Sgt. Golem: Royal Mech Hussar - Stubs Soon!

As they retreated down the street, Natasha checked the magic cube again. As she channeled magic into it, she got a shock. It wasn't pointing back at the hangar where the ball had been held, or anywhere near there. Instead, the cube indicated a direction off to the north.

She felt a thrill. It was pointing in the direction of the gate. Could the girl be there? Was there still a chance that she could intercept her? She was so close now. She simply had to find it.

As Natasha's battered wing approached the North Gate, they came across the smashed bodies of two Russian mechs. The first one lay by a Hungarian mech sprawled in the street, bodies scattered around it. Natasha ignored them and hurried past. She was in the lead, so she had no problem holding up the cube and checking it. It was still pointing ahead.

Something roared in the dark ahead of them, through the gate. Shadows moved. It wasn't until they were through the gate that she was able to make out the shapes.

A mech was smashed on the ground, smashed open, and another was crouched on top of it like a feral animal. Its head turned towards them. It roared, an inhuman metallic scream that sent chills through Natasha.

The sensation she felt from the cube was intense now. This was it. This strange mech had the fire soul. Behind her, one of her wing opened fire with a cannon. The shells shrieked by Natasha and landed a few feet from the strange mech. It leapt up and bolted into the woods nearby. Natasha felt its flight through the cube, the sensation of direction continuing to point to the fire soul’s strange host.

Natasha recognized the mech. It was a strange archaic design that she had only seen in museums and history books, something from a hundred years ago. The same mech that Mikhael had described encountering on the top of the fortress at the pass. The one that had been with the girl.

She must have hidden the stone inside the mech. Natasha felt the overwhelming urge to chase it down, to try to get the stone from it, but there wasn't time. Hungarian reinforcements would be swarming over this area, and she had to make the rendezvous with her airship.

She grinned in the darkness as she tucked away the magic cube. This mission wasn't a failure, not for Natasha. She now knew where the item was. Now she just needed a plan to get it.

Her shattered wing made their way up the valley, along Rakos creek. The road was rutted and muddy, the creek swollen. Twice she slipped and was soaked with muddy water, but it did nothing to dampen her spirits. Already, a plan was forming in her mind. She just had to get out of here.

The mech behind Natasha slipped and fell into the creek again. They were making terrible time. She resisted the urge to swear as she turned back to help. Only six mechs remained from both squadrons. All had taken hits and three of them were significantly damaged. Their going was slow in the dark, even though she had authorized using headlights once they had cleared the outskirts of Budapest. The lights only helped slightly; the walking mech’s movement made the beams bob crazily across river, tree, and embankment. Combined with a pair of shoulder-mounted lights on each of the mechs, that made for a lot of flickering shadows. The road along the creek was terrible, a slog through the thick mud and deep ruts, and they alternated between the road and the banks themselves. It was slow going.

Natasha finished helping the fallen mech out of the creek and onto secure footing, then turned back to join the others. She flipped up the panel on the side of her mech's head. Inside was a compass and a map. She slid the folded paper out and studied it under the light built into the hatch lid just for that purpose. They were on course, but in the darkness and trees, she couldn't tell how far along they'd come. They should be at the bend in the creek soon. She put the map away and spurred her mech faster. A few minutes later, she was at the head of the line.

As they came out of the trees in a clearing, she was surprised to see an airship looming above. Surely a Hungarian ship wouldn't be here. It must be one of hers. They were miles from the primary rendezvous, but close to the secondary.

Now she did swear. The secondary rendezvous was to be used only if the primary was compromised. It was much closer to the army base, but in a narrow creek valley, much more dangerous for the airships to maneuver.

But what really made Natasha's heart sink was there was only one shadow blotting out the sky. Only one airship. Where were the other two?

She flipped up another compartment on her mech's head and pulled out the signal light. Its braided cord led back into the mech itself, where it drew its electricity. She pointed up and pulled the pistol trigger repeatedly in the pattern of her recognition code.

Almost immediately, a return light flashed. It was Glory of Novgorod . She felt a small surge of relief. Wherever the other two ships were, at least her own wing’s airship was here.

She signaled again, requesting pickup, and the airship acknowledged. As she pulled up on the edge of the clearing, the other mechs assembled around her.

"What happened? Where are the other ships?"

"Quiet. I don't know," she snapped.

They would all find out soon enough.

It was several minutes before the airship maneuvered into position and dropped down into the clearing. Fortunately, it wasn't a windy night, or this landing site would be unusable. As the airship lowered, Natasha continued scanning the darkness. The others chatted amongst themselves, sounding tired and distracted. She wanted to snarl at them, but it was pointless. They were all exhausted and disheartened. If the Hungarians found them now, they were fucked.

Still, Natasha herself didn't relax until the metal feet of her mech stomped up the gangway and onto the wooden deck of the hangar. She pulled it all the way forward and commanded it into its stowed position. It took scrambling and yelling to get the others aboard, especially the damaged three.

The ship's captain met her at the head of the hangar bay, leaning against the stair rail and looking weary. As she approached, he answered the unspoken question. "They ambushed us at site one. There was no warning, just some trucks coming in out of the dark, guns blazing."

"A couple of trucks," she swore. How had they been ambushed by a couple of trucks? Had they not set out pickets? But she already knew the answer to that. Every available fighting man had been roped into russians truck-based assault which had failed so miserably.

"I don't know what happened to Bogatyr, but we saw the Orlov Nebes go down. They lifted off right after we did, but something happened, an internal explosion. The Hungarians must have gotten on board or else they shot it with a weapon we didn't see, but it went down in flames."

"And you didn't see what happened to the Bogatyr?"

He shook his head. “No. As far as we could tell, they never took off. There was a lot of fire. The attackers came from their direction, so maybe their engines were disabled or else they were overrun."

All the mechs were aboard now, and the hatch started closing. Natasha frowned at the crew of bedraggled Hussars and their damaged mechs. "Let's get out of here."

The captain nodded and turned away. Natasha followed him up the stairs and down the corridor to the bridge. The floor started vibrating even before they arrived as the airship took off. By the time they stepped on the control deck, the shadowy hills below were starting to slip below them as they gained altitude. Lights of distant villages twinkled, echoing the stars above.

"Course, Captain?" a crewman asked. He glanced at Natasha. "Are we going back north?"

She shook her head. "No. We need to join the front. We are joining the assault divisions attacking from Romania. If we didn't do enough damage to the Hungarian Hussars, our people are going to need all the mechs they can muster."

It was a calculated risk on her part. What if the Polish wing retreated back into Poland? They would take the fire soul with them and it would slip from her grasp. Would they do that? Or would they join the Hungarians in countering the Russian invasion from Romania?

Natasha's instincts told her that's just what would happen They had received a coded message that the Poles had been visiting the Hungarian capital. They hadn't fled back over the mountains when they had the chance. They could have turned west at any time and flanked around the Russian front to get back to their own lines, but they hadn't. They had gone south to Budapest. They had met up with an ambassador and he had been seen at the Hungarian capital.

She couldn't be sure, but her gut told her they were lingering in Budapest to curry favor with the Hungarians. After tonight, there was a good chance they would join the Hungarians at the front with Romania. If she went there, the fire soul would come to her. It was a gamble, but Natasha had long ago learned to trust her instincts. Fate had been with her so far. She could afford to follow orders and bide her time, for now.