“Remember before when I told ya storming this planet was the worst plan I’d ever heard?” he asked.
“Yeah,” said Jack.
“I take it back,” replied Scallywag. “This is the worst plan I’ve ever heard.”
“And yet, the plans keep working,” said Jack, smiling as he gave Scallywag a chummy slap on the arm.
“Now buck up,” said Jack. “It’s time to save the day.”
Chapter 41
Anna was beginning to have trouble feeling her legs as she marched down the hallway beside the Deathlord Supreme. It was almost as if they were asleep – she knew she was walking, that her feet were touching the ground and swinging back and forth, carrying her along with them – but she did not feel it. She did not will it. She did not want it. She was no longer in control of her own body.
If she were, she’d be running away, struggling against her captors, doing everything in her power to resist their will. Instead she walked, and kept on walking dutifully by the side of the creature that planned to use her and discard her after it had taken all it could from her.
She looked around, her mind racing, as it seemed to be the only thing left that she had any control over. Even that, she felt, was slowly slipping away as she found her concentration waning, making it hard for her to organize her thoughts.
She didn’t know how long they had been walking. It seemed as if the hallway they were marching down were growing bigger. The footsteps of her and her captors echoed as they walked, bouncing off the walls like the beat of a drum. Finally, they came to a place where many different hallways merged into a semi-circle, and before them was a long, narrow passageway, its entrance buttressed with ornate designs, as if to signal that they had reached some important destination.
Zarrod entered first, and she followed behind him, with the three remaining Dark Soldiers bringing up the rear. The passageway they walked down was simple and free of any of the ornate symbols and decoration of the hallways leading up to it. The walls were made of old, crumbling yellow brick and pressed in on them narrowly, making the hallway just wide enough for two men to walk down it side by side. The ceiling had no arch; it was just a flat, oppressive plane that lorded above them. It glowed slightly, giving a warm yellow hue to the hallway as soft as though it were torchlight.
At the end of the hall was a simple door made of the same stone that comprised the walls. It was wide and rectangular, stretching up to the ceiling, engraved with the Ancient writings of Old Solar.
Anna tried to read what was there, but the figure of the Deathlord Supreme blocked her vision. He stood before the door, as though he were standing before some ominous foe that was challenging him to battle. With the flick of his arm, he sent a screaming blast of ghostly white fury at it, and the door cracked, spider webbing from corner to corner like a pane of glass that had been impacted by a rock. Dust seeped from the door like blood from a wound, and a large “crunching” sound echoed down the corridor like the cry of a dying beast.
Zarrod raised his hand again, a ball of death energy swirling between his claws, growing louder and more violent with each passing second. Finally, he released his hold on it, and it shot forth like a cannonball, tearing through the door and setting off an avalanche of rock and dust. They hit the ground in bits and pieces, thick dust spewing into the air and crawling along the ground like snakes seeking to escape a cage.
Anna’s eyes watered, but she was unable to lift her hands to rub them. Her body stood still, not able to move no matter how hard she tried to make it obey. Zarrod turned and looked at her, as though he knew of her struggle and found it amusing. She could almost imagine the hideous smile his horrible helmet hid behind it.
“You three,” he said, referring to his guards. “Stay here. What lies beyond is for me and my captive only.”
The three Dark Soldiers nodded in submission. Zarrod stepped aside and extended his arm toward the opening, as if inviting Anna to enter first.
Anna moved forward, her legs obeying in the same manner a marionette obeys the puppet master who holds its strings. She wanted to scream, a flurry of anger, frustration, and helplessness swirling within her. But she held her tongue as she approached the doorway. There was nothing but darkness beyond its frame, but as she got closer she could see a series of stone steps leading downward – to what, she did not know.
She descended, and the Deathlord Supreme followed close behind her.
* * *
Scallywag stood at the controls of the Deathlord hovervehicle with Green beside him as they made their way up the tunnel. The Professor scratched at his wrists. The bindings around them had disappeared, but he kept them crossed to try and make it appear as though he were still a prisoner.
Scally looked up at the ever-encroaching Deathlord Mothership as the craft continued to climb toward it. “This is insane,” he mumbled aloud. “Bloody insane. There must be somethin’ wrong with me brain to agree to go along with this.”
“Courage, dear friend,” said Green, a bit too cheerily for Scallywag’s liking. “I am confident we can succeed in our task.”
“Confidence don’t shield ya from plasma blasts, Greenskin,” grumbled Scallywag.
“Neither does complaining,” replied the Professor.
Scallywag glanced down at his hands. The sight of the black talons being there as opposed to his normal five red fingers still freaked him out a bit. When the Professor had handed over his hologuise emitter turning Scallywag into the very image of a Dark Soldier, his pirate instincts told him that at the very least, he had some type of cover should things go wrong. But looking like a Deathlord still put his teeth on edge. After all he’d been through, it just felt wrong.
The controls on the hovervehicle beeped, signaling that the Mothership had noticed their approach. Scallywag transmitted a signal that the Professor had set up for him, requesting permission to board. Within seconds, a panel to a docking bay opened high above them, like a terrible mouth ready to swallow them whole.
“Well, here goes nothing,” said Scallywag.
“Remember,” said Green, “try not to talk if you can help it.”
“I’ll be quiet as a tunnel rat,” replied Scally.
“No sudden movements, we don’t want to give them reason to be suspicious.”
“Slow and robotic, gotcha.”
“And don’t let any of them get too close,” said Green. “We haven’t exactly tested the effectiveness of the hologuises at close range.”
“They won’t even notice I’m there.”
Green nodded and cleared his throat nervously, gazing up at the opening as they approached. It grew bigger and bigger until their craft passed its threshold and entered the hanger. Though it seemed small from the outside, above them hung numerous shards, docked in individual hangars high above the opening, ready to drop and spring into action at a moment’s notice.
Scallywag looked around. The bay was long and rectangular, possibly a hundred yards, more likely a little longer. Catwalks high above them stretched out, crisscrossing the area, leading to the various shards that were docked there. As far as Deathlords went, he didn’t see any, and that made him breathe a sigh of relief. Far to the left, he spotted an area containing similar circular hovervehicles and started to make his way toward it, assuming that was where he’d have to park.
He landed in an empty alcove designed to house the vehicles. Both he and the Professor looked around nervously. The hanger was quiet. There was no sign of movement at all. For a moment, Scallywag dared to hope that it was as simple as that. There was to be no greeting party, and the Deathlords were not expecting any trouble on the planet, so security was not to be an issue.
“Well,” said Green. “That wasn’t so bad.”
As if on cue, a door to the bay slid open, revealing two Dark Soldiers marching toward them.
“Ya had ta say something, didn’t ya?” mumbled Scallywag. Green kept his mouth shut. Scallywag wasn’t sure if the look of fear and misery on the Profe
ssor’s face was part of an act, or just an honest expression of how he was feeling.
The two Deathlords stopped before the vehicle, looking up at Scallywag on the landing platform. The pirate stared at the new arrivals, a tad too long, as though some unpleasant odor hung in the air between them. Green’s large eyes shot nervously from the soldiers to Scallywag and back again. The Visini stood still, unsure of what to do next, but his brain was screaming at him that he had to do something.
“Greetings!” he said, holding up his clawed hand. “I am here under the orders of the Supreme.”
The soldiers looked at him, unmoving.
“He wanted me to bring the prisoner back to the ship,” he said.
The soldiers glanced at the Professor, who smiled at them weakly. The Deathlords betrayed no sense of any type of expression from behind their helmets.
“So, uh… that’s what I did. Brought him back. As ordered. By the… uh, Supreme.”
Scally’s voice trailed off awkwardly. The two Deathlords slowly turned their heads to look at each other, and then back to Scallywag.
“Ah, blast it,” Scallywag mumbled, before making a sudden move to the rail of the vessel. He leapt out, tucking and rolling toward the Dark Soldiers, who instinctively took a step back.
“An impostor!” one of the Dark Soldiers called out, seeing through his hologuise.
They made a move for their weapons, but Scallywag already had his pistols out. Rolling up to one knee, he leveled his weapons and fired at point blank range before the Deathlords had time to react, dispatching them both in a puff of dust.
Scallywag got to his feet and glanced around, weapons at the ready, but there was no sign of any other danger.
“Boring conversation anyway,” the pirate muttered.
“I say,” said Green as he got out of the hovervehicle. “You did exactly everything I told you not to do.”
Scallywag holstered his weapons and deactivated his hologuise, looking at the Professor with just a hint of insolence. “Yeah,” he said. “I’ve never been good at following directions.”
Green nodded. “Well, my guess is they were sent to greet us, assuming we were coming back from the Deathlord Supreme’s party. I do not know how long we have before they will be missed.”
“Then we’d better get a move on,” said Scallywag.
“Agreed,” replied Green, smiling. “Now, let’s go find us a terminal to hack.”
* * *
Jack ran down the hallway as fast as he dared, sticking as close to the wall as possible. He felt his heart thumping in his chest and looked around nervously, as though expecting the Deathlord Supreme to pop out of one of the adjoining hallways at any second.
Jack had spent half his youth playing video games where the object was to run through corridors and shoot bad guys, and now he was practically living one. Unfortunately, the reality of “running and gunning” was far different than it had ever been on his Gamerbox 3000. Time was of the essence, but he couldn’t just haphazardly rush ahead, guns blazing. This was real, and his life – as well as the lives of his friends – was on the line.
As he made his way down the Ancient corridor, Jack could feel the hulking presence of Grohm close behind him. Though the Rognok smelled like a cross between a wet dog and a sweaty gym shoe, his behemoth presence was the only thing that was giving Jack some sense of safety. After all they’d been through, Jack knew if there were one person he could rely on to watch his back, it was the massive alien by his side right now.
“Hey, just in case I don’t get a chance to say it later,” said Jack. “Thanks. For coming here and backing me up. I appreciate your help.”
Grohm grunted. Jack wasn’t sure if that was his way of saying “You’re welcome” or not. He still had yet to learn how to read the Rognok. “I mean, I know this is crazy. By all rights, we probably shoulda done what Scally suggested and run away the first chance we got. But I think we can actually do this! We’ve made it this far, right?”
The Rognok was silent. Jack figured he should probably be quiet as well, but talking helped keep his mind off how nervous he was. He was about to say something else when suddenly he saw something further down the corridor.
“Whoa, whoa, hold up,” said Jack as he quickly crept up behind a large pillar to the side of the main walkway, motioning Grohm to follow him.
Once they were safely tucked away from view, Jack peeked around the side of the pillar. From there, he could see that the corridor down which they had been running ended in a half-circle area. Two Deathlords stood guard on either side of a small entrance on the far wall, with a third one pacing back and forth around the area, glancing down each hallway in turn.
“Crap,” muttered Jack. He turned to Grohm. “There are three Deathlords down there – two guarding some entrance, and one patrolling around. My guess is Anna was taken in there.”
Grohm leaned out and took a look, snorting at what he saw. Jack’s mind raced. If this were a video game, there would be cover to hide behind as they made their way down the hall, allowing them to hop to-and-fro while picking off the Deathlords who were out in the open. However, the pillars ended too far from the opening, and the area between the end of the corridor and where the Deathlords had taken up position was too far. If either he or Grohm tried to take them on, chances were the Deathlords would cut them down.
“We need a plan. There’s gotta be a way past them,” mumbled Jack. “Think, think… maybe there’s a ventilation shaft we could crawl through?” Jack looked around briefly. “Who am I kidding? There aren’t any vents in this place. Not that you’d be able to fit in one if there were.” He looked down at his side and saw the grenade belt. “I guess we could toss a grenade down there, but that would make too much noise. If the Deathlord Supreme came out here, we’d be toast. Maybe we could double back and head down another hallway and flank them? One of us would need to distract them while the other opened fire. Can you make any bird noises?”
Grohm’s gaze said it all.
“Look, I’m just trying to figure out the situation,” said Jack testily. “Do you have any ideas?”
“Battle,” grumbled the Rognok.
“No!” whispered Jack as loud as he dared. “They’re too far away, and there are too many of them. We can’t just rush in there head on. They’ll kill us for sure.”
Grohm sneered at Jack. “There is nothing more glorious than to die in battle.”
“Oh, no, I’m totally with you on that, dude,” said Jack. “I mean, I wake up every day hoping to die in battle. We are so on the same wavelength there. It’s just… I don’t want to die in this battle!”
“Then leave it to Grohm,” the Rognok said before taking his mammoth fist and pounding it against the pillar three times.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM.
The sound echoed down the hallway in all directions. Down near the door they were guarding, the Dark Troopers snapped to attention, drawing their plasma rifles in alarm.
Jack looked at Grohm in shock. “What are you doing!” he cried in the loudest whisper he could muster.
Grohm banged on the pillar again.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM.
“Stop doing that!” whispered Jack again, panic slowly gripping his stomach. Grohm looked at Jack and held a finger to his lips, indicating the necessity for quiet. Jack didn’t need to be told twice.
What followed was silence. Then, a steady – pat, pat, pat – sound echoed toward them.
It was the sound of footsteps. One of the Deathlords was coming to investigate the noise. Jack raised his plasma pistol, ready to blast the Dark Soldier as soon as he showed his face. Was this Grohm’s plan? Take out one of the guards so they had a better shot with the other two? Doesn’t seem like a very good plan, he thought fatalistically.
That notion went out of Jack’s mind as soon as Grohm’s giant hand wrapped around him and pushed him flat against the pillar beside the Rognok and held him there, destroying his vantage point for any blaster fire against the Dark
Trooper.
Pat, pat, pat…
The footsteps were getting closer. Jack wanted to ask Grohm what the heck he was doing, but he was afraid to open his mouth. His heart was racing, and the sound of blood pounding in his ears was quickly giving him a headache.
Pat, pat, pat…
Jack could tell the footsteps were almost to them when suddenly they stopped. Grohm released his arm from Jack and slowly crouched, like a cat getting ready to pounce on a bird.
Then, the Dark Soldier swung out from behind the corner of the pillar, rifle trained right for Grohm’s head.
With speed betraying his size, Grohm’s arm shot out, his massive reach allowing him to close the distance between him and the Deathlord and quickly slap the nozzle of the Dark Soldier’s rifle aside, causing its shot to go wide and miss.
He fired the arm that had been holding Jack back straight at the Deathlord like a piston, cracking the facemask of the Trooper with a powerful blow, causing the Deathlord to drop his rifle.
Before the Dark Soldier could stumble back, Grohm dug his fingers into its armored breastplate. The Rognok swung out from behind the cover of the pillar, holding the dazed Deathlord in one hand, and unslinging his massive plasma shotgun off his back with the other.
The two Dark Soldiers by the entrance began to fire immediately. Grohm raised the Deathlord in front of him like a shield, letting his hostage absorb the blaster fire as the massive Rognok sprinted down the hallway, firing his shotgun at the two soldiers as his long legs quickly closed the distance.
Some of his shots went wide, but one hit a Dark Soldier head on, causing it to disintegrate in a puff of black dust.
Jack swung around the corner of the pillar and took aim at the remaining Deathlord at the end of the corridor, hoping to give Grohm some cover fire. He opened up on the Dark Soldier just as the one Grohm was using as a shield took its last blast and disintegrated. However, Jack was too far away, and his shots weren’t even close to their mark.
Before Grohm could reach the final guard, one of the Trooper’s blasts caught him in the shoulder. Grohm grunted in pain, dropping his weapon in the process. The Dark Soldier dropped to one knee and leveled his rifle at the oncoming alien.
Earthman Jack vs. The Ghost Planet Page 48
