Deep Space Endeavor 3 Death Match (32 page)

______

Garrinoras smiled as he watched Jesse and his beasts fight what amounted to an army of his drapad hunters.
By the time I’m ready to go back out there, Jesse should be exhausted and I’ll kill him easily with my bare hands.
He relished the thought of killing his depleted foe as he rested comfortably. He couldn’t even stand at this point, Jesse had done so much damage to his legs, and he could barely hold a blaster with his off hand. Fortunately, his people were wiring him into a complete armored exo-skeleton. He would only need to think it to do it.
I am going to have two blasters and a large knife. My armor will also be able to shoot small missiles, powerful enough to get through anything that cursed Marcos might want to hide behind. Let’s see him escape that!
He had almost no strength left to fight with, so he waited and watched as Jesse was forced to fight beasts.
I will give it another hour before I make my way out and kill the pitiful human once and for all.
That thought put a smile on his bruise-filled face. His smile didn’t last very long as Marcos took some kind of weapon off his belt and it morphed into a staff. An instant later it shot a grappling hook high into the trees and his foe sailed into the air, away from the danger of the beasts. From his perch, he sat comfortably and killed the beasts at will.
He is not wearing himself out; in fact, it looks as though he is resting. Is there no end to his escapes, no end to his tricks? What is this technology? Metal cannot change its form. No matter, my missiles will take care of him. I would rather use my bare hands, but his death will have to be enough.

He was furious,
how was it even possible for metal to change shape, and how would a human be able to accomplish such a feat when no one on Zinnebulous had ever even thought it up? This Marcos must indeed be from another galaxy because no one in this galaxy has such weapons. The humans of this galaxy would never be able to fight with the skill and abandon that Marcos has exhibited time after time. They are nowhere near as creative, nowhere near as devious and nowhere near as formidable. It makes no difference though, in the end, Marcos will die by my hand
. As much as he continued to say that to himself, he was no longer sure he believed it. For the first time he had to confront the notion that he might not live through this day. He angrily pushed that thought aside as his techs had finished wiring him into his exo-skeleton. He would now be able to move and fight almost as well as before this match started. He looked to the screen one last time and felt a flare of annoyance at what he saw.

Marcos was still casually picking off the hunters from his restful perch high above the arena floor; he just refused to die.
I have thought up every conceivable advantage, and Marcos had overcome them all. He will not be overcoming this armored exo-skeleton
, he thought with a smile.
There is no way he can be prepared for this, or my missiles
, he smiled even wider as he readied himself to enter the arena. He exited the tunnel system almost a hundred yards from his enemy’s position. He confidently strode under the armor’s power towards the tree Jesse was hiding in as he prepared for the final battle.

______

Jesse looked at the armored figure heading his way with a fair amount of skepticism.
I’m happy that I decided to double up my battle suit. I might be slightly less mobile, but I’ll be able to take a lot more punishment. I don’t think my blaster is going to be able to pierce Garrinoras armor, so I’ll have to use the side cannon
.
Unfortunately, I can’t use my side cannon unless Garrinoras breaks out the heavy artillery first
. He had picked off enough of the ugly creatures stalking him that he was confident his beasts could finish them, so he slowly lowered himself from the tree to face off against his opponent one last time. He drew both blasters as the pirate drew both of his and he charged. He must have hit Garrinoras’ armor fifteen times and it didn’t even slow him down. He was thankful for the double battle suit, because he barely felt any of the seven or eight shots he had already taken. Soon they were face to face and Jesse put his blasters away and morphed Helga to blade. Garrinoras took out a long knife and they began their deadly dance. Jesse was scoring several hits but nothing was getting through the armor. Garrinoras had hit him twice, but the battle suit stopped his blade. Jesse leapt in the air and hit the pirate hard across the face with Helga. Garrinoras teetered and a hard front kick from Jesse knocked him over. There was fresh blood on his lip, which meant that he had again drawn first blood. He could end this at any time.

Garrinoras’ suit had him off the ground quickly. He kicked Jesse in the ribs with a robotic powered assault that sent Jesse flying. His ribs were in bad shape and he had to make sure he didn’t puncture a lung. He shot out Helga’s grappling hook as Garrinoras unleashed the first of his missiles. The explosion startled the remaining beasts as they momentarily looked up from their fighting. The pro-human crowd rained down a chorus of boos as the pirate had broken the rules again. How was Jesse going to beat him when he was armed with missiles and wearing armor that small arms could never pierce.

“Missiles? Really?” Jesse angrily yelled. “When you cheat you really go all out, don’t you?”

Garrinoras once again grew angry and his next barrage almost found its mark; as the explosion threw Jesse several meters, causing him to land badly on his ankle. He shot Helga’s grappling hook again, and took it its full distance to get some space between him and his adversary. He quickly fitted his ankle with med-mold, which would harden in less than twenty seconds; and act as a cast for his injured ankle. He needed to do something quickly.

Garrinoras strode confidently towards him and raised his arm to fire another missile, but before he could, Jesse had fired his side cannon, destroying the arm of Garrinoras’ armor. A look of shock crossed his face as he yelled, “Heavy blasters are not allowed, Marcos.”

“Your people cleared it for entry, if you have a problem, take it up with them.” He yelled back. “Missiles aren’t allowed either, so stop crying about it, cheater.”

Garrinoras raged against that last comment and charged Jesse again, only to be stopped short by a blast to the chest. He staggered backwards and looked at his damaged armor. He then took a moment to right himself as three of his beasts jumped at Jesse from behind. Jesse sliced the neck of the first one with Helga, shot the second one with his blaster and was taken off his feet by the third. It scratched at his face and tried to bite his neck as Jesse fired Helga right through its head. It took him almost a full minute to stand and he could no longer see Garrinoras. Eight more beasts were quickly heading his way and he adjusted the side cannon for a wide burst. He took out six with one shot as the crowd went silent. Two of the hunting cats jumped on the last two as Jesse tried to find Garrinoras.

He heard the launch of a small missile from behind him and dove left, coming up in a crouch. He fired his side cannon again, taking out Garrinoras’ cover, and then one more time taking out one of the legs of his armor. The pirate still had his missiles left, though, and decided to use them. He shot three at once and Jesse couldn’t dodge all three. The left one hit him in his injured leg, shredding the pant leg of the outer battle suit. The explosion threw him almost eight meters and he landed in pain. He realized he could not take another hit like that, as unsteady arms aimed his side cannon for its last heavy round. He had one more shot left in his side cannon, and used it to take out the other arm of Garrinoras armor. He no longer had missiles and it would be blaster against blaster.

Garrinoras was limping badly in his nearly destroyed armor. Thankfully, the left leg was still working as that was the leg Marcos had taken so much time damaging. His right leg was injured by Marcos’ impossibly powerful blaster, so he was forced to limp. He also now had only one blaster left. He was holding it in his injured left hand and he could barely aim it, let alone shoot straight. Even if he could, it would not get through the human’s battle suit. The pirate leaned back against the tree to rest and Jesse slowly limped towards him to put an end to the fight.

______

Chief of State Enosal was now very interested in this death match. In the midst of everything else going on in lieu of the previous day’s battle with the alien forces, he found the time to watch the feed intently.
Jesse might actually win this thing. I wonder if the alien alliance will indeed fall apart with no Garrinoras at the helm, especially now that their fleet had been routed over Chawanas.
I should have known better than to doubt that Marcos would find a path to victory. It’s not quite over yet, but Garrinoras looks done, and hopefully that means the war will now be on hold, at least for a while.
As he thought about the match, he felt terrible for Jesse; the amount of pain he had to be in right now looked unbearable.
Why did he go through with it? This galaxy is not his home. He owes the Lawless Sector nothing. Why should he care if strangers went to war? He has some friends on Kaldor, and a couple on Ginderbar, but surely that cannot be enough. He has less than no feelings for Cassie, so that cannot be the reason. Could it really be so millions of strangers will not have to suffer? Whatever his reasoning, if he survives today, he will forever have a friend on Ginderbar.
In a little while, the question would be answered; was Garrinoras the glue holding the alien fleet together? Jesse simply had to win for the galaxy to find out.

As he was lost in thought, he received a transmission from Admiral Dyson. It appeared as if the pirate fleet had wound up in three locations, Trae-bar was at Zinnebulous, Yartan was at Xenul and Xia was at Taglaharn. The entire alliance would be on alert, but he knew they were finished, at least as long as the Hyperians were here. It also seemed as though they had lost faith in their leader’s ability to win. This was a good sign, if the alien alliance did fall apart upon Garrinoras’ death, none of the factions including what was left of the pirates would be strong enough to cause any trouble sector-wide for a long time.
Jesse just stopped a war.
That thought made Ginderbar’s new Chief of State smile. He was now free to make his world truly great. By the time any of these anti-human worlds had enough strength to rear their ugly heads again, Ginderbar would be able to put them down hard, thanks to Jesse Marcos.
I would prefer to live in peace, but I know I need to be ready for war. Such is life in the Lawless Sector.

______

As Jesse was getting ready to deliver the killing blow, one of the drapad hunters, a very large one, broke away from the fight with the snow wolves and charged him. He turned in time for the beast’s jaws to lock on his shoulder as he brought Helga up and stabbed the beast through the chest. The dead beast landed with a crunch on Jesse’s leg, breaking something in his leg. The air in the stadium was no longer pleasant, poisoned by the fetid odor of the dead drapad hunters. Everywhere he looked as he lie in the gritty, golden dirt of the stadium floor, he saw the near toxic blood of the ugly creatures. Jesse rolled on the ground in pain as he held his injured leg. Garrinoras was finally able to find his footing, grab his blaster and move in for the kill. This time, however, it was Garrinoras that was surprised as Commando leapt on him from behind, knocking him to the ground and knocking his weapon out of his reach. The big snow wolf immediately jumped for the throat of another beast that was charging his master as Jesse slowly rose to his feet, and unsteadily drew his blaster. He drew it left handed because the attack from the beast had left him unable to move his right arm. Blood was flowing freely down the front of his battle suit and mingling with the golden dirt that covered his body to form a thick line of dark red mud on his clothing.  Once again, he slowly began limping towards his enemy. He was now radiating pain from every inch of his body. He felt like he was going to pass out.
Please
, he thought,
just hold it together for a couple more minutes
. He shuddered to think of what Garrinoras would do to his unconscious body. He could barely stand on his broken leg. He had next to nothing left in the tank, but he only needed another minute or so.

He noticed that all of the growling had died down as his wolves and three of the Ginderian cats had slowly come up behind him and sat, awaiting his orders. He stopped, holding his blaster mere inches from the pirate’s neck as he saw the fear and confusion in his enemy’s eyes.
He must be wondering how a mere human like me had bested him in single combat. It will be the last thought he ever has
. The
pirate crowd
was silent. They knew their hero was out of tricks and out of luck. The pro-human crowd was on its feet, and from one half of the stadium, there was a deafening roar. The man who would have plunged their entire sector into chaos was about to be killed. The whole situation seemed surreal as he looked around. Blood dripped from his mauled shoulder, there were dead beasts strewn about the arena floor, the colorful birds were still circling overhead and the entire galaxy seemed to pause for a moment.