Twenty-eight
Castle Grayskull
Planet Eternia
29 September 2017
Eternia dropped Adrian, the Sorceress and Colonel Markson off on its namesake planet before heading home to Earth to resupply and pick up the platoons in whatever shape they were presently in. If the Sorceress' claims about her encounter with the enemy machine were to be believed, the next battle would be a major one with Grayskull as the prize.
Jo-jo hung around Orellia long enough to transfer the Val-kyrie warriors her med teams had treated back to the battlestar Defiant, and bear witness to the final destruction of the ancient Horde base.
The explosion was unimpressive, with the high point being the ground upheaval of almost thirty feet. Dust, gas, and bursts of flame jetted from the open portals to the underground hangar. Horde self-destruct devices were nothing if not very thorough. Most of the underground facilities were vaporized in the explosion, leaving a massive void for the surface to collapse into. The resulting crater reminded Jo-jo of the meteor impact crater in Arizona. That was impressive.
Now the planet could go back to being a monument to the ancient battle and left alone as both the Val-kyrie and the Horde originally intended.
With Eternia away, the only way back to Earth was via time/space portal. And the Sorceress was still recovering from being forcibly kicked out of the interface portal when she connected with the enemy command machine. She could work magic, but the action sent spikes of pain through her skull. Opening one long enough for General Hammond to come through to attend the next war council gave her a headache to end all headaches. Sorceress swore having her head explode would have been a mercy killing.
Afterward General Hammond arrived, Sorceress retired to her private chambers. She left word that she wanted to see Adrian before the council started so she could impart what she learned while connected to the enemy machine. She shivered every time she thought about it.
Three days after the battle on Orellia, a war council was called. Someone on Gabe's tech team had discovered in Grayskull an oval table and chairs that folded down into the floor of the command center. A Val-kyrie tech confirmed it was similar to that used on their capital ships, albeit without the folding function. That indicated the setup either came from a smaller warship, or a very large one where space was at a premium despite the size and space available.
Current theory lined up with Adrian's feeling that the command center had been disassembled from whatever warship it had been installed in, transported to Castle Grayskull, and reassembled in its current chamber.
At the press of a button on the primary command console, the oval table and chairs unfolded from the floor to the right of the platform the Sorceress had stood upon to direct the castle's powerful defenses, with a capacity to seat twelve people. A computer console and recessed display marked every station. A holoprojector in the center of the table could be used to display images or video. Each station was also equipped with holographic projectors so vacant spots could be occupied by the real-time image of an attendee despite them being physically present in another location. It was similar to technology installed in the conference room aboard the Eternia.
In attendance were General Hammond, King Randor, Gabriel Burns, and Colonel Markson. A seat had been left open between the colonel and Gabe for Adrian Cobretti when he arrived after debriefing the Sorceress. Holo-images of Queen Mother Silvara, Commander Harana, General Rongar, and Rongar's scientific adviser Sagan, rounded out the roster.
Greetings were cast all around before they got right into it. Commander Harana reviewed the preliminary analysis of the battle in the Orellia system. Three stock Mark V battlestars that had not seen service since the end of the Great War were engaged and destroyed without revealing the true capabilities of the Mark XX currently in service. The biggest revelation was the battlecruisers armed with plasma beam weapons; while not an earthshattering revelation, it was nonetheless significant. Technological advances in their day, plasma weapons were almost standard now for many spacefaring civilizations. It was the power levels exhibited by the battlecruisers that was worrisome.
Harana's team speculated that the mainline battlestars in enemy hands were armed to a similar extent. The technology scanned in the power distribution systems were normal, save that they had been enhanced to a degree even Val-kyrie scientists never dared dream of because of the infrastructure cost to achieve the levels they were seeing. The enemy knew how to use modern technology and upgraded their warships accordingly, creating a frighteningly deadly fleet of ships. Harana did not want to think about what an upgraded Mark V would do in a fight with a Mark XX. A Mark XX might actually come out on the losing end.
Rongar reported the Second Fleet coming under attack in its home system. Details were incomplete because of the complete destruction of the orbital facilities, along with the planetary installation. Scans of the wreckage indicated plasma weaponry as the primary weapons used. No footage of the assault force had survived the attack, however, to confirm the hypothesis. Even the recording drones ejected during the fight had been chased down and destroyed.
One bright spot in the whole affair, such as it was, was that only two squadrons had been present at the time of the assault. The rest of the fleet had been deployed to patrol their area of responsibility. The Horde was still minus a base of operations for a sector along the rim now, leaving it open to invasion.
Invaluable data had been stolen from the computers in the ancient Horde base, the data three Guardians paid a heavy price for. Sonya Boradni was on Val-kyre, undergoing several surgeries in an effort to save her right arm. Brad Johnson and Jeromy Ironwood were in medically-induced comas. Brad had suffered a concussion when the seat harness broke during the violent encounter with a group of Shadowdemons: His head struck the forward screen while taking down his opponent, the last thing he did before blacking out. And Jeromy had to be placed in a coma to deal with internal injuries suffered battling demons while trying to rescue Hawk.
The theft yielded complete schematics for the new Shadowdemon, which confirmed the investigation by Gabe's team of Earth and Val-kyrie techs. There were even a few details they had not yet discovered. Battle plans for that sector had not panned out, either the details were a ruse, or the enemy abandoned them because of the break-in.
The biggest win, and surprise, was a complete technical readout of the enemy command suit. Turns out it was not a suit at all; rather, it was an advanced machine based on the Guardian designs. There was no compartment for an operator, and Gabe's team was unable to determine why War Wing, Falcon and Gatling Arm all recorded intermittent signs of organic matter within the thing. There was nothing in the schematics about that. The file only contained data for making repairs in the event the machine took damage, which Adrian and War Wing certainly caused. In a few more days of study, Gabe's team would find a number of ways of killing that machine.
Already, they were producing refinements to the previous attack plans used against the new Shadowdemons. Points where precise hits would disable or destroy a machine without expending an excess amount of munitions in the process. Gunnery Sergeant Apone was off working with the platoon commanders to develop new tactics, while Colonel Simmons drafted specialized personnel to train soldiers in sharpshooting, precision demolitions, and putting together a training regimen to make every member of the platoons more deadly than they already were.
"Admiral Conlin reports the Third Fleet is ready for deployment," Rongar said. "All I need is to tell him where we want him."
"Eternia," Adrian Cobretti answered, walking up to the table. "My apologies to all for being late. The Sorceress had to make sure I had everything she learned from her brief encounter with the enemy commander. Unit Six Sixty-six."
A chorus of audible gasps came from the holographic images.
Adrian took the empty seat between Colonel Markson and Gabe. Across from them, for convenience, were the images of General Rongar, Sagan, Commander Harana, and the Queen Mother. All their features cycled from shock to uncertainty to disbelief. They all knew that unit number. Anyone who researched the Great War knew that number.
"That's…that's impossible," Harana muttered. "We accounted for all remaining Shadowdemons at war's end." She called up information in the computer system on her end. Although no one in the Grayskull command center could see it, the commander and Queen Mother were seated in the conference room of the Pretoria Research Base. "Here it is. Unit six-six-six was recorded destroyed several years before the first battle of Orellia."
"Records can be altered," General Hammond pointed out.
"Unit numbers were never reused?" Colonel Markson asked Rongar.
"Never as far as I know," Rongar said. Sagan confirmed that with a nod.
"Who is General Alton?" Adrian asked.
"He was one of the greatest generals in Horde history. He was respected both by the Horde admiralty and the Val-kyrie," Rongar said. He got a faraway look in his eyes easily seen despite the occasional flicker in the holoimage. "Why do you ask?"
Adrian took a deep breath before answering. There was no easy way to say what the Sorceress had told him. "Somehow he is inside that machine."
Rongar pegged him with a venomous stare. "Be very careful what you say. While we are allied against a common foe, I will not suffer blasphemy against a hero of the Horde Empire."
In an effort to cut the sudden tension, Sagan asked, "Did the Sorceress speak with the general?"
Adrian nodded. "In the interface portal, she spoke with an apparition who identified himself as General Alton."
"My first thought is memory engrams, but we were never able to make the technology work," Sagan mused. "Rumor has it the Guardians were uploaded with the memories and experiences of their former operators. To have knowledge and experience downloaded into my mind would be something. The things I could learn in a few minutes."
Adrian shook his head ruefully. "Not all it is cracked up to be. The knowledge and experience we gained makes it hard sometimes to remember what age we are living in. I can remember battles that took place during the war like it happened yesterday. Flying a starship is kinda cool, but the tradeoff is hardly worth the price."
"How do you keep it all straight?"
"Day by day. I cannot consciously recall a lot. Things just come to me when it's needed."
"Fascinating as this is," Rongar interrupted, "what does this have to do with General Alton?"
In response, Adrian plugged his data crystal into the port in the console in front of him. He transmitted the data to Sagan and Harana. "We received this just before the battle on Orellia."
Sagan looked up sharply. "This was given to you?"
Adrian nodded. "There isn't much there, though."
"I have never heard of Demigod," Harana said.
"I have," Sagan replied slowly. "No records exist of the project or what it entailed, but there have been rumors in the scientific community since before the end of the Great War." Everyone waited for the man to gather his thoughts and continue. "As I said, we were never able to perfect memory engram creation and transfer. Demigod was supposed to be that program. There were tales of darker elements to it, but no one could say what they were. The best the scientists could produce was a positronic brain designed to learn from experiences and grow. These were used in the Shadowdemon army. At specific points in a brain's development, the one with the greatest amount of experience, the information was copied and uploaded to the machine army when they were taken out of service for maintenance. This refresh kept the army on the same experience level."
"Until they grew smart enough to wonder why they should continue taking orders from Horde Prime," Harana interjected. "A problem particularly prevalent in the trooper robots."
Sagan nodded. "Hence why we don't use that method anymore."
"What I fought was no engram upload," Adrian said. "That thing fought like a person would. Yes, it has artificial intelligence, but evolved. An artificial mind enhanced by a living one."
Rongar opened his mouth to chastise Adrian, but King Randor cut him off. "Let's examine this for a moment. What is the timeline of General Alton?"
"I'm not following," Rongar admitted.
Hammond picked up where Randor might be headed. "I read that Alton was present at the first Battle of Orellia. What happened?"
Silvara picked the story up after a glance at her screen to be sure of her facts as the Val-kyrie had recorded at the time. "General Alton was the one who proposed the fight at Orellia because of the lack of indigenous inhabitants. A perfect place to fight it out. Several days into the battle, something happened. No one is sure what exactly, but the general's command walker was hit. It was quickly removed from the field and the general transported up to a ship in orbit. Up to that point, the fight had been tipping in favor of the Horde. That changed when he was taken away. Other generals well versed in Alton's tactics took over, but they were not as adept at adjusting in the moment as Alton could. Eventually, a halt was called to the fighting as neither side could gain a definitive advantage, and the battle ended in a draw after almost two weeks of fighting over land, air, and space.
"Approximately three months later unconfirmed reports surfaced that General Alton had died of injuries sustained that day on Orellia. No verification was ever found. However, approximately nine days after the report surfaced, a new Shadowdemon appeared on the field. This one was programmed so well in General Alton's tactics that some speculated the general himself might have been piloting a modified machine turned into a kind of battlesuit similar to the Guardians. No unit number for this machine was ever registered. And it was believed to have been destroyed in the final days of the war at great cost."
"Some of that history lines up with records of Alton leaving the Orellia system," Saga said. "He was returned to Horde World for treatment, but that's where the record ends. There is no other mention of him after that."
"Are you people saying he became some sort of template for that machine?" Rongar scoffed, though there was no energy in his denial.
"The engram program failed, so I fail to see what could have been done as an alternative to create such a deadly effective machine," Sagan said, clearly at a loss for an explanation.
Gabe's eyes widened in shock as the solution hit him right between the eyes. "A cyborg," he muttered. "Dear, God, Horde Prime turned a Shadowdemon into a cyborg."
"No!" Rongar burst out. "I refuse to believe it."
"Let's think this through," King Randor said, the voice of reason.
"What is the timeline here?" Markson asked.
Taking several deep breaths to calm down, Rongar said, "I don't understand."
"I think he is asking about the timeline of General Alton," Silvara suggested. "I think it may also relate to a Shadowdemon that appeared after the Battle of Orellia ended." She paused to pull up the relative information. "There was a particular Shadowdemon that seemed to be more adept than the others, and it led numerous campaigns in the year after the battle."
"Several battalions were lost in just the first few days of the battle," Sagan added. "Three more were destroyed before it ended. Conservative estimates place Val-kyrie losses at a dozen battlestars, though that may have been inflated. The point is that four days into the conflict, according to this record, the general's command walker was hit hard. The general was quickly removed from the battlefield." Sagan paused to read deeper into the details. "This is interesting."
"What is it?" Rongar asked, exercising supreme control of his emotions.
"It appears to be a transfer order for an unknown patient," Sagan said, absently.
"Why didn't you see this when we searched the archives on Horde World?" Rongar demanded.
"Because I wasn't thinking about the possibility Gabriel just raised." Sagan continued following the thread.
"Where was this patient transferred to?" Rongar asked, a tight knot forming in his gut.
"Someone forgot to purge this tidbit of information, scant as it is. Looks like our mystery patient never made it to the medical facility. As soon as he arrived on planet, he was sent to a research lab in the industrial district." Sagan frowned. "That building is where cutting edge research is still done to this day." He stopped typing and sat back. "That's all there is. Gabriel may be right."
"Are you telling me General Alton was sent there to have his brain removed and placed in a Shadowdemon chassis?" It sounded just as unbelievable thinking it in Rongar's head as speaking it aloud.
"It certainly looks that way."
"Then that would be the real purpose of Demigod," Adrian added quietly.
The silence was palpable. Everyone digested the revelation silently. It now made more sense what Adrian fought on Orellia. A cold, calculating AI augmented by the knowledge and experience of one of the greatest generals the Horde ever had. That knowledge was being put to use building a new Shadowdemon army complete with upgrades.
Then there was the fleet of warships upgraded, or at least enhanced with modern technology. According to Harana's tech team, the warships encountered so far were not better armed so much as overpowered for their size. With no living crew to support, life support systems could be kept at a minimum. Environmental controls could not be turned completely off, otherwise the warship would eventually freeze in the cold vacuum of space. It also meant that spaces reserved for crew could be gutted and filled with extra fusion reactors, or other power generation devices. The final product was a warship stronger than the stock version, but it was destructible. It just took a little more effort to kill.
What kept the Queen Mother awake at night was the probable power of a modified Mark V battlestar. Taking out all the spaces for crew quarters, sickbay, recreation area, and anything else needed for flesh and blood crews and what is left is large spaces perfect for enhancing the power system. A Mark V had two fixed plasma beam cannons installed at the apex of the forward slope of the bow. Powerful weapons in their time, those plasma weapons could be very deadly with an upgraded power distribution system. Defenses against fighters would be about on par with a Mark XX. The main difference was in the advances in computer control and accuracy. Sensor suites had also been upgraded extensively over the centuries. There was no reason to expect the enemy not to do the same, but the AI running the Shadowdemon army would fall back on the tried-and-true plan of using overwhelming force of numbers. Horde Prime's tactic since he built his first battalion was much the same. There was no problem that could not be solved with enough assets thrown at it.
There was also the prime directive hardwired into the Shadowdemons. Destruction of the six Guardians was priority one. Everything else was secondary.
"What we need is to draw Unit Six Sixty-six into battle on our terms," Silvara mused. She was at a loss as to how, though.
"The Sorceress may have taken care of that," Adrian offered.
"Oh, so among her many attributes, she's a tactician?" Rongar scoffed bitterly. He still had trouble reconciling legend with the reality of what happened to his idol, General Alton.
"No, but General Alton is. She suggested he needle the AI into making a concerted strike against Castle Grayskull," Adrian replied, evenly.
"Why would the AI do that?" Sagan asked, confused. "It has control of Origin Point. It's building a powerful army of upgraded Shadowdemons. And is retrofitting a probable ghost fleet of warships into a lethal armada despite the ancient technology."
King Randor took it up from there. "During the Great War, Eternia and Etheria were only valuable locally. What little I know of the distribution of forces, there was never a base on either planet. Officially, anyway. But since the destruction of the Hall of Wisdom, knowledge and power has been stored in increasing amounts in this castle. We know the new Shadowdemon army is impervious to energy weapons. According to Teela's report, even the laser cannon emplacements King Hiss set up around Palace Eternia couldn't do more than knock a demon off balance. Low tech weaponry such as that used by our Earth friends appears to be the most effective."
"So, if the AI wants to have an unbeatable army to invade planets regardless of the level of technology, this is the place to go," General Hammond finished. "A good plan. If the general can sell it."
"Shouldn't take too much after what we did to its demons in Snake Mountain," Colonel Markson added. "And then there was the battle outside Grayskull."
"As I recall the detailed report," Rongar returned, "the enemy force actually pulled down the jawbridge and made it inside."
"True," Adrian said. "But Unit Six Sixty-six learned a valuable lesson about home invasion." And a detailed display of the defenses installed in the castle since the war.
Rongar pondered that for a full minute. "That could work. General Alton could sell it. Say this works and Six Sixty-six mounts a major operation to take Grayskull. How can we be sure we get all its forces after destroying the unit?"
"Shadowdemons left behind after Six Sixty-six fled from Orellia shut down. Made it easy to pick them off," Silvara informed him. Commander Mundu ensured all demons and Servators were destroyed. And then the base self-destruct was set off to ensure the last remaining Horde base there would never be used again."
"Sounds like we have a plan. Destroy the unit, save the galaxy," Markson declared.
"That simple, huh?" Rongar snorted.
"Well, hardly simple," Harana intervened. "But better than chasing ghosts all over the galaxy."
So, the plan was set. Prepare for a new Shadowdemon assault against Castle Grayskull and send as many of Six Sixty-six's machines to the scrapyard as possible while a strike team boards the AI's command ship. Once on board, the team would take command of the battlestar – what else would a thousand-year-old AI use? – disable Six Sixty-six and send it off into the void to blow up with the warship. Hopefully, Unit Six Sixty-six's destruction will disable the surviving forces and make it easier to mop them up.
Rongar indicated the location to park the Third Fleet close enough to Eternia to respond, but not too close to spook the enemy. If the AI could be spooked. Silvara continued with prepping five battlestars for a heavy capital ship fight. The Queen Mother secretly put out a recall to bring in a new secret weapon, but there was no guarantee the warship would arrive in time.
The cost of getting to that point might be high, but at this point, the allies had to do everything possible to end the resurgence of the dreaded Shadowdemon army. Horde. Val-kyrie. Guardian Force.
Maybe they would live to see the end of this. Maybe they wouldn't. One thing was for sure. Unit Six Sixty-six would know it had been in one hell of a fight; win, lose, or draw.
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