Robert E Mills, page 17
old bonehead somewhere in the vicinity, too. C'mon now, lads, let's give it all we've got, so we can send them all to the hot racks of hell!"
Just as the Valsing ship touched down on the surface of Flaigon, the collective powers of mind of the Fellowship of Light tossed the huge black starships that ringed the planet's atmosphere like small craft on the crest ofa tidal wave, cracking the keels of the outermost vessels and scattering the others in every direction, sending them streaking off to all points of the compass. All points except one. . . the one that indicated the approach of the attack-force's bright ships.
By the time the air-lock decompressed, and the hatch of Ordlar's starship whooshed open, the bombardment of Flaigon had already begun. The great docking facility was rocked by explosions, and ground-crews and platoons of black-uniformed soldiers scattered and ran for their lives, as the allied space-fleets rained showers of missiles and torpedos down on the black planet's surface.
Armed to to the teeth, whooping like the devil's cheerleaders, the Valsings burst out of the starship, fingers on the triggers of their weapons, expecting a hot hail of laser-beams for their welcome. They stopped dead in their t!acks when they found the immense spaceport nearly deserted, the last remnants of the force that guarded it scurrying off for the shelter of the city below.
Ordlar surveyed the scene with grim satisfaction.
"Someone had the same idea that we did, but only on a larger scale," he said, waving his men on. "To the levitators," he roared. "Let us find Ylang- Ylang, and hunt the beast down!"
When the Scourge came out of hyperspace, Blorg looked up at the vidscreen in his cabin and could not believe his eyes. The dark orb of Flaigon was ringed by thousands of bright starships, each and everyone of them firing great, flaming fusillades down at its surface-and the Atmospheric Security forces were nowhere in sight!
It was unbelievable! The lord of the Ysss hissed his surprise as he stared at the incredible spectacle on the screen. The League of Free Worlds only a short time after its defeat in Havanal was attacking the very heart of the Dark Empire!
Blorg burst out of his cabin and dashed down the corridor that led to the Scourge's-control-center, shaking his head in an attempt to dispel the black fog that had settled on his mind.
Startled out of its dreams of gluttonous anticipation, the Great Devourer flashed and boomed as the onset of the League's massive bombardment shook the Forbidden City of Kordor. Walls buckled and ceilings cracked; the very stones beneath Ylang- Ylang's pulsating mass began to buck and heave.
What is going on here? the emperor asked, too astonished to be furious at the interruption. Something
had the planet in its grip and was shaking down the walls of Kordor. Ylang felt the first energizing flush of anger as it realized that Atmospheric Security was not responding to its impatient queries. Pandemonium reigned outside the brazen doors of the lair, and the Devourer could taste the fear and confusion of its un-derlings. The horrible shrieks of the Mordlings rang out in the distance, growing louder with each repetition.
Whatever was shuddering the walls of the Forbidden City had freed the monsters as well.
Ylang sent its thoughts up to the surface of Flaigon, and then beyond it, up into the air and out into space.
The star-tyrant burbled and gasped as it realized what was happening. The League of Free Worlds is attackinl?
my court. the Devourer thought, a thrill of dread rippling its great mass, causing it to fill the lair with dark, sulphurous clouds. Then Ylang grew afraid, as it thought of the Fellowship of Light. The one thing I feared has come to pass. The old monkeys are after me!
Ylang- Ylang screamed, explosions detonating all over its surface, as it felt the first stab of the powers of mind of the Fellowship of Light. . .
Commander Ozain's voice blared over the speakers of the Hazard: "All ships are to keep firing! Pour it on!
Concentrate your firepower on the assigned sectors.
Hit them with everything you've got!"
Red Rian watched thevidscreens in awe as the great silver flotilla rained its fire on Flaigon' s suI:face like the signature on the order for Armageddon. Multi-megaton explosions flared on the planet's surface, their coronas lighting the dead face of Ylang's homeworld with the brilliance of borning suns; huge mushroom clouds spouted high into the thin atmosphere, mantling the radiance below in churning billows of thermal turbulence.
"Make 'em all count, lads!" the star-pirate roared into the intercom-mike. "Each and everyone of 'em!
Lets give that guzzling bag of unholy energies a meal to remember!"
Beside'him, Purpur yowled with excitement; behind him, Ween kept saying "Wow!" over and over again, each time Flaigon shook in its orbit with the violence of the barrage. Rian smiled as he recalled the time when, dead-drunk, he had painted each of the torpedos' war-heads with the Dark Emperor's name. There's nothing like a personalized message to get your point across, he thought gleefully.
Rian turned to look at Garthane. He could feel the power emanating from the man. The High Master's face was drained of all color, and his features were set in an expression as hard and unyielding as the side of a -
mountain.
Pour out all your energies, and direct them at Ylang, Rian heard the High Master order telep_athically. Pierce its center-tear it apart!
"Calling the Hazard! Calling the Hazard!" a voice squawked over the communicator. ., Attention Captain Rian. The Scourge has just been sighted. It's shielded by a force-field, and is coming in at a heading of one-
three-fiver-repeat: one-three-fiver. Blorg's here, and he's coming in fast!"
Garthane shook his head as he came out of the trance.
He turned to Red Rian, who was staring at him expectantly.
"He's covered by that force-field gizmo," the pirate said.
The High Master nodded. "Then we will have to neutralize it. Turn your ship around, and go out after him."
Rian grinned at him. "I've been waiting a long time for this," he said.
Chapter 11
A World Destroyed
Ylang's mind-rending screams of pain flooded Kordon astheValsing-a' hundred-and-fifty strong-streamed into the network of corridors that led to its lair. The troops garrisoned in the Forbidden City were almost totally immobilized, and the blood-lusting intruders mowed down any black-uniformed bands that happened to cross their path. Between the frequent earthquakes and avalanches of falling basalt, and the dreadful, howling demons that ran amok in Kordor, destroy-ing every living thing they got their claws or jaws on, the soldiers of the emperor's household guard had all they could do to save their own skins.
As the Valsings entered the far end of the antechamber, they ran smack into a pack of the ferocious Mordlings. Screaming like a chorus auditioning for the Last Judgement, the forty-foot horrors tore into Ordlar's band. Bodies flew through the air and blood spattered the walls, beasts roared and men cursed, lasers flared and whined as the terrible battle was joined.
Kill the hell-hounds! Blow their heads off!" Ordlar roared, urging his men on as he fired his laser-rifle straight up into the gaping, dagger-toothed mouth that descended on him, dripping its green and venomous saliva. The giants were awesome in their power and fury, but they were no match for the concentrated firepower of the Valsings.
When the last of the Mordling clones had crashed to the gound in a great, smoking heap, Ordlar looked around the antechamber and realized he'd lost over a third of his force. But that meant nothing to him once he spotted the brazen doors that led to Ylang- Ylang's lair.
He waved the men with the mini-missile launchers forward, and then signalled for his crew to check out their weapons in the interval that elapsed before the things were set up. And when all was in readiness, Ordlar thought of Zeif and smiled a smile as cold as an arctic sunrise. He raised his hand in the air, looking around at his crew for what he knew would be the last time. The chief engineer winked and they all answered with the wolf-smiles of the V alsings.
"Fire!" Ordlar roared, bringing his hand down sharply. The antechamber rocked with explosions, and
flared with a brightness foreign to the dark stones. The great doors blew in and fell to the floor of the lair with a resounding crash. Before the smoke had even begun to clear, the Valsings streamed in, whooping their war-cry.
"Welia-la-lai-yaaa!" they bellowed as they charged over the fallen doors, blasting away with laser-rifles and zappers at the startled group of Y sss clustered in the center of the lair. Surprised and stunned, the reptiloids made an attempt to return their fire, but were cut down before they had time to go into a crouch. When the last of the Ysss had fallen, the Valsings turned and looked upon Ylang- Ylang for the first time.
Yaaa-aa-aa-aaah! the Dark Emperor screamed, the concentrated powers of mind of the Fellowship of Light creating a huge and painful turbulence at its center.
Stricken by the sight of Ylang's corrupt energies thundering and lightening in an accurate reflection of its torment, the Valsings clutched at their blinded eyes and reeled backwards, screaming the screams of the damned.
"Oh, no!" Ordlar wailed, unable to comprehend the vision of horror he'd just seen. "Oh, no!"
YAAA-AA-AA-AAAH-H-H-H! As the Great De-
vourer screamed even louder, a burst of insane energy exploded out of the front of its mass and enveloped the Valsings. When the sulphurous clouds had lifted, there was not a single trace left of the intruders.
Suddenly, Ylang's mass began to contract as the walls of the lair started to collapse. The Dark Emperor called for the Ysss to come in him immediately. . .
"The readings are unbelievable, sir!" the tech exclaimed, looking up from the screens with an in-credulous expression on his pale face. "The planet can't take much more of this. It's going to blow wide open any second."
The Supreme Commander of the League of Free Worlds nodded and smiled a grim little smile. He reached out and activated the communicator-mike.
"Attention all ships," he said. "This is Commander Ozain speaking. Keep pouring it on. Don't let up for a moment. I want you all to keep ruing until that filthy rock is blown into nothingness.
Eager hands carried the bio-respirator out of the starship and placed it in the waiting vehicle. As the ambu-lance sped off, the two figures that sat on each sid~ of Dann Oryzon looked up at each other, their eyes glowing in their beautiful countenances.
"Is everything ready at the center?" the female asked.
The male nodded his head slowly. "It should be. I told them to be ready to operate the moment we arrive.
"I hope it's not too late," the female said, as she stared down at the unconscious young man in the respirator.
"Pray the Infinite it isn't," the male replied gently.
"Pray that we can save him. . . "
Haaa-aa-aaass! Blorg the Devastator looked at the vidscreen and almost fell out of his seat as the shock of recognition jolted him with an overdose of adrenalin.
There on the screen, streaking directly toward his ship with the swiftness and certainty of divine retribution, was the good ship Hazard!
No! he thought, as confusion reasserted its dark presence in the shadowy caves of his reptilian mind.
No, no, no-it can't be! It has to be the duplicate Hazard! I just incinerated Rian and his. . .
"Greetings to the filthiest and most misbegotten monstrosity ever spawned in the entire universe, that vilest of insults to the life-force, that grazzy, overgrown half-acre of space garbage that goes by the name of Blorg the Devastator," a bright baritone voice rang out over the Scourge's com-speakers. "Greetings to that clammy, slinking slayer of wee ~hildren and the infirm elderly, that hissing mass of corruption that hides its ugly face under a visor and its scabby bone-head beneath a helmet. Greetings from the skipper and crew of the good ship Hazard to . . . "
Click! Blorg switched off the speaker, and hissed furiously. He sat there trembling like a patient undergo-ing electroshock. It was Rian! There was no mistaking that voice and form of address. Womp-bomp-a-bomp!
His four fists thundered down onto the panel of the console. I killed the doubles! he thought, seething with rage. I risked my life on that stinking wasteworld -only to blow away those stupid clones!
He turned away from the screen and screamed a mute scream of insane anger and sheer frustration as he looked out at the bow of his starship and saw the glow of his force-field fade into nothingness.
Blorg spun around to face the Y sss at the controls of the force-field console. What the hell do you think you're doing, you brainless mental deficient? Re-activate that field before I tear your heart out with my own hands!
The technician's only reply was a gurgling hiss that sounded like the last stages of air-lock decompression.
Suddenly, he pitched sidewise in his seat and fell to the deck.
Keep her on course! Blorg ordered the co-pilot, as he sprang up and bounded over to the force-field console, stepping on the dead technician in his haste.
Frozen! The controls are frozen! he exclaimed, scrabbling frantically at the dials and levers on the face of the console. Damn the suns, damn the stars! What is happening here?
He raced back to the control-console and threw open the intercom switch. Attention all hands. Stand by to blast that ship out of the void! Gunners, make your report.
Nothing. Silence. The only response the lord of the Ysss received was the blast of white noise that came back over the open com-speaker.
Make your report, I said! the Devastator bellowed mentally. But still no response was to be heard. Then suddenly Blorg was slammed back into his seat as the
Scourge began to decelerate.
Accelerate, you scum -accelerate! he screamed at the co-pilot beside him. Now! He lashed out with his lower right arm and slammed the Y sss on the side of his plumed helment. Blong! The Ysss rocked in his seat, pitched forward onto the console, and slid to the deck.
Blorg leaned over and fumbled with the controls, jamming his fingers down on the keyboard as he attempted to re-program the ship's computer. Haaa-aa-aaass! Nothing happened. The controls were frozen.
He looked up, and saw the Hazard draw alongside of the Scourge. Magneto-beams lanced out from the starboard side of the bright ship and locked onto the hull of the dark vessel. The Hazard had grappled the Scourge, and was drawing closer as the beam-lengths contracted.
The lord of the Ysss sat bolt-upright'in his seat, transfixed by the spectacle outside, as he realized that the Scourge was now under the control of Garthane' s powers of mind. . .
"There she blows, sir! That's it-the end of Flaigon
. . . and Ylang- Ylang!"
In the control-center of the Aurea Solis, Commander Ozain gave the order to cease firing and settled back in his seat to witness the beginning of the end of the black planet.
The surface of Ylang's homeworld was now so bright, consumed as it was by a holocaust of therma,l energies, that the crew had to turn away from the portholes and w~tch the rest of the incredible spectacle on the vidscreens. A hush fell over the ship and all hands stared 'at the screens with rapt and fascinated attention, watching the heart of the Dark Empire go up like kindling wood in the fires of vengeance and technology.
Not a single soul in the great spaceforce that ringed the planet with its silver ships uttered a word. No one made a sound.
"Damn your scaly ass," Red Rian roared as the air-lock hatched whooshed open and he burst into the control-center of the Scourge, "I have you now!"
The Devastator's only reply was a hot fusillade of laserbeams from the brace of zappers he held in his upper hands. Blorg was now at the far end of the room, his back to the corridor that led to the after-decks of the huge black vessel.
A split-second before the laser-beams whaanged through the air and scorched the plating on both sides of the hatch, Rian dove behind the control-console. He rolled over twice and came up at its far end, blazing away at Blorg with his own two zappers.
As the wave of searing energy broke to one side of him, the Devastator turned in the opposite direction and raced down the Scourge's central corridor.
Rian's next burst of fire blew the hatch-frame to smithereens milliseconds after Blorg had departed through it. Just as the star-pirate was drgwing a bead on the black form that zig-zagged down the corridor at breakneck speed, Purpur, Ween, and a number of the Taylian crew streamed into the control-center.
"Hold it right there!" Rian bawled, freezing them all in their tracks. "Nobody but me sets a foot out of this place. He's mine. I'm going after old bonehead alone.
We're gonna settle this thing man to. . . monster."
Purpur, Ween, and the others opened their mouths to protest; but before they could, the skipper of the Hazard bolted out of the control-center and tore down the corridor after Blorg.
The cat-man started after him, but Ween and three of the crew held him back. "Let him go, Purr," Ween said. "He's got an old score to settle. Remember, Garthane told us he'd put the crew of this ship out of action."
"Who'd have believed it?" old Klegg rasped, his voice thick with awe. "Rian's got Blorg trapped in his own ship, while Ylang- Ylang is about to blow like an over-stoked reactor!
The image shuddered violently, smearing its photons allover the face of the vidscreen, vibrating with an intensity that tore at the optic nerve. A second later, the screen flared with an incredible brightness that whited-out the image and left the viewer cursing and holding his hands to his eyes.
Every ship in the flotilla that swung in orbit outside Flaigon's atmosphere bucked and heaved suddenly, pitching its occupants to the decks as the shock waves arising from the black planet's destruction travelled out into space in all directions.
Riven by the League's bombardment of incalculable megatonnage and the terrific surge of energies unleashed by the Fellowship of Light, and black planet burst asunder, exploding from its very core, sending a billion whistling fragments streaming out into the blackness of the void. The dying world's last roar was louder than a chorus of a million dinosaurs screaming in unison as they experienced their last painful moments of life in the prehistory of a thousand worlds. The fragments of Flaigon zoomed like missiles past the starships, a great number of them bouncing off the spacenavy's defense-screens as well" as they went whistling into eternity. Columns of smoke and mushroom clouds were transformed into pennants of fire as they streamed into space, their intense heat funneled into the cooling blackness that surrounded the stars.
