“Wait…”
A succession of Scourge ships passed by, a macabre procession of flesh and metal. In moments they were surrounded, weapons fire thudding into them from all directions.
“Now!” said Padget.
Kat jammed down one of the buttons on her flight console.
“I said NOW!” shouted Padget.
“I’m trying,” she said, hammering down on the console. “It’s…”
The mining vessels to their left and right suddenly exploded, fireballs consuming the Scourge ships on either side of them. More followed as ship after ship erupted like volcanoes, spraying the Scourge craft with a deadly hail of metal and flame. Thousands of Scourge ships were destroyed, with hundreds more badly damaged, fires spreading like a contagion as ship after ship nosedived to the surface or else rammed into their neighbour. It was an intergalactic Apocalypse, a brutal game of pinball gone mad.
“It worked!” yelled Padget. “Inform Jack, tell him Lava Man…”
Their spaceship reverberated like a drill, flinging Padget from the controls like a child’s toy. He heard the explosion soon after. It sounded like someone bursting a balloon.
His ears rang as he staggered half-blind to his feet. Dimly, he took in the yawning cavern that used to be the left side of the control room, the acrid stench of smoke. He couldn’t see Kat anywhere. A mass of bodies crawled through the gap, followed by the sound of scraping metal and blood-red eyes.
Dreadnuts. Dozens of them.
Jack saw the Scourge fleet ripple with fire and smoke. Padget’s gambit had worked.
He pounced immediately, twisting and turning about the wreckage, firing salvo after salvo of sonic cannon rounds. More death. More explosions. Fire. Fire. Fire.
He pushed deeper and deeper into the Scourge horde, seeking out Lava man. If he killed him perhaps the war would be over.
“Something’s wrong,” said Vyleria.
“What are you talking about?”
“There’s a problem with the scanners, a blind spot in the middle of the Scourge fleet.”
“So?”
“That’s where the Scourge ships are at their densest, it’s like they are protecting something,” said Vyleria.
“It’s Lava man. I know it.”
“But Jack…”
“That’s it Vyleria, it’s the only explanation. Come on, we’ve got to get going whilst they are still disorganised from Padget’s attack.”
Jack moved through the shoal of Scourge ships like a piranha at feeding time.
After reducing two enemy vessels to a mulch of flesh and steel he approached an inner cordon of ships. There were hundreds and hundreds of them. They seemed to be guarding something.
“Why aren’t they attacking us?” asked Vyleria.
“Or moving to engage our other ships,” said Jack. “What is Lava man up to?”
“I don’t know maybe we should…”
“I’m going to check it out,” said Jack, ramming down on the accelerator like a formula one driver.
Jack half expected the Scourge ships to intercept him or at least engage him from afar, but they didn’t move an inch.
He skimmed the top of the Scourge ships, expecting an ambush at any second, before he came on a spot of total darkness.
He got closer and closer, the black mass getting larger and larger until it encompassed all of space in front of him.
“Oh no,” said Vyleria. “Turn back quickly. Now.”
“What is it?”
“Don’t you remember?”
Jack shook his head. “What are you talking about?”
“Of course, you don’t,” said Vyleria, voice almost a whisper. “You were down on the Xenti home world at the time of the Scourge attack,” said Vyleria. “You’ve never seen one of these THINGS up close before, only what they leave behind. That’s a black hole bomb, a planet killer,” said Vyleria, voice barely audible.
“What do we do?” asked Jack, surprised at the panic in his own voice.
“I… we could try our own planet killer,” she said.
“What are you talking about?” said Jack. “We don’t have such a device.”
“Xylem’s father used it on a few worlds soon after he captured our ship. Billions died; that’s why I never told you about it, if you saw what I saw…”
“It’s okay, I understand,” said Jack, reaching out to her virtually. “But that was then, this is now. We’ve got to give it a try, it could be our only hope.”
“I’ll do it,” said Vyleria, flicking through the different weapons settings. “It’s right near the end; I put it in a secret file so that it would never be found.”
Jack looked up and saw total darkness; the planet killer seemed to be alive somehow. It was sucking out all life, all happiness from his heart.
“Got it!” shouted Vyleria, hitting the trigger as quickly as she could.
A beam of bright white light shot out from the nose of their spaceship, spearing the black ball right through the middle. Briefly, Jack saw oceans and mountains of unwavering darkness, then nothing, as the light winked out.
“But I don’t understand,” said Vyleria. “It should’ve worked, like it did on all the others.”
“Perhaps that’s no normal planet,” said Jack, a heavy presence clutching his heart.
“What do you mean?”
“Maybe it’s dark matter… like them,” he said, glancing at the flesh-encrusted Scourge ships.
“But then how…”
“I don’t know,” said Jack. “If they detonate that thing we are doomed.”
The spaceship suddenly shook like a piñata, as one of the Scourge ships thudded into their side, sending them veering into a procession of other ships.
They were engulfed with flames, smoke. Darkness took them.
Xylem stood where his father had done so many times before, on a bridge of death, in a war of conquest. Except that this wasn’t a war for glory or empire, it was a struggle for survival. He wouldn’t be like his father, couldn’t be. His destiny was to save, not enslave the galaxy.
“Are you ready?” he hissed.
“Never readier,” said Grunt, eyeing the Scourge ships.
“Let’sss get sssome payback,” hissed Xylem. “They’ll pay for what they did to our ssspeciesss.”
“In blood,” nodded Grunt.
Xylem opened fire with everything he had, the other Xenti ships following suit. It was an inferno, a hurricane of fire on a blazing sea of death. Weapons fire passed between the two fleets like a blizzard. Scourge ships erupted before his eyes, their metal carcasses sucked-up by the planet below. But still the battle continued, still the storm raged. Xenti fighters burned in the night sky like moths to a flame; one of his battleships was sheared in two, its jagged nose ploughing into the frigid surface, followed by a jet of boiling steam as an underground sea was exposed to the vacuum.
“Take us in further!” hissed Xylem to one of the Xenti soldiers. “I want to sssee them bleed, make them beg for mercccy.”
“Yesss General,” hissed the soldier, saluting.
“Are you sure that’s wise?” asked Grunt. “If we get surrounded we may not be able to escape.”
“Defenccce is the bessst form of attack,” hissed Xylem, as a Scourge ship evaporated into nothing before them. “Take us towardsss their exposed cccentre.”
They blasted through a squadron of Scourge ships, their hull riddled with holes and venting atmosphere, all the time firing away. Space flashed through all the colours of the rainbow; their bridge trembled, shook. Their ship yearned like a great and terrible sea, stanchions, girders just about holding.
“Hey, that’s Jack!” shouted Grunt, pointing at a silver streak of light as it dissected a ring of Scourge ships.
“Follow them,” hissed Xylem. “Perhapsss they…”
“What’s that?” asked Grunt, pointing at a black spot in space. “It looks like a moon or planet of some kind. Xylem?”
The sphere got larger
and larger on the horizon, until it eclipsed everything they could see, everything that they could feel. It seemed to be alive somehow, throbbing with demonic energy.
“Let’s get out of here,” said Grunt as Jack’s spaceship fired a bright beam of light at the object. “Xylem?”
“NO!” hissed Xylem. “Not now, not again. There will be no sssurrender thisss time; we will be avenged! Ramming ssspeed!”
Grunt turned around, attempting to wrest Xylem from the controls or at least make him see sense, but it was too late – he was propelled off his feet and into a metal bulkhead as the iron-rich hull ploughed nose first into the seething black mass.
Steel buckled, melted, glass exploded. All around him Xenti began to howl and burn.
Padget stumbled backwards, the male dreadnut on top of him, one hand clasped around his throat, the other firing a succession of laser rounds at his head. He tried to push the dreadnut’s weapon arm away, but it was too strong.
Pow. Pow. Pow.
The metallic floor reverberated to its beat.
Pow. Pow. Pow.
The last round took his ear off, splattering his face in blood and gristle. His grip slackened, then faltered altogether. He looked up. Down the barrel of a gun. Game over.
The dreadnut’s head exploded in a chaos of metal and brains.
“Saved your life again.” said Kat, re-materialising in front of him. Before he could say a word, she spun round and decapitated a female dreadnut that had just clambered into their spaceship.
“We’ve got to get out of here,” said Padget, staring into the vacuum and the violent maelstrom that swirled around them. “Half the ship has gone; if we get hit again…”
“Contact Jack,” said Kat.
“I’ve tried that,” said Padget. “Our communication system is fried. Face it, we’re done for.”
“Can’t accept that,” said Kat. “Won’t…”
“What is it?” asked Padget, following Kat’s gaze. “Is that… a meteor storm?”
“Quick, activate your personal armour before they hit us.”
“But…”
The first wave of dreadnuts hit their spaceship with all the speed of a battering ram. Some were smashed to bits on their hull, others were impaled on jagged bits of metal and machinery; some missed their ship altogether, shooting-off into space, never to be seen or heard from again. But most found their mark, using what was left of their control room as leverage, or else utilizing their skewered comrades as impromptu safety mats.
Padget stared at the five dreadnuts that were standing ahead of him on the bridge. Why didn’t I ask someone how to operate my body armour? He thought. Because you were too busy eating, you fat fool, too busy…
They came at him in a wave, all gnashing teeth and clanking, whirring metal. He took out the first two with his space pistol, only for the other three to knock him off his feet, pain lancing up his arms and legs. The lead dreadnut, its face a molten mess of warts and wires, was about to inject him with a lethal dose of nanobots when it collapsed to the ground, its body riddled with blue lightning.
“That’s two you owe me,” said Kat, appearing out of nowhere. She held out a hand.
“Where have you been?” asked Padget, getting to his feet. He took in the three smoking corpses.
“I had my hands full,” said Kat, glancing into the corner. At least twenty dreadnuts were slumped over several panels and computer read-outs. “If you had your safety armour on you would be a lot more effective… and safer too.”
“I…”
“You do know how to use the body armour, don’t you?”
“Err… of course… I do,” said Padget, face getting greener and greener by the second. “I just chose not to… you know… to test myself and everything.”
Kat grinned. “That’s great, but the trick is not to get killed in the process. If I hadn’t come along when I did, I’d be talking to a dreadnut now.”
“Would not.”
“Would too.”
“If you must know you tap your chest twice to activate it, twice again to turn it off.”
“Oh…” Padget’s face went as green as the mushiest mushy peas ever. “I… err… thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“Are you ready?”
“For what?”
Kat glanced at the vacuum. Another wave of dreadnuts were hurtling towards them. More than twice as many as last time by the looks of it.
The dreadnuts hit them with all the force of a hurricane, knocking them off their feet. The air rushed from Padget’s lungs as a dreadnut slammed into his chest, weapon arm firing wildly at his head, neck. Padget fired at the dreadnut at point blank range, its chest collapsing as it sputtered and died in front of him. In a blur, he got to his feet and activated his rocket boots to take him away from the despairing grasps of several dreadnuts, before he spun around in mid-air, blasting them back out into space.
“Not bad Padge,” said Kat, karate-kicking a dreadnut into the void.
“Thanks.”
“We may survive this yet.”
The control room suddenly exploded with light and noise as a steel bulkhead twice the size of the Titanic smashed into their ship.
The metal beneath Padget’s feet buckled, splintered, then melted away into nothing.
Vacuum.
All Jack saw was death, fire and flying metal. He hammered down on the sonic cannon as quickly as he could, destroying the Scourge fleet one ship at a time. But it wasn’t enough, it never was. Each ship he blew up was replaced by legions more, a constant stream of reinforcements joining the battle. He looked-up and saw the black hole bomb, its jet-black surface shimmering menacingly as debris rained down in huge curtains of steel. It still hadn’t detonated.
“Is that Xylem’s ship?” said Vyleria.
Jack looked up as a mile-long steel spear pierced the centre of the dark sphere, exploding outwards in a ripple of energy and compressed air.
“Xylem? Grunt?” shouted Vyleria.
“They’re fine,” said Jack, still looking at the black hole bomb. How were they going to stop that thing?
Jack left the pilot’s console, placed the spaceship on autopilot, and motioned Vyleria towards the far side of the room. Xylem and Grunt materialised in front of them, the blood-red lasers of the med-bay setting about their work. Burns always took the longest time to heal. Vyleria was about to say something when Padget and Kat appeared next. Padget had been wounded in several places, though Kat appeared to be unharmed. The lasers of the med-bay danced toward him at once, but he waved them away. “What do we do now?” he asked.
Jack looked out of the view screen. Pluto looked like a metal-scarred wasteland, its entire surface was littered with the wrecks of thousands of crashed and burnt spaceships. It would take millennia to clean up. An eternal graveyard to the vanity of men and their machines. Above the planet, both the Xenti and Paldovian fleets had been decimated and what remained of Earth’s forces was already in full retreat. Not a single drone was left intact. Only the Scourge remained.
“What do we do?” asked Padget, looking at the black hole bomb in front of them. “Do we attack again? Try something else?”
Jack stared at the fleet; they looked like bits of waste paper now. “No… order the retreat. Too many people have died today… more will follow if we stay here. Set a course for Earth. The battle for Pluto is over, the battle for Earth is about to begin.”
Chapter Thirty-Six: Deception Point
“Are those what I think they are?” said Vyleria.
“They sure look like it,” said Jack looking at a series of silver pebbles above Earth’s north pole. “And goodness knows we could use them; we’re running out of time.”
“I think we’re already out of it,” said Padget, glancing at a view of space behind them.
Out of the pitch-black canvass came a storm of metal and flesh as the Scourge fleet rushed into orbit. There had to be millions of vessels, possibly more. How many ships d
id the Scourge have? Too many…
“What can we do?” asked Kat.
“Whatever it takes, isn’t that right Jack?”
Jack glanced ruefully at Padget, then at some data on his holowatch. “I...”
“Come on Jack,” said Grunt, thunder rolling from his lungs. “We’re out of options.”
“Not entirely,” said Jack, concentrating on the readout on his holowatch.
“What are looking at?” asked Vyleria.
“You’re going to have to trust me on this,” said Jack, “if it wasn’t for me the rest of you would have died on your ships. The recall function I designed…”
“And we are grateful to you” said Padget, “but we want to know what you’re planning, what you are going to do next.”
“There’s nothing we can do, the battle is lost, the war is over.”
“What? I don’t believe I’m hearing this,” said Kat. “What’s gotten into you? You are usually the last person to give in.”
“They have,” said Jack, looking mournfully at the massed ranks of Scourge ships. They looked like demented skulls. “And so, have they,” he said, glancing towards the Asvari and Earth ships in orbit. “There’s not nearly enough of them; we lost over five times that number fighting for Pluto.”
“Well then, what are we going to do?” asked Vyleria.
“We retreat, take as many refugees from Earth as possible, find somewhere far away from here and then try to re-build our civilisation and get on with our lives.”
“But they won’t let us!” shouted Vyleria. “They’ll find us somehow, it’s what they do. You don’t know what they are like!”
“I do,” said Jack, head in his hands. “More than you know, but I don’t see any other choice right now. It’s either that or we all die right here right now. At least if we flee then there is the chance of redemption, a last stand here is just suicide.”
“It just got worse,” said Padget. “Look.”
Padget brought up a video feed on one of the monitors overhead. President Stormborn was giving an address to the American people, no, the entire world.
“Citizens of Earth,” he said, voice solemn, proud. “I say this to you not as the American President but as the leader of all our united peoples. Shortly after nine am Washington Standard Time our forces – shamefully coerced by the traitor Jack Strong – were defeated in their attempt to re-take Pluto. None survived.”
Jack Strong and The Last Battle Page 15
