Jack Blank and the End of Infinity (15 page)

Jack brought the ship around to face the Rüstov and charged forward into a wall of enemy fire. Roka and Midknight followed him in. Jack bobbed and weaved through the onslaught of enemy laser blasts and around the advancing starfighters, narrowly missing head-on collisions by inches and swirling through the air. He couldn’t use his powers against the Rüstov, but his own ship was another matter entirely. The aircraft Jack flew was built for med-team extractions, not aerial assaults, but with him at the helm it was like an untouchable stealth fighter. He used his powers to help the targeting system tag Shardwings the second they came within range, and Allegra blew them out of the sky. Jack’s friends flew actual stealth
fighters and did the same. Midknight squared off in a dogfight against three Shardwings and picked them off one by one. Shardwings chased Roka through the air from the opposite end of the sky, but he and Midknight flew at each other like they were playing chicken and veered off at the very last second. The Rüstov fighters behind them crashed into one another, exploding into a gorgeous fireball. Every time they took out a Rüstov gunship, they saved lives. As Jack flew across the city, with Allegra firing away, he could see the whole battlefield. Jack could feel how many ships were out there. He was surprised that there weren’t more of them. Things had felt more chaotic on the ground.

“He’s not here,” Jack said over the radio. “The Magus isn’t here yet.”

“First good news we’ve had all day,” Roka said. “This isn’t the full invasion. Not enough ships. This is just the first wave.”

“The bad news is, the first wave is winning,” Midknight said.

“Of course we are,” Khalix gloated inside Jack’s head. “We have destiny on our side.”

Jack bristled at Khalix’s constant interruptions. “You talk too much.” He took control of the weapons systems for a moment and sent six tiny missiles out at the same number of Shardwings. “You all do,” he added as the Rüstov ships burst into flames. “I’m listening in on their radio chatter,” Jack called out to his friends. “It’s filled with static, but I can make out enough to run with. Roka’s right. This attack is just them trying to break us. They’re setting up a command post with ground troops on Wrekzaw Isle, and Glave is there! That’s where we need to go.”

“Wrekzaw Isle it is,” Midknight said. “Let’s go, people.”

Midknight turned his Maverick toward Wrekzaw, the downed Rüstov vessel from the first invasion that still circled the Imagine Nation like a ghost ship. Jack and Roka rocketed after the old hero, bearing down on a legion of fighters that had created a blockade off the coast of the island. There were more Shardwing squadrons and several midsize gunships as well. It was a lot of firepower for four ships to take on, enough to make anybody think twice. “This is really just the first wave?” Allegra asked.

Jack swallowed hard as he approached the blockade. Allegra had a point. The amount of fighters in the sky
definitely put the might of the Rüstov Armada in perspective. Jack didn’t know what was scarier, the fact that this was just a minor force, or the major damage it had already done. Far off in the distance, Jack could see the ships forming an escort for a giant Rüstov battleship. Jack had never seen its like before, but he was about to get a very good look at it.

The air between the Imagine Nation and Wrekzaw Isle was alive with bullets and exploding shells—enough to make the airspace over the city seem peaceful by comparison. Luckily, Jack had experience dodging bullets. Just like he had with the
Harbinger
, Jack bypassed the ship’s controls in favor of flying with his mind. His reaction times were amplified by a direct connection with the ship’s radar system, helping him anticipate enemy movements and change course with the speed of thought. The Rüstov Armada pressed the advantage of superior numbers against Jack from every direction, but they couldn’t touch him. He searched the sky for the
Apocalypse
. Nothing. He felt for the Magus with his powers. It was definite. He wasn’t here. Jack breathed a sigh of relief. “Your father isn’t here yet, Khalix. You lied about that.”
What else were you lying about?
Jack wondered.

“I don’t need to lie to you, Jack. The truth will set me free.”

Another slideshow of graphic combat images poured into Jack’s brain. A century’s worth of battles in the Rüstov’s infinite war. Why was he seeing this again? Jack fought through this onslaught quicker than the last, but mental time-outs of any duration are not an option while flying an aircraft. When Jack’s head cleared, alarms were blaring and red lights were flashing in the ship’s cabin. “Rüstov on our six, Jack!” Allegra shouted. “They’ve got missile lock!”

Jack shook his head and dove his ship down toward the ocean, trying to shake the Shardwing on his tail. The enemy ship followed right behind like it was magnetically attached. Roka swooped in and blew it out of the sky, but not before it fired three missiles at Jack.

“Rüstov warheads, coming in hot!” Allegra shouted.

“I got ’em,” Roka said over the radio. “Just give me some space.” Jack turned back toward the city and pushed his ship hard, trying to put as much room as he could between his tailfin and the missiles that were chasing it. As he crossed back over Galaxis, Roka swooped in to pull
them off his tail. He cut across Jack’s jet wash, and the missiles locked onto his ship’s heat signature instead.

“Roka, they’re on you now!” Jack shouted.

“Got ’em right where I want ’em,” Roka said. He spun around and raced back toward the blockade, zigzagging on through in the direction of a midsize gunship. Just like when he was playing chicken with Jazen, Roka pulled up at the last possible moment and swung the Rüstov warheads straight into one of their own ships. The resulting explosion took out a gunship and the two Shardwings closest to it.

“Nice moves, Roka!” Midknight said.

Roka snorted out a small laugh. “You don’t last long raiding Rüstov ships if you don’t have a few tricks up your sleeve.”

“I wondered if Roka has any idea how hard it is to get a compliment like that out of Midknight,” Allegra said.

“Doubt it,” Jack replied.

Midknight and Roka kept up their aerial assault, trying to poke enough holes in the Rüstov blockade to break it down, but they were up against a lot of ships, and the odds grew worse the farther away they got from Empire
City. They were hopelessly outnumbered over Wrekzaw Isle. Jack’s sprint away from the missiles had taken him as far as Hightown. He had to get back out there and help his friends. He turned his ship around and nearly crashed into a train that was running down the side of a building.

Jack went into another spiral dive and flew alongside the train as it went. “What is this thing doing?” Jack wondered as he pulled away from the track. “It’s running straight into the battle zone.” In his rearview, Jack saw the train level off and charge into an open-air station. He stopped the train there, and hundreds of people ran out screaming. Rüstov Shardwings flew overhead shooting at them, and Jack circled back to provide cover. He parked himself over the train and Allegra shot up at the Shardwing fighters in wide, sweeping arcs. They were saving lives on the train platform, but off the coast of the island, Jack saw Roka and Midknight both get blasted with direct hits. “No!”

He was relieved to see them both punch out before their ships crashed into the sea. The ejection seats in the Maverick fighters didn’t pop parachutes. They transformed into jet packs for greater maneuverability, but Jack’s friends were still surrounded. He wanted to help,
but flying out to them meant leaving the people on the platform defenseless.

Just then several glowing streams of light shot past Jack’s ship. They looped back around and whipped their luminous tails into the Shardwings at the station. As the Rüstov fighters went spinning away, Zhi, Trea, and Lorem pulled up alongside Jack’s ship.

“Everybody okay?” Allegra asked.

Lorem beat out a small fire on her sleeve. “Close enough.”

“Zhi, Roka and Midknight need help,” Jack said, pointing. “They’re sitting ducks out there in the open!”

Zhi nodded and gripped the reins of his dragon. He became a brilliant blur as he raced out past the edge of the island. Two empty dragons followed close behind. Jack kicked his ship back into gear and did the same. “C’mon, guys, we’ve got a job to do.”

“You’re telling us?” one of the Treas said, flying up next to Jack.

“We’ve been training all year for this,” another Trea said, flying in on the other side. “You’re the one who’s been away on vacation.”

Jack laughed. “Vacation! Yeah, right.”

“Blah, blah, blah . . . ,” the third Trea said. “Enough with the talking already. Let’s go!” She dashed ahead of the group, and everyone followed her back into the fray.

As Jack flew back across Galaxis, he saw that even more heroes had joined the fight. A glowing blue streak of energy was bouncing off buildings and into Rüstov ships, disabling them. Jack recognized the energy signature of Allegra’s old mentor, Ricochet. Chi’s ninjas were pouring in from Karateka, and Smart’s WarHawks were in the air too, fighting alongside the aliens of Galaxis. Jack saw Smart’s soldiers pulling people out of harm’s way, throwing their fists into Rüstov ships, and cutting Shardwings in half. Jack turned away from the city and headed back to Wrekzaw Isle. He didn’t think the WarHawks were going to bother with him, not with the Rüstov attacking all around, but he didn’t want to take any chances.

As Jack closed in on the blockade of Rüstov ships surrounding the island, he saw that Midknight and Roka had both ditched their jet packs in favor of Zhi’s dragons. The Shardwings were running interference for the giant battleship that lumbered toward the city. Once the
ship got close enough, Jack realized what it was.

“Guys, that ship!” he shouted into his radio. “It’s a carrier! The whole thing’s loaded with Para-Soldiers. We can’t let it reach the city!”

No one heard him. Roka and Midknight weren’t on radio, and even if they were, it was going to take more than Zhi’s dragons to bring down a ship of that size. Jack aimed his ship at the carrier and went in on his own. The Shardwings and midsize gunships opened fire on him as he flew in to attack. Jack looped around a string of exploding shells from a Rüstov cannon and dropped down below the carrier, rolling into a controlled spin that danced directly through the ship’s laser fire. Allegra emptied the plasma cannons into the carrier’s belly, but the Rüstov ship sustained minimal damage. Jack’s friends on the dragons batted Rüstov ships into the carrier but failed to do any more damage than he had. They were denting the ship. That was it. They weren’t doing enough to stop it.

The Rüstov carrier inched closer to Empire City, and a platoon of Valorian Guardsmen shot out to meet it. They tore though the carrier’s escort and hit the ship hard, but a second group of Shardwings came in to push them back.
The Shardwings were flying right into Valorians, sacrificing themselves to drive them out of the carrier’s path.

Suddenly, three pods shot out of the carrier and went blasting by Jack’s ship. He knew in an instant that they were filled with Para-Soldiers who were itching for new hosts. Jack chased after them and Allegra opened fire. The plasma cannons were empty, so she switched to missiles, sending the last of their ammunition out after the Rüstov transports.

“This is it,” she said. “Let’s hope they find their mark.”

“They will,” Jack said, using his powers to make sure of it. He drove a missile into the first pod and blew it out of the sky, but he was too close to the blast. The shrapnel from the explosion hit his ship before he could take out the other two. The momentary distraction was enough to make him lose control of the remaining missiles, and they sailed off in wild, erratic routes that missed the Rüstov pods entirely and struck Hero Square instead. The massive Legendary Flame Monument toppled over and cracked at the neck as it hit the ground. Jack grumbled as the last two pods raced toward the city.

“You know people are gonna think I did that on purpose.”

Midknight, Lorem, and Zhi took out the second pod with their dragons and knocked it into the sea. Roka and the three Treas chased down the last one, but it was too far ahead of them.

“Jack, they’re not going to make it,” Allegra said, pointing ahead. The pod struck Hero Square, and Rüstov parasites without hosts started crawling out like ants from a crack in the wall.

Jack heard a sound like a cannon firing and saw that the carrier had launched another pod. “Got another one over here,” he said. Without any more ammo in his guns, all he could do was watch as it reached Galaxis untouched. Seconds later, Para-Soldiers were running through the spaceport. Chi’s ninjas were there fighting them, but their numbers were already severely depleted from the air raids. “Is Stendeval with us yet?” Jack asked.

“I don’t know,” Allegra said.

Jack looked at the horizon and started getting nervous. Sunrise was still minutes away. That meant Stendeval’s power was as well, and those few short minutes made all the difference in the world. Rüstov Para-Soldiers had deployed on the ground. Parasites were taking fresh hosts
and there were thousands more on board the carrier. “If that ship makes landfall, it’s game over,” Jack said to himself. He shook his head. “Can’t happen.” He took his ship back into Hightown and headed straight for the mile-high train station he’d defended earlier. “Allegra, grab a headset. I need to make sure everyone’s off that train.”

“What?”

“No time! Just do it!” Allegra snapped a communicator over her ear, and Jack ejected her from the ship without warning. He kept flying forward toward Galaxis, and Allegra morphed her silver body to flap out a pair of wings. She swooped down toward the train station like an eagle. On his way through Galaxis, Jack took control of every ship he could and pointed them all at the Rüstov carrier. HoverCars, cargo ships . . . anything that could fly got turned on and sent out at the blockade. It didn’t matter that most of them had no weapons. For what Jack had in mind, the ships were weapons all by themselves.

“Jack, the train is clear,” Allegra said on the search-and-rescue ship’s internal channel. “Now what?”