Jack Strong: Dark Matter

by Heys Wolfenden

  “They’ve come,” said Jack, looking towards a white, grey blur on the far horizon.

  “Who have?”

  “All the countries of the Earth, they listened. We may just have a fighting chance after all.”

  Jack looked on in a mixture of awe and disbelief as the sky filled with a myriad of planes, helicopters and drones. All had answered the call, the mayday of their planet. There were planes from Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Russia, China, India, South America. Every country on Earth was represented. All religions and nationalities had been pushed aside, dumped into the rubbish bin of history, all for a common bond – humanity and its survival.

  But just as hope returned to the world it was brutally smothered out. The sky glittered as ten thousand specks of light converged before the sun, spreading out in a huge arc of metal and death.

  The Asvari had come. All of them. Like a plague of metal locusts. Like death itself. This was it. The last battle in their great war of survival.

  Even in the confines of the flying saucer, Jack could feel his hands shaking. He cleared his throat. It was now or never.

  “Citizens of Earth, you’ve answered the call. You could have stayed and fought the Asvari in your own countries, but you didn’t. You saw our need was greater. Now you fight not just for your own lives and for those of your families, but for those of the men and women next to you. Be brave and do your duty to Earth. This is not the hour when our courage fails and wilts under the enemy’s bristling fire, this is when it rises, a terrible phoenix above the flames. One people, one Earth. All planes converge on the enemy and attack!”

  Jack watched as all the nations of the world rammed down hard on their accelerators and charged at the enveloping Asvari. They were like a stampede of metallic bulls, the rallying cry of humanity. It was savagely beautiful.

  Jack had thought that the last battle was like a hurricane, but this was something else, it was like a galactic collision, a supernova gone wrong. Thousands upon thousands of tiny specks of metal burst into each other, machine guns firing, missiles screeching, engines whirring.

  Explosions littered the sky like leaves on a pond. A hundred planes and half that many flying saucers were destroyed in the first few seconds alone. It was carnage incomparable, a genocide made to order. People died in their hundreds, thousands. The air stank of sweat and gasoline, of hope, fear and death. Shrapnel rained everywhere, like a tornado of shooting stars, each one deadlier than the last. Smoke billowed up from the burning jungle in great, towering plumes as thousands of planes and saucers met their doom. A myriad of parachutes streaked through the sky like a swirl of dandelion seeds. The sky burned red, then black. It was anger, it was hate, it was war.

  Jack dived through the clouds, accompanied by a squadron of Israeli and Pakistani fighter jets, weapons spitting fire. Five flying saucers disintegrated immediately, their carcasses hoovered up by the jungle below. He thought they’d broken through the Asvari lines when a cascade of lightning poured down upon them, knocking two of the Israelis out of the air, with a third ploughing into a Pakistani fighter jet as they merged together in an orange bloom of fire.

  “Cover me!” shouted Jack to the other fighters, but when he looked behind there was nothing there. It was like some great hand of God had scooped them up and taken them straight to heaven. One shredded parachute was all that was left of them.

  Jack twisted through the air, screaming, raging, dodging a barrage of laser fire, firing everything he had without mercy. Several saucers exploded in front of him, what was left of them impacting against their hull.

  His ears were full of maydays now, panicked shouts and screams. They were outnumbered two to one. They had maybe a hundred planes left, the enemy twice that number.

  “Is it time?” asked Gaz.

  “Yes,” said Jack, pulling their saucer into a steep, unyielding climb.

  They had soared to fifty thousand feet when Jack flipped their saucer around, decimating the two Asvari craft that had been following them. The battle raged below, a chaos of flashing lights and billowing black smoke.

  “It’s now or never. Do it.”

  Jack’s grip of the saucer suddenly vanished as he was propelled out of the craft at the speed of sound.

  He passed through a wispy layer of clouds. Wind buffeted his face. Thousands of feet disappeared in moments as he plunged through the airy nothingness towards the raging maelstrom below.

  He hit the first saucer with a slap, ricocheting off that one and into another, the strange Asvari spacesuit protecting him from the force of the impact. He became a human pinball bouncing from one saucer to the next, whilst all around him the battle seethed and roared. A missile whooshed past his face, tail gushing smoke, red hot laser fire crackling all around him. This had better work…

  As his speed slowed he managed to reach out and grab one of the saucers, only for his hands to slip off.

  He was falling again.

  Just when it looked like he was going to slam into the steaming jungle a flying saucer passed beneath him, his feet jarring against its soft, fleshy hull. He teetered, stumbled and wobbled, the rain forest once more coming into view, before he regained his balance at the last moment, arms waving wildly.

  He turned around as another Asvari craft swooped out of the black sky, its dragon-like mouth spurting fire.

  Jack winced as a basketball-sized ball of blue lightning thumped into his chest. He expected to die, for his ribcage to cannon out of his chest, to be flung through the air like a piece of rubbish on the wind. Nothing happened.

  Another blue gouge of light whacked against his head, then his legs. Still no effect.

  The silver harbinger of death swooped down towards him, sunlight glinting off its nose like a fistful of gold. Ramming speed.

  Just when it was about to cut him in half, a blue stream of light shot out from the clouds, splitting it in two in an explosion of sparks.

  “You can thank me for that later,” said Gaz, in a voice that reverberated in Jack’s head.

  “I will,” said Jack. “Where’s Jorge?”

  “Right here!”

  Jack looked up into the black tumult as a glimmering figure pierced the clouds, landing atop another saucer. His landing was perfect, Olympian. Figures…

  “Now what?” asked Gaz.

  “Now we get to work. First, I need a little scratch.”

  “But…”

  “Just do it,” said Jack, as a Russian plane nosedived to the green sea below, smoke trailing from its undercarriage like a clutch of intestines. “We’re running out of time.”

  A thin bloody spear shot out from Gaz’s saucer, nipping the side of Jack’s right shoulder.

  “Are you alright?”

  “Fine,” said Jack, inspecting the gash in his escape suit. “Just lucky the Asvari didn’t try that earlier. These suits are designed to keep whoever is encased in it alive in space. The cold lasers they prefer in battle have no effect.”

  “Now they will,” said Gaz, as Jack ripped away at his escape suit.

  “Don’t worry about me,” he said. “Fix Jorge first. It’s time to end this thing.”

  In a blur of liquid-like movement, Jack reached behind his back, his laser-sword appearing in his hand almost instantaneously. Then with his space pistol appearing in his other hand, he opened fire on the massed ranks of Asvari ships. He was like an intergalactic sniper, indiscriminate, unforgiving. The Asvari were going to pay for what they’d done to Earth. Big time.

  Saucer after saucer exploded before his eyes, ending in huge blossoms of smoke, fire and burning metal.

  Jorge opened fire too, cutting a red path through the saucers, as more belly-flopped from the sky and crashed into the jungle below.

  Still they continued to fire, their anger unrelenting. Jack deflected their laser blasts back at them, or else swatted them away with his sword. They died all the same, in a chaos of smoke and flame.

  Then the saucer he was stood on began to move, tipping
to the side. The jungle veered in front of him like a huge green sea. He was going to slip off.

  Spinning round, he rammed his sword deep into the bowels of the saucer, the blade extending as he did so. Smoke poured from the gash like lava from a volcanic vent.

  “Gaz, I could do with your help now,” he said, as the saucer tipped to the side, before finally breaking in two. “Quickly.”

  He dropped through the sky like a stone.

  Ten feet.

  Twenty.

  Thirty.

  Still he fell, a mass of clouds passing in his wake.

  Just when death seemed certain a silver blur whooshed beneath him, his feet colliding with soft metal soon after.

  “Thanks Gaz.”

  “Don’t mention it. Let’s finish them.”

  The Asvari tried to blast them out of the sky, but with Jack’s laser pistol fixed to its highest setting they stood no chance. With one shot Jack took out five of their saucers. He hammered down on the trigger. Rapid fire. It was a slaughter. They went down like a flock of ducks to machine gun fire, the helicopters and planes joining in as bullets pinged and missiles whirred. They kept firing and firing until there was nothing left in the sky. The Asvari didn’t surrender or try to retreat. Jack didn’t expect them too. Humans in their eyes were their mortal enemy, their twisted mirror image that they had to purify.

  Jack looked down at the jungle below. Fires burned and smoldered everywhere, it was pitted with holes and craters like the surface of the moon. Humans and Asvari cut panicked paths through the jungle seeking a respite from the metallic rain, or else lay lifeless, clinging to terrible, unhealing wounds, the fire and smoke closing in on them. Even from this distance he could hear the cries and hullaballoos of thousands of horrified animals seeking shelter and safety through acres and acres of bare, shattered trees. Environmental Armageddon, industrialised and mechanized slaughter – this was the true face of war, the one everyone should see.

  Chapter Forty: Final Moves

  Ros’ vision exploded with light as the star careered towards him, before it cracked in half like an egg, showering him with molten yellow fragments. He was flung off his feet, back snapping against some unseen barrier.

  He thought that it was over. He was wrong.

  Meteors and comets rained down upon him like a torrent of red hot spears, slamming against his body, reducing his mind to ash.

  He was beaten.

  Earth and Jack too. He couldn’t do anything to resist Ren’s attacks, he was too powerful. What had happened to his mental upgrade? Why wasn’t he stronger? Why couldn’t he fight back? Why…

  I TOLD YOU THAT I WOULD BEAT YOU. YOU NEVER STOOD A CHANCE. YOU COULD FIGHT ME FOR A THOUSAND YEARS AND YOU WOULD STILL LOSE. YOU’RE PATHETIC. MORE HUMAN THAN ASVARI. KILLING YOU WILL BE A MERCY.

  Ren was stood over him now, his face as brutal as ever. Ros tried to reply, but his mind was too weak, broken.

  I CUT YOUR TELEPATHY FUNCTIONS IN THAT LAST ATTACK. TELEPATHY IS FOR ASVARI, NOT HUMAN LOVERS LIKE YOU, NOT… WHAT IS THAT?

  Ros tried to reply, but he couldn’t even blink his eyelids, never mind talk. Had Ren found out? Someone had to eventually…

  I DIDN’T REALISE THAT WAS POSSIBLE FOR AN ASVARI. IT’S WRONG, DIRTY, IMPURE. YOUR’E AN EMBARRASMENT, A STAIN. I’M GOING TO RIP YOU LIMB FROM LIMB. DESTROY YOU. RUB YOU OUT OF EXISTENCE.

  Ros felt an invisible hand grab his hands, then his feet. Then they began to tug and pull, force building, pressure growing. Pain slithered throughout his body, his joints screaming. He felt like a little twig in the hands of a giant.

  Snap.

  One of his arms was pulled free of its socket.

  Crunch.

  Then one of his legs.

  The pain was like a flood now, a planet-wide deluge. Oh Jack…

  For a brief moment, Ros saw Jack’s face in front of his eyes. He looked handsome, beautiful. Then he felt something new. At first, he thought that it was more pain, but then it started to glow and throb. It was more brilliant than any of the stars. It was stronger than a diamond and purer than the most unblemished sky or ocean.

  It was love.

  Love for Jack. Love for his friends. Love for the Asvari. Love for the Humans. Love for the world, the stars, the whole universe. His entire being pulsed with it. He breathed it in and let it flow throughout his arteries and veins, it infested every organ and every cell. It was a flood. A flood of love. And with this love came power, strength and the will to fight on. It felt bright and powerful in his hands, like a nuclear missile. Hands kissing fire. He folded it, molded it. Made it stronger, more durable. It was a weapon of mass destruction.

  He threw it at Ren.

  It flew from his mind like a forcefield. It felt powerful, strong, invincible.

  It crashed into Ros’ mind with all the force of a hurricane, like a thousand flaming battering rams, like a million solar tsunamis.

  The moment it hit Ren he was blasted off his feet, his head slamming into the wall behind him. Crack.

  Ros tried to get to his feet, but couldn’t. He could feel the love, the energy fading now, seeping away like water down a drain after a storm. He wouldn’t last much longer. Oh Jack…

  One of the Asvari council members was stood over him now, inspecting him like a slab of meat in an abattoir. He needed to do something. Time was running out. So many explosions, so much death. Jack! He reached out with his mind and entered the Asvari’s thoughts.

  They were in a beautiful garden underneath a nebulous moon.

  “What are you doing here?” Ches shouted, fangs bared like stalactites in a cave. “This is forbidden.”

  Ros didn’t answer. One last desperate throw of the dice, one last drop of love.

  He glided over to Ches, their foreheads colliding like a couple of fighting bulls. But there was no sound, no cracking of bone, no squelching of brains. They were one, joined; one brain, one being.

  “Hear my thoughts,” said Ros. “Share my experiences, my love.”

  Into Ches’ brain he poured his thoughts, his feelings, all his experiences with Jack, Vyleria and the others. He showed him how Jack had brought them all together, through kindness and courage, how he had rescued him from the volcano planet when no one else would, how he had befriended him and the others, how he had stood up to the Xenti, how he had come half-way across the galaxy to rescue him from the Americans at Area 51, how he was standing up to the Scourge. He showed him his humanity, his Asvariness, his universal nature. He showed him the truth. He showed him Jack.

  He only hoped it would be enough.

  The moment Ros let go of Ches he fell to the ground, head ricocheting against the floor like a bullet.

  He was done, spent. No more energy left, no more love. His last thoughts were of Jack, his one true friend. After that there was nothing.

  Chapter Forty-One: Rush

  Vyleria’s mind cleared briefly. She put her hand to her forehead. It was purple. She’d been hit.

  Where was she? What was going on? Where was Jack? Something fluttered briefly within her, then died. No, Jorge. He was the one. Wasn’t he? Things were all so strange recently. Her Asvari guards had really hit her hard this time. That was the problem with switching off your central pain nerve. It dulled the senses. They could’ve been hitting her for hours, for all she knew.

  She looked-up at the view screen. A semi-circle of Asvari guards stared back at her. They evidently didn’t like her escape attempts. Well, she couldn’t help it if she was a little violent…

  Vyleria looked around the control room. Where was Ren? Ros? She peered through a gap in the guards and looked towards Earth. Even from this distance she could see the smoke, the fire. Earth looked like a battlefield, a warzone amongst warzones. Was he still alive? A thought fluttered within her mind again, but she brushed it away. None of this made any sense. The fuzziness in her head returned. I must have concussion. Yes, that’s it…

  Her reverie was broken by a flash of grey to her left
. Two of the guards ran off down the corridor. She was just going to ask what was going on when another two exited the control room. Five minutes later and another group disappeared.

  That left her with two Asvari guards.

  She eyed them up and down like the jailors they were. They were in her way and she meant to do something about it, though every cell in her body screamed that this was a trap. What else could it be?

  She moved like lightning. All fluid movement and overwhelming force.

  Before the Asvari could respond with their rifles or any of their mind tricks, she had broken one jaw, dislocated a shoulder, grabbed a rifle, then knocked them both unconscious. It had all taken less than a couple of seconds.

  She flipped towards the door and then froze. If this was a trap, then this would be the moment when Ren and the Asvari would come pouring into the control room. It was what they’d done before. Twice.

  Nothing moved, not even so much as a shadow. Still she waited, her heart beating like a drum.

  Still no movement. A minute, maybe two passed. She had to take a chance.

  She inched forward, laser rifle pointed straight at the door. She wasn’t going to get caught again, she was going to go down fighting this time, they’d tortured her enough.

  She peered out into the corridor. She expected to see Ren grinning obscenely, a squad of Asvari soldiers pressed up behind him.

  The corridor snaked away into the distance like a silver python. It was completely empty but for her own nervous reflection.

  Anxious, she pressed forward, gripping her rifle tighter than ever, eyes darting left and right into a procession of empty rooms. Just when she thought that the ship was deserted she heard what sounded like angry voices. It sounded like a struggle of some kind. Perhaps they were interrogating one of the Space SEALS again? She could hear screams, gasps, shouting, the dull thud of something hard colliding into soft tissue.

  She began to run. Whoever it was she had to help them. If she couldn’t do that she would die trying. She was sick of their games, sick of their torture. She just wanted it all to end.