The man had the grace to look embarrassed. “Yessir, but these people are unusually determined, sir. They claim we’re...” he coughed. “Servants of The Other, begging your pardon, Sir.”
Klaus’ fist thumped on the desk, cracking it slightly. “Confound that girl!” He sighed. “Casualties?”
The Lieutenant consulted the notes he’d memorized. “Three of ours, fifteen of theirs, so far. They’re determined fighters, but they’re not very good at it,” he offered. “The biggest problem is that it’s tying up troops.”
“Pretty smart.” Bangladesh strolled in and casually leaned on the corner of the Baron’s desk. “She ‘asks’ everyone to fight you, and they do, because she’s The Other and they have to obey her, but since people aren’t used to the idea of this new type of revenant, to any outside observers, it’ll look like she’s leading a popular uprising.”
Klaus had been about to tell DuPree to remove herself from his desk, but instead he nodded. “Very astute.” He studied Bangladesh and stroked his jaw. “Aren’t you worried that I might actually be The Other, as she claims?”
Bangladesh snorted. “Nah.”
“Really?” Klaus leaned forward. “Why not?”
DuPree rolled her eyes. “Klaus, you’re always telling me—” Her voice grew deeper and she took on a rather pompous cadence—“Oh, DuPree, don’t torture people. Don’t burn their town down, it’s not nice.”
Her voice returned to normal. “Or whatever. So if you were The Other, I’d be a revenant, because there’s no way you’d let me run around uncontrolled, and I’d have to obey you, even if a town really needed burning, y’know? But I can still act on my own better judgment, so I know everything’s okay. It’s all about free will!”
Klaus stared at her for a second and then slowly pinched his nose between his fingers. “And here I was foolishly hoping for an argument that would reassure the troops,” he muttered faintly.
He straightened up and addressed the Lieutenant, along with the rest of the command staff.
“There will be no reprisals for attacks. No burning. No executions. As long as they continue to pose only a minor threat, our policy will be to contain them.”
Bangladesh frowned. “They’re revenants. Why can’t we just kill them?”
Ah, DuPree, thought Klaus gratefully, ever the easily-refuted, public voice of unreason. “Because,” Klaus said carefully, “This is something new. These people aren’t shambling zombies. They aren’t monsters. Without The Other or their intermediaries giving them orders, they’re ordinary people. Perhaps they can still be saved.”
He allowed this concept to roll over those assembled in the room, and was gratified to see the expressions of hope that began to fill their faces.
He gestured towards the giant apparition visible outside the portholes. “We simply have to find the girl. Once she tells them to stop attacking us, they will.”
DuPree raised her hand. “And if she won’t?”
Klaus smiled at her. “Then I’ll let you make her change her mind.”
Bangladesh squealed like a schoolgirl and dashed back towards the bridge.
Agatha examined the small sphere and a finger accidentally pressed a rocker switch. A red light lit, and a small jet of vapor puffed out from the top. Several meters away, the weasels paused, and then screamed in unison, to the bafflement of their handlers. This however, did put the unit on alert, so that when a crowd of townspeople poured around the corner, they were ready for them.
The chief Vespiary Soldier was astonished. “Amazing! They sensed those revenants all they way over there! They’ve never been able to do that before.”
Tarvek, on the other hand was frantically whispering, “Agatha! Push the red button! The red button!”
Agatha saw his desperate face and made a decision. With a snap, she pressed the red button, and the device in her hands went inert.
“Form a firing line!” the Sergeant roared.
“No!” Tarvek screamed. “Don’t drop me!” as the trooper clank dropped him onto the pavement.
“They’re going to shoot them?” Agatha asked aghast.
This was obviously the case, as the crowd was surging forward. The soldiers coolly formed a line. The two clanks unshipped their massive machine cannons, and their motors began to whine as the barrels began to rotate up to speed.
“Fix bayonets!” Scorp ordered from the side. Smoothly the troops affixed the long steel blades to their rifles.
“But those people aren’t armed!” Agatha cried. “Some of them are children! They can’t—”
Tarvek grabbed her leg. “Stop them!” he said urgently. “You can control them. Tell them to stop! If they’re not attacking, the soldiers won’t shoot them!”
Agatha whirled towards the onrushing crowd and filled her lungs. “LISTEN TO ME!” she shouted.
“I think I found it, Captain.”
DuPree took her hands off of her ears. “About time! The noise is killing me!”
The command ship had luffed over Sturmhalten castle, and the ship’s observers had been told to find whatever was generating the colossal lightshow. They had been examining the grounds below ever since. One of them had thought to train her scopes within the shattered keep.
The image on the scope showed an odd machine, clearly operating, and throwing intense beams of light into the sky. The directional microphone also registered a significant uptick in decibels when the ship cleared the keep’s walls.
“Yeah, that’s gotta be it,” Bangladesh declared.
“Orders, Ma’am?”
Bangladesh stroked her chin. “We should assemble a device team. It may be rigged to prevent tampering, so we’ll want a gadgetman on a quick-pull return system. Once we shut it down, Klaus could study it or something.”
Everyone within earshot stared at the Captain in astonishment. Finally Bangladesh couldn’t contain herself any more and burst out laughing as she hit a lever. “Or we could just blow it up!”
The other crewmen relaxed. The scope operator wiped her brow. “You had me going there, Captain.”
On the keel of the airship, a bomb-bay door fell open and a small dropedo screamed earthwards, landing within two meters of Agatha’s projector. There was a satisfying explosion, and the giant image disappeared.
On the firing line, everyone blinked at the sudden cessation of sound. Even the crowd paused for a second, before continuing their advance.
“Eyes front!” Scorp roared. “The enemy is still advancing!”
Tarvek stared upwards at the smoldering keep. Suddenly, the ramifications of the silence hit him. The background music had stopped. Which meant—
He whipped around in time to see Lucrezia assess the situation. He shouted to the soldiers. “Ignore the crowd! The Heterodyne Girl! You’ve got to grab—”
The gunshot echoed from the stone walls and froze everyone. Tarvek dropped to the ground as Lucrezia tossed the revolver away. “Such a waste,” she sighed. Then she shouted. “KILL THE SOLDIERS! KILL THEM ALL!” And with a laugh, she vaulted over the nearest railing and darted off.
“Where’n the hell did she get a gun?” Scorp yelled.
The medic paled. “This... this is my gun, Sergeant.”
“You and you!” the Sergeant pointed to two troopers. “Get after her! Take her down!” To the rest he roared, “Firing positions!”
He then faced the onrushing mob of unarmed civilians and grit his teeth. “FIRE!”
Lucrezia heard the boom of rifles, followed by the roar of the machine cannons from behind her and smirked. “That will keep them busy.” She turned a corner and almost tripped over a wounded and shackled Vrin.