Chapter 2 – Undying Reapers
“It appears that the Lord has abandoned us, Captain Joshua!”
“I should shoot you for that blasphemy, private! God is always with us! Watch as I prove it!”
“Captain Joshua! Back him up, men and women! We can’t let him take all the glory!”
“The Lord is my God. I shall not want! My God is a God of Battles. I will not lose! All of my enemies will fall before me! Bullet to the skull, laser through the heart, fire to their foundation. They will burn for their unrepentant sins while I burn in penance for my sins. May God have mercy on my enemies because I will not! Amen!”
The memory of my last battle that put my body in shambles replays in my dreams every so often. Because of God’s grace and the inspiration that He put in the minds of our scientists, the Church has been able to preserve soldiers like me for further use in this new division of the military meant for veterans who want to keep fighting until the day God wants to take us. Death Walkers are made of veterans from various groups of the military most of which suffered severe injuries such as I. These injuries turn out to be a blessing as we are able to fit in suits of armor that would otherwise be hard to fit in for regular soldiers. Combining the genius put into the armor of the St. Michael the Archangel’s Legion and the Divinus Carnifex, we have become nearly unstoppable tanks for the Lord, and as our name suggests, Death Walkers.
I was born again through Baptism, again after I wrongly brought in an Orthodox prisoner only to find out that he was going to betray me, and yet again through this suit of armor. I’ve seen generations of my family come and go to finally be a part of the army again along with others like me that I’ve been close friends with. Chief Lilian from St. Joan of Arc’s Holy Virgins joined after saving civilians from a building rigged to blow. General Titus from St. Michael the Archangel’s Legion joined after nearly taking an entire legion by himself with the rest of his brothers died around him. Hunter Captain Daniel from St. George’s Hunting Party joined after being stranded in the unknown regions for years and converted the native people through reason and conquest. All these people became part of the Death Walkers program to continue their service to God since we are given a second chance.
Right now, we are chasing the remnants of the empires that escaped the pope’s Infinitus Anathema decree. The punishment for the refusal to submit to God and His Church is death. They’ve already been given countless chances to repent, but they refuse every act of mercy. When mercy is refused, there is only justice to be given.
“Are you okay, Joshua? You aren’t slipping away from us to the Gates of Heaven, are ya?” Titus asks.
“Not yet. Are you done flirting with women more than a hundred years younger than you?” I respond.
“There’s nothing wrong with being a gentleman to women.”
“There is something wrong when you ask her out to dinner only for her to discover that you’re more machine than man. Don’t your great-great-grandchildren keep you under control?” Lilian asks.
“I’m more fit than they’ll ever be and they’re a part of the Divinus Carnifex so they’re busy keeping the peace while I guard Papal Palaces for hours on end. I have to keep myself occupied with more than prayer, you know? What do you think, Daniel?”
“I think you still need to grow up, old man,” Daniel jokes.
Everyone including Titus laugh.
“As the oldest out of all here, I know that we all still have lessons to learn,” our commander says as he enters our side of the ship.
He is Grand Commander Cainan, grandson of Venerable Seth who led a revolution against a corrupt Church centuries ago. He’s been kept alive like the rest of us by his strong spirit, the grace of God, and the advances in medical technology.
“Speaking about lessons, we are going up against some of the toughest enemy soldiers, tanks, and aircraft since we’re going after the elite and royalty who brought along their escort in the hopes of being safe in the harsh unknown regions,” the commander continues.
“So are we executing them with extreme prejudice sir or extra extreme prejudice?” Titus asks.
“You know the answer already.”
“God have mercy on our enemies,” Daniel prays.
“We are God’s weapons of mercy and justice,” I point out.
“Amen,” everyone else says as we’re about to be deployed.
“Have faith and have no mercy,” Cainan says as we are dropped to the ground like bombs from the ship.
We land in a small city that is still under construction with makeshift houses and shells of ships that they probably used to help construct the city. Sirens ring throughout the city as ships, tanks, and infantry come our way.
“I just want to remind you guys that there are seven of us versus a personal army of them,” Titus says.
“That sounds fair to me,” Lilian says with confidence.
“I wasn’t complaining.”
“Then let’s get this done,” Daniel says as he unleashes a barrage of missiles at the incoming horde with the missile launcher on his back.
“For the Lord!” I say as I charge with my minigun arm revving up.
Our squad melts through our enemies as they uselessly try to fight against us with their heaviest weapons only managing to slow us down without a scratch. We cut down all that stand before us. Even the large buildings that they’ve built up crumble before our might. As the battle goes on, some ships hidden beneath the ground and on the surface rise to escape only to be brought back down by Lilian and Daniel. We spread out to eliminate the cowards that are retreating with Lilian and I taking one direction with the others spreading out in teams of two except for Daniel who stays behind to support all of us from afar with his missiles.
Everything seems to be going well until the ground starts to shake. The main fortress that looks like a cathedral and that most of the small army has retreated into starts to rise from the ground as if it were alive. The fortress rises with two large cannons for arms, tanks treads to move it forward and a skull on the front of it.
“What is that?” Titus asks over the comms.
“Something else to be destroyed. Be careful, but do not falter,” I say.
The fortress launches a barrage of missiles, laser fire, and cannon blasts at us all of which hit us while also peppering the ground around us. We fight back as best as we can though our weapons don’t seem to be causing any significant damage.
“Daniel, focus your fire on the top of the cathedral to stop their rain of missiles. The rest of us should get rid of the cannon arms,” I say.
“Understood,” Daniel says.
The squad does as I say, and the canon arms fall one at a time while the rain of missiles and laser fire slows down. With its humongous treads, it races towards us to try to run us over while continuing its barrage of attacks. Though we are large, our suits allow us to run out of the way. Since the treads are near me, I transform one of my miniguns into a sword with a black laser edge to cut through it to stop it from moving properly. Lilian has the same idea and has transformed one of her weapons into an ax to disable the other treads.
With all the damage done to it, the fortress falls over as we unleash the fury of our weapons on it. Fighting our way inside, we find the rest of the personal army that easily die with their ineffective weapons. We mop them up then give the all-clear to the army that comes down to set up a temporary base so that we can claim this world.
Grand Commander Cainan drops down from his ship and says, “Good job, worthy soldiers of God.”
“It is our honor to serve,” we say.
“Did you have to drop down from the sky and make such a flashy entrance, sir?” Titus asks.
“No, but I have to admit that it’s a fun thing to do with this power armor.”
For the next couple of days, we go through the wreckage to find information on how they made the fortress. Apparently, they thought the Ecclesia is making each Papal Palace into a mech similar to the fortress and tried to beat us to it. I’ve never heard of this though I admit it would be impressive to see. We even learn more about a secret army that’s growing against the Ecclesia in the unknown regions though it doesn’t teach us anything new. What we also didn’t know was that we heavily damaged our armor so we will be out of commission for a short while.
On the way back home to Earth, Daniel says, “Can’t wait to get back home to relax. Maybe shot some targets and go hunting. What about you guys?”
“I’m looking forward to spending some time with my family,” I say.
“Oh, can I come over?” Lilian asks.
“Sure. Bring yours along and we’ll have a nice day together. Do you want to come, Daniel?”
“You can count me in.”
“How about we all go to the beach?” Titus suggests.
“That sounds good for the family, but we can’t enjoy it like we used to,” I say.
“Really?”
“Yes, really. No one wants to see a man mostly made of mechanical parts on the beach,” Daniel says.
“Don’t worry about it. Because I don’t have a lower half, I can just go without a bathing suit and let it all-”
“Have some dignity and grow up for once, Titus!”
We all have a laugh as we rest for now. Once our suits are repaired, we’ll be deployed again in our search for this growing threat against the Church in the unknown regions. Though they may seem strong and mysterious, they run in terror because we are God’s faithful servants. We are what they fear.
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