Chapter XXIV: Zorkon Invasion!

Chapter XXIV: Zorkon Invasion! 

Ballester wakes up to the earth shaking. “What the f**k is going on?” He says groggily. 

“Get up, they’ve landed!” Gorgax tells him as she starts equipping herself. The loudspeakers turn on: 

“This is your Ultimate Ruler, Serge. Everyone to battle stations! This is not a drill! The Zorkons have arrived earlier than anticipated! I repeat, this is NOT a drill! Everyone get your asses up and to your stations!” As Ballester struggles to get up, despite Gorgax urging him, he hears his kids run down the hallway and out of the apartment. 

“Get your a*s up!” She hands him a glass of water, and he drinks it, and bolts out of bed. 

“Damn, what’d you put in that?” 

“Crystal meth, now let’s go!” Ballester gets geared up and follows Gorgax outside the building, where a large ship, surrounded by a bunch of smaller ships, is sitting in the field across from the lab. Just then, the ship that was under construction in Serge’s lab flies up, and out of the atmosphere. Suddenly, the door on the largest ship opens up, and out steps a massive alien, with reptilian features but with metallic skin and easily 12 feet tall. He approaches Ballester’s group, who are front line infantry. 

“I am Zimzax, leader and ruler of the Zorkons. My intel recorded a massive extinction event here. Why are you here?” 

“Not all of us died, plus, we’ve got some help.” Ballester says as he motions towards the Galaxians. 

“Galaxians? Here? This far out? Gave up on trying to reclaim your planet?” 

“So what if we have? This planet has enough water to keep us alive for centuries.” Gorgax tells him. 

“Who is your leader?” Serge walks out of his lab and approaches Zimzax. 

“I am the Ultimate Ruler, Serge.” Zimzax takes a rifle and points it at Serge’s head. 

“Prepare to die, I claim this planet in the name of all Zorkons!” Just as he’s about to fire, a beam of light shows up out of nowhere, and hits Zimzax, but it bounces off of him, hitting Serge, and disintegrating him. Wait, what? Really? “Which one of you is your greatest warrior?” Ballester steps up. 

“You’ve been looking at him the whole time.” 

“Then you will fight for me, take out this army, and you will be greatly rewarded.” 

“F**k you.” Ballester points his gun up towards his head and fires. The bullet just bounces off. “Ah, s**t.” Zimzax grabs Ballester by the throat, and squeezes until Ballester’s head pops like a balloon. 

“I guess since you refuse to surrender, I’m going to take this planet by force!” 

“Like hell you will!” Ballester says as he gets up. 

“Didn’t I just kill you?” 

“Yeah, you wanna try again?” Zimzax grabs Ballester by the waist, and delimbs him, breaks him in half, and decapitates him. 

“Now, as I was saying, your planet is forfeit.” 

“Over my dead body.” 

“What is this sorcery? How are you alive and back together again?” He takes his rifle and shoots multiple holes all over Ballester, resembling Swiss cheese, the holes smoking from the laser burns. Ballester falls over dead again. Ballester gets back up again. 

“Come on, tough guy, show me what you’ve got!” Zimzax grabs Ballester by the head, rips it off, and throws it as hard as he can into the pond by the lab. 

“Indeed, a resilient warrior, he would have proved useful to me, unfortunate that he-” 

“That he what?” 

“AAAAARRRRGGGGHHH!” Zimzax hammers Ballester into the ground with his hand, and then stomps on him, grinding him into the dirt like a spent cigarette. Then, he lights the mashed body on fire, watching it turn to ash. “You are all my slaves now!” 

“I’m not going to let that happen.” Ballester says, as he comes out of the building and lights a blunt. 

“Impossible! No mere mortal can survive all that you have.” 

“I’m no mere mortal, in fact, I’m immortal, and for once, I’m happy about that fact, because now, we’re going to show you why you don’t f**k with Earth, and more importantly, why you don’t f**k with me.” Ballester points his pistol directly at Zimzak’s head. 

“You’ve already demonstrated your ineffective ammo against us, there is no point!” 

“Oh, isn’t there?” Ballester fires, and Zimzak’s eye dissolves, leaving a gaping hole. 

“Aaaaugh!” Zimzak cries out in pain, holding his gaping wound. “What was that?” 

“Corrodium.” 

“We are not leaving without a fight.” He pulls a small microphone out of his pocket. “All hands, prepare to engage the enemy.” The other ships open, and out of all of the ships, similar aliens pour out, facing Ballester’s army. “Attack!” The opposing aliens rush forward, and Ballester motions for his infantry to do the same.  

The two sides clash, the Zorkons disintegrating some of the infantry, the infantry shooting Corrodium and acid from the Frog Squad led by Manboutu. Arizona leads her fellow blind Galaxians, using their psychic powers in a way that causes some of the enemy to lose their minds, some of their heads to explode, and some being cut to pieces via teleportation. Hallester’s unit, having bulletproof skin was no match for the lasers as they weren’t designed to handle them, so Hallester retreats.  

Sniper fire from all directions takes out some Zorkons while others are taking out the snipers they spot. The Corrodium laser, though not at full strength, was enough to melt some ships and enemy infantry. Gorgax’s unit is almost terminated, so she retreats, too. Inside, Hallester and his few remaining soldiers are watching the fight. Chimmy comes running in with a large, mutated hot dog Dachshund following behind him. 

“We got slaughtered out there.” Chimmy says. 

“My squad has fought valiantly in many a space battle, but they were no match for these Zorkons. What I don’t understand is, how do they know of us, but we don’t know of them?” Gorgax asks. 

“Let’s hope my brother and his team can win the day.” Hallester says. 

“There are still two mutated units of Galaxians that are still holding their own.” 

“Oh, no doubt, but my brother and his merry band of invincibles are our best bet.” 

“Maybe you’re right.” The medics rush out of the building, and half start using healing powers on injured soldiers, while others start gathering the dead. 

“All right, you guys reload, and you guys start shooting!” Ballester yells to his men. A clump of alien frogs gets vaporized by a new weapon Zimzax brings out of his ship, resembling a bazooka, but it shoots giant laser beams. He fires again, and half of Ballester’s unit, including B.B catch fire. “Rush them!” The guys on fire start running towards Zimzax’s men. The fire heats up the enemy, and their blood and internal organs start boiling and exploding. Zimzax blows away Arizona’s remaining troops, and she runs into the building. 

“This is not going well at all.” Arizona says. “Should we break out Alfredo?” 

“That’s Ballester’s call.” Gorgax says. “He’s our last resort, so we have to make it count.” 

“We’re so outnumbered out there, though. I don’t even have a squadron anymore.” 

“Look, we’re all in here, because we all lost our squads. It’s down to Manboutu, Ballester, and the snipers to finish the job.” Gorgax tells her. 

“We were definitely not as prepared as we thought we’d be.” Hallester says. “How could you not know of their existence? Haven’t your people been exploring for centuries?” he asks Gorgax. 

“We stopped exploring after we established a route. Anything we heard about the Zorkons were just rumors, that’s it. And none of those rumors said they had metallic skin.” Oigres comes running from his lab, and approaches the group. 

“Did the laser do any damage?” Oigres asks. 

“It took out some of them, and some of their ships, but we’re still outnumbered.” Gorgax tells him. 

“Good to see you made it, mom. How’s dad and Ruzal doing?” 

“Well, your father is holding the line, but I don’t know where your brother is.” 

“Gorgon and Nogal think we should retreat and regroup.” 

“That’s probably a good idea, Manboutu’s forces are almost wiped out, your dad’s unit is the only one with most of their numbers intact.” Ballester runs inside. 

“We’re almost out of Corrodium ammo, we need to start bringing out flamethrowers, they can’t stand the heat.” Everyone goes to the armory, and brings out as many flamethrowers as they can carry, and start giving them to Ballester’s forces. Manboutu joins the group. 

“I’m tapping out, my guys are all dead.” He says. As the healers are bringing in the dead and injured, Ballester looks on with a look of hatred and anger in his face. 

“Don’t worry, dad, boss will get us out of this, he always has a trick up his sleeve.” Oigres says. 

“Serge is dead.” Ballester tells him. 

“What? That’s impossible! Did you talk to Lord Scorpious? Surely he wouldn’t kill himself!” 

“But he did.” 

“Oh my Scorpious.” 

“Come on, we have to rearm the rest of my unit.” They go back to the armory and grab more flamethrowers and start heating up the enemy, which seems to work. Zimzax shoots off his bazooka laser, wiping out the rest of Ballester’s team. “F**k. F**k, f**k, f**k, f**k, F**K!” 

“Do you give up now, warrior? You’ve been a worthy adversary thus far, but you are no match for us.” Zimzax says. 

“F**k. You.” 

“Men, line up.” They do. “Fire on my command...3...2...” 

“Alfredo!” 

“Alfredo?” Alfredo approaches the aliens, scoops them up, and eats them. Everyone who is left, cheers. They all gather in the lobby across from Serge’s lab. 

“Glad that’s over with.” Ballester says. 

“I guess I’ll take over Serge’s lab since he’s gone now.” Oigres says. 

“What about the astronomy lab?” 

“I’ll put it on hold for now.” 

“I don’t know what I’m going to do now.” Ballester says. 

“I’m sure there’s still Scotts and Chings out there to fight.” 

“Yeah, but is it still worth it? I mean, who’s going to be in charge now that Serge is gone? Scorpious doesn’t answer me, so my prayers are falling on deaf ears.” All of a sudden, the ground starts rumbling. They all run outside to see Alfredo stumbling around, and eventually, fall. His stomach explodes, as Zimzax and his men exit, blowing the smoke off his laser bazooka. 

“I believe the day is mine.” Zimzax says, with him and his men aiming their guns towards the group. 

“Fine, I surrender.” Ballester says. 

“Good. Had you done that earlier, we could have avoided all this bloodshed. But hey, you gave me a challenge I have not had in decades.” he grins. “Put out a worldwide announcement that I now rule this planet, and every resident of this pitiful planet will report to me for reassignment. Don’t worry, I have something special planned for you and your little band of misfits. Say, you look like a combination of human and Galaxian.” He tells Oigres. 

“Yeah, I am, so?” 

“Disgusting. Who mated?” 

“Me and her.” Ballester says, sternly. 

“Again, disgusting. The lab will be my new domain, and you, hybrid, you’re a scientist, right?” 

“Yes.” Oigres says. 

“Good, you will carry out my experiments, I have...plans.”