Eighteen

Sands of Time

Planet Eternia

10 June 2017

Moria watched the battle between the Sorceress and King Hiss with rapt fascination. She knew that the guardian of Castle Grayskull had been reborn more powerful than before, had sensed it even before she had paid the woman a visit. While the end result was pleasing to Moria, the tactics that the Sorceress employed were so not like her that it was almost as scary as the skills she displayed. Moria found herself hoping that she never had to confront the Sorceress like this. While she had no doubt that she could defeat the Sorceress, the aftermath of such a battle could be… decidedly unpleasant.

The scene in the magic pool followed the castle's guardian as she and Colonel Markson transported deep into the structure to stop Evil-lyn. Moria was about to do the same, but stopped herself. After seeing what the Sorceress had done to King Hiss, Moria found that she was curious to see how the Sorceress would handle this new development. That, and directly transporting to the castle would reveal to the Elders and anyone else who might be watching that Moria was involved in the battle, and that was a risk she did not want to take. Yet.

The Sorceress and Colonel Markson caught up to Evil-lyn just as she was about to make her choice. She was ordered to halt, but, of course, Evil-lyn had no intention of doing so. After a brief exchange, Evil-lyn made her desperate move to gain the power of the Elders.

She never made it.

The Sorceress struck Evil-lyn down with almost pathetic ease. Colonel Markson appeared to be confused as to why he had even been brought along. The Sorceress' answer did not reassure him, however. After making sure the intruder was still alive, the Sorceress magically whisked Evil-lyn away to parts unknown.

At the same time, Moria heard the brief telltale sound of a transportation spell in the other chamber. Frowning, Moria left the pool to who or what had dared to enter her domain, and stopped dead in her tracks at the doorway. The unconscious form of her daughter lay several paces away.

Now we are even, the Sorceress said.

Thank you, Moria responded, though she knew Teela'Na still had a final debt to pay, not that the Sorceress herself even knew it yet, of course. As Moria gazed on the unconscious form of her child, an uncharacteristic wave of emotion flooding through her. A solitary tear wormed its way down her right cheek as she went to check on her daughter.

Snake Mountain

Skeletor, King Randor, and Queen Marlena watched the battle progress to its inevitable conclusion. Well, the conclusion that Skeletor advocated, anyway. The magic dome could not penetrate Castle Grayskull's defenses, so they had no idea what was happening inside. The fighting outside was winding down with the capture of the majority of the Earth defenders. The air units fled to regroup out of range while General Rattlor made his surrender speech.

"See?" Skeletor said triumphantly. "I warned that Earth commander he had no hope of winning."

"It isn't over yet," Randor countered.

The image of Colonel Markson's troops being rounded up said otherwise. Only the four Guardians remained where they were.

"You can't let it end like this, Skeletor," Queen Marlena said, staring the Overlord of Evil square in his eye sockets.

"Can't I?" Skeletor replied, casually.

"I've seen the army you have hidden away. You could turn the tide, if you wanted."

"Key word, my dear, is 'wanted'. I don't, and won't. I have no love for King Hiss, but I am not going to incite a war with him, either."

Randor glared at Skeletor. "You know the prophecy, same as I. You know these Guardians are the ones we have been waiting for."

"So what if I do? Maybe I will send a single shocktrooper to assist. Would that do it? After all, the Quaedians only sent one feline. Why should I do any more than that?" Skeletor countered. He had a good point, even if it was from a skewed point of view.
"Don't let it end like this," the queen pleaded. "Don't let them fall."

Skeletor regarded the woman the same as he would one of his traitorous minions; without any trace of emotion.

Vexed beyond reason, Queen Marlena finally snapped. "Damn you! Do something!"

Darksmoke Mountain

Granamyr and Kodec Ungor followed the battle for Castle Grayskull with growing concern. The Guardian Force appeared to hold their own from the outset, however, the battle turned against them as Teela rallied the troops and counterattacked. The Horde forces suffered dearly throughout the battle, but the result was inevitable. With the bulk of the Snake Men scouring the forest for the hidden Earthers, the Horde machines took the brunt of the attacks.

Fighting tapered off until it stopped altogether with captured soldiers being shoved out of the trees in groups. The Guardians halted their attacks when General Rattlor broadcasted his ultimatum, however, none of them made a move to comply.

Granamyr tried to observe the battle within the castle between the Sorceress and King Hiss, but the same spells keeping Skeletor from seeing inside the structure also hindered the ancient dragon's efforts. On that front, they would just have to wait and see, and hope.

"I think it is time for a diversion," the ancient dragon observed.

"Agreed," Kodec answered.

Kodec felt the characteristic rush of power, like a gentle breeze suddenly kicking up, as Granamyr employed magic to wake Adrian Cobretti. After a few moments, Adrian stirred, and finally regained consciousness. His eyes finally focused on the brown-haired woman leaning over him.

"How do you feel?" Kodec asked, hoping Granamyr's healing sleep had been enough to finally heal the damage done by the Horde mind sifter.

Cracking a sly grin, Adrian replied, "With my hands."

"I don't know why I expected a straight answer from you," Kodec sighed, inwardly smiling. It was a good sign. "Nor do I see why the Sorceress is so taken by your planet."

"Must be a near-mortal thing."

"Well, the rest of your mortal friends need you," Kodec said bluntly.

Adrian sat up abruptly, regretted it when a pounding headache hammered him, but remained upright. He took stock of his surroundings as the throbbing pain subsided. He was in a circular chamber whose ceiling he could not see beyond the soft white glow above. Weapons, shields, the odd treasure chest, and piles of gold and jewels littered the floor along the wall. A walkway five feet wide separated the treasure from the huge pit in the center of the chamber. The pit itself was over thirty-feet across and was dominated by a creature straight out of Earth's myths.
Adrian couldn't tell for sure how tall the dragon was, but fifteen feet of him hovered in the opening. His scales were several shades darker than brick red with a maroon belly. Bright yellow eyes regarded him attentively. There was no way to read the emotions in the creature's face, so Adrian had no idea what he might be thinking. A battered, purple helmet with horns reminiscent of Earth's Vikings crowned the head. Razor-sharp teeth filled a snout over three feet in length.

"Most humans cringe at the sight of me," the dragon grumbled, "but not you."

"Is there any reason why I should?" Adrian asked innocently.

"Not at all. I have come to realize you humans have evolved and grown past your fear and hatred of dragonkind, for the most part," Granamyr replied.

"Well," Adrian said, getting to his feet with assistance from Kodec, "I wouldn't say the fear is entirely gone, but I hardly feel threatened by you."

Granamyr grinned, an action usually taken as a menacing rather than humorous. "How do you know that? Maybe I like to toy with my prey."

Adrian shook his head. "You strike me as more of a creature of nobility and honor. If you intended to harm me, you'd have done it by now. You certainly wouldn't have healed me."

The ancient dragon regarded his human guest for several long moments. He kept his emotions carefully hidden while marveling at the man's intuition. Evidently, the knowledge Granamyr had planted in Adrian's mind were starting to surface. The deeper ones would not come forth until the battle for Castle Grayskull was over. Information Granamyr wanted known, but only to a select few. He would have to trust Adrian would know who could be trusted. It also wouldn't be long before Adrian remembered their initial meeting when he had been a little nervous in the dragon's presence.

"True enough. While I would enjoy further conversation, your companions cannot wait. The battle has taken a bad turn and an event is needed to turn the tide in our favor."

The emphasis on 'our' did not go unnoticed by Adrian. "How bad?" Adrian asked, dreading the answer.

Instead of telling him, the ancient dragon created a magical window similar to ones the Sorceress has used in the past to show him. The news was worse than Adrian could have imagined. Nearly all of the ground troops had been captured, and were being herded into groups. It wouldn't be long before the Snake Men began killing them one at a time until Castle Grayskull was surrendered. They needed a diversion to give Colonel Markson and Lieutenant Garber a chance to withdraw to the safety of the castle.

"Someone must give them a fighting chance. Someone who can distract the enemy long enough for Guardian Force to regroup," Granamyr was saying, though Adrian hardly heard him.

You have to come to terms with what you have become, Adrian, the sentient armor whispered in his mind. Like the others, you are as much a weapon of war as the armor. Together we are unbeatable.

"I know," Adrian whispered. Louder, he said, "How do you intend to get me there?"

"What makes you think you are the diversion we have in mind?" Kodec questioned, folding her arms in front of her.

"Why else would you have drawn me into that portal to come here, and go through the trouble of healing me?" Adrian countered.

Kodec's eyes flickered toward Granamyr before she answered. "Maybe we have a soft spot for hard luck cases."

"I'll remember to ask the Sorceress later," Adrian said before realizing the significance of that statement. He still did not quite believe she had been healed, and probably wouldn't until he saw the woman with his own eyes.

Kodec kept her thoughts to herself. She was spared from an awkward silence by Granamyr.

"There is no more time to waste. You must return to Castle Grayskull. Perhaps with your intervention, you will have a chance until help arrives," the dragon said, retreating to his usual cryptic ways. He raised a taloned hand, stalling Adrian's questions.

The massive entry doors squeaked and groaned as an invisible force dragged them open. Beyond lay the ice platform and bridge to the flattened mountain peak, which served as a landing pad. At the edge of the bridge, a shimmering portal coalesced into a characteristic time/space portal Adrian had come to know so well.

"I guess that's my cue," Adrian sighed, turning his back on the pair.

Kodec stepped onto Granamyr's outstretched talon, and the dragon slowly sank into the heart of his domain.

At the doorway, Adrian paused to look back over his shoulder. "Granamyr."

The great dragon had sunk so low that only the helmet remained in sight. He stopped and levitated himself up until his entire head was above the lip of the pit.

"Thank you," Adrian replied. He didn't have to elaborate. Granamyr knew what this human was thanking him for.

The ruler of Darksmoke Mountain rumbled, "You are welcome, Guardian." He sank out of sight once more.

The doors closed behind Adrian leaving him alone thousands of miles from his friends. Well, not entirely alone.

Well, this is it. I hope that name you chose for me is suitable.

Oh, it is, Adrian told the machine. Granamyr gave me the idea.

Indignant, You mean you just now came up with a name?

Grinning, Adrian said, Yes. He turned his attention to the portal patiently waiting several meters away. The winds were calm so he could hear the cascade humming from the magical construction.

Activating the armor through a touch of the medallion dangling from its silver chain, Adrian called up the battle-mode configuration; the most powerful mode. He paused at the threshold of the portal, still harboring doubts.

I'm right here with you, the armor replied as soothingly as possible. Together there is nothing we can't do.

Adrian nodded. Taking a deep breath, he said, "There is no spoon."

And stepped through the portal.

Castle Grayskull

Lieutenant Garber resented being pushed around by the snakes almost as much as he resented the towering General Rattlor and his smug look of triumph. All along the edge of the forest soldiers were being herded through the trees. The confiscated weapons were being conveniently collected close to each group. The snakes were so confident in their victory they did not consider the possibility of an uprising.

General Rattlor flicked his tongue in and out. "So much for your defense, human," the Snake Man hissed with pleasure. "The castle will soon be ours."

"Not if the Sorceress has anything to say about it," Garber sneered back.

Rattlor's eyes widened in shock, but he quickly recovered. "It doesn't matter. King Hiss will kill her again, if necessary."

"You don't know us very well, do you?" Garber growled, not budging an inch. "You're in over your head this time, you just don't realize it. Now get up out of my face before something bad happens." He caught the flicker of an oval portal opening on the ledge above the castle's skull façade. "Too late," he added, snapping his eyes toward the castle.

Rattlor followed the human's hint and turned toward the castle – and gawked. The last tendrils of energy faded away from a very familiar shape standing on the ledge beneath the castle's dome.

"No," Rattlor hissed, a stab of fear piercing his heart.

Adrian stepped from the ledge, wings snapping out, and backpack thrusters igniting to steady the drop to the bridge. He plowed through the sea of shocktroopers that were hammering away at the failing shield. Robots exploded with an impressive concussive force that shattered the magical barrier, allowing a flight of debris to scatter down the castle's entry corridor.

"See? I told you he'd make it!" Frost beamed, ducking flying pieces of robot.

"Never doubted it," Anyssa replied, smiling slightly.

"Nor did I," Dhalon growled with pleasure. Now that the shield was down, he could maybe add to his score of downed robots.

Green lenses blazed as deadly beam sabers were ejected from hidden compartments into waiting hands, and were ignited. Ruby blades hissed like living things as they sliced, stabbed, chopped, and hacked their way in a dizzying dance through the throng of machines crowding the jawbridge and ramp. Sparks flew with each lightning-quick strike. Robots toppled from the bridge into the bottomless chasm whole and in pieces as the Guardian battled his way toward General Rattlor.

The few remaining battle drones turned their attention to the most dangerous threat on the field. Corkscrew vapor trails from the railgun mounts blasted across the battlefield, but none came close to hitting the mark. Anyssa launched one Etherium arrow after another to the left while Corporal Frost returned fire with caseless Etherium shells on the right. Dhalon brought up the rear, reluctantly, waiting for a robot to get past the raging Guardian and land in his eager sights.

Fighting his way close to the stone arches, Adrian leapt atop the first one and then hopped across to the other. He landed in a crouch like a feline waiting to pounce upon its prey. The armor shrank in size from the battle to combat configuration. Adrian and Rattlor locked eyes immediately while Dhalon gleefully hacked and chopped away at the surviving shocktroopers.

"We have a battle to finish, changeling," Rattlor hisses, cracking his knuckles.

"That we do," Adrian agreed. "And the name is 'War Wing!'"

The Snake Man was caught totally unprepared for his foe's lunge. Adrian plowed into Rattlor's abdominal area, bowling the creature over easily. As the pair tumbled across the barren ground, Adrian transformed into the powerful syngenor form, and, rolling to his feet, flung the serpent into a thick tree.

Rattlor's head smacked the tree hard, causing bright flashes before his eyes for a few seconds. He shook his head to clear it, and stared at his waiting foe. The power in that compact frame was incredible and those glowing silver eyes practically taunted him. Struggling to his feet, the serpent steadied himself just in time to take a punch to the chest. He flinched reflexively, but did not fly the short distance backward into the tree. Opening his eyes, Rattlor looked down to see a black fist resting against the jade snakehead which locked the straps of his harness together. Despite the speed with which the creature had moved, the absurdity of the situation struck Rattlor as insanely funny. What started as a chuckle degenerated into a fit of boisterous laughter. The laughter ended abruptly as the jade head cracked and then shattered.

Now it was Adrian's turn to chuckle; a truly inhuman sound that was more terrifying than humorous. Rattlor snapped his head forward, stretching his neck to an impossible length, teeth striking his enemy's left shoulder. Adrian tried to twist away, but Rattlor's speed caught him off guard. He did manage to draw blood, however, as his bone claws scraped against ribs. The pair reversed positions, struck again, and then Adrian launched himself at the Snake Man, sending them both rolling across the broken ground.

Sergeant Apone grabbed Lieutenant Garber by the arm and dragged him away. "C'mon, lieutenant. These two have been eating too much red meat."

Near the ramp, the fight continued unabated between Adrian and General Rattlor. The Snake Man took some small comfort in seeing the damage he did to Adrian's left shoulder, until it healed right before his eyes, that is. Adrian snickered again, and renewed the battle. After a few intense minutes of brutal strikes, both combatants were tired, battered, and bloody.

Wiping away a stream of blood dribbling from the left side of his mouth, General Rattlor considered his options. There was no way he could win this without losing his own life in the process. This human simply refused give up! It was enough to give Rattlor flashbacks to fighting He-man.

"Snake Men!" a voice boomed from the castle just as the general made up his mind to continue the fight.

The minor skirmishes in the wake of War Wing's arrival ceased as attention was centered on Castle Grayskull – and the Sorceress standing atop the eastern tower. Andre Wardman nearly jumped out of his skin when she and Colonel Markson dumped the unconscious form of King Hiss onto the flagstones. The young ensign timidly kicked a tentacle arm away as if the snake head would suddenly snap out and bite him.

"Castle Grayskull shall not be yours this day," the Sorceress declared using magic to cast her voice to all the beings and robots paying attention. She disappeared from sight briefly to pick up the limp for of King Hiss. "Your leader has fallen."

"King Hiss," General Rattlor bellowed.

"Our leader is defeated," Kobra Khan exclaimed.

"Take him and leave this place," Sorceress declared.

Added by the strength of her armor, the Sorceress easily hurled the leader of the Snake Men across the bottomless mote. Kobra Khan and others scrambled to get under the flying serpent in an effort to break his fall. The dead weight slammed Kobra Khan and Snake Face to the ground, but they achieved their goal.

General Rattlor whirled on Adrian to resume the fight, hatred blazing like a forest fire in his eyes. Adrian resumed human form, calling the armor up to combat mode. He took one step toward the charging Snake man and released a devastating blast of pure telekinesis power. Rattlor cleared the pile of Kobra Khan, Snake Face, and King Hiss by nearly fifteen feet and landed extremely hard on the loose rubble over thirty feet away. He felt several ribs snap like twigs, punctuated by sickening pops.

Despite these pockets of resistance, the enemy still had command of the battlefield. Something more substantial had to happen to shift the balance back in the favor of Grayskull's defenders. A massive disturbance erupted in the forest. Snake Men scrambled away from the tree line, those who didn't fall with a spear or arrow protruding from his back. From the top of the east tower, Colonel Markson gawked in wonder at the furry humanoid figures emerging in droves from the Evergreen Forest, armed with a wide variety of weapons that ranged from laser rifles to primitive crossbows.

Frost's walking 'teddy bears' had arrived.

Eternian Solar System

Commander Franik waited patiently on the bridge of his battlecruiser. Reports streamed in from the attack force closing in on Castle Grayskull. The operation had been proceeding uneventfully. But based on the reports filed by General Rongar, Commander Franik knew that the enemy waited until the prime moment to strike. With the superior force bearing down on them, the Earthers would have no choice but to strike hard and fast in an effort to destroy as many units as possible before they were overwhelmed. Regardless of how valiantly they fought, the final result would never be in doubt.

Reports of the first attacks filtered through the command circuits as the lead elements of the ground force drew within sight of the ancient castle. Chaos ensued as the enemy's unconventional tactics took their toll on the leading elements of the attack force. Despite the brazen attacks, the ground force marched onward.

A warning beacon sounded from the sensor station, drawing Franik's attention away from the reports that were pouring in. Explosions rippled through space along the perimeter line of destroyers. Several warships died in spectacular detonations. Secondary eruptions followed as the fusion cores breeched.

"Locate the source of the enemy fire," Franik ordered.

Several robots hesitated momentarily before returning to their control consoles. They were not convinced it was an enemy attack. However, detailed scans of the wreckage showed traces of plasma energy, a prime indicator of Earth weapons.

"Eternia," Franik hissed through clenched teeth. "Find that ship. Quickly!" Based on their last attack, their weapons couldn't have that great a range.

"Commander," the robot manning the long-range sensors reported suddenly. "I have an unknown contact just this side of the fifth planet."

"Why wasn't it spotted before now?" Franik demanded.

"The energy signature just appeared as if they didn't power up until they were ready."

The commander sank back into his chair, deep in thought. It didn't take him long to figure out the tactics the Earthers had used to get in this close undetected. Clever strategy to get in the first strike; he was impressed. However, his fleet still overmatched one ship a quarter of the size of a Horde destroyer. It would only be a matter of time before their entire ordinance supply was expended. Even their Etherium hull would only last so long before it was breeched.

There was no more time to reflect as the starship Eternia made her attack run.

When the Eternia exited hyperspace just inside the boundary of the Eternian star system, all systems were immediately shut down and the ship went into a submarine equivalent of silent running. Before doing so, Captain Majourny risked one active scan for targets to program into the plasma torpedoes. Once they were secure from enemy detection, plans were formulated to get the remainder of Colonel Markson's command dropped into the planet's atmosphere to reinforce those left behind days ago.

Lieutenant Denton came up with a way to do that. By taking a quick active scan, they could plot the locations of the enemy warships, programmed the inertial guidance on salvos of plasma torpedoes, and jettison them using air pressure. This would allow the weapons to have fuel to adjust their trajectory on their terminal runs to their assigned targets.

It would take hours for the torpedoes to drift within range of their targets, so the crew put those hours to good use as the Eternia drifted in-system, unpowered behind the released weapons. Lieutenant Satori proposed an idea for dealing with the more powerful heavy corvettes identified in the quick scan. The reaction warheads were essentially electromagnetic pulse weapons, so the idea was to take the devises out of the torpedoes and place them in the mines.

A speed run past a heavy corvette while launching the mines could have the desired effect of disrupting the warship's shields long enough to get a few plasma torpedoes in. The trick would be to survive enemy fire long enough to get in close to make the attempt. That was the reason for the ejection of the early salvos. Hopefully, those would cause enough chaos to drop off the remaining half of the Guardian Force before engaging the Horde fleet.

Satori's mine modifications were completed slightly behind schedule due to a few compatibility issues, but the delay was minimal. All the preparations for combat were finished on time, including the quick training of replacements for the quad guns. All sections reported ready for action as the numbers wound down to zero hour.

At zero hour, the torpedo salvos engaged their active sensor packages, lit off their drives, and blasted into their assigned targets, which were still conveniently holding station. Shields overloaded and collapsed. Hull armor boiled away, leaving bare vital systems. Power grids overloaded from the devastation leading to catastrophic meltdown of the fusion reactor, and a terminal detonation obliterating the warship.

A total of three destroyers died in a fiery, plasma-induced blaze. A fourth was mortally wounded, though the fusion reactor did not overload.

Eternia screamed through the vacuum on full burn straight for her namesake planet. Battlecruisers and destroyers lit off their drives and sluggishly began maneuvers to intercept. Getting thousands of tons of warship moving in a vacuum was an agonizing process because inertia had to be overcome before maneuvering thrusters could be employed along with the sub-light drives. That fact of physics, coupled with the instant chaos caused by the attack, gave Eternia all the time it needed to get in close enough to execute a high-speed drop run identical to the one they had performed several days ago.

Powerful lifting arms held the remaining pair of dropships over the open drop bays as the engines spooled up and landing struts folded up into the belly. The arms lowered the ships into position on the drop pads, disengaged, and rose out of the way for the thick bay doors to seal above. The coming drop didn't bother Hohiro Takamora as much as the concept of the high-speed combat drop did. Despite the success of the first drop, there was still an element of danger for both the dropship and the mother craft.

Usually, troops conversed and joked with one another to take their minds off the coming action, but knowing their companions were probably in serious danger on the ground left little room for the usual antics. The troops sat locked into the troop seats, anxious and fidgety. Captain Takamora conversed quietly with the dropship pilots and Lieutenant Kent Howard, who was commanding Delta Platoon, in the other ship.

Thanks to the starship's inertia dampers, the soldiers could not feel the sudden acceleration. When the near misses from enemy laser cannons began blossoming along the Eternia's flight path, however, the cramped troop compartment became a very bumpy place to be if you weren't strapped down.

Ace tried his best to avoid the enemy fire, but the trajectory to the drop point didn't allow for much room to maneuver. All available power was shunted to the engines and shields. The closer Eternia drew to the planet, the more the laser fire intensified. Several direct hits to the shields blasted the starship momentarily off course. Ace struggled with the manual controls to bring the ship back, finally succeeding after a few tense seconds. Sweat beads littered his brow as he scanned the void ahead. They weren't going to get into high orbit without taking a few more nasty hits.

Take them, Eternia did. She seemed to shrug off the green lances of destructive energy with only minimal internal damage. Ace squeezed through the maze of plasma lightning to make a mad dash at the atmosphere. Enemy fire tracked the starship, but was a fraction of a second behind.

A fraction was all Captain Majourny needed.

Eternia rotated ninety degrees, dropped her ventral shield arc, and opened the drop bay doors. Three seconds after the doors dropped open, two dropships plunged into the atmosphere. Eternia soared away, bays sealed, shields raised, and weapons charged. Ace pulled up hard, followed the planetary curve until he crested the northern pole, and then leveled out facing the oncoming enemy starships.

A flight of reaction and plasma torpedoes jetted from the forward torpedo tubes as the ship's engines ratcheted up to full sub-light power. Three destroyers backed up by a battlecruiser were attempting to pin Eternia in her namesake planet's gravity well, where she would have limited mobility. Captain Majourny anticipated the move and had issued orders to Ace and Harley to maneuver and open fire on the enemy without her orders. That confidence and autonomy was one of the traits that would allow them to beat the Horde.

Jo-jo watched the flight of torpedoes streak through the vacuum, straight into the teeth of the destroyer directly ahead. Its shields collapsed under the onslaught of electro-magnetic radiation, and were consumed in a series of fiery explosions. Ace plowed into the heart of the flaming vapor cloud to evade enemy fire. It was the one tactic they did not expect. Who in their right mind would continue flying toward an enemy still fielding an overwhelming taskforce?

The Earth starship ripped through the other side of the dying cloud 'under' the battlecruiser. Jo-jo studied the sensor scans on her right-hand panel. After a few seconds of intense searching, Jo-jo found what she wanted.

Transferring target coordinates to Ace's panel, Jo-jo said, "There's the target, Ace."

Sparing the briefest of glanced, Ace answered, "Got it."

The target in question was one of the two heavy corvettes. Fighters scrambled from the corvette's many launching bays and quickly swarmed in Eternia's direction. Harley opened up with every offensive weapon the starship had. Forward laser guns poured coherent bolts of light into the night. Railguns flung eighteen-inch titanium shells out at close to light speed. The quad gunners had more success destroying or damaging fighters because of their ability to track their targets. All the forward weapons could do was throw up a screen of energy bolts and projectiles in the hope that something flew into it.

The enemy commander made the mistake of packing his warships in a little too tightly because the closer Eternia drew to the center of the Horde's defensive formation; the harder it was for them to hit anyone other than themselves. This allowed Ace to get in close to the heavy corvette to lay the modified mines.

Ace skimmed the invisible outer boundary of the warship's shields at break-neck speeds. Eternia's ventral shields occasionally glanced off the Horde ship's barrier, releasing a blazing shower of sparks. Mines ejected from the launch bay, just forward of the number two engine. Their guidance computers were active at the moment of launch, and they engaged thrusters to keep them from impacting the corvette' shields.

Laser fire from the surrounding capital ships ceased for fear of hitting their own ship, but the fighters dogging their trail had no such inhibitions because of their vastly weaker weapons. Red laser bolts flashed past the Earth ship, sometimes splashing against its shields. Most of the wild fire hit the corvette's shields without doing any damage. Amazingly, none out the mines took a hit during the entire seeding operation.

Ace cleared the mammoth ship in seconds. In that time, Harley released half of the total inventory of modified mines. The ship had barely reached minimum safe distance when the signal to detonate was transmitted. At the same moment, a flight of four plasma torpedoes was launched. The weapons soared ahead for a thousand meters and pulled up sharply reversing their flight path.

Electromagnetic energies splashed against the powerful Horde shields all along the corvette's port side. The shield array couldn't handle such a widespread assault at point-blank range. Plasma torpedoes zeroed in on a detonating mine concentration a hundred meters down from the bow. That group of mines shorted out the shield emitter, opening a three-second gap before the other overloaded network began to compensate for the damage. That lag was enough to allow two of the weapons to streak inside to impact the thick hull plates. The others were caught outside were their detonations further destroyed the entire shield array.

Hull armor vaporized, atmosphere vented into the cold, hard vacuum of space taking robots and a few sentient being along for the ride. The power grid collapsed when a major distribution hub literally vaporized in a boiling cloud of plasma fire.

The last Lieutenant Satori saw on her sensor panel as the Eternia threaded her way through a collection of destroyers and one battlecruiser was a severely damaged heavy corvette floating dead in space, and beginning to tumble out of control due to its inertia.

The closest destroyers disgorged their small complement of fighters and formed a protective cordon around the heavily damaged corvette. Several wings of fighters formed up, engaged full thrusters, and blasted off in pursuit of the Earth starship fleeing into the outer system.

Through the entire run, Lieutenant Satori attempted to make contact with Colonel Markson's platoons on the surface when she had a free moment to transmit. As the ship raced past the Eternian system's fifth planet, she finally made contact.

Static erupted from the bridge speakers for a moment before being replaced by the colonel's voice. "Well, it's about time you showed up. You waiting until we're on the brink of being wiped out before getting here?"

"We stopped off at Etheria for lunch, since we still had some time to kill," Jo-jo replied, stifling a slight smile. "What's your situation?"

"Bad. We hurt them, but we just don't have to firepower to repel them. Some friends of Corporal Frost's have shown up, but I don't think it'll be enough."

"Hohiro is on his way with the remaining platoons, and stocked with munitions," the captain replied, switching her gaze between the left and right-hand control panels.

Explosions in the background drowned out any reply the colonel might have had. It could be the dropships had finally arrived.

"We're a little busy just now. Call back later."

"We're engaged with a Horde fleet up here, Colonel. We'll try to join you as soon as we can," Jo-jo said grimly.

"Understood," Colonel Markson acknowledged.

The line went dead with the echo of more explosions.

Captain Majourny tapped a control buzzing the engine room. "How soon can we affect repairs?" she demanded.

Chief Engineer Santana responded immediately. "We're working as fast as we can. Give me thirty minutes and we'll be ready to re-engage the Horde ships."

"You have fifteen. Our people on the ground may not have thirty minutes." Jo-jo's tone left no room for argument, and Lieutenant Santana had a habit of inflating his repair estimates.

"Aye, captain," Santana replied, closing the comm channel.

Jo-jo didn't like waiting even one minute, but it wouldn't do Colonel Markson any good if Eternia got blown out of the stars because she didn't take a few precious minutes to get her ship back into some semblance of fighting condition.

Castle Grayskull

General Rattlor flung himself at the changeling who had dealt him such a pounding. Adrian reverted to human form before calling forth the incredible suit of power armor. He took one step toward his charging enemy and with a thrusting motion of both hands, and slammed the snake backward with pure telekinetic force.

Normally, the use of magic or even powers of a highly developed brain was preceded by an invisible rush, not unlike the touch of a light summer breeze. This was a tell tale warning when magic-users fought to throw up a hasty defense. In Adrian's case, the 'rush' came at the moment of release. There was no warning whatsoever. And he had absolutely no idea how he did. He just did it.

General Rattlor flew into Snake Face and Kobra Khan, who had been collecting their fallen leader, and bowled the pair over. They landed in a jumbled heap of arms, legs, and tails. The trio untangled themselves, saw War Wing's blazing green eye lenses, and hastened to gather up their leader.

Adrian watched them retreat to their own lines. He let them go because without King Hiss, this assault was soon to fail.

The Horde, however, had other ideas.

Three tanks ground to a halt a little over a hundred meters away. Twin-barreled turrets swiveled in War Wing's direction, and locked targets. Six barrels glowed at the business ends with priming charge leading up to a discharge of plasma energy. Hawk saw the danger and shouted a warning. Too late. Six barrels discharged as one, engulfing the guardian in boiling plasma. The ground exploded in a cloud of smoke and peppering combatants with shards hundreds of meters away. A few larger chunks even bounced off the castellated ridge of the eastern tower.

The armor withstood far more power energy weapons, warship-grade canons, but the armor had yet to take direct hits like this. All eyes were riveted to the slowly dissipating cloud. As the smoke and dust settled, the Sorceress feared that War Wing hadn't been able to get this shield up in time.

All at once, the smoke cleared away to reveal a flickering dome energy shield with War Wing safe and sound inside. He stood, right side turned toward the tanks to present a smaller target, plasma rifle in hand.

"You need a bigger gun," War Wing stated emotionlessly. Three shots belched from the rifle's muzzle; three Horde tanks erupted in fiery explosions in response. "GUARDIANS HO!"

At the sound of the ancient battle cry, Hawk slammed the palm of her right hand into Teela's chest, flinging the woman backward over fifteen feet. Teela landed hard and rolled another few feet before finally skidding to a halt. She fumbled for the quick release clasp behind her back for the snake armor. It didn't help that several ribs had been cracked and breathing was an exercise in pain. The clasp finally popped open and the armor fell away. The durable plate had an eight-inch vertical crack from the Guardian's blow.

Claw jerked his scimitars from sheathes on his back, and took a horizontal swipe at Blade. The mercenary ducked under the weapon, feeling the uncomfortable breeze of its passing. The Guardian pressed the attack, forcing Blade to dive into successive shoulder rolls to escape. He ducked as a scimitar sailed end-over-end above his head.

Blade had not been the target, however. A heavy battle drone clomped into point-blank range and set its sights on Claw. The tumbling scimitar's blade heated up into the white-hot range, slamming into the drone's head. The heated blade melted its way down into the chest where the power cells were situated. They detonated the moment the intense heat melted the power cell's casing, and the force of the explosion gave the scimitar the momentum to literally fly back to its owner's hand.

Tung Lashor snapped his trademark appendage out at Hawk to divert her attention away from Teela; not that he really cared about the human female. The tongue wrapped itself tight about Hawk's left forearm.

"Nyet!" she scolded, clamping her right hand on the wrapping. "First date; no tongue!"

Hawk twisted the left hand to grasp the living rope before the Snake man could draw it back, and yanked violently down and to her left. Tung Lashor executed an awful belly flop and was dragged along the rough ground as the Guardian reeled him in. The snake managed to get his feet under him, but it only served to slice his feet to shreds on the loose rock. As he was dragged to within range of the beam spear, Lashor had no other choice. He drew a dagger from his belt a slashed his own tongue, whirled, and scampered away.

Quaedians exploded into action, attacking the enemy's flanks. Despite their primary mixture of primitive weapons sprinkled with laser pistols and rifles, the felines took the fight to the Horde and lingering Snake Men. With Kittrina leading the charge, they helped the unarmed Earthers retreat to the ramp and across the jawbridge into Castle Grayskull.

Corporal Frost, Anyssa, and Dhalon met the first group, who were being led by none other than King Carnivus himself. Frost led the king up into the eastern tower to meet Colonel Markson, leaving Anyssa and Dhalon to supervise getting the troops re-armed.

The colonel was just finishing his conversation with Captain Majourny as Andre Wardman launched another javelin missile at a horde fighter attempting to strafe the tower. The craft's fiery demise drowned out the comm channel, but there was nothing more for Markson and Jo-jo to say to one another.

Frost presented the feline king to his commander. "Colonel, this is King Carnivus, ruler of the Quaedian people."

Carnivus boldly stuck out his right hand to the Earth commander, who took it after a moment's hesitation. "I have heard a little about you, colonel. Your warriors are quite skilled," the feline rumbled with approval.

"Thanks," was all Jon could think to say.

To break the awkward moment, Frost said, "When we spoke yesterday, you were dead set against coming to our aid. What changed your mind?"

"You did," Carnivus answered pointedly.

Frost arched an eyebrow. "Something I said?"

Carnivus shook his head. "Something you did. You do not have the forces necessary to win this battle, yet you came anyway. Fighting against such overwhelming odds is what He-man, She-ra, and all their allies did on a regular basis. You were correct in pointing out that just because they are gone, it doesn't mean we abandon the fight." The feline king turned to Colonel Markson, who was watching Frost with a slight case of wonder. "Colonel Markson. I have brought what warriors I can spare to assist you in this fight. I have been informed that you seek allies in your war against the Evil horde. I offer my hand in friendship, and an ally to count on. Your war is now our war."

Stunned, Colonel Markson shook the taloned hand the king proffered him. No words were necessary, which was good because Jon had no idea what to say. Catherine O'Rourke broke the moment by pointing to the heavy armored units finally pulling into striking range of the castle. A stab of fear pierced every person's heart as they realized what it was they were facing.

The leading three mobile canons halted three hundred yards away. At that distance, the javelin missiles would be the only weapons within effective range. Unfortunately, they were almost out of said missiles. While Hohiro was on his way with reinforcements, it takes time for dropships to blast through the atmosphere without burning up.

Forgetting the scattered remnants of the foot soldiers, drones, and tanks, Guardians Claw, Blitzkrieg, and Hawk formulated a plan to take out the mobile canons. First, they had to drive off the fighters still buzzing the area. Gatling Arm, now fully charged after a dangerous ram-boost from Claw, sprayed the sky with plasma bursts. War Wing took a few shots at the streaking craft in an effort to drive them into Gatling Arm's fire.

Two fighters dove on the armored defenders, hammering away at them with their laser canons. Hawk sprang into action, beam spear in hand, and charged toward the incoming fighters. Blitzkrieg and Gatling Arm peppered the air ahead of the diving craft to distract the robot pilots. The tactic worked better than expected for plasma bolts punctured the armor and severed vital controls making it impossible for the machine pilots to pull out.

Hawk leapt into the air, using her backpack thrusters for an added boost. The fighter descending on its terminal dive passed beneath the soaring Guardian, who used the craft's top surface as a springboard to launch herself into the face of the fighter's wingman. She cocked her right arm back, green blade blazing in the early afternoon sunlight, and hurled it with all her inhuman strength.

The wingman had absolutely no time to react as the improvised missile pierced the fighter on its left side near the wing root. The beam spear exploded from the back through the number one engine – the aircraft's left – taking hundreds of pounds of debris with it.

Both fighters slammed into the wreckage-strewn battlefield twenty feet apart. Boiling fireballs were the backdrop to Hawk's landing two hundred meters further down range, spear recalled to her hand.

As Tung Lashor and Blade retreated, Teela stood her ground, taking shelter behind some torn armor plate blasted from a troop carrier. She took stock of the battle as the heavy artillery units rumbled into point-blank range of the castle behind her. Quaedians were swarming from the Evergreen Forest, led by a familiar female dressed in blue and wielding a sword The Earth people fled into the castle, only to emerge moments later armed and dangerous once more. Despite the tactical shift in momentum, her side still had the advantage in firepower.

Colonel Markson spotted Teela taking stock of the current situation, snapped up a spare sniper rifle, and took careful aim. The Sorceress saw the man's moment out of the corner of her eye. Her gaze trailed to what had grabbed the colonel's attention. Instantly, she realized what was about to happen – and could not allow it.

"No!" Sorceress shouted, using a burst of magic to shove the rifle's barrel just enough.

The bullet smacked into the twisted armor plate inches from Teela's face. She ducked immediately, taking greater care. A shard of metal had slashed a bloody track across the right cheek, dribbling blood.

Run, Teela! Run! The Sorceress' telepathic voice screamed in Teela's head. Without wasting a moment, Teela took off darting through the wreckage keeping as low as possible.

Colonel Markson did not get another clear shot at the enemy commander. Fuming, he turned his angry glare on the Sorceress, who pointed kept her gaze riveted on the battlefield. She knew they would be discussing this later.

The leading canons were now within range. Falcon interrupted with a scan of the Horde units powering up to fire.

Forgetting the incident with the enemy commander for the moment, Colonel Markson said, "Anyone got any bright ideas?"

Before the Sorceress could respond, the world disappeared in a flare of blinding white light. She was no stranger to this world or realm or whatever you wanted to call it. Falcon appeared shortly in the form of Cirandar.

"This isn't the time, Falcon," Sorceress said, trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice.

"Time has no meaning in this place, now listen up," Falcon replied, sternly. "The castle is dying. It used up all its power staying sealed until you returned."

Sorceress felt as if she'd just been sucker-punched. "Dying…" she stammered.

"Before you say it, the Pool of Power is entirely separated from the power the Elders left behind. All is not lost, however," Falcon said, brimming with excitement. Her eyes sparkled knowingly. "The castle's power can be replenished, and the Horde will do all the work." Quickly, Falcon explained what she had been working on for the past several minutes. It was extremely risky in that nothing like her plan had ever been attempted, but it was the only real chance they had of ensuring the castle's survival. Reality reasserted itself once Falcon finished explaining her idea, and the Sorceress found that only a few moments of real time had passed.

"We have an idea. It's risky and very dangerous, but we have few options left," Sorceress explained.

"Oh," Colonel Markson said, clearly unconvinced in light of her actions to save that Horde commander from an armor-piercing bullet. "Can't wait to hear it."

Quickly, she explained Falcon's plan. Hawk and Claw volunteered to use a maze of shallow crevasses to get under the hovering canons and infiltrate them through their bellies. The shields the machines were equipped with appeared to end at ground level so the task shouldn't be too difficult. War Wing had already taken a few potshots at the units confirming the strength of those shields.

The Sorceress and her armor would erect a barrier shield over the castle to protect it from enemy fire and absorb the destructive energy for redirection elsewhere. That redirection would be to the crystal chamber deep in the heart of the ancient castle, hopefully to revitalize it.

War Wing and Gatling Arm were to act as support units keeping the reinforcing ground troops occupied while Hawk and Claw did their job of destroying the canons from within. That part of the plan got turned on its ear when Andre Wardman, who had been tasked with keeping a lookout for fighters or raiding parties trying to hit them from their blind sides, spotted a pair of Snake Men stealthily making their way around to the north side to come at them from the castle's rear.

Falcon zeroed in on the indicated location and magnified for the Sorceress to see the snakes so close she could have reached out and touched them. "Reptilons," Sorceress pronounced grimly. "I guess not all of them were destroyed in the last Great War."

"Can we take them?" the colonel asked, using a pair a binoculars to scope out the threat, though the binoculars were not as sophisticated as the armor.

The Sorceress shook her head. "Not unless you can get in touch with your savage side in the next few minutes. And increase your strength and stamina by a factor of ten just to hold your own."

There was only one among them who could do that. One who has already done that several times on this mission. Colonel Markson knew the Guardian armor could tap into the tactical net, so instead of explaining the situation all over again, simply asked Adrian if he could take out their snake problem.

"Go!" Blitzkrieg barked. "We'll keep this party going!" He tossed his remaining laser rifle to Claw, and accepted the massive plasma canon War Wing tossed to him. They would need to firepower to make the planned diversion work.

What? Wing asked, clearly shocked. No argument? No raging against doing what you were born to be and do?

Make a note for later, will ya? Adrian answered. We've got work to do. Wing did not respond, but Adrian had the distinct impression of approval.

The Reptilons were quietly making their way toward the bottomless moat on the castle's north side. They angled their approach to a jumping off point across from one of the rear spider-like legs that supported the mammoth structure in addition to the central mount point centered underneath. With a running start, the Snake Men easily cleared the chasm to land on the lowest joint of the stone support leg.

Knowing he could not catch the pair by following in their wake, Adrian would have to cut them off before reptiles made it to the east tower. That had to be their destination. With the Sorceress and Colonel Markson up there, taking them out would disrupt the chain of command. To cut them off, Adrian sprinted for the moat to cross over the same way the Snake Men had just done. He timed the leap and transformation perfectly, becoming an Alien while in flight, landed lightly, and took off up the leg and the castle's east side without slowing.

Although Colonel Markson and the Sorceress saw him coming, the creature's sudden appearance over the castellated edge of the tower sent Ensign Wardman into a brief fit of hysterics. Adrian reverted to human form with battle armor, and apologized for his abrupt appearance.

Adrian spied the cache of loaded weapons across the way, and strode quickly over to it. He selected two pulse rifles, checked that they had full magazines and then slapped one to each thigh where they were magnetically locked in place until needed.

As he walked to the north side of the tower to check the progress of the two snakes trying to sneak up on their rear flank, Adrian and the Sorceress exchanged looks which required no words. He was relieved and pleased to see her alive and well. The Sorceress felt the same about him considering the damage a Horde mind sifter usually causes. Neither of them trusted their own voices, so they nodded to each other and then Adrian was off to do battle once more; leaping the castellated wall to land on the narrow ledge at the base of the dome.

The Sorceress and Colonel Markson returned their attention to the artillery canons as they primed their main weapons to fire.

Three beams of intense plasma energy blasted from Horde units straight at Castle Grayskull's eastern tower. The Sorceress threw up her hands, palms outward, and called on all the magical might she had left augmented by the Falcon armor. A powerful dome shield materialized over the castle along the moat's far edge. The plasma bursts slammed harmlessly into the shield, causing ripples in the barrier, but did not break through. While the Sorceress concentrated on maintaining the barrier, Falcon drew in some of the energy to replenish her power cells. The rest was shunted to an entirely different location.

Deep in the bowels of Castle Grayskull where few beings were allowed to go, much less have ever seen, lay the Crystal Chamber. The boundaries of this chamber have never been discovered by any living being. Conceivably, one could fall forever in this chamber, though no one dared try it.

Crystalline structures filled the chamber, spaced equally in rows. Each row was exactly one hundred meters away from the next while each pillar in the row was exactly ten meters away from the next in line. The pillars normally pulsed with vibrant energy, casting blue/white light throughout the visible areas. The crystals gave the appearance of having been grown rather than constructed with large circular platforms spaced forty meters apart in each column. These platforms were interspersed in an offset arrangement that would allow one to leapfrog from one towering column to another throughout the chamber.

And somewhere in this massive chamber lay the most precious and prized possession in the entire universe. The orb of power left behind by the Elders.

At Falcon's direction, the raw power from the Horde mobile artillery units was channeled here. Somewhere in the upper part of the chamber, there was a bright flash followed by the crackling of plasma pouring into the crystalline pillars. Starved for energy from maintaining an impenetrable shield for the past two years, the structures drank greedily of the power shunted into them. For one brief span of several seconds, the entire array of pillars lit up with the intensity they had had only three years before. Abruptly, the energy pouring into them died away and the crystals darkened to their dim, almost lifeless state.