Chapter 5: Answered Prayers

From the ruins of the Spire, the rubble shifted around. As the dust settled over what was once wonderful, a machine of metal rose from the ruins of hope. Pushing away brick, wreckage, and crushed corpses. James clawed himself back to the surface to a city of peace now engulfed in conflict.

He checked his mech’s vitals. All was well, nothing out of the ordinary. Though he had a rough landing, all he could see was a possible misalignment within his left leg’s piston.

James switched the frequency to look over the vitals of his platoon. Out of the 30 assigned to the mission, only 12 were still alive. An acceptable casualty rate, and enough for them to achieve the other goals of their mission.

However, upon looking over who was alive and whatnot. The person who carried a T-Class Silenced Sphere was killed upon re-entry. Their ace in the hole against the magic users in the city. If James wanted to breach the castle and kill the Luarian king, he needed to find it and activate it before the defenders could get their bearings.

“Platoon, this is Skichild. What is the status of the Silenced Sphere? Is there anyone who can deploy it?” He said over the intercom as he walked out of the ruins. The dark wound in the sky slowly healed and was replaced with the orange glow of the sun. His door to escape, forever closed. Not like it mattered.

“Unknown!” Hawk responded, his breath heavy. “I think Jill landed west side. Sphere should still be operational.”

“I’ll head to the sphere. Everyone else should engage the enemy and destroy their economic facilities. Whatever you do, stick to the plan. We are not meant to live forever! Force them to fear our metal!” James ordered before turning off his intercom and switched his mic so his external speakers would project his voice instead.

A shadow formed above James. He gritted his teeth as a swarm of gargoyles emerged from one of the city’s barracks. Hundreds of them formed a cloud, wielding spears, swords, and bows. Weapons that wouldn’t damage a mech on their own, but James knew their numbers could pose a significant risk if left unchallenged.

James anchored his mech, his Avenger Minigun spun and whistled like an excited pup. He aimed and fired into the legion of flying soldiers. A hail of bullets shredded dozens of legionaries. The impact tore them into a confetti of gore or sliced them in half. Depleted uranium-tipped bullets turned meat into pink mist upon impact while their bones shattered and vaporised. Even their armour became nothing more than targets that made it easy for James to track.

“Come on! Where is the challenge?” James taunted as he continued to shoot at the gargoyles to turn their once glorious legion into a ceremonial force of ten soldiers in a matter of seconds. The survivors, what was left of the legion, turned and fled back into the barracks they came. “Is this all you can offer me? A fight a child could win?”

Some bystanders, civilians with no combat experience nor understood what a mech was. However, they understood the carnage it had wrought upon their warriors. They noticed his mech and ran to hide in their homes.

But some were brave and grabbed whatever weapon they could find and charged at the mech. James found their foolish bravado amusing and allowed them to get close enough so he could kick them over and stomp on them.

“Fine,” James scoffed. “Since you failed the lesson. I will take the pleasure of teaching your children to fear me!”

Wanting to try to stop him, some bystanders joined together in an attempt to destroy the mech. They wielded sledgehammers, pickaxes, and various tools other only farmers and blacksmiths would use. But nothing that could pose a threat to James and his rig.

“Idiots,” James murmured as he raised his minigun at the group and mowed them down. Satisfied that their blood would be the new paint for the city as he marched west to find the Silenced Sphere. Gunning down or crushing any civilian who was foolish enough to stand in his way.

However, he knew it would only be a matter of time before the defenders of the city would figure out what was going on and form a counterattack. Though successful, James and his soldiers were on borrowed time. He did the math in his head. The jump into the city should give his platoon about 20 minutes to do as much damage as possible before they would be overwhelmed. Dragons would be there in about 5 minutes at most. Which would slow down his platoon and their operations as they dealt with some of Luarian’s heavier forces before the mages could regroup and strike back.

Eventually, James found a cathedral. Its windows were shattered by the shockwave of the Spire’s collapse. Curious, he decided to go on a detour and approached the building to peer inside. Dozens of terrified civilians, men, women, children, and the elderly. All cowered before the colossal machine of steel as it looked down onto them. Some cried, begged for mercy at something they believed was a demon. They were no threat to James, and he knew it.

In any war, there were laws on how one should treat civilians during an armed conflict. That people not taking up arms should be ignored and treated with dignity and respect. On Earth, the Laws of War and the Geneva Conventions promised every civilian the right that they would be safe when bombs rained down and destroyed their homes.

But the Order didn’t see that. They never signed any treaty or agreed on a law about how they should engage with the enemy. A threat to humanity demanded that they utilise methods to ensure their foes absolute destruction. War was an exercise of might, a tool of survival that only the strongest are capable of wielding effectively.

To James, they were more than just civilians. They were all combatants that needed to be swept away and be done with. Even if they had no combat role, they fuelled the economy and provided motivation for the enemy to fight against the Order. All valuable targets that needed to be exterminated and removed from the equation.

James went around the corner, aimed his gun and shot at a tree near the exit to knock it over to block their escape. He walked back to the front of the cathedral with a mech-sized smoke grenade in hand. “Your prayers have been heard,” James said to the terrified. “But your Goddess didn’t answer on time.” The crowd panicked as James flicked the pin off and chucked the smoke grenade inside to watch how they all slowly suffocated to death.

He stood there and watched. His mech’s foot was planted at the front door to prevent their escape while their lungs were filled with smoke. They clawed at the door, their muffled screams replaced with desperate coughs. Mothers begged for their children to be spared. The elderly sobbed about how their final days were when a demon snuffled out what remained of their life. While the men shouted curses and insults as their final hurrah.

James watched intently, ensuring none would escape. He didn’t smile or feel guilt about their demise. Because to have feelings about it would be like an exterminator having feelings for killing off an ant colony. All he needed to do right there was make sure they all died. He saw them as pests, and it was his job to take their lives for the sake of the mission.

“Demon!” Before James could turn around, a stone golem crashed into his side and knocked him away from the cathedral to rescue the people inside by breaking part of the wall open with its enclosed fist. Only to find that it was too late.

James shook his head, recoiled and was taken by surprise that a walking rock was able to catch him off guard. However, besides stopping to think, James quickly got his mech onto its feet to prepare for an engagement with the guardian.

The golem stood at 17 feet, a towering bipedal creature made with stone slabs and infused with magic crystals. Its chest radiated a teal hue while its jagged head. “You! You killed them!” The golem screamed, the crystal near its throat reverberated with anguish for the unlawful murder of the people it was meant to protect.

“It wasn’t me who killed them, creature.” James mocked, “you murdered them. You left your post and left them to die. Don’t point blame when you are the one who failed to do a basic task. So, you have two options: end your worthless life right now or face me.” Knowing he could not penetrate the golem’s stone skin, he got into a boxing stance and urged the golem to fight. “Please resist.”

The golem charged in, ready to slay the master of iron for such a heinous act. But James expected it and ducked to the right so he could slam his mechanical fist right into the side of the golem. Which caused chunks of rock to chip and break off with one clean hit.

“Pathetic! How can you be created to defend your people if you can’t handle me!?” James mocked as he kept delivering cheap shots to the golem.

In retaliation, the guardian of stone managed to push James away by slamming its shoulder into the mech’s frame. As James stumbled back, the golem lunged at him. James raised his right arm in time to direct the punch away from the centre of the mech to the right spotlight. Destroying it instantly.

Being so close, James wrapped his right arm around the golem’s left to hold it close. With his free hand, he continuously punched the golem’s head over and over again. Breaking chunks off with every blow.

The golem tried to knee James’ mech, but he caught its leg in time. Which allowed him to lift the golem above his head and pile drive it. The temporary severed the magical crystals throughout the golem’s body to be out of alignment. Paralysing its body momentarily and ending the fight before it could even really start.

Defeated, the golem tried to get back up. But James slammed his right mechanical foot on its chest to pin it down. The golem screeched as the mech’s foot forcefully shoved the right side of its chest to one side. Which exposed the magical crystal, the thing keeping it alive.

“Guardian,” James scoffed. “A mistake, more like it. A waste of resources and a waste of my time.”

Before James could execute the golem, a magical spear whistled past him. As he reacted, another one shot at him and tore through the front of his mech and destroyed all his external sensors. Typically, in that scenario James could manually repair the mech’s sensors in about twenty minutes. However, he knew that would not be possible.

Thinking fast, James’ mech hand grabbed the front chassis and ripped it off. Exposing himself to the world, but giving him the perfect view of the mage who shot at him.

The mage is a young Jalzin, floating in the air while its blue robes glowed while the mage prepared another spell to attack James.

Furious, James slammed his fist into the golem’s chest to pull out its crystal heart. Killing it instantly. “I cast you down!” He shouted after he chucked the crystal at the mage. Only to be telekinetically caught the heart and tossed it to one side.

Gaining his bearings, James fired a volley of bullets at the mage. Forcing them to put up their magical shield to deflect the storm of flying metal. James smiled, seeing that the young mage had made a grave mistake. Besides putting up a shield and moving out of the way, the mage stayed floating in one spot and placed all of their energy in keeping their shield up.

James kept shooting at the mage as he approached. A magical shield had its uses. It was perfect for deflecting small objects, even if they were going at the speed of sound. However, James could tell the mage didn’t know about doctrines on how one should engage against mechanical walkers. There was one flaw with a shield, and that was that it could not deflect larger objects. Which, in his case, was James’ mech’s hand.

The mage screamed as James punched through the magical shield and grabbed the mage. He clamped down, the mage’s bones groaned and cracked with a light squeeze. Injuring the mage enough to prevent him from using magic, but not enough to kill him. James wanted to have a word with the one who damaged his rig.

“Have a good look at me,” James said as he pulled the mage close. “I want my face to be the last thing you see.”

“Don’t kill me, please!” The mage begged.

“I’m not going to kill you.” As soon as James said that, the mage exploded as James tossed the mage onto the ground. “Gravity will.”

Happy with the damage he had caused, James continued west. This time more vigilant as the front part of his mech is destroyed. Though exposed, he was happy enough to be able to enjoy the clean air. Even if it would mean the pleasant scent would be spoiled with the blood of the enemy.