Jak Phoenix

Chapter Twenty-Five - All or Nothing

  Through the sudden flurry of gunfire, Dodge swiftly led the way through some low-lying stacks of shipping containers toward the wall nearest to them. While the position essentially trapped them again, a stack of metallic storage cubes gave them a temporary shelter against enemy lasers.

  Even though he already had the tablets, Cartrite was waving his hands in a desperate attempt to stop the shooting. Beside the fact that there could have been any number of volatile compounds housed in the shipping crates lining the cargo bay, walls and sensitive equipment protecting you from space generally did not respond well to high heat laser blasts. He didn’t want the firepower of a thousand overly-eager soldiers to destroy his ship, over five unimportant little problematic people. One of those problems was still sprawled out on the floor, out of view of the others as they crouched down behind the pile of cargo.

  “What the hell do we do now?” asked Cyan. She popped up over the crates long enough to put down a few more soldiers.

  “Why don’t we throw Baxter to them and hope for the best?” Dodge was not impressed with the failure of Baxter’s crucial adjustments.

  Baxter took it in stride. “We’ve got to get to the bay door,” he said, as if they were proceeding in the wrong direction.

  “What are you talking about? He just erased all of your work. His systems are back online.”

  “Do you guys seriously think I’m that dumb?” asked Baxter. He wasn’t upset. He seemed to enjoy being underestimated.

  The sounds of the laser blasts stopped and were replaced with slowly paced footsteps.

  “Throw your weapons out here. I have had enough of these games,” said Captain Cartrite, from behind the crates.

  Realizing they had nowhere to go, the four companions slowly got to their feet and faced the captain one more time. His eyes were watering with anger. Zelus stood beside him with his rifle aimed upon them. A group of soldiers stood behind them.

  Mixed amongst them were several of the same type of soldier who Jak and Cyan had originally encountered on Murdock’s ship. They wore the same matching backpacks and belts. Jak figured that hardware must have been what enabled them to materialize in different places, which was the way they had originally been brought on board. Jak wished he had stayed on the Tempest and never made the mistake of going over to Murdock’s ship. For that matter, he wished he’d never even bothered to visit Scoparia to roll around in the sand looking for those tablets to begin with.

  Jak dropped his rifle on the waste height container in front of him and the others followed suit.

  “Just kill us,” said Jak. They easily could have. There were a thousand enemies and only four of them. “What are you waiting for?”

  Two soldiers moved in beside the four and targeted their guns on Jak and Dodge, who were standing on the outside edges of the group.

  “Quite frankly, I would love to. But I am afraid you have lost that opportunity. You no longer have the option for that luxury. I will ensure you suffer for this. Take those two first.” He pointed toward Baxter and Cyan.

  Zelus moved in and grabbed Cyan. She resisted but was overthrown by Zelus’ strength. With one of his hands, he clenched both her wrists behind her back and led her toward his captain.

  A group of the soldiers wearing the shifter belts surrounded Baxter and shoved him toward Cartrite. Jak and Dodge stood still for the moment, watching the guns pointed at their heads with their hands in a neutral position. Jak wondered who would make the first futile move. Himself or Dodge? Out of principle, one of them would have to do something to make a stand for their friends, even if it meant certain death to all of them.

  “Have Professor Voth bring his squadron over here and deactivate the girl’s brain functions. Then testing can begin. Have this corpulent fool tortured in front of his associates.”

  “Wait a second,” said Baxter. “I’d like to make a deal.”

  It was the opposite of what Jak had expected to hear. He knew Baxter had always been a coward, but he never thought he’d give up so easily in the heat of the moment. After the immense courage Baxter had shown in coming aboard the Catalyst, Jak had envisioned much more from him. Was it his failure in hacking the Catalyst’s defence systems that had caused him to give up this way?

  Cartrite responded as if he was disgusted that Baxter had elected to speak to him. “Silence. The opportunity for negotiations has long passed.”

  “But I was going to help you fix your shields.”

  Cartrite’s face showed that he had considered not replying at all, but instead said, “No thank you. The shields are fine.”

  Jak tensed up his body. Something was happening here that he couldn’t yet identify. Dodge’s ship was still progressing and was nearly up against the invisible shielding outside. He got the feeling he had to be ready.

  “Oh, okay. Are you absolutely sure about that?”

  Cartrite’s eyes shot through Baxter. “Yes,” he snapped, “everything is ...” His focus drifted to the hangar opening, where he had expected to soon see the destruction of an insignificant spacecraft. Now his senses told him something was amiss.

  When Captain Cartrite turned and saw Dodge’s beaten space ship just meters from the passable force-field covering the hangar bay opening, he realized his information had been faulty. The craft had failed to vaporize on the external shields and was now on an imminent course toward them.

  Cartrite didn’t have a chance to make a rebuttal or the opportunity for any form of proactive behaviour.

  He could only watch and listen to the sharp hum as Dodge’s ship penetrated the atmospheric barrier. The force-field flickered and outlined the incoming ship with a dark yellow band as the energy wrapped close to its hull, preventing air and pressure loss from inside the hangar.

  No one had a chance to consider their defensive actions as the spacecraft emerged fully into the docking bay and scraped across the floor with the harsh and shrill sound of metal on metal. The Brigatine made its last flight through a sea of the captain’s men; their reflexes not nearly fast enough to allow them to move out of the way of the speeding craft in time. Within a second after entry, the ship had torn through hundreds of soldiers, including the group with Professor Voth. Jak felt no sympathy as he watched Captain Cartrite observe the cold corpse of Voth flattened by the mass of sparking metal.

  In what could very well have been a celebratory fireworks display, the spacecraft began to fire off the remainder of its weaponry. Sharp laser blasts cut through soldiers, cargo and walls as the ship carried forward, carving an ugly path through the hardened floor of the cargo bay, randomly inflicting damage upon anything it could. It ploughed through three fighters before coming to rest in a collision with the far wall, crumpling the nose of the ship while making rubble of the rear support structure.

  “Come on,” shouted Dodge over the noise of the destruction. “We’ve gotta go.”

  With Captain Cartrite and his soldiers abandoning their positions in the pursuit of protection from the carnage, Baxter easily slipped away and joined Dodge as he started to make his way toward the opening of the hangar. They both picked up their previously discarded rifles just in time to face-off against a small group of determined followers.

  Before Jak could question Dodge’s reasoning he saw what his motivation was. It was a sight that gave Jak the energy to move on. The Tempest slipped cleanly in through the glowing force-field and entered the cargo bay. Unlike the uncontrolled entry of Dodge’s ship, The Tempest was clearly being piloted by someone. It slowed down and gracefully landed in the mouth of the hanger, staying close to its exit. It was so simple now. Just get to the ship.

  Even Zelus was awestruck as the Tempest continued to cut down Captain Cartrite’s army with its one heavy cannon. Jak lunged in and used the distraction as an opportunity to get at Cyan.

  When he tugged on her arm to pull her away, it did nothing except inflict the pain of being stretched upon her. Even with Zelus’ attention distant,
his grip was secure. The tug was enough to snap his concentration back into focus.

  Zelus swung his fist at Jak and missed as Jak dropped downward. Cyan found enough leeway to slip one of her wrists out of his clamp-like grip, and reached up to give Zelus the hardest hit in his face that she could muster in her awkward hold. She viciously kneed him in the groin, which was enough to convince him to let go of her.

  Dodge called out for Jak from his position a dozen meters away. “My ship is set to blow in under four minutes. We have to go. Now.”

  Jak had no intention of sticking around any longer than he needed to, but he had a couple of issues to take care of first.

  “Get to the ship. We’ll be there soon.”

  Dodge nodded before he and Baxter darted to the next stack of crates, creeping closer toward the Tempest while eliminating a few more soldiers who had the remaining will power to continue fighting. Many of Cartrite’s men were now tending to the various fires and electrical surges which had broken out throughout the hangar.

  Jak was hit from behind by Zelus, causing him to fall forward. The lucky fall put him face to face with a discarded weapon. He snatched the gun and leaped to his feet.

  As quickly as the weapon had arrived, it was long gone. Zelus ripped the weapon out of his hands and threw it twenty feet away before he lunged at Jak and grabbed him by his throat. He stood there with his teeth grating, determined to wring the life out of Jak.

  “Put him down,” said Cyan. She stood behind Zelus with her small gun pressed up against his spine. “Let us go and I won’t shoot you.”

  Zelus’ face lightened and so did his grip around Jak’s neck, until he had let go completely. As Jak stumbled out of the way in his light-headedness, Zelus spun as quickly as his bulk allowed him to, in a fierce attempt at Cyan.

  She was far too fast for him. By the time he made the complete turn, she was in a completely different place with her gun locked on him again. They smelled the odour of burnt cloth and flesh before Zelus reacted to the dark spot on his chest. Within a few seconds he collapsed to the deck, where his eyes met Cyan’s one last time.

  Jak quickly urged Cyan forward and toward the Tempest, pulling her away from the cold sight of Zelus’ body.

  “What about the tablets?”

  “I’m sorry. They’re lost. We have to go.” Jak was firm.

  Cyan took a look around the bay for Cartrite who was still nowhere to be seen. He must have retreated deeper into the ship with his precious tablets.

  Jak wasn’t sure what to do when he came upon Murdock’s disgraceful carcass, dragging itself slowly across the floor toward the Tempest. He hated himself for stopping.

  “Keep going,” said Jak. “I’ll be right there.”

  She didn’t argue because she knew that Jak knew what he needed to do and that no amount of arguing would change his mind.

  Jak bent down one more time to help the man who had so carelessly put them in the horrible situation.

  Murdock panted the word, “Thanks,” as Jak dragged him along.

  “Whatever,” was his only reply.

  Dodge called out for Jak again. “You have one minute. Get your asses over here.” He and Baxter had just reached the ramp of the ship and were waiting at the top.

  Cyan arrived first, not having the burden of an extra person slumped on her shoulder. She leaped up onto ramp of the Tempest as the ship began to lift. Jak could hear the sound of the thrusters powering up. The ship’s landing gear were retracting and the ship was starting to hover a few feet off the deck. They were ready to go.

  By the time Jak reached the ramp it was at knee height. Cyan and Dodge came to the end of the platform and grabbed onto Murdock’s hands as Jak unloaded him. Murdock was conscious; he just either had no strength left, or was in no hurry. With some effort, Murdock was dragged up the ramp.

  Jak didn’t know why he fell to the ground as he lifted his leg onto the ramp, until he felt the stinging sensation in his thigh. He reached down and singed his finger on a smouldering piece of clothing.

  Cyan darted to the end of the shaky ramp and shouted, “Come on!”

  Dodge turned and yelled, “Wait,” to the crew inside the Tempest.

  Cyan nearly fell back to the hangar floor as she ducked to avoid a laser blast. Jak was quickly surrounded as he lay on the ash covered floor. Several of the soldiers turned their firepower on the targets in the open hatchway of Jak’s ship.

  “You have to go,” yelled Jak. “Get out of here. Don’t worry about me.”

  His eyes met Cyan’s through the space between two soldiers and she understood. He was sure he saw a sparkle of light off a tear on her cheek. That was enough for him. If this was it, that was fine. The others shouldn’t suffer needlessly.

  Dodge stopped Baxter from running down the ramp and pounded the docking button, making the ramp hiss its way back up into the ship. It didn’t please Dodge to do it, but he knew what he had to do. If Jak was dead, then the least he could do was save the others out of respect.

  “Dock with Murdock’s ship,” was the last thing Jak heard Dodge shout before the ramp snapped shut and the ship slipped back through the force-field. Jak watched as his last chance of hope faded away when the ship moved off out of view.

  “I’m glad you have decided to stay,” boomed Cartrite’s voice. “You will not enjoy yourself. You may think you have inflicted severe damage upon my ship and crew, but it is merely an insignificant scratch on the surface.”

  Jak knew where Cartrite was now. He looked up to the control room and saw Captain Cartrite standing in front of the floor length windows, observing the scene below in safety. Safety for the next few seconds at least. The Brigatine would be self-destructing any moment now. How much explosive power would it yield? Not enough to annihilate the Catalyst, he guessed, but enough to put Cartrite’s plans on permanent hiatus.

  As he lay in agony amongst the circle of Cartrite’s drones, he took a look at his surroundings. Many parts of the hangar were still ablaze. The dead lay everywhere. The soldiers around him were a mix of several types they had encountered during their time aboard. Behind him were two of the drone soldiers who had brought him and Cyan aboard. Judging by the lit control pads on the shifter belts, they were still active.

  Jak laughed aloud through the pain of his wound as he saw something else. Near Cartrite, on the floor of the control room was the chest of tablets. The old man had his precious little treasure close at hand. Jak had nearly forgotten about his two wild cards.

  One of the soldiers saw Jak’s grin and smacked his face with the butt of his rifle. He just shook the pain away. Over the intercom, the captain continued to go on about something meant to break Jak’s spirits. This was the end of the line for Jak. And, it was also the end of the line for Captain Cornelius Cartrite. Jak reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the remote.

  The two seconds that passed after he flicked the switch was enough time to cause Jak to doubt that it had worked. He was reassured when Cartrite’s speech was replaced by a low heart pounding thump. Up above in the glass shelled control room, the strengthened windows immediately spider-webbed, but did not fully shatter. Through their distorted image they displayed a ghastly combination of fire, smoke, dust, shrapnel and other various by-products of such a contained explosion.

  The soldiers were caught off guard and lost interest in Jak. They barely heard the amplifying whine and swelling hum coming from the engines of Dodge’s ship.

  Jak fought against the shooting pain in his leg and threw all his weight against the drone soldier behind him, knocking him to the ground. Jak wrapped his arms around the soldier and reached for the control on the shifter belt and the soldier tried to swat him away. The coordinates displayed on the pad rang a bell in Jak’s head but he couldn’t be sure. The last place these soldiers had visited had been Murdock’s ship. If the ship had been moved, Jak would end up floating somewhere in space.

  As the escalating sounds of the Brigatine reached their pe
ak, Jak realized floating in space would be better than being torched in the late Captain Cartrite’s hangar.

  At the same time the broken spacecraft detonated, Jak hit the actuator on the belt.

  It was an odd feeling. For a moment Jak thought he may have been dead. He swore he could see fire in front of his eyes for a split second, but then realized he was lying on top of the soldier in the cargo hold of Murdock’s brightly lit ship, surrounded by the dead enemies from his first encounter.

  Jak almost forgot about the drone he had brought with him, until its hard fist smacked him and made his already fierce headache worse. Jak didn’t have a lot left in him, but he did have enough to eliminate this one last pest.

  Jak used a long rifle as a makeshift crutch to help take the weight off his injured leg on his way up to the cockpit. Something inside drove him to suffer through the throbbing of his leg, just so he could see the result of their work.

  As he stumbled along, he could hear the clanging and bumping as the Tempest once again made the connection to one of the dock ports on Murdock’s ship. His friends were on their way.

  Unable to stand any longer, he dropped into the most forward facing chair when he reached the cockpit and spun it around to face the window, and the rewarding sight before him.

  The Catalyst was a floating corpse with the coldness of space quickly descending upon it. Physically, the ship was still there. People always seemed to think that when you blew something up in space, it just turned into sparks and disappeared. Something that big would just lie there dead and eventually be scavenged by a brave traveler.

  The center of the Catalyst, where the hangar had been, was crookedly split open and shattered outward. One half of the giant ship was dark, while the other still had visible lighting. The explosion likely severed the power going to one half of the vessel. It wouldn’t be long before the second half faded out. A cloud of garbage and debris was rapidly spreading out from the floating city.

  Jak squinted as the occasional flash from the unstable ship flickered off the cockpit window. Good riddance to a bad nightmare.

  Jak heard his friends coming through the air lock. They were speaking in hushed tones and mumbles. He desperately wanted to get up before they reached the cockpit, but his leg would no longer allow it. Until he had some medical attention, he was done.

  He swivelled the chair to face the hallway leading up to the cockpit and wiped a smear of blood off the side of his cheek.

  Cyan’s face was unreadable when she first saw him. She started toward him at a slow pace which turned into a full run that only stopped when she collided into him with open arms. She said nothing as she embraced him. Despite what they had been through, she still smelled amazing.

  “Careful,” said Jak, “you’re gonna break it.”

  Cyan backed off quickly and smiled through her welled up eyes. “Sorry, it’s just that—” She didn’t understand what he meant.

  Jak reached back into his inside jacket pocket and clenched the object, feeling around to make sure it wasn’t broken before he pulled it out.

  Jak withdrew the one salvaged Balarian tablet from his jacket and held it out carefully in front of him. The fine lines still glowed with a faint bluish hue.

  “I figured you’d want this.”

  “You are unbelievable,” said Dodge from behind Cyan. His wide-toothed grin betrayed his feelings. He called out for Baxter to come over and see the miracle who sat in Murdock’s pilot chair.

  It was several seconds before Cyan reached out for the tablet. Even then, her hands slowly moved toward it as if it were a mirage that would escape her if she moved too harshly. When her hands clenched it firmly enough, Jak let go of the cherished artifact, letting her bring it toward her chest.

  She looked at Jak with a look of awe and said, “I can’t believe this.” Her eyes jumped back and forth between the one last tablet and Jak’s unkempt face, before she moved in and kissed him. It wasn’t a long kiss, but it was on the lips and that was all that mattered to Jak.

  If not for the throbbing pain in his leg which seemed to be spreading further throughout his body, he was sure he would have pursued her a little further and tried to build on that one simple kiss. Right now, he just didn’t have the energy left in him to try. Besides, after all they had been through, that little display of affection was prize enough for him.

  As she slowly backed away, her eyes were red, but her smile was wide and untameable. Jak was desperately trying to think of something witty to say, but he had nothing. Just when he thought he was going to have to deal with an uncomfortable silence, Baxter saved the day again. He barged up from behind and sandwiched Cyan between he and Jak as he gave them an unrestrained brotherly hug.

  “Thanks, buddy,” was all Jak said, patting him on the back around Cyan.

  While aboard the Catalyst, the feeling of happiness seemed like it would never come again. But now, it felt like it would never go away. Even Dodge Stonewall was laughing, watching the display of affection from the three blubbering friends.

  “You’ll be even happier to know that Murdock is gone,” said Dodge. Baxter let go of the two of them and straightened himself out. “At least I know I’m happy about it.”

  “Did you kill him?” asked Jak sincerely.

  “Unfortunately, no. The little whiner crawled into one of your escape pods on the way over here in the Tempest. Took off. Guess he wasn’t man enough to face the fact that he bungled up this whole affair.”

  Jak laughed and caused himself some more pain. Then he remembered how expensive replacement escape pods were.

  “I don’t mean to cut the conversation short, but is there any way one of you guys could help me out with this hole in my leg? Hurts a bit.”

  “Sure.”

  “And I need some food. I can’t remember the last time we ate.”