Thirty
Central Command
Fright Zone, Etheria
6 September 2017
Sonya had been given the latitude to determine the best time to break away after battle was joined with Hordak's army, if Cobra didn't send her on her way first. As it turned out, she recognized the right time at about the same moment Cobra gave her the order to disengage and head for the rendezvous point with Major Oran.
Hawk engaged an experimental system found in War Wing's technology download, turning the surface of a battlesuit into a retroreflector. The layman's explanation: it was a practical cloaking field. With the enemy's attention focused on the other five Guardians, Hawk was able to cloak and slip away unseen.
Sonya sprinted Hawk across the miles to the rendezvous point, reaching it in about fifteen minutes. She did not use the battlesuit at its top speed to conserve power, but she had no trouble arriving within the projected window. She slowed to a halt in the target area, finding… nothing. Major Oran would not have left without her.
A figure stepped from apparently nowhere twenty meters away. The waving Val-kyrie soldier appeared to be levitating. It took a moment for Sonya to realized that the techs on the orbiting battlestar must have succeeded in adapting the scout ship cloaking device to the dropship. Sonya converted Hawk from battle mode to power armor combat form as she strode across to the stealth ship. She followed the soldier into the troop bay as the engines powered up and the pilot took off, the boarding ramp still rising into the closed position.
Sonya dropped into a vacant slot on the troop seats lining both sides of the bay. The bay normally seated a full thirty soldiers and gear; for this op, there were only a dozen personnel, including Sonya, the pilot and the copilot in the dropship. Sonya leaned half-unconsciously to her right as the craft's nose rose to a steep angle. The pilot intended to fly to the edge of the atmosphere, letting the planet rotate below and then diving for the heart of the Fright Zone.
No one talked much. All were focused on the mission, recovery of the swords of power their objective. Anything else was secondary. And failure was not an option. Everyone had been briefed on who they might encounter within the massive command center, from Catra to Octavia, Scorpia and the beastly Grizzlor. That was justification to have a Guardian along. Hawk's specific systems for slicing through security systems was the clincher.
Sonya removed a rectangular box from the storage slot in the left thigh armor and fitted it to her left forearm. She carried an identical codebreaker box in the right thigh as a backup. A smaller box with an emitter nozzle on the front materialized on the right forearm, a tiny blaster packing a powerful punch. Intensity settings ranged from a low stun setting to lethal discharges. It could even project a continuous beam to burn through objects if needed. Sonya had put it to good use on the mission to take back Castle Mystacor and depose Queen Castaspella's evil cousin.
The trip seemed to last forever, but only took about fifteen minutes. The pilot roared down out the sky along the northern edge of the sprawling command complex. The main building resembled a dead spider laying on its back, its legs curled up into the air. A central tower rose out of the center of the formation. That was where the throne room, command and control center - CIC – and other support systems of the Horde army were located. The swords were rumored to be mounted up on the wall behind Hordak's throne.
The chosen landing site was not anywhere near the tower, however. While the cloaking field was effective, it caused ripples in the air when there were a lot of objects around it, especially when the system was retrofitted to a vessel that was not designed to accommodate it. So, Major Oran had chosen to infiltrate through the dungeons located in the northern zone. Once the swords were acquired, exfiltration would be through the nearest point in the command tower.
The pilot spun the dropship around as she came in for landing. The ship settled to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust that quickly settled. A soldier furthest aft unstrapped, stood up and punched the control to lower the hatch. Everyone else was also up and moving, gathering up weapons and equipment.
Major Oran deployed her people across the thirty feet to the access hatch. Two were left to guard the dropship with the pilots, while the remaining eight would enter the dungeons. Sonya pointed the splicing device at the hatch control panel. A pair of wires launched from hidden orifices and affixed themselves to the target, Hawk making short work of the lock. The metal hatch snapped upward. At a nod from Oran, the soldiers entered the corridor two at a time. Sonya and the Major were the second pair to go in as Oran never led from the rear.
Rumors about Horde dungeons ranged from the dank and dark, to truly frightening places where torture, torment and even bizarre experiments took place on a regular basis. Many were the product of overactive imaginations. Some were based on frightening facts gathered from conquered planets where some of the most heinous experiments ever conceived took place.
Hordak's dungeons were more sedate. He simply locked beings away and forgot about them. Slave pens were maintained for whatever uses the Horde conquerors saw fit. Oran's path through the maze of cells and pens deliberately bypassed the pens; the Val-kyrie people tended to have a severe negative reaction when coming across beings enslaved by others. The warrior women were notorious for freeing slaves wherever they came across them, and whenever possible. This was not a time where they could free slaves and still succeed. So, to prevent having to fight her own peoples' need to free even a few of poor wretches locked up in the pens, the major chose a path away from them.
Smells of human misery wafted through the dank corridors, adding to the already overpowering aroma of fear and literally millions of unwashed bodies that had been housed in the underground detention blocks. Oran's people ignored the wails of despair echoing around the rough stone corridors. It was difficult, but her people were professionals.
The soldier on point slowed her advance, walking heel to toe as she crept up on a blind corner. As the group drew closer, they could make out voices somewhere up ahead. Both were female in nature. And they were arguing.
Catra was engaged in an argument with a prisoner at the far end of the cellblock. Only Sonya recognized the answering voice as Castaspella's cousin. Evidently, Allepsatsac was angry over being thrown down here as a reward for her faithful service to Hordak. She was finding out the hard way that Hordak was not so forgiving of failure.
"This is Hordak's decision. What do you expect me to do about it?"
"Change his mind! Tell him I have more value to him than rotting away down here."
Catra opened her mouth to say something scathing, but she sensed that they were not alone. Her head snapped around. Catra's keen eyesight picked out the ghostly shadows creeping along both sides of the corridor.
Intruders!
Catra whipped around faster than anyone expected and dove for the security panel fifteen feet away. Her fingers was within inches of the alarm button as a stun bolt from Hawk slammed into her back. The woman collapsed into an unconscious heap on the floor.
"That's all great and fine, but when she wakes up, she'll set off the alarm," the scout pointed out.
Looking around, Sonya smiled. "I have an idea…"
Allepsatsac raised her hands and stepped back as instructed. Two soldiers trained their weapons on Casta's nefarious cousin while two more dragged the unconscious Catra inside, the pair dumping their burden unceremoniously to the stone floor before retreating. The iron-barred door was slammed shut and the electronic lock engaged.
"I'm sure the two of you have much to discuss to pass the time," the major said, in a parting shot before the group moved on.
Each soldier was equipped with a small computer strapped to her forearm containing a map of the command structure. It also contained a motion tracker, and a sophisticated sensor suite capable of fulfilling whatever scanning needs were required. The point woman led the way out of the dungeon block and into the foundry sunk directly below the throne room and command chamber.
Avoiding the trooper patrols turned out to be easier than expected. Robots traveled assigned routes without variance in routine. One could keep time by their punctuality. While there was a time element to the mission, it didn't pay to be reckless.
The group slipped into the vacant throne room, wary of traps. None were found, but that didn't mean someone wasn't out of sight waiting for them. Major Oran and Hawk looked to their right, where Hordak's throne was located high up on a dais. Intel confirmed: Suspended in the air above and behind the stone throne were the prizes the strike force sought. The swords of power. The crossed magic weapons hung in the air without any visible means of support; probably magic, most likely Shadow Weaver's work. The Val-kyrie had no way of getting up to the swords, nor had anyone brought a grappling hook and rope. That left Hawk's fifteen-foot battle mode.
Sonya was about to initiate the transformation when all hell broke loose. A green-skinned, web-eared female biped, dressed in yellow with the trademark head of Hordak and batwings emblazoned on her chest, stormed the chamber from the far side. The four tentacles extending out from her back with wedge-shaped tips equipped with suction cups wove about in the air, ready to strike. She headed a squad of troopers, sent to repel the invaders. The main doors opposite the throne dais split apart into four sections, retracting into the walls, floor and ceiling. Another squad appeared, led by a snarling Scorpia.
Octavia and Scorpia disarmed the nearest Val-kyrie to them before they could bring their rifles to bear. Octavia's tentacles darted forward, entangling the hapless soldier in their crushing embrace. Sonya snapped off a stun blast that struck Octopus-woman – her description – dead center in the chest. Octo-woman collapsed, her remaining troopers torn apart by short, controlled bursts from Val-kyrie ballistic weapons.
Scorpia simply clamped her left claw on the front stock of her opponent's weapon, slamming her right claw against the warrior woman's head. Although protected by a helmet, the woman's bell still got rung by the vicious blow. Scorpia did not have the strength to simply snap the rifle in half, but she did manage to bend it enough to make the weapon unusable.
Sonya knew they only one capable of handling this foe was her and Hawk. While the warrior women wore sturdy armor nearly identical to the soldiers of Guardian Command, they could not withstand a severe pounding like the battlesuits could endure even when reduced to the power armor combat form. Scorpia appeared to sense it, too, and turned to face the armored female. Claws clacking together, segmented tail weaving back and forth over her shoulders, Scorpia bent her knees and prepared to do battle.
Hawk and her operator did not engage in any conversation; they didn't need to. The two acting as one, Hawk simply darted in close in for Jake's favorite game: close combat. Scorpia clamped Hawk's left arm in her right claw while stabbing with her left one. Hawk twisted just enough to take the strike as a glancing blow to the abdomen. Scorpia jabbed again, and Hawk caught the speeding claw in her right hand. Taking a page from Adrian's playbook, the AI powered up the energy projector in the chest piece. Sonya centered the target; Hawk fired. The star on the chest plate exploded in Scorpia's face. The high-energy blast was not lethal, but the strike did launch her backward more than twenty feet. Sonya eyed the unconscious mutant long enough to assure herself that the scorpion woman was out of the fight.
Grizzlor arrived on the scene with a squad of troopers. The Val-kyrie swiftly dispatched the robots with controlled bursts from their weapons.
"Your turn," Major Oran informed Hawk.
"My turn? I just knocked Octopus Woman and Scorpion Lady out of the fight," Sonya objected. "How did it get to be my turn?"
"You're the one with the power armor," Oran said simply.
Hissing a curse in her native language, Sonya sized up the beast and devised a strategy. She lacked the bulk of the male suits to engage in a battle of brute strength. Nor did she have the metamorphing ability of Adrian Cobretti. Speed and agility were her best option. Once again, human and AI acted as one. Hawk closed in and danced around Grizzlor, hitting him with stun blasts. Every time Grizzlor swung in the direction of an attack, the Guardian had already danced away. The beast grew angry every time he swung and missed. He lunged at the annoying insect, but she was too quick for his lumbering moves. Sonya quickly grew tired of the dance, what with it distracting her from the primary mission.
Sonya ducked back, appearing to be trying to retreat. In a flash, Hawk converted from combat to battle mode. Grizzlor had stormed after the "retreating" Guardian, discovering his mistake too late to alter his route. Hawk rounded on the speeding beast, the Guardian leveling a backfist into the beast's face. Grizzly Bear – Sonya's description for Grizzlor – ended up sprawled unconscious next to Scorpia.
"Now to retrieve what we came for," Sonya declared.
Hawk's battle mode had the height requirement to reach the suspended power swords. Clomping across the throne room, Hawk mounted the stairs to the top of the dais, stepped around back of the stone throne and got her first closeup look at what all the fuss was about. The weapons were well within her reach, and yet, Sonya hesitated. Something about them disturbed her. The AI prodded her operator to action by reminding her that the numbers had just about run out.
Sonya snapped up the crossed swords and returned to the waiting group of warrior women. Sonya reverted to combat mode clutching a sword in each hand. Hawk probed the swords with her sensors. She reported very interesting results, but Sonya told the AI to hold that thought. With the prizes in their possession, it was time to – as Adrian once put it – de-ass the area with the quickness. Sonya slapped the swords across her back, where magnetic fields held them in place.
Sonya led the way while Oran called for a pickup on the landing platform several levels higher up in the tower.
It wasn't long before a running firefight ensued. A Horde General by the name of Garan entered the throne room just behind the withdrawing enemy force. He spared no time to check on Hordak's fallen minions and set off in pursuit upon seeing the empty space above and behind the throne where the swords had hung. It didn't take a genius IQ to figure out the true purpose of the raid.
Garan whipped his troopers into action and gave chase after the retreating Val-kyrie force. It didn't take them long to catch up. Two soldiers on rear guard spotted the pursuers, shouted a warning and took cover to open fire. Two robots fell to enemy fire before the others could react, but by the time the next robots up could return fire, the enemy had darted back out of range.
Oran's people executed a leapfrog maneuver in which a pair of soldiers would lay down defensive fire at the enemy. The next pair up the chain would settle in at an ambush point, wait for the engaged pair to disengage and sprint by, and then open fire when the enemy arrived. The action then repeated.
Garan had many troopers currently at his disposal, so the mounting losses did not concern him. Of greater concern was the enemy getting away with the power swords. Losing them was out of the question. Hordak would have him executed if he lost his master's prized possessions.
Hawk emerged onto the landing platform seconds ahead of Major Oran. The sight was disturbing. The Val-kyrie assault transport squatted on the platform facing away from the entrance into the tower. The boarding ramp was still closed because of the squad of troopers surrounding the exit ramp, weapons raised. Without hesitation, Sonya reached back for the crossed swords at her back. The robots turned in unison at the new arrival and sprang into action.
Sword of Power clutched in her left hand and Sword of Protection in the right, Hawk ran the gauntlet, swords held out to the side, blades leveled. Sonya had no idea what these weapons were capable of. She knew only that they had to be retrieved. At best, she thought the swords would dent the robot armor plates, but the reality totally blew her expectations away. When blade met robot torso, they cut through the machines like tissue paper. Sonya found herself suddenly standing before the transport, lines of robot wreckage behind her. The bronze feathers on the sides of her helmet rippled in satisfaction.
"Incredible," Sonya whispered. "The power radiating from these weapons is…"
"Beyond calculating," Hawk finished. The AI was equally in awe. "This is what I tried to tell you before."
Sonya stepped aside so the crew could lower the ramp. Major Oran and her warriors emerged from the tunnel onto the platform. They made an orderly retreat into the transport while the Major and Hawk covered them. Without thinking, Hawk used the swords to deflect energy bolts fired at them.
General Garan emerged behind the line of troopers. "Surrender the swords, Val-kyrie. You cannot escape. We will cut you down before you can enter your ship."
A double click sounded in Oran's earpiece. The signal she had been waiting for. "You didn't really think we came all this way without backup, did you?" she asked, trying not to smirk. "Now," she added calmly into her helmet mic.
In response, two dropships rose up from below the platform, pods deployed, and all weapons armed. The nose cannons of both Earth ships were aimed at the Garan and his growing formation of robot troops.
Nodding to the Guardian at her side, the pair turned and sprinted for the transport. Oran ordered the dropship pilots, "Light 'em up!"
30mm, nose-mounted rotary cannons opened up on the enemy. The air was torn asunder by the buzz saw roar of the cannons. Robots were blown apart by depleted uranium shells. General Garan backed a couple steps as the flaming guns worked their way across the formation from the outside toward the center. Fear lent power to his reaction time as he fled back into the tower; he didn't get more than a few steps before a 30mm shell caught him squarely in the back. His instant death painted the walls with gore.
Oran ordered the pilot to take off. Transport and escorting dropships dropped almost a hundred feet, executed a few evasive maneuvers to throw off tracking systems that had yet to lock onto the fleeing ships, and blasted off to the northeast. The sprawling complex measured three times the size of New York City on Earth; the formation cleared the outer edge in minutes, before turning on a direct heading back to the battlefield off the east.
All three crews pushed their machines to limit to in the hopes of returning in time to get in a little more action. Major Oran called ahead to Colonel Markson informing him of the mission's success. And to warn him of a possible escalation in the fight.
Fright Zone
Eastern Border
The fight was not going well. Momentum see-sawed back and forth between the Guardian Force, their Val-kyrie allies and the Horde. Colonel Markson lost a few more people to injury, nonfatal, thankfully. Even with the arrival of the Monstroids converted by War Wing's malicious virus, it wasn't enough.
While programmed machines followed their programs, sentient beings could usually outthink and outfight them. Horde doctrine involved simply overwhelming the enemy with sheer force of numbers. The robots the Guardian Force currently faced had evidently been programmed with a modified package by Modulok. These machines fought harder for Hordak than ever before. Especially when the Man himself was on the battlefield.
One Guardian was down, but she had managed to eliminate Hordak's witch from the equation. Colonel Markson did not know all the details, only Gunny Apone's assurances that Falcon and the Sorceress had neutralized that threat. The Sorceress now lay in the back of the command APC where she would be relatively safe, if such a place existed on the current battlefield whose front line was constantly in flux.
Word arrived from the strike force that they had accomplished the recovery of the power swords and were returning as quickly as possible. They wouldn't get back fast enough to suit the colonel, who was in desperate need of the two dropships dispatched to cover Major Oran's team.
Momentum shifted again, with the remaining Guardians trying to hold back the relentless enemy while trying to conserve capacitor power. All of this continued under a fierce aerial battle being waged between the starship Eternia, three dozen Bladewings and a seemingly endless arrival of Batmek fighters. Missiles streaked across the sky. Plasma bursts knifed through the air seeking vulnerable hulls. Slugs from railguns blew Batmeks into flaming fragments. The deadly aerial ballet was beautiful to behold as the life and death struggle spread out across hundreds of square miles of sky.
She-ra dove at her brother, tackling him and taking him out of the line of fire from a squad of troopers. The pair scrambled to their feet and sprinted for the safety of a rock outcropping. The three APCs pressed the attack leaving the pair behind.
"This is not going well," He-man commented unnecessarily.
"It's not over yet," She-ra advised. We could sure use an edge, she thought bitterly.
As if some higher power had heard her thoughts, two objects thudded into the sand within feet of the hidden twins. Two pairs of eyes blinked in confusion at the sight of the quivering swords sticking out of ground. An armored figure landed ten feet away as the transport changed course and settled to the ground to disgorge the squad of soldiers itching to get into the fight.
"I trust you know what to do with those," Sonya said. Turning and striding away, Sonya converted Hawk to the towering fifteen-foot battle mode, engaged the thruster system on the back and executed several power-leaps to reach the front lines and rejoin the fight.
The twins rose and tentatively approached the source of their power. They could feel the untapped magical energies the weapons were linked to across space and time, buried in the heart of Castle Grayskull.
"Do – do we have the right?" He-man asked. "After all that's happened, do we have the right to wield these once more?"
"Everyone deserves a second chance, brother," She-ra replied, confidently. "Consider this a fresh start."
He-man still had reservations, but he trusted his sister. Decision made, brother and sister snapped up their respective swords and held them aloft.
"By the power of Grayskull!" He-man shouted.
Simultaneously She-ra intoned, "For the honor of Grayskull!"
Magical energies erupted from the tips of the swords. Lightning flickered and flashed for several seconds. An even brighter flash engulfed He-man. When it subsided, he once again wore the gray harness with the scabbard for the sword slung across his back and a stylized red plus mark on the front. A gold belt, brown fur briefs and fur-capped dark red boots completed the rather skimpy outfit.
The effect from She-ra's Sword of Protection was markedly different. An arch of sparkling white energy framed her body while a sparkling comet swirled down around her. When it dissolved at her feet, She-ra once again wore her strapless, short-skirted white dress with golden belt, gold feather fan on the chest and abdomen, gold choker connecting a flowing cape that reached to mid-thigh, gold high-heeled boots and golden winged tiara.
Flush is a power they had not felt for five years, the pair sprinted toward the shifting front line to rejoin the fight for freedom.
The APC belonging to Charlie Platoon slewed around in an impressive skid, slamming into a mass of ten troopers and five drones. Those not ground under the solid rubber tires were ripped apart by the impact. One drone survived, but not for long. A massive green-skinned creature used the momentum of the skid to leap from the roof of the carrier and sail straight into the machine's chest. The force of the impact bowled the robot over. It crashed to the ground with the crushing weight of the CHUD atop its chest. The monster drove its right fist into the chest, ensuring it wouldn't get back up.
The Twins of Power arrived as Captain Takamora deployed his troops. All of them paused to take in the startling sight of the CHUD waving an arm ripped from the drone around like a club. And he was doing impressive damage to the troopers trying to take him down. Quickly dispatching his foes, Adrian transformed back into human form, clad in War Wing's combat assault form. Powerful mini-grenade and rocket launcher pods rose up from behind his shoulders and locked down into firing position. A brief volley from shoulder and gauntlet weapons reduced another eight robots to smoking shards of scrap.
"Oooo," Adrian cooed, examining the current state of the battle. "Looks like this could actually be a fair fight. And who wants that?"
Colonel Markson, Captain Takamora, Gatling Arm and Blitzkrieg formed a skirmish line with War Wing. The twins stood on either side of Adrian. All of them tensed as the machine regrouped for yet another assault. Hordak was making his escape from the battlefield. Evidently, he had had enough after the confrontation with War Wing.
Monstroid engaged Monstroid, and the few remaining heavy units such as tanks, mobile anti-personnel guns and other targets of opportunity. There was one man coordinating the remaining Horde forces. Like General Jabin before him, this one rode a six-legged assault walker unit mounting a powerful energy cannon. Take him out and the battle would finally be as good as over.
Adrian pointed the machine out to the colonel. "We need to drop that walker. The general in it is directing the remaining forces. Neutralize him and we can end this."
Markson nodded. "We'll distract the other units while you guys take out that walker." He began issuing orders to his remaining forces.
Two dropships, low on fuel and out of ammunition, were grounded safely on the other side of the mountain range. The other pair, that had escorted the Val-kyrie assault shuttle back from the core of the Fright Zone, had only expended a few hundred rounds of 30mm ammo. The ships still had their full load of missiles, rockets and bombs. Markson and Takamora put the ordinance to good use, coupled with bursts of defensive fire from the APC gun turrets and a generous helping of 40mm grenade volleys.
He-man and She-ra put their swords and the brute strength born of the power they commanded to use, engaging troopers hand-to-hand.
Claw and Blitz attacked the walker from the south while Gatling Arm and Hawk engaged from the north. Blitz and Gatling Arm targeted anything in the attack path with their energy weapons and reduced them to scrap. Their job was the clear the way for Claw and Hawk to move in and destroy the walker's legs. The massive machine was covered with the same refractive coating Adrian had encountered on the unclaimed planet in the neutral zone between the Horde and Val-kyrie space. It would not, however, withstand physical strikes from Claw's trademark claw devices. Hawk's beam spear would be blunted by the coating if she were to attack the metal leg segments. The joints were not so protected and were therefore vulnerable to attack.
In a well-coordinated attack born of hours of training, the two pairs carried out their assigned tasks with an almost military precision. The walker crashed to the ground with all six legs amputated at the mid joint. War Wing swooped in, landing at the base of the cannon. He took out a beam saber, activated it and stabbed the ruby blade into the turret mechanism partially protected by an armor collar. A few quick thrusts at specific points around the base effectively neutralized the weapon.
War Wing joined He-man and Gatling Arm at the sealed access hatch in the aft section. There was no obvious control panel and the AIs for both suits were unable to detect a concealed one.
"What now?" He-man asked, not trying to refrain from sneering.
"There's always the direct approach," Adrian suggested, gesturing from He-man to the panel.
Frowning, He-man stepped forward, punching the hatch with all his might on the left side. As he slammed his fists into the thick metal barrier several more times, a seam opened just enough for the man to worm his fingers inside. Metal creaked and groaned against the incredible force being directed upon it, a force it was never designed to withstand. Locking bolts snapped abruptly as the hatch was torn out of its track and casually tossed aside.
"You're learning," Adrian commented approvingly.
"I still owe you for earlier," He-man reminded the Guardian.
Adrian faced the man, helmet faceplate open so there was no mistaking his sincerity. "The most powerful man in the universe you may be, but you had better compromise your principles and kill me with the first shot. You won't get a second." He turned away, closing the faceplate, and gestured to Jake.
Jake and Adrian covered one another as they entered the disabled walker. A few muffled shots echoed out of the dead machine. There was a brief scuffle, with the sounds of metal objects – likely the robot trooper crewmembers - being torn apart. More scuffling, followed by a body being propelled through the hatch.
The Horde general executed a graceless landing in the dirt, cape flapping in the light breeze that continued to blow smoke from smoldering fires across the battlefield. The man struggled to turn over and draw his sidearm. The laser pistol barely cleared the holster before being kicked out of his hand by Colonel Markson.
"Where does Hordak find you people?" the colonel sighed. None of them knew when to just quit.
The man was collected by a squad from Major Oran's team and taken away, hands shackled behind his back.
Adrian conversed briefly with the Monstroids. They wanted to pursue Hordak's retreating group, but Adrian ordered them to cease pursuit. "How many units are still functional?"
"Fifteen," the snake-headed machine answered. "More are on the way."
"Has the Master Computer purged the virus from its system yet?"
"Unknown. Since more units are coming online, I believe Master Computer is having trouble with the purge. I project the probability of forty plus Monstroids online before a purge destroys the virus."
Adrian nodded, thinking. "Divide your firepower into two parts. One force is to go to Mystacor and protect it. The other goes to Brightmoon. Continue to divide the firepower between the two castles until the purge stops the conversion. All converted units will place themselves under the command of She-ra and her designated allies. Acknowledge."
The towering machine confirmed the orders, repeating them back to Adrian word for word. It turned to She-ra for further direction. She had nothing to add, feeling very uncomfortable about the whole idea of commanding these monsters, and dismissed them. The last time she had met the Monstroids, she had fought off an attack ordered by Hordak. Yet, the situation of using converted Monstroids to protect Mystacor and Brightmoon form future Horde attacks seemed somehow poetic.
Colonel Markson ordered to crews of the remaining operable dropships to fly ahead to the two castles and warn them of the unusual allies heading their way. It wouldn't do to have their new allies shot to pieces when they were coming to help.
Hordak had finally had enough of this battle and was withdrawing. The fighting was mostly done. Only a few robots unable to break from their programming still fought and died. The twins were now in possession of their respective swords, which had been the primary objective. As a bonus, two castles were now free of Horde dominion, though one would require a lot of work to get it back into a defensible condition.
By those parameters, the mission to Etheria could be considered successfully concluded. A success tempered by the fact that the Guardian Force had around twenty-eight casualties, or one platoon, with thirteen of those fatalities.
Such was the nature of war. Good people always lost their lives in the pursuit of a cause that was hoped to be right, and just, and honorable. Watching the twins making their way back to the starship Eternia grounded a hundred meters away, Colonel Markson hoped the main objective would turn out the way the Sorceress had said it would.
Time would tell. For now, it was time to go home.
243