Deathstalker 04 - Deathstalker Honor

smile, and finally came to a halt a respectful distance away from the two humans guarding the valley entrance. He was still in disrupter range, but Random was pretty sure his Shub double was fast enough to dodge an energy beam if he had to.
    “Well, well,” said Young Jack Random pleasantly. “Here we all are again. Funny how we keep bumping into each other, isn’t it? It must be fate. How are you both feeling?”
    “Strong enough to kick your metal ass,” growled Ruby.
    “What do you want?” said Random.
    “To fulfill my mission here,” said Young Jack Random, standing tall and heroic in his silver armor. “To wipe out every living human on this planet and make it over into a Shub base.”
    “I take it your rebel allies don’t know that,” said Random. “Oh, I think they probably do, deep down, but they don’t want to admit it. The human talent for self-deception never ceases to amaze me. Still, they and their pitiful army are irrelevant now. While they’re keeping your forces occupied, I will take my army to Vidar and destroy it.”
    “You have to get past us first,” said Ruby. “And you’ve already seen what we can do when we put our minds to it.”
    “Yes, and very impressive it was,” said Young Jack Random. “But not totally unexpected. Our files on you are really quite extensive. We’ve studied every use of your remarkable powers, on every occasion.
    And being the great brains that we are, we came up with an answer. You see, you’re really talking to the rogue AIs of Shub. We’re running all our forces on this miserable planet through this focus. That’s why you couldn’t kill us on Golgotha. Only a body died there, and we have so many bodies. This one is very special. We built something very powerful into it and then sent it here, knowing your human egos would demand you come to face it.”
    “Wait a minute,” said Ruby. “You mean you staged all this, killed all these people, just to get to us?”
    “Now, isn’t that just typical of human egos?” said Young Jack Random. “No, my dear, you’re not that important. Loki is a vital staging point in our expansion into Human space. But we did set things up to bring you here too. You Maze people fascinate us. And we are determined to have you in our laboratories so we can learn to do what you do. To that end, a very special device was installed in me.
    Its function, to suppress your more than human powers and abilities. The most powerful esp-blocker ever built.” His smile widened. “And yes, it’s been operating all the time I’ve been standing here. You are quite helpless. I advise you to surrender. If not, I will be obliged to hurt you.” Random and Ruby looked at each other and began to laugh. Young Jack Random looked from one to the other. “I really don’t see what use hysteria is in this situation…” “You idiot,” said Random. “Whatever we may be, we’re not espers. We established that long ago.”
    And he reached inside himself and pulled up the last few sparks of his power, then surged forward, crossing the space between them with impossible speed. He raised his sword and brought it savagely down toward the Fury’s head. Flames flared around the steel blade. Young Jack Random raised a hand as though to block the blow. The blazing sword sheared through the flesh and metal hand, buried itself in Young Jack Random’s metal skull, and then continued on down in a shower of sparks, cutting through the steel and flesh body till it erupted out of his groin. The two halves of the Fury fell slowly away from each other, and lay sparking and spitting on the ground. Random stood over them, just a little out of breath.
    “That… isn’t possible,” said a cold metallic voice from one side of the sundered head.
    “It is if I believe it is,” said Random. “Now shut the hell up and die.” He stamped on the left half of the metal head, and crushed it flat under his boot. Ruby came over and stamped on the other side of the head, and then they both used their disrupters on the two halves of the body, blowing them apart. And
    out on the plain, every one of the surviving Ghost Warriors suddenly collapsed and lay still, as though all their strings had been cut. “Of course,” said Ruby. “He said he was Shub’s focus. With communications being so difficult on Loki, they needed a booster to maintain their control, and that was him. With him gone, they’re just so much metal junk. You know what, Jack, I think we