Sgt. Golem: Royal Mech Hussar - Books 2 & 3

The golems holding Hannah let go and moved to join the golems near the door as they turned to face whatever was coming. The newly-awaked unarmed golems armed themselves from the weapons racks. Angelica and Hannah got out of their way.

Then a creature out of nightmare came through the door. It had long, spindly spider-web legs but its head and torso were that of a human. The rest of it appeared stitched together from haphazardly selected animal parts. Here and there, metal splints held pieces in place. Its mouth opened and screeched. The human face was bulbous and deformed, like an overweight woman had been beaten and her face had swollen unevenly. Some of its legs were furry, others covered in scales. All of them ended in sharp metal claws.

The first golem in the pack was too close to the door to dodge when the thing burst in. A long leg shot out and skewered the artificial man through the chest. It happened so fast Hannah almost didn’t see it. One moment the golem was charging forward and the next it was toppling over with a hole in its chest.

The others opened fire with their machine guns. The roar was deafening. Spent cartridges fountained across the room. Even as the guns roared, the spider charged in, limbs flailing. Its gaping mouth continued to shriek in one long wail.

Before Hannah could react, Angelica scooped the submachine gun off the floor, then ran to take cover behind a slab-like metal table.

Another golem had been pinned to the ground by a steel-tipped leg. It was beating at the limb with its machine gun, the mechanism hopelessly smashed. The creature still hadn't stopped screaming. The other golems sprayed the creature with bullets. It staggered back, its scream finally cut off in a choking gag as bullets ripped through its torso and shattered its legs. Then the thing was down in a tangle of limbs. The golem still skewered to the floor twitched and fell still.

Two more of the monstrosities came through the open door. The first one had even more bits of metal grafted onto it. It wore a kind of helmet and breastplate that partially protected its head and torso. The golems didn't hesitate before hosing down this new intruder with their heavy weapons.

Two golems had been killed in the first attack, but eight more still remained under Eva's control. They had all finished arming themselves from the weapons racks along the wall. Now they formed a firing line. Four of the golems ran their guns dry at the same time. "Controlled bursts!" Angelica yelled. "Controlled bursts!" But it was too late. The damage was done. The armored beast lunged for them, limbs flashing as the golems struggled to reload. Angelica fired bursts from the submachine gun, aiming for its joints and the few exposed places on its body. The creature moved rapidly with a queer, jerking motion that made it difficult to target as it butchered the golems.

Hannah hung back as Angelica and the others engaged the armored spider creature. Desperately, she looked around for a weapon. Her eyes landed on the combat knife she had dropped earlier. She lunged for it, scooping it up in a deft motion, and came up in a crouch, holding it edge down. The rage bubbled inside her as she watched the golems fighting the monster. She longed to slice it open. Some part of her screamed inside. This was all wrong. Her bloodthirst made no sense. This wasn't her.

But the animal had taken over. She bared her teeth and charged. Legs flashed at her, but she slid easily between them. She could see where they were going to go and effortlessly dodged aside. She slashed at the joints of the nearest leg with her knife. It slid off of the tough carapace. The deflected swing threw her off balance and another leg caught her in the hip. She fell, but came up stabbing at the thing's belly. It shifted its weight, pulling its body just out of reach, and another leg caught her across the midsection. Her ribs cracked. The pain only made her more angry. How dare this thing attack her friends, her allies, her pack?

She got an arm around a flailing spider-leg. With her knife, she hacked at its joint, even as it struggled to get away from her. Jerky movements strained her shoulder and shook her body like a ragdoll. She took several swings, scraping off leather hide and metal plate, before finally sinking the point deep into the joint. The leg jerked under her and her grip weakened. Another limb slammed into her and she was thrown clear.

The impact broke bones in her arm and ribs, sending agony through her whole body. She slid hard into a metal panel and blacked out.

Angelica barely had time to wonder what was wrong with her friend before Hannah had thrown herself at the nightmare creature. She slipped past the flailing limbs and stab her knife at the creature’s underside in a blur of motion. Angelica held her fire, but the golems did not. Fear gripped Angelica as bullets ripped into the creature grappling with her friend. Hannah fell to the floor under it, knocked down by a flailing leg, but still she slashed wildly.

The creature screamed as it tried to skewer her, all while the golems continued firing into it. Bullets showered Hannah in sparks as they ricocheted off the armor plates. The armor started denting. Here and there, holes appeared where bullets started punching through. Hannah was knocked flying across the room where she slid hard into the control panels.

Angelica stood to go help her friend, but Eva was already there. Instead of bending to check on her, Eva only kicked at a nearby piece of machinery, which slid across the floor and came to rest against Hannah's body. It was the desh device that Frankenstein's female golems had used to recharge their magic.

Angelica wanted to run to her compatriot but the threat of the spider still loomed large. "Help her!" she shouted to Eva, who shrugged and flashed her a twisted smile.

"I already did!" Baba Yaga's voice retorted.

Angelica looked back to the spiders. The armored one had sunk down to one knee but there was another right behind it, climbing over the fallen body. Only a handful of golems remained. She ran her submachine gun dry with another controlled burst, then made a break for Hannah's satchel for more magazines.

The beast inside Hannah roared with fury. It screamed at her to get up, to attack, but her body just wouldn't move. Her feeble attempts sent blinding pain all through her. Something slid up against her, not violently, but even the slightest touch sent knives of pain through her ribs.

She could feel her body knitting itself together. Bones shifted with renewed agony. The power of the beast inside her was knitting her body together, even as it urged her to stand and fight.

Hannah could feel her fingers changing, growing longer. A burning, itching feeling in her fingers and tips of her fingers made her think she was growing claws. She cracked open an eye. The back of her hand was to her face. She could see it starting to grow hair.

Then she felt desh flowing into her, first trickle, and then a soothing tide filling her. The beast's howling in her mind quieted as the desh washed away her injuries. The power of the beast and Hannah's own magic wove together in a soothing tapestry, working side by side to knit her broken bones and torn ligaments.

A mech rider's magic could heal many injuries, but not quickly, and not the most grievous ones. The beast's power, which she distantly realized was the curse of a werewolf, could bring together even badly broken and twisted bones, pulling their ends together with an invisible force, but the pain was excruciating. While working alongside her own magic, the pain subsided, but the healing continued.

She took a long, shuddering breath as the last traces of pain faded. Her body was whole again. The beast was strangely quiet now. Its presence still warned her of danger and urged her to stand and face it, but the rage had subsided.

Hannah rolled over and got to her feet.

Her knife was long gone, knocked somewhere out of sight. She flexed her hands and looked at the enemy. The armored spider was down, bleeding and struggling weakly, but the third and final spider was still there. It had one golem skewered as it fought another with its lashing legs.

Hannah’s rage was gone, but in its place was a grim determination. She was no less focused on the destruction of the foe. It filled her with a singular purpose. But now that purpose was not wrapped in mindless rage. Instead, it was a sharp determination. She had no weapon, but with full control of her magic, she didn't need one.

Hannah glanced down at her hands. They were normal. Not elongated, and there were no claws. Even better, they weren't hairy. She could use some claws now, and she thought she knew how to do it.

The beast inside stirred. Its timidness surprised her, but it seemed interested, even approving of what she had in mind.

Hannah dashed forward, headed for the armored and dying beast. When she got close, she lashed out with her right hand, trying to force her desh into an attack. Her hand passed a foot short of the spider monster's leg, but the gathered power rang off the steel plates. Its leg merely twitched.

The final monster finished off the last of the golems and turned towards her. She needed claws of force, like little shields turned on edge. She started gathering power again as the monster moved towards her. She burned desh to throw herself forward at impossible speed. The monster's legs lashed out, but she had already dodged to the side. Its leg came up, and she lashed at it with her left hand. Again magic rang off of the monster, but it quickly faded. This time, it left behind scratches on the beast's carapace.

She could do this. Not long ago, she would have thought this kind of magic would be impossibly difficult. Tying a collection of shields to one piece of your body would have seemed insane, but magic was about envisioning the effect.

With the beast in her head, it was easy to imagine that she had razor-sharp claws extending from the ends of impossibly long fingers. The beast just KNEW she had to have claws. It demanded she had them. And with its focus, she did.

Hannah continued to dodge as she lashed out with both hands, slashing for joint and body. Each swipe knocked aside limbs and left behind scrapes. As she focused her mind, they became deeper. Now her shadow boxing blows left gouges.

The monster screamed and came at her in a frenzy. One limb scraped along her ribs, but she barely noticed. This time she slashed down and severed the limb at the knee. Ichor sprayed, and the monster lurched back. Hannah didn't give it any space. She moved in, slicing off another leg at the base and then slashing into the torso with both hands. The monster thrashed and screamed but could not escape her furious assault. Ichor sprayed, and it twitched and died.

Hannah paused a moment and caught her breath, though she hardly needed to. With her veins bursting with magic, this much activity was easy. She glanced back and saw Angelica watching her with wide eyes and the possessed Eva with a mildly interested expression. She smiled, just a hair too broadly. The threat in this room was gone, but she could hear others. Her ears were unnaturally sharp, and creatures moved out in the corridor. Her nose was giving her confusing information about what waited. Her friends were not safe. But she could do something about that.

Hannah sprang over the spider's corpse and landed near the door to the main corridor. Angelica called to her, but she didn't turn back. Instead, she stepped out into the hall.

Half a dozen shambling creatures of all descriptions were coming down the hall. There were no more of the spider monsters, but in their place were all sorts of abominations stitched together from human and animal body parts. Her mind rebelled at even making sense of the nightmare collection. Such twisted monstrosities should not exist. Hannah raised her hands, fingers curled. And soon they wouldn't.

She charged.

Natasha held her revolver in one hand as she stood in the door. The hall behind her was full of blood and body parts, but empty of combatants. Fierce screams and growls grew more distant by the second. Somewhere nearby, a vicious battle was happening. That wasn’t her concern. Natasha’s prize was here.

She only had two rounds left, but she didn't particularly want the Polish Hussar to know that. They had been temporary allies, but she knew that couldn't last.

The wall beside her trembled. She was pretty sure that was the antique mech making a mess of things somewhere else in this labyrinth.

The girl Eva spoke. "Nice of you to finally get here, daughter. Or should I say, mother?" Her voice was odd and rasping.

Natasha gritted her teeth. It was not the first time she'd seen Baba Yaga use magic like that. She couldn't use it for very long, but with the fire soul in hand, she had more power than usual. Perhaps she was using that to hold open the link.

This was the first time Natasha had seen her daughter in half-a-dozen years. The girl was full-grown now. Natasha squashed any pang of emotion that realization conjured. She hadn't chosen to be the daughter of the old crone and had used every opportunity to escape that backwards life. She refused to live little better than a gypsy, not when the courts of Europe were open to a skilled mech rider.

"Are you here to take up your duties for the family?" Her mother’s voice rasped from her daughter's throat. A parlor trick. It would take more than that to unsettle her.

Natasha scoffed. "Family? We could hardly be called that."

"Now, now," the old woman's voice said. "Blood is thicker than whatever petty grievances you imagine. You can't run from your duty forever."

Natasha stabbed a finger at the girl. "I have no duty to you. I gave you what you wanted, the daughter to continue your line. Leave me out of it.”

Baba Yaga sneered with Eva's face. "Do you think I didn't run away too? We all do. You just ran farther and longer. Do you deny your responsibility to your mother or to your child? Because either way, I'll call you a liar."

"I didn't choose," Natasha's hands clenched. "I didn't choose you or my daughter."

Baba Yaga snorted dismissively. "Yes, I pity that dead husband of yours. The famous Red Widow. How did you get away with murdering him?"

Natasha resisted the urge to turn her revolver on her daughter's body. "The rat committed suicide the moment he decided to cheat on me. But that's hardly any of your business."

"No, you're my business," Baba said. She stabbed a finger at Natasha with Eva's hand. "And if you're not here to take your responsibility seriously, why are you here?" She folded Eva's arms.

"You know why I'm here." Natasha glared.

Eva's face smirked. "I know, but I just wanted to hear you say it. You're here for this." She held up the red gem. "You've become a thief like all the rest, trying to take my power. Well, if you want it, take it. But you might find it makes shirking your duties that much more difficult."

Eva tossed the gem across the room, and Natasha reflexively caught it. Power coursed into her from the stone. It washed through her mind and the world burned. She heard her own voice distantly screaming, and the world faded in fire.

Angelica stared in horror as her sometimes-enemy and erstwhile ally fell to the floor convulsing. Red tendrils from the stone in her hand snaked around her body as she thrashed.

"What did you do?"

Baba Yaga’s voice laughed in Eva's mouth. "I gave her what she thought she wanted. But it won't be what she expects. Leave her. She will be fine. Now then." She turned to face Angelica with a pointed stare, "I think it's time to give you what you want. Tell my granddaughter I said it’s her turn for a holiday, but we’ll keep in touch."

Eva's eyes rolled up in her head, and she collapsed. Angelica rushed to her crumpled form. She was breathing, and she had no wounds that Angelica could see. Eva's eyes fluttered open. They widened as they landed on Angelica's face.

" Angelica!" Eva's voice was back to normal, with no trace of the old witch in it. "What happened?" She looked wildly around and gasped at the carnage. “Is that – the Red Widow? What is she doing here?”

"It's too much to explain, and we have to get out of here." She helped Eva to her feet. Even if she’d wanted to help Natasha, there was no way she was going near her with the tendrils of unknown power wrapping her like a Christmas present.

The hall was filled with even more carnage than the laboratory had been. Unidentifiable body parts lay strewn all over. The two women walked carefully on the slippery, blood-soaked floor and steadied each other as they stepped over the larger body parts.

They found Hannah at a junction in the hallway, covered in gore and leaning against the wall. Eva moved to rush to her but slipped on the floor and had to grab onto Angelica for support. Hannah gave them a weak smile. "Is that?" she asked before trailing off.

Angelica nodded. "She's back."

Relief flooded Hannah's face. "Oh, thank goodness.”

“Are you alright?" Eva asked.

Hannah nodded. She looked down at her frightful uniform. "None of it's mine." She frowned. "I think."

Distantly, an alarm started to wail. "It's time we got out of here," Angelica said to her team. The walls trembled, and there was a distant, almost familiar roar. Eva pointed down one branch of the hall. "My mech's down there, and I think it can show us a way out."

Angelica glanced at the ceiling. "Our mechs are upstairs."

Hannah was shaking her head. "I don't think we want to go up there. It's bad."

Angelica frowned, wondering how her subordinate knew. "Alright," Angelica agreed. "Let's get our mechs moving and then get out of here ourselves." She closed her eyes and reached out through her bond.