WoAF - Game Session 57

Everyone paused, guns aimed at Robot N, its wedge-shaped head poised for a moment in what looked like contemplation.  A dozen or so antennas protruded from it, with scores of tiny blinking lights.  They could not tell if it was looking at them, or the entire smoldering ruin that had been General Hertling's Robot Command Center, or if it was not looking at anything.  It stopped in its tracks on top of the still smoking slag that had been the sealed door to the room, and there were several moments of silence as everyone stared at the bizarre metallic robot.  Hanna's impression was that it was reading the room.  The master-robot, Gortaurus, had commanded Robot-N to investigate and report on the status of the now-destroyed, Control Center.  She recalled, with some anxiety, that Gortaurus had asked Hanna if she had authorization to enter Sector C3-DZ-A1.  She had responded that she had no authorization to enter the inner corridor that Gortaurus was guarding, which side-stepped its question.  The monstrous robot seemed to have accepted her comment and continued its pursuit of additional information.  She was concerned that it would soon circle back around to that question.  She impatiently waited for the elevator door to open so she and her men could leap inside and beat a hasty retreat.  She suspected that Robot-N was primarily a sensory array and toolbox, and that Gortaurus was the brawn of whatever protocols required enforcement.  She calculated that they probably had just enough time to get into the elevator before Gortaurus could physically respond.  "Too bad for the three purple-bubble-suited operatives," she thought. Tactical considerations aside, this was probably as good a plan for her as could be expected.

Robot-N rolled further into the room.  Everyone tensed. Hanna held up a "Hold" gesture to her commandoes, and so they held their positions, while everyone kept their weapons trained on Robot-N.  She glanced back at the elevator nervously, desperate to know what was taking so long for it to come back up.  It had been thirty seconds since Doctor Hoffman took one of the three Doom Spheres, along with Otto Fischer, one of her Commandos down to the lower level to explore the White Tunnel. She glared for a moment at the glowing indigo-blue light that rimmed the elevator button, her frustration mounting, but then turned back to Robot-N, taking pains to keep her expression calm and neutral.  

On her headphone she heard a crackle, and then the voice of Otto.  "Frauline Major," he announced, "Vee are one hundred feet down zee tunnel.  Vee have not seen anything, yet."

"Is there any reason why zee elevator has not come back up?" she asked, trying to remain in control of her voice.

"Frauline Major," replied Otto, "I think you vill need to press zee button," he replied.

"Of course," she hissed, annoyed more at herself than at him.  She turned to bark a command at the Commando who stood near the elevator door.  "Press zee damn button, you fool!"

And so, the button was pressed and the circle of indigo-blue light that rimmed the elevator button turned white.  It should arrive in six seconds.

Robot-N rolled around the room, scanning everything with a variable diameter cone of blue light that emanated from a round nodule attached to a sinuous arm which had emerged from its back. It covered the burning computer banks, keyboards, floor, ceiling, broken Observation Screen, and the dead bodies that lay strewn around the room.  Robot-N rolled up to Hanna.

"ARE - YOU - AUTHORIZED - TO - BE - IN - SECTOR - C3-DZ-A1?" questioned Gortaurus through Robot-N's indiscernible head-speaker. 

There was a short pause as Hanna collected her thoughts.

"I have previous permission to be in this area," she stated authoritatively.

It repeated the question.  She repeated her answer, and added, "I was invited by General Hertling personally to this location."

"THERE - ARE - DEAD - MEMBERS - OF - HERTLING'S - COMMAND - STRUCTURE - IN - THIS - ROOM - WHAT - HAPPPENED - HERE?" questioned Gortaurus.

As Gortaurus spoke through Robot-N, the elevator door slid open with a quiet whoosh.

"I vill be honest with you," said Hanna, trying to buy some time while she thought out what to say.

As she was working this out, behind her, our heroes were delighted to see the elevator door open.  Seeing that Hanna was occupied by her dealings with Robot-N, Jacob realized that they had a momentary chance to make their move.  The only thing Hanna had of any plausible value to their team was her incredible Duridium Armor (which in fact was a one-of-a-kind artifact of the now destroyed Science Center 7, and of incalculable value), but prying her out of it seemed like it would be far more trouble than it would be worth. And besides, he really didn't have anything against Hanna.  In fact, he rather liked her stalwart, ruthless passion.  He felt they had a kinship in that regard.  He'd even momentarily imagined that there might be a spark of romance between them during their flight from Science Center 7's monstrosities.  He even went so far as to think they might make a good pairing, for a few fleeting minutes.  It was not meant to be.

Vallnum, meanwhile, was thinking about the red emergency button on the computer panel he had spotted earlier, but had bypassed in all the confusion and mayhem.  He wondered if now might be the right moment to press it.  "Guys," he whispered into his mic on their private channel, "maybe if we press that red emergency button, it might turn off these robots and buy us some time?"

"Uh, that's a fifty-fifty chance, at best," commented Ling, who was also eyeing the elevator as its door slid open.

"Well, can things get any worse?" he asked.

"Do you really need to ask, that?" rasped Jacob, "Ok, don't waste time with the damn button. Get on the elevator, you two, and get out of here."

"Aren't you going to come with us?" asked Vallnam as he began to push Ling towards the elevator, shocked at this idea.

"No. I'm wounded, and one of us has to stay here to make sure Hanna doesn't do anything crazy," whispered Jacob.  They only had a few seconds at best to make it inside before Hanna or her men would counter their move. 

Jacob considered what they were up against.  Gortaurus and Robot-N were very different from one another. Gortaurus seemed only semi-intelligent, but with a very precise protocol based on jurisdictions and authorizations.  It was clearly a guardian robot.  Robot-N on the other hand appeared to be Gortaurus' adjunct sensory array for used for situational analysis.  Physically, he felt much better than before, now that he had been healed by Vallnam, Ling and is purple bubble suit.  He thought he could make a sprint to the elevator.  He leaned on the computer panel behind him, and then haltingly moved to a midway position between Hanna and Ling and Vallnam.  He planned to make his way to the red emergency button, and exaggerated his injuries in order to appear less capable than he was.  He motioned to one of the Commandoes, indicating that he might need some help, which he did to provide a momentary distraction for Ling and Vallnam.  The fact was, however, the Commandoes were not paying any attention to him or his crew whatsoever.  They were focused completely on Robot-N whom they thought was potentially a lethal threat to Hanna.  Their gun sights were locked on Robot-N's antenna array, and they weren't about to be distracted.

Ling, almost inside the elevator, kept her eyes on Vallnam to see what he would do. At that moment, Vallnam restrained Jacob by the arm. "I am able to hit that button with a special power of mine," he whispered, "just in case that's where you're heading."

That changed Jacob's plan, to some degree, but he was still determined to stay behind and handle Hanna while the two of them escaped.  Ling and Vallnam quietly sidled into the elevator.  Jacob hesitated. Should he stay, or should he leap into the elevator?  Something still drew him to Hanna, though he knew that reconciliation was no longer a real possibility.  But was it?  Could he charm her once again?

"Starting this morning at 7:32," Hanna was responding to Robot-N, "there has been a breakdown in command.  Vee are trying to restore command and secure all facilities,"  She was unaware that the purple-bubble-suited strangers had entered the elevator, her back being to them, and her helmet further restricting her field of vision.  She expected herself and her men to enter the elevator, and had incorrectly assumed that the three strangers would willingly comply with her wishes.  Yes, she really had this much contempt for their intelligence.

Once inside the elevator, Vallnam summoned a rare Warlock power known as Wizard Eye.  It manifested as a floating invisible eye that he could direct mentally anywhere within three hundred feet.  It was a physical thing, and in fact, actually his own third eye taken physical form, as a kind of Avatar of itself.  It could not go through walls, but could do things like bump a glass off a table.  Typically it had very little strength, though. Vallnam poured a large dose of excess mystic energy into the manifestation, because he intended to use it to break the glass casing of the emergency button, and then press the button with it.  This of course, carried with it a certain risk.  After all, if the glass shattered the wrong way, he could wound his Wizard Eye, and it would then require healing and rest, and in the meantime he would lack certain extra-sensory abilities.  On the other hand, he deemed it worth the risk, and so he planned to send his Wizard Eye forward through the elevator door before it slid shut.  Ling pressed the glowing indigo-rimmed down button. As the door began to slide closed, she felt a pang of regret seeing Jacob still standing behind Hanna.  Would it be worth it, Jacob, she wondered?

At the last possible moment Jacob spun around and leapt into the elevator.  He really didn't want to leave Hanna behind, because, he told himself, he wanted to keep an eye on her.  But really, we know it was because he still hoped to repair the breach between them, somehow.  That breach, of course, had been caused by Ling Brisbane, whose very presence drove Hanna into such a fit of jealousy that she cast away whatever hope in Jacob she may have had, and in her rage killed the one thing that might have saved her.  In other words, without either of them knowing how or why, he had utterly broken that poor woman's her heart. She was mad as hell, and now her destiny became fully realized: a ruthless, cunning, and power hungry Nazi Officer, ready and willing to do anything to achieve her objectives.  And her first and most immediate objective was to survive this unexpected and dangerous encounter with Gortaurus.

As the elevator door sealed shut, Jacob caught a last glimpse of Hanna as Gortaurus was speaking.  "AFFIRM," it had said.  And then he could see only the sleek white wall of the elevator door.  It began to descend with a smooth and even acceleration. 

Hanna knew that by Eisenhelm protocols, the command to "Affirm" meant that she had one final opportunity to amend her story, and if there was any mistake or deception about it, then the penalty would be extremely severe.  

"I repeat," said Hanna, "at 7:32, Eisenhelm came under attack.  We are trying to restore command and secure all facilities."

Robot-N's lights flickered.  "WHO - ARE - THE - THREE - MEMBERS - OF - YOUR - DETATCHMENT - WHO - HAVE - RELOCATED - INTO - THE - ELEVATOR?"

Hanna spun around to see the elevator door sealed shut.

"Verdammit," she growled to herself.  They had escaped before she could take any action to prevent it.  There went the Master Key, out of her reach!  And with it, Jacob.  She felt a pang of regret at his departure, but overrode it with a savage stab at his mental image, and moved on.  She had to deal with Gortaurus, whose next move would determine her fate.  And besides, she thought, they wouldn't get far, given that her men were in the White Tunnel below with a Doom Sphere.  She looked over at the two dormant Doom Spheres near the elevator and gave a brief smile. No, they wouldn't get far, indeed.

She paused to think about how to answer Gortaurus' question.  Originally, she had more or less swallowed Jacob's vague explanation that he was a member of some shadowy Special Ops group under a command hierarchy that she had been hitherto unaware of.  This would not be terribly strange in Eisenhelm, wherein secrets had secrets, and no one really knew anything with certainty.  Such was the way of life among the Nazi's of the secret moon fortress since 1943.  She had long learned to expect the unexpected.  Later, her encounter with Ling convinced her that she and Jacob must be part of some cabal of infiltrators, which would explain the oriental girl's presence.  But Ling had claimed to be Japanese, and as it happened the white tunnel system did have one door that had a Samurai symbol etched into its metal surface.  She had seen it with her own eyes.  Jacob had explained that Ling was a member of an elite secret Praetorian Guard composed of Ninjas from Japan whose role was to protect the uppermost secret echelon of Nazi Commanders, without political prejudice. While extremely difficult to believe, as it made no sense to her, under the circumstances of the emergencies they were facing, it became the only explanation that she could accept.  She shoved her suspicions aside and had gone with it.  Then later still, she discovered that Vallnam could not read German, and for a short time seemed unable to even speak it properly.  That was the straw that broke the camel's back.

However, given the impending destruction of the base, and her need to escape rather than provoke a confrontation with the infiltrators, as well as the fact that she had also taken note of the overwhelming lethality of their beam weapons, she had decided to explore the mystery with excruciating precision once things quieted down and she could mobilize a sizable enough force to safely apprehend and interrogate the purple-bubble-suited strangers. Unfortunately, the appearance of Gortaurus had thrown her plans into disarray, and now the three of them had escaped into the White Tunnel System.  It took all her will power to keep a cool external demeanor.  

"They identified themselves as Special Operations from a secret Eisenhelm Command Hierarchy, but during zee emergency I commandeered their services."

"THOSE - THREE - PERSONS - HAVE - NO - KNOWN - ADMINISTRATIVE - PROFILE," stated Gortaurus through Robot-N's speaker.  

This caused Hanna to once again question who the strangers were.  It didn't occur to her that they could possibly be Earthlings.  After all, she had every reason to believe that Eisenhelm was the best kept secret in the solar system, and there was no way for Earthlings to infiltrate the top secret fortress.  So it simply didn't occur to her that they could have come from anywhere other than some secret section of Eisenhelm.  Had she connected the dots, however, she would have realized that the disappearance of a UFO earlier that day had not been an act of subterfuge from within as her commander's thought, but the first sign of an infiltration from without. That shortly thereafter the Nazi Civil War broke out across the entire base, and the utterly inexplicable triggering of Plan Delta-Z should have sparked the realization.  All of the events combined told a tale of interplanetary intrigue and subversion.  She would have killed Jacob the instant she had first laid eyes on him, had she but realized this.  And had she done so, they would never have stopped the Obliterators and the Phallanx from completely destroying Eisenhelm and planet Earth.  Providence has its own strange and circuitous ways of ensuring the fruition of its designs, it would seem.

"Do you have my profile?" she asked.

"YOU - ARE - HANNA - SCHILLER - MAJOR - IN - LUDENDORF - HIERARCHY - SPACE PILOT - AGE - 34 - BLOND - FIVE FOOT SEVEN - ONE - HUNDRED - THIRTY ONE - POUNDS - CLASS - A - CLEARANCE - SPACE - FLEET - COMMAND."

"Ok, that is satisfactory," she confirmed.

"YOU - DO - NOT - HAVE - AUTHORIZATION - TO - ENTER - C3-DZ-A1 SECTOR," Gortaurus continued.  

"Intruders in zee base," she retorted as she walked toward the elevator to press the indigo button.

Meanwhile, as she had this conversation, Vallnam had been watching the room through his Wizard Eye, which he had sent invisibly out of the elevator a moment before the door slid shut.  He floated it above the purple-hued computer bank on the left, navigating it toward the Emergency Button.  The computers were still smoldering, and below the eye a shower of sparks suddenly erupted. For a moment the eye became slightly disoriented, floated toward the ceiling, and began to wander, but Vallnam held steady and regained control of himself. He brought it down and floated it to the Emergency Button. Hovering over it, he stared at the red button for a moment, before slamming the Wizard Eye down onto its glass encasement.  However, the casing was harder than he expected, and the glass did not break. Instead the eye bounced off and sailed upward toward the ceiling again.  Fortunately, it was not damaged, and since Vallnam had a sense of insane persistence, he was determined to bring it back under control, and try to break the glass it as many times as it took.

Jacob could still hear Hanna over the communications frequency they had established when they first met below Science Center 7.  But he said nothing.  After all, what was there to say?  He heard Gotaurus tell Hanna that she was not authorized.  He steeled himself for the worst, but remained silent.

The elevator was slowing to a stop. They knew that down the corridor would be Doctor Hoffman, Otto, and the Doom Sphere that Hoffman controlled with a handheld remote control. They were not quite sure how far down the corridor they would be at that point, but they guessed no more than three hundred feet.  Vallnam pressed the Stop button next to him.  The elevator stopped before hitting the landing plate.   They didn't want to engage with Hoffman and Otto until they were good and ready. Returning focus to his Wizard Eye, he tried to break the glass again.

Jacob, whose Mentarian abilities were quite advanced, sensed through the door that Hanna's men were approximately a hundred feet down the corridor and moving towards the elevator. He recalled his previous experience with the Doom Spheres.  Being a roboticist, he accurately assessed that they were completely unintelligent, controlled remotely, but that they could accept certain limited commands, such as "patrol",  or "kill", which they would do until the remote gave them a new instruction.  For all practical purposes they were indestructible, being covered with a Duridium shell, and so neither plasma beams nor bullets could penetrate it.  He looked around the elevator.  It was smooth and white with chrome trim around the button panel, and the chamber was lit with a soft indigo light along the floor and ceiling edges.  He noted a hatch on the ceiling, and with a bit of help from Ling, he opened the hatch and climbed up.  Looking around with his flashlight, he found the control box.  Being an electronics expert he always carried a small tool kit, which he pulled out from a side pocket and went to work.

Meanwhile, far above them, Hanna continued her conversation with Gortaurus.  She turned to face it, but before speaking to it again, she contacted Doctor Hoffman by radio.  

"Doctor Hoffman," she said, "I have just been informed that zee three strangers are not from Eisenhelm at all, as impossible as that may seem.  They must be Earthlings.  You vill detain them with extreme prejudice.  Use zee Doom Sphere to subdue them until I get down there."

"Jawohl!" replied the doctor with a crisp salute.  The implication of this sent a shudder through Hoffman's body.  He was a scientist, not a soldier, and the idea of being party to another combat was something he did not relish.  That said, he looked at the broad dull black sphere in front of him, and stroked his control box with his fingers.  The fact he had Otto "One-Shot" Fischer with him was a comfort.  Nevertheless, he also knew that their opponents had extremely powerful hand-held Beam Pistols, the likes of which he had never imagined.  Sure, the Giant Robots of Hertling's Command had enormous Plasma Cannons, but to think that such devices could be miniaturized and powered at such a size was something that he knew was far beyond the engineering skills of anyone in Eisenhelm's Technical Hierarchy.  So, the Earthlings were this advanced!  He shuddered at the thought of having to battle against them, given the sheer destructive force at their command.  The very idea caused him to break out in a cold sweat.  He explained the situation to Otto, who grunted, and prepared.  They took a position behind the Doom Sphere and waited for the elevator door to open.  Hoffman set the controls to Combat Mode, and prepared the the Doom Sphere's weapons array.

Jacob listened in on Hanna's conversation with Hoffman as he scanned the control panel. While the electronics were not completely familiar, he quickly assessed the circuitry and determined how to control the elevator.  Nazi electrical engineering had not evolved much since 1943, so it was quite easy for him to make the necessary adjustments.

Vallnam, meanwhile, had bumped the glass casing twice, and bounced off both times.  He was annoyed. The invisible eye was the size of a grapefruit. So far it had not been injured, but he wasn't sure how much more it could take.  Nevertheless, he had to break the glass.  Each minute, however, was using up mystic energy on the effort, so he decided to try one more time.  With a hard telepathic shove, this time the glass broke.  Fortunately, Wizard Eyes have a kind of leathery exterior, and so it remained unharmed.  He then pressed forward and shoved the eye down onto the button.

While this was happening, Hanna pressed the elevator's indigo button.  The elevator began to ascend.  Jacob, however, snipped a wire in the circuit box and the elevator stopped moving.  Hanna noticed that the indigo light turned off.  She pressed the button again.  Nothing happened.  She pressed it repeatedly. Nothing.  She cursed under he breath.

Her Commandos began to shift nervously.

"I - HAVE - COMPLETED - SCAN - OF - LIVING - PERSONELL - HANNA - SCHILLER - IS - RANKING - OFFICER - IN - SECTOR - C3-DZ-A1," announced Gortaurus.  "WHAT - ARE - YOUR - ORDERS?"

"I need this damn door open!" demanded Hanna, realizing that all the tables had turned.  She was safe, and in command!  How fantastic!  Now she began to recalibrate her plans for conquest and revenge!

"I - WILL - SEND - REPAIR - ROBOT - R - STAND - BY," said Gortaurus.

Jacob, hearing, this, said, "Bee-boop-Repair-Robot-On-The-Way" into the radio on Gortaurus' frequency, thinking that he might confuse the semi-intelligent robot with this silly bit of subterfuge.  Naturally, it had no effect on Gortaurus whatsoever, except to alert the robot that Jacob was on his frequency. He shined a flashlight beam up.  It was about a hundred feet to the the second floor landing.  He thought about what to do next.  He had a Smart-Rope, and gave some consideration as to how he might use it. Smart-Ropes were super-strong nano-fiber ropes that could move on their own cognizance, and take a limited number of basic commands.  The walls of the elevator shaft were smooth as glass.  He looked at his flashlight.  It was an XL-2600; state-of-the-art. Its beam could blind people at a hundred feet when on its highest setting.  He thought. Hmmm...

Vallnam pushed his Wizard Eye into the red button.  Not a great move.  There was a shard of glass protruding above the button, and his eye painfully plunged into it.  His vision became obscured by a red streak.  He felt a distant pain, like a sudden sharp headache.  That was no fun.

Hanna watched a small trapezoidal shoe-box sized robot roll into the room from the barracks in which Gortaurus was located.  Robot-R crossed the room and went through an open door into the Power Station room.  Smoke was still pouring out of it, and she figured that the repair robot was not going to service the elevator nearly as quickly as she wanted.  She ordered the Commandoes to manually open the elevator door.  They tried, but its construction was such that they could not get a grip on it, and so were unable to open it.  She scowled at their incompetence.

Vallnam, insanely persistent as he was, pushed the red button with the Wizard Eye, despite the injury.  It was painful, but this time he maneuvered it just right, and so, the button depressed, and something activated.

Suddenly, a red light began flashing from fixtures along the ceiling of the command center.  A warning siren sound began to emit a loud "Whoop-Whoooooop-Whoop" sound.  Hanna was unfamiliar with this specific alert. She'd never heard it before.  Next to the elevator, on the right side, a hitherto undetected doorway slid open.  Inside it was jet black, but she could see a red glow from inside.  In a few moments she saw a very unusual looking robot emerge.  It was monstrous in size, but sleek, and high tech looking.  It did not seem to be anything like Gortaurus, who was built like a humanoid tank.  This robot's eyes opened slowly, and contained within a fierce scintillating orange-red light.  A series of yellow, orange and red diodes began flickering alive across its chest, arms, and head. 

"Gortaurus!" she demanded, "what is this?"

"AUTONOMOUS - CYBERNETIC - ORGANISM - CODE - NAMED - VOC-1"

"What is its function?" demanded Hanna.

"AUTONOMOUS - WARRIOR - CLASS - SYNTHOID - EMERGENCY - PROTOCOL - KILL - ALL - HUMANS"

"Do you have command over it?" asked Hanna.

"I - DO - NOT" 

"Can you subdue it?" asked Hanna.

"I - CAN - NOT"

"Oh verdammit!" snarled Hanna.  This was not her lucky day after all.  "Grab zee prisoner!" she barked to her Commandoes.  They grabbed the prisoner in the yellow space suit, and hustled towards the door through which Gortaurus was stationed.  However, the floor in front of the doorway was covered with hot slag, still smoking.  While her Duridium suit would protect her, Hanna was worried about her men.  She ripped a large purple-hued panel from one of the computer banks, and threw it down over the smoldering slag.  They ran across it and through the large circular hole that had been melted out of the metal doors by Robot-N's heat ray.  Into the barracks they dashed, past the dead bodies, and over to where Gortaurus was stationed at the head of a dark corridor.

"Gortaurus, what is further down this corridor?" she snapped at the husky black robot as they ran up to it.

"NONE - SHALL - PASS", said Gortaurus.

"Oh mein Gott!" spat Hanna, "You have identified me as zee ranking officer in this verflixte sector, and now you're telling me I can't pass?!"

"CURRENT - COMMAND - NONE - SHALL - PASS"

 "As the highest ranking officer in this sector, can I issue you new commands?"

"YOU - ARE - AUTHORIZED - TO - ISSUE - COMMANDS"

"Ja, goot!  New command: I and these men are authorized to pass into this corridor."

"COMMAND - RECIEVED - AUTHORIZATION - VALIDATED - COMMAND - ACCEPTED"

"What is beyond this corridor?" demanded Hanna.

"LABORATORY - SECTOR - C3-NL-A1 - KAREL - CAPEK - TOP - SECRET - MAXIMUM - SECURITY - CLEARANCE - ONLY"

The name was dimly known by Hanna, mostly via rumors over the years.  Karel Copek was the chief scientist of the Robotics Division.  He was extremely secretive, and people hardly ever saw him, even ranking officers of Ludendorf's personal staff did not have access to the "Kundiger of the deep", as they called him.

"Is there access from here to zee surface of zee moon, and vehicles?"

"ACCESS - TO - LUNAR - SURFACE - FROM - HANGER - BAY - A - HANGER - BAY - B - HANGER - BAY - C - SPACE - VEHICLES - IN - HANGER - BAY - B - SURFACE - VEHICLES - IN - HANGER - C," stated Gortaurus.

"How do we get to Hanger A?" asked Hanna.

"PROCEED - WEST"

Behind Hanna sounds of strange machinery could be heard.  It was very peculiar.  First there came a loud humming, and then what sounded like high pitched crackling.  An orange light flashed through the door to the Control Center, and another.  There was a crisp frying sound, and with that Hanna wasted no time hustling herself and her men down the long dimly lit corridor westward.    

While this was happening, Jacob, Ling and Vallnam prepared for their battle with Hoffman, Otto and the Doom Sphere.  They reviewed their capabilities.  Ling was quite low on Mystic energy, but had just enough to cast a last and final Narcoleptic Beam.  She suggested using it to take out the Commando.  Jacob had enough juice to take out Hoffman with his own Narcoleptic Beam.  Vallnam released his Wizard Eye, and therefore was able to commit to another Narcoleptic Beam.  He contemplated the use of Scarlet Lightning, which could potentially frighten Hoffman into running off while it fried Otto to a cinder.  He also had a power known as Dark Lightning, but it was evil, and useless under the circumstances, being a power used to assassinate opponents without their knowledge, and over the course of several days.  Would not do.  They debated more, and finally decided on a plan.  Jacob mentioned that he sensed that Hoffman and Otto were now only fifty feet from the elevator at that moment, and crouching behind the Doom Sphere, undoubtedly.  

"Can you lower the elevator a short distance so that only six inches are below the upper lip of the the shaft?  That way when we open the door we can fire down from above, and they will only have a small window to shoot at us through," suggested Vallnam.  Jacob studied the circuit panel and concluded that this could be done.  

"We can also use the XL-2600 to blind them, which should prevent them from getting accurate shots at us," suggested Jacob.

There was another brief debate.  Jacob could lower the elevator to a specific position, rig the circuit so that he could press the elevator button so that the door would open even though it was not physically resting on the landing plate.  He could then jump down as the elevator got into position, and they'd all be ready to open fire through the small slit that would become available.  Vallnam decided to save his mystic energy and use his machine gun instead.  Ling and Jacob would stick with their plan of using Narcoleptic Beams. 

"I have a flame thrower," mentioned Vallnam.

"That's cool," commented Ling, dryly.  Another debate, and they decided against using it.

"I could use my Springfield, then," suggested Vallnam.  

More debate ensued as to the pros and cons of using bullets while Otto and Hoffman could protect themselves behind the impenetrable Doom Sphere.

"Maybe we should use our Beam Pistols?" asked Jacob, wondering if they should be conserving Mystic Energy.

"The thing is," said Ling, "they will be able to hide behind the Doom Sphere.  But Narcoleptic Beam targets a person, so as long as I can see any part of my target, I don't need to worry that I might miss, or that the beam will ricochet off.  And the Doom Sphere is likely to leave at least some part of their bodies exposed, I should think.  A foot, a shoulder, a hand.  Anything will do."

"Fair enough," replied Jacob with admiration.  She had a good tactical aptitude. "Though come to think of it, maybe I should use Hypnotic Trance on Hoffman.  After all, if we knock him out, then whatever instruction he gives the Doom Sphere will remain in effect, and we won't be able to turn it off.  Whereas, if I can catch him in a trance then we could coerce him to turn the Doom Sphere off."

"Oh that's an excellent point!" said Ling. "I have hypnotic skills I can use once he's in the trance, so we can tag team on that."

This made sense to them, and so they finally agreed on the plan.  Two Mentarians and a Warlock were definitely a force to be reckoned with.

Ling and Vallnam slid to the floor in front of the elevator door, and got their weapons ready.  Ling calmed her mind and prepared to cast the Narcoleptic Beam.  Jacob activated the circuit, and the elevator descended a short distance and stopped.  He hopped down through the hatch and upon landing, touched the elevator door button.  The door slid open, leaving a pillbox style slit, about six inches high, through which they could see downward into the White Tunnel.  He turned on the XL-2600 and beamed it down the corridor.  In the light of the powerful beam the dull black surface of the Doom Sphere could be seen fifty feet ahead of them, stationary and waiting.  Hoffman and Otto could be seen crouching behind it. 

Both sides spotted each other at the same time, but Otto "One-Shot" was one of the Nazi's most experienced marksmen. Vallnam gave him the bird, a gesture he had been aching to project at the Nazis ever since they landed in this God forsaken fortress. Otto, however, wasn't the kind to be distracted by a filthy hand gesture.  He gently exhaled and squeezed the trigger on his Karabiner 98k.  The bullet went right through Vallnam's raised finger, sheering it off completely, and plunged with full force into his left shoulder.  Fortunately, his heavy-duty body armor absorbed a good deal of the impact, but Vallnam nevertheless was seriously injured by the blow.  He grit his teeth against the pain, and steadied himself against the floor.

Hoffman, for his part, pressed a button on his control box, and the Doom Sphere emitted a massive Sonic Ray, which was intended to knock the three of them senseless.  He hadn't expected them to be so clever as to create a slit opening in the elevator shaft, so much of the ray bounced off the walls and had far less effect than he hoped.  And worse, their Modroni purple bubble suits were designed to absorb energy attacks, which included shockwaves, so while their teeth were rattled, and they were deafened by the vibration, they were not knocked unconscious.  They shook it off and with grim determination returned the favors.  

Ling pointed her finger at Otto, and an invisible beam of narcoleptic energy shot forth.  In an instant his eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he slumped to the ground in a deep and impenetrable slumber, just like Captain Helmund had done before him.

Jacob focused his mental energy and spoke the Power Word of Hypnotic Trance to ensnare Doctor Hoffman's psyche in a web of transcendental fog.  With this, Jacob overwhelmed Hoffman's mind, and put him instantly into a trance.  Ling took over, and commanded him to turn the Doom Sphere off.  Hoffman complied, and the Doom Sphere was put into hibernation mode.  And so, in only a single melee of combat, the battle was over.

Vallnam looked at his finger.  His purple bubble suit had managed to hold onto it with a sinuous web of tendrils, and so it was dangling hideously in the air, blood oozing out onto the white floor.  He stared at it.  It was not pretty, but he could see the purple bubble suit was already extending tiny purple veins onto the bloody stump and finger.  He grabbed the dangling digit and pushed it onto his hand where it belonged.  This was incredibly painful, but he knew that it was the best way to ensure that the bubble suit had the best chance to knit it back into place, if that were possible.  He swooned and nearly fainted from the agony.  Ling immediately tended to her friend's injury.  First aid would help a little, and so she performed the rudimentary tasks quickly and efficiently. 

Jacob leapt back up through the hatch, and lowered the elevator all the way down to the landing plate, and they exited into the corridor.  Ling commanded Doctor Hoffman to go into a deep sleep, and forget everything he had seen about the hero's escape.  Which, of course, being in a mystic trance, he did without demure.  And so, he and Otto lay on the ground snoring peacefully as babies.

With Vallnam nursing his hand they ran the twelve hundred feet down the long indigo-white corridor to the far end, where the came to another elevator.  Ling pressed the button and the door slid open. 

"We should try to get to the Shadow Hawk spaceship," suggested Vallnam.  

"Yes, but Hanna is the only one among us who knows how to fly it," commented Jacob.  "She said she'd been training on it for several months, and I'm going to guess the controls are not what we would consider to be normal."

"That's true," said Ling, "but we should take a look anyway."

"Jacob," said Vallnam, "you're a better pilot than I am, so you should try flying it."

They took the elevator up to the third level and from the control room opened the secret hanger bay doors.  Outside the hanger they could see the craters of the moon's surface illuminated starkly, and beyond the entrance a large pool of molten lava could be seen.  They then took the elevator down one flight to the secret hanger and with their intuitions heightened (by the Modroni who were still present and had been helping them in subtle ways throughout their assault on Eisenhelm) they quickly discovered the method to open Shadow Hawk's portal.  They stepped inside Shadow Hawk.  It was an incredible piece of engineering, the likes of which they only dimly remembered at a subconscious level. The air inside was cool and refreshing.  The machinery sublimated into the fabric of the walls and ceilings.  The curves inside were smooth, and all around them small inscriptions illuminated, pulsed, or quietly dimmed in accordance with the needs of the ship, and its perception of the intent of its passengers.

Vallnam got on his radio and ordered his technicians to board the two repaired UFOs, and take off.  He praised them for the great job they did, gave them a hearty pep talk, and wished them a safe flight.  The technicians thanked him profusely for his leadership, and with high spirits the sixteen crammed themselves into the two UFOs.  It was a tight squeeze, but they managed.  Since they were technicians, not pilots, they understood technically how to fly the ships, but none of them had actual experience doing so.  There were definite bumps, scrapes, and showers of sparks as they exited Hanger B into space, but they managed, and neither ship crashed.

"Auf Wiedersehen," said Jacob as they strapped themselves into Shadow Hawk's three control seats.  There was one for the pilot, one for the weapons officer, and one for the navigator.  After Jacob took the Pilot's seat, Vallnam took the weapons, and Ling slid into the navigator's chair.  As they looked at the panels of extremely complex lights, symbols and patterns, they began to intuit what each control was for, and within a few moments they each felt that they understood how to master each of their control systems, though they had no idea how they were able to do this so quickly.  Hanna would have been shocked to the core, as she had spent months trying to figure it out, and had only made a tiny bit of progress compared with these three. 

In fact, very deeply buried in their subconscious minds, they each realized that Shadow Hawk was in fact a Modroni ship. 

"I just realized," said Ling, "that Shadow Hawk is a Star Ship.  It is designed for interstellar travel."

"Yes, I see that now," answered Jacob.  "That's huge.  And daunting."    

As Vallnam scanned the weapons system he noticed a set of small pulsating green symbols that had the following inscriptions (in the Modroni language which he only understood via deep-intuition).  

"Wisdom", "Virtue", and "Mercy", he said aloud.  

His intuition also gave him insight as to how they worked.  Each button activated one of three internal Weapon Suits.  He envisioned the suits transformed the command seats into an individual armored suits that could exit Shadow Hawk through a passage directly through the hull, and allow the person in the suit to fly around and defend the ship with an array of powerful weapons and defensive systems.  Amazing!  He felt that the names of the three suits were significant, and so he contemplated them for a while before mentioning anything about it to the other two.  When he explained the details of the suits, they all grew reflective.   

"'Wisdom', 'Virtue', and 'Mercy'," said Jacob.  "Fascinating."

"Wait," said Ling as she looked down at the moon through the dark green window to their port side. Below them were the smoldering ruins of Eisenhelm receding as the UFOs haltingly emerged from Hanger B.  

"As the Moon Princess, I am responsible for what happens here, somehow.  After all, if it weren't for me, the base would still be as we found it a few hours ago.  Can I really leave Eisenhelm in the hands of ruthless and inimical Hanna?  What if she manages to survive her ordeal and unifies the Nazi fortress under her command?  Won't she make Eisenhelm an even greater threat than the fortress was before?"

"Well," said Jacob, "Hanna would have to survive VOC-1.  According to what Gotaurus said, its some sort of fail-safe emergency measure, programmed to kill all humans.  She will have her hands full dealing with VOC-1, and whatever other mayhem is hiding out in Eisenhelm's ruins.  Let's not forget the monsters from Science Center 7, as well."

Ling remained silent.

"But one thing is for certain," he added.  "You shall return and reclaim your rightful place here... When the time is right you shall return to cleanse the moon with fire and steel!"

Her eyes lit up at that.  "Okay!" she said.  "Let's go visit our families back on earth!"

They all agreed that this was the best plan and to Earth they pointed Shadow Hawk and sped away from the moon at fantastic speed.  In their tow the two UFOs manned by the Nazi Technicians followed at an ever increasing distance.  But they too were heading to the only place that made sense for them: Earth.

Jacob keyed into Hanna's radio frequency one last time.  She was huffing and puffing down some dark corridor.  He thought about what he could say.  He felt at a loss.  They took the Master Key.  They took the last of their technicians.  He left her to face her doom alone.  He said nothing.  

And so, in silence he sat looking out the window.  He felt vaguely sad about Hanna. They might have made it, had he only... what?  No.  There was nothing to say.  She was a ruthless, cunning Nazi hell-bent on dominating Eisenhelm and anything else she could get her hands on.  He stared out the window, looking absently at the stars.

Being slower, and less certain how to fly their UFOs, and having exited from Hanger B, instead of the secret Shadow Hawk Hanger, only the technicians saw that on the surface of the moon, next to the Hanger B entrance, in the shadows of a tall crater cliff, stood an enormous eighteen foot tall crucifix with a wooden image of Jesus Christ fastened to it.  Who could have put it there?  Only the man in the yellow prison suit knew the answer to that question.  And Hanna.

WoAF - Session 56 - Video Recap

This video was created almost entirely by a Generative AI from a company named Visla.  I pointed it to Session 56 on my blog, and it created the summary, and the voice over, and I was able to edit it to include the correct images from the blog, and add slightly smoother transitions in only a few minutes.  This shows the direction that Generative AI is heading, and how quickly it is getting there.  I am quite impressed. Even though the video is not really quite as thrilling as I had hoped, I imagine it will be truly incredible in a year or two from now.  In the meantime, please enjoy the recap of Session 56!  
 

WoAF - Game Session 56

Jacob Grant

Jacob pushed himself up against the wall, his purple bubble suit clinging tightly to his body, its shimmering fabric barely concealing the wounds he had sustained in the fierce firefight. Within a few moments Vallnam, ever the diligent comrade, knelt beside Ling, her skilled hands tending to Jacob's injuries with a mix of expertise and urgency.  She noted to herself that the purple bubbles on the suit had clustered over the injury, extended tiny purple veins into the wounds, and appeared to be healing them.  She was surprised, and guessed that the suits, whatever they were, had far more abilities than they had initially guessed.  She puzzled briefly over where they had obtained the mysterious gifts, but her memory on this subject was peculiarly blank.  It made her wonder for a moment, but she quickly put aside such thoughts as she focused on Jacob. 

Meanwhile, Major Hanna Schiller, the indomitable space-pilot of the Moon-Nazi UFO Squadron, stood tall, her blazing eyes sweeping across the chaotic aftermath of the battle. She took stock of her remaining soldiers, their resolve undeterred, and assessed the state of their equipment amidst the crackling sparks and smoldering debris that filled the air. The once-imposing Robot Control Center of General Hertling now lay in smoldering ruins, a testament to the ferocity with which it had been struck.

Yet, amidst the carnage and destruction, a seething anger burned within Hanna. The audacity of General Hertling and Admiral Ludendorf, the Highest and most respected Command Officers of Eisenhelm, conspiring with her devilish rival, the renowned space-pilot Mellita Reich!  How dare they attempt to flee the Eisenhelm in its time of greatest peril!  And no less, in the enigmatic spacecraft she had spent months clandestinely mastering! Such brazen treason ignited a primal fury within her, causing her emotions to boil over with a vengeful and deadly wrath. How dare the leaders she had trusted and fought alongside of, and believed in, turn their backs on their sworn duty?!  The villainy! This thought alone was enough to make her spit blood in rage. No, those three traitors deserved a merciless and painful death. Their vile names would be forever cursed by Eisenhelm's survivors, and their treason recorded on the metallic history-plates for all time!

Hanna's steely gaze alighted briefly on Jacob, who was struggling at the moment with a hacking cough. She regretted that he had briefly dispelled her experience-hardened mistrust of men, stirring a flicker of genuine interest in him.  After all, he had been the first man who seemed to be a real man that she'd ever met, given that Eisenhelm was filled to the brim with power-lusting apes, venomous snakes, or worthless sycophants.  However, that fleeting sentiment, which had been snuffed out by the arrival of his comrade-in-arms, Ling Brisbane, was swiftly replaced with a bitter disdain. With a venomous glare, she redirected her attention towards Ling, the enigmatic Moon Princess of the Modroni, an alien race completely erased from everyone's collective memory, their existence completely forgotten by our heroes.

The control room trembled as another moon quake rumbled from beneath Eisenhelm.  Hanna's violent reverie was abruptly interrupted. Her eyes locked onto Ling, her mind fixated on a singular objective—the location of the coveted Master Key, the one device that held the power to unlock any door within Eisenhelm's hidden depths. Hanna yearned for its possession, for with it she could infiltrate any corner of the vast complex, and from the right position she could gain complete mastery over the entire base. Recalling Jacob's revelation that there were UFOs being repaired in the sealed-off Hangar B, situated 1,200 feet to the west of their current position, a glimmer of opportunity sparked within her thoughts. Despite the destruction caused by the explosion triggered by her Commandos to seal off the outer tunnel, there remained an enigmatic white tunnel system that connected the Robot Control Center to the clandestine Hangar—the dwelling place of the mysterious Shadow Hawk, an interstellar vessel of unknown origin.  It was Shadow Hawk that was the key to her destiny, just as control of Eisenhelm must be hers.  With both she could command the moon, the Earth, and the stars!  She lusted for it all.

Jacob looked at her with questioning eyebrows, his puppy-dog eyes attempting to rekindle that feeling which was lost amid the warfare.  No dice. Hanna's brief glace had no discernable emotion.  Her eyes appeared as icy blue wells, as fathomless and remote as her ambitions.  He tried to convey to her that he loved her deeply, and wished only to embrace her.  The hacking cough, however, was not helping matters.  Yet, he figured if he could persuade her of the sincerity of his love, then things might go well enough for them to get to the UFOs and flee the moon before Eisenhelm quaked itself into a final oblivion.  But the look in her eyes said it all.  In her insatiable lust for power Hanna would step on the him like a bug at her first opportunity.  Hanna's attention at that moment shifted back to her current nemesis, Ling, and the connection between her and Jacob was severed without hesitation.  Hanna no longer had the slightest interest in Jacob, whatsoever.  He coughed up a lung, and slumped miserably as Ling fretted over his bandages.

The treacherous Major considered taking the elevator down the one flight to the white tunnel, her Germanic mind seeking her next plan of action with precision and cold determination.  She turned to Vallnam.

"Jacob promised me verking UFO's in zee Hanger B. Is zis Correct?" she interrogated.

Valnam turned on his helmet radio and tuned to the technician team's frequency. "Rudolf, come in Rudolf."

"Ja?  Rudolf here, mine Leader!" came the static-laden reply.  

"How go the repairs?  Are any of the UFOs space worthy?" he asked, his German stilted by his recent encounter with the Elkron Tarot.  The words came slowly.  His pronunciation probably sounded far too American.

There was pause.

"One is complete.  Vee are ninety-five percent finished with zee other one," said Rudolf.  "No more can be repaired, I regret to say."

"How long for the second ship?"

"Ten minutes," replied Rudolf.

Hanna barked into her radio, "Doctor Hoffman, are you there?"

"Ja, Major Schiller, I am in zee Pillbox.  Zee Obliterator has frozen in place, and is not moving at all.  Vee are safe!"

"Good. Can you get the Doom Spheres from the tunnel up into the pillbox?"

"Ja, Major, we constructed them with zee ability to hover on micro-jets. They are down at zee end of zee tunnel now.  I will bring them up.  It should only take a few minutes."

Hanna looked around the destroyed control center. Smoke filled the air, and sparks were still flying from computer panels in every direction.  She scanned the various exits.  There were still several that she was unsure of.  She sent two of the Commandos to the doorway on the northwest wall to investigate.  It turned out there was a kitchen and pantry there, they reported.  She ordered them to grab provisions, and turned her attention elsewhere. 

Valnam strolled over the large red button on one of the purple computer panels that he had seen earlier but bypassed in all the action.  It was covered by a thin glass dome.  He looked at it.  Underneath the button were words written in German.  The power of understanding languages had been disrupted.  He couldn't understand the meaning.

"Hanna," said Valnam, "would you have any idea what this button is for?"

She walked over and gave it a glance. "It says 'In case of emergency'," she replied, taking note that the man was apparently unable to read German.  She said nothing.  Revenge would come.  But not yet.  She had too few men with her, and the weapons these three interlopers carried were quite capable of mowing her few remaining Commandos down in a flash.  No, she'd bide her time and pretend she noticed nothing unusual at all.

"Well, this seems like as much of an emergency as anything that could happen," answered Valnam, stumbling over his words.  "Why don't you go ahead?"

"You are an idiot," she answered sharply.  "It is probably a self-destruct. Do not touch it.  Do not even get close to it," she barked.

"Why would you want to self-destruct in case of emergency?  That doesn't make any sense," he replied.

She looked at him like one might glare at a moronic child.  "Do I need to remind you of the Obliterator Robot out in the tunnel?  That is how we deal with emergencies in Eisenmelm!  Do you understand?"

"What if it gives you control over something like that, though?" answered Valnam, unphased by her aggressive demeanor.

"This is General Hertling's Headquarters.  He is the Commander of Robot Force. I don't know anything about Robots, how they operate, what their protocols are, or what capabilities they have.  If the emergency button summons robots, I wouldn't have any idea how to control them.  Leave the button alone!" she said with a tone of finality.

"Fair enough," said Valnam, finding her argument reasonable enough. With that he went back to Jacob and took a look.  He wasn't doing so well, and he was coughing quite badly.  While it was true that the purple bubble suit was healing him, it was doing so all too slowly.  As a Warlock Vallnam had studied medical healing in the past, and by now he was quite competent.  He pulled out his medi-kit and bent down.  He opened a foil packet that contained a white ointment and spread it on Jacob's wounds.  It possessed a healing property that had been discovered during the Ultra-War, and it was quite effective.  Jacob looked up.  His breathing calmed, the pain lessened considerably, and even the cough dissipated. 

At that moment they heard a loud grinding noise, and a strange humming sound coming from the southwest doorway.  It came from the large room which they'd cleared out with a hand grenade during the battle.  One of Hanna's Commandos peered around the lintel into the room, and reported over the radio.

"Major Schiller," he said curtly, "there is something moving on the far side of zee room."

She ordered her men to gather together and face the open doorway.  Vallnam was still with Jacob and Ling, between the doorway and the now sealed Inner Sanctum.  Hanna walked cautiously forward, and peered into the darkness of the barracks.  There were several doorways leading out of the room, which itself was quite large.  On the far side there was an entrance into a dark corridor, covered by thin clear plastic strips, like the kind you might find in a warehouse, or medical facility.

Vallnam handed Hanna his XL-2600 Torchlight.  "Do not turn the dial more than halfway, and don't look down the barrel," he advised.

She took the device and marveled at its design.  It was very different than any flashlight of Eisenhelm, which were characteristically heavy, bulky, dark green and had a simple on / off switch.  This was sleek, with burnished chrome, an oval shaped glass lens, and elegant dial that set its power level.  This, she thought, could not have been made by the engineers of Eisnhelm!  Impossible! But then again, neither could the white corridor tunnels, nor Shadow Hawk.  

She tried to connect the dots.  Jacob, Ling and Vallnam, with their unique purple bubble suits, and strangely sleek equipment must be a part of the same organization that created the white tunnels and Shadow Hawk, she speculated.  Perhaps, they were a Japanese contingent that secretly joined the Nazi mission to the moon in 1943, and had remained a hidden force side-by-side with Eisenhelm all this time?  Yet, Vallnam and Jacob were obviously not Japanese. Jacob had led her to believe they were members of an elite SS unit of Eisenhelm.  One she had never heard of, but had access to knowledge and equipment she had never been made aware of. She had originally accepted this at face value because she had no other plausible explanation for their strange look, or presence on the base, and given the civil war suddenly breaking out, it would be logical for such a secret unit to show up during such an emergency. But now it was clear that Vallnam didn't really understand German.  Things stopped making sense, and her mind began to reel, and so she put the question aside.  Something was making noise in the darkened bunker and she wasn't taking any chances.  She turned the dial to thirty-percent and shined a tight beam into the room.  It was a bright blue beam that illuminated a circle of light about 3 feet wide very brightly.

She moved the beam around the room, illuminating everything in one quick sweep. Beyond the plastic strips she saw a hulking figure standing perfectly still.

"Halt!  Identify yourself," barked Hanna.

 A large, bulky black robot stepped through the plastic sheets and walked three feet into the room.

"I - AM - GORTAURUS," it said.

"Halt!"

It halted.  "I - AM - GORTAURUS."

"Alright, Gortaurus," replied Hanna.  "Vhat vas your last command?"

"GUARD - THE - CORRIDOR," it replied in its metallic staccato voice.  "NONE - SHALL - PASS."

She looked it over.  It did not appear to be brandishing weapons, but the entire construct gave the impression it was a short, barrel-shaped humanoid tank.  She'd never seen anything like it.  One of Hertling's secret projects, no doubt!

"Ok, Gortaurus, you may resume guarding zee corridor," said Hanna, not wishing to open a new can of worms.  Her goal was to get the Doom Spheres, and usher her people towards Shadow Hawk, and nothing more.  

"NONE - SHALL - PASS," it repeated.

"Vee have no plan to pass this way," she said as she began backing out of the doorway.

"WHO - ARE - YOU?" inquired Gortaurus.

"I am Major Hanna Schiller of zee Ludendorf Space Force," she announced proudly.

"DO - YOU - HAVE - AUTHORIZATION - TO - ACCESS - SECTOR - C3-DZ-A1?" it demanded.

"I am not allowed in zee corridor, but vee are not going there," she replied.  It stood still.

Hanna stared at it for a few moments.  It didn't move.  

"Doctor Hoffman," she spoke quietly into her helmet mic. "vhat is zee status with my Doom Spheres?"

As she waited, she stepped back away from the door.  The Commando next to her glared at the robot.

"Vhat zee hell is that?" he asked nervously.

"I don't know, but I keep seeing more surprises zee more this day progresses," she replied dryly.

"Vhat ze hell is Hertlng up to?" he asked rhetorically, as she passed him, backing away into the main control room.

She was imagining Hertling with Mellita and that fat slob, Ludendorf, all smirking as they fastened themselves into their seats inside Shadow Hawk.  Smirking.  The three of them having a little laugh as Eisenhelm burned into molten slag as they flee Eisenhelm.  SMIRKING!  It was the SMIRKING that drove her crazy with hatred.

"I have not seen anything like this. It's almost like a miniature Obliterator... that talks!" she said, trying to clear her mind.

"I - AM - GORTAURUS!" announced the robot again.  "WHAT - IS - THE - STATUS?"

Unnerved, Hanna shouted back.  "Continue guarding the corridor."

"WHAT - IS - THE - STATUS?"

She stared it it, unsure what to say.  It seemed to her that it was potentially dangerous, despite the fact she saw no obvious weapons.  But then, with something like this, who know what its weaponry might look like?  She hesitated.

"WHY - IS - THERE - SMOKE - IN - C3-DZ-A1?" it demanded.

"Because it's not very well ventilated," said Jacob as he shuffled over to the door to take a look.  Between the salve, and the bubble suit, he was no able to walk, slowly, without too much pain.  He took a glance around the doorframe.  "What the hell is that?"

"WHAT - IS - THE - STATUS?" demanded Gortaurus.

Hanna thought it seemed too intelligent for her liking, but she said nothing. 

"Status is: small fire. Under control," Hanna replied to the robot.  "Continue with your last command," she concluded.

"THE - FIRE - IS - CONTAINED?"

"Yes," said Jacob, "the fire is contained."

"Confirmed.  The fire is contained," added Hanna.

"I - WILL - SEND - ROBOT - N - TO - VALIDATE."

"I repeat," barked Hanna, "continue with your last command."

On Gortaurus was a panel situated on his left breast-plate, on which a yellow light began to blink.

"Gortaurus, what was your last command?" asked Jacob, hoping to refocus its attention on the preferred behavior.  No such luck.

  

"GUARD - THE - CORRIDOR.  NONE - SHALL - PASS," stated Gortaurus.

"Hmm..." replied Jacob, momentarily at a loss as to what else to try.

"ROBOT - N - APPROACH," commanded Gortaurus.

The party glanced around nervously.

"ROBOT - N - PROCEED.  INVESTIGATE.  VALIDATE.  REPORT," commanded Gortaurus.

Out from behind Gortaurus, from within the dark corridor, emerged a dog-sized thing with a strangely configured white metallic skin. Where the light shone on it, it was bright and reflective, but dark black wherever shadows crossed its outer casing. It's outer surface was rough, and its edges indeterminant.  What type of metal it was composed of was a mystery, but its surface featured long curved lines and two small panels with blinking lights on them.  Overall, it seemed dog-shaped, though quite abstracted.  On the top of its body was a wedge shaped head that appeared to be covered with some kind of sensor array that blinked with tiny red lights.

"A mechanical hound," whispered Jacob.

Hanna backed further into the control room, pressed the button next to the double sliding doors, and they slid shut. She pressed the button twice, and as anyone in Eisenhelm would expect, there was a klack-kang sound as bolts slid into place, sealing the door shut.  She sighed with relief.

They heard a buzz, which began to grow louder.  The door began vibrating.  Hanna took out her Luger and shot the door's control panel.  It exploded into a shower of sparks, and would not be used again.

"Doctor Hoffman, vhere are my Doom Spheres?" she barked into her mic.

"It is a delicate matter to get them up into zee Pillbox, Major.  I am verking on it."

"I don't think vee have any more time," she responded.  She had only four Commandos out of nine who had survived the battle, one wounded, along with Dr. Hoffman, and her prisoner, and the three Doom Spheres, each of which took up the space of two people, being five feet each in circumference.  There was also Jacob, Vallnam and Ling.  She thought about the elevator that led down one story to the white tunnel system.  She recalled that the last time she went through that way the tunnel led directly to the secret Shadow Hawk nexus.  Up one level from there was the Shadow Hawk Hanger control room.  Down one level was the entrance to the hanger itself.  But the elevator could only hold three people at a time.  So to get everyone down would take five trips, and the elevator would take approximately twenty seconds per trip.  So if all went well, it would take approximately sixty seconds to vacate Hertling's smoldering Robot Command Center.  If all went well. Piece of cake.

"Doctor Hoffman," barked Hanna, "you and Otto take one of zee Doom Spheres down to zee tunnel below, and scout ahead."

"Vhat of zee other Doom Spheres, Major?" asked the Doctor, looking at her as if she had told him to abandon his children.

"Vee vill leave them behind, dumkoff!  Vee do not have zee time for them!" she shouted.

Doctor Hoffman looked crestfallen. At Hanna's command one of the Commandos ushered him to the elevator.  Hoffman fumbled with the control box, and ordered one of the Doom Spheres forward.  The deadly machines operated by remote control, and had no intelligence of their own. In fact, the idea of autonomous robots was an idea that the Moon-Nazi greatly feared.  Only a lunatic like Hertling would dare to manufacture such monstrosities.  Hoffman put the other two Doom Sphere's on stand by, and they settled into position and went into low power mode.  The Commando, whose name happened to be Otto "One Shot" Fischer, was the specialist marksman of the team.  He fumbled at the elevator door struggling fit two men inside with a Doom Sphere.  Neither Otto nor Karl wanted to climb on top of the deadly machine. They fumbled around a trying to adjust, but it was hopeless.  Either one of them would have to climb on top of it, or only one man and the Doom Sphere could go down.  As the elevator door closed, Doctor Hoffman could be seen unceremoniously perched on top of the black orb, his face frozen in an expression of anxiety.

Hanna, however, was no longer paying attention to them. The entire party had spun around and was staring at the doorway on the other side of which was Gortaurus and N.  The door had begun to rattle, and now a glowing red circle appeared on the center of the double-doors. 

"That's not good," stated Jacob.

"Vhat weapons do you three have?" asked Hanna nervously.

"Did I, um, get my XL-2600 back?" asked Vallnam.

Hanna turned to glare at him.  "No, I have not given it back to you," she replied as if he were an idiot.

"Can I have my Torch back, please?" asked Vallnam coolly.

"As soon as vee get out of this room," she replied, frustrated by his subtle insinuation that she was a common thief.

"I will hold you to that, Frauline," he replied with his usual calm reserve.

Meanwhile, the red circle grew in size, and the center glowed with an orange light.  Even across the room they could feel the heat coming off its surface. The center of the glowing circle turned white, and the metal began to melt.

"Fan out and take angles on the door," ordered Jacob.  Vallnam and Ling withdrew their weapons and took positions behind two of the smoking computer banks.

"That is a very good idea," said Hanna as she glanced toward the elevator.  The door was closed, her three Commandos stood next to it, machineguns at the ready. "Why don't you three go ahead and fan out."  She was not interested in having a firefight with a new and unfathomable Robot Force.  Let Jacob and his team take them on if they wished.  Her goal was to get herself and her people out of there, and over to Shadow Hawk so she could eviscerate Hertling, Ludendorf and the never-to-be-sufficiently-reviled Mellita!

The double-doors turned white hot and melted into a glowing viscous slag that spread out across the floor.  Everyone scrambled into a defensive position behind some smoldering piece of equipment or other, and trained their weapons on the breach.  When the hole was large enough, the metallic canine entered on indestructible treads, its burnished armor gleaming white, or jet black depending on how the light hit it.  It looked, as far as Jacob was concerned, small, but exceedingly formidable.  Robot N rolled into the room, sparks flying as its treads carried it over the red-hot slag.  Everyone trained their guns on it and paused, waiting to see what it would do.

And that is where we left things this game.

WoAF - Game Session 55

Captain Bruin Hilda crouched behind a rock, peering across the darkness towards the smokey red glow on the far side of the Sever River. She was cold and wet, like everyone else, and it didn't help her mood that the wind was howling wildly through the canyons, and the smell of sulfur filled the air. Her loyal Lieutenant, Kerrington, stood beside her, scanning behind them over the crowd of refugees as they huddled among the rocks.  He noted the flickers of light on the horizon that suggested the war at Panguitch was still raging and wondered how the humans were faring.  One thing was clear; as long as the war was ongoing it meant the Lizardmen of the Manticorian Army had not prevailed.  He took comfort in this thought. 

It was close to midnight. Gregorian chanting could be heard echoing across the waters.  Beyond the glowing pit known as Hell Hole, she thought she glimpsed a gigantic face emerge momentarily from the shadowy haze, but it vanished into the mist before she could get a bead on it. She told herself she had imagined it, and continued scanning. Surrounded by billowing smoke and noxious fumes, the Hell Hole was a wide crater, within which was a bubbling pool of magma that cast an undulating red glow and giant wavering shadows over the nearby cliffs. 

Four knights stood at cardinal points around the pit, each gripping an iron chain that crossed over the magma and attached to the corners of a bejeweled chest suspended above the lava pool. Occasionally, the magma would erupt, violently slamming into the chest, dragging the knights towards the fiery pit within a shower of flaming globules.

She took out her Federation binoculars and turned the Mode nob to the night-vision setting.  The scene became much more vivid in bright and dark green.  There was no trace of the monstrosity lurking in the shadows, but she didn't find that especially reassuring.  She watched for a minute or so and then swung around to scan over the crowd of refugees, huddled among the rocks, wet and exhausted from their flight across the river.  She zoomed in and made a careful sweep, but saw no sign of Wilard, the little mutant rat-druid person whom they'd picked up along the way.  She knew he was nearby, lurking with his rat horde in the vicinity, as he had left piles of lizards and frogs as food offerings to the refugees each morning since they left Panguitch.  She felt cautiously optimistic that he wouldn't actually cause any harm, but her Lieutenants were far less sanguine about his following the caravan.  "No good can come of it, Ma'am," Kerrington had said at the start.  But she didn't have the heart to chase him off, given that he was so eager to provide help and could provide ample amounts of foraged food.  Frog-snake-lizard stew wasn't a bad thing as far as she was concerned.

She considered logistics.  They had eight hundred refugees needing care.  Everyone was hungry, wet, cold and frightened by the terrifying events across the river.  It seemed that wild spirits had invaded the sky and were howling on the winds.  She glanced upward to look at the clouds, which at the moment were concealing the moon.  To the north she could see the rainbow bands of scintillating ionic radiation like a river flowing over the upper atmosphere.  It crackled audibly, and she could see flickers of red lightning along the edges of the band.  Always disturbing.  She looked away. 

"Lieutenant Kerrington," she said, "We need to help the refugees."

"I'm here, sir - ma'am!" he replied coming out of a daze.  "What do you need me to do?"

"We just lost two jeeps on the river crossing. We need to find out what supplies we need, and start some fires to get these people warmed up."

"I'm on it," said Kerrington, and he turned to head off through the darkness to the new encampment.  He found Tom Hanks, the accountant.  Tom had been very good about helping to maintain the supply chain.  He kept track of how much food Wilard brought, how much of it was conserved, and taken care of rationing, as well as requisitioning equipment and resources for the refugees.  He kept careful track of everything, and was an all around good man to have on hand.

"How are we fixed on supplies at the moment, Tom?" he asked.

"Sorry, sir," answered Tom with a shrug, "but when the crowd bolted across the river, they didn't think to carry supplies with them.  Pretty much everything is still on the other side of the river."

"Oh, yeah," replied the Lieutenant as he gazed tiredly over the dappling waters.  The Sever River was deceptively deep in areas.  He glanced over at the two jeeps laying sideways, nearly submerged in the middle of the swirling waters.  They'd started out from Panguitch with seven jeeps.  They were down to four.

"Well we lost some of our weapons and ammo, but we still have whatever was in the other jeeps," thought Kerrington out loud.

"The only food we have is what people had in their pockets when they ran," commented Tom.  

"And how many people exactly do we have with the caravan?" Kerrington asked.

"Eight hundred and thirteen," answered Tom, "Including that odd fellow, Wilard," he added.

"I see, yeah.  It has been a bit of a cattle run here," he commented wryly.

He thought about their forces.  There were four Lieutenants, and about twenty privates who had volunteered to leave Panguitch and help the refugee caravan make their way north.  Most of them probably would have preferred to stay there and fight, but the refugees needed support, and they were good folk who had a sense of duty.  He called the soldiers to him.

"Ok, gentlemen, we just left our supplies on the other side of the river.  We need volunteers to go across and bring back as much as possible," said Kerrington.  "I'm not giving orders.  I'm only looking for volunteers.  If you volunteer, please step forward."

Ten men stepped forward.  They all liked Kerrington, and he was considered something of a leader among them.

"All of the volunteers, go to the jeep and grab an extra clip of ammo each.  I want you all to come back alive.  You are heroes in my eyes," he said, to everyone's approval.  The soldiers wore expressions of determination as they went to the jeep.  They carried Springfield rifles and Brownings FN pistols, and grabbed clips for both.  Then, girding themselves for the unknown, they waded into the waters with their rifles over their heads.  Some of them were in water chest high.  The water was viciously cold, and the current strong.  A few slipped as the waters swirled menacingly around them.  One soldier got caught in the current and almost got carried down river, but he was helped to the shallows by another.  Eventually they all made it across.  Kerrington watched as they vanished into the darkness on the other side.  He trotted back over to where the Captain was positioned.  She was looking out across the waters with her binoculars at the proceedings around the Hell Hole from between the rocks of a small outcropping.  He kept a low profile as he made his way towards her in order to report.

"Okay," said Bruin Hilda when Kerrington arrived.  "I've been looking for brush and grasses that can be used to start a fire.  The whole area is covered in brambles and dried grass.  Get some men and start setting up campsites for the refugees."  It wasn't difficult to gather enough kindling and start fires.  The refugees crowded around them.  Soon there were dozens of fires dotting the rocky landscape.

She hefted her binoculars and took another look across the river.  The night-vision mode gave her a good view of the Hell Hole.  Again she thought she could make out the face of a giant in the smoke on the far side of the pit, but it was elusive and quickly vanished.  The knights were struggling with the chains that held the bejeweled chest above the center of the pool.  She estimated that it must weigh a great deal by the way the knights were struggling.  The lava was bubbling at this time, and plumes would rise up and heave the chest upward, dragging the knights with it.  With iron wills and grim-furrowed eyebrows they held that chain.  The jewels on the chest glimmered and sparkled in the fiery glow of the magma.  It was an impressive sight.

Bruin Hilda couldn't say that the lava had gotten stronger, but she felt it had.  In the winds she heard strange sounds of chanting, moaning, the cries of distant coyotes, and the hair on the back of her neck stood up on end.  When the sounds would waft over the crowd everyone would suddenly go quiet and there was a hush.  She didn't like it.  No one liked it.

"My priority is the people," she said to herself.  As she saw no immediate threat, she thought she would go walk among the refugees, try to calm nerves, and provide any first aid that might be needed.  But at that moment, as she looked through her binoculars at the knights performing their fascinatingly mysterious ceremony, an enormous belch of lava burst upward, dragging one of the knights so that his left foot stepped into the magma pool.  He skidded to a stop, and hurled himself backwards, never for a moment letting go of the chain.  His foot was on fire, and Bruin Hilda guessed that it must have been badly burned and exceedingly painful.  But he gripped the chain and struggled with it on one knee.

Having completed his tasks, Kerrington picked his way over the rocks and came back to where she was.

"Ma'am," said Kerrington, "I sent ten of the soldiers over the river to gather supplies, and the encampment has plenty of fires. No food to speak of, but the men all made it across and will come back with whatever they can soon."

"I want you to calm the people down, get food in their bellies, and let's hope we'll be able to hunker down here for the night."

Kerrington saluted and turned to go.

"Actually," she said, stopping him, "I saw on the other side of the river, one of the knights got dragged into the magma pool and injured his leg rather badly.  I'm thinking of going over there to see if I can provide some medical assistance."

"Oh, Sir, I mean Ma'am, are you sure that's a good idea?!  I mean to go alone?  Why don't I go with you?" asked the loyal Lieutenant.

"Um, yeah," said Bruin Hilda.  "I could use your backup. That's true. Just make sure you tell one of the other Lieutenants to feed the refugees and we'll get going."

Kerrington went to give the Lieutenants and soldiers the Captain's orders.   He looked across the river and hoped the men there would be smart enough to fire up the school bus they'd taken from Panguitch and bring that over, but he wasn't sure they'd want to risk it.  He'd have to leave it in their capable hands to decide.  There was a Lieutenant with them, so hopefully he would figure out the best plan.

He went back and met with the soldiers.  As it happened many of the refugees had been wounded either during the crossing or by the many cacti that dotted the landscape.  They had long pointy needles and quite a few people had suffered piercings, and some seemed to feel they had been poisoned by the barbs, though that seemed unlikely to Kerrington.  

"Ok, well, give them first aid, and see what you can do about feeding people," he told the soldiers.  "I need to go with the Captain back across the river.  I'll see what I can do about helping the men with foraging for supplies, since I feel I should have gone with them in the first place, but the Captain saw someone injured at the pit over there, and of course she wants to help him.  I'm going with her. Ration out what you can.  If anyone has extra food, if they're willing try to store a supply of food for later.  Try to keep everyone calm, and tell them we are trying to get them out of here as soon as possible."

"Kerrington," said one of the Lieutenants, "if you can get some medical supplies over there, we could use them.  The bus has the medical supplies in it."

"Right," replied Kerrington.  "We'll get the bus across the river, if we can manage it.  In the meantime, do what you can.  We'll be back soon."

And with that Kerrington met Bruin Hilda by the river bank.  She was standing in front of a patch of reeds and cattails, trying to find a good crossing point.  The river was roughly two hundred feet across at the closest spot.  It was flooded from a recent rain storm.  Depending on the spot, the water was pretty deep, in some places waist high, in some knee high.  The jeeps had slid from a sand bar into an underwater ditch and gotten sucked down by the fast swirling waters.  She watched the river carefully and noticed there were a several frothing lines that zigzag across to the other side.  She figured the frothing was caused by shallows, and those areas might be able to see a jeep across without too much risk.  Maybe even the bus, if they were lucky.

"Perhaps we should try to take a jeep, and use it to find a clear path across," offered Kerrington.  "Losing a jeep is preferable to losing the bus, I'd say," he added.

"Okay, let's try it," she agreed as she began to haul the weapons stash off one of the jeeps and pack it into another.  She didn't want to risk losing any more weapons in case the jeep couldn't make it across.  She grabbed the mechanics kit, and loaded that off, but kept the medical kit in case she needed it on the other side.    

As Bruin Hilda walked along the embankment to get a better view of the shallows, she heard a splash, and hiss and then there was a sudden dart of movement at the river's edge in front of her.   It didn't sound like a snake.  She jumped back a step, planning to pull out her broadsword and confront the creature.  She was not fast enough.  Something came scrambling at her from the water.  It was too dark to see what it was, but she could hear it hissing as it darted towards her.  She felt a severe bite on her ankle.  

As she leapt backwards away from the water's edge, the creature scrambled back towards the reeds and vanished into the shadows.  The pain was excruciating, and she worried that the creature, whatever it was, might have a disease.  Within a few moments, however, she felt the pain in her leg diminishing, and guessed that the poison was numbing her up for the kill.  She was a nurse, however, and knew what to do. She pulled out her 2700 LM flashlight and set it at 2 lumens to inspect the wound.  She was expecting to see a nasty bite with signs of poison, but in fact her environmental suit had covered over the wound with a cluster of tiny purple veins.  The translucent purple bubbles seemed to be sucking the poison out.  It was fascinating, and perhaps a bit disturbing.  She wondered again where she had gotten this strange purple bubble environmental suit.  She couldn't remember at all, other than vaguely thinking that she had obtained it at some point while on the moon. But how, and under what circumstances she hadn't a clue.  Perhaps, she thought, she might have found it in the UFO they'd captured to escape the moon Nazis. None of which mattered at the moment, but she was glad and relieved to see the suit healing her.  She even went so far as to thank it, silently, and then something made her feel as if the suit had responded.  It was an odd sensation.  She wondered if the suit was actually alive?  What surprised her the most, perhaps, is that she felt no anxiety about the suit at all.  In fact, if anything, she felt friendly towards it and glad to have it with her.

Captain Bruin Hilda turned up the lumens to 30% on her flashlight and shone it towards the reeds.  Amid the shadows cast by the bright beam she caught sight of a large heavy-set rat with dark gray fur peering at her.  As soon as the light hit it, the rat dove into the water and swam away into the dark eddies of the river.  She stared after it with her lips pursed and a raised eyebrow.     

Kerrington was making his way across the rocks to her position.

"I just got bitten... by a rat," she said.

"Ma'am are you okay?  Where?  What happened?!"

"I'm okay.  The wound isn't bad," she replied, not mentioning the suit.

"Did you say a rat?"

"Yes. A rat," she repeated.

"Where is Wilard?" he asked glancing in all directions.  "Isn't he on that?" 

"Yes, he is," she replied with foreboding as she scanned the area with her binoculars.  "Whatever power he has, the fact that a rat bit me is disturbing," she said.  

"Well what should we do?" asked the Lieutenant.

"We need to get to the other side of the river," stated the Captain, not wanting to allow whatever machinations Wilard might be hatching to interfere with her helping the wounded knight.  "I want you to be aware of what just happened and keep an eye out."

"I definitely will, Ma'am," affirmed Kerrington as he glanced around the darkness.

They drove the jeep down to the river bank, rolled carefully into the water, and slowly over the shallows.  They had no problem crossing, to both of their surprise.  Bruin Hilda scanned the area with her night-vision binoculars.  The old camp was dark and empty now, except for the ten soldiers poking through the tents and carts looking for useful supplies.  The wind was howling with an undulating pitch.  She spotted the bus, and it looked like the soldiers were almost up to it in their foraging.  Kerrington suggested that they leave the jeep on the edge of the river as a marker for the crossing and walk over to the men.  She agreed, and so they left the engine running with the lights on, and directed their feet toward the bus.

As soon as she stepped out of the jeep she noticed a very ominous sensation come over her.  Perhaps it was that the sounds on this side of the river were louder?  She heard the wild wailing of spirits in the winds, but then they would die down and the Gregorian chanting would suffuse the atmosphere again.  These two soundscapes warred in the airs around them as they walked. Kerrington noticed it as well, but said nothing while his eyes darted in all directions as they travelled.  They strode towards the bus in silence, heading to intercept the men as they arrived at the bus.  Then she heard a piercing wail in the air, like a distant shrieking.  Then the chanting returned and she felt calm again.  All the sounds were in the distance, and yet each was capable of instantly seeming very close.  It was quite strange, indeed.

Bruin Hilda was a practicing Catholic, to the best of her ability given the circumstances. To her mind the entire situation had become bloodcurdling and deeply religious.  The rise and fall of the spirit worlds as they waged war was both terrible and wondrous, and she was struck by the beauty and terror of it as she watched the half-moon emerging from the clouds overhead.  She turned around to look over towards the pit, now due north of her by a half mile or so.  She could see the knights grimly struggling with the chains, trying to keep the bejeweled chest in the center of the Hell Hole.  Why they were doing this, she had no idea, but whatever the reason, they believed whole-heartedly in their cause.  One of them was badly wounded and struggling to keep the chain under control as he knelt with one leg forward bracing him on the rocks. Though badly wounded he still held himself with dignity as he gripped the chain and held his portion of the chest aloft.  The other knights were equally grim, holding on at other three corners as the priests by the wagon chanted and read verses from the Holy Book.

Bruin Hilda and Kerrington walked to the bus.  The men gathered around.  She explained about the shallows and told them they'd be taking the bus across the river at the spot where the jeep was pointing.  

"Are you taking the jeep back across, then?" asked Lieutenant Johnson who had come over with the other soldiers as troop leader.

"No," she explained.  "I noticed that some of the knights have been injured so I'm going to go over to the pit there and see if there's anything I can do to assist them.  Then we'll head back to the other side of the river with the supplies."

Lieutenant Johnson looked at her with raised eyebrows.

"Ma'am, is that a good idea?" he asked.  There was a pause while Bruin Hilda thought about it.

"I mean, we can all see what's going on over there," he added quietly.  She could tell that the strangeness was starting to get to the young man. 

"Yeah, well, I saw one of them get serious injured, and I want to see if I can help them.  I'm not going to just give up and discard them like that."

"I mean," Johnson pressed, "I'm, um, well, I mean they weren't very friendly to you earlier, were they?"

"No, they weren't, but as a medic, and practicing Catholic, I can't use that as a reason not to help," she answered patiently.

The Lieutenant sighed, "Wow.  Okay, Ma'am. It's your call."

"Thanks," she replied quietly.  "Oh, one more thing.  A warning. On the other side of the river I got bit by a rat," she said.  Johnson again raised two eyebrows. 

"And I have not seen Wilard for a while," she continued. "He may be lurking around. Don't trust him until we find out what's going on, okay?" 

The men all looked around nervously.

"If Wilard turns against us with his rat horde... we'd be in serious trouble," said Lieutenant Johnson, pulling on his collar with a shaky finger.  The others all looked into the darkness and thought that down.

"Yeah, well, it was just one rat," said Bruin Hilda.  "so don't let it get to you.  We'll find out what's going on soon enough.  If it was that bad, we'd all be dead already.  Just keep an eye out, and be careful."

"Yes, Ma'am," said the Lieutenant.

The men began to heap the bus with as much food as they could.  Bruin Hilda climbed aboard and took a quick inventory of the medical supplies.  Everything looked in order.  

"Ok, Lieutenant Kerrington, ready to earn your day's pay?"

"Yes, Ma'am, I am," replied Kerrington, "but to be honest, I probably should stay with the men and make sure we get over the river alright.  We don't want to lose the bus, now, do we?"

And so Kerrington stayed to help the men load the bus, and when they had everything aboard, he took the wheel.  

Seeing as how the pit was a half mile up the road, Bruin Hilda decided to take the jeep after all. She noted that the moon had come out, and it was light enough for them to see the frothing line across the river. Time is of the essence when someone is wounded, and so she revved the engine, and took off up the slope toward the road.  

Kerrington didn't want the men to all cluster onto the bus.  He explained that the path across the river was along the frothing shallows.  "We'll have five onboard, two in front ahead of the bus, and three behind.  Everyone watch all around.  We'll go slow," he said.

"Kerrington," said Johnson, "why don't we tie ropes to the bus.  We can tether to it."

"Good idea," he replied, and they followed suit.  He looked off in the direction of the road, and figured they'd probably cross the river by the time she got there to Hell Hole.  He shook his head and focused on the task at hand.  Driving across the river.  Since she had taken the jeep, the river crossing spot was a little harder for Kerrington to make out.  He drove the bus down to the river's edge and tried to align with the frothing path.  It zigzagged across the river, so it was a bit difficult to follow in a bus.  About halfway across he hit a slippery spot and the bus began to slide to the right and tilt.  Then there was a bang, and the bus was stuck.  

"You two in front," called Kerrington out the window, "go get one of the jeeps from the other side, and bring it here so we can use the winch to pull the bus out."

Bruin Hilda, meanwhile, drove up to the pit and parked the jeep.  Things had gotten very strange.  She thought she saw visages of weird beings floating and whipping around in the streams of smoke.  The sound of the wind was loud and pitched high as it screamed over the canyon cliffs above her.  In the smoke ahead she thought she saw a winged man with a birdlike face fly past and vanish.  Out of the corner of her eye she thought she caught sight of another winged bird-man wearing armor, and whose face had eyes like burning coals, and he carried a glowing sword.  

The chanting rose and fell, and rose to an even higher crescendo.  Weird stuff was going on.  She had no idea if she was hallucinating, or being pulled body, mind and soul into the spirit world.

She contemplated using a special power known as "Indominable Will."  It was a power that would allow her to ward off all kinds of psychic attacks, such as fears and confusions.  However, it came at a hefty cost.  If she wanted to heal that poor knight with the burnt leg, she'd have to use another power known as "Hymn of Healing", which was only slightly less taxing.  And the idea that she might need to use it more than once gnawed at her.  She'd not have the energy to use it twice, unless she forsook the use of the "Indominable Will."  

She walked towards the kneeling knight with her eyes fixated on his wounded leg. 

She felt that the spirits were buffeting her, and should she lose focus she might veer from her path, but the fears and confusions failed to have any appreciable effect on her attitude or actions.  Forward she strode, determined to help the wounded man.  As she was not being deterred, she decided against using Indominable Will, as she had a will of her own and was nearly at her goal already.  She continued walking towards the knight on one knee, ignoring all else around her.

She passed through a ring of burning braziers, and came to the wagon where the priests were chanting. There was the knight on one knee, gripping the chain with all his strength, sweat pouring down his face, his burned leg still smoldering, charred black with terrible blisters.   The winds were whipping against the wagon, the horses neighing wildly, while fiery sparks sailed in long streams upward towards the heavens where they flickeringly vanished.  The howling winds and the Gregorian chants fought fiercely that night.

The knights were suddenly engulfed in yellow light as the magma rose up high and once again heaved into the bottom of the chest, carrying it irresistibly upward, and the four stout warriors with it.  Again they were nearly pulled into the broiling lava in their determination to maintain their hold on the iron chains that bound the chest, and again they evaded disaster by the skin of their teeth.  The knight on one knee managed to hold his ground, and miraculously had not budged.  Around her she could now see quite distinctly, ethereal bodies of winged devils with their smokey beaks and burning read eyes, wavering like ghosts in the wind.  Round and round they wildly winged their way. They were significant spirits, thought Bruin Hilda. Winged creatures of the darkness.

She felt that the spirits had somehow not quite noticed her.  She moved between braziers towards the knight on one knee.  Ahead of her she could see a ditch that had been scratched or dug into the ground around the lava pit, a single long furrow.  She would have to cross it to get to the knight on one knee.  

She crossed over the ditch with her head bowed forward, grimly pushing against the winds to get to him. Once inside the circle she might have, but did not, perceive that the inner circle had an aura of calm that emanated from a greenish colored stone cube laid on a short white pillar in front of the wagon, around which the priests were chanting.  

Nevertheless, she, the stalwart that she was, began to sing.  The Hymn of Healing!  The song was good and her voice strong.  Light shone down from somewhere above, and the knight lifted his eyes and beheld her for the first time.

The moment she began to sing the spirits suddenly took notice of her.  Their rage boiled over at her interference.  But her voice blended so beautifully with the Gregorian Chants, the knight stood up, bathed in light.  He looked bravely into Bruin Hilda's eyes for one moment with heartfelt gratitude, and then heaved the chain once again with his full might.  And across the lava pond the chest was once again secured at the center.  The lava was driven back.  Through the smoke Bruin Hilda thought she saw a giant's face, with dimly glowing indigo eyes, gazing towards the depths and scowling from the cliff tops, but it could do nothing at that moment except rage at her, so strong was her voice. All around the winds weakened, and her song carried far and wide.

The spirits went from wild to frenzied.  She had caused the spirits harm, and now they circled her with their grimacing faces, their eyes filled with the fires of damnation.  It was exactly midnight.

Meanwhile, across the river, Kerrington was wrangling the bus.  The two forward soldiers dashed across the river to get the jeep.  They revved the engine, drove it to the water's edge, put on the brakes and ran splashing to connect the winch cable to the bus.  In a few minutes the bus was rescued from the dark eddies of the Sever River.  Once on the other side Kerrington drove the bus to the center of the encampment and the soldiers began doling out food, and administering medicines.

Kerrington caught sight of a silhouette near a rock outcropping next to the river, not far away.  It was a man, and some large beast-like rat with him, slinking in the shadows among the rocks.  The Lieutenant thought it looked suspiciously like Wilard. He took two soldiers and walked over to the river's edge.  But when he arrived the figures were gone.  Not a trace.  Just the dappling moonlight dancing on the river water.

"Wilard, if you're going to play games, the next time I see you you're going to be in handcuffs," shouted Kerrington into the darkness, but there was no reply.  He spent the rest of the evening patrolling the river bank, while the soldiers tended the wounded and fed the hungry.

Back at Hell Hole, at the height of the Ceremony, shortly after Bruin Hilda had begun singing, the chest with all of its dazzling jewels was carefully lowered into the magma, and as the final tones of the Gregorian Chant completed, it sank into the boiling pool along with the iron chains.  With a final wisp of smoke, it vanished below the lava line.  The lesser spirits wailed, defeated, shrieking as they fled, curses flying like bats from their lips as they faded away one by one.

Time had gone by, and the battle had been won.  Bruin Hilda's Song had caused panic among the greater spirits, and in disarray they spent their fury against one another, and a war between themselves broke out, instead of against their foe, because they perceived the foe was stronger than they.  With Bruin Hilda's aid the knight on one knee had been healed, and this tipped the balance so that the knights were able to complete the ceremony.  It was dawn by and the light of the rising sun was casting its glow across the tops of the cliffs.  The winds had subsided and a chipmunk could be heard chirping from a tuft of grass nearby.   

Bruin Hilda, having stayed through the night in case anything else might have happened, tended to the knights as they came wearily back to the wagon, exhausted, and covered in sweat and grime, and burns.

The leader of the Knights, who had gruffly brushed her off when they first met, now looked at her with respect and gratitude.  

"We would not have succeeded were it not for you," he said plainly. "We are grateful."

"I saw one of your men get injured, and I am here to help heal the people.  Even yours."

"The world needs more healers like you, my Lady."

"I appreciate your words," she said, glancing back towards her jeep.  She very much wished to get back to the encampment.

"You have a gift," he went on.  "You shouldn't squander it."

"I do not feel that helping others is squandering my gift!" she said, annoyed by his implication.

"Not at all.  I agree with you," he said quickly.  "But you could do more." 

"There is always opportunity to do more," she replied, not quite sure where he was going with this.

"I wish to present you with the opportunity, if you wish, and are willing," he said.

She looked towards the other side of the river where there were eight hundred refugees huddled among the rocks in the early morning light.  She could see the school bus there.  People were milling about, and fires were lit and there seemed to be calm in the camp.

"Those people are hungry, and tired, and they need me now," she said.

"Indeed they do," he agreed solemnly.  "The gift before you is an invitation to join the Golden Crusaders. You need not come with us now, but instead you ought to lead and protect the people.  You need only accept the Ceremony, and swear the oath of he Order sincerely, as a loyal and true soul.  With that you will transcend and be a Warrior of the Golden Crusader of Christ Lion, and will from then on wage war against evil with us.  You be a Warrior of the Army of Light, and will obtain the same powers that we have to fight the spiritual darkness, wherever we may go."

There was a long pause.  She wondered if there were any reason for her not to join. She couldn't think of a single one.  

"I, Bruin Hilda IV, would be honored to join this battle with you."

He gazed into her eyes with a solemn look, filled with congratulations and respect.

"You should know that joining the Crusaders is a grave responsibility.  It is not easy.  You will be asked to wage war against spiritual darkness.  We need Warriors against spiritual darkness in this time.  We have not yet made it to the light.  But we will.  And we will conquer, and we will succeed.  But we need your help.  If it seems good to you, we can bring you to The Gate of the Golden Lion.  When you pass through, you will be transformed, and you will be a Guardian of the Light, as we are.  And you will be able to obtain the same powers as we have.   And you will be always welcome where we are, and you will be welcome in the battles and wars that we must wage. Other than that, we ask that you always remember to give alms to the poor, and we ask that you heal the sick, and that you protect the innocent.  That you eschew corruption, and that you keep an honest word upon your tongue.  Can you do these things?"

There was a pause.

"I, in my heart, hope and desire to always live up to these ideals.  I will work and pledge in my heart to keep these rules."

"Good. Priests come forth. Let us perform the Ceremony of The Golden Lion of Christ as the dawn graces the horizon."

The chanting of the priest was inspiring beyond anything she'd ever known.  She was at one with the Golden Crusaders of Christ Lion.  

She was transformed.  Her mind and body had been perfected.  

Then, once the Ceremony was completed, Geoffrey explained to her what the Ceremony of the Chest the night before had been about.

"In the chest we had captured and imprisoned the Chain of Thanatos.  The same one that had been lost by Captain Samwise back in Page, Arizona.  And now, finally, after so many ages, we have sent it back to Hades from whence it came, and where it belongs."

"I think there is a manticore who will be very pissed off to hear that," she commented wryly. 

"Indeed, there will be.  But we shall deal with that when the time comes," answered the Crusader warmly and with confidence.  He smiled.  She smiled.  They obtained a perfect understanding.

"In the meantime, the war continues," said Sir Geoffrey.  "And you must continue on your quest to bring your people to safety.  If you will follow my advice you will bring them to the town of Ely.  It is the safest area in this region.  It has good farmland.  And pure water.  There are settlements there.  The townsfolk of Ely resolve to never use a technology that was invented after the steam engine.  And further west, in the hills, live several bands who resolve to live like our ancestors in caves as primitives.  They are all good people striving to keep the earth whole, and wishing to heal the planet.  Your people will find friendship there."

Bruin Hilda thanked him.  And he thanked her again, and sent her off with his blessings, and those of the priests and the other Crusaders, all of whom saluted her.

"If you ever find yourself in the township of Page, Arizona, you can look us up at the Church of the Crystal Light.  We will be delighted to see you again."

"I would be honored," she replied.  "May I ask what is the next step in your mission?"

 "We will go to the mountain and we will pray.  The next step in our mission is to wage war against the Shadow King, whom you call the Manticore.  We bid you farewell.  May all blessings be with you."

And with that the Crusaders got on their horses and rode off into the dawn.