Fear Incarnate

Fear Incarnate Portion 9

Innoak was always pleasantly surprised when Adora became She-ra, and though countless hours of psycho-indoctrination had dulled all biological urges Innoak had he could still appreciate the beauty of the human form that stood in front of him. The negotiations with Mermista were tense, and the brash Sea Hawk wasn't exactly helping. Innoak debated drawing his relic pistol and obliterating the man where he stood. He settled on giving a disdainful psychic stare instead, which seemed to do the trick. "Fine, repair my wall and I'll consider joining your Rebellion." Mermista had finally said, and Innoak made the mistake of emitting a dry laugh. All eyes turned to him, and he raised his unarmed hands up. "I meant no offense." he said, displeased. Mermista sighed and rolled her eyes. Waving the group away. As they exited Innoak stopped them all, "Adora, can you heal something like that? If I remember correctly the tree in Plumeria was far less complex than this barrier." She-ra blinked and looked blankly at the wall, then she set her face with a determined stare and nodded. "I can do it, it's just a fancy wall."

Innoak watched as Adora and her companions moved to repair the wall, he had decided to stay below. Citing his weight as a reason, when it really was because he wished to probe Catra again. But when he found her she was far closer than he anticipated, with a pang of malicious glee he found her and a flotilla of Horde ships rapidly closing on Salineas. Innoak laughed aloud again, the cruel sound cut through all parties present, Mermista was the first to turn and look at the chortling warrior. "The Horde. They come." He said at first, so that only she could hear. Soon though Innoak spoke to the trio in front of the wall, "The Horde come in force, be ready." Innoak made no attempt to hide his murderous excitement. So much glitter and diplomacy and Innoak finally had a good honest fight, he had waited for this too long. As if sensing his intention Innoak's force sword flourished with crackling power. Innoak looked at Sea Hawk who had joined him, the man backing slowly away from the obviously ready to kill Space Marine. "Your ship mortal, now."

The laser cannons from Catra's fleet tore into the wall and all around Adora, the Salineas held no defenses. No turrets and no artillery that could hope to harm the Horde vehicles. "Wow, this is going to be a real turkey shoot! Dontcha think Wildcat?" Asked Catra's ever present mood duller Scorpia. "I was having fun until you said something." She hissed, both figuratively and literally. Her eyes were still glued to the binoculars and the binoculars were still intently staring at Adora as she desperately attempted to heal the wall. Even when under so much cannon fire. It hurt Catra to see that determination and stupid hope that Adora always had, directed against her. It was fine, soon enough Adora would see that the Rebellion and the princesses were nothing. And she'd return to Catra. "Useless hope, isn't it? You were the one who pushed her away, No?" Said a voice, Catra immediately stared poison daggers at Scorpia. "What did you just say?" She said, claws dragging ragged marks into the side of the ship. Scorpia was about to say something when the voice spoke again. "Your east, Catra." Catra rapidly sighted in on something in the distance, a small white ship steaming hard towards her fleet. At the fore of the ship was a single solitary figure, as Catra magnified the image she noticed it was the figure who assailed her in the Fright Zone. "All ships, focus fire on that knight. I WANT IT DEAD!"

Innoak delighted in mind games. It was his preferred form of fighting, while others like Mermista to his left or Bow to his right wanted direct contact with the enemy. Innoak wanted nothing more than to break them from afar, show them true terror and fear. But now he could not, after all Mermista thirsted for revenge and Innoak desperately wanted to plunge in and rip and tear.

For the sake of diplomatic relations he would have to cede, something he held no reservation for. So as they drew closer Innoak extended a hand, he grasped hold of the first ship, bolts and screws came loose as he manipulated them. As one a cloud of the metal objects rose up and oriented themselves towards the crew, with a laugh Innoak let them fly. The sharp objects impaled hands and feet, firmly securing the Horde crew to the deck. Then Innoak peered within their minds, and dug out the last order they received. To focus fire on...him. Innoak was delighted before but he was ecstatic now. His manipulations of Catra had worked, and she was solely focused on him. So Innoak gave her what she wanted, he opened a temporeal corridor in space and time. When he stepped through he found himself moving quickly, skirting the decks of unaware ships until he found himself inhumanly bounding onto the deck of Catra's ship. He heard the others running amok among the Horde fleet, Bow loosing all sorts of arrows and Mermista drowning and waterlogging whole squadrons. He paid them no mind, his quarry was in sight.

Catra tried her best to track the inhuman movements of the knight, her hair went everywhere as she spun left to right and back again. Trying to gain a lock on the leaping and bounding armoured form. The slow turrets of the Horde ships couldn't find him or fire on him as he was using their own ships as jumping platforms. With a frustrated snarl Catra threw the useless binoculars down and signaled to the gunner of the ship to stand down. The man responded quickly, hopping down and allowing her in without comment. She had just climbed into the weapon when the knight landed with a solid crunch. Planks and metal girders bent and creaked as the thing rose to stare Catra directly in the eye. The weight of the psychic assault behind those hate filled red eyes made Catra scream and clutch her ears and eyes. Some Horde soldiers attempted to close with the knight but they found themselves rooted to the spot, their own shadows holding them down with croaks of hunger and pain. Catra broke from her trance long enough to shout "Get HIM!" But no one responded, even Scorpia wasn't spared from the giant's obscene mind raids. She was crumpled in a heap, eyes releasing tears without a change in expression. It seemed like time itself was stopped around the ship as Catra fell from the turret and landed on her back. Her vision was clouded as she rose slowly, standing shakily to face the hateful Space Marine. With a single swipe of his sword the Horde Soldiers frozen in time just...dropped. Blood leaked from their eyes and mouths as some tore off their helmets and began to writhe in pain and other horrible sensations. The giant simply walked past them and right up to Catra, in a voice backed by the ethereal mocking of a thousand souls he spoke a single word. "Wake."

Catra did, she was still in the cannon and the giant was still below her. But her resolve was broken and she just slumped in the seat. Only barely watching as the knight cleaved through her crew.