Day 83

It took several hours for the soldiers to hunt down the scattered monsters that had managed to escape the 'kill' room by sheer force of numbers. A handful of men were sent to request further reinforcements, while the remainder reinforced their current grip on this advantage they held over the trapped enemy.

They started to scavenge from the machines that lay exposed, taking useful components and previously unknown materials from the broken golem room.

As expected the giant metal creatures came out on the attack as the final remaining line of defense, but they were not acting as they had before. They had always been violent and aggressive, now they had an added tone of desperation. It should also be noted, the soldiers now had more than a passing familiarity with machines and the weapons the golems used.

The first to appear: the 'giant', the massive humanoid type. Charging into battle with a heavy cleaver too big for anything but a golem or an actual giant to use. It was faster than an ape and a thing of pure brute force.

The golems had been sent out to annihilate the soldiers, but the one in control had sent out all of them. Controlling the 'Golden Doom' personally Niala had simply left the other four autonomous, with the order to “kill every one of those bastards”.

It was a straight forward assault. Relying on their power and the hardness of their armor to literally crush the apes underfoot. Under her previous tactics of short guerilla style engagements this would have been shockingly successful, but seeing the grand defense Rick had left behind broken as she watched first-hand through the camera drones... she was enraged. This in turn lead to her allowing the golems to rampage without restraint, ultimately leading to disaster.

This 'giant' was not equipped for anything besides close combat, it had been designed originally as a defensive weapon but the train-crash had severely damaged it's core functions. The original electro-magnetic barrier had been crippled, as had the fragile crossbows built into the right arm. The chains that allowed the left fist to be used as a flail were tangled internally. All of it's hidden weapons were damaged. Rick had intended to use it to babysit the more vulnerable group members but the rushed creation and deployment to 'rescue' Little Rat had made the finer details slip his mind, so Niala never found out it could be piloted.

It was still a golem and thus had a frame fused to the armour, however it also had ball joints on the major limbs and simple mitten-like graspers for the right hand which were articulated. The golem like the solid metal original still could flex the rigid frame and armor, just not as efficiently as the joints. Because of this the mechanized golems all had a higher acceleration and dexterity than the original. The downside was of course that they were more fragile and easier to trip up. A solid golem even if it falls a fair distance, it won't simply break, the mechanized golems however could break under quite ordinary conditions.

The golem was quite busy advancing, slaughtering as it went further and further out into the room. Being a barely sapient machine of sorts it had no problems simply chasing and killing. The solid steel skeleton and iron plates of armor, splattered in blood and gore. The cleaver, weighing the same as two men was swung with a speed that was wholly in the realm of a machine. Despite the towering war-machine, the apes continued to resist and they did so with a tenacity that was leagues above their earlier encounters.

While the golem was occupied killing them, the soldiers wound chains around it, then looping them around a metal spike jutting from the ground. This spike was a disabled trap and provided leverage: like ants the apes worked together to bring down the golem with numbers and combined strength. The golem toppled backwards, ruining an extended arm, being hollow it had less weight than it's size suggested. It did to some degree realize it was restrained, but this was only after the apes continually wound the chains around it. It had orders and it followed them, to the exclusion of all else: it broke it's own limbs like twigs in the struggle to escape. Chained and crippled the machine struggled relentlessly and now, harmlessly.

The smaller humanoid (Barricade model) golems were harder to chain like this, but they were vulnerable to direct attacks. The pair were more compact versions of the 'giant' the same kind Rick used as bodyguard units just with extra arms and fancy swords grafted to them. They were not made for war. They were made to delay dangerous enemies. Certainly they could kill a man with ease, even a gentle tap would break bones. They had mono-filament blades built into their hands. They were still easier to handle than the towering 'giant'. They were slower due to the reduced stride, their armor and frame were lighter. While they tried to kill, apes would climb them and strike them in the back, jamming sharp weapons into joints and prying at the armor plates.

It was a slow, brutally slow. Each moment cost the apes in blood. But it brought the golems literally to their knees. Once they had them stopped, they could entangle them in wires, nets and chains. They fell only a few minutes after the start of the rampage.

The final two were the hardest nuts to crack. On one hand they had a sniper specialist golem built around a rail-gun and on the other the war-machine 'Golden Doom'. Even worse they were being directly controlled, Niala covering the close-range weakness of the sniper with the tanky bird-like walking armory.

In fact the apes tried to rush the sniper directly, thinking to lock it down like the other small sized bodyguard golems. They only knew it fired singular powerful shots, from the descriptions of the soldiers at the city gate. They learned very quickly, they had not a clue. The golem could use a barrel extension for the full sniper mode, but that arm could retract and enable a 'burst' mode. A spray of sub-sonic rounds made almost no sound as they turned the five bold apes into bloody chunks of meat. They didn't get within five yards.

As for the 'Golden Doom' itself it opened up with pulse-laser fire and prepared a plasma round for the nearest cluster of troops. Soldiers dove for cover and tried to defend with shields. Repeated shots from the laser melted through the leather and bronze barriers. The plasma was outside of their understanding, the terrifying energy tumbling through the crowd and carbonizing those too close to the instant kill zone. Then it proceeded to use it's magnetic arms to gather debris and fling the cloud of lethal objects in a spray onto occupied areas randomly.

The semi-circular gathering of soldiers around the tunnel mouth was subjected to varied objects launched in an arc to attack them from above. If they moved to defend with a shield or dodge, the pulse-laser had them. The rain included broken spikes, arrows, darts, cogs and chains. It excluded bronze weapons, because they aren't highly conductive toward magnetism. But as it was a rain of iron, copper and steel it was enough in some cases to penetrate even the bronze armor the apes wore.

It seemed quite bad for the apes, the laser was simply an overbearing advantage. Then came the roar of the rail-gun as the sniper golem unleashed it's full firepower on them from a distance. The Golden Doom then resumed it's advance pouring out electricity on those stupid enough to come near and frying them alive as the absurdly high energy arced to the nearest enemy. Rick only used the weapon to neutralize allies... Niala used it purely as a walking electrocution machine.

It seemed as if the golem was utterly invincible as it strode forward killing dozens in moments. Then a flurry of black lumps flew through the air to strike the golem, splattering across armor. It ignored those hits, they did no damage. Then the tar struck the laser's focus.

Niala's scream of outrage was audible even in the adjoining room. The Golden Doom resumed it's advance, like a Tesla coil the golem arced out lethal amplitude electricity. Niala had blundered badly. If she had withdrawn and simply cleaned the laser it wouldn't have been a big issue. However it was now over-extended. Dragging along the cable that powered it's main weapons.

A brave ape leaped forward hacking at the cable with a sword partially succeeding. The golem whined as it powered down, the sword had struck deeply into the cable, crippling the fibre-optics and digging into the copper core unleashing the full electrical charge on the ape through his weapon... charring him and melting the sword.

A second ape ran to strike the critical wound to the golem, only to scatter into pieces as he walked into a rail-gun bullet. The sniper provided support as the Golden Doom finally began to retreat. At this critical moment a hail of arrows fell on the sniper. They barely dented the armor, all except that one strange arrow that hummed...

Struck by the harmonic destroyer artifact the sniper golem crumpled and deformed, reduced to unmoving wreckage as it fell. As the huge Golden Doom slowly began to run the entire remaining ape army gave chase. Chisels, prybars and spears were jammed into the knees of the golem and steel spikes earlier used as projectiles by the golem returned to grind against the machine. Behind the golem the cable was fully severed, the final several yards being hauled by burly men. Chains were hooked onto the arms. Two more rows of men heaving to drag it back. For a moment it stood still, then toppled backwards. The crash smashing internal components.

Shouting “Heave! Pull! Kill!” the ape soldiers dragged the massive golem down the tunnel and back into the broken trap room. Coordinating with their captain they dragged the golem to a pit and as it struggled shoved it in. It slid into a pool of acid, remnants of the spray system that they had experienced.

The golem was metal and gold plated... it was resistant to corrosion but the armor was scraped and nicked. Acid burned into the lower layers of armor and into the internal components. But it was a golem not a machine. It strained and eventually tore the restraints as they corroded faster than itself. It rose up from the acid pool, striding forward and out. But even so it was corroding fast, the legs were almost crippled already. But it would not allow it's mission to fail! It swept it's body around hurling apes into the acid or drenching them in the fluid flowing out of it's gaping armor.

Finally a leg snapped as the whole limb succumbed to the chemical reaction. It fell in a heap, slowly crumbling. It was pushed back into the pool by the apes with a cheer.

All that stood before their victory was a mere few hundred slaves.

This costly and terrible war was in it's final stage.

Day 83

Deep inside the sealed room there were sounds of sobbing. Niala had destroyed almost everything her brother had given her and it tore her heart to shreds with dismay and regret. Weapons that would shame nations, defenses that could blunt invasions by endless forces... thrown away by her own hastiness and hot temper.

A little catgirl hugged her but it wasn't enough. It didn't console or fill that gaping emptiness.

Everything her brother had done, she had undone... in a matter of days.

She wanted to die in her grief, even tearing at her own throat with her claws, only to survive the dreadful wounds and regenerate in minutes.

She didn't dare harm the metal parts of her body, as Rick's final gift they were essentially sacred to her, but even these would self-repair if she did. It was a gift that few would ever understand, he had given her immortality in a fashion and it tortured her.

This was something Rick certainly didn't expect when he did it, because if she could have her way, Niala would have gladly died beside him... instead he had forced on her a torture that would be maddening. Because true immortality is not a gift but a curse of the highest order. True life is too short for most living beings, but life when everything in your soul cries out for death and oblivion? When the mental suffering cannot be forgotten or lessened?

Niala was in a kind of hell few could truly appreciate until they came to know it firsthand.

She just lay there, for hours on end. Never eating, never breathing, never sleeping but always, always awake and aware... and going over her mistakes again and again, ad nauseum.

Day 84

The ape soldiers had started to construct heavy siege weapons in their final preparations to breach the sealed room with it's solid stone door.

Much of the broken trap mechanisms had been re-purposed, either as enhancements to equipment or as loot to take home as spoils of war.

Steel armor looted from golems covering a frame of wood was the primary defense of the new battering ram. The head of the wooden ram a golem fist, the giant's left hand. Ironically that fist had been designed by Rick based upon a battering ram.

At least if there was one mercy; the ape spear commander hadn't realized the significance of his 'goodluck charm'. If he had known that solitary arrow was all he needed to break the door down he would have coughed up blood after all this effort.

Day 85

There was disquiet in the sealed room. Food was scant and the water supply was gone. Many were restless and wanted to attack while they could still hold a sword.

Niala just lay there, listening without a sound for several long minutes as they fumbled at the locked door.

One angry young man, of bestial heritage hauled her to her feet and threatened her with a sword stolen from the armory. Pressing the tip to her belly he snarled at her to open the door.

She glanced at him with a glazed look. Then she looked down at the sword.

She finally seemed to comprehend the situation.

Her knee shot up, smashing the man's groin. Her right hand caught his wrist and with a twist broke his arm at the elbow. As the sword fell she caught it in her bare left hand by the razor edged blade, tearing her palm and fingers to the metal encased bone.

Finally as he stumbled away a high kick cracked into his neck, snapping his spine.

“Don't touch Chirrik's things with your filthy hands, scum.” Niala spat at him.

She didn't care about anyone in the room, besides the few she saw as close to Rick and her Kitten. If the lives of this handful came under threat then there was only one solution, she would simply kill off everyone else. Even if it was to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the newcomers, she would force her chosen few to survive.

She had even less tolerance for mishandling Rick's valuable weapons.

She glanced at the mob and her order chilled them.

It was simply:

“Put those weapons back carefully, or die here and now. Choose quickly.” [Niala]

They were all aware of how aggressive she was. How utterly ruthless.

The weapons were gently replaced as she watched with a glare that could almost kill by itself.

“Remember it, these weapons are worth more than your pitiful lives to me.” [Niala]

Then she entered the armory and sifted through the multitude of weapons for the ones she wanted. Yes, she was a hypocrite. They were given to her by Chirrick, if she could she would leave them as a shrine for all to see. Now she used them to console herself... physically. It wasn't the touch of her brother but it still smelled like him and that was enough for her. She needed this.

Day 86

And so the final day of the siege dawned in the light-less depths of the Labyrinth.

It opened with a roar, as Niala flung herself at the enemy with nothing but her body, a sword and a cube...

What we learned:

An enemy determined to win even in death is a terrifying thing.

Chicken (golem) soup anyone? Beware you might burn your mouth...

Finally we have finally arrived at the same timeline point as the Rick side.

Final outcome of the battle: UNKNOWN.

Bwahahahahahaahahahaaaaahhhaaaa!

Sorry... procrastination is my nemesis I'm afraid. Every single time I try to write one thing, I have an urge to write another.

Hopefully in the right thread this time!

Sorry to anyone confused by the 'manaspirit' chapter that just appeared... it was only the extremely late Labyrinth.

I was sure I put it in the right thread... ugh.