Steampunk CTs

Malta

I finally caught up to Lucien and the rest of the mob at the rendezvous point.The crowd had various people with torches and weapons, young and old alike, all marching with resentful expressions. These are people that are willing to burn the governor’s square to the ground to get what they desire.

Two people in particular stood out in front of the crowd. The first was Lucie! My buddy and leader! He’s sporting his usual navy blue suit with a pin of the Holian flag, walking with a commanding and charismatic presence. The other was Mr. Hotch. As opposed to his usual farmer getup, he was dressed for war this time. He had bullet rounds in the form of a sash across his torso and held a rifle.

When they approached me, I wasted no time in saluting and giving my report.

“I just came from hideout B, Lucie!”

“I told you when we’re on business to call me either Mr. Shaw or Lucien.”

“Oh right! Sorry about that, Mr. Lucien!” I put my hands over my mouth as if I’ve said a swear.

“You better get it right. There’s gonna be a third title coming soon: Governor.” He gave his signature smile. That damn smile always gets my heart racing!

But I’m not in love with him! Of course not! That would be unprofessional! I’m an important asset with a super high aptitude rating and Lucie himself said he’d have to let me go if I ever fell in love with him! So I won’t!

Maybe I can snag Holy Blue?

NO! Out of the question! He’s a very busy man! He’ll never be at home long enough and I’ll be attention-starved because of it! Plus a travelling man always has the opportunity to cheat! Ahhhhhhhhh I’ll kill him for sure If I ever found him with another woman—

“What happened to the rest of your unit?” Lucie broke my line of thought.

“Unfortunate casualties!”

“Malta…”

When he gives me that disapproving glare, I can’t help myself. I just wanna prostrate myself before him and beg for forgiveness! He’s my messiah! My God! Who is Taramos compared to a man named Lucien Shaw?!

“Okay, I might have had an opportunity to save them, but I instead took the head of their boss.”

Lucie then patted me on the head.

“It’s alright. Just make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

I can feel it! My heart’s racing! Don’t do it, Malta! Don’t fold for him!

Once my report was out of the way, we all began to walk over to the governor’s square. That’s where the final battle will take place. On our way, everyone chanted about the fall of “Tyrant Baxton” and of “Shaw’s triumph.”

It didn’t take long for us to finally reach the governor’s square. Surprisingly, there was no opposition or resistance the entire way through. Although, we did have to walk a long distance.

“We’re here, Lucie! It’s time to dance with death!”

“Please calm yourself, Malta.” Shaw quickly pacified me.

“Y-yes sir…”

What lay in front of us was an iron gate with stone walls that encased the governor’s house and office inside. In front of that towering building was a lush field with a manmade lake to the left side. It was a complete contrast to the rest of the zone which was filled with color schemes of brown and yellow. In front of the gate was an army of police officers. There was also a speaker at the top right of the gate. Baxton was nowhere to be found. He was probably cowering in his office. Shaw immediately halted the troops and I.

“Like usual, I’ll do the talking...” He whispered to me.

Lucie stepped forward and began his dialogue with the governor of zone two.

“We’re simply here to vote! What’s with all the hostility, Baxton?”

“That’s Governor to you, YOU INSOLENT REBEL! You’ve been a real thorn in my side lately, you know that?!” Baxton’s voice came through the speakerphone.

“That’s the point, my friend. The people have spoken, and they’re tired of your ineffectiveness, to put it kindly.”

“I knew I should’ve snuffed you out when I had the chance. Ideas like yours are dangerous. You think you’re so holy but that’s only because you yourself aren’t in the hot seat. I’ve worked my ass off to maintain the level of quality you all take for granted.”

“And that’s your problem, Baxton.” Shaw pointed an accusatory finger. “Complacency is where advancement dies. You spent all this time maintaining the status quo when you should’ve been focused on improving the zone's influence and power. But it’s okay! I have the forces of five thousand armed Holians that want to see the advancement of this zone!” On saying this, the forces behind us yelled in triumph and pumped their fists in the air.

“Well we have five hundred police officers here and they’re more than willing to lay down their lives to wipe you out! Good luck getting through them. Unlike you lot, they’re actually trained for combat. Happy killing, everyone! I’ll enjoy seeing you fight for your lives!”

“Gentlemen!” Lucien Shaw yelled with authority. “It’s time to take back our country!”

“YEAHHHHHHHHHHH!” Everyone pumped their fists in excitement for this final battle and charged towards the officers.

The officers had riot shields in one hand and guns in another.

“It’s your turn, Malta. Keep as much of our people alive.” Lucie gave me my order and I nodded as I ran to the front lines.

Once I did, the police squad started firing off into the crowd and I unleashed my stemata. As the bullets came rushing towards us, I used my stemata to create a shield. As I did, I made space and gained ground for everyone to follow behind me. With each bullet flying off of my shield, we got closer and closer until we reached the entrance. Once we were in their face, I made a slit in the middle of the wall I made and let everyone stick their weapons out of it and fire.

The officers were met with the rebel bullets in no time. It was a bloodbath with not a single casualty on our side. When I confirmed that everyone was dead, I let down the stemata briefly and turned it into a blade large enough to cut the gate cleanly in two. I didn’t need to do it that way, but it’s for flair’s sake!

Once the gate fell, we entered the governor’s square with me taking the lead. When we made it inside, I laid my eyes on the mansion of the governor of zone two. That right there is Lucie’s house! But there’s that nasty Baxton in front of it! He was a bald man that wore a white suit and had a furious expression.

But wait…there’s three other guys that are with him…

“You know I didn’t want to do this. I didn’t want to call the BCT and have them bring counter terrorists here. But I had no choice…you guys forced my hand!”

“What a surprise…the government’s against us. We figured this was going to happen anyway.” I rolled my eyes as I stepped forward.

“Be careful, Malta. The more CTs in a given area, the wider the gap in strength is going to be. The fact that the BCT sent three…”

“I’ll be fine! You worry too much.”

As I pressed forward, the three enemies that stood in our way began to walk toward me. I’m certain that these are all the cards that Baxton has to play. Once I kill these guys, It’s over. We’ll take Baxton’s head and make Lucie the governor.

Once we were just a couple of feet from each other, we all stopped.

“Maaaaan. What a looker! I got a soft heart for fine women, ya know!” The first man said to me. He had a muscular frame and a warhammer on his back. I could assume that that’s his stemata. The only thing that comes to my mind is wondering what it does.

“We’re all well aware. You wanted to flirt with a lady on the train ride here. Would it kill you to focus on your duties for once?” The second man kinda reminded me of Don Alejandro. He had glasses like Alejandro, but his hair wasn’t oiled down. In fact, it wasn’t kept very well at all. Not to mention, he was writing in a notebook. He had no other weapons I could see. Lucie told me that if a stemata isn’t obvious, it’s probably super mundane, like his glasses or even his book.

“Yeah, you’re honestly a real lady killer! You gotta teach me how to—”

“So how do we wanna do this? I could take the girl here and you guys can wipe the crowd.” the warhammer CT said.

“We can take it one issue at a time. The people here seem to know their place, after all. If they tried to interfere, they’d die.” The book CT pushed his glasses up.

“DON’T INTERRUPT ME! I TOLD YOU GUYS ABOUT INTERRUPTING ME!” The third man yelled over the other two.

The third man was shorter than the other two and had baggy pants and a weirdly styled pompadour. I couldn’t even begin to speculate what his stemata does. With the other two, I could make fair guesses. But with this guy, he had nothing but the clothes on his back.

While the three continued to discuss how to handle things, I turned my stemata into a blade and rushed towards the man with the warhammer. Just as I was about to take his head, all of my momentum was stopped by a shield that blocked me. That’s when I noticed that the material of the shield was complete paper. I made my distance between them and scanned the other two. The man with the notebook used its pages to create a shield. But that’s weird…my stemata has never met opposition in terms of sharpness. It’s made of the sharpest metal on the planet. That’s when I remembered what Lucie told me about stematas.

Stematas bend the rules of reality. Adjust your reasoning based on that.

The warhammer CT and glasses CT were still chatting, as if I wasn’t there. Baggy pants noticed me though…

“Hey little miss, we’re kinda busy so how about you wait your turn before—”

“So it’s decided! You guys wait on the sidelines and I’ll have my fun with the lady here!” The warhammer CT said.

“WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT INTERRUPTING ME?!”

“You have one minute. It shouldn’t take you longer than that.”

One minute? They expect to kill me in one minute? Who do they take me for?! A damn joke?! I’ll show them not to underestimate me!

As the other two made their distance, the warhammer CT eyed me down from head to toe.

“So it’s just you and me now! Let’s get to know each other! My name’s—”

Before he could finish his sentence, I turned my sword into a rapier and shot a flurry of attacks at him. He dodged all sixteen attacks with ease and drew his warhammer with one hand. When he did, he started to bring the hammer down on me. What a sloppy way to fight! With how the arc of his hammer is going, he’s going to miss me by a longshot! I’ll cut the hammer right from its handle and take his head in one clean swipe!

But that’s not how everything played out. Instead, he used his stemata to get the jump on me. His warhammer shrinked to the size of an average hammer and came down on me with the same force that the warhammer would've. When it did, I felt concussed. I felt like a part of my skull was broken. I felt as if I couldn’t think straight as I staggered backwards and tried to make sense of my now blurry vision.

But I had no choice but to get my senses together, because at that moment I learned of another aspect of his stemata and had to counter it. I learned that he could not only shrink his warhammer, he could enlarge it as well. He enlarged his warhammer to an even greater size than it was originally and did a left swing. It’s hurtling towards me and the damn thing’s ten times my size!

I turned my stemata into a shield and made a wall between it and me. It didn’t even matter though, because the hammer’s force was too strong. It pressed my wall against me and sent me flying. At the speed I’m going, there’s now way I’ll be able to cushion my fall or anything! I’ll just have to brace for the hit! Then I’ll launch my counterattack—

But it was too late.

By the time I hit the governor’s square’s stone walls, I got back to my feet to try and launch a counterattack, but he extended his warhammer and increased its size tenfold. It was coming at me at speeds too quickly to react. He must’ve deployed it as soon as he landed that hit on my wall. Not bad, government dog…

After I got hit, I could feel my body getting crushed between the wall of the square and the warhammer CT’s stemata. The next couple of seconds were blurry to me. All I remember was my pounding headache and my blurry vision as I collapsed onto the floor. Fate played the cruel joke of having me face the rebel crowd and see everyone’s reaction to my defeat. Everyone was begging me to get up and fight, everyone except for Lucie. He…looked disappointed in me. No, Lucie! I’ll get up and try again, I promise! Just let me…wait…I can’t move…what the hell?

“Done playing already? That’s a shame…” The warhammer CT said in a muffled voice. “What’s the time looking like?”

“30 seconds and counting.” the CT with glasses could barely be heard too. Why are they speaking so low?

“Well whatever. We can end it here. Shame that such a pretty face was born on the wrong side of history.'' The warhammer CT raised his stemata and was ready to bring it down on me. This is it. I’m sorry, Lucie. You wanted me to be your right hand, but because I’m so weak, everyone’s gonna die!

At that moment, I heard a crash and saw rubble flying from the opposite of the direction I was facing. Did someone else come? That doesn’t make any sense. I’m the only stemata user working with the rebels. Who would come to our aid at this point?

I studied the crowd and everyone had shocked expressions. None of that could help me discern who this mystery person was, though. The only face that helped me figure out who it was was Lucie’s reaction. I spent large portions of my life studying every face he’s ever made. The face he was making was one of rage, disgust, and frustration. It’s the face he makes when he sees a Haustorian.

Of all people…why did it have to be one of them?