Twenty
Horde Shipyards
Argolus Star System
22 September 2017
Information continued to flow into General Rongar's office set-up for gathering information on the mysterious new enemy prowling the stars. More transports, starliners, small space fleets, and two Horde task forces fell under enemy guns since the virtual meeting with his temporary allies. Now reports were just coming in of planetary attacks. Not just those confirmed assaults on Eternia and Eternia. Other planets were assaulted with a great deal of success. He made a note to contact those two Guardians – he was sure the pair posing as bounty hunters were in fact Adrian Cobretti and the Sorceress of Grayskull – for details on the Eternia attacks.
General Femora entered the office just as Rongar's left fist slammed down on the desk's surface. Sagan jumped at the loud bang, while the general arched a manicured eyebrow. She waved the scientist away the moment he spotted her and moved to stand as was proper for a senior officer entering the room. Rongar did not stand on ceremony in vital situations. This was one. There was a time and place for pomp and circumstance, Rongar had once said. When work needs to be done, officers more concerned with rank then the work at hand had their heads screwed on wrong.
Sagan sank back into his seat, resuming his work. It helped that the two generals were of equal rank, making it easier to dispense with formalities and just get on with the work.
"Still trying to figure out who the enemy is?" Femora remarked.
"And not having much luck," Rongar growled bitterly.
"Hordak isn't being very helpful, either," Sagan added, disgust evident in his voice. "All he will admit to is being attacked, but that he handled the situation and requires no assistance."
"And he has no idea as to the identity of the attackers?" Femora asked. She was well aware of Hordak's ego. "All we know is that the enemy may be a race of two machine types. And he doesn't have any carcasses to examine?"
Sagan frowned. "Oh, he has evidence to examine. He just doesn't want to share with the other children." He made no attempt to hide the scorn in his voice.
"I would very much like to see these machines. If Eternia was attacked, I'm sure our friends from Earth will have secured a few," Rongar said, a touch of envy in his voice.
Envious because they would be able to act taking the machines apart to figure out how they worked, find ways to kill them, and maybe even figure out where their base of operation was. Although Rongar already knew almost certainly where they operated from, he had no idea where the enemy were getting their war machines from. The facility was only capable of producing robots. There were no known facilities on Origin Point for producing fighters and warships.
A chime sounded followed by the secretary outside announcing, "General Femora, your transmission is coming in now."
"Thank you," Femora replied. "You may find this interesting." Using the interactive touch panel on the right side of the massive wall monitor, she accessed the information packet she had been expecting and brought up on screen.
Intrigued, both Sagan and Rongar rose for and approached the monitor. Images flashed up on the screen. Smaller windows opened, displaying tactical data, assessments, and technical readouts. Despite the advancements of optical scanning, the images of a massive starship were still blurred by the distance. Vague and indistinct, it was hard to judge size without any references, especially in space. It had the outlines of a Mark V battlestar. Initial scans of the vessel's power emanations were almost spot-on for what they already had on file.
Rongar stilled wished the taskforce commander had waited a little longer before ejecting the message beacon. "Any idea why the commander did not wait a bit longer before dispatching the beacon?"
"The scout ship that examined the area managed to piece together the likely sequence of events despite the wreckage dispersal," Femora said. "Two vessels were destroyed deeper in the system. These scans are from those vessels. The commander thought he should send what he had as fast as possible. It isn't clear, but he likely fired off all his beacons in the hope that one got through. It's what I would have done, anyway."
Rongar nodded. He also would have done the same. "One got through, then."
"Only one."
"Look at this," Sagan said, pointing to s specific set of scans from the scout ship. "It looks like the vessel performed a micro jump."
"Inside a solar system?" Femora exclaimed. "That's insane. You'd have to have hyper-accurate scans of the system to even attempt it."
"Or an extremely sophisticated navigation computer," Rongar mused. "Certain Val-kyrie commanders have been known to make micro-jumps on occasion. Fontaine and Mundu, specifically."
"A micro-jump," Femora muttered, still not believing it.
More scans displayed the power signatures from three distinct capital ships. It was what Rongar feared the most. There wasn't just one of those godawful things out there. The enemy had a fleet of them! A sobering thought when no had yet to survive an engagement with those things. Even the man posing as the bounty hunter Cobra barely survived engaging two of the enemy's battlecruisers.
Sagan copied the scans to his computer and began running a correlation search with the Horde database. Something about this whole situation nagged at him. Ancient warships with upgraded technology just did not fit. Unfortunately, there were too many pieces missing from this puzzle to see the overall picture.
"They never had a chance, did they?" Femora said.
"No," Rongar confirmed. "Once engaged, no one survives engagement with this enemy."
The woman frowned. "That man posing as the bounty, the one you suspect is really one of those Guardians, survived. I know, it was against two battlecruisers, but he still made it out."
"He had help from the atmosphere of a gas giant," Rongar said. "They have formidable armor, but the engines are still vulnerable to attack."
"Getting into the aft position to strike is the hard part. The Val-kyrie took care of that with that Mark XX upgrade." Femora shook her head. Normally, getting in behind a warship enabled one to shoot out the engine thrusters. A Mark XX battlestar had so many weapon emplacements strewn across the hull that approaching from the vulnerable aft position turned into a suicide run because of the amount of firepower that can be directed at attacking craft.
These enemy ships were so powerful and accurate that when they engaged someone, the fight was over before it began. Both generals were at a loss as to how they were to combat this foe. Maybe the Val-kyire could stand and fight the enemy ships, but so far, they had been unable to engage them.
A secure transmission came in -from a surprising source.
All the images on the wall monitor condensed to the left. The grim face of Silvara, Queen Mother of the Val-kyrie, filled the space.
"Queen Mother. This is an unexpected pleasure," Femora replied.
"We have to stop meeting like this," Rongar added. "People will talk."
Silvara cracked a slight smile. "I doubt anyone would believe it."
"To what do we owe the honor of this meeting?" Femora said, getting to the point.
Silvara nodded. She liked people who didn't mince words. "There have been more attacks, as you are no doubt aware." The Horde generals confirmed this with a nod of their heads. "What you may not be aware of is that the enemy was engaged in a new phase of their war."
"We are aware of the attacks on Etheria and Eternia," Rongar said.
"There have been others." The Queen Mother tapped several controls on a panel out of view. "This just came to us from a battlestar responding to a distress call. The enemy was gone by the time the commander arrived on scene. An entire colony was systematically wiped out to the last being. Much of the surveillance footage had been corrupted or destroyed, but they were able to recover a brief section of video."
Silvara's image was replaced by a video lasting only seven seconds. Although brief, those seven seconds chilled Rongar and Femora to the bone.
Large, black machines fired indiscriminately into fleeing crowds of beings trying to run away from the invaders. The army was led by an even larger machine with the all too familiar lines of other machines that had plagued the Horde of late. Someone used the design of the Guardian battlesuits to create a machine of impressive firepower; it towered over the army by a good three feet. Rongar surmised, because of the confirmation from Hordak, that the big robots were ten feet in height.
Silvara's image returned after the video repeated several times. "We don't know what this thing is, or even if it is piloted. It could be just a larger robot. The fact that it is modeled after the Guardians is disturbing."
"I'm afraid it gets worse," Sagan spoke up. He got up from his chair and approached the wall screen. At a nod from Rongar, the scientist continued. "Something about all this has been bugging me. Ancient warships, fighters, and support craft. Battlestars accounted for roaming the stars, attacking at will with firepower greater than anything we have ever seen. I set the computer to search for anything similar in our database. It turned up information quicker than I thought.
"The power signatures of the warships are so similar to an experimental plasma/energy powerplant designed during the war. The war ended before it went into production and was abandoned as unnecessary. If the crews of those ships are robots, then environmental control is not necessary and a waste of power that could be used elsewhere."
"Which would make them appear more powerful than they really are," Silvara surmised.
"Yes, but in this case, they are every bit as powerful as they appear. We still have no idea on the big, black machines, however."
"Nothing in your database about Shadowdemons or the Servator units?" Silvara asked, puzzled.
"None," Rongar supplied. "All knowledge about them was purged from all databases. After the war ended, Horde Prime figured he wouldn't have to worry about anything relating to it coming back to haunt us."
"And yet, here we are," Silvara said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "We recorded rumors of a new type of demon in the works, but it never went into production because the war ended before it was ready. This may be the machine."
"Without something to examine, that pronouncement is a bit premature," Femora pointed out.
"It is," Silvara agreed. "A team should be arriving at Castle Grayskull today to set up and start examining the salvage from the battle there. I have a team of experts assembling now. Hopefully, we will know more in a few days. I hate that it takes so long to dissect them while races across the galaxy are under attack, but we have no choice but the wait."
Rongar grunted, sympathizing. He was eager to strike back at the enemy, but without having a better grasp of their technology, all any engagement would prove is how quickly Horde forces die in battle. Wasting resources in pointless battles was stupid. Enemy resources should be finite, but that didn't mean there wasn't a massive stockpile out there somewhere. And then there was the shipyard churning out the powerful warships making up the enemy fleet. Ancient battlestars with advanced powerplants. Equally ancient Horde fighters retrofitted with technology Rongar only recently discovered had been in the planning stages when the Great War ended.
"Only someone from that time could know of the technology we've seen thus far," Rongar mused. "Except no one from that war is living today with the obvious exception of Hordak and Horde Prime."
"Don't forget King Hiss," Femora added.
"I'd like to," Rongar said. "But you are correct."
"There is also the matter of the factory producing these machines," Silvara said. "Clearly this army has been constructed over the course of months. But it could only get to this point if there were facilities mothballed for such a purpose."
Rongar's eyes narrowed, and Femora braced herself for an accusation. "What do you mean?" Rongar asked.
"Origin Point," the Queen Mother answered bluntly. "It's the only possible place to build a large army in such a short time. Oh, I know. Origin Point was just a myth, but most myths and legends have their basis in fact."
"Are you suggesting that we know where it is?" Femora said, eyes narrowed, a guarded expression on her face.
"No. If Horde Prime had all data relating to the Shadowdemon and Servator units expunged from all databases, you wouldn't know. We were never able to find it. But it may be that someone has found it and is putting it to their own use," Silvara replied. "Salvage companies and privateers are always scouring the stars for old outposts and facilities dating back to the war for anything of value to recover."
Rongar shook his head. He had an idea that the planet he had sent the destroyer to investigate might in fact be Origin Point. He was tempted to reveal that fact but didn't. He had to be sure before deciding what to do about it. Legends about the planet varied, but one key feature of the planet never changed. The massive underground factories were self-contained. Send in raw materials at one end and come out with whatever you needed at the other. The only way to ensure total destruction would be to blow the planet up. However, the system boasted a preindustrial civilization on the system's third planet. The resulting explosion of Origin Point could have a devastating effect if the orbit of the planets were in close proximity.
"There was one other piece of information that we recovered with the video," Silvara said, breaking the silence. "A transmission was received by one of the satellites left intact by the enemy. Almost as if they wanted us to recover it."
"What was transmitted?" Femora asked.
"Only what appears to be an identification code for one of the big machines. I'm guessing it is for the one leading the attack." Silvara paused before revealing the ID. It wasn't to be dramatic or draw out the suspense. It was because the code left her visibly shaken since the first time she had read it. "Unit Six Sixty-Six."
Sagan broke the stunned silence. "That's…not possible."
"Why is that?"
"Well, that unit was destroyed during the war. No way it survived. Your people accounted for all active units still active at the time."
"There was a unit that took charge of the Shadowdemon army after the Battle of Ceedan. It was commissioned with a learning AI that utilized tactics and formulated battle plans comparable to those made by General Alton himself," Rongar put in.
"You are familiar with the general?" Silvara asked.
"Everyone under my command is," Rongar answered. "If they aren't, they have no business in my fleet. He was brilliant even by my standards."
"There is no way Unit Six Sixty-six could have survived," Sagan said, bringing the discussion back on track. That was Sagan. He always had his eye on the objective. Surprising considering how he tended to lose himself in personal projects. Projects like restoring the White Knight battlesuit. "If it was rebuilt and sent back out, it would surely have been destroyed in future battles."
"What does Horde Prime have to say?" the Queen Mother asked.
"Nothing. He wouldn't even grant me an audience," Rognar answered, shaking his head in frustration. "He won't acknowledge there is a problem. Whatever we do to combat this enemy, we're on our own. Horde Prime won't help, but it seems he won't interfere either."
"If we manage to defeat this enemy, all is well," Femora snorted. "And if this enemy should happen to destroy Horde Prime's enemies before he has to face this, well, that's okay, too."
Rongar glanced at a secondary monitor displaying the current status of the new battleship Hoscar. There was no what it would be ready in time, despite robot assemblers working around the clock. He was assembling the Fifth Fleet to jump into battle the moment they were needed. The problem was setting up the enemy to appear and a place and time of their choosing. So far, the enemy had been unpredictable.
Maybe the analysis of the wreckage on Eternia would yield some clues. Hopefully, this temporary alliance would get a chance to go on the offensive for a change. Reacting to every attack wasn't getting them anywhere and only served to show them how outgunned they really were. Well, Horde forces were outgunned. The Val-kyrie had yet to engage the enemy in battle, so no one knew how a Mark XX battlestar would match up against the enemy fleet.
The conference with the Queen Mother ended with a promise to get in touch the moment she had more information. For now, all they could do was wait and hope the people gathering at Castle Grayskull would make a breakthrough they could use to begin taking the fight to their mysterious enemy.
Castle Grayskull
Predawn light gradually brightened the eastern sky. The Sorceress awoke during this time, gently eased herself away from a still slumbering Adrian Cobretti, and stood up. Snugging the fur blanket around herself, she stepped over to the battlements. Because dawn was still some time away, Sorceress watched Adrian. She had read somewhere that a person showed their true self while sleeping. Admittedly, from where she stood, she liked what she saw. Sorceress turned away quickly when the man stirred, moaned, and stretched cramped muscles.
Adrian's first thought was he no longer felt a presence next to him. He felt equally disappointed and relieved by that. Cracking open his eyes, Adrian looked around, only moving his eyes. He spied the presence in question standing off to his left at the battlements, watching for the coming dawn.
Sorceress made no reaction when Adrian walked over to stand just behind her left shoulder. Both looked to the horizon as the increasing light revealed stringy clouds spread across the sky. A range of color shot through the gaps in the fluffy gray stuff, creating a scene any painter would love to reproduce on a canvas. Of course, Mother Nature made painting-worthy skyscapes every morning that no painting could ever match.
Minutes dragged by as the sun slowly crawled up across the horizon. Shadows retreated in the face of the growing daylight. Animals slowly roused from their homes to go about their daily lives. Night hunters retired to their dens. Despite the evidence of conflict still littering the landscape around the castle, the cycle of life continued unimpeded.
Adrian considered wrapping an arm around her shoulders but thought better of it. As if reading his mind, the woman shifted slightly and leaned into his right shoulder. He was relieved he hadn't blown it last night.
Sorceress was finally moving on, as the spirit of her husband had repeatedly encouraged her to do. Watching the emerging new day, Sorceress felt as if a new chapter of her life dawned with it. In a way it felt liberating to finally move on, but deep in her heart she would never lose her love for Dannon. She also knew that if she and Adrian allowed this to go further, he could never replace him. Not that he would try.
One thing was for sure, life with Adrian would never be boring or monotonous.
Both winced, turning away from the sun's sudden glare through a break in the clouds.
"Good morning," Adrian commented. "Was it good for you?"
Yes, life would never be boring. Sorceress let loose a quiet laugh. "That could be taken different ways coming from someone other than you."
"True, but I'm not a letch," Adrian replied, "unless you want me to be."
"Please. There are enough of those at base."
"You still didn't answer the question."
Sorceress used a bit of magic to remove the blankets and remains of the dinner while considering her answer. She could make up an excuse, but Adrian would see through it. Waking up lying next to him, Sorceress had felt comfortable. Safe. All the problems plaguing them at the moment had seemed distant. It only lasted for a short time, but it was enough to remind her that there was more to life than magic experiments, research, or the next battle. She would be lying if she told herself she didn't want more of that.
"Yes, it was," she finally answered.
They had to get the day started. If the pair didn't appear soon, the rumor mill would blow up from speculation as to what they had been up to all night. But before Adrian could pull open the door to the spiral stairs, Sorceress caught him a sudden embrace. Caught off guard, Adrian was slow in returning the fierce hug.
"Thank you," Sorceress said, when she finally let go.
Confused, Adrian asked, "For?"
"Not being judgmental."
Adrian's features softened to a gentle kindness few ever saw. "Now how could I ever judge you?"
"Oh, there is plenty to judge about me."
"Let's shelve that for another time." Adrian pulled up the door and, ever the gentleman, gestured for her to go first.
Reluctantly, they parted ways. The heavy wooden door swung easily on oiled hinges. It closed behind the woman with a soft metallic click of the latch. You put earlier that the Sorceress got rid of the blankets with magic.
No one bothered Adrian when he appeared briefly on grand staircase on the way to his assigned chambers.
Hours later, the castle turned into a hive of activity with the arrival of the Eternia and a small contingent of Val-kyrie technicians courtesy of Commander Harana. When the last of the Val-kyrie and their equipment came through the time/space portal, the Sorceress directed one group of four to the door set on the other side of the divider wall from the magic mirror near the throne dais while Adrian escorted the other four techs to the command center to begin their evaluation.
Gabe was all hopped up on adrenalin and excitement at the prospect of taking apart a complete specimen of what Adrian and the Sorceress recovered from Transfer Nexus 321. He would rather have had a few of his best techs along to assist, but the Val-kyrie on loan from Commander Harana were an acceptable substitute.
Adam and Adora stayed out of the way while observing the technicians evaluate the wrecks. Adrian and Gabe searched the large black machine for the release mechanisms to open up the chest armor. Adrian noted the Val-kyrie people already had the Servator opened up and in the beginning stages of dissection. It helped that they came armed with specs dating back to the Great War.
Gabe removed two powerful compact flashlights from his tool kit, handed one to Adrian, and started poking into the nooks and crannies. The overall light was bright enough to see by yet diffuse enough to not be blinding.
"This is impressive," Gabe rambled. "Truly a work of art. A marvel of engineering."
Adrian refrained from raining on Gabe's parade. The scientist was extremely intelligent and good at his job. If he hadn't fought these bastard machines a few days ago, Adrian might agree with his friend. He pointed out several potential release points. "Here? No, here." He aimed his light at the points he had found.
Gabe pointed to a larger lever along the top edge of the segmented chest plate. "That one or nothing." Without pausing, Gabe reached in and squeezed the metal plate against the backside of the armor.
Clanking from releasing locks, a hiss of escaping gas, and four panels popped up where they met in the center, then opened up smoothly like petals of a flower blooming. Surprised, the portly scientist jumped up and scrambled backward, heart hammering. He looked across to Adrian and saw the Syngenor standing opposite him, braced for attack, twin bone blades extended. After a tense sixty seconds, Gabe cautiously approached the machine. After transforming back, Adrian joined him.
"Bit jumpy," Gabe commented. Whether he was referring to himself or Adrian was unclear.
"You didn't fight them."
"Fair enough." Gabe peered inside the cavity. Structural framework protected the vital systems. As he thought, the brain of the machine was not in the head. It resided in an armored section deep in the chest. With assistance from Adrian, Gabe had no trouble releasing and removing structural braces to get at the electronics.
With the evaluation of the Servator well underway, two Val-kyrie moved over to the massive drone to see what they could discern from the design. Adrian gladly got out of the way to let them work. He had had enough of the monster.
"I'm amazed at how intact it is, considering the wreckage I saw outside," Gabe said to the Guardian.
"This is one of the few that took blunt force trauma to the chest," Adrian said, scowling at the dead machine.
"Oh? How's that?" Gabe asked, stepping away to allow his Val-kyrie counterparts to move in.
Adrian shrugged. "The Sorceress played a massive game of ten-pin with them," he said, matter-of-factly. He went on to describe how she crushed several into spheres using magic and casting them out like absurdly big bowling balls.
Gabe whooped with laughter. "Oh, I wish I could have seen that!"
"If you talk nice to Falcon, she'll show you the footage. I'm sure she recorded everything."
The techs advised this was going to take time -how much, they could not say. They had to proceed with care lest they trip a defense system designed to wipe the memory core. If any information was to be recovered, they had to plod along carefully. Because the files on the Servators matched almost exactly to the physical specimen, the techs found just such a boobytrap.
"This could take-" Adrian said.
"Hours," Gabe supplied.
"Days."
"That, too."
Adrian put off the inevitable for too long. Catching the attention of the prince and princess, Adrian jerked his head toward the door. They understood his meaning, to get out of the way and let the scientists work.
Adam and Adora wandered off to find their parents.
Adrian walked over to War Wing, pressed a concealed switch in the left leg armor, and climbed up to swing himself into the opened operator's compartment. Leaving the armored plates open, Adrian powered up all systems.
The biggest problem resulting from the battle was the durability of refractive coating the big machines were equipped with. Scouring it away with pure energy took everything the plasma blaster rifle had. The focus was narrowed as much as possible, to put as much energy in a confined stream as possible. Then the intensity had to be cranked up to the point of overloading the rifle with each blast. While the automatic repair system could fix the damage, repeated discharges increased the chance of a detonation every time Adrian squeezed the firing trigger.
The probability of the enemy having an information relay going to the transport that delivered the dropships was high. Although he didn't think to scan for burst transmissions, that did not mean it didn't happen. Once information of the power of Adrian's attacks got back to whoever sent the raiding party, adjustments to the next wave of machines would be made countering War Wing's energy weapons. The flechette rounds had marginal success that could be improved with a few refinements.
The AI was working that out now.
Gabe did have a thought about alternate weapons for the Guardians. Previous talks touched on the possibility of the energy weapons being rendered ineffective, so Gabe ordered his team to come up with viable alternate weapons.
One idea involved taking the GAU-8/A Avenger autocannon installed in the A-10 Thunderbolt II and mount two in gun pods to supplant the plasma gatling guns in Gatling Arm's normal armament. Initial trials with twin GAU-8 cannons did not go well. While the team noted the vibration problems the A-10 experienced, the pod could not weather those vibrations very well despite the adjustments and reinforcements made to strengthen the structure. No amount of work solved the problem. In fact, none of the modifications even reduced the vibrations. Reluctantly, the pod was scaled back to a single cannon per pod. Modifications to absorb the vibrations were more effective and the hydraulic system did not have to struggle so much spinning two barrels. The end result was a weapon pod capable of pouring out a staggering amount of munitions in seconds. Gabe's team further set the cyclic rate at 55 rounds-per-second.
Simulations of the new weapon were as promising as the live-fire tests on the pod. However, Newton's Third Law of Motion dictated that Jake only fire the cannon in short bursts. The chemical composition for the shells had been refined to not put out as much smoke and debris as the original design, but the force imparted to Gatling Arm's wrists, elbows and shoulders would quickly damage them over time. Sustained bursts could destroy the joints, rendering an arm useless until the automatic repair system could fix the damage. Simulations also suggested that the damage in such a situation might be more than the auto-repair system could handle.
So, two pods were constructed, but would only be used if there was no other option.
Other ideas involved a 20mm and 30mm rifle to replace War Wing's plasma cannon. The feasibility of such a weapon was not beyond reason. Creating something that would not explode in the battlesuit's hands, however, proved difficult. Work continued on that.
Blitzkrieg's energy rifles served as a template for a 50-caliber rifle that could be fired one-handed by the suit in battle mode and was fitted with a 30-round magazine. This was still on the drawing board.
The other three suits were already equipped with physical weapons that could rip through the enemy machines. It required them to get in close to engage in melee attacks, but with the right tactics that could be accomplished without exposing suit and operator to ranged attacks by the deadly plasma/energy cannon the larger machines carried.
Bottom line: nothing Gabe's team could come up with would be ready for testing for several months. By then, this fight might be over.
"We need more information on the nature of the enemy," Adrian commented, after exiting War Wing.
The Sorceress walked over after a brief talk with Captain Majourny. "I might have a way," she said.
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