Earthman Jack vs. The Ghost Planet (40 page)

The Dark Soldiers ran down the corridor
toward the teleportation room, their weapons ready.  The previous squad had
almost cut through the entire door, which meant a forceful charge would be
enough to break through into the room where the escaped prisoners were holed up.

The two Deathlords at the front of their squad picked up the
pace, running at full speed, ready to throw themselves at the door to knock it
down.  They were just a few feet away from their target when it happened…

THA-WHOOM!!!

The metal door broke off what was remaining of its hinges
and rocketed toward the Deathlords, slamming into the two who were about to
charge into it and hurling them back as it hit the ground with a heavy
THUMP
.

Grohm lay on the floor to the door’s opening, fresh from a
rather powerful dropkick.  The giant alien rolled away to cover as the awaiting
squad of Regal soldiers immediately opened fire, catching the oncoming
Deathlords by surprise.

A few of the Dark Soldiers were able to react and to begin
returning fire, but it was too little, too late.  The volley from the Regal
soldiers was unrelenting, and before long, the last of the Deathlord
reinforcements had vanished in a puff of black dust.

“Weapons ready,” ordered Ganix.  “Blast anything that comes
down that hallway.  Do not hesitate!”

His men responded affirmatively in unison.

“Heckubus…” said Ganix from his cover.

The robot popped up from behind the transporter console –
which was unfortunately located directly in front of the now completely open
doorway.  “Yes, yes,” he replied.  “The teleportation sequence is still
working.”

Near the teleportation platform, Anna was still by
Shepherd’s side.  The man’s eyes were closed and his face seemed to be
returning to its normal color.  Anna hoped and prayed that whatever had happened
to him was wearing off.

She looked up and saw Grohm getting to his feet.  She met
the Rognok’s small, red and black eyes and waved him over to her.  Grohm
lumbered up and looked down at Anna expectantly.  Anna had never met a Rognok
before, but she knew they were not much for conversation.

“What is your name?” Anna asked.

“Grohm,” the Rognok replied.

“Thank you for your help before, Grohm.  My name is Anna.”

“Princess,” Grohm grunted.

“Yes,” she said.  “If I may, I’d like to ask you for a
favor.  Is that okay?”

Grohm stared at her and finally grunted.  Anna took that as
a “yes.”

“You’re the biggest and strongest of the group,” she said. 
“It would mean a great deal to me if you would help ensure this man makes it
safely aboard Jack’s ship.”

Anna gestured toward Shepherd.  Grohm looked at the Paragon,
then back to Anna.  She couldn’t read any change in the Rognok’s expression. 
She held her breath, waiting for some answer from him.  With his armor,
Shepherd weighed too much for her or any of the others to carry.  Although, she
might be able to get two of the soldiers to drag Shepherd along with them, the
group would more than likely need those soldiers free to fight in case anything
happened.  If the Rognok didn’t agree, Anna wasn’t sure what she’d do.

Finally, Grohm nodded, and she breathed a sigh of relief. 
She reached out and touched his massive wrist, looking up at him gratefully.

“I am in your debt, Grohm,” Anna said.

Grohm snorted, then moved to Shepherd and picked him up,
slinging the Paragon over his shoulder.  No sooner had the Rognok completed
this action, however, than a series of angry beeps came from the console at
which Heckubus was tapping away.

“Blast,” the robot muttered.

“Don’t like the sound of that,” mumbled Scallywag, who was
still aiming his weapons down the empty corridor with the rest of the troops.

“What’s wrong?” asked Jack.

“Oh, nothing too serious,” replied Heckubus.  “The
Deathlords have just interrupted our teleportation sequence and stopped us from
clearing out the hangar bay, that’s all.”

A collective groan rippled through the group.

“And they’re trying to shut down this station and keep us
from teleporting away as well,” Heckubus continued.

“How long do we have?” asked Ganix.

“Not too much longer,” Heckubus replied.  “It seems the
Earthman’s ship is doing a pretty good job of keeping them at bay for now, but
it’s only a matter of time before they shut down all our access.”

“Then we can’t wait any longer,” Ganix said, leaving his
position.  “We’ll have to go clear out the hangar now.  How many Deathlords are
left?”

“Hard to know,” replied Heckubus.  “The Deathlords have
disabled all energy signature readings to keep us from teleporting any more of
them off the ship.  We’re pretty much blind now.”

“Best guess?” asked Ganix.

“Half a dozen, at least.”

“Better than fifty,” muttered Ganix.

“Worse than zero,” grumbled Scallywag.

“We’ll deal with it,” said Ganix.  “Here’s what we’re gonna
do.  Porter…”

Yeoman Porter looked up at Ganix, his eyes wide at being
singled out.

“Sir?” Porter responded, his voice quivering slightly.

“You stay behind with Scallywag, the Princess, and the
others,” ordered Ganix.  “The rest of you men are with me.  We’re gonna clear
out that hanger as best we can before the rest of you follow us there.”

The remaining Regal soldiers left their cover and headed for
the platform, their faces somber.  Jack couldn’t blame them.  They all may have
been battle hardened, but teleporting into a situation with an unknown number
of enemies would be enough to make anyone grim.  Ganix turned to Heckubus.

“Give us five minutes, then get the rest of you out of
here,” he said.

“I believe I can handle that,” the robot responded.

Ganix gave Heckubus a curt nod then joined his men on the
teleportation platform.  They all stood back-to-back, their weapons ready.

“Good luck, Major,” Scallywag said.

“You too, Pirate,” Ganix responded.  “See you in five.”

And in a flash of purple, they were gone.

Jack and the others stood in the teleportation room, and for
a moment the only sound was the incessant tapping of Heckubus at his control
panel.

“I say,” said Professor Green, looking over Heckubus’s
shoulder.  “What in the world are you doing?”

“Covering our collective posteriors,” replied the robot,
haughtily.  “I am locking down every entrance to that hanger to prevent any
reinforcements from arriving, sending feedback loops throughout the Deathlord
systems to keep them from trying anything sneaky, and setting a timer so we can
all teleport out of here post-haste when we’re supposed to.”

“Blimee,” said Scallywag, standing opposite Yeoman Porter,
still covering the entrance.  “That’s actually pretty smart, rust-bucket.”

“Of course it’s smart, fool!” snapped Heckubus.  “I am mere
minutes away from escaping this deathtrap and being rid of all you annoying
simpletons.  I want to make sure nothing more goes wrong.  NOTHING!”

Then, without warning, a plasma blast streaked into the
room, narrowly missing Heckubus, who promptly shrieked like a little girl and
dove for cover.

Jack turned just in time to get a glance out the doorway as
Deathlord troopers, who’d taken positions at the end of the corridor, began to
unleash blasts of plasma fire into the room.

Scallywag and Porter did their best to return fire, but the
unrelenting volley made it hard for them to pop out of cover.  Jack knew it was
just a matter of time before the Deathlords tried to make their way in.

“Blast!” cried Scallywag as a plasma beam sparked off the
wall right near his face.  “We gotta teleport outta here, now!”

“But it hasn’t been five minutes yet!” objected Porter.

“We don’t got five bloody minutes!” sneered Scallywag.

The teleport console was in the middle of the Deathlord blaster
fire, and a few bolts were even hitting it.  Jack knew if that console were
destroyed, none of them was getting out of there.  He turned to Heckubus, who
had scrambled up to the rest of the group by the platform.

“You need to activate the teleportation sequence!” he said.

“Are you mad?” screeched Heckubus.  “I can’t get near that console
without being blasted to shreds!”

Jack grabbed Heckubus by his head and looked the robot in
his large eyes.

“You are the only one who knows how to use that thing,” Jack
said.  “If you don’t do it, we’re going to die!”

“If I die, I’m taking all of you with me!” the robot
insisted.

Jack sighed.  “Are you, Heckubus Moriarty, evil genius extraordinaire,
actually going to allow your masterful escape from the clutches of a Deathlord mothership
to be foiled by a few lousy laser blasts?”

Heckubus squinted at Jack, the gears in the robot’s head
turning audibly.  “You are an annoying little Earthman, you know that?” he
asked.

“Just get us out of here!” Jack replied.

At the entrance, Scallywag fired a few blasts just long
enough to see the squad of Dark Soldiers begin making their way down the corridor
toward them.

“Whatever yer gonna do, do it fast!” Scallywag yelled. 
“They’re on their way here!”

“Okay, okay, fine!” said Heckubus, straightening up.  The
robot turned and looked at the console, his multiple microprocessors analyzing
his various options.  Finally, he opened up his chest and took out his
interface spike, but this time, he pulled out much more cable to go with it.

“Grohm, you big dumb beast,” said Heckubus.  “Would you be
so kind as to throw this at the control console?” 

Heckubus offered Grohm the spike.  Grohm looked at it and
grunted.

“Just hurl it at the console,” Heckubus said.  “Make sure it
embeds itself far enough to allow its interface field to make contact with the console’s
circuitry.  I’ll take care of the rest.”

Grohm took the spike from Heckubus and looked at it, then
looked at the console, then back at the spike.  Heckubus sighed.

“We don’t have all day, you dolt!” said the robot.  “Throw
the blasted—”

With a flick of his wrist, Grohm whipped the spike toward the
console.  It shot out, embedding itself halfway through the back of the control
panel with a spark.  Heckubus stumbled slightly as the tether to his chest went
taught.

“Ah, good shot,” said the robot.  “Activating the
teleportation sequence…
now
!”

With a tug, Heckubus pulled the interface spike free from the
console and reeled it back up into his chest.

“Everyone on the platform!” called out the robot as he
bounded up onto the metallic rectangle.  “We have fifteen seconds!”

“Scally!  Porter!  Get up here now!” cried Jack as he and
the others made their way onto the teleporter.

Scallywag and Yeoman Porter broke away from their cover and
dashed for the teleporter platform.  No sooner had they reached the others than
Deathlord soldiers entered the room and took aim at the group.

Then, Jack felt a ripple of static electricity run through
his body as his vision blurred in a swirl of purple light.  When his head
cleared, he found himself surrounded by blasts of plasma fire.

For a split second, he was afraid that somehow the teleport
hadn’t worked and the Deathlord troopers were about to kill them all.  But
after the initial shock, he could see they were indeed in a large, cavernous
hanger bay.

The room looked like a ten-story warehouse, with metal
catwalks lining the ceiling and large lights glaring down from cold, grey
metallic alcoves.  His heart leapt for joy when he glanced behind him to see
his spaceship, hovering quietly a few feet above the floor, as if it were
patiently waiting for them to arrive.

Ganix and his men were spread out, firing at what looked to
be three Deathlord soldiers, who were well entrenched behind the cover of
various metal crates and boxes – and Jack and the crew happened to be in the
middle of the crossfire.

“Get down!” sneered Scallywag, as he jumped away from the
group, charging the nearest Deathlord with his guns blazing.

Jack grabbed Anna and fell on top of her, trying to shield
her with his body.  Yeoman Porter wasn’t far behind, taking up a position close
to the Princess and giving Scallywag some cover fire.

Heckubus shrieked and cowered behind Grohm, who stood in the
midst of the crossfire completely unfazed.  Professor Green quickly joined the
robot.

Scallywag leapt over some crates and blasted the Deathlord
hiding behind them, making short work of him.  Spurred on by the new arrivals, Ganix
and his men rushed forward toward the remaining Deathlord soldiers, guns
blazing.

Scallywag circled around, flanking the Deathlords from
behind their cover.  As he dispatched one more, Ganix and his men took care of
the last one.

Just like that, the gunfight was over.

“Are you all right, Your Majesty?” Porter asked.

Anna nodded as Jack rolled off her and helped her up.

“I’m okay, too,” said Heckubus.  “In case anyone is interested.”

“Nice moves, Visini,” Ganix said as Scallywag came walking up,
twirling his blaster pistols.

“Ah, you Regals always were slow to the draw,” Scallywag
smirked.

Ganix shook his head good-naturedly.  “Easy to say when you
come in at the end of the fight,” he said.  “You should have seen how many
there were when we first got here.”

“Lemme guess,” replied Scallywag.  “Three?”

Ganix chuckled.  “Jack,” he said.  “Hurry up and get us on
your ship.  I don’t think I can put up with this pirate too much longer.”

“With pleasure,” said Jack.  He looked at his ship and asked
it to let them on board.  The back of his head tingled in response as the front
of the vessel – the part closest to the ground – opened up and formed a ramp,
leading to an alcove with a teleportation platform embedded in the floor.