Sixteen
Castle Brightmoon
Planet Etheria
2 September 2017
The two dropships carrying Alpha Platoon and the war machine plummeted through Etheria's atmosphere on course for Castle Brightmoon. The third ship bearing Beta Platoon peeled off in the stratosphere for Mystacor.
Feril led the way toward the target area. A powerful wave of storms was blowing across the continent and they were heading right into it. Winds buffeted the craft as she struggled to stay on course. Feril kept having to adjust her heading to the west as heavy winds slammed the ships from the east. The ships finally got ahead of the stormfront and settled into a less vomit-inducing ride.
The pilots found the landmarks necessary to orient themselves and continued on course for Brightmoon. Dropship number two lagged behind, searching for the main road leading to the castle; the APC carrying Alpha Platoon would be dropped off several kilometers south of the castle. Feril would survey the area from the air while Cobretti and Rockwell scouted the land around the castle looking for signs of a trap.
While it was true the castle had been abandoned, that did not mean there wasn't a force of robot troopers lying in wait for anyone investigating the castle for plunder or salvage, a ready-made trap for a platoon of soldiers not expecting trouble. However, Colonel Markson always expected trouble, so they were going in on high alert.
Feril turned in on final approach to drop off the war machine. Dropship two was in the process of dropping the APC off five kilometers south of the castle. The idea was to have the scouting of area around the castle completed by the time the APC arrived. If there were exterior traps in place, the colonel hoped Cobretti and Rockwell could spring them.
Jake glanced out the windscreen at the shadowy structure veering crazily about as Feril lined up for touchdown. He dropped his eyes back down to the control console before his stomach could start doing flip-flops. He was a ground-pounder. Flying was best left to the birds. The familiar sounds and vibrations of the fusion core coming online vibrated through the vehicle.
"Atomic batteries to power. Turbines to speed," Jake reported over the comm system.
Suppressing a grin, Adrian said, "Been watching the Batman tv series again, have we?"
"Adam West and Burt Ward, baby. The original dynamic duo."
The shadow of Castle Brightmoon loomed a quarter mile distant. Flood lights came on, bathing the immediate landscape in blinding white light. Feril flared out and set the ship down firmly on the hard-packed dirt road. "Down and clear," she reported. As soon as the words left her mouth, the war machine roared out of the bay and sped away toward the west side of the castle. Feril seemed to make the dropship leap back into the sky for aerial support.
The seats of the war machine had been replaced with a new kind that conformed to the body of whomever sat in it. This allowed Adrian and Jake to wear the Guardian suits in combat mode, operating the vehicle with a relative amount of comfort, without feeling cramped. The foot pedals operating the brakes had been enlarged slightly to allow for the blocky suit feet. Both men had commanded the armored gloves to retract into the gauntlets so that they could better handle the controls. The helmets were similarly stored in the collars so that they could use the headsets specifically designed for better operation of the war vehicle.
Information relevant to their surroundings filled the left side of Adrian's visor. A targeting reticle followed the movements of his right eye, allowing him to manipulate the features of the heads-up display. The inky blackness surrounding the castle was nearly impenetrable. The starlight function was having trouble illuminating the grounds due to the lack of light from the approaching storm. Instead of seeing a world in shades of green with little darkness, he saw more darkness than any green. To compensate, Adrian fired off a flare from a top aft compartment. It wasn't a traditional flare that threw off visible light; this one bathed the area in infrared illumination to better aid night vision devices like the system installed in the war machine.
The flare had the desired effect. Night turned into twilight bathed in shades of green. Adrian could now pick out the tall spires of the castle on the right and the dense wall of trees to the left. The sensors showed around one hundred meters between the castle and the forest. It was probably a firebreak to prevent a forest fire from affecting the castle.
Adrian looked to his right and took in the structural design. In the glow of another flare, he could see that the basic structure was shaped like a huge ball flattened to about a third of its diameter. Several spires jutted up into the night sky like lightning rods. He was unsure as to their purpose; however, nothing looked out of place. The entire design flowed naturally from one shape to another.
Nothing moved on the open ground or in the forest. The bushes and shrubs decorating the grounds close to the castle would normally be tended to and be too small to conceal anything but small animals. Since the castle had been empty for over five years, the carefully sculpted grounds had grown wild.
Several kilometers to the south, Colonel Markson was analyzing the images being transmitted from the war machine. The computer constructed a graphical representation of Castle Brightmoon as the war machine and the dropship circled the structure.
"Structure seems intact," Markson replied. He glanced at Queen Angella standing next to his chair. "No power, though."
"It was probably shut down before the castle was abandoned," the queen answered.
"All right, pilot. Set down on the main road. Immediate dust-off when we're clear. Then orbit the area with Feril," Markson ordered.
The dropship pilot acknowledged. Within moments, the APC bumped and shuddered. The driver powered out of the drop bay and sped along the packed dirt road leading to the castle.
"All right, people!" Apone barked. "Gear up! Two minutes. Get on it."
A corporal scrambled aft to the seat situated inside a revolving frame of support struts. It was the gunnery station for the top-mounted turret and its devastating twin Gatling cannons. Everyone else gathered up their personal weapons, checked them over one last time, and readied themselves for deployment. Any nervousness the soldiers felt evaporated in an instant. Long hours of training kicked in. Concentrate on the moment. Focus on the mission.
Anyssa and Dhalon hung toward the rear checking their weapons. The four-foot Quaedian was itching to get moving. When a battle loomed, he looked forward to it with an eagerness rivaling any Val-kyrie warrior. The princess was a little more reserved at the moment; when battle was joined, she could be as fierce as any feline.
Dhalon refused to carry any ballistic or energy weapons. He preferred close-quarters combat, something he shared with Jake Rockwell. His leather armor fit like a glove; it had been tailor-made by the Val-kyrie once the dust settled from the insurrection. The double-bladed battleax slung on his back, along with the pair of single bladed axes tucked beneath his belt had been modified. The keen edge of all three weapons had been ground down, bonded with Etherium alloy, and sharped to razor-sharpness. This ensured that the Quaedian fighter could go toe-to-toe with Horde troopers and literally chop them to pieces no matter how good their armor might be.
Anyssa was armed with a typical mix of weapons: An unknown number of knives hidden about her person. A quiver of arrows slung across her back with the knocks over the right shoulder. The remarkable compound bow that could compact itself into a small package she had clipped to her belt at the small of her back. The primary weapon was a powerful laser rifle that fired plasma bolts capable of punching through all known trooper armor currently in use. A plasma blaster pistol was holstered on the right thigh.
Corporal Frost and his Val-kyrie spotter, Marin, made their way to the back. Marin was outfitted with the same model rifle and pistol as Anyssa plus the usual Val-kyrie assortment of hidden knives. Both women wore the standard battle armor, similar to the formfitting pieces the Earth people had donned.
Frost was armed with a Sig Saur P226 chambered for 9mm parabellum rounds and was loaded with a 20-round clip. It had recently become the standard sidearm for the platoons. The primary rifle was an updated M43 pulse rifle firing the standard explosive-tipped caseless 11mm rounds. The magazine capacity had been increased to 100-rounds with a digital counter on the right side. The grenade launcher slung beneath the barrel could be swapped for one of two models. For battle outdoors, the M-203 was the preferred weapon. For combat within structures, the M-206 launcher was mounted. This weapon fired a much smaller grenade about the size and shape of a 12-gauge shotgun shell. Although the ammunition was smaller, the 4+1 magazine - four in the magazine and one in the chamber – packed plenty of firepower in an enclosed space.
Each platoon had four personnel armed with the M249 light machine gun. Two to a squad. Everyone else was outfitted like Frost. No flamethrowers or shotguns needed for this mission.
"All right," Apone boomed from the side hatch. "I want a nice clean dispersal this time."
The APC lurched to a halt. The hatch panels popped out and split apart. Personnel spilled forth into the light rain. The platoon fanned out by squad and moved in on the front entrance to the castle. Second Squad moved to the war machine and used it for cover. Adrian and Jake were crouched on the other side of the machine, in full view of anyone within the castle. Their armor was closed up and weapons deployed. Wing was configured in assault mode with plasma projector on the left gauntlet, twin blaster assembly on the right, a seven-barreled enclosed Gatling gun that fired 10mm explosive shells behind the left shoulder, and rocket pod behind the right.
Apone scanned the area with binoculars. Nothing moved. No lights of any kind were visible. He waved Second and Third squads forward with the First and Fourth covering. Apone snapped open the cover to the door controls set in the wall on the right side. A few random taps confirmed what he suspected; the castle had no power.
"O'Rouke. See if you can get these doors unlocked," Apone ordered.
Private Catherine O'Rouke, the unit's computer specialist, darted up the steps and approached the panel. Gatling Arm slammed his back against the wall to the left of the door while Apone took up position with War Wing in front. O'Rouke ignored the activity around her as more soldiers took up cover positions and concentrated on her task. Water dripped from the edge of her helmet, making focusing on the panel a challenge. Releasing two clips on top allowed her to flip the panel down exposing the inner mechanism. While the castle was without power, the private carried a portable battery that, hopefully, would be powerful enough to at least release the lock and allow the doors to be pried open by hand. After a few tense moments of waiting, there was an audible pop and the doors parted several inches. Gatling Arm wedged his armored fingers into the gap and pulled the door aside with the power of hydraulic muscles.
War Wing and Apone darted inside to the second pair of doors, which were already ajar. The pair took up their position while a private set up, aiming his M249 at the doors. He nodded to Gunny's asking if he was set. Apone and War Wing carefully slid the doors all the way open, Wing snapping up his left arm and its plasma projector, pointing it into the gloom. The private walked heel-to-toe into the corridor, guided by only his shoulder light. War Wing and Apone followed along the edges, with the remainder of Second and Third squads bringing up the rear.
They encountered the first signs of damage only ten meters in. A large chunk of broken conduit and support structure hung down at an angle in the middle of the corridor, forcing the soldiers to move around it. Corridors branched off to the left and right, leading deeper into the castle. Apone issued the occasional explanation of what they were encountering as they explored the dead castle. The pace was slow and careful because, other than the Guardians with their night vision capabilities, the soldiers were limited to what they could reveal with their mounted lights.
Colonel Markson ordered motion trackers activated. Soon, the soft tapping of sonar pulses radiating outward accompanied the backdrop of an intensifying rainstorm outside. Satisfied that the search was going as planned, he issued more orders. "Quarter in search by twos. Third Squad secure the central corridor. Second Squad plus Gatling Arm continue to search the ground level. First Squad take the upper levels. Fourth Squad plus War Wing find the power core and see if it's intact. If so, try to power it up."
There was a flurry of replies of squad leaders acknowledging the orders.
Frost, Marin, Anyssa and Dhalon had been attached to Fourth Squad with the specific task of guarding O'Rourke. Sonya had loaned her one of Hawk's hacking and cracking devices, capable of infiltrating any known computer system. If anything could determine the status of the shutdown power core, Hawk's tech could.
Out in the APC, Colonel Markson and Queen Angella watched the selected monitors displaying images from various helmet cameras. Everywhere the soldiers went there were signs of a hell of a fight by the castle's defenders. There were plenty of dried bloodstains, but no bodies were in evidence, much to Angella's relief. That meant that someone returned to the castle after its fall to remove any bodies for a proper burial, no graves had been evident in Cobretti's survey of the castle grounds. So they much have been taken either to a nearby village, or to a collection point somewhere deep in the forest to the north. Inside, several pairs came across hastily erected barricades out of whatever had been handy. None of them had held against the superior firepower of Horde energy weapons.
Markson switched the primary screen over to a sensor overlay of the castle's underground structure. Dots representing the squad of people heads for the lower levels were displayed in a zig-zag pattern on the right side. They were currently navigating a stairwell and passing through the first sublevel.
The group paused at the landing for Sublevel Two. The trackers were not picking up any movement; but, that did not mean that there wasn't someone or something lying in wait for them. Conferring, they decided that Adrian would adopt one of his creature forms and investigate ahead of the squad. That was one reason why the colonel had sent him along.
Angella gasped in shock as a helmet cam caught Adrian reducing his armor to the stealth node six-pointed medallion, then transforming into a version of the Alien from Cameron's film. The creature tore off into the gloom down the stairs.
"Man, that's just creepy," the sergeant in charge of the squad growled.
"Just be thankful he's on our side," Dhalon said pointedly.
"Let's move out," the sergeant ordered, leading the way.
Shoulder lights probed ineffectually into the inky darkness of Sublevel Three. The Squad spread out at the bottom but kept within sight of one another as best they could. This level was a veritable maze of pipes and conduits for water, heating, electrical power and other utilities best left unmentioned. Pathways through the maze were barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side.
Angella informed them that the power core was in the center of the level. However, the control room was along the outskirts. And there was no direct route to it.
The squad waited tensely for Cobretti to return. The oppressive darkness heightened the claustrophobic feel of the chamber. Although the power core was shut down, the level was not without sound. They were too deep underground to hear the rainfall outside. Other sounds took its place. Unseen animals driven inside by the falling water, foraging for food, or making their home deep in the bowels of the castle, scurried about in the darkness. These sounds ratcheted up the tension a few more notches.
The only constant was the soft bleeping from the motion trackers picking up Adrian's movements. Fortunately, the critters running around were too small to trigger the tracker's threshold for registering movement. Suddenly, the bleeping stopped. Eyes darted about straining to see into the darkness. Muscles tensed, trigger fingers grew nervous.
"Anyone see anything?" the sergeant whispered.
Negative reports all around. The trackers were functioning properly. There was just no movement to lock on to.
A private off the left exclaimed, "I see something!"
His outburst was like a howitzer going off. People jumped at the sudden burst of sound, but everyone maintained enough control not to pull a trigger.
"What do you see?" the sergeant demanded.
A pause, then: "Two round lights about six feet off the ground." The private couldn't hide his nervousness, closer to fear. It was like the training op versus the six Guardians all over again.
"Color?" Frost inquired, having a feeling he knew who and what it was.
"Well?" the sergeant demanded when the poor kid didn't answer right away.
Swallowing his fear, the kid replied, "Kinda yellowish one moment and greenish the next."
"That'd be Cobretti," Frost confirmed. "He's in that B-movie creature form. Don't shoot him."
"I don't plan on it," the private snapped, sudden angry. Whether it was at Frost for pointing out the friendly or because his fear got the better of him in this dank and claustrophobic place, no one could be sure.
"Good. Because you'd only piss him off."
The Sergeant stepped forward, making a point of lowering his weapon. The others immediately around him followed suit. Only when it was clearly safe to approach did the creature come forward. Heavy footsteps of something massing a considerable bulk moved forward at a leisurely pace. The lights finally picked out a monster straight out of Hell, or Hollywood.
When Adrian needed to sniff out an area, he went with a form that only Hollywood could have come up with. The creature stood approximately six feet in height, was powerfully build with corded muscles evident in the arms and legs and was dressed in rags. The toes and fingers ended in wicked inch-long yellowed claws. The oversized head sat atop a pillar of muscle and sinew. The round eyes were set above a bulbous nose. The angular jaw framed a mouth filled with the pointed teeth of a meat-eater. Pointed ears on the sides of the head picked sounds outside the human auditory ranges. The skin was colored a sickly green almost the shade of artificial turf.
"Do you mind?" the sergeant snapped. "We're nervous enough as it is."
A quiet chuckle echoed over the tach net from Colonel Markson.
Adrian reverted from the CHUD form back into his natural human shape. The armor promptly expanded from the medallion to enclose its operator, minus the helmet. "There were lots of things to smell down here," Adrian explained when asked why he'd changed forms. The sublevel was musty from being sealed for years. He also caught the scents of lubricants, fried electronics, dried blood in places where bodies had fallen, and the detritus from years of critters living in the area. It was almost overpowering.
There were no Horde troopers lying in wait for them, however.
"All right. Let's find that control room and see about getting some power going in the place," the sergeant declared.
It took another fifteen minutes of careful searching to locate the control room. The Val-kyire and Dhalon stood watch outside the cramped room while O'Rourke went to work. The rest of the squad returned to the other sublevels to ensure there were no surprises.
O'Rourke went about her task in a methodical manner. The tool loaned her from Guardian Hawke was capable of more than just hacking. Its internal power source could provide the energy needed to jumpstart certain systems. In this case, the module provided power to energize the emergency batteries. This allowed her to start up the emergency generators that would take over in the event of a main power failure. Once the emergency systems were back online, it would be easier to restart the mains. Diagnostics indicated no major damage to the castle's power distribution system. There might be localized damage from the battles that had been fought in the corridors and rooms, but they could be isolated locally for repairs. O'Rourke made one last lookover of the status boards, then threw the main switches.
Seconds passed as the main reactor gradually powered up. As energy built up, relays clicked, conduits buzzed with electricity, and long dormant systems came alive. Lights throughout the castle flickered, stabilized and gradually brightened. The gloom inside the structure was chased away by panel lights, walkway strips and the occasional flood and spot lights. The sublevels, like the control room, were so densely packed with equipment that the lighting only illuminated the pathways through the maze of pipes, conduits and support braces.
All squads reported in that there was no enemy force lying in wait to ambush them. Colonel Markson made the decision to relocate to the castle. Fourth Squad would maintain a secure perimeter while everyone else – himself included – transferred equipment and supplies from the APC into the castle.
If the internal damage to Castle Brightmoon had looked terrible in the shoulder-mounted lights the soldiers carried, the brighter lights of the rooms and corridors made it look more like the warzone that it was. Only the throne room had gone unscathed. Queen Angella tried to hide her depression at the sight of what had become of her beloved castle, but people noticed and gave her her privacy.
Once the operation was complete, the colonel reported in to the Eternia their current status. "That castle is as secure as we can make it," Markson told Captain Majourny. "The storm is going to keep anyone at bay until at least dawn. We'll try to get a better evaluation of the damage in the meantime. There don't appear to be any weapons emplacements, so defending against a Horde attack will be problematic if Hordak throws heavy stuff at us."
Jo-jo nodded. "We are camped out in what appears to be a village that had been destroyed around five to six years ago. There might be a road from here to the castle, but we can't tell anything until this storm lifts. We'll explore more in the daylight."
"Any word from the other platoons?"
Jo-jo shook her head. "Nothing yet. I don't expect to hear anything for hours. We may not hear anything from Beta Platoon until dawn at the earliest."
Both platoons had been instructed not to break radio silence unless they got into a dire situation. Delta would report in once they discovered the current status of Frosta. Beta would be extracting from the area of Mystacor before they reported in unless they were engaged by the enemy.
It either case, it was going to be a long night before the pieces of the puzzle that was Planet Etheria started coming together to form the overall picture. Once that was known, the Guardian force could get down to business recovering the swords of power.
And put a fear of the Guardians into Hordak.
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