Sgt. Golem: Royal Mech Hussar - Stubs Soon!

Moving quickly, Angelica and her team covered the ground from the power station to the fortress in good time taking a meandering path to throw off enemy fire. Several artillery rounds landed near them, but only two impacted Hannah's shield. Only the strongest of shielding Hussars could deflect an artillery round, and even those, not very often. Any more would likely have overtaxed Hannah badly. Angelica was worried about her friend. Hannah had been even more withdrawn and pale than usual since the attack in the mountains.

The road snaked along the base of the slope of the eastern wall of the valley. It met the fortress at its northeast corner, faced by a massive iron door. As they approached, it split in the middle and started to open. Angelica held her hand up to stop the others.

Why would Frankenstein open his keep?

Through the crack between, through the crack she saw movement, what looked like armored vehicles.

"Hannah with me. Veronica, flank."

She didn't give Tamara orders, but she didn't need to. Her glance back revealed the Cossack woman had her rifle up, as she lined up her first shot.

Boom!

The shot from Tamara's long-barreled cannon flew straight between the slowly-opening armored doors. An explosion boomed. Dust and smoke blasted out from the opening. The doors continued to slide apart.

Angelica moved straight forward, keeping in close formation with Hannah. She could feel the other woman's shield, a powerful wall in front of them.

Veronica was already out in front of them, angling off to the left down the slope and approaching the outer wall of the castle. She was already out of line of any enemy fire from the opening doors. The doors swung completely open, and the smoke cleared. There was a squeal of metal as a tank rumbled out of the fortress. It scraped past a burning vehicle Tamara's shot had disabled. They were tiny, maybe two meters wide, and less than three meters tall. They looked barely big enough to hold normal-sized men, let alone golems. But the stubby guns poking out of their conical turrets looked big enough.

The tank fired. Angelica had to suppress the instinct to throw her mech to the side. The air rippled in front of them as Hannah’s shield stopped the shell. The Polish Hussar gasped, "I can't stop more like that!"

Through the fading smoke, Angelica saw another tank behind the first, and another beyond that.

"Okay, break and light 'em up!"

She lifted her autocannon and veered to the left as Hannah went right.

Boom, boom, boom. They both fired their weapons rapidly through the open gate. The first shots tore through the lead tank. A hatch in the front and another on top flew open as the tiny machine belched flame.

Angelica's next two shots went right past it into the tank beyond. Then the entire doorway was full of smoke and fire, and she emptied the rest of her magazine blind. She and Hannah ran their weapons dry at the same moment, and took off running forward and to either side, getting out of line with the door. She could hear Tamara somewhere behind, firing with slow, steady shots.

Angelica reached the wall of the fortress where Veronica already stood. The Hungarian woman pulled a mech-sized axe from the back of her machine.

"I'm going in."

Angelica opened her mouth to protest, but she didn't really have tactical advice for how to charge through castle gates choked with burning tanks. Veronica was their melee specialist, so she decided it was better to let her have her way.

"Alright, we'll be right behind you.”

The Hungarian girl disappeared into the smoke-filled doorway. The first tank had only made it halfway through the opening. It sat there, burning. From the open forward hatch, a body hung, head and torso dangling, everything below the waist still inside the tank. It was charred and disfigured by the fire, but it looked like a miniature golem.

"What the fuck?" Angelica’s hard-learned cultured manners gave way to her country roots as she swore aloud. "What the hell is that?"

Through the open door came the clash of metal and the rattle of machine gun fire.

Angelica moved her mech up. She poked the barrel of her reloaded cannon through the smoke as she edged her way around the burning tank. She slipped off her mech's shoulders and dropped down between its shoulder blades, crouching on the hand and footholds that held her directly behind her mech’s back. Then she focused her attention on her bond, seeing through the mech’s eyes as they marched forward.

It was a good position when riding her machine in a frontal assault, but it prevented her from using much of her magic. Still, worth it when you weren't sure which way the next shot would come.

Four smashed and disabled tanks choked the entrance. Smoke tore at her lungs as she passed the burning machines. Beyond them sat a fifth, turret split in half by Veronica's axe.

There was a small enclosed courtyard beyond, its roof open to the sky. Around its perimeter were large vehicle doors open to reveal parking garage bays, where apparently the tanks had been housed.

The golems were employing poor tactics. If they had deployed the armored machines before the Hussars got close, giving themselves room to maneuver, they might have been a serious threat. Crammed into a narrow choke point, they had no chance at all.

Smoke and gunfire came from a bay off to the left. A moment later, Veronica's hulking mech stepped back into the courtyard. Its axe was chipped and covered in gore. It clearly worked as well on bodies as it did on tanks. The Hussars moved in beside Angelica, and they surveyed the carnage.

In front of them was another large armored door. It seemed more for show than practicality, evoking a medieval fortress with iron hinges and bindings across its enormous wooden beams.

"We don't have to go that way." Veronica jerked a thumb at the open garage entrance she had just come out of. "There's another way through here."

A flurry of shots sounded from above on the battlement around the courtyard. Angelica swung her gun up and looked for targets. A moment later, Tamara's mech stepped over the edge of the battlement and dropped lightly into the courtyard beside Hannah.

"All clear," she said cheerfully.

"Okay." Angelica turned to Veronica. "Lead the way."

In single file, they moved deeper into the fortress. The first hall they came to was large enough for their mechs, but beyond, the place quickly turned into a labyrinth.

"We're going to have to dismount.” Veronica lay low on her mech's shoulder to peer through an open doorway too small for it to enter. She gave up and jumped down.

Angelica and the others joined her on the ground. From the back of her mech, strapped amongst the pouches and bags, Veronica withdrew an infantryman's rifle. She dug out a bayonet and fixed it. "I hate this part.”

"What?" Tamara asked, a laugh in her voice. "This is the fun part."

From her own bags, she pulled a pair of sabers. Angelica frowned, but Veronica rolled her eyes.

"Really? You're bringing swords to a gunfight?"

"Oh, like you're one to talk with your battle-axe charging."

"That's different! That was a mech fight. Everyone knows melee weapons are good in mech fights."

Tamara laughed but didn't continue the debate. She drew her sabers and spun them experimentally a few times to warm up.

"What are you going to do if they have one of those?" Veronica pointed at the weapon Hannah was readying. It was a submachine gun with a long, top-mounted banana magazine. She had slung a bandolier of such magazines over her shoulder.

"Cut them to fish-bait before they can pull the trigger." Tamara spun her swords a few revolutions of blazing steel before stopping and throwing Veronica a toothy grin.

Veronica muttered, "Whatever. You'd think a sniper would know better."

The coterie moved up the wide passage, dismounted Hussars poking their head into each room, their strange mix of weapons at the ready. The mechs stalked along behind, heavy metal footsteps shaking the floor, crouched over to pass one-at-a-time.

Angelica, armed with only pistol and sheathed saber, as was appropriate for an officer, walked calmly down the center of the passage. She hoped if any golems appeared in the hall, the girls would have the presence of mind not to start their mechs shooting.

The main entrance corridor passed a dozen doors before ending in a T, where two large doorways opened to the left and right. Ahead, through a smaller doorway, stairs descended. The doorway to the right opened into a large foyer of swooping staircases that rose up several floors. The one to the left led to what appeared to be a ballroom.

"What the hell is this place?" Veronica asked. "Does Frankenstein like dancing with his golems?"

So far, everything had been deserted. Was this place normally teeming with golems? Was it empty now because he had sent his army across all of Transylvania? Though he had apparently kept back quite enough for a spirited defense.

"I think we're going to have to split up," Tamara said.

Angelica gritted her teeth. It was a terrible idea, but how else were they going to cover this whole place? Even if they did split up, it would take days with just the four of them.

"The Russians are supposed to be assaulting from above. If the Widow gets here from ground level, she’ll probably come the same way we did. We'll split into two teams of two and check what we can. Then we'll meet back here."

Angelica hated this plan, but she just knew they had to find Eva before the Russians did, and before General Morozov pulled whatever double-cross he had planned. She didn't for an instant believe he would sit by while they looted Frankenstein's secrets and just wait for them to send the all-clear. He would be coming in, maybe even with a larger force, the instant he thought Frankenstein's defenses had been broken.

"Hannah, you're with me. Tamara, Veronica, stick together if you think you can do it without killing each other."

Tamara shrugged. "Sure."

They all moved out.

Angelica and Hannah descended together into the labyrinth. The stairway was narrow, and they had to leave their mechs in the ballroom on the first floor. The stairs spiraled down and then ended, opening out into a large hall. Angelica poked her head out, but no enemies were immediately in sight.

Without a word, the two slipped out of the doorway. Angelica motioned for Hannah to follow her to the left.

The hall was narrow, built of stone, and seemed to be part of the original castle. A dozen meters farther down, its character abruptly changed. Beyond, the hall was concrete and widened out.

Doors opened on both sides. The first one Angelica peered into seemed to be a laboratory equipment storage room. The place was full of metal shelves crammed high with glassware, burners, and strange electrical equipment.

She moved on. Hannah had just looked in the one across the hall.

"It's a chemistry lab," she whispered. "I saw one once when I visited Jagiellonian University in Krakow."

They moved quicker now, with only cursory glances in the storage rooms or workshops on either side. Their passage intersected another wider corridor going off to the left. At the corner itself was a big metal double door.

"I think it's a freight elevator." Hannah eyed it. "Do you think we could get a mech down here?"

Angelica squinted her eyes at it and judged the distance from the stairs they'd come down. This elevator looked like it was near the garages, back the way they had come in the castle but off to the side. She couldn't be sure. "We could try, but it might get trapped down here. We'd have to risk losing it."

"I'll do it," Hannah said quickly. Angelica looked at her in surprise. "Mine's not my real mech anyway. I lost that in Poland." She had an odd expression on her face. Angelica gave her a long look and then nodded. "Do it. But we don't have time to wait for it. We have to find Eva."

"That's fine. I already set it moving."

They turned and worked their way along the hall further. This wider corridor had fewer doors, but they were larger. The first room they came to was a large machine shop full of floor-standing tools designed to cut, weld, bend, chop, and poke holes in metal. A sign next to the door read, “Machine Shop 3”

There was a golem busy with something at the far end of the room. Angelica backed away.

"We should leave it."

Hannah shook her head. "No, I can take it." There was a note of enthusiasm in her voice that shocked Angelica. "We don't want to leave it behind us. We could get flanked," Hannah elaborated.

That was true, but Angelica had deemed taking it out too risky since a gunshot would bring on an alarm.

Hannah slipped forward around the corner before Angelica could say, "Wait!" Angelica crouched low and peered carefully around the corner. She caught flashes of Hannah slipping between the machinery as she worked her way across the larger room. The golem was bent over a task and had not seen her.

Shit, Angelica thought. I should have done it myself. She prayed Hannah didn't shoot the thing. What was she planning on doing? Using a force wave? But she couldn't be sure taking out such a large combatant with one hit, which is why Angelica hadn't suggested it.

There was a whomp of sudden pressure shift in the air, like someone hitting her in the face with the world's softest pillow. Her ears popped. Angelica jumped into motion, racing into the machine shop and making her way across it as quickly and quietly as she could. She couldn't see the golem at first, but as she rounded a massive hydraulic press, she caught sight of it broken in half on some sort of rudimentary lathe.

Hannah appeared from behind a tool cart. "I got him!" She had an excited smile on her face. Something about her eagerness to kill gave Angelica a queasy feeling. It just wasn't like her.

She pushed the thought away. "All right, let's keep moving."

Slightly farther on, they came to a side corridor. The sign read "Test Subjects." The hall was lined with prison cells blocked with metal-barred doors.

They found Eva in the third cell.