Earthman Jack vs. The Ghost Planet (54 page)

Anna gritted her teeth.  With all her might, she pressed
back against the Deathlord.  She pulled her hands back, away from the eye,
straining with every fiber of her being.  She felt like she were fighting
against a massive weight, something attempting to crush her as she tried to
hold it back.  She could feel the tightness in her chest and the blood pumping
behind her ears as she fought to control her movements.

She heard the Deathlord behind her cry out, a dry rasp of
agony, as though her struggle against it brought it pain. 
Yes
, she
thought. 
Fight it.  Hurt it!

Anna reached back behind her, her hands groping around,
settling on either side of the Deathlord’s head.  She could feel it struggle,
its claws buried deep inside her trying desperately to control her.  She fought
against it harder, her hands gripping its head as strongly as she could.

“I am Glorianna of Legacy Prime, heir to the bloodline of
the Ancients.   I will no longer be your slave!  By my command, you WILL let me
go!” she screamed, and with every last bit of strength left in her, she pulled
on the Deathlord’s head.  She heard the gasp of a mouth with no tongue, as the
Deathlord tried to cry out.  She pulled more forcefully, and could feel the
creature’s neck giving way as she tugged, harder and harder…

“I said… LET…
GO!
”

With a final burst of energy, she yanked the Deathlord’s
head forward, ripping it off.  She felt a shiver run through her as the void
around her disappeared.

Suddenly, she was back in the arena.  Her body completely
numb, she fell to the floor.  The orb she had been interfacing with disappeared
and the kiosk sank back into the ground.

Her head buzzed and her vision circled around in a dizzy
stupor.  She focused on the great seal before her.  It stood, its smooth white
stone now marred and spider webbed with large, gaping cracks, each one pulsing
with a brilliant white light as though whatever was behind it was fighting to
break through.

She pushed herself up to a sitting position as the Deathlord
Supreme looked down at her.  She met his gaze defiantly.

“The seal stands,” she said.  “Kill me now.  I will not do
your bidding.”

Zarrod chuckled.  “Impressive,” he said.  “But futile.  Look
before you, Princess…” the Deathlord swept his hand toward the seal.  “The seal
is all but broken.  Whatever protection your ancestors had fortified it with is
now gone, thanks to your efforts.  I can merely flick my wrist and destroy what
is left.  You have served your purpose well.”

Anna’s shoulders slumped.  She felt so tired, so very
tired.  All the fight had gone out of her.  She’d failed.  She’d failed her
family, her bloodline, and all who had placed their faith in her - now the
entire universe would suffer because of it.  Tears welled in her eyes.  She
hadn’t been worthy after all.

“And now, I’m going to do what I’ve wanted since the moment
I laid eyes on you,” said Zarrod.  “I’m going to kill you, Princess.  I’m going
to rip the life out of you and swallow it whole.  But before I do, I’m going to
teach you a lesson in agony…”

Zarrod reached out his clawed hand.  Anna jerked as she felt
thousands of razor sharp invisible hooks dig into her.  She gasped as she was
lifted into the air before the Deathlord Supreme, his horrible eyes burning
into her as she stared back at him helplessly.

“No one defies me,” sneered Zarrod.  “Especially not a weak,
heretical abomination such as
you!
”

Anna screamed.  Excruciating pain coursed through her body
as the Deathlord used his evil magic to tear at the inner core of her being.

“I’m going to make this slow, and I’m going to make this
last,” said Zarrod over her screams.  “I’m going to open your eyes to a new
meaning of pain and anguish never before witnessed by any living thing.  And by
the time I’m through, you will be begging me to snuff out your pitiful
existence, and give you the sweet release only death can provide.”

Anna stopped screaming as Zarrod briefly stopped his
torture.  Anna looked at him, her eyes wide with terror, darkness beginning to
creep into the edges of her vision.

“Any last words, while you’re still able to speak?” asked
the Deathlord.

Anna’s mind was clouded with pain.  Images flashed before
her:  hazy ones of her family – her brothers, her mother, her father.  And finally,
the image of Shepherd, the man who’d been her protector.  The man she had loved
above all others.  If she had to die, she wanted to do so with his image in her
head and his name on her lips.

She opened her mouth, but before she could speak, another
voice rang out.

“Hey, jerk-face.”

Zarrod turned away from Anna and looked down to his side
where Jack stood, hands on his hips, glaring at the Deathlord with the same
intensity he’d direct at something foul caked on the bottom of his shoe.  Zarrod
tilted his head, momentarily surprised at the sudden reappearance of the little
alien boy.

“Pick on someone your own size,” said Jack.

Zarrod heard the sound of an electric ping humming to life
behind him.  He turned to see Grohm there, a massive club in his hand, ringed
with conduits crackling with blue electricity.

Before the Deathlord could react, Grohm swung the club,
slamming into Zarrod’s chest. 

WHAM!

With an explosion of electric current, Zarrod went flying
into the air, twisting and turning as the force of the impact sent him
plummeting far back into the benches surrounding the arena, crashing to the
ground in a most undignified manner.

“So glad I got to say that,” smiled Jack to himself.

Anna fell to the ground, now fully released from Zarrod’s
grasp, and Jack moved to her side.  He looked up at Grohm who gazed down at
him.

“He destroyed our planets,” said Jack, jerking his head toward
Zarrod.  “Go destroy him.”

Grohm smiled.  “Good luck, Earthman.”

“Same to you, big guy.”

With precision movement, Grohm began
to run toward Zarrod.  With a powerful leap he hurled himself into the air, his
electrified club raised high over his head, humming with fury waiting to be
unleashed.

Zarrod glanced up just in time to see the massive Rognok
heading straight for him.  Quickly collecting himself, he sprung up off one
hand, twisting away just as Grohm landed, his club smashing into the stone
where the Deathlord had been not a moment before, sending rubble and debris
flying in all directions.

Grohm turned, swinging his club in a backhanded arc aimed right
for Zarrod’s head.  Zarrod ducked, only to find himself looking down the barrel
of the plasma shotgun which Grohm had unslung from his back in a swift movement
during his swing.  Zarrod pulled back instinctively just as Grohm pulled the
trigger.

WHOOM!

The blast from the shotgun hit Zarrod squarely in the chest,
sending him flying back with violent speed, the breastplate of his dark armor
smoldering and smoking from the force of the plasma projectile.  He hit the
ground hard, tumbling head over heels, crashing through the stone seating in
the theater.

No sooner had the Deathlord come to a stop than he pushed
himself to his feet, standing straight and taut with anger, as though the
point-blank blast hadn’t fazed him at all.

“Enough of this,” he grumbled as he saw the Rognok begin to
run at him, the plasma shotgun in his hands, firing as quickly as he could recharge
the weapon.

Zarrod hurriedly manifested death energy around his hands,
using it to swat at the plasma blasts, ricocheting them away.

In between the blasts, Zarrod hurled a ball of ghostly death
energy toward Grohm, who spun just as it flew by him.  Grohm flung his weapon
at the Deathlord, who knocked it away, but not before Grohm had the chance to
leap toward him.

Zarrod narrowly dodged Grohm’s fist as it landed on the
ground, the impact cracking the stone.  Grohm pressed the attack, swinging his
massive fists, trying to land a blow on the Deathlord who danced between his
punches before finally catching Grohm’s fist – aimed directly at Zarrod’s head
– in one of his clawed hands.

“Blasted Rognoks,” sneered Zarrod as he let loose a blast of
death energy with his free hand.  It hit Grohm squarely in the chest and sent
him flying into the air, landing hard a good ten feet away.

Meanwhile, Jack was at Anna’s side, desperately trying to
get her to wake up.  She had passed out after Grohm had freed her from Zarrod’s
hold, and Jack was doing his best to rouse her by shaking her shoulders and
patting her on the cheek.

“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon,” Jack muttered.  “You gotta wake up!”

Anna’s eyes fluttered open briefly.  “Jack…” she said.

“Anna!” said Jack urgently.  “Please, you need to finish
breaking the seal!”

“No… no…” she said weakly.

“It’s okay, we have a plan!” replied Jack.  “It might not be
the best plan, but it kinda requires the seal to be broken.  We were going to
rescue you after you finished doing it, but for some reason, you stopped… which
was totally cool, by the way!  Just, a little inconvenient.  Now, I don’t know
how long Grohm can keep Zarrod busy, so I really need you to—”

Anna’s eyes fluttered again as Jack was talking, and she
passed out.

“Oh, crap,” muttered Jack.

Up in the stands, Zarrod stalked toward Grohm as the massive
alien got back to his feet.  He held a hand to his chest where the Deathlord’s
blast had impacted him and glared at Zarrod as he approached.

“That blast would have killed any other being,” growled Zarrod. 
“But you Rognoks have some strange immunity to our powers.  That was why we
eliminated your planet so early on.”

Zarrod hurled another death blast at Grohm.  Grohm moved to
dodge, but Zarrod’s initial blast had weakened him and he was sluggish.  The
blast caught Grohm in the shoulder, sending him stumbling back.

“I can only assume you’re here for some type of revenge,”
said Zarrod, “which I respect, but it isn’t me you should be angry with.”

He sent another blast toward Grohm who raised his hands in
defense, but the blast hit him straight on, knocking him to the ground.  Zarrod
stood over him, his hands alive with raging death energy.

“You should be angry with your creators, The Ancients.  They
made your kind, you see, in answer to us.  You were made big, strong, durable,
and dumb.  But most of all, you were made without souls.  The perfect soldiers
to fight against the army of their enemy.”

Grohm tried to rise, but Zarrod delivered a powerful punch
to his face, knocking him back down.

“They gave you life, but they denied you so much more. 
Without the souls all other beings in this universe possess, your kind could
never be more than what you are.  You could never be culled by us, true.  But
you could also never evolve.  You could never understand things like love, or
beauty, or anything else the pathetic life-forms you were created to protect
seem to hold in such high regard.  You would forever be slaves, doomed to this
life and this life alone, never able to experience anything more.”

Again, Grohm tried to rise, and again, Zarrod knocked him
down with a fist clad with deadly death energy.

“So I ask you, Rognok,” said Zarrod as he put a foot on
Grohm’s chest.  “Who has done you more harm?  Me? The one who finally freed
your people from their bondage?  Or your creators?  The ones who denied you any
shred of happiness?”

Grohm met the Deathlord’s stare with his red and black
eyes.  “You,” Grohm replied.

Zarrod couldn’t help but laugh.  “Is that so?”

“Yes,” sneered Grohm.  “Happiness is for the
weak
.”

With surprising quickness, Grohm grabbed Zarrod’s leg and
twisted it.  Zarrod cried out and fell to his knees in the direction of the
twisting, bringing him within striking distance of Grohm’s free hand, which
shot out like a piston directly at Zarrod’s face, knocking him back.

Grohm sat up and quickly made his way on top of the
Deathlord, straddling him under his massive weight and pounding on him with one
punch after another, wordlessly trying to pummel him into the ground.

Down below the seating where the Rognok and the Deathlord
were fighting, Jack had Anna slung over his shoulder and was trying to make his
way to the stairs.

She’s heavier than she looks
, thought Jack, whose
shoulder was already starting to ache after just a few feet.  He looked up the
long stair climb to the exit in dismay. 
They invent a planet with a shield
and a spaceship that can travel anywhere in an instant, but they refuse to
install escalators anywhere.  I am never going to understand these guys…

Jack began making his way up toward the exit when a voice
rang out over the comm unit in his ear.

“Jack?  Jack, my boy, do you read?”

“Professor?” responded Jack as he shifted Anna’s weight on
his shoulder.

“We are almost ready to fire the weapon on our end,” said
Green.  “Has the Princess destroyed the seal yet?”

“Yeah, about that…” said Jack as he took a few more steps. 
“Anna’s been knocked out.  She cracked the seal pretty good, but it’s still up,
and I don’t think we’re gonna have time to get her to finish it.”

“Oh, dear… but, we can’t destroy the planet without first
breaking the seal!”

“You’re gonna have to.”

“But all that knowledge will be lost!  It won’t survive the
quantum explosion!”

“I’m sorry, Professor.  Better it than us.”

“You said she cracked the seal?” asked Green.  “If she did
enough to break the Ancient protection, you might be able to destroy what is
left yourself.”

“With what?”

“Do you still have any explosive devices on you?”

Jack looked down at his grenade belt.

“Kinda,” said Jack, not really liking where this was going.

“If you can plant the explosives before you leave, you can
trigger them remotely from a safe distance as you make your way to the
rendezvous point.”

Jack glanced over to where Grohm was fighting with Zarrod. 
“I don’t know, Professor…”

“Please, Jack!  The knowledge contained behind that seal
could be vital to the survival of the universe!  It could save countless
lives!  You cannot simply abandon it!”

Jack turned back to glance at the Great Seal, its massive
eye gazing at him amid the luminous cracks all throughout it.  Something about
it called to him.  The eye, as fractured as it was, felt like it had made
contact with his stare.  Jack remembered that moment in the temple at the
center of Earth when an eye had appeared in his mind, and had spoken to him,
the words ringing through his head at that very moment:

Eldil Meldilorn.

And then for some reason Jack couldn’t explain or
comprehend, despite all his instincts telling him otherwise, Jack knew the Professor
was right.

That seal had to be broken.

Jack sighed.  He set Anna down gently behind one of the
stone benches by the stairway and started to run back toward the seal.

“Okay, Professor, you win,” said Jack.  “But if you don’t
hear from me in ten minutes, fire that weapon anyway and get the heck out of
here!”

“May the Great Observer watch over you, my boy,” said Green.

“Uh, you, too,” said Jack, not really knowing how to
respond.

As he ran toward the seal, Jack glanced over and saw Grohm
and Zarrod engaged in some kind of hand-to-hand wrestling.  It was hard to make
out what was happening; he just hoped that whatever was going down, Grohm was
winning (or at least was buying him some time).

Once Jack reached the seal, he found the largest crack he
could and unbuckled his grenade belt.  He looked at the grenades, remembering
what Major Ganix had shown him when they were in the Pit.

Jack popped the cap off one of the grenades and twisted the
button until it clicked.  He slid out the narrow remote cylinder from the center,
its detonator on the top, and hooked it to his gun belt.  All he’d need to do
is press the button and the grenade would go off instantly, its explosion
causing the others on the belt to blow in a chain reaction.  Hopefully, the
range on it would be far enough that Jack would have Anna well on the way to
the hoverbikes by the time he was ready to detonate it.

Suddenly, a deafening
BOOM
echoed throughout the dome
as a flash of light momentarily blinded Jack.  When he looked back up, he saw
Grohm high in the air, falling back down with a thunderous
THUD
.

Zarrod stood fifteen feet before Grohm, ghostly energy
seeping from every nook and cranny of his dinted and beaten armor, giving him a
horrific aura Jack could feel even from where he was standing.

“Enough of this!” raged the Deathlord.

Grohm unsteadily got to his feet, and no sooner had he
regained his footing than Zarrod unleashed another powerful death energy attack
which plowed into the Rognok, blasting him backwards through the stone seating,
all the way back to the dome itself where Grohm impacted the wall with such
force that he formed a small crater.

Then, a shrill screeching sound filled the air as Zarrod
harnessed a ball of chaotic, swirling energy in his hands.  It quickly grew to
the size of a basketball.  Jack watched in horror as Grohm got to his feet,
stumbling slightly, unaware of what awaited him.

“GROHM!” yelled Jack.  “LOOK OUT!”

But the warning came too late.  Zarrod unleashed the ball of
death energy that shot forth, screaming right at the Rognok.  It hit Grohm
dead-on, hurling him back into the crater he’d just made.  The energy swirled
around him, and when it disappeared, the Rognok slumped to the ground and lay
still.

Jack felt frozen for a moment, his eyes fixed on his
friend.  His heart felt like it had stopped and his breath was stuck in his
throat.  Then, something within him made him look away, and his gaze landed on
the Deathlord Supreme.

And the Deathlord Supreme was looking right back at him.

He pointed a crooked claw directly at Jack, his voice
booming with anger.

“You,” he said, simply.

“Ohhhhhhh, crap,” muttered Jack, panic starting to grip his
belly.  In this situation, there was little Jack could think of to do other
than to fall back to his patented strategy number one for avoiding a beat down
- which was to run away.  Fast.

Without another moment’s hesitation, Jack took off running
as quickly as he could for the stairs.  He heard something whizzing in the air,
and turned in time to see a ghostly ball of white barreling toward him.  He
turned just as the death energy impacted the ground where he was going to be. 
The blast exploded on impact, its force sending Jack flying into the air.

The room turned topsy-turvy as Jack spun head-over-heels. 
He landed on his back hard, his head ringing from the impact.  Spots of color
assaulted his vision as he opened his eyes.  His hearing was dulled, and he
felt fingers of pain running up and down his spine.

He tried to sit up, but his back wasn’t having it.  Slowly,
Jack rolled over onto his belly.  The ringing in his ears subsided, and he
blinked his eyes to clear his head.  When he did, he saw Zarrod.

The Deathlord stood before him, the massive Great Seal
behind the alien, its cracked visage dancing with brilliant light.  Zarrod
looked down at Jack, his terrible red eyes practically burning with hate and
malice.  Ghostly white energy seemed to fall off him like smoke, and the
Deathlord’s hands shimmered with furious power.

Jack gritted his teeth, the image of what the Deathlord had
done to Grohm fresh in his mind.  His memory jumped to Shepherd’s last pained
breath, and to Anna hanging helplessly at the Deathlord’s side – both in the
hanger of the mothership and in this very room.

Then, the words of the Regal Soldiers rang in his mind. 
If
you’re going to die, die advancing.