Fear Incarnate

Fear Incarnate Portion 23

The entrance into the Fright Zone was easy enough, Innoak cast a psychic shroud to envelop his strike team. He had trained some of them himself, equipping them with las rifles of Entrapta's design. Each weapon was a scare bit more potent than a standard las rifle, and the soldiers who wielded them could shoot straight enough. They were no Imperial Fists or Cadians, but they did well enough to suit the Librarian's needs. Together, and under his shroud they passed through horde defenses. Innoak watched proudly as one of his team flawlessly took down a Horde soldier on patrol. The young man looked up at Innoak and he gave the boy a short nod, gesturing for the others to continue on. "Fine job Obed, your knife could have entered quicker however." The boy beamed and he quickly unslung his rifle and continued, a bounce in his step. The journey to their assigned position was quick, and once there Innoak paused to send out a psychic missive to Adora. "My team is in position, is team...Hidden Root in place?" Innoak hated using the code names Perfuma suggested, so when the non psychic response came back through his Etherian earpiece he cringed a bit more. "Copy that Big Oak, we're in position." Adora said, the giggle she stifled audibly making Innoak sigh. "The bombs will be in position soon, we'll draw out the guards while you make your entrance. Can Entrapta shut off the lights?" Innoak paused to tell his team to plant the explosives. "I can Innoak! Oh I am so happy to be able to see the Fright Zone in its entirety!" The excitement in Entrapta's voice was piercing Innoak's composure. "Entrapta, dial your excitement down. We require utmost seriousness for this mission, anything can go wrong." He heard her sigh, and the affirmation came a second later. Innoak then took a moment to contact General Sunder's team posted on the other side of the complex. They were ready. "All teams are in position Adora, just give the word."

Adora steeled herself for the hellstorm to come. She was about to walk right into the fright Zone again for the first time after she left. Needless to say she was ready, but still really nervous. She looked up at the tower where Entrapta and Perfuma were, she shone the signal and all of a sudden the lights in the entire complex shut off. Long enough for her and her Princess Alliance to break in and for Innoak to begin his assault. "Lights are off, blow them." She said simply, and together she and Seahawk braced for the explosion. It was immense and it shook the entirety of the Fright Zone, whatever Innoak and Entrapta had been cooking up in their workshop was seriously paying off. Just after the blast the distinct sounds of laser fire broke out, and Perfuma appeared dragging a displeased yet still excited Entrapta. "Alright, everyones here except for-" just as she began, the doors in front of them swung open to reveal the very angry face of Mermista. "-mista, Awesome! Come on guys, we have to get Glimmer and Bow before the Horde overrun Innoak and the General."

Innoak was not close to being overrun, in fact he was the opposite. With no princesses around to watch his every move he was able to let loose the full fury of the Emperor. Bolts of ethereal lightning wound themselves past cover to strike cowering bodies, Volkite blasts rendered once solid mutants and humans into greasy smoke. Innoak's sword hunted down all opposition and cleaved it apart with intoxicating efficacy. He broke minds and shattered limbs, Innoak let the enemy feel every ounce of his pent up power. But the Horde lived up to its name, and fresh reinforcements popped up faster than he could kill them. Stray laser bolts clattered uselessly from his psychic defenses, and behind him Innoak's strike team took a toll out of any who rose from cover to fire upon the marading giant. He took a moment to check on the progress of Adora, and he was rewarded with their rapid entry into the Horde's prison block. Though he noticed something even more welcome, alongside fresh reinforcements streaming towards him was the furious soul of Catra. He raised his blade and channeled a massive amount of psychic energy to it, Innoak brought it down with a roar and extended a wave of pure energy towards the entrenched Horde. They died quickly, bodies being consumed while they still lived and screamed as eldritch power immolated them. Their skin and bones were but ash once Catra entered in front of her brothers and sisters.

Catra looked around at the devastation the Rebellion had wrought on her prison, and she almost felt elated at the hurt done to it. If it weren't for the one who had caused the blatant destruction. A solitary massive figure stood at the epicenter of the radiating and still steaming cracks in the ground. He was kneeling, almost as if in prayer. The sprinkler system had been activated, and Catra noticed a shimmering field of energy an inch above the kneeling giants's surface. "You again, I'm starting to think you like me. Popping up everywhere like that." As Horde soldiers surrounded the kneeling figure he raised his head. The orange eyes of his helm were half covered by a hood, but they blazed with hate nonetheless. "Catra, we meet again. I will delight in breaking you finally." The giant stood and completely ignored the soldiers inching closer to him, instead he brought his sword up and pointed it at Catra. "A shame that you brought friends. A duel between us both alone would have been enjoyable, it is of little matter though." he let his sword fall in a ceremonial fashion and suddenly Horde began to drop. Catra dived behind a wrecked skiff as laser bolts fired from unseen assailants impacted where she had just been. She could hear the heavy footsteps of the knight as he cleaved through what she could only assume were bodies. The wet slap of dismembered limbs hitting the ground made her shudder and shiver, but she knew for a fact she was better than this. And so she peeked over the smoldering edge of her cover...

...and right into the eyes of the knight as it held a struggling soldier in its grasp. The giant closed his hand without breaking eye contact with Catra, letting the ruined and twitching body of the soldier fall. Behind him she could see rebel soldiers exit their positions and level laser rifles towards the wounded, and fire dispassionately into them. It was then that Catra realized the Horde never prepared her for true war, and the knight had brought it straight to her doorstep. He was different from the Princesses in a way Catra grudgingly respected, he cared nothing for rules or regulations. Only instead of showing his dislike for them in petty ways like Catra, the knight was brutally uncaring. "Do not hide Catra, it never worked for you before did it?" the thing asked while bringing its sword up once more over his head. With a sudden movement he brought it down and somehow severed the skiff from several yards away. The machine's pieces fell away cleanly, almost as if the very making of reality was broken apart to make these two halves fall away from each other. Catra stumbled back into a wall, and she pressed against it as the rebels closed in around her, a massive figure leading them forward.

Innoak revelled off the fear that Catra radiated as he approached, every terrified and restrained urge to flee that entered her mind made him feel all the more elated. Until a voice called out from the left, and he saw a rebel fall with a smoking hole in their chest. Innoak spun in anger to see more Horde streaming from the door leading into the garage they made their battlefield. Leading them were the bizarre trio that Adora remembered fondly in her memories, they were roughed up but wielding active batons and wearing armour plating. Innoak deduced they had retreated from a fight with the Princesses above and hurried below once they received word of his incursion. It also seemed that they had forced the General's forces back, but he could not detect her death. "Team Big Oak, pull back to the extraction point. I will hold them off here." Innoak noticed with great pride that the rebels were displeased but raised no objections, pulling back in a staggered retreat as Innoak began to wield sword and pistol to whittle the still coming soldiers down. He moved with the experience of a warrior who had fought all matters of enemies for centuries, these chattel were nothing to him. Nothing but cultists or tyranid 'gaunts. He dismembered and eviscerated but the more he swung and struck he noticed that they were arraying in poor imitation of a firing line. They arrayed their batons as one and began to unleash salvoes of laser at Innoak, forcing him to divert from offense to defense. He noticed Catra watching him from above, a quick glance revealing a smug smirk on her face. Innoak decided to wipe it away but he needed to disrupt the Horde lines. So he brought the full power of his soul into motion and radiated a massive energy blast around him, shaking and stumbling the soldiers. Then he raised his pistol and fired directly at Catra, who to his growing impatience dodged the volkite blast and jumped into an unassailable position. Innoak turned back to the already reforming Horde line and settled for using the momentary distraction he still held to check on the other teams. He saw the Princesses outside the complex and Adora moving rapidly towards them, with Glimmer, Bow and the sword in hand. He allowed himself another flush of pride before turning back to the Horde soldiers and in turn, Catra. "My name is Innoak, and I am a Librarian of the Soul Haunters. Today you will feel my wrath, today you will feel the full might of the Emperor!"