. Finally, the artillery cannons were destroyed. That too didn’t take long.

With those things taken care of, Aeneas called off the bombardment. Princess Omaha did not approve of this as she urged the Inquisitor to ruthlessly clear out the bandits. However, Aeneas figured that there may be civilians living in these encampments; captured villagers, perhaps even family members of these bandits.

Regardless, the bandit defenses had been weakened. Aeneas knew that it was time for him to launch his offensive.

As Aeneas was ready to enter through the front gates, he looked at Lavinia and her swarm. One item of particular interest was a large swarm creature by the girl’s side. A rhinoceros-sized reptilian beast on four legs; its head had four horns and its tail was like a cedar tree.

“Do you like it?” Lavinia asked.

“Fearsome, even for the swarm,” Aeneas commented. “I don’t think I’ve seen it before.”

“We haven’t had the occasion to use it. Lord Nineveh gave it to me,” Lavinia explained.

“A wedding present?” Pep chimed in. He was behind Aeneas. But Lavinia did not appreciate Pep’s joke. The deep one girl gave Pep a death glare and the Archon instantly regretted his words.

“What’s its name?” Aeneas asked.

“Anchises,” Lavinia answered cheerfully.

Aeneas blinked. “You named it after papa? Why?”

“Lots of reasons,” Lavinia said as her eyes wandered away.

Aeneas did not like the vague answer that his cousin had given him, but he let it go. The Inquisitor was more focused with taking the bandit encampment.

The swarm creature Anchises proved to be useful as it was the first to break into the bandit encampment. Lavinia and her other swarm creatures followed suit as they engaged the bandit defenders.

Aeneas remained at the back for a moment as he activated his shield’s turret and used it to shoot down the bandits who were engaging Lavinia’s swarmlings. Once he saw that there was enough space, he commanded his Nepolian and Roman troops to charge forward.

It was a successful charge as the Italians were able to break through the bandit lines. But the bandits were prepared for this. A mobile cannon was aimed at the front line, ready to be fired at Aeneas’ soldiers.

But Pep was also ready. The Archon rushed to the front lines and generated an electrical shield around the perimeter, just in time. The cannon fire was dispersed by the electrical shield.

Lavinia saw what was going on and sent the swarm creature Anchises at the large cannon. The creature charged head on and scattered the cannon crew.

With the front gates secured, Captain Paxton brought his Imperial troops in. Infantry riflemen as well as war trucks poured into the encampment.

As it turned out, breaching the front gates was the hardest part of the battle. Afterwards, the Army of Aeneas had cut through the bandit forces like hot knife through butter.

Aeneas sent Lavinia’s swarm to the east while Paxton’s division he sent to the west with Pep.

Meanwhile, his own troops stayed behind to secure the center of the encampment. He made sure to search the individual tents. There, they found villagers who were taken hostage and the family members of the bandits; at times, those two categories overlap.

The Inquisitor decided to commandeer these camps for his own army.

“How are the men?” Aeneas asked Giulia who had now been brought in to look after the wounded. She was uncharacteristically smiling.

“Excellent, Captain,” Giulia answered joyfully. “Very little casualties, no deaths. Must have been an easy battle so far.”

“It has.” Aeneas nodded. “Let’s not get too careless though. I’ve been told that the rampaging wyvern took their attention. Also, many of these bandits did not want to fight the Church and many of them surrendered immediately.”

“I see. Then what is our next move?” Giulia asked.

“We’ll head to the wyvern in the south,” Aeneas answered.

“Understood, Captain. I wonder how Shaka and Kunoichi are doing.”

While Aeneas’ main army was engaging the main bandit forces at the entrance, Shaka and Kunoichi had snuck their way to the southern part of the encampment. With the rampaging wyvern, getting inside undetected was no issue.

Shaka was able to get himself to the top of a makeshift house, giving himself an elevated position.

The pathfinder saw the carnage below him. Fire was all over the place. He could see the bodies of the bandits on the ground, some of them were charred. Then there was the angry wyvern responsible for this. Behind the wyvern was the fallen figure of Galatea. Ahead were the remaining bandits attempting to take down the beast, including the leader.

There were spears sticking out of the wyvern. Somewhat concerning, but Shaka had been briefed on the thickness of a wyvern hide. They were tough creatures. The addition of armor plating and energy shield meant that a wyvern knight could go toe to toe with a combat aircraft.

But that didn’t mean wyverns were invincible. In fact, Galatea’s wyvern was clearly being worn down by the bandits’ persistence.

Shaka knew that he needed to act soon. Still undetected, he aimed his rifle at his target. Briefly, he considered taking out the bandit leader. But then Shaka saw the blue glow of the bandit leader’s energy shield. Clearly, he was still unscathed. There was a good chance that he would not be taken out in one shot.

Thus, Shaka had to pick other targets. And he did.

Shaka shot three times with his sniper rifle, taking out three bandits instantly. All spearmen.

Before the bandits had time to react, a grenade was thrown by Kunoichi from the shadows. It exploded, causing even more chaos amongst the bandits.

Shaka fired another shot, taking out a rifleman.

Before long, the bandits abandoned their attack on the wyvern and looked around for their attackers.

A smoke bomb exploded. One bandit rushed to the smoke in an attempt to find an enemy. A mistake as he soon found a knife, thrown by Kunoichi, lodged in his throat.

It did not take long for the bandits to flee in panic.

The only one left was the bandit leader who screamed at his men to stay put. Meanwhile, Kunoichi took out her katana and lunged at the bandit leader. But the bandit was aware and used his own sword to parry her strike. Soon the two were at a standoff.

The bandit leader’s face became unhinged as he saw the woman in front of him.

“You!” the bandit leader said hatefully.

“Me?” Kunoichi asked in confusion.

“You are responsible for my country’s ruin,” he cried.

“I have no idea!” the felinid girl protested.

“I don’t know what game you’re playing at, being in an Inquisitor’s army,” the bandit leader ranted. “But I won’t suffer a dirty black cat to live!”

And the bandit leader lunged at Kunoichi.

Meanwhile, Shaka studied the battlefield bereft of the lesser bandits. With only the bandit leader left, he aimed at him. But Shaka could not find the right angle, not without the risk of hitting Kunoichi.

And so, he repositioned.

Kunoichi found herself struggling in the fighting against the bandit leader. Clearly, the one-eyed man was much stronger than her. The felinid ninja used her speed to launch multiple hits at the bandit leader but he was quick enough to block each one of them.

Soon, Kunoichi began to tire. The bandit leader saw his opportunity and swung hard. The felinid could barely block the hit and found herself sword-locked with her opponent.

The bandit leader smirked evilly as he sensed his victory at hand. He pressed his advantage.

But then a shot rang out. And the bandit leader found himself on his knees, his sword dropped. From behind, Shaka had shot his leg.

Kunoichi used this opportunity to put her katana on the bandit leader’s neck.

“Go ahead,” the bandit leader said angrily. “Kill me now! That’s all your kind is good for anyways. Death and destruction.”

Kunoichi was stunned as she heard this. The man had a point. She knew of the evil deeds that the Cabal had done.

No, not just the Cabal. The Zaibatsu too.

“Enough,” Shaka interjected. “Don’t listen to this jerk, Kunoichi.”

Shaka’s words were enough to bring Kunoichi out of her trance. “Y-yes, Shaka.”

“Tend to his wounds, I’ll go check on the wyvern,” Shaka said.

The pathfinder then went to the wyvern. With the battle still raging at the other side of the encampment, he knew that the bandits would not bother him.

Shaka found the wyvern in front of him. It was clearly wounded, having sustained several shots and spear hits. Behind the creature was its mistress: the fallen Galatea, still motionless.

Shaka did not even begin to know how to interact with a wyvern. He only remembered one particular account that Aeneas had told him; it concerned the Inquisitor’s interaction with this very beast and how it had acted like an oversized dog. Shaka remembered owning a dog before, given to him by his father.

With that in mind, the pathfinder approached the creature.

“Here boy,” Shaka said as he slowly walked to the wyvern. He even whistled just for good measure.

But as soon as the pathfinder got close, the wyvern began throwing flames at him.

Shaka quickly jumped back. His armor and energy shield would have tanked the fire, but his instinctive fear had kicked in.

Regardless, Shaka got the wyvern’s point. There was no use talking to it, he would have to wait for Aeneas.

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