Dreadnuts. Thousands of them.
Chapter Twenty-One: Storming the Gates
Jack’s space pistol pulsed red as he fired point blank into the dreadnut horde.
Bodies melted, exploded, eviscerated in an instant. But still they came, a bionic tide, intent on death and dismemberment. Hands, claws scratched at his face. Machinery whirred and buzzed like demented locusts. Laser rounds thudded into him with all the force of a battering ram.
Faces flicked by in frenzied heartbeats. A blue skinned woman with half her face studded with metal tried to stab him in his neck. A trio of laser blasts settled the matter. A hairy-looking man with dangling earrings and a scarred face lunged out at him, his face a mask of madness and fury, only for Jack to cut him straight down the middle with his laser sword. The two halves of his body fizzed to the ground like a Roman candle. Next, he decapitated a hairless woman with an elongated head the colour of wallpaper paste. Dozens followed. It was like a football riot and D-Day all rolled into one. Carnage incomparable. One hand swinging away with electric death, the other firing away like it was an arcade game.
He flicked the setting on his space pistol up to maximum, jamming down on the trigger as the corridor exploded in front of him in a whirl of limbs and soldered metal.
BOOM!
And again.
BOOM!
Smoke, fire and confusion.
Jack felt something grip his shoulder. He spun round expecting to see a dreadnut’s deathless stare, trigger finger twitching.
“Jack! It’s over. Jack!”
“Grunt… I… what’s going on?” he said, looking into Grunt’s bright orange eyes.
“You did it, Jack; you got the last of the dreadnuts. Sorry I couldn’t get here sooner, we got split up, we all landed in different parts of the ship.”
Jack looked to where Grunt was pointing. The corridor was strewn with bodies. Body parts and bits of machinery were everywhere. Parts of the corridor were still on fire, smoking lazily, though the fire control system was already kicking into gear, putting the fires out with localised force fields. What have I done? He thought, staring blankly at the wreckage. What I had to. This war has to end someday.
The sound of weapons’ fire reverberated further down the corridor.
“The others?” asked Jack.
“I dunno,” said Grunt. “They could be anywhere.”
“Well, the dreadnuts won’t be fighting each other. Come on, let’s give them a hand.”
They found Xylem and Kat further down the corridor, surrounded by a swarm of metallic faces. Jack and Grunt cut through them like a knife through butter, space pistols set to rapid fire.
“Am I glad to see you,” said Kat, slapping Jack on the back as the last dreadnut slumped bonelessly to the floor. “I thought we were done for. If you hadn’t arrived…”
“What are friends for?” said Jack. “Now come on, let’s find the control room and end this.”
Jack burst into the control room, his space sword cutting a walking volcano in two. Molten metal poured out from the wound like a river, fire sputtering across the floor.
“How did you do that?”
Jack spun round and turned towards the voice, sword gripped tightly in his hand.
Before him was the man who had destroyed Nevada, killing millions of people, including his parents. The man who had extinguished whole planets, entire solar systems, including the Galactic Alliance. The man who was even now trying to eradicate all life on Earth. He was responsible for the deaths of trillions, perhaps more.
Jack ran towards him, sword swinging wildly for his head. Lava man grinned viciously, ducked at the last moment, then ran a finger across his chest.
Jack’s skin exploded with fire the moment the dark matter touched him, his invisible energy shield useless. Pain cascaded in all directions, rippling down his abdomen, across his back, up his legs, arms. His sword and pistol slipped from his hands. He coughed up blood.
“I don’t know what you’ve done,” said Lava man, eyeing the pool of molten metal on the floor. “But I’ll find out, if I have to rip it from you, limb by limb.”
Jack’s armpits were flooded with heat, pain as lava man lifted him up into the air, hands slipping through flesh, bone.
“Let him go!”
Jack somehow managed to turn around to where the voice was coming from, pain lancing his body.
Grunt, Xylem and Kat were stood by the door, space swords twirling in their hands.
“So be it,” said Lava man tossing Jack to the ground. His arms hung to his shoulders by the slenderest of threads. Blood oozed down his heaving ribs, onto the grimy floor. He could smell burnt skin, hair. His own.
Jack looked up at Lava man. He could see the view screen behind his torso, a floating panel was visible behind his head. He seemed to be fading away somehow, molecule by molecule. “I’ll see you again no doubt, but until then here is a token of my generosity.”
Jack saw something moving behind him. Too late. A boot thudded into his jaw as another leg crashed onto his chest pinning him down. Lightning threaded his body as something sharp dug into his shoulders, then his stomach. Over and over, like a pneumatic drill. He coughed up blood, bile. Oxygen rushed from his lungs.
Above him was a girl with bright red hair and eyes, half her face dotted with steel. She looked like a mechanised Valkyrie. She raised the knife for the final killing blow.
Chapter Twenty-Two: Awakening
Jack felt hands grappling him, there was a burst of bright light, then he started to float. What looked like multi-coloured strobe lights jagged down from the ceiling, dancing all over his body. His body tingled; he felt light-headed, peaceful… happy. He looked down as a fist-sized hole in his stomach winked shut; his abdomen felt strangely warm. He felt the tissue and bone re-growing around his ribs, arms and shoulders. Sleep took him like a drug.
Jack was in space again, swimming amidst the stars, back where he had always wanted to be. It was peaceful and quiet, he could just watch the universe tick by, like a dandelion shedding its seeds. The war was a distant memory. He looked at an emerald-coloured gas giant, its equator ringed by an icy mane of comets. If he wanted, he could go down and explore every one of them, climb every mountain, investigate every crater. The possibilities were endless. It would take him a lifetime… no several.
Jack…
It came to him like a whisper on the wind.
Jack…
“Is anyone there?” he asked, turning away from the gas giant.
He was facing a brilliant orange sun, its surface marked with eruptions of fire. The heat was unbearable.
Then one of the flares curled through the cosmos like an intergalactic snake. Its golden tendrils flicked round his ankles and dragged him towards the sun. He tried to rip it off, only for the flare to wrap itself around his hands too.
The giant orange ball got brighter and brighter like a huge medallion, swatting him with its heat. The surface was very close now. His skin began to blacken and catch fire. His body burned from existence, but his soul lived on, slamming into a layer of exploding hydrogen and helium.
He was surrounded by a sea of light, its currents constantly shifting, pulling him back to another place, another time; then it began to warp and coalesce into the figure of a girl. She was glowing like an angel.
“Who…”
It doesn’t matter who I am, all that matters, is who you are. She even sounded like an angel.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
You will find out in time. When the time comes call for me. So sweet, so musical…
“Call for who? Time? What are you talking about?”
When the night rises and the day wanes, when all hope is gone and despair reigns.
“But that doesn’t make any sense…”
I’m out of time. The tide comes. Call for me at your lowest ebb.
“But…”
Jack…
Jack…
Jack…
/> Jack…
Jack opened his eyes. Grunt, Xylem, Padget and Kat stared back at him.
“What happened?” he asked. His head felt light, fuzzy. “The last thing I remember is seeing this girl, she looked like an angel, she was talking to me and…”
“What are you talking about?” asked Kat. “There’s no one here but us, you must have been dreaming.”
“I…”
“It was probably a side effect of your wounds,” said Padget. “Or else the numbing agent the spaceship used to heal you.”
“Wounds?”
“You mean you don’t remember?” asked Grunt.
Jack shook his head. “I feel like I lost a fight with an army of dreadnuts and then some.”
“Well as it happens,” said Kat. “That isn’t far from the truth.”
“What do you mean?” asked Jack, still trying to hold onto the image of the girl. No, the angel. Was it real or had he imagined it?
“Vyleria attacked you,” said Kat. “After Lava man burnt away your shielding you were vulnerable. She almost stabbed you to death. You’re lucky we got to you in time.”
“Vyleria…”
“Yes, I’m afraid so; but…”
“Where is she? What happened? Is she?”
Kat shook her head. “She’s been quarantined.”
“I want to see her. Now.”
“That wouldn’t be wise,” said Kat.
“I’ll decide that,” said Jack, getting to his feet.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Noted,” said Jack, more angrily than he intended. “Where is she?”
“In one of the rooms next to this one,” said Grunt. “For our safety as well as hers.”
“What are you talking about?” said Jack.
“Look for yourssself,” hissed Xylem.
“Okay, I will.”
Jack stormed out of the control room, past a pool of golden sludge and out into the corridor. Bodies littered the floor. In his desperation to get to the control room he had fired indiscriminately, blasting every dreadnut he encountered. And now this was the result, a chaos of blood and molten metal. Industrialised slaughter.
“She’s in the second room to the right,” said Padget running up behind him.
Jack strode between two smoking corpses and placed his head before the door. A ray of electric green light spread over his face, then there was a loud ping like a microwave oven and the cream-coloured door whooshed open.
A blur of red metal barreled towards him, before it slammed into an invisible barrier and was flung back against the far wall. No sooner had it hit the floor when it charged at him again, all gnashing teeth and clawing fury.
“Vyleria stop!”
Vyleria half-growled half-hissed at him as she pulsed away with her laser arm, the red points of light dissipating inches from his chest.
“Vyleria!”
“She won’t listen to you,” said Padget. “Not anymore. She’s one of them now. There’s nothing we can do.”
“What are you talking about? Of course, there is, we can heal her.”
“Jack…”
“It worked last time, it will work again. It has to.” He couldn’t afford to lose her again, not now, not after all he had been through.
“But back then she had only been a dreadnut for a little while, not even a few seconds, this time…”
“Have you not even tried?”
“We were waiting for you,” said Padget. “Now that you’re the captain, we thought it best to confer with you first.”
“The captain?” asked Jack. “Are you serious?”
They all nodded. “We took a vote.”
“When?”
“When you were unconsciousss,” hissed Xylem.
“You might have asked me whether or not I wanted the job,” said Jack. “What if I turn it down?”
“Too late now,” grinned Kat.
“The story of this spaceship,” said Padget.
“Besides, you’re the best pick,” said Grunt.
“Oh yeah, how do you figure that?” said Jack.
“Because you saved us and brought us all together again, at great risk to yourself,” said Padget.
“No one elssse would have done that,” hissed Xylem. “Cccertainly not me.”
“We’d all be dead if it wasn’t for you,” said Kat. “It’s the truth and deep down you know it, that’s why we made you captain; you’re decisive, selfless and committed to the cause. You build communities; we would follow you anywhere.”
Jack nodded slowly. “Well when you put it like that…”
“We do.”
“Then we need to give her another chance,” said Jack, looking at Vyleria. She was curled-up on the floor like a battle-cat, spitting, growling, waiting for her next opportunity to strike.
“But…”
“She’s one of the crew too,” said Jack.
“Was,” said Grunt. “Like Padget said, she’s one of them now.”
“Well, she is a member of the crew until I say otherwise. I’m not going to start ordering you all around now that I’m captain, but on this I must be firm. We keep fighting for Vyleria because that is what she would do for us, besides, we don’t give up on crew members, not now, not ever. I didn’t forget about you and you shouldn’t forget about her either.”
“But what if it doesn’t work?” asked Padget. “What if she remains a dreadnut?”
“We’ll cross that intergalactic bridge when we come to it,” said Jack. “But until then there’s no surrender, not on my watch.”
“Yesss, captain,” hissed Xylem.
For half a second Jack thought that it was the old Xylem again, that he was mocking him, challenging his authority, but then his acquiescence was quickly followed by others. They’d actually listened to him for once. “Right well, let’s create a med bay in here then,” he said. “We can’t risk transporting her to another part of the ship.”
“Aye captain,” chimed four distinct and yet strangely unified voices. They even seemed to jump a little when they said it too.
Five minutes later Vyleria was strapped to a floating hospital bed, her invisible restraints keeping her from harming both them and herself.
“Well here goes nothing,” said Jack, activating the med-room’s facilities with his mind.
He watched mute, motionless, his fingers idly stroking an invisible pistol, as Vyleria writhed and screamed, strips of metal ripping from all over her body, cells blackening, dying. Her hair fell out, then her eyes, then her teeth. She was being broken apart piece by piece, mutilated. He couldn’t watch any longer, none of them could. He loved her too much for that.
His heart broke when he switched the machine off. There was barely anything left of her now, just a broken shell of rusty parts. Not even the dreadnut half of her seemed very active.
“I’m sorry Vyleria,” said Jack, pistol materialising in his hand. His voice was strangely calm. “It’s been a blast, I wish things could have been different, but they’re not. You don’t deserve this, none of the dreadnuts do. I love…”
“Jack, stop! What’s that?” Kat was pointing at Vyleria, at a spot just beneath her right ear. “It’s…”
“Pink,” said Jack.
“It’s spreading,” said Padget, pointing at her cheek.
“Her hair is changing too,” said Grunt. “It’s turning…”
“Red,” said Jack.
“It ssseemsss to be accccelerating,” said Xylem. Even he sounded happy for once.
Jack stared at Vyleria as her hair turned a vibrant shade of red, her eyes too; even her skin regained its pink lustre. Like a rose, he thought.
Then just like a flower, Vyleria’s eyes opened-up and looked straight at him. She smiled. Everything was going to be alright.
Chapter Twenty-Three: Reunion
“Jack, you’re alive!” Vyleria pulled him close to her chest.
“Of course, I am,” said Jack. “It’s you we were worryi
ng about, we thought you might be a dreadnut forever.”
“A dreadnut?” said Vyleria, putting her hands to her head.
Jack nodded. “You’d been one for days, weeks even. Ever since… Vyleria, what’s wrong?”
“I… I think my people are dead, Jack.”
“What? How many?”
She shook her head, her bright red locks tossing like flames. “All of them.”
“But that’s impossible,” said Jack. “Even if the Scourge conquered Elaria, there would be dreadnuts at least.”
“No, he killed them all,” said Vyleria. “Lava man. After my people were turned into dreadnuts, he instructed them to kill each other. It’s all coming back to me now. I tried to stop them, to intervene, but it was no use, they beat each other to bloody pulps before my eyes. There’s nothing left now but dust. He wanted me to suffer, to feel real anguish. He eradicated my people just to get back at me. Why?”
Jack couldn’t think of what to say. How could he? “Because he’s sick,” he said after a few seconds. “Because he doesn’t know what it truly means to be alive.”
“And that is?” she said, her eyes glistening with tears.
“Love,” he said, holding her by the hand. “To love and care for others as much as yourself, to be truly selfless. All he knows is war and suffering. And that is why he is going to lose.”
“No Jack, he’s not,” said Vyleria, eyes stained purple. “He’s going to do to Earth what he did to Elaria. He’s going to do that to ALL our planets, one after the other. We can’t stop him. We don’t stand a chance, we never did.”
“No Vyleria, we do. So long as we have each other and keep on fighting then we have every chance in the world. But if I’m wrong and that’s our fate then I say bring it on! Let’s go down fighting and screaming like our ancestors would have wished. We have come too far to give up now and surrender to despondency; if we do that then the Scourge have already won.”
Jack Strong and The Last Battle Page 8
