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| Mutagenic Entity |
What to do?
"We need to make the destruction of the Entity our top priority," said Jacob. He was lying on the infirmary bed, with his hands behind his head looking up at the scorched ceiling, communicating to Ling and Vallnam telepathically. They were under Ling's Mind Shield at this point, so they could speak freely, and make their plans without fear of being overheard by the Entity or the Shard, or anything else for that matter.
"Let's go over the problem again," said Ling. "There is the main Entity on the moon. There's a Shard in the Hermit Jar on our ship. The other Shard we vaporized earlier with the plasma beam. As far as we know there are no other Shards, or Shadow Hawk would have detected them by now. However, there is at least one technician that the Entity has some sort of psychic influence over, we think. So, we need to separate the three groups to prevent the Entity from communicating at all while we make our move. Otherwise, if tipped off, it could decide to use whichever technician is in its thrall to trigger the detonation of the missing nuclear device outside our spaceships. And that would be the end of that."
She paused. There was a lot to consider. Their plan had to be meticulous and timed perfectly, or they would not only all wind up dead, but they would likely doom the Earth to one of two hells; either a radioactive extinction level event of the course of a few years, or an alien invasion by the Mutagenic Entity, whose primary objective appeared to be to reach Earth and spread its dominion. If the Entity could not achieve its goal, then it would destroy the world in revenge. Truly the Entity was a creature after The Furor's own heart. Evil to the core of its being.
She paused in thought.
"Then the last piece," she went on, "is to protect Vallnam from the Shard inside the Jar, which can be done if am within Vallnam's Mind Shield and then project my own Mind Shield around the two of us with a narrow enough diameter to block the two of us from the Shard. This way all of the Entity's forces will be disconnected from each another."
"That sounds solid," said Jacob as he sat up, "and while you're blocking them from communicating, that should give me the time I need to haul the Cobalt Bomb to the moon using my Shadow Hawk Armor. Since the suits glide on the magnetic waves of the solar system and can obtain near light speed, I can get to to Eisenhelm with the bomb in tow, I'm estimating, in perhaps ten to twenty seconds given that I'll need to overcome the bomb's inertia to pick up speed. But I don't think the bomb's mass will present any significant problem as the bomb's casing is made of steel. Heck, I could probably haul the entire Giant Nuclear Missile Robot if necessary and it wouldn't take more than a second or two longer. It's the magnetic fields that will be doing the work, not me. In any case, we still need to get to the bomb itself. I'm sure Shadow Hawk can locate the missing bomb by its radiation signature and teleport me to it. It should stand out to her like a sore thumb. My guess is that it's still inside one of the robots," he said as he cracked his knuckles, "or we would have already seen it as a stray. You two have been keeping a careful eye on things, so I don't think it's likely they would have chosen to simply push it off into space hoping nobody would notice."
Ling and Vallnam nodded in agreement.
"Assuming the Entity is at least as smart as we are," Jacob went on, "I'm guessing the technician under their influence is probably holding a failsafe switch of some kind. Probably a detonator, just in case their plans should go awry. I think we can count on the Entity to be as evil as possible. Silencing all their lines of communications in the same instant is going to leave them blind and it will take time for them to even begin wondering if anything unusual is happening. After all, they'd have to already be in Telepathic rapport with someone here to notice that the line had been cut. And I doubt they're keeping a constant connection open. It seems to me their modus operendi is one of stealthy infiltration, and they'd not likely want to take on the risk that we'd detect a Telepathic Link in progress. So I think that all buys us a little time. Hopefully enough for me to get to the moon and detonate the Cobalt Bomb on top of their heads and eradicate them completely."
"And what about Hanna?" asked Vallnam, wondering if Jacob could possibly nuke his girlfriend, despite their estrangement.
"I'm gong to set a timer on the bomb for five minutes, and go down into Eisenhelm to find her. I feel like I have to try. I owe it to her," he said as he thrummed his fingers on his arm. This was not an easy decision for Jacob to make. He was risking everything on a romantic gamble.
"I don't know what you see in her," said Ling. "Clearly she was fully on board with the Nazis. And only when the command structure was destroyed did she show any sign of deviating from her routine behavior. Once you rescue her, she might just go back to her old ways."
"Eh, it's definitely possible. I know this is going to sound corny, and maybe I'm just being affected by the fact that she's such a damn beautiful woman, and the fact that she did seem to kind of almost actually 'like' me for a few minutes there... I think she really did like me for a few minutes... but it isn't that. Actually, it's the fact that she was going through all of that extra effort and risk to bring that prisoner along. That really made me think there must be something more to Hanna than meets the eye."
He gazed at Ling, but he could see she was unconvinced.
"Okay, well think about it," he went on. "She risked her life to go to the military outpost to rescue the old guy, when we knew at that point that the Entity from the science center had already blown out windows and was escaping into the cavern, and she makes sure he's safe. Then when all hell is breaking loose, she takes him with us. I mean look, Eisenhelm was in total chaos, and the place was being melted down and destroyed by the Obliterators, while the Civil War was raging all around us. And what does she do? She rescues a prisoner, and constantly looks out for him to ensure he's safe. And who does it turn out the prisoner is? We don't know, but the last we saw of her, she was with him, and I know it's going to sound nuts but I honestly thought I caught a flash of golden light radiating from his eyes at one point. I'm positive he had some form of mystical power. And being a prisoner of the Nazis, well, come on, seriously -- he was a good guy. And there she was, rescuing him, of all people. The Nazi prisoner. Why? So taking those two things together... one, that I think she actually, um, liked me for a few minutes, and two, that she's risking her life to rescue the Good Guy... makes me believe that deep down inside, Hanna is not a bad person. Maybe she was just born into a bad situation with a bunch of ruthless evil Nazi bastards, and so of course she had learned to be ruthless to stay alive in that environment. But really, she could have left the prisoner behind without batting an eye. After all, Eisenhelm command structure was obliterated. Why should she care if some military prisoner dies in the conflict? But no, she wanted to save that guy? I think it's because she's a good person."
"Maybe," suggested Vallnam, "or maybe he had information in his head that she still needed?"
"Maybe," replied Jacob, "maybe that's true. Who knows? But the fact is, this is a gamble. I'm gambling on a hunch. I admit it. Maybe I'm just being affected by how beautiful she is, and all that. But I feel like, you know, there's something about her... I think deep down. Way, way, way, way deep down, I feel she's a good person at heart."
Ling chuckled at this. Who knew Jacob was such a romantic?
"And then, also," Jacob went on, "to your earlier point, Vallnam, it feels kind of like flying back to Eisenhelm and blowing her to kingdom come without even trying to see if I'm right... well, it just feels raw, and brutal, and wrong. Of course, it's going to be horrible if there's survivors down there, because they're all going to fry, and I'm equipped to only rescue one person, if I can even do that. So this isn't like it's going to absolve me of all of that, but, I don't think there's any choice. So, anyway, that's how I feel about it. Five minutes should give me enough time to swoop in, find her, get close enough to form a Telepathic Link with her on the inside of my Mind Shield, so sixty feet, and find out if she's possessed by the Entity, and if not, rescue her if I can. There's just something about Hanna that makes me believe she's worth rescuing. So five minutes. No more. No less. No matter what happens you're going to see a huge white flash of light on the top of the moon, and if I don't come back, you'll know the rescue didn't work out."
"Alright," murmured Vallnam, blown away by Jacob's resolve to save Hanna, or die trying.
"Well, Jacob," said Ling, deeply impressed by his romantic impulse, "God's speed to you."
"Thank you," he replied quietly. He knew this was probably a suicide mission, but he had to try. And no matter what, the Entity had to be destroyed, and the 500 megaton Cobalt Bomb was the only way to be absolutely sure.
"Shadow Hawk," said Jacob as he sealed his Armor, "locate the missing bomb by its radiation signature and teleport me to it!"
With that Jacob donned his Mind Shield, shimmered in a cloud of scintillating orange-yellow light and vanished.
"Shadow Hawk," said Ling, "please teleport me and Vallnam to the chamber where the Hermit Jar is. As soon as we appear, initiate your maximum range Mind Shield to encompass the two UFOs, and do so at the same moment that Vallnam initiates his Mind Shield around the Shard. You need to time this perfectly, as we can't allow any telepathic communications between the Shard and the technicians."
Shadow Hawk teleported them to a spot within twenty feet of the Hermit Jar, and initiated her Mind Shield with a radius of one thousand feet, enveloping both UFOs inside its shell just as Vallnam initiated his to surround the Shard. As this happened Ling hugged Vallnam tightly and initiated her own Mind Shield around herself and Vallnam, keeping the diameter of hers at ten feet. This put the Shard between Vallnam's outer shell, and her inner shell, so it was blocked from committing any psychic operations against them, try as it might.
And it most certainly did try. As soon as it realized that the humans had launched an attack the vile Shard lanced out with psychic probes to see what the two were up to, but they bounced off Ling's Mind Shield. It then attempted to fry the two of them to cinders with a massive blast of Scarlet Lightning, but this too blazed uselessly against her shell. Locked in a psychic prison, It raged in derision, unable to do anything against them. It launched a telepathic emergency alert to the Entity on the moon, but that too bounced. How furious it was, its tendrils lashing on the inside of the jar frantically! In a last desperate attempt, it sought to transmit a single final telepathic command to Johan, bidding him depress the small blue button on the object in his pocket. Doing so would have activated the immensely powerful nuclear weapon floating nearby, and instantly incinerated him and all within its blast radius. This would have triggered a reaction propagating along the lengthy chain of similar doomsday devices, resulting in a series of colossal explosions from which would have loosed a radioactive cloud so gigantic and lethal that, drawn by the force of gravity, it soon would have descending into Earth's atmosphere and destroyed all signs of life on the surface of the world. Unable to issue this final command, the Shard throbbed and convulsed violently within the unbreakable Hermit Jar, overwhelmed by insane hatred and impotence at its failure.
None of the technicians inside the UFOs were any the wiser, as at that moment there was no direct telepathic link being sustained by the Shard, or the Entity on the moon, with any of them. As Jacob had guessed, their methods were based on insidious infiltration, and so they had influenced only Johan with subtle post-hypnotic suggestions via Telepathy as few times and as sparingly as possible in order to reduce the risk that the heroes and their mysterious ship might inadvertently detect their communications. It was a covert operation, and one that had stood a very good chance of success once the Entity had tricked the heroes into allowing Dietrich to contact Johan via radio. This single communication provided the Entity with the bridge it had needed to establish Telepathic contact with Johan. From that moment on, the Entity's plans were set in motion. And yet, despite all it's cunning plans, Johan was busily working on a routine electrical task under the UFO's navigation console, and had no inkling that a massive Mind Shield had gone up around them all, nor did the Entity on the moon sense that anything unusual had happened. After all, it only connected to Johan in his sleep, and then for only a few precious moments at a time.
After vanishing from the medical bay, Jacob appeared in a shimmering cloud near one of the Giant Nuclear Missile Robots. He scanned it with his vizor's radiation sensor. Sure enough, the telltale glow outlined in orange on the screen indicated that the bomb was indeed inside the robot as he expected. Perhaps he had dreamt it was there in one of the nightmares he had suffered over the past few days. He had no time to waste, so he flew in a graceful arc over to the robot and tethered a cable from his suit to a thick metal bar on its right shoulder. The robot was thirty feet tall, well over five times Jacob's height, but he had no concern about hauling the entire mass. Not a problem. The magnetic fields that the suit used would glide him and his lethal cargo swiftly across the intervening space between his position near Earth to the moon at nearly the same near-light speed whether he towed the bomb alone, or carried it within the giant robot. It was only a few seconds slower, but would save him from having spend the time to extricate the bomb from the interior of the robot. Gripping the metal behemoth by a bar on the other side of its neck, he activated the Helio-Drive. At first progress felt very slow, and he began to worry that he had calculated incorrectly. But within a few seconds the robot's inertia was being overcome and it began to glide smoothly and swiftly towards the moon. He had a bit of difficulty navigating the magnetic fields with such a heavy load, but got the hang of it quickly. They began to accelerate at an exponential rate. The journey normally would only take him a second or two at most, since the suit could move at near light speed anywhere within the solar system, but with the robot in tow it took him a full twenty seconds. He wasn't worried. With his Mind Shield up, and no chance that the Entity had any idea of what the Shadow Hawk Heroes' plans were, he expected to guide the bomb along the exact trajectory necessary to land the colossal weapon directly on top of the secret Nazi fortress. Shadow Hawk's vizor screen was showing him the calibrations and path-lines required, and he glided along effortlessly towards his target.
Jacob had learned a trick or two from the Modroni, though he no longer remembered how or where he had picked these things up. But the power he used was called Blending, and was one of the most effective camouflage capabilities in the galaxy. Without the slightest hesitation he positioned the robot so that no reflective surfaces directed light towards Eisenhelm, and he chose a spot in the sky along which no stars might be occulted by his sudden appearance. He cast the robot into a vibrational pattern that would delicately disrupt any form of radar, or in fact any known detection system. Once that was done, he maneuvered himself along the robot's outer hull, and making his way to the back of the upper torso, he opened the exterior hatch. Stepping inside, he walked along the corridor that led to the bomb bay. There he found the bomb, silently awaiting its destiny. It was still encased in its heavy duty nuclear bomb rack, all indicator lights blinking green.
Jacob was a technician by trade. During the Ultra-War he had been a bomber pilot, and knew the mechanics involved as well as anyone. He also knew that the bomb itself could be set with a timer, as he had spent his time while they waited for the technicians to complete their work doing research on such matters. He didn't bother releasing the bomb from the rack. No need. At the current distance, and trajectory, the robot itself would land on top of Eisenhelm in seven minutes and thirteen seconds. He set the bomb's timer, giving himself five minutes before the explosion. While there was no reason to believe the Entity, or Entities more likely, would detect his presence, or spot the incoming projectile of doom, he was certain that there was nevertheless a slim statistical chance that detection could occur simply out of blind bad luck. Therefore he wanted to keep the risk window as narrow as possible. Five minutes should do. He flipped the switch and the clock began its diabolical countdown. Three hundred seconds and counting.
Jacob opened the outer bay doors and flew out into space. Within his Mind Shield he had no concern that his thoughts could possibly betray him. And so he flitted down to the lunar surface at near light speed, directly towards Mare Frigoris, and then into the shadows of the crater that concealed the now devastated moon-fortress.
Above him the Giant Nuclear Missile Robot's trajectory was making its descent onto that exact spot.
Four minutes, fifty-three seconds.
He entered in through the eviscerated doors of Hanger A. The giant Nazi Eagle emblem had been all but melted into slag by the Obliterator Robot they had encountered during their initial assault on the base. The eagle's metallic left wing was poking out of the ground at an angle, the door having melted all around it.
"Shit," said Jacob to himself, "I forgot something."
He suddenly realized that he needed to take a single, gigantic risk. For one moment he needed to turn his Mind Shield off, and activate his Clairvoyance power so that he could locate Hanna, and see if she was actually alive. Why hadn't he thought of this before? Ah well, it wouldn't have mattered. It had been five days since they'd abandoned Hanna to her fate in Eisenhelm. In fact, the odds that she survived were slim at best. But he had to check. He had to know for sure. And so he dropped his Mind Shield.
Fortunately for him, as it happened, nothing happened. He was not suddenly bombarded by psychic blasts, insidious commands, or anything of the kind. It was more than probable, in fact, that the Entity was occupied with other matters, and not in any way attuned to the unexpected visitor from space. And it was also likely that no telepathic bridge had ever been formed between himself and the Entity on the moon, though of that he was less certain. But even if it were, the Entity would have to be actively reaching out to him to form a telepathic link, or attack. The simple act of lowering his Mind Shield would not necessarily trigger any kind of alert or reaction. And besides, it was only going to be for one moment.
He emanated Clairvoyance towards Hanna, the woman whom he refused to admit he loved. Wherever in the universe she was, he would find her. And lo! Her beautiful face, icy blue eyes, and golden locks of hair came into view! He knew her exact location. Up went the Mind Shield!
"Shadow Hawk," he said, "here's her coordinates. You're familiar with Eisenhelm's architectural layout. Can you map me a path to get me through the ruins to her position?"
Four minutes, thirty-seven seconds.
The map schema appeared on his inner vizor screen. In an instant he was through the melted hanger doors, across the devastated UFO bay, through a set of unhinged metal doors, down a flight of stairs, out into a cavern filled with the bodies of dead Nazi soldiers, down a smoking tunnel covered with debris and fallen rocks, past an immobilized Obliterator Robot, up a metal ladder, and into Hertling's Robot Command Center, now utterly destroyed. Something was moving but he ignored it and flitted past, through a barracks in which clumps of flesh were fibrillating on a medical table, several were in the act of falling to the glassy floor, stained with blood, also ignored, and down a long dark corridor. He flew past Gortaurus at a speed the Centurion could not possibly react to, and came to an area of shattered corridors and a warren of interconnected chambers. His map showed an unobstructed path to a spot within thirty feet of where she was.
Three minutes, eleven seconds.
As soon as he got within thirty feet of her, on the other side of a wall, she came within the radius of his Mind Shield. He activated Mind Reading, and was lucky enough to tune into her perfectly. He was comfortably listening to every thought without hindrance. He instantly knew that she was not under the thrall of the Entity, but hell-bent on fighting against it. He also immediately discovered the reason for her protection of the prisoner.
As it turned out, Hanna had come to the laboratory of Karl Capek with the prisoner, and together they barricaded themselves inside a set of workshops and rooms that had been built within a large hollow metal ball known to Karl as "The Duridium Shell". The roboticist was the person who created the Giant Nuclear Missile Robot force known as The Phalanx. It was he who designed the 500 megaton Cobalt Bombs. He knew perfectly well how much of a danger they posed. He was a man of deep insight, and he had prepared for many decades for many possible contingencies. The shell, he had told Hanna, was the only place in Eisenhelm where it would be possible to ward off the Entities that had been spreading their thorn-zombies throughout the ranks of the Nazis throughout the fortress. Her prisoner was, as Jacob suspected, held tremendous mystic power, and was filled with radiant light, and it was he who had been defending their enclave from the Entities' psychic onslaught for the past five days. He was nearly exhausted of all his energy, barely able to move. And yet, his counter attacks went on, silently, invisibly, and the Entity and its forces were held at bay in the last of the outer corridors. Most of the Nazis in the base had already been turned, but within Capek's fortified lab there were thirty stalwarts holding out for dear life. The best and the brightest of Eisenhelm prepared to make their last stand.
As it turned out, Hanna loved the prisoner. He had been mentoring her for most of her young life, and was like a father to her. He was good, and kind, and a veritable genius who had architected the vast majority of Eisenhelm, as well as many of its most advanced systems of operation. The metallic tape computers were of his design, for example, as well as the design of the Red-Mercury Plasma Vortex Engines that powered the UFO Fleet. A true genius, he had nurtured in Hanna a love of learning, technology, and especially space flight. Under his tutelage she had become the premier space pilot of Eisenhelm's UFO fleet. She was in fact a better pilot than Melitta had been, by far, though Ludendorf refused to acknowledge it. In an instant Jacob learned that the prisoner had originally been at the top of the Eisenhelm hierarchy, just below Ludendorf himself, but he despised the ruthless Nazi command, was an insubordinate subordinate, crafty and cagey. Then, one day when Shadow Hawk had been discovered by a crew of tunnel miners, he outright refused to infiltrate its computer systems, or help them to learn anything about it. They had immediately decided to use the astounding spaceship to conquer Earth, and with it gain control of the Galaxy, the pathetic fools. Therefore, on the advice of Karl Capek, his archrival, Ludendorf and Hertling imprisoned him, and had been attempting to punish him into submission.
Two minutes, forty-six seconds.
"Hanna," said Jacob as he bridged the Telepathic link to her mind. "This is Jacob. I've come to rescue you."
"Who?" asked Hanna in her mind, "How'd you---? I thought you ran away," she responded curtly.
"Well there's not a lot of time to talk about this," said Jacob, "I'm about to drop a nuclear bomb on Eisenhlem, and I've come to rescue you before it goes off. Do you want to come with me?"
"You have a way out of here?" she asked, incredulous.
"I do. For you. I can get us out of here."
One minute, fifty-seven seconds.
"What are you waiting for?" she asked.
"Ok, great!" he shouted, and using Shadow Hawk Amor's short range Teleporter he beamed into the chamber where she was standing.
"You still have your Duridium suit, I see," said Jacob. "Good. You'll need it."
"Yes," she said.
"But this is not about me," she replied, "We need to get him out of here," she said, pointing to the prisoner who had been leaning against a cabinet, but now struggled to stand up. She went to his side and helped him by the arm.
"That's a spacesuit he's wearing, right? I remember when we left the Military Prison through the tunnels. He can go into space with it, right?"
"Yes," she replied, "Let me help him put on his helmet," she said as she took the yellow helmet and lowered it over the old man's head.
"What about Karl?" asked the prisoner as she sealed his helmet and set the suit's oxygen level.
"Karl?" asked Jacob, "what about Karl?"
Karl was standing at a large console turning dials, and setting switches, seemingly oblivious to Jacob's appearance, or the conversation. Beyond him Jacob could see a line of robotic forms assembling in a line. Among them was a small crowd of people, men and women, who were adjusting the robots, and handling equipment, and gearing up for war. On went the helmets, the metal vests, brandishing their Nazi regalia proudly one last time.
Hanna looked at them. They were the last survivors of Eisenhelm. Those who had managed to make it to Capek's Robotics Complex and hold out against all odds for five long tortuous days. Only thirty remained alive. The rest of the thousands of Nazis of Eisenhelm had either perished in the beams of the Obliterators, died battling one another in the Civil War, or had been converted into thralls of The Entity. These last few survivors were gearing up with guns, grenades, hatchets, pick axes, and anything else they could lay their hands on that might serve as weapons.
"As we stand here," said the prisoner, "they are preparing a last stand against the Entity, who is boring its way through the sealed entrance now, attempting to breach the complex and complete its conquest. This is the last redoubt."
"All spaceships were destroyed," said Hanna, "except for a handful of derelict UFOs in Hanger D. How much time do we have?"
"Forty-seven seconds," said Jacob.
"Not enough time to even send the survivors there," she said biting her lip. Jacob took her by the shoulders and looked into her piercing blue eyes.
"Jacob, I can't run away and leave my people to die alone," said Hanna.
Jacob was confused. What did she mean? He didn't understand her words. He could only see her face, her sweet dear lips moving, her blue eyes melting his heart.
"You need to save him," she said, pointing to the prisoner. "I care about one person. Him. If you can't save us all, then you must save him, and go."
"Oh man," said Jacob. "What?"
"My name is Nikola," said the prisoner.
"Hanna, you have to come with me," said Jacob frantically. "You can't save everybody. It's impossible. Please, Hanna, come with me. I came here to rescue you. I can't leave without you!"
She looked Jacob in his eyes, deeply and sincerely. She looked at the thirty men and women prepared to make their last stand and die together as proudly as they had lived. She looked back at Jacob and touched his face with her hand.
"I can't come. I can't leave my people to face the terror alone. I am their leader," she said. "Take him and go."
"I can't leave you, Hanna. I can't do it. I left you once, and I'm never going to leave you again. Come with me, or we all die together."
"You came here to save me," she said in a tone both compassionate and determined, "and the only way to save me, is to save him. That is where my heart is. If you want to do something for me, save Nikola. Please."
And with this, she used one of her few mystic skills, Hypnotic Suggestion Major. She was fast and focused, and beat Jacob to the punch, just a fraction of second before he could apply his own mystic power "Indominable Will" to overcome her and save her life. In a flash he found himself unable to resist her command. He had lost, and she had won.
"Grab him," commanded Hanna with an intonation so persuasive it was utterly impossible to resist, "and take him as far away from this place as you can. Don't look back."
Seven seconds.
Jacob, unable to do otherwise, took Nikola by the arm and teleported one thousand feet above the moon's surface with him. The glinting hull of the Giant Nuclear Missile Robot could be seen descending at high speed from above directly towards Eisenhelm.
Three seconds.
Now in space, Jacob ordered his Shadow Hawk Armor to flit away at Near-Light-Speed towards Earth, hovering above the moon's horizon like a blue and white marble. His eyes were streaming with tears.
Behind him there was an enormous flash of blue-white light. He was flying at 99.97% the speed of light, yet the suit's Modroni Stasis Field covering both himself and his passenger so that they felt nothing unusual at all. The problem of accelerating matter to relativistic speeds had been solved ages ago by Modroni scientists on a distant world. And so Jacob and Nikola were not destroyed by the speed of their flight, nor was anything around them so much as disturbed. They moved within a small temporal bubble, inside of which everything felt quite normal. Around the bubble space-time bent, and curved, swallowing time into the fifth dimension, allowing the magnetic lines of force in the solar system to accelerate them to near light speed. They sped away from the unbearably brilliant blast of the 500 megaton Cobalt Bomb. The glow lasted for a long time. On the surface of the moon where Eisenhelm once stood, there was a radioactive crater of magma so brilliant it was impossible to look into, about ten miles in diameter. Slowly the crater cooled into giant lake of molten radioactive slag, yellow, then orange, then red. At the bottom was a single lump of rock, the final remains of Eisenhelm, and all else was frothing magma, broiling and bubbling for the span of several hours, and nothing more. And so ended the existence of the once great and mighty Eisenhelm. The secret Nazi fortress had been utterly obliterated by its own weapon.
Ling and Vallnam watched Shadow Hawk's vizi-screen, holding on to each other as they waited for a sign that Jacob's mission had been completed. They watched the moon pensively. A several minutes had gone by. Then the three hundredth second came, and suddenly, at the moon's north pole, a brilliant blue-white light, like an exploding star, blazed forth and caused the entire screen to go white. At that moment Jacob came flying into view, holding a figure in a bright yellow spacesuit by the shoulder. Ling and Vallnam believed it was Hanna. Jacob stopped some ten miles away from Shadow Hawk. They could barely see them against the white glow of the background radiation, but it was clear enough that two had returned from the moon. He established a Telepathic link between himself, and the others, including Nikola. And so the elder genius revealed his story as the white glow of the moon slowly dimmed behind them.
As it turned out, the prisoner was "the father of Alternating Current, Electrical Engineering, Radio, and modern physics." In 1943, Nikola Tesla supposedly died alone and impoverished in NYC, but in fact, the Nazis in 1941 had made him an offer he couldn't refuse. He was to become the Chief Science Officer of the future Eisenhelm Moon-Fleet under Admiral Ludendorf. He protested, and refused, of course, but it was to no avail. The Nazis in 1941 were not taking "no" for an answer. Having been wrecked financially by the conniving tactics of Edison and JP Morgan, and under dreadful duress, and with offers of resources he could never obtain on Earth, he had capitulated. He began work on the Red-Mercury Plasma Vortex Engine in 1941, created Die Gloke as a first experimental model, and finally in 1943, they whisked him away to the moon, where he remained, helping to establish Eisenhelm and bring it to life.
Early on in his career on the moon, however, seeing the raw and visceral malice and stupidity that truly characterized the Nazi regime, Nikola converted to Christianity. When Shadow Hawk had been discovered, instead of helping with the analysis as ordered, as a act of defiance against their evil ways, he spent his time secretly building an eighteen-foot-tall Crucifix, replete with a statue of hanging Jesus on it, outside in the shadows beneath Hanger B. It was at that point that Ludendorf and Hertling had had enough, and upon discovering the crucifix, they imprisoned him in the Wolf Brigade Military Prison where the treated him quite poorly. He was unphased by this, and no amount of privation or torture would dissuade him from refusing to aid the Nazis ever again. As it happened, Hanna, he explained, had secretly also converted to Christianity, along with Lieutenant Wagner, and the two of them had sworn to protect him as best they could. She was his disciple, and she prevented the Nazi's from killing him. Lieutenant Wagner, unfortunately, had been shot by Melitta in a fit of spite on her way to escape Eisenhelm with General Hertling and Admiral Ludendorf, before Vallnam and Jacob had inadvertently killed all three.
And now, after all these years, Nikola Tesla was finally returning to Earth. He was elated with anticipation.
"Elon Musk," said Vallnam upon hearing his story, "is going to be very nervous."
"That's an interesting point," commented Jacob dryly.
"So, your mission was successful, Jacob," said Ling, looking out at the glow at the top of the moon.
"No," he replied gravely. "Well, yes. But no."
"What happened?" she asked.
"It's unbelievable," he replied. "I will never be able to explain it. Hanna remained behind to stay with her people. She refused to abandon them."
"Oh my god," said Ling.
"There's nothing to say," he replied. "We are here, and now we need to finish this."
"Right," she replied. "Well, you better not stay out there all day. Why don't you teleport into one of the UFOs?"
"Good idea," replied Jacob, as they did not wish to reveal Shadow Hawk to their guest, given that their mandate was to keep Shadow Hawk a perpetual secret.
As soon as they materialized inside the lead UFO, Jacob stepped briskly past the surprised technicians and took a position at the weapons console. Nikola stood nearby in silence, keenly observing Jacob's actions.
"Ok, let's finish this," said Jacob to Ling.
"Yes, let's do that that," she replied firmly. "Shadow Hawk, teleport the Shard from the Hermit Jar into space one mile in the direction of an empty region."
The Shard, the last of its kind, shimmered briefly, and vanished from the Hermit Jar. One mile away, it materialized in empty space, crinkled into a frozen mass of twigs, roots and thorns, and died outwardly. Inwardly, however, the tardigrade DNA kicked into activity, and with its genes at the ready, it congealed into a mass of hibernating wood-like tendrils. It would float that way indefinitely until it came into contact with a favorable environment, and then revive.
Jacob spotted it immediately on the UFO's sensor screen as a small red blip, set the targeting controls, and pressed the Plasma Cannon trigger button. A crimson-orange beam that lanced across space and vaporized the Shard. And that was the end of the Entity that the Nazi scientists had made.
"Do we teleport all of the technicians out into space now?" asked Vallnam.
"What?" asked Ling, raising an eyebrow.
"Then Jacob can blast them with the Plasma Cannon. It'll be quick and painless," finished Vallnam.
"So you're thinking we should annihilate them all, the guilty and the innocent together, is that it?" Ling inquired.
"Well, let's face it," he replied coolly, "they'd all band together against us if push came to shove. I mean they were all really on board with the Entity slipping a nuke past us, weren't they? I don't think we can trust them."
"Well, no," said Ling. "I'm not okay with us just killing them all outright! After all, it has become apparent that whomever was responsible among them was probably under a Compulsion from the Entity. We can't just execute them for something that was outside their control, especially those who were completely innocent."
"Okay," replied Vallnam. "So now that we've killed the Entity, and the Shard, they should no longer be under control. Right?"
"Correct," replied Ling.
"Good," said Vallnam, "then we can Mind Read them, and find out what they're thinking now. If they were under Mind Control before, then they should have nice, happy, clean, pro-Earth thoughts now. And if we find any that are thinking that when they get to Earth they can take over the world, or reprogram the robots to listen to them only, anything of the kind, now would be the best time to, um, handle it... send them out into space, and obliterate them. You know, as an example to the others. We can tell them, 'You're either happy on Earth, or you die.' How's that?"
There was a pause as Ling and Jacob tried to digest this idea. It sounded odd, coming from Vallnam. This was the kind of thinking Ling might have expected from Jacob, but for Vallnam to say it came as a shock. Jacob, for his part, found himself largely in agreement with Vallnam's point, and was nodding affirmatively.
"You've become very brutal," said Ling. "What happened to our kindhearted hero?"
"I've gotten to the point," he replied, "where I find myself a little angry with everything that's happened. The Nazis, and the deceit, and the insidious Mind invasions... some people are just not able to be saved, I guess. We need to protect the Earth. And what are we going to do if they turn out to be just another problem we bring down to Earth? Federation has enough trouble on its hands without us dragging in another boatload, don't you think?"
"Yep," said Jacob. "Don't take the chance. That sounds about right."
"Wait," said Ling, aghast. "Didn't you just try to rescue one of them, Jacob, and now you showed up with another one who you just brought on board?"
"Who, Nikola? Nah, he's not one of them," replied Jacob. "He's one of the good guys. I have it on good authority."
"And what good authority would that be?" asked Ling.
"Well," replied Jacob, "I know this is probably going to sound a bit corny again, but... Hanna told me he's a good guy. And I believe her."
"I see," said Ling and decided to leave it there. She could tell that Jacob was holding back a lot of emotion at the moment. "Ok well," she said, "I can agree that we Mind Read the lot of them, but I think we can neutralize any of them who are no good without killing them."
"I could turn them into vegetables," offered Vallnam.
They stared at him.
"They'd still be alive, technically," said Vallnam. "I could give them basically a lobotomy with my psychic powers. I could do it so that they can feed themselves, do basic stuff, and even enjoy themselves, but they'd simply have no higher mental function. Would keep them out of trouble, so to say."
They decided to wait on a decision until after the reading of the minds. To his credit, Vallnam did wish to be fair about it, but he also wanted to make dead sure that none of them wanted to do anything nefarious. If they wanted to live peaceably on Earth and join the Federation and help Earth, then he was perfectly ok with letting them do so. But any who had a mindset otherwise, he felt should be immediately destroyed.
"Okay Vallnam," said Ling, "why don't you read each of their minds and let us know what they're thinking?"
And so he did. He lowered his Mind Shield and activated his Level 10 "Mind Reading Major" ability and had at it.
Unfortunately, unbeknownst to any of them, there was a cloud of black vapors in the shape of a sphinx floating not terribly far off. It's plans had been utterly ruined and it was positively fuming with hatred for Vallnam and his friends. All of the Entities, and Eisenhelm itself, had been vaporized. While it did offer up an rather delightful feast of souls, decades of careful planning and insidious infiltrations had been completely wrecked by the trio of heroes. Worst of all, they'd freed Nikola Tesla from captivity on the moon and were about to return him to Earth! This was utterly outrageous! The Being of the Void was beside itself with consternation. It focused its livid attention on Vallnam's mental vibration.
[Gamemaster's note: this was all rolled as per usual, and Charles, Vallnam's player, fumbled, and so the Dark-Sphinx was determined to be the surreptitious cause.]
One by one Vallnam read every mind on each of the UFOs. All eighteen men had thoughts as pure as the driven snow. They wanted nothing more than to land on Earth and run through meadows with flowers in their hair, sipping lemonade, watching clouds float by, and all the things that most of them had never had the slightest chance of doing on the moon, but had grown up hearing all about life on Earth as fairytale stories in their youth. Not a single one among them had the slightest negative thought at all.
Outside in the depths of blackest space, the creature of the Void smirked ruthlessly. The humans were such simple-minded creatures! So easy to deceive! So easy to manipulate! If the creature could have drooled with delight, it would have, lusting after Vallnam's demise as it did.
"Okay," said Vallnam once he had completed Mind Reading of the technicians. "They're all clean and good to go to Earth and pursue their happy lives. Glad to see it, to be honest."
"That's a relief," replied Ling, much appreciating the fact that they didn't need to deliberate any further about what to do with any of the technicians who might have turned out less than pristine. She smiled, and patted Vallnam on the back. "Good job," she chirped happily.
"My only regret," said Vallnam, "is that we didn't get the Duridium suit from Hanna."
"Maybe she's still alive," offered Ling.
They gazed out the window at the moon. The north pole was glowing a fierce red color, and a gigantic plume of massively radioactive dirt was spreading out across the lunar surface in a gigantic series of concentric rings.
"Nahhh," they said in unison.
And that is where we left it that evening.
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