Twenty-six
Fright Zone
Planet Etheria
5 September 2017
Shadow Weaver and Modulok watched the spy drone following the force of twenty Monstroids steadily marching on Castle Mystacor. The pair knew the Guardians would show up at some point and planned to gather all the information they could about the mysterious battlesuits. Modulok had already delved into the ancient archives, looking for any information Hordak might have saved about them in records dating back to the final months of the galaxy-wide conflict the Vla-kyrie simply called The Great War.
Modulok had not found much more than general descriptions of appearance, possible weaponry and threat level. That last had been applied by Horde Intelligence, which Modulok scoffed at. King Hiss had warned Hordak and other planetary governors not to underestimate the six suits and their pilots. 'Pilot' turned out to be a misnomer. According to Modulok's research, the pilot was actually called an operator. The scientist did not understand the distinction and didn't waste time on it. He was interested more in potential weapons and other technological boons they might yield.
Shadow Weaver was interested in only one suit, the one Modulok said had been designed to amplify magical abilities. Shadow still fumed over having been denied the full range of power she thought was her due. The suit called Falcon could help her to finally achieve that goal.
The pair waited patiently for the conflict to begin. Shadow Weaver meditated while Modulok fiddled with various controls. Troopers manned the various control stations of the command chamber, monitoring the daily goings on throughout the Fright Zone. Only two stations were allocated to monitor the coming battle once it began.
"There," Shadow Weaver suddenly whispered.
Modulok turned back to his monitor. Sure enough, several Guardians had intercepted the force of Monstroids. The two troopers tasked with monitoring the battle switched to the orbiting spy drones.
"Confirmed," one robot reported. "Guardians sighted based on the descriptions you provided."
"How many?" Hordak's chief scientist demanded.
The second robot reported, "Five confirmed units."
"Five," Modulok muttered. Icons of the six suits appeared at the bottom of his screen. Five of the six black silhouettes filled in with detailed images. Number six, the winged one, remained blacked out. "Where is the flight model?"
It didn't matter. Even five was scary enough, as they soon discovered.
Monstroids were not programmed with tactics. They depended more upon fear due to their imposing size, capabilities and firepower. Until their first encounter with She-ra, they did not know the meaning of fear. Even after getting thrashed by her, they still did not fear her too much. Now, they were learning the full meaning of fear.
The Monstroids clashed with Guardians in an intense running battle. The huge machines topped their opponents in height by five feet. If you are talking about Godzilla, size matters. If you talk about five technologically advanced battlesuits equipped with an evolved sentience, paired up with organic operators who excelled at unconventional warfare, well, the Monstroids were outgunned.
Although the Monstroid programming did not include tactical databases, it did allow for adapting to certain situations. In this case, they were faced with five powerful opponents who could act as one cohesive unit or could act independently. The correct choice was to force the battle into their kind of fight instead of having the fight dictated by the enemy. The Monstroid unit commander recognized that the enemy was fighting a delaying action. They did not want the Monstroids to get within range of the Mystacor castle with their heavy weapons units. So, the commander made the best decision available: He deployed units to keep the enemy busy, while the remainder of the assault force flanked the Guardians and continued toward the primary target.
The Guardians reacted accordingly and withdrew, fighting a running battle all the way.
"Where do they get such power?" Modulok breathed in awe.
"They were built by science and given life through magic," a familiar rumbling voice said from behind him.
Modulok whirled about, startled. "M-M-My Lord."
"They are impressive," Hordak conceded. "And it would appear they are not letting the machines do all the work. Mostly."
Shadow Weaver ignored them She was concentrating on the Guardian called Falcon. The power radiating from that suit was incredible. Since she and Hordak were creatures of magic, she knew he could see the magic fire the same as she. However, ever since his life had been saved by Modulok's nanomachines, he had become more interested in technology than magical artifacts.
Watching the actions of Falcon, Shadow became convinced that if the rumor of the Sorceress of Grayskull being out and about from the castle were true, she would be the one operating that suit. She would be the only one capable of bringing out the full capabilities of that battlesuit. If she had the will to abandon her conscience and use the weapon as it had been designed. A weapon.
The battle progressively drew closer to Castle Mystacor. A barrage of missiles soared out of the sky and peppered the remaining Monstroids. None fell, but their armor looked like a lunar surface after a meteor storm.
The monster machines slowed their rush to the castle, but they still advanced toward the target. Interestingly, the Monstroid tactics changed. Instead of choosing individual targets, the unit leader picked out one Guardian and ordered the others to focus fire on it. Finally, they had some success. The attacking machines paid a heavy price for it, but the one Modulok identified as Claw limped away with serious damage to the left leg.
"There. You see? No matter how powerful they are, even these so-called Guardians can be hurt," Hordak pointed out. He didn't add that one had to be willing to pay the price to achieve even that small victory. The battlesuits were protected by Etherium alloy armor. It didn't make them invulnerable, just bloody hard to kill.
When the spy drone picked up He-man and She-ra on the field of battle brandishing laser rifles, even Hordak was surprised. All the emotion he showed was a slight widening of the eyes, but it was still an emotion. A slight grin broke the left side of his stern lips when a menacing machine forced He-man to dive to the side, taking his sister with him. He sensed the potential end of two very annoying nuisances.
Sensing danger, the Monstroid snapped its head up and to the right. The spy drone followed the sudden movement and tried to zero in on whatever had drawn the machine's attention. It took precious moments for the drone to spot an object traveling at incredible speed, streaking in low on the horizon. The object altered course slightly and soared in, straight at the monster robot that had been preparing to destroy He-man and his sister. Irresistible force met immoveable object in a spectacular crash. The force won out as the twenty-foot-tall Monstroid was blasted off its feet and sent skipping across the ground.
Atop the dead machine stood the missing battlesuit from the Guardian line up. Without pause, the winged battlesuit employed the powerful plasma blaster rifle clutched in the right hand. Two flight-capable Monstroids, who had been attempting to take off, were promptly shot down. The Guardian blasted off into the sky ahead of a retaliatory attack by another Monstroid and got shot down for its efforts. Upon landing, the operator slammed the shield mounted on the left forearm into the ground, crouching down behind it for cover. A shot at another machine missed, but the tank model trying to flank the battlesuit took a devastating blast to its left side that vaporized metal and electronics.
Hordak grinned slightly when a fifth machine rushed the Guardian's position, the Monstroid slamming into its enemy at full speed. The impact sent the shield skidding one way, the deadly rifle another. A storm of energy fire from secondary weapons mounted in the head and shoulders peppered the attacker, but the truly frightening strike was a beam of raw energy that boiled through the Monstroid from front to back. The beam faded away in seconds, the dead Monstroid almost casually thrown aside.
"A bit ostentatious," Hordak observed flatly.
"He just killed five Monstroids like they were nothing, M'lord," Modulok pointed out. He had to consciously keep from drooling over the technological boons his imagination conjured up.
Hordak turned away from the monitor, knowing how the battle would end. He walked over to the com station and sent the next phase of the assault plan in motion.
Castle Mystacor
Colonel Markson was in the process of picking up the pieces from the battle when Private O'Rouke summoned him to the command APC. His intuition and experience informed him that whatever situation had reared its ugly head, he would need everyone back on the defense line. A quick call over the tac net sent the teams he had had out searching the local dead Monstroids for salvage scurrying back to prepare for the worst.
"What's the story, private?" Markson demanded.
O'Rourke gestured to a monitor. On it, Colonel Shabala stared out, beginning her report once the colonel stepped into the visual pickup on his end. "Colonel, we are detecting a massive formation of aircraft heading your direction. Scans indicate they are Horde dropships capable of carrying approximately fifty robot troopers each. Some of the ships are lagging behind, possibly indicating whatever they are carrying is likely something a lot heavier than trooper robots."
Markson frowned. Not what he needed right now. "And a lot meaner."
Shabala nodded. "I'm redirecting the Bladewings to attack that formation. They have Bat mech support, but we should be able to shoot down a fair amount."
"I still have an effective fighting force with your platoon in the mix. We'll handle it."
Defiant's First Officer nodded. "Good luck." The image faded away.
The colonel left the carrier to summon his platoon leaders, including Major Oran, who promptly used the reinforcement as an excuse to get her and her people into the fight.
Adrian and the Sorceress did not receive the recall order; they had turned off their com channel. They were the furthest out, over half a mile from the APC line, scouting for an intact Monstroid to cart back to Earth for Gabriel Burns and his eggheads. Gabe would have kittens when he saw what Adrian planned to bring him.
"That one looks intact," Sorceress said. She gestured to a machine equipped with the powerful weapons backpack.
Adrian nodded. War Wing marked the location. "I would like to take back one of those transforming tanks."
Sorceress frowned. "I think the only reasonably intact one left is back that way." She pointed off to the west.
"The one that tried to outflank me, and I blew off its left side for its trouble?"
"Yes."
"It'll have to do, I suppose."
"A Private O'Rourke is trying to contact us," War Wing said. "She sounds almost frantic."
"We could have been out among the stars, instead," Adrian sighed.
"You were serious about that?" Sorceress said, exasperated. "You really wanted to take the Ladyhawke and just fly off to explore the universe?" Her voice had completely lost its usual calm, motherly air.
"I was going to make you dinner and propose the idea, yes," Adrian returned, evenly.
Unbeknownst to either of them, the AIs had reactivated the com channel, so Colonel Markson heard the whole argument.
"Hey! Hey! Kids!" the colonel broke in.
"What?" Adrian and the Sorceress snapped in unison, turned back toward the distant APC.
Unphased, Jon continued, "Save it for the honeymoon. We got incoming."
The pair began heading back toward the skirmish line the colonel was setting in place. Adrian stopped after they had gone only a hundred yards.
"What's wrong?" Sorceress asked.
"We're not going to make it," he answered, looking southwest.
A dark stain on the horizon was quickly spreading as it grew ever closer. Explosions lit the sky on the edges of the mass. Bladewings were doing what they could to shave some of the enemy numbers; even so, a good portion of the enemy was getting through. Bay doors swung open in the belly of almost a dozen of the craft. Large objects plunged out into the open air. Disposable backpack thrusters fired to slow the descent of the battle machines.
Units of a totally new design not encountered before landed in droves all around the two Guardians. Sorceress pulled her battle rod from along her spine. It expanded and morphed into the white six-foot magic staff, capped with a falcon with wings spread. Meanwhile, War Wing activated his assault-mode configuration. A beam projector took shape on the left gauntlet. The flight pack and blaster on the right arm disappeared. In its place, a rectangular box formed with twin laser barrels poking out the front. Retractable weapons pods appeared in a flash of light behind the shoulders; missiles on the right, a tube on the left, with seven internal barrels equipped for firing explosive projectiles. Between the two of them, the Guardians had impressive firepower.
However, Hordak had also deployed impressive firepower. The new model robot was a brute built upon the drone design. It stood six feet in height, having more rounded armor than the sharp angles of the drones; two large toes and an expanded foot aided the onboard gyro with stabilization; extra armor panels lay along the back, along with an energy rifle that could rise up over the left shoulder; a head packed with sensor equipment finished off its force multiplication. Modulok's new creation was a beautiful work of art. Powerful and deadly.
Scores of troopers fanned out into two groups. One moved to contain the two isolated Guardians, the other sweeping in toward the castle and its defenders. The second group had the usual mix of drones mounting the deadly weapons pods containing a laser, grenade launcher and railgun.
The looming battle made the desperate fight against the Monstroids look like a barroom brawl. Colonel Markson had wanted the opportunity show off how Earth people fight a war. He was about to get his wish.
Jon had his platoons coordinating the defense of the castle while he concentrated on the whole battlefield. Eternia couldn't take off with all the craft flying around. Brad had Claw hooked up to the starship's power grid in order to expedite the battlesuit's automatic repair system. He offered to leave the ship and get back into the fight, but the colonel rejected it. One more Guardian on the battlefield wasn't going to make a big difference, at this point.
Jake, Sonya and Jeremy converted their suits from battle mode to combat mode to conserve power. The smaller powered armor suit-forms could still take on the mass of robots without expending large amounts of energy like their normal fifteen-foot forms did. Additionally, they would have a large amount of backup to lighten the load this time. That, with some of the weapons gleaned from the data War Wing had contained in a segregated memory, guaranteed this battle was going to be something to study in the future.
"What's going on?" Colonel Markson demanded. "Someone get eyes on the Dynamic Duo."
From his position up on the castle's outer wall, Frost surveyed the situation through his rifle scope. "The Horde has them surrounded. Poor bastards."
During the lull after the battle with the Monstroids, and after having been decked by Adrian Cobretti, He-man and his sister had entered Colonel Markson's carrier. Up until the arrival of the next wave of Horde robots, He-man had been sitting in the back feeling sorry for himself. The Sorceress had warned them that they had been in these forms too long. He was starting to come to grips with that.
She-ra had left her brother's side to eavesdrop on the developing situation. While she did not understand Earth profanity, the urgency of the com chatter was unmistakable. She frowned at Frost's last statement. "Poor…bastards?" she said, rolling around the alien slang on her lips. "The Guardians?"
"The Horde," Markson and O'Rourke answered in unison.
The colonel ordered that she and her brother stay inside the carrier. They couldn't be the light in the darkness if they were killed at this stage. She-ra didn't like it, but she understood. She glanced back at her brother, wallowing in despair, and wondered how she could reach him. There had to be a way. Maybe recovering the swords and returning the power to the source was the answer as the Sorceress had said. She-ra hoped they would live long enough to find out.
Dhalon was chomping at the bit to get into the fight. With robots more to his size that his axes could disable, the Quaedian wanted to follow his instincts and do what he had been born to do.
Anyssa's skills with a bow wasn't helping his mood any. Before the Guardians had engaged in a running battle with the Monstroids, the Val-kyrie princess had put together a quiver of arrows sectioned off for different types of tips. The bulk of the arrows were tipped with simple penetrators designed to do maximum impact by imparting kinetic energy into the target. A second section contained explosive tips that detonated on contact. A third section harbor more explosive tips, but these had penetrator tips designed to pierce up to a quarter inch-thick armor. Once through, the explosive package detonated. There wasn't much explosive in the assembly, but detonating inside a trooper had devastating results.
Both were stationed up on the outer wall with a mix of human and Val-kyrie warriors armed to the teeth. They could fire down on the approaching mass of robots, but someone noticed that many of the machines had been equipped with rocket packs Those would enable the robots to gain the top of the wall, fight their way through the defenders, and open the gates for the rest of the robot army to pour into the courtyard. Some might even attempt to make a daring leap up and over the wall, landing directly in the courtyard. The bulk of Major Oran's command was stationed in the courtyard for that reason.
Colonel Markson ordered weapons free, with the reminder to use short, controlled bursts to conserve ammo. With the sheer number of robots on the field, getting spare ammo from runners could be as problematic as trying to make it to the nearest ammo dump.
Energy and ballistic rounds rained down on the approaching sea of troopers steadily approaching the wall. Frost took careful aim at targets further back, but he held fire. Something about the deployment bothered him.
"Something's wrong," Frost muttered.
"What?" Marin asked, sweeping the formations with her scope.
"It doesn't look like a simple destroy mission," Frost said. He alternated between observations through the rifle scope and his own two eyes.
Major Oran stood several paces to the right of the sniper and spotter. She had been having the same feeling. She surveyed the situation through a pair of electro binoculars. "It's not. The mass approaching us is on a destroy mission. Destroy us and capture the castle. But out there with the two Guardians, it looks like-"
"Like a capture mission," Frost finished. "Hordak wants one of the battlesuits."
"We need to help them," the major stated.
"They can take care of themselves. Look," Frost said, looking over the scene half a mile away through the rifle scope.
The major lifted the binoculars to her eyes and sighted in on Falcon and War Wing being surrounded by Horde machines. She gasped at the sight of War Wing's switch from flight to assault configuration.
"Yeah. When those two get together fun things start to happen," Frost promised. "Time to go to work." He shifted targets to the more immediate problem closing in on the castle and began firing.
Adrian and the Sorceress stood back to back in order to best defend each other. It wouldn't last long once battle was joined, but it did not have to last for long. Once the pair got rolling, the troopers would be in for the fight of their machine lives. Wing finished switching modes and waited for his operator's cue.
"What do you think?" Adrian asked his sister in arms.
"Surrounding them is out," Sorceress commented casually.
"You pick the damnedest times for humor," he chuckled.
Without another word, the pair dropped their faceplates and took the initiative.
A dozen robots ceased to function in the first few seconds. Falcon took out three with blasts from the staff. War Wing dropped the others with a frightening barrage from gauntlet and shoulder weapons. The laser auto-targeting module mounted on the right side of his helmet picked out individual targets, fed the information to the seven miniature missiles in the shoulder pod and ripple-fired them at the operator's look at the icon on his heads-up display.
Adrian switched the blast on his left arm from burst mode to projecting a blue/white energy. An onrushing trooper got himself chopped in half by the blade. A new-type machine took the energy blade straight to the chest. Two new-types thirty paces away fired at him with their shoulder lasers, but missed when War Wing twisted a step out of their path. New weapons flashed into existence in horizontal holsters along the beltline in back. Adrian grabbed the handles and flicked them underhand, straight at the machine. His aim was true. Beams of energy snapped out from the business ends and imbedded themselves deep in the chests of the assault robots. The machines toppled over into twitching heaps, their systems short-circuiting.
"See that?" Adrian asked the Sorceress.
"Very nice. That was on the list?" she asked, referring to the list of experimental weapon systems downloaded from War Wing's hidden memory files.
"Yup."
Falcon shortened the staff to that of a two-handed battle axe and hurled it into the chest of a machine thirty feet away. The clear space around the dueling pair steadily increased as they dropped more and more of their attackers. She recalled the modified axe to her hand, but instead of catching it, she twisted back a step to the left and let the weapon pass by to punch into a new-type behind her.
"See that?" she asked. Though she never considered herself to be a showoff, there were times when it was useful to be a little flashy.
"Thor would be proud," Adrian confirmed. "On your right."
Falcon swung around and zeroed in on the threat Adrian warned her about. A trooper stood on the leg of a wrecked Monstroid, aiming a weapon at her that no one had seen them carry before. It was a version of minigun that fired energy bolts instead of bullets. Instinctively, Sorceress called up the defensive system she and Adrian had tested in secret before leaving Val-kyre. Her left arm came up horizontally in front of her, a semi-transparent shield flickering into existence just as the trooper opened fire. Plasma bolts splashed harmlessly against the barrier. Some were absorbed into the suit's power grid to replenish energy expenditures, while another portion was diverted into a specific subsystem to begin charging a capacitor. Other bolts were deflected away.
Actuators strained against the pummeling. Falcon had braced for the impacts, but the initial force had shoved her backward, feet digging furrows in the dirt. Working together, woman and machine snapped the shield this way and that to deflect bolts into other robots attempting to flank her. Leg actuators slowly gained ground. Within moments, the Guardian was forcing her way forward toward the trooper blasting away at her. She picked up speed, snapping off more deflection shots at flanking machines. Once Falcon got within fifteen feet, foot thrusters fired, blasting her upward out of the line of fire. The Guardian somersaulted over the trooper, Sorceress snapping out her right hand, snagging the opening between the back of the neck and backplate. Falcon landed, facing in the direction she had just come from, slamming the robot flat on its back. The staff axe returned to her outstretched hand, then swung up to build momentum and came crashing down on the trooper's chest. The falcon cape bit deep into the internal mechanisms, crushing everything in its path. The minigun slipped from dead fingers to land in the dust.
Looking up, Sorceress surveyed the battlefield. She was at the extreme south end of it now, and the tactics were becoming clear. The warning had gone out that the Horde appeared to be looking to capture one of the Guardians rather than kill them. Eternia was being ignored, as were the APCs. The mass assaulting the front gates to the castle were pressing closer, despite murderous fire coming from the defenders on the wall. The gates swung open; defenders poured out, led by a snarling Dhalon, who was happy as a clam to finally be getting some action.
The other Guardians were fighting Horde troops back from the APCs. The robots were not trying as hard as they had during the desperate fighting in and around Castle Brightmoon; that fact alone supported the theory Hordak wanted a suit intact. True to form, the Guardians and their allies were making the venture costly; Hordak wouldn't care, as robots were easily replaced.
Falcon quickly checked a specific icon on her heads-up display; the charge meter was not quite full. Sadly, she needed to get shot at again in order to bring in the remain energy she needed for the weapon.
All this had taken place within a few seconds of downing the minigun robot. Falcon stood up and blasted off into the sky, making two more power leaps to get within twenty feet of War Wing, who was backpedaling in her direction. As Falcon landed, the staff returned to its full length plus the extruded falcon cap on the opposite end, with both caps offset, with one end vertical and the other horizontal.
The pair turned their attention to the machines closing in on them. Although Falcon had not said anything, War Wing intuitively realized the plan was to suck the remaining machines of the first detachment to them. Adrian did not spare more than a moment to watch Falcon swing her staff into action; Sorceress had really improved upon the skills developed from the knowledge that had been downloaded into their brains when they had taken possession of the battlesuits seven months ago. Although she had been reluctant about polishing and improving the skills she had rolling around in her brain, the Sorceress was embracing her new role outside Castle Grayskull.
Adrian returned his attention to the robots closing in on him. The robots didn't know what they were in for; when these two Guardians were together, they were nearly unstoppable. Laser fire darted in at the warriors from all sides. Personal shields absorbed what was needed, reflected away what wasn't. Adrian switched from the arsenal to the sabers and daggers. The fabrication system could produce all the replacement ordinance needed for the missile launcher and rotary cannon, but it still used up valuable power despite replenishing it with enemy fire.
Falcon finally gave the Sorceress the news she had been waiting for. "The capacitor is charged. EM system ready for discharge."
"Finally!" Sorceress exclaimed. "Arm the system."
"Don't set it off yet."
"Why?"
A graphic appeared displaying a circular representation of the maximum range of about two hundred meters. There were plenty of red dots representing enemy machines still outside the blast radius. They moved with agonizing slowness toward the two blue dots representing the Guardians. Although they hadn't verbally worked out the on-the-spot plan, this was something that had been discussed at length in development sessions. A contingency plan to activate if the circumstances were right. Kind of like the one they faced now.
All it took was a few cues from the AIs to get both on the same page as to what one was up to. Adrian had been shown the meter for Falcon's capacitor, so he knew it was being charged for deployment. He worked his way back to her to stay in close for covering fire. She had made it even easier with the power leaps. Now all they had to do was hang on until Falcon's weapon was ready.
The last dots finally crossed into the effective range. A quick glance at the required icon armed the EM weapon. Sorceress reverted the staff back to a single falcon cap. All was set. It was now or never.
"Adrian, shut down!" Sorceress cried. Although it wasn't required in the slightest, she twirled the staff above her head in two quick circles before snapping it downward, slamming the ball at the base firmly into the ground. At the same instant, the capacitor discharged, activating the EM weapon.
An electromagnetic wave blasted outward for two hundred yards across the battlefield washing over every machine advancing on the Guardians. All of them jerked to a held instantly when their electrics fried. A few even toppled over and collapsed from joints freezing in awkward angles.
At the Sorceress' warning, War Wing straightened up, locked down his joints and shut down faster than Adrian could ever have done. It was eerily silent within the confines of the dead armor. Ten seconds later, systems came back online. The image inside the helmet resolved into a field of statues among mountains of destroyed drones, new-type and old. Falcon's EM weapon had worked perfectly. All the robots that had been advancing on them were nothing more than frozen hunks of useless metal and dead electronics.
"Very nice. Too bad you can't start off with that," Adrian said.
Sorceress nodded, though he couldn't see the gesture with the faceplate down. The capacitor for the EM weapon had to be charged before it could fire. With the system was segregated from the suit's primary power, the capacitor had to be charged via alternate energy sources; it was a safeguard against inadvertently depleting the main power in charging the weapon. However, the discharge of energy from the capacitor to the weapon fried it in the process, making it a one-off weapon to used only when necessary. Since the Horde was always more than happy to shoot first, it made a near-perfect situation in which to use the Horde's power against them.
Falcon had begun a deep scan of the capacitor to get a complete schematic of it. It was a complex, smaller variation of the larger ones powering the battlesuits, that regenerated its energy even when totally depleted. Analysis would take a while, but the AI was confident that she could use her auto-repair system to replace the module when necessary.
"All in good time, Adrian. All in good time," Sorceress replied, opening her faceplate.
Adrian opened his and looked to the north where battle was still joined. There was no way either of them could arrive quickly enough and with enough power to do any good. Reverting to battle mode would get them there with a few power jumps by Falcon and a brief flight by War Wing, but they would be dangerously low on power on arrival.
The defenders at the castle were on their own.
Adrian and the Sorceress began the long walk back, hoping there would be people to return to.
Frost and the other defenders along the wall poured murderous fire down into the mass of attacking Horde troops. Drones returned fire with their lethal weapons pods, but the range was too long for accurate fire. Frost had lined up a shot at another drone when he was unceremoniously bowled over, enemy fire smacking into the spot he just vacated. Recovering his senses, the corporal found Marin laying practically on top of him. It took only a moment to realize what had happened. He had been so fixated on the ground targets that he forgot about the troopers equipped with rocket packs.
Several troopers had gotten close enough to the wall to ignite the packs and attempt penetrating the defenses. The packs did not have much fuel and would not last long considering the weight of the average trooper robot; however, they lasted long enough to get them to the top of the hundred-foot wall.
Frost roughly thrust Marin to the side, swung the rifle down into target acquisition and fired several slugs through the massed group of robots. He aimed at an upward angle so the solid projectiles would soar harmlessly into the air after perforating the intruders.
"Just returning the favor," Frost said in the face of his spotter's reproachful look.
Crouching further along the wall, Major Oran called down to Captain Takamora. "Open the gates, captain. Time to open a new front."
"YES!" Dhalon exclaimed excitedly. He and the Japanese captain readied themselves.
The 'Fighting Furball', as the Quaedian had become known, raised his treasured double-bladed battle axe. Hohiro drew the katana that had been in his family for generations. It was one that had survived the ordered confiscation, and often destruction, of many such weapons at the end of World War Two, when they weren't taken as souvenirs.
The horizontal locking bars were thrown back, and the soldiers backpedaled quickly as the mass of robots on the other side forced their way through the barrier. They marched into the teeth of massed laser fire and a wave of arrows from Anyssa's squad of archers.
The Fighting Furball issued a roaring battle cry and charged. Despite having longer legs than the four-foot Quaedian, the humans had to sprint to keep up. The Val-kyrie relished close combat whenever they got the chance, and Major Oran's warriors dove into the fray with precise ferocity born of long hours training for days like this.
Hordak's troops were used to facing unskilled peasants and guard troops whose experience in battle did not amount to much. Now faced with a capable, determined and well-armed enemy, the illogic of continuing the fight was called into question. Earth and Val-kyrie defenders attacked from Castle Mystacor, while more Earthers and three Guardians in combat mode assaulted the Horde formation from the east.
Despite the superior numbers on the side of the Horde, the battle turned into a rout as troopers decided self-preservation was better than being destroyed for no gain. Many robots fell trying to buy time for those at the back of the formation to break away and head back for the Fright Zone.
The lumbering drones did not have the speed to get away, so they stayed and fought, the new types falling to concentrated attacks with melee weapons. Because of the close combat, no one realized just what a radical departure from the norm this newest version of the trooper really was.
Once at a safe distance from the castle, Earthers and Val-kyrie ceased pursuit. When the retreating mass of Horde robots opened the distance to over a half mile, dropships and Bladewings swooped in to finish the enemy off with repeated air strikes.
No one survived to report back to Hordak.
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