Earthman Jack vs. The Ghost Planet (36 page)

However, no sooner was his shield gone than more volleys of plasma
fire struck Shepherd.  Anna turned and saw six Dark Soldiers marching down the
hallway, firing at them.  Shepherd threw up a shield wall, but a flash of
purple light made six more Dark Soldiers materialize in front of them.

He erected another shield barrier, but before the two had
time to react, more Dark Soldiers teleported in behind Shepherd’s shields.  The
Paragon quickly fired his quad-cannons and exchanged rounds with the
Deathlords, absorbing their fire while trying to dispatch them.

More Deathlords continued to appear behind his shield walls,
firing with annoying accuracy at the Paragon, his armor sparking and crackling
with each direct hit, smoke wisping from each impact.  Shepherd kept his shield
walls up and engaged the Dark Soldiers as they came, but no sooner did he
dispose of one than two more appeared in its place, each heralded by the
sickening flash of purple teleportation light.

There are too many!
 Anna thought with rising panic. 
They just keep coming!  We’ll never be able to get past them!

Shepherd kept firing.  He let one of his shields drop and
rematerialized it closer to him.  He pushed it out, allowing it to rocket into
one front of the advancing enemy, clearing the way as he focused his fire on
the Deathlords behind them.

As soon as he had cleared a path, he started inching his way
down the corridor, a new shield wall materializing to give him cover. 
“Princess!” he called out.  “Keep moving!”

He intended to fight their way out; that much was clear. 
Anna got up to move with him when suddenly she felt a strange sensation, as
though two sharp hooks had dug into her back.

Anna cried out in pain.  She didn’t see the black streak
rushing up behind her.  Shepherd unleashed rapid fire blasts at it, but it
jumped and twirled, dodging the blasts until it was close enough to Anna to
yank her toward it, reeling in the invisible hooks that had caught her.

The Deathlord crouched behind Anna, using her as a shield to
protect itself from Shepherd.  One clawed hand was grasped tightly around her
neck, the other hovered above her chest, tugging at her soul with whatever
wicked magic the Deathlords seemed to possess.  Anna stood helpless, feeling
the cold invisible hooks of the Deathlord as they threatened to rip the very
life from her.

Shepherd aimed his quad cannons toward the Deathlord, but
refrained from firing for fear of hitting Anna.  New shield walls had sprung up
close by, ensuring that no other Deathlords would be able to come to this one’s
aid. 

The Deathlord and the Paragon eyed each other.

“Drop your shields, infidel,” growled Vishni.  “Or I will
cull the child.”

“You aren’t going to hurt her,” said Shepherd.

“I won’t kill her,” replied the Deathlord.  “But I can
assure you, I am more than willing to hurt her.”

Anna screamed as the Deathlord tugged on her life force, and
she felt the cold, strange sensation of death wash over her.  Shepherd
immediately retracted his quad cannons, raising his palms defensively.

“There’s no need–” Shepherd said.

“Drop.  Your.  Shields,” snarled the Deathlord.

Anna could feel a tear running down her cheek as she looked
at Shepherd.  She wanted to scream to him not to do it, but she couldn’t
speak.  The Deathlord’s grip around her neck was so tight, she could barely
breathe.

Shepherd hesitated; then he let the golden walls of energy
disappear.

Immediately, the Dark Soldiers took aim and opened fire on
Shepherd, their angry red plasma blasts hitting him full on.

Shepherd crouched under the impact of the volley coming at
him from all sides, his armor sparking in response, tendrils of electrical
activity snaking around him as his suit absorbed the plasma fire.

Anna could do nothing but watch in wide-eyed horror as the
Deathlords continued to fire on Shepherd unrelentingly.  She felt the Deathlord
who held her in his grasp stand up from his crouch, allowing himself to gloat
over the Paragon.

“You are a fierce warrior,” Vishni said.  “But we are an
army!”

Anna could hear Shepherd grunt as the Deathlords continued
to fire.  His arms were up defensively, each plasma blast sparking off his
armor, their heated fury beginning to leave blackened marks that charred the
once pristine metal, wisps of smoke curling off from the sites of impact.  Anna
wondered how much more punishment he could take.

“We are unstoppable,” sneered Vishni.  “We are unkillable. 
We are everlasting.”

The Deathlords closed in on Shepherd, their increasing
proximity causing their volleys to hit quicker and quicker, beating him down.

“We are Deathlords!” Vishni said triumphantly.  “You cannot
fight us.  You cannot win.  And there is no one here to save you.”

Suddenly, a plasma blast streaked out of nowhere, slamming
Vishni dead in the face.  His body disintegrated instantly, leaving Anna mercifully
free from his grasp.

More blasts rang out, hitting their marks as one Dark
Soldier after another exploded in a puff of black mist until all of them were
gone.  Anna turned and saw a group standing defiantly in the hallway before
her.  They were soldiers in dirty and ragged Imperial uniforms, with strange
aliens in their ranks.  A robot was with them, as was Professor Green, and
there, standing before them all, was Jack, armed with a small pistol and a big
smile.

“I wouldn’t say
no one,
” said Jack.

“Jack!” exclaimed Anna, her heart leaping into her throat. 
She rushed up and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly.  She had
never been so happy to see anyone in her whole life as in that very moment.

Jack laughed and returned the hug.  “I see my timing is
impeccable, as always,” he said.

Anna loosened her grip and backed off, looking at Jack with relief. 
“I… I didn’t know if you were still alive!”

“Takes more than a couple of Deathlords to kill old Jack,”
he smirked with the kind of false bravado Anna couldn’t help but find
endearing.

“Seriously?” mumbled a red Visini from behind.

“Oy, and I thought
you
were a blowhard, Scally,” said
his scaly companion.

“What?” shrugged Jack.  “Can’t a guy have a moment?”

“Princess,” said one of the soldiers, stepping forward from
the group.  “I’m Major Ganix, with what remains of your Imperial guard.  We are
at your command, Your Majesty.”

The soldiers all nodded their heads toward her in a sign of
loyalty.  Suddenly, Anna felt overwhelmed with emotion.  Her friends were
alive, and now she had an army to protect her.  Things were starting to look
up.

“Your service is most appreciated, Major,” responded Anna.

“Major,” said Shepherd coming up behind Anna, his helmet
retracting to show his face.  “Deploy your men around the Princess.  We must
protect her as we make our way to the ship.”

Ganix nodded and jerked his head.  Without a word, his men
moved to Anna, forming a protective wall around her.

“Are you injured, Paragon Shepherd?” Ganix asked.

“I’ll be fine,” responded Shepherd.  “My armor can withstand
a lot of punishment.  But we must get going before more Deathlords teleport
in.”

“Don’t worry about that,” said Jack, twirling his small
laser pistol around his finger.  “I just shut off all their teleporters.”

Shepherd raised an eyebrow.  “How’d you manage that?” he
asked.

“Psychic spaceship,” smiled Jack.  “It’s secretly
controlling
everything
.”

Shepherd and Anna looked at each other.

“It’s a long story,” said Jack.

“Apparently the Ancient spacecraft has interfaced with the
Deathlord’s central computer, and is using a psychic neural link with Jack to
relay information to him
and
to take commands!” chirped Green excitedly.

“Okay…” said Jack.  “So, not that long of a story after
all.”

“The Ancient spacecraft can psychically communicate with you
even this far away?” said Anna.  “That’s amazing!”

“Can you lead us back to the ship?” asked Shepherd.

“Sure can,” replied Jack, tapping his head.  “Got a map of
this whole place up in here.”

“Then what are we bloody waiting for?” growled Faruuz as he
turned to leave.  “Not that this little reunion hasn’t been touching an’ all. 
But let’s stop with the chit-chatting and get off this–”

Faruuz suddenly jerked upright as his ghostly image was violently
torn from his body.  The sickly white figure screamed as it shot down the
hallway into the waiting clutches of the Deathlord Supreme, an army of Dark
Soldiers behind him.

Faruuz’s body crumpled to the floor with a sickening thump. 
Scallywag cried out.

“NO!” he screamed, immediately dropping to one knee and
firing his pistols.

The rest of the group opened fire.  The plasma blasts streaked
toward Zarrod, heading right for their target.  But with a flap of his cape,
the blasts were deflected as though they were nothing.  His arms shot out,
batting away the volley of plasma fire with frightening speed, as though the
powerful energy blasts were nothing more than annoying insects.

Then, a ball of ghostly light shot from his clawed hand and
screamed toward the group.

“GET DOWN!” cried Shepherd as he raised his hand, lighting
up a force field in front of his companions.

The golden barrier had barely formed before the
frighteningly fast ball of energy made its way to the group.  It slammed into
the shield wall, shattering it like a glass window, sending Shepherd hurtling
backwards as if the impact had hit him directly.  The ball disintegrated after
colliding with Shepherd’s shield, its lingering force still powerful enough to
knock the group back a few steps, interrupting their fire.

Zarrod reached out his hands, and the two Imperial soldiers
closest to the front screamed as their souls ripped out from them and rocketed toward
Zarrod’s greedy claws.  Anna watched in horror as their bodies fell limp to the
ground and their ghost forms balled up in the Deathlord’s Supreme’s grasp.

The energy began to twist and spin, faster and faster.  Zarrod
brought his hands together, combining the two balls into a single mass that
began to grow, larger and larger.  The Deathlord held it at his side, nurturing
it as it spun and grew more chaotic.  It sounded like a thousand men were
screaming out in agony as the twisting mass of ghostly energy grew to the size
of a basketball.  The Deathlord Supreme’s fiery eyes seemed to glare directly at
Anna.

“Fall back!” she heard Major Ganix yell.  “Protect the
Princess!”

Anna felt wind ripple by her as air began to get sucked
toward the swirling mass of evil the Deathlord Supreme held between his hands. 
His Dark Soldiers stood, statuesque behind him, silent shadows witnessing his
fury.  She felt the Major’s hand on her shoulder, trying to pull her away down
the corridor, while the rest of the group stumbled back from the mighty
Deathlord before them.

The sound of screams intensified, and she could taste the
terror and dread in the air.  Death was at the end of that hallway, and it was
about to be unleashed.

The Deathlord extended his hands, pushing with a singular
might.  The ghostly ball stretched into a beam, rocketing toward the group with
a twisted power and a fury unlike anything they had ever witnessed.

Anna caught a glimpse of a blue and white streak as Shepherd
leapt forth to the front of the group, raising his hands and throwing up a
blindingly bright shield enveloping the hallway before them.

The Deathlord’s blast slammed into the shield and Shepherd
slid back a good two feet before bracing himself against the impact.  His
shield flickered and groaned, as the shadow of the ghostly energy screamed
against it, pounding at the barrier mercilessly.

To a man, the group looked at the Paragon before them, both
amazed and frightened, not knowing what to make of the situation.  It sounded as
though a thunderstorm were raging against a closed window.  Shepherd grunted,
his armor shivering from the strain of resisting the onslaught from the
Deathlord Supreme.

“MAJOR!” Shepherd yelled.  “Get the Princess to the ship!”

Ganix moved up to Anna, gripping her arm, his voice thick
with urgency.  “Your Majesty,” he said. “We must go!”

Anna glanced from Ganix’s worried face back to Shepherd.  “I’m
not leaving him!” she said.

“You must!” barked Ganix, tugging at her arm.

“NO!” cried Anna, wrenching herself free from Ganix’s grip. 
She moved for Shepherd, rushing up to him and wrapping her arms around him from
behind.  She could feel the violent vibration of his armor and she could almost
sense the struggle he was putting up to keep the shield alive.

“Princess, you must go!” yelled Shepherd over the screaming
of the Deathlord Supreme’s onslaught.

“I won’t leave you behind!” Anna cried.

“Do not argue.  Go!” he insisted.

Anna clung to him closely, refusing to let go, not wanting
to let go.  Her vision began to blur with tears.

“You can’t…” whispered Anna, salty streaks of water dribbling
down her cheeks and onto her lips.  “You’ll die…”

Shepherd turned his head away from his shield, seeing Jack
walking up behind Anna.  The boy’s face looked at the Paragon’s helmet, and
Shepherd knew he understood the situation.

“Jack,” said Shepherd.  “Get her out of here… NOW.”

Jack could see Shepherd struggling to keep his shield up
against Zarrod’s attack.  He knew Shepherd was right; Jack had to get Anna as
far away from the Deathlord Supreme as possible.  He grabbed her by the arm and
tried to lead her away.

“We gotta go, Anna,” Jack said, trying to sound reassuring. 
“He’ll be right behind us.  C’mon…”

Anna resisted, holding onto Shepherd tightly.

“Shepherd…” she squeaked.