Gate Episode 14

As the earthquake went off Itami and Suguwara walked up to me and said, "Level 4 or 5 Jango?"

I pulled out my hologram and said, "level 5.5 actually, and judging by the damage its far from us"

Pina looked at us panicked and said, "Itami brothers what is going on! How can you be relaxed at a time like this!"

"Clearly you have never lived in California, or Japan for that matter, earthquakes like this are very common in our world" I chuckled.

Itami chuckled said, "yeah this magnitude happens all the time back home, it will be over before you know it."

The earthquake started to stop and slow and Itami said, "what did I tell ya, now then High Inquisitor?"

I nodded my head and used my cyber brain to contact all personnel using neural interfaces and said, "okay people let's get this show on the road, an aftershock could happen anytime so start checking for survivors and aiding the people!"

Rory then contacted me via the Net and said, "Jango is everything okay on your end."

"yeah, we're all safe, an aftershock is on the way though so I need you to get everyone ready for it got it?" I asked.

Pina butted in on our cyber conversation and said, "hold on there's gonna be another one!?"

I nodded and said, "yeah after an Earthquake of that size there is bound to be one."

Pina then said, "we have to do something, I must inform my father!"

Pina then ended the conversation before looking at Hamilton and shouting, "Gather our clothes, we're going to the imperial palace!"

Itami smiled and said, "please be careful!"

Pina looked a little shocked and said, "what are you saying, are you not coming with us?!"

"No disrespect princess, but your dad is the emperor what do you think we can do about it?" I asked.

Sugawara nodded and said, "even if this is an emergency situation, I'm not sure if it's a good idea for enemy soldiers to just show up unannounced."

Pina held my arm and said, "you let me handle that, but please I need you, I need you by my side Jango! I need you too Itami need you guys to aid me."

I looked at Itami and Sugawara and said, "fine…Itami have the rest of your squad stay here and do damage reports, I'll call for a tachikoma and a Mons Custodes to follow us to the capital sound good?"

Itami nodded and said, "roger that High Inquisitor" and soon we made our way through the capital up to the palace where Guards were panicking and shriveling in fear.

The Tachikoma then landed right next to me and opened up revealing the Mons Custodes inside.

Stepping out and kneeling the Mons Custodes said, "Custodes Rika ready to serve my liege" before getting up.

I looked at the Tachikoma and said, "stay cloaked unless I say otherwise, got it?"

The Tachikoma saluted and cloaked giving us ample time to make it up to the main palace where Itami whistled and said, "boy this looks like some evil kings castle, or a dark legion base for that matter."

Pina looked at us as we approached a set of Mahogany doors and said, "please wait here for a moment."

Soon we were escorted to the throne room where we finally got a good look at the emperor, he did have zorzel's features considering he was Zorzel's father, but there was a kindness to him, one not present in Zorzel but present in Pina's eyes, a wise ruler dressed in opulent violet and burgundy clothes.

Pina then shouted, "now listen send word to the generals and forces in all imperial camps they are to report here at once! Military officers take charge of the guard, secure the area surrounding the palace!"

The guards dressed in white saluted and rushed out. The maids then rushed around and cleaned up the place.

The emperor chuckled and said, "My Pina how much you have grown."

Pina confused at the phrase said, "Father I have been this tall for a while."

The emperor then turned to us and said, "so, I see we have some guests, mind telling me who they are."

Pina nodded and said, "of course this is Sugawara a Japanese emissary, next to him is High Inquisitor Jango Itami an emissary from Dark Legion Private Enforcement LLC. And next to him is his Brother Yoji Itami from the JSDF."

Sugawara walked forward and bowed, and I followed bowing as well while the Mons Custodes and Itami saluted.

The emperor raised his eyebrow slightly and said, "a dark legion and Japanese emissary why would you bring them here at a time like this?"

Pina looked at the emperor and said, "well they're well versed in the earth tremors sire I thought perhaps they could offer some advice."

The emperor looked a little skeptical and said, "hmm is that so" before getting up and saying, Htne I would like to welcome you Mr. Sugawara and High Inquisitor Jango Itami but if you can see we are in the middle of a crisis so I am afraid a proper welcome will have to wait."

Suguwara confidently said, "I understand your majesty I am sure we'll have ample opportunity when the situation improves."

Behind us the doors slammed open suddenly and in walked Zorzel all high and mighty shouting, "father, I am here father" shoving past us as the Mons Custodes got in front of me in case Zorzel attacked.

Zorzel smirked and said, "ahh I am so glad to see your well!" before turning to us and saying, "now let's get you out of here as soon as possible!"

Pina tried to come to our aid saying, "please wait brother I have already summoned the leading members to join us!"

Zorzel growled and said, "this is not the time to waste on bureaucrats, Noriko and Wilma have told me another earthquake can come at any moment!"

Raising my eyebrow I said, "Wilma…Noriko…does that mean Doctor Wilma."

Pina looked surprised and said, "how would you know anything about earthquakes! And who are these Wilma and Noriko people you speak of!"

Zorzel waved his arm and in guarded by a detachment of guards was a young woman with black hair in chains, and next to her the scientist in charge of training all dark legion personnel one of the two founding doctors of Dark Legion, Wilma Montierr. The Mons Custodes and I were shocked, because she was missing an arm and had an eyepatch. They tortured her, they hurt her.

Wilma struggled to stand up and look us straight in the eye. I had to take of my helmet to see if it truly was her cause I thought the visor had messed with my vision.

Using the net I contacted Doctor Miandi and told her what I saw.

"High Inquisitor you are free to handle the situation however you see fit, just make sure Wilma is safe" Doctor Miandi said.

Zorzel snickered and said, "that is Noriko my personal slave and the bitch next to her is Doctor Wilma Montier a supposed scientist who I have been torturing for new ideas for our military. They're survivors we were able to capture from the other side of the gate" while walking over to them.

Zorzel then slammed his foot into Wilma's leg, breaking it with a loud crunch causing the doctor to cry out in pain. The Mons Custodes was about to move to kill when I looked back at him and shook my head, and he stood down.

Zorzel then grabbed Noriko and said, "now I want you to tell his majesty exactly what you told me about the earthquakes!"

Noriko then started to cry as Zorzel grabbed her face and shouted, "please leave me alone please don't hurt me anymore!"

This made me and Itami pissed as Itami bolted forward and hit Zorzel in the face sending him flying into his goons. Itami started to box the other people as well to save Noriko and I rushed over to Break them free.

Wilma looked at me and said, "Paladin Itami?"

I shook my head and said, "High Inquisitor Itami, Doctor."

This made Wilma struggle to smile as she said, "I always knew you would make Inquisitor."

I then heated up my hands and started to melt the cuffs off her and Noriko getting them to a safe distance next to Sugawara Noriko cried in my arms and said, "I wanna go home!"

Sugawara took of his coat and said, "I can't believe a Japanese person is enslaved here" before coldly looking at the emperor and saying, "what's the meaning of this your majesty, why is she here."

Pina tried to defend her brother saying, "I am sure this must be some sort of a mistake!"

Zorzel started to laugh and said, "I won't bother asking how you got in here, but it seems you have chosen your own destiny, it's a serious crime to attack a member of the royal family, a very serious one" before snapping his fingers and we were surrounded by at least 100 guards.

Itami then looked at me and said, "High Inquisitor weapons free, do whatever it takes."

Grinning I linked up with the Mons Custodes Cyber brain and shouted, "Battle recognition mode!"

Zorzel shouted, "Kill them all!" and the first one the Zero System predicted would move was the knight to Zorzel's left.

Compared to the brigands from Italica, these guys weren't really a threat and even lighter armed, the man would rush me leaving himself wide open to a flurry of bullets from the wrist mounted 50. Cals on the Mons Custodes giving me ample time to rush forward.

The Zero System plotted a course to Zorzel decapitating 5 of the 100 guards around Zorzel. Requesting to use more of my gear the Zero System recommended I roll away from one of the goons to allow the Mons Custodes to use his Balistus grenade launcher to launch sticky bombs at the mens feet, giving a 98% chance for the men's legs to be blown off giving me ample time to use my wrist blades and slice their heads off before rushing the next guard and blowing his legs off myself with my leg mounted rockets, followed by the Mons Custodes readying his Pole rifle and disintegrating the man without hesitation.

The Zero system also predicted Zorzel's surprise at how nibble I was saying, "its just two men we can take them!"

The Zero System then predicted Zorzel flanking us to try and kill Itami, so I opted for the Mons Custodes to go on the defense and defend the diplomats while I rushed forward with a 85% chance of being surrounded. Using the targeting scope in the Zero system I picked the targets that would be targeting me and used my homing blade launchers to kill them.

Predictring Zorzel's intentions again the Zero System predicted he would say, "from a line and take that bitch out" with imperial soldiers forming a line.

The Zero system gave me two options, I could have the Mons Custodes use a Singularity explosive which had a 100% chance of killing all the shield guards but also a 95% chance of sucking Zorzel, or I could use my flamethrowers on high burst with a 78.9% chance of burning the soldiers in their armor with a 55% chance of catching Zorzel in the crossfire and 45% chance of starting a fire. Opting for the second option I got everything ready and melted my way through the shield wall before finally connecting to the Tachikoma who had been following us to use its machine guns and finally decloak to kill the other guards.

Exiting Battle recognition mode I looked at the guards the Mons Custodes had killed and realized he left little to nothing left at all.

Coldly I said, "there doesn't need to be anymore bloodshed, drop your weapons and surrender."

Zorzel didn't even seem to care that his soldiers were dead he just looked at me with blind hatred and said, "a bunch of god damn cowards!"

Itami then stepped forward and said, "now princes, when you brought in Noriko and Doctor Wilma you said she was a survivor, what that tells me is that you kidnapped other people as well, people who didn't make it"

As Itami was saying this I brought up an MIA report from Ginza and realized there were 10 off duty dark legion soldiers who were missing too.

Prince Zorzel sneered as he got up and said, "I have no obligation to tell you anything"

Itami sighed and said, "have it your way, he's all your High Inquistor"

Grinning I dropped my guns and got out of my armor before cracking my knuckles and saying, "time for a good old fashion ass kicking" before bolting at Zorzel dodging his swing by sidestepping I caught him offguard and grabbing him by the sword arm and tossing him over my shoulder judo style before dislocating his arm and hitting him mercilessly in the face till a tooth popped out.

He was so pathetic I didn't have to do much to get him to cry for mercy before dragging him by his leg in front of Itami who pointed a gun at his face and said, "okay your highness you still haven't answered my question."

Zorzel refused to answer, and I was losing patience, so I dug my foot into his knee and said, "answer him".

Still refusing, I had the Tachikoma get its wheel close to his face and start to rev it up.

Zorzel cried a bit more before a slave I recognized from my recon as Tyuule rushed forward and held Zorzel begging for his mercy.

Tyuule coldly said, "I beg of you do not kill the prince."

I moved her out of the way and looked at zorzel and said, "answer the question did you kidnap anymore Japanese people or dark legion personnel?"

Zorzel was about to say something when Noriko spoke up and said, "wait where's Hiroki and War Priest Vingalmo?"

I was shocked and said, "did you say Vingalmo? As is Vingalmo Kinney?"

Noriko nodded and said, "the four of us were taken from Ginza together!"

Zorzel mumbled, "some of the prisoners were sold into slavery, others were tortured for fun" before passing out.

This had my blood boiling as Memories of Vingalmo, the man who trained me personally when I became a Deacon, flooded my mind, Vingalmo was my sponsor through out my career before he retired at the age of 45, so hearing such a noble war priest was sold as a slave had me furious.

I used my cyber brain to tell Sugawara, "Handle this or else there will be blood."

Sugawara nodded and turned to the emperor saying, "your highness the formalities will have to wait until after this issue has been resolved."

Taking a deep breath in and calming my nerves I looked at Princess Pina and said, "and princess Pina I pray we will be hearing your thoughts on the matter, yes? About the whereabouts of our people, and the dark legion personnel and their safe return"

The emperor said, "the soldiers of Japan and Dark Legion Private enforcement are strong, but I fear you have just revealed a tremendous weakness, your hindered by crippling love for your people ultimately it could create great suffering in the future we have seen advance civilizations grow brazen in their power only to be hacked down and slaughtered by barbarians I'd keep that in mind if I were you"

Suguwara smiled and said, "this weakness of ours, happens to be Japanese national policy and to protect it and our people we have the JSDF and to aid us is Dark Legion Private Enforcement LLC. So, I ask would you like another demonstration?"

The emperor chuckled and said, "no we can not resist your advance firepower or technology. You may begin the peace negotiations and the military contract whenever you wish."

Suguwara smiled and said, "your majesty as you are very well aware peace is a time in which to prepare for the next conflict our nation and our world, what's outside the gate has been forged with a long history of blood much worse than your empire has ever endured so keep that in mind."

Itami saluted and said, "that will be all for now, let's go" and we started to leave.

Coldly I used my cyber brain to tell Pina, "I had trusted you…and you broke that trust, I'll be sending you a bill for the supplies used in Italica and here, I expect full payment or else" before sending her a bill for 500,000 swans.

The next day I got a notification from command to send the Mons Custodes to a nearby military fort and raise it to the ground and leave a note, you killed and tortured our great soldiers and buried them in unmarked graves, so we gave you the same kindness.

Pina kept trying to contact me begging for forgiveness, but I ignored her. Itami then told me to pick a target for their planes I said, "have them drop of relief supplies for the survivors and then drop the payload on the senate building."

Meanwhile:

Zorzel and Diabo were having talks about how they could succeed the throne and get rid of the JSDF and Dark Legion once and for all.

"if I were to succeed the throne and father was Incapacitated we could launch a full assault on these bastards and wipe them all out, but we'd need the man power for that and quite frankly its taking to long to train soldiers" Zorzel growled

Balalaika then chuckled emerging from the shadows and said, "leave that to me."