Disclaimer: I do not own She-Ra or its related characters. All is the property of Noelle Stevenson, Dream Works Animation, Netflix, NBCUniversal Television Distribution, Filmation, Larry DiTillo, and J. Michael Straczynski.
Inconvenient Arrangements
Chapter Twelve: Not So Easy, Nordor
Flogg was enjoying his new position as leader of the mutants of Nordor.
After Skeletor told them the weaknesses in the Horde defenses, it was easy to take the lunar base from the Empire. The mysterious skull-faced sorcerer had amazing insider knowledge of the Empire, it's military, and how long it would take the Horde to mount a retaliation.
The Mutants were ready when Monstron, Prince Hec-Tor Kur's flagship, came out of hyperspace in the Denabria system.
They knew exactly which part of the station, the Empire would use at the target site for teleporting in the clone troopers, and they were waiting for them.
Bright green light lit up the otherwise dimly lit Nordor base as Monstron's energizer teleported in two squads of clone infantry.
Grunt fighters, equipped with only the basics, and expendable. Most Imperial military strikes began with a first wave of infantry clones. Of course, most Imperial military strikes could be completed and settled by clones. The 'basic equipment' for the Imperial Horde Military was still highly advanced and usually much more sophisticated than the average dissenters' cell. The mutants of Flogg's own cell had mismatched battle costumes and armor. No uniformity at all.
But most dissenter cells did not have the insider knowledge that Skeletor furnished them with.
The battle was quick. Not really a battle at all. Not even a rout.
It was a slaughter.
The air filled with the acrid scent of spent weapons, and the mildly metallic tang of blood. And when the smoke cleared, there was a room full of dead clone troopers, and only a handful of mutants were wounded, none killed.
For half a moment, every mutant on Nordor held their breath. Expecting more clones to appear at any second. To be suddenly overwhelmed and overrun.
When the next wave did not arrive in the immediate space between heartbeats, Crita, one of Flogg's lieutenants took charge of the situation.
"Collect their weapons!" She shouted to be heard over everyone's own adrenaline propelled heart beats. "When our own run out, we'll use theirs. If you're wounded, fall back and stay out of the way of those who can still fight."
They didn't know how long before Monstron beamed over more troops. Skeletor said that Prince Hec-Tor was a surprisingly good tactician for a pampered royal who'd never seen real combat in his life. They had to move fast.
…
Aboard Monstron, both Prince Hec-Tor and Admiral Callix awaited the signal that the clone troopers had done their work and the base was theirs's again. Quick and efficient, just like on Krytis.
The strike did not go like how it went on Krytis.
"Status?" Demanded Hec-Tor when nobody on the command bridge said anything.
There was another beat of a pause.
Then one nervous officer looked up from their screen. Their eyes were concerned, fearing that the Prince would punish them for the data they were about to report. But they were still an officer of the Imperial Horde Military, enlisted and trained in the Horde Academy on Horde World. Their voice was controlled and even when they gave their report.
"Clone vitals are dropping, Your Highness." They announced, reporting only the data that was being projected on their monitor and not offering explanation. "Sensors indicate all units have gone innative."
"Dead?" Callix translated at the Prince's side. "They were just teleported into the base. How could they all be dead?"
"I can only tell you what my terminal is telling me, Sir." Answered the officer.
"Open a line to the energizer room." Callix ordered. "Confirm that they teleported our troops into the correct sector of the base!"
There was absolutely no reason why an entire squadron of clone troopers should be killed within only a few short moments of being teleported to the strike area.
Unless some asshat in the energizer room had sent them to the wrong landing target.
…Or the mutants of Nordor knew they were coming and set a trap.
While Callix demanded explanations from the energizer room, Hec-Tor called of schematics of the Nordor base. Setting the images to overlap so that he could see all corridors, service shafts, and air ducts together, and ordered the computer to project the image in three dimensions so that the whole bridge could see.
"They were supposed to appear in the auxiliary storage chambers here." Hec-Tor pointed to the section of the moon with a talon. "No one guards their backup storage. The rebel mutants should not have even known we were their until they were already dead."
"They were ready for us." Callix concluded. "They knew we were coming."
Hec-Tor shook his head, not liking the thought that was occurring to him. "Not just that we were coming, but our tactics too. They knew exactly where on their base we would teleport into and were prepared to take us out."
He recalled the weapons they found on Krytis. That they were Imperial issue, from a shipment stolen from the Academy. It was an absurd thought. Krytis and Denebria were so far from each other and had nothing in common. They were not even of that high a strategic value, not compared to some other mining operations, or lunar bases. But Hec-Tor's instincts were telling him that these two uprisings were connected. The prisoners of Krytis were given weapons by a third party, and the mutants of Nordor could not have the strategic knowledge they were using without being told.
Someone was orchestrating things from behind the scenes. Someone with detailed knowledge of Imperial military equipment and tactics.
Which meant they had to change their tactics.
"Tell the energizer room to change their landing target." Ordered Hec-Tor. He glared at the overlapping schematics, noting how narrow the corridors were, and how the service ducts, and ventilation systems snaked through the station. "Teleport small groups of our enlisted units here," the part of the schematic he touched glowed to indicate where he wanted, "here, and here. Then teleport in three squads of clone units into their main hangar. They are to take out any vehicles the mutants might have, and defend our ship."
But their ship wasn't in the lunar hangar. Monstron was in orbit above Denebria along the same orbital path as the Nordor moon.
"Helmsman," continued Hec-Tor, "bring us in to dock with the base."
There was a chorus of "Yes, sir!" before every officer on the bridge hurried to carry out the Prince's alternative battle plan. Comm officers sending orders to both the on-alert enlisted troops, and the energizer room, making sure all parties were aware of the changes. Logistics officers making sure all units had what they would need from the armory. Technicians retaking measurements and altering coordinates for the energizer beams.
While all that was going on, Hec-Tor lifted her personally communicator. "Grizzlor, Mantenna, is my son still in his room?"
The first thing he heard in reply over the channel was Imp's frustrated and angry screeching, punctuated by something hard, impacting something else hard, and breaking. Probably Imp throwing another one of his toys again.
"Yes, Your Highness." Came back Mantenna's, voice, sounding tired and frustrated by having to deal with the unruly child.
"Stay with him." Hec-Tor commanded.
With Monstron docking with Nordor, there was a chance –however slight- of enemies forcing their way aboard the ship. If that happened, the Prince wanted his two best and most trusted lieutenants guarding his only child.
"Enlisted and clone units are ready at your command, Your Highness." Announced one bridge officer.
"Energizer room is waiting on your command, Your Highness." Said another.
"Monstron's pre-space docking checklist is complete, we only need your order, Your Highness." Chimed in the helmsman.
Hec-Tor nodded. He loved it when his soldiers acted quickly and were efficient. "Tell the energizer room they are a Go. Do not begin docking procedures until the clone units have secured the hangar."
"Yes, Sir!"
…
The Imperial response took longer than Flogg expected. With a name like 'the Horde', one would assume the military would just throw waves upon waves of cloned soldiers at them until they were too exhausted to continue. (And, admittedly, that had been a common strategy among many Horde leaders over the years.)
But when Skeletor left, he warmed Flogg not to underestimate Prince Hec-Tor. He might be a sheltered little royal with next to no actual battle experience of his own. But he was well educated and well studied in battle strategy, and had picked up more abstract ways of thinking from his late husband (a detail Flogg felt it was strange for an anti-government agent like Skeletor to know).
The first strike happened exactly as Skeletor described.
The second strike would not be quite so predictable.
Three new squads, enlisted aliens, not clone troopers materialized in three separate parts of the station. The multiple groups forcing Flogg to divide his own forces –and the mutants did not have as great numbers as the trooper units of the Imperial Horde. They were called 'the Horde' for a reason.
It was actually Crita, Slush Head, and Optikk who divided up their forces. Each one leading a small force to engage the Imperial soldiers.
The skirmishes were in close quarters, which thinned the numbers of both groups. Causing them all to bottle-neck in the corridors. The Horde did have the superior number, and superior training. But the mutants made the Nordor lunar base their home, and thus understood the terrain better. They used the narrow corridors to their advantage, ambushing the Horde troops from around corners, or by popping out of doors.
This time, the mutants did suffer casualties. They had to clear their own dead from the halls as well as Horde troops.
But they still managed to come out on top. By the time the station went quiet again, all the Horde soldiers were dead and the mutants still controlled Nordor.
At least, until a shudder ran through the station, shaking the floor and walls.
During all the confusion, Monstron, the Prince's flagship had docked with the station. A sea of clones between the mutants and the capitol ship. But more importantly, a sea of clones and a capitol ship between the mutants and any chance of escape. The mutants might be winning at the moment, but they wouldn't be winning for long and the Horde had just made sure they weren't going anywhere.
…
Entrapta burst onto the bridge in a whirlwind of undulating hair and enthusiasm. "Hec-Tor! I have an idea!"
"Your Highness, please, we are in the middle of a military strike and cannot-" Callix began, but the Prince cut him off. Silencing the Stoneman Admiral with a raised palm.
Entrapta might be a Princess from a world that had not had any wars of its own for many generations. But she was still an expert with technology, a manufacturer of arms, and distributed her weapons to different military outfits through out the universe. She could not be completely ignorant of military engagements.
"I will hear what the Princess has to say." Hec-Tor announced.
"Pull all your enlisted and non-clone troops back to the ship." Entrapta announced.
Everyone on the bridge stared at her as if she were insane.
Hec-Tor was suddenly regretting humoring her idea. He was commander of this vessel, overseeing this strike on the lunar base, and a Prince of the Empire. People needed to trust his judgment, and he'd just shown that maybe his judgment wasn't that great.
"Princess," he began slowly, making sure his voice was controlled. Even if he didn't think she understood what was happening here, she was still his legal wife and he had to show her the proper respect. "We are in the middle of trying to retake this base. Recalling our troops would be counter productive to that goal."
"Not all the troops." Entrapta clarified, her own voice taking on a tone of patience, as if she were trying to make someone understand something that seemed obvious to her. As if she were trying to educate a child but wasn't quite sure how. Entrapta was never sure how to talk to people. "Just the alien ones. Leave all the clones, and send in more. I guess you can leave any enlisted who come from a species that can breathe a thin atmosphere too. That's fine."
She smiled at him, as if expecting him to suddenly understand what she was saying and grasp the brilliance of it.
Hec-Tor only stared back at her. He felt like there was a part of the conversation he had missed somehow. He did not grasp the brilliance. "What bearing does breathing in a thin atmosphere have on anything?"
Entrapta looked frustrated for a moment, realizing that whatever she was trying to say was not getting through. She sighed, her hair sagging at her sides. Then she took in another breath and lifted herself up to be on Hec-Tor's eye-level. Spreading more tendrils of hair wide to indicate the space around them.
"You call Nordor a 'lunar base' no because it's built on a moon, but because Nordor is the moon. It's not moon, it's a space station kinda deal! As such, it doesn't have an atmosphere of its own, its atmosphere is created artificially just like the one on this ship. And just like the atmosphere on this ship, it's kept at 'species neutral', an air density and chemical balance between oxygen and nitrogen that accommodates to most species in the universe. But the clone troopers are clones of the first Horde Prime, they're ancient space bats, and can still function and fight in thinner airs with lower oxygen levels."
Frowning in thought, Hec-Tor began to grasp what it was she was trying to say. "And how would you suggest we override Nordor's climate controls to accomplish this?"
"Easy, beam me over there!" She announced, smiling. As if that were a simple and obvious solution. As if it didn't involve placing an Imperial Princess in harms way in the middle of a warzone. "I can hack into their systems and override their life-support." A pause. "I'll need a breathing mask of my own before I go. I can't breathe in thinner air."
Every officer on the bridge was starting at Hec-Tor, whom was in turn staring at Entrapta.
"Absolutely not." The Prince finally announced.
"But I can-" She began to argue.
"I will not send an Imperial Princess with no military training and no fighting experience into the heart of enemy territory on the off chance that she may be able to get into their computers." Hec-Tor explained. For some reason, the image of Keldor flashed through his mind. Keldor did have combat experience and he Hec-Tor still lost him. He was not about to lose another spouse –not even one he was still getting to know.
From one of the command stations monitoring the troops' vitals, one of the bridge officers lifted their head. "Sir, all enlisted units have gone non-active." They reported. "They're dead, Sir."
"Damn mutants." Callix muttered so that only those who came from species with pointed ears, or otherwise excellent hearing could hear.
Hec-Tor heard him.
These mutants were proving to be more capable and competent than he originally thought. Hec-Tor did want to get this over with and eradicate them quickly.
Suppressing the urge to sigh, the Prince decided on a compromise. "You will choose a clone from the vitrine bay and program it to perform the task you described."
"Huh? But that won't work." Entrapta argued. "You can't just program someone how to hack. Hacking is complicated. It takes creativity. If a computer throws up a firewall, or a complicated anti-tamper ware, you gotta think creatively to get around it. I've met your clones and I'd be impressed if they even think, never mind creatively. It's gotta be me."
There was the beat of a pause.
Entrapta and Hec-Tor did nothing more than stare at each other.
Everyone on the bridge was staring at them.
A comm officer answered an alert on their headset. "The energizer room is awaiting your next orders, Sir."
"What are your orders, You Highness?" Callix asked.
"I can do it." Entrapta assured him.
Hec-Tor straightened, adjusting the high collar of his gown, and smoothing down his hair. "Princess Entrapta is one of the best technical minds in the universe." He informed the bridge crew. "We will furnish her with a breathing apparatus and a squad of clone units to guard her. Any enlisted units left alive, bring them back to the ship. Send it twelve more squads of clones. Overwhelm them, and show them why we're called 'the Horde'!"
There was another chous of "Yes, Sir!"
"Admiral Callix, you have the bridge. I shall escort the Princess to the energizer room." Hec-Tor offered Entrapta his arm.
A little surprised that they had agreed to her plan so easily, Entrapta looked at Hec-Tor's offered arm, then up at his face. Then she smiled, deciding to take the gesture at face value.
He was so much taller than her, his arm in the escort position came up to Entrapta's eye-level. Using her hair to walk, Entrapta lifted herself up to be closer to his level.
"It's so great that you agreed to my plan!" She beamed at him. People were always so skeptical of her ideas at first. It usually took going ahead and doing it anyway to get people to see that she wasn't crazy, she just thought differently than others.
"I will be accompanying you for your part of the mission." Hec-Tor informed her.
Entrapta blinked at him, taken aback. "Oh." Then her eyes sparkled with excitement. "Do you have much experience hacking into life-support systems?"
"No." He confessed. "But I am smarter than the clone units and if you were to perish, I would need to tell my Brother I did everything in my power to protect you."
Idly, Hec-Tor wondered what would happen to the arms manufacturing in Dryl if Princess Entrapta were to die without producing an heir. Did she have another relative somewhere on Etheria that would take it over and would Prime want to enter into a new contract with them? The dossier didn't mention anything about extended relatives. Or, as her husband, would Dryl and its arms production pass to Hec-Tor…?
"Oh." She said again, visibly disappointed that he wasn't sharing some hidden talent with computer software and hacking he hadn't displayed before. But she wiped the disappointment off her face and replaced it with another smile. "Well, it's nice to be wanted."
That, at least, was something Hec-Tor could agree with. It was nice to be wanted.
On the way to the energizer room, they stopped at their quarters so that Hec-Tor could collect his arm canon.
Grizzlor met them inside, passing through the refresher that connected Hec-Tor's room to Imp's. From the other side, they could hear Imp's wordless screeching and Mantenna begging the child to calm down and assuring him that he was sure his father would return to let him out soon. Just please stop throwing things! Grizzlor visibly winced when something hard smashed against the opposite refresher door and sounded like it may have broken.
"Is it over yet? May we let the Prince out, Your Highness?" He asked. Grizzlor was a professional and never begged. There was no audible sound of pleading in his voice. But he had been a member of Hec-Tor's staff for many years, since before Keldor's disappearance in fact. Hec-Tor did not have to hear pleading in his lieutenant's voice to know that he was pleading with him.
Hec-Tor snapped his arm canon onto the exterior plating of his armor, then moved his arm in several directions. Testing to make sure the weapon was secure in its place, and that his arm was still balanced.
"Imp will remain here where it is safe until I return." He informed his lieutenant. "If I do not return, you and Mantenna will escort my son back to Horde World and to the custodianship of my Brother."
Grizzlor was did not comment on the Prince's choice of phrasing. 'Custodianship', not 'care'. Instead, he gave a bow. "As you command, Your Highness."
He took a breath before stepping back into Imp's room. Dealing with a fussy toddler whom was sued to getting everything he wanted was no easy task, not even for one a disciplined and well trained at the graduates of the Horde Academy on Horde World. Hec-Tor and Entrapta caught a glimpse of Imp throwing another one of his toys and the projectile almost hitting Grizzlor in the head before the door slammed shut behind him.
Equipped with his weapon now, Hec-Tor lead Entrapta to the energizer room.
A squad of clones was already waiting for them. As was an over-enthusiastic enlisted ensign holding a breathing mask and oxygen tank.
"Ooh! I've never hacked an actual military system before!" Entrapta bounced on her hair, making a high-pitched squeal of excitement. She wrapped her hair around the mask and tank, taking them from the paws of the now startled and uncomfortable ensign.
She had trouble fastening it around her head.
"You will have to remove your welding mask." Hec-Tor informed her.
The briefest moment of panic flashed across her face. As if having to remove her welding mask for anything besides sleeping or bathing was the absolute worst thing that could happen to her. Hec-Tor wondered if the plan was about to be aborted because would not remove her welding mask to replace it with the breathing one.
Entrapta glared at the breathing mask, examining it critically. She bent the edges that were meant to wrap around her nose and cheeks. Her hair traced the hose the linked the breathing mask to the oxygen tank. It wasn't the mask part that was important, it was the oxygen. She needed to be able to breath. She did not need to look like a Horde enlisted soldier while she did.
"Give me a minute." Seemingly from out of nowhere –from out of her hair- Entrapta produced several tools.
There was a swirl of motion and lavender hair. The sound of metal scraping against metal filled their ears and even the stoic and impassive clone units winced.
When Entrapta was done, her own welding mask was lowered over her face, and the breathing mask was in pieces on the floor at her feet. She had cannibalized to airseal and hose from it, adding them to her own mask. Entrapta's regular welding mask now connected to the hose of the oxygen tank.
"I'm ready to go when you are." She announced. No one could see her face anymore, but her smile could be heard in her voice. She was still excited to be jumping into an active combat zone.
Offering her his arm again, Hec-Tor lead Entrapta onto the energizer pad. The squad on silent clone units circled around them, taking up a defensive formation. The exact formation they would be in when they materialized in the enemy base.
Now that they were ready, Hec-Tor gave the order. "Beam us down."
…