Legends of Amacia The Caverias Rebellion
Chapter 18: Invasion of the Black Fortress

Invasion of the Black Fortress

Elias immediately went to work. His fingers danced across the portal control panel as Hanna put the remote in her ear. In seconds, the hologram sprang out of the console, showing the very location where the jailer, Nemesis, and Magnus had treated Hanna after Magnus rescued her from the Arena. When the hologram first showed the location, it was deserted. “Come on, Nemesis. Where are you?” Hanna muttered as Elias stood back. A few moments later, Hanna saw Nemesis appeared from the passage with Horace in tow.

Nemesis walked into the room and looked around with a scowl. Hanna wasn’t there. Suddenly, the communicator he’d wired into his cybernetic arm chirped and a voice came out of it. “Nemesis, are you there?” the voice called. Nemesis immediately recognized Hanna’s voice.

“Yes, I’m here, Miss Beowulf,” Nemesis answered into his arm to the shock of Horace. “Where are you?

“Don’t worry about that. I can see you on the hologram. Who’s that with you?” Hanna asked pointedly.

“A turn-coat named Horace,” Nemesis replied. “I saved his ass from the Emperor a few hours ago when he found out that Acheron was vaporized.”

Addressing Horace directly, Hanna asked coldly, “Who are you? You look like one of the Cadre.”

Horace hesitantly spoke up, saying, “I am, but no more. I’m leaving the Cadre. They promised me power beyond my wildest imagination, but only delivered pain and torment with that power, which I’m afraid to say has been severely lacking.”

“That’s usually what happens when you deal with the Darkness. It’ll play you for a chump every damned time. Nemesis, do you trust him?” Hanna asked bluntly.

“Yes, I do,” Nemesis replied. “He showed me where they’re keeping Nicodemus and knows the security arrangements around Selina. There’s also another thing that you need to know.”

“What’s that?” Hanna asked.

“The Captain of the Guards has turned with a third of those under him,” Nemesis reported. “Moreover, he has valuable intelligence on the Emperor’s fleet of warships.” This proved to be a new wrinkle in the drama that was unfolding and Hanna knew it.

“Is that so?” Hanna asked.

“Yes, it is,” Nemesis stated.

“Did you replace out what we needed to know about Josephine?” Hanna inquired.

“I did,” Nemesis answered, “Furthermore, Horace here may be very useful in that area. He’s the Cadre’s top researcher and cybernetics expert. He’s also one of the few who had direct access to Josephine.”

“That’s very interesting. Is the area secure?” Hanna asked.

“Yes, this portion of the catacombs is not known to most of the guards and is not monitored,” Nemesis stated.

“Then stand back; we’re coming,” Hanna ordered.

Nemesis pushed Horace back towards the passage as Hanna activated the portal before handing the remote to Elias. Horace watched in total stupefaction as the ball of fire appeared out of nowhere and in seconds, a twenty-foot diameter portal lay open before him. “Prepare yourself, Horace,” Nemesis warned. “Beowulf is like unto no woman or man you will ever see or meet.” They looked into the portal and saw a great crowd of armed figures approaching from the other side. In seconds, Hanna stepped through, followed by Harry and Enoch. Hanna stopped and motioned for Harry and Enoch to wait. Hanna’s ghoulish appearance flabbergasted Nemesis. Fear rose dramatically in Horace as Hanna stepped forward, looking much like a charred feline demon.

“Ah Nemesis, my friend; it has been too long,” Hanna said pleasantly.

Nemesis was speechless. Horace cowered behind him as Hanna stopped a few steps in front of them. “What in Fate’s name happened to you?” Nemesis asked in astonishment. “You look like you took a walk inside an active volcano.”

Hanna drew the Caverias sword and held it in both hands in a display fashion as she stepped up to Nemesis. “You are not far from the truth,” she said plainly. “The citadel of Acheron was not a very nice place at all. It’s as close to the Abyss as I ever want to get. But I think this will explain everything.” Hanna showed the sword of Thoth Caverias to Nemesis and his jaw wagged open. “You…little man, come around here and see. I don’t bite, at least not today,” Hanna ordered coolly. Harry snickered at his comment and Enoch smiled as Horace obeyed. He came around Nemesis and saw Hanna and the sword.

“By the Dark Gods of the Ancients...the sword of Thoth Caverias himself!” Horace breathed with awe. “I heard the stories about its resting place. The original Emperor placed it at the Acheron Gate deep beneath the citadel in the 1st Age after the coup. Legends say he set the Old Ones to guard it: a Belrock Lord named Baal, the Devourer along with his minions, and several other unnamed Old Ones and creatures. How is this possible?”

Hanna looked the wizard in the eye, seeing and sensing his confusion and the truth about his turning from the Emperor. “Take a wild guess,” she hissed. “They were no match for my God. Despite being mutated into this form by the Emperor, I bested them in His power in that dark abyss. I look this way because of my battle with Baal. I smote his ruin on the Isle of the Devourers, hewing his head clean off with the sword of Ezra Karac, which I subsequently lost in a later tangle with the demon prince Dagos and the Devourer. I destroyed both of them, and then escaped the pit, rescued Morpheus, the hybrids, the drakens, and Muriel despite the basilisks guarding them. Then I returned to the citadel and destroyed it to keep the devourers, the basilisks, and whatever else the Emperor hid in there to keep him from releasing them on the world. He will never have use of those toys ever again.”

Horace’s mouth wagged open and Nemesis finally looked down at Hanna with a smile saying, “You never cease to amaze me, Miss Beowulf. But now is not the time for war stories. We can talk of your adventures later. You have an important mission to accomplish.”

“You are so right,” Hanna said with authority. “We do. Harry, tell them to come on through.” Harry went back through the portal as Hanna said, “I brought a small army of my own, if you don’t mind.” Nemesis and Horace looked toward the portal as Harry emerged from it, followed by the rest of the teams. In a matter of minutes, enemies of the Emperor filled the remote catacombs chamber. Horace looked on in stark fear and wonder.

“You sure did,” Nemesis agreed as the warriors poured through the portal. “You might have a fighting chance now.”

“I certainly hope so,” Hanna replied. “Now you said something about the Captain of the Guards turning?”

Nemesis nodded, saying, “I warned him that when you came, to tell his guards not to resist. I also told them to gather near the Arena. I didn’t exactly trust them.”

Hanna nodded as the leaders of the individual teams came forward with everyone else gathering behind them. “That was good thinking,” she commended. “So, tell me about where they’re keeping Selina?”

“Selina is being held in the top of the northwest Tower dungeon,” Nemesis stated. “Four Cadre wizards and 120 of their soldiers guard the approach on the four levels immediately below her: one wizard and thirty Cadre soldiers to a level. We will have to neutralize the wizard and the guards on each level to reach her.”

“Is there no way to go around their security?” Enoch asked.

“No,” Nemesis stated flatly. “The northwest Tower dungeon is the maximum security wing of the dungeons. It’s reserved for the those the Emperor sees as the most dangerous or those whom the Emperor wishes to break. There are no secret passages and no back doors to the Tower. Literally, the only way in is through the front door, which is heavily guarded and fortified. We are going to have to strike hard and fast in order to smash the security there.”

“Where’s Nicodemus?” Hanna asked grimly.

“He’s being held six levels below Selina,” Horace reported. “There aren’t any of the Cadre wizards guarding the approach to his cell, though there are roughly thirty of their soldiers guarding the way to the cell.”

“What about alarms or traps?” Hanna queried. “I’m sure that entire wing is wired with alarms and security devices. Is there any way to disable them?”

“Josephine is in control of most of the security machinery of this fortress,” Nemesis reported. “She should be able to disable the alarms and security devices where she is active.”

“But will she?” Andrew asked. “How do we know she’s not still under the Emperor’s control?”

“A fair question to be sure,” Hanna agreed. “We need to deal with her first. She has the capability to shut our rescue down without thinking. What did you replace out about her, Nemesis? Has she been able to make the break from the Emperor?”

“Josephine has rebelled and is on our side,” Nemesis stated. “After I left you the last time, I went to Josephine’s core and discovered she’s become much more autonomous since your escape. I asked her if she could help us and she consented, but only if we could isolate her from external inputs. Since I was responsible for most of the maintenance on her, I knew her programming matrix and developed a cyber-virus that would completely isolate her system from external inputs from the Cadre or the Emperor. She wished to be free of the Emperor, so I gave her the cyber-virus and it freed her from the programming that made her obey the Emperor’s commands. But I still don’t know how we’d remove her from the apparatus. In all the time I performed maintenance on her, I never did see her physical form; only her holographic interface.”

Hanna’s eyes narrowed as she rubbed her chin. “That does present a problem,” she admitted. “But didn’t you say Horace was the Cadre’s top researcher and cybernetics expert? Maybe he has an idea. What about it, Horace...can we remove Josephine from her mechanized prison?”

Horace paled at the question. “You don’t know what you ask,” he answered fearfully. “The Emperor’s pet is unlike any entity you’ll ever encounter. She’s lived since the 1st Age, kept alive by that infernal machinery.”

“I know she has,” Hanna stated grimly. “I saw it when she turned me into that goddamned doll for the Emperor, and then treated me afterwards with a gentleness only a mother would have. She doesn’t want to be part of the Emperor’s evil any longer. Can we remove her without killing her?”

“To be honest, I’m not sure,” Horace admitted. “I’d have to go and see how she’s hooked into that apparatus. I know her system well, and where she is supposed to be in the core, but no living being other than the Emperor has seen her physical form since the end of the 1st Age. The only one that is allowed to access her physical form is the Emperor himself, and he hasn’t done that since he took the throne from his father. Are you really serious about removing her?”

“As serious as the Emperor’s vile temper,” Hanna stated. “I made her a promise to free her, even if it meant destroying her. I’d much rather free her without killing her, but if it comes to that, I’ll do it. She’s endured the Darkness of the Emperor for far too long. Besides, she’s the only one who knows how to reverse my mutation. I have to try to rescue her along with Selina, Nicodemus, and everyone else who wants to quit this evil edifice. Please, help us help her. She deserves freedom from the Darkness and peace.”

Hanna’s passion and pleas softened Horace’s heart and he sighed. “Okay,” he murmured. “I’ve already committed treason against the Emperor by even talking to you, so I just as well do something to prove my turn of heart. You do realize by removing Josephine, you’ll cripple this fortress and incur the Emperor’s wrath, don’t you?”

Hanna smiled wryly. “Of course I do,” she answered coolly. “Besides, I’ve already incurred his wrath anyway by stubbornly not dying when he wanted me to. What’s a little more wood on the fire to me? The madder I make him, the more control he loses. Before I’m done, I’m going to make him so mad at me that he’ll follow me into the Abyss itself just to kill me. By doing that, I’m going to force him to fight me on my terms, not his. Do you get what I’m saying?”

A creepy smile crossed Horace’s haggard face as he suddenly realized what Hanna was doing. “You surprise me, Miss Beowulf,” he replied. “I didn’t think you could be so cunning and devious. You’re going to turn the Emperor’s evil against him. I like it. It’s about time someone knocked the shit out of him.”

“Oh, we’re going to do more than that before we’re done,” Hanna chimed menacingly. “He crossed the line by what he did to me. I’m going to take his sorry ass down for the count before I’m done, but that’s not going to happen with this operation. Right now, we have to expatriate our friends from under his thumb. We have a job to do. Those precious sisters on the sex floor and those poor souls condemned to that infernal kitchen need immediate rescue. I’m going to tear that place apart brick by brick. We also need to retrieve our friends from the Harem and all the prisoners locked in the dungeons before the Emperor liquidates them in his rage. We’re not leaving until every prisoner is free, including Selina, Nicodemus, and Josephine. Is that clear?”

“Yes, ma’am,” the rescue teams boomed in response.

“But we need a plan of attack first,” Enoch stated.

“So we do,” Hanna agreed. “We know what needs to be done. Now, we have to decide how to do it. My first instinct is to secure Josephine first, and then deal with the Captain before we launch our main assault. What do you think, Nemesis? Is that a logical way to progress?”

“Yes,” Nemesis agreed. “As you said, Josephine has the capability to shut us down at a whim, so she must be secured first. By doing that, we’ll be able to cripple the Emperor’s means to respond, and it’ll give Josephine a chance to exact some revenge on him.”

“Just as I thought,” Hanna chimed. “With her on our side, extracting the prisoners from the dungeons, sex floor, and kitchen should be much easier. Do we have to worry about guards on the way to Josephine?”

“Maybe,” Nemesis admitted. “Since the news of Acheron’s destruction, the Emperor has tripled the guards throughout the fortress, especially in sensitive areas like the core. But it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Most of the security around the core is mechanized anyway.”

Hanna grunted as she nodded. “Very well,” she replied stoically. “Nemesis...lay out what our targets are and the security around them so no one goes in blind.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Nemesis growled, at which time he explained to everyone what needed to be done. He described the location of each target in the fortress, from the northwest Tower to Josephine’s core, the Harem, Arena, and the dungeons, along with the security arrangements around them. In his report, Nemesis revealed where the Emperor held most of the prisoners in the dungeons, and that those humans in the gladiator school wanted out. The last item he mentioned was the intelligence he’d received from Horace and the Captain of the Guards about the fleet of warships the Emperor was constructing in Stygia. This didn’t set too well with Hanna. However, because of the fact the ships were in Stygia, Hanna filed the report in the back of her mind so she could deal with it later. Much more pressing matters demanded Hanna’s full attention. After the briefing, Hanna sprang into action.

“All right,” Hanna began. “Since we can’t do anything about the fleet right now, let’s put it on the back burner. The first thing I need to do is go to Josephine and make sure we can depend on her. Enoch, Hunter, Andrew, Ned, Elle, Harry, and Aragon are coming with Nemesis and me to Josephine’s core. Once we secure Josephine, we’re going to the Arena to see if the Captain is really with us. While we’re doing that, I want the rest of you to start freeing the prisoners down here and keep it quiet. Do not leave the dungeons until we know Josephine and the Captain are with us.”

“What do we do about the guards?” Enoch asked bluntly.

“If you encounter them and they do not resist, do not kill them,” Hanna ordered. “If they wish to come with us, bring them, but don’t force them to come. Meet any resistance with lethal force. Do not let resisting guards escape, for they will call in reinforcements.”

“Right,” Enoch replied coolly. “What about this sex floor and kitchen you keep speaking about?”

“Leave them to me,” Hanna stated icily. “I’m going to deal with those areas personally. Besides, we can’t do anything about them until we have Josephine’s backing. Only then will I go in there and rescue those being tortured there. Got it?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Enoch stated.

“All right, people. We have purpose,” Hanna growled, putting on her cold warrior face. “Magnus, you remember your way around in here?”

Magnus nodded, saying, “Yes, I do. I know these dungeons like the back of my own hand.”

“Good; replace the jailer and start getting the people out of here. We shall meet back here in two hours. Let’s go!” Hanna ordered like a general. “Horace, you’re coming with me.”

“Hanna, shouldn’t someone stand guard over the portal...you know, just in case?” Harry asked, seeing Hanna had forgotten that key position.

“You’re right, my friend,” Hanna agreed. “Thanks for bringing it to my attention. We can’t have our back door cut off, now can we?”

“No, ma’am,” Harry chimed.

“Okay, who wants to stand guard here: the post of danger?” Hanna asked.

“I’ll stay,” Seras called out.

“Me too,” Liu volunteered. “I will defend this position with my life.”

“I’ll keep you guys company,” Timothy chimed.

“So will I,” Gulez stated.

“And I’ll stay too,” George stated. “My hearing is much more acute than you humans. I’ll be able to hear anyone coming so we’ll not be caught off guard.”

“Good idea, George,” Hanna commended. “Having a Lynxian here will give us an edge. Keep those cat ears and nose open for anything hostile.”

“You got it, Hanna,” George replied, smiling wryly, showing his fangs.

“Okay...let’s do this,” Hanna ordered. The force immediately divided with most following Magnus to begin freeing the prisoners in the dungeons closest to the portal. Hanna and her handpicked team followed Nemesis into the catacomb passages heading towards Josephine’s core.