Chapter 319: Covert Operations, Part 3
Landsberg am Lech, 13 Jun 1939 - 11:00 AM
Standing before the Inquisitors and Raphael was the most hated man in all of the Reich (besides Angelos, of course). Engelbert almost forgot that Gediminas Principas, the man who gunned down Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand and his wife in cold blood in the streets of Lublin and precipitated the deadliest conflict in human history, was incarcerated in Landsberg Prison. However, after getting over his initial shock he wasn't really surprised that Uriel had taken Gediminas as his vessel. The angels had done far crazier things.
"What, are you guys just going to stare at me?" said Uriel. "I'm just waiting to get out of this wretched--"
"SHUT UP!" shouted Hans, pointing his pistol at the archangel's face. "Why the hell--yes, I
did say hell--did you take this monster of a man as your vessel?!"
"Relax, I can explain," said Uriel, "Now, let's get out of here before--"
"No!" replied Albert, also brandishing his gun, "Explanations!"
"He doesn't want to explain," said Conrad, "Because he was the one who did it. Killed the prince."
"Now there, let's not be too hasty--" began Uriel.
"Okay, I feel like I have to vent something as well," said Gerhard, "Why did you kill him?! Why did you kill our prince!"
"I have a good reason for this, but you guys keep interrupting me before I can--"
"Uh, guys," said Raphael, pointing behind them.
Engelbert heard the sound of guns being loaded behind him. All of them slowly turned around, finding that a dozen heavily armed Imperium soldiers had appeared, blocking off their only route of escape. They appeared to have a modified Inquisition insignia just below their Angeloi armbands.
"Oh, come on," said Uriel.
"Sorry for interrupting your little discussion," said the squad commander, "But I'm afraid I have orders to follow. I am Inquisitor Schmidt, of the Munich branch. We need to ask you a few questions. Come with us and cooperate to the best of your ability. The results for not doing otherwise are...how shall I say this...unpleasant."
"Traitors!" said Conrad. "All of you! Selling yourselves out to the Angeloi!"
Schmidt put a bullet through Conrad's left leg, and the Inquisitor went down.
"You're lucky that hit you in the leg," said Schmidt, "If I wanted you dead, you would be dead."
Raphael prepared to snap his fingers.
"Don't even try," said Schmidt, "You want to know the reason your precious archangel was trapped in here for thirty-five years? Extremely strong anti-angel warding, reinforced with several dozen other anti-angelic spells."
"Then how did we open the door?" said Albert.
"Oh, we disabled the spell for a few seconds to make you think there was no spell," said Schmidt, "Now, from now on I will be the one asking the questions."
"No, you won't," said Engelbert, raising his pistol, "We'd rather die here fighting you than answer your questions."
"And if you do escape today, then what?" replied Schmidt. "Save Vienna and Breslau with your reinforced defensive spells? Please. As we speak, combined Inquisition-Imperium forces are assaulting Breslau. Preliminary reports from the front lines indicate that your precious spells are crumbling under the assault."
"No," said Engelbert, "That's not true."
"It is," said Raphael, "I can hear them. The angels in Breslau. They're panicking. There are many casualties. Many are dead, injured, or captured. The rest are disorganized."
"See?" said Schmidt. "Your angel has confirmed my claims. Breslau will fall soon, and Vienna will be next. Now come with me, or else I will have no choice--"
"Shut up," said Engelbert, "
Tsetumlen!"
He drew his free hand out of his pocket, where he had used his pocketknife to cut a light gash in his palm in the shape of an easy to draw sigil. He dropped to the floor and pressed his bloody palm against the hard concrete. A bright light and high-pitched noise filled the room for one second, and Schmidt and the enemy soldiers screamed, clutching their heads.
"Run!" shouted Engelbert.
The group rushed past the confused soldiers and ran up the stairs.
As they ran past the rows of condemned inmates, Raphael said, "Hey, their warding doesn't reach up here!"
Before the other Inquisitors or Uriel could say a word, he snapped his fingers, and every single cell door in the prison simultaneously opened. Hundreds of inmates poured out from their cells, swarming the Imperium soldiers as they tried to catch up. None of them tried to attack the Inquisitors.
"Don't worry!" said Raphael. "I got rid of the mental illnesses and other issues that they accumulated during their time in prison, so they'll be fine once things settle down!"
"Really?" said Conrad, limping close behind. "Have you ever thought that there could be criminals who can't be cured that easily?!"
"Eh, I've also locked all but the main gate," said Raphael, "Now let's keep moving!"
They reached the main gate, only to find that several hundred Imperium soldiers had surrounded the facility. Machine gun turrets placed around the entrance swiveled in their direction. Army trucks screeched to a halt, dispensing more soldiers who took up firing positions behind the gate. There were even a few panzers stationed down the road, their main guns pointed straight at them.
"Seriously?" said Raphael. "Is that a challenge?"
He prepared to snap his fingers, but Uriel stopped him.
"Let me handle this," said the other archangel.
Uriel stepped forward, causing the enemy soldiers to nervously brandish their guns at him. "Don't move or we
will fire!" screamed a soldier over a megaphone.
"Oh, please do so," said Uriel, outstretching his arms.
The combined Imperium troops let loose with a terrifying display of firepower. The panzers boomed, lobbing several large shells at Uriel. The machine guns came to life, throwing wave after wave of bullets at him. The regular soldiers fired their rifles and frantically reloaded, while others threw grenades.
And as expected, none of that remotely helped them.
None of the rounds or projectiles even reached Uriel, being stopped in midflight a couple meters away from him. The whole area became deathly silent as the Imperium soldiers stared on in shock at what was happening before them. Not a single man moved at all; anybody could hear a pin drop from a mile away. Engelbert was sure none of them even knew what was happening, which probably made things worse. He could feel the sheer terror and fright emanating from the enemy troops, so much it almost overwhelmed him.
"I'm sorry I have to do this," said Uriel, snapping his fingers.
The bullets, rounds, and grenades all flew back to where they came from, and Engelbert closed his eyes as he heard the screams and explosions coming from right in front of him. He didn't want to know what happened to them, those poor souls.
"Hey," said Uriel, "Less moralizing and more running."
"Yeah," said Raphael, "Let's get out of here."
Without saying another word, Engelbert opened his eyes and ran as fast as he could through the devastation, in the general direction of Landsberg's airport.
Vienna, 5 hours later
Engelbert, still rather shocked from his experiences, entered the briefing room and sat down. In attendance were Head Inquisitor Innitzer and several other high-ranking inquisitors.
"Welcome back, Inquisitor Dolfuss," said Innitzer, "I have just received your post-mission report, and I am pleased to hear that the extraction went well."
"You could put it that way," said Engelbert, "There was an unnecessarily high number of casualties."
"I understand your concerns, Inquisitor Dolfuss," said Innitzer, "But remember, we are at war. In a war, we can't save everybody. Somebody has to die."
"But not those soldiers at the prison!" said Engelbert.
"They were enemy combatants," said Innitzer, "What you did was correct."
"You weren't there," said Engelbert, "You didn't see Uriel slaughter all of those soldiers with a single snap of his fingers. You didn't see the devastation that he caused there. You didn't see the results of the firefight from the prison to the airport. You wouldn't know what I did was correct. And I didn't even shoot anybody. I was just...there. There, watching him slaughter everybody. And for what purpose? To save Vienna? I knew that even if I got back here, we wouldn't be able to save Breslau."
"Inquisitor Dolfuss," said Innitzer, "I'm sorry for what you had to go through. But it's time to move forward, just as you did after Inquisitor Niederung's death. I can refer you to Dr. Freud again if you need more time to heal."
"Yes, that would be best."
Innitzer put down his journal. "Good. Now, let's make sure what's happening to Breslau doesn't happen here. I heard that Uriel has finished the first round of spell reinforcements. Tomorrow morning I want you to go check on him and see how he's doing. But for the rest of the day I am ordering you to rest. Dismissed."
Engelbert stood up and saluted. "Yes, sir."
Landsberg am Lech
Inquisitor-Commander Schmidt walked through the wreckage and devastation that was formerly the town square of Landsberg. Many of the stones in the street were melted or missing, forcing his Inquisitors to cast freezing spells to get around. Most of the cars had been thrown several meters away from where they were parked; some of them were found in second-story windows. The rest had been incinerated down to their chassis. Windows were melted. Whole walls and ceilings were gone. Burned bodies lay everywhere in various stages of dismemberment; most of their burns were concentrated on their faces, particularly their eyes. It was as if the war had come to Landsberg, but worse. They had underestimated the power of an archangel, and they had lost their town as a result. The Bureau of War was going to have a field day covering this one up even with the Inquisition providing memory-wiping spells. And the worst thing was that the Inquisition had denied the use of anti-angel weapons here, saying that they were needed on the Illyrian, Carpathian, and Dacian fronts. If he had as much as two anti-angel bullets or just one dagger, he could have solved the problem right then and there. But no, the incompetent bureaucrats had to sacrifice half of a town first.
"Those Vienna traitors," he said, shaking his fist at the sky, "I will make them pay for what they did to this town. Mark my words, I will not be satisfied until the burned remains of Vienna lie at my feet."
