Revelations - Rise of the Inquisitor

by R. E. Graham

  "Oh Variiiiiiiiiiuuuuss..." the new voice echoed loudly off of the surrounding buildings as it was blasted out of the Sierra's external speakers.

  Vega...

  "...we have some unfinished business!"

  The Sierra and Sentry team on his left turned around and headed for Liberty and Knowledge. Aquilas advanced out of the compound and headed for the Keepers as well.

  Varius didn't want to waste the opportunity and set a lock on the lead Sierra in the team before him. He triggered the missile rack on his shoulder and fired a quick barrage of four of his ripper missiles. Both of the pilots on either side of the lead Sierra had quicker reaction times than the target as they both used their jump packs to launch themselves away from the impending carnage to either side.

  One missile missed its target and exploded as it hit the road behind the towering machine. The other three however hit their mark and ravaged the WarMech's right arm and torso. Glass from nearby buildings were shattered from the force of the attack exploding outward.

  There wasn't much left of the Sierra when the smoke cleared, just bits and pieces scattered about.

  One down...

  The Sierra and Sentry team to his right moved forward at full speed. Vega remained in place within the compound as the fighting out in the city was just heating up.

  Both of the front team's remaining Sierra's dashed into the street and began to fire their forearm cannons with a steady bumph, bumph, bumph at the Inquisitor. Most of the shots went wide, blasting huge craters out of buildings or the road. One shot did hit the Spade in the left shoulder, but its thick armor held.

  Varius fired his Spade's smoke grenade launchers all in front of him and down the street to create a smokescreen for him to operate in. Being outnumbered, it fell on the opposing forces to be careful not to accidentally hit their own side in the ensuing melee.

  Traditional smoke would surely affect any forces that could only use their eyeballs to see, but WarMechs were modern tech. They were equipped with a variety of sensor and optical settings such as thermal to be able to see something as large as a warmed up WarMech through changing fighting conditions. However, the smoke used in most defensive smoke grenades now included particles that would inhibit thermals benefits in the battlefield rendering it practically useless.

  Both front Sierra's charged forward as the Sierra and Sentry team closed in on the right.

  Varius took a deep breath then used his jump pack to launch high up and to the right. Hit stomach felt like it was heading to the floor as the machine lifted high up into the air. As he cleared the smoke, he targeted the advancing Sierra on the left and fired his titan killer scatter gun. The large slug round missed and blew a parked car to scrap. He fired again, and this time hit the enemy WarMech in the right leg, luckily severing it off at the knee. As the machine fell forward, his squad mate fired his entire payload of five buster missiles up at the Inquisitor.

  Loud shrieking alarms sounded off in his cockpit as the missiles rapidly closed with him. As his Spade was still in the air and relatively vulnerable to such an attack, he boosted backwards in the sky giving himself a few more precious seconds. He triggered the chain-gun attached to his Spade's right forearm and sent a stream of bullets at the incoming missiles. He was able to hit one of the missiles which exploded so violently that it caused another to detonate with it. The other three however plowed ahead, two hitting his mech while the last blasted a tremendous hole out of a financial building.

  One missile hit his mech's right leg and the other pounded the chest armor. Neither injury did serious internal damage, but he wouldn't be able to endure much more if he kept getting hit like this. He did his best to manage his descent, but the dual explosions rocked him out of a safe path to the ground below. The Spade's left shoulder touched a bright red skyscraper on his way down which ground all of the left arm's rear armor off.

  Varius used his controls to manipulate the WarMech to kick off of the building then used his jump pack to slow his speed enough that the knee actuators could easily bend for the WarMech to touch down.

  On the bottom of his main right monitor was the details of the WarMech's systems and armor. When in full repair and ready condition a WarMech's armor would appear in blue. However, after the fall, his Spade was mostly covered in yellow. Only his right arm was still in blue. As a WarMech took more incoming damage, its display would change from blue to yellow, then orange, and finally red before it became black. Black meant the location was either lost or totally disabled.

  The Spade was built to be an anti-mech design, but he would need to pilot wisely to take on so many opponents and survive long enough to get inside the compound.

  Again, alarms sounded in his cockpit as five more ripper missiles, this time from the Sierra part of the advancing team on the right, fired away at the Inquisitor. Varius stomped on the right and left pedal and used his joysticks to lean the machine backward. The Spade's jets launched it up several meters in the air and then it dashed backward. Each of the missiles missed and pounded into a dull green skyscraper. The building rocked from the ravaging attacks as glass and debris was shot into the air. The surviving occupants within screamed loudly as they surveyed the destruction.

  I can't keep fighting in the city like this. Too many people are going to die!

  He guided his Spade down a side street to his right and found the approaching Sentry was heading straight at him! The Inquisitor dodged to the right and fired round after round of his titan killer at the KoP WarMech. Unfortunately, the Sentry was equipped with stronger armor than the Sierra and took a hit to its right shin, and torso without stopping. It opened fire with its two laser repeater cannons and the air became filled with red laser bolts.

  As his Spade began taking hits from the rapid-fire lasers, his outer armor began to melt into globules to the ground. His chest armor changed to orange while one set of his grenade launchers was totally lost.

  "Take this!" he shouted as he fired four more of his ripper missiles at the enemy machine.

  Thankfully for the Inquisitor, the Sentry does not come equipped with jump capability. It does however have an anti-missile turret positioned on top of it. The small turret automatically began to fire a stream of flak rounds at the incoming missiles and was able to stop two of them before the other two hit the WarMech.

  The first missile shredded its chest armor, while the other blew the right armor to pieces.

  As the KoP pilot fought to retain control of his machine from the devastating blow, Varius charged forward and fired his scattergun again and again. Each round blasted armor from the enemy mech until it finally collapsed from the carnage into the bank it stood next to.

  Another down...

  As if on cue, both of the remaining Sierras burst onto the street ahead of him trying to prevent him from getting any closer to the compound. They fired both of their cannons wildly, but the Spade kept charging towards them.

  "Serious damage to the right leg armor" Marth chimed in above the noise of the Spade rocking from the hit to its leg.

  The Spade dashed to the left and fired its scattergun at the closest Sierra. It recoiled from the devastating attack and twisted to the side. Varius stomped on the pedals and launched his WarMech into the air in an arch. The other Sierra continued to fire, but its shots missed.

  "Raaaaaah!" the Inquisitor shouted as his mech landed on top of the damaged Sierra. The weight of the heavier machine crushed the smaller mech beneath it leaving it in a heap of twisted metal. Varius struggled to remain upright but managed to bring his mech into a crouch, and then switched ammo in his scattergun from slug to scatterfire. At close range, the large caliber scatterfire rounds shredded through whatever it was aimed at.

  Just as the ammo indicator on his heads-up-display said, “Ready” he fired twice at the KoP mech. As the ammo left the barrel of the large mech killing weapon, the rounds began to spread and did heavy damage to the outer armor of the Sierra.

  Varius began to stomp his mech up
to the smaller machine as he continued to blast away at its armor.

  The KoP pilot decided he had enough of this and blasted up into the air just as the Spade closed within arm’s reach of his machine. As the Sierra took off, the Inquisitor used his mech's right arm to deliver a powerful punch which smashed the smaller WarMech into the building behind it.

  He fired two more times into the downed machine until Marth displayed that the enemy machine was totally disabled.

  Breathing heavily, he again assessed the situation. Liberty and Knowledge had downed the Sierra that had headed for them while the Sentry was still up and fighting. Aquilas' Enforcer was now engaged in an intense battle against Knowledge's Hunter.

  His Spade was definitely injured, but he couldn't stop yet. His ammo for his scattergun was getting low and he only had four ripper missiles left.

  It's enough for what I have to do. I still have one more trick up my sleeve.

  Seeing that Varius had taken down four mechs, Vega charged forward to deal with him himself.

  "I'm coming for you Damien!" Vega's voice boomed through the streets of downtown Lucifer.

  "Today you are going to pay for your crimes!" Varius shouted back.

  Vega's Sierra launched into the air and landed several blocks away from Varius. He broke into a full run towards the Inquisitor. Varius throttled up and dashed across the street that would give him a clean line of fire at the corrupt Inquisitor and opened fire with his scattergun. Unlike the other Sierra pilots, Vega was intensely determined to bring down his enemy. The younger pilot dashed to the side then again jumped into the air and darted over a four-story building, disappearing on the other side.

  Varius tracked the Sierra on his HUD and could see the outline of his enemy closing in.

  The Sierra's combat knife activated and locked in place.

  Come and get me...

  Vega's WarMech blasted a building between the two inquisitors with his arm cannon then charged straight through. As he burst through the other side Varius was waiting for him. He pressed a button on the sides of his joysticks which opened up four panels on the Spade's chest revealing micromissile launchers. Before the Sierra could change course, an insane barrage of the tiny missiles shot forward and swarmed the smaller mech in explosions.

  "Die!" the younger Inquisitor screamed as his heavily damaged Sierra burst through the smoke and stabbed his mech's knife at the Spade's center torso.

  Varius dodged to the left and used his mech's right arm to lock the Sierra's in place. He maneuvered the Spade's left arm up next to the Sierra's chest.

  "You first!" the Inquisitor replied angrily as he triggered the scattergun blasting a tremendous hole through the Sierra killing Vega instantly.

  He used his left arm to release the Sierra and then shoved it over. The destroyed WarMech crumbled over and crushed a light pole.

  Alright, only have to storm the compound, fight all of those infantry and vehicles, and the two Sentrys...great.

  The Inquisitor stomped his WarMech forward at half-speed to the KoP headquarters. He checked his systems and ammo and readied himself for the hardest part to come.

  At this point the city of Lucifer was in full flee mode as anyone in the warzone scattered in every which way to escape the carnage. Liberty had managed to disable the last Sentry outside of the compound walls, but Knowledge and Aquilas were still exchanging shots.

  Liberty's Spade was now breaking off from the skirmish and was heading towards the compound as well.

  "Marth, try to contact Liberty"

  The AI dinged, acknowledging the order and set up a communication connection between the two.

  Liberty popped up on the Inquisitor small display. "How are you doing Damien?"

  "I'm still in the fight. Are you joining in to storm the castle?"

  The female Keeper chuckled. "Yes I am. Kay will deal with the Legatus. The plan is you and I are going to scatter the forces above then enter the main compound and make our way underground. He figures that is where Seneca will be."

  "Agreed" Varius said as he nodded. "Here we go!"

  The Inquisitor fired the last of his smoke grenades up ahead of the compound outer walls as the vehicles opened up with their turret cannons. Several of the shots did hit the Spade further fragmenting the remaining of his front armor.

  One of the Sentrys noticed the approaching Keeper Spade and moved to intercept. It fired a barrage of its homing’s missiles and triggered its repeater cannons. The missiles shot up into the air then angled straight at their target leaving trails of smoke behind them.

  Liberty used her Spade's right hand to grab a parked hovertruck and use it as a shield. As the missiles completely destroyed the hovertruck, the WarMech only took minimal damage across its body. The Keeper discarded the remains of the vehicle and aimed her Spade's left arm. Instead of the standard titan killer scattergun as its main weapon, Liberty had long ago had an experimental railgun installed. There was an ear-piercing whine in the air as the weapon charged then fired.

  The projectile fired at sonic speed and slammed into the Sentry with such force that the large WarMech stumbled over, crushing a KoP officer's car.

  Field Officer Sabine Horo had been positioned over with the infantry forces ready to repel the invading Inquisitor. At the sight of his personal vehicle being crushed he began shouting at the downed mech's pilot. "You bumbling idiot, you crushed my car!"

  Liberty put her Spade into a full run to close the distance between the compound walls.

  The field officer keyed his headset to speak with the VTOL squad leader. "I want that mech destroyed!"

  "Roger that" replied the aircraft leader.

  The VTOL turned towards the bronze Keeper and boosted forward to intercept her.

  "B-Team, about face and prepare to fire on that Spade!" Horo ordered his ground troops.

  Half of the infantry re-positioned themselves to react as soon as the Spade entered the compound grounds.

  Varius spotted the aircraft changing direction over the smoke and fired his chain gun hitting the tail of the rear VTOL sending it into a tailspin. It vanished behind a skyscraper followed by a bright explosion.

  The other three stood no chance as Liberty fired her flak launchers which had replaced her smoke grenade launchers. Each of the modules launched into the air exploded sending shrapnel in every direction. All but one of the VTOLs crashed to the ground while the last fired its main cannon at the bronze colored Spade. The round hit the WarMech in the left arm but didn't disable the railgun.

  Liberty fired a burst from her own chain gun and dispatched the squad leader and his aircraft to the other side of eternity.

  A large plume blew out from the impact of the last VTOL as it crashed into the street.

  Varius jumped his Spade the rest of the distance into the compound and fired his four remaining missiles at the standing Sentry. Its anti-missile system opened fire and was able to take down three of them. The last missile hit the center torso hard and rocked it back on its heels.

  As the Spade landed in the compound, he twisted around and fired at the infantry and vehicles with his chain gun and scattergun. His attacks ravaged the small armed forces and sent the surviving infantry into hiding. One of the vehicles began to backup as fast as it could but caught a slug from the scattergun for its efforts, destroying the wheeled vehicle instantly.

  Liberty burst through the wall and fired her chain gun at the other team of infantry while launching a barrage of her micromissiles at the other Sentry as it began to stand again.

  Horo dove to cover as what remained of his troops were defeated.

  The Keeper triggered her railgun again to remove the Sentry's leg. She stomped her Spade up to the other mech and kicked its last functional cannon arm so that the machine had no hope of standing.

  "Stay down!" she said over her external speakers.

  Varius' mech’s back became lit up from the rapid stream of laser bolts that dug into his rear armor from the last Sentry. Its p
ilot maneuvered away and headed for cover when Liberty fired her railgun again blasting a huge chunk of external armor from the KoP mech's torso armor.

  The Inquisitor dashed to the side and fired his scattergun multiple times until he hit the weakened armor of the Sentry and finally disabled it by destroying its engine.

  Now powerless, the Sentry crashed to the ground and shutdown.

  The Inquisitor brought his Spade up towards the command center at the heart of the compound and keyed his speakers again. "To all of the KoP agents inside. I am coming in to take Director Seneca and Inquisitor Titus with me. Stand down and you will be spared, resist me and I will kill you." With that he triggered his scattergun and fired several rounds of scatterfire through the front doors breaking the glass and shredding the inside foyer.

  Liberty parked her Spade not too far away from Varius as he brought his mech down to one knee and popped open his cockpit. Marth automatically left a remnant of herself to monitor the Spade and diverted the majority of her program to the Inquisitor's gauntlet.

  The Keeper surveyed the destruction around them and looked back to the Inquisitor. "I sure hope this will be worth it."

  Varius exited his mech but did not respond to the Keeper. Instead he drew his sidearm then moved up the steps to the large hole in the command center's exterior.

  The Keeper formed a mid-sized rifle in her arms and moved up to the other side of the hole. She nodded to Varius then both started up the stairs leading to what used to be the front doors. As they ran off the cockpit for Varius’ Spade closed.

  Upon entering the building, the two found multiple agents waiting for them. Varius was the first to open fire hitting a female agent in the head killing her instantly. Several armored agents fired at the Keeper, but the rounds bounced off of her harmlessly. She fired her laser rifle and efficiently dealt with her attackers.

  The Inquisitor ducked behind a large chunk of stonecrete just as a different agent fired his rifle on full auto. Liberty spun on her heel and fired two bolts through the man. He fell to the ground dead.