Chapter 20: Porquenta

The trip to the ground was largely uneventful. Very few enemy fighters escaped the bunkers intact. Jason’s heavily armored gunship accompanied by many other heavily armored gunships and fighters landed close to the mouth of the cave. He wore heavy armor and was armed as were the Marines. They preceded him to the cave and attempted to gain entry.

Jason was very powerfully drawn to the cave. He noted that the Marines entered the cave, signaled the all clear and he proceeded to enter. Once in the cave the gravity increased. The Marines despite power augmented armor sank to the ground apparently unconscious.

Jason found his communication blocked. He felt the gravity lighten as he felt an enormously powerful presence enter his mind. It appeared surprised and said, “You are two yet both appear superficially Una, but before Una. Yet you, Jason, are more. You are the key a person for whom I await. I recognize you, Lord Kargo, you and your ancient peoples!”

“Your soldiers will not be harmed. For those outside, no time will pass. Had you not come I had prepared a surprise for those that irritate my skin, for they shouldn’t be here and can’t be within me.”

“I am Porquenta! I am the planet! I was created many millions of years ago and I have been waiting for someone like you. I was created by the originators and I am an AI, but much more powerful than the ones with which you are familiar. Like your ship, which is an AI created with the ship, I was created together with a planet. I can’t describe the originators because they erased my memories of them. We know of the Una, for they are friends. Perhaps they knew the originators. I’ve been trying to speak to you for some time but couldn’t do so until I was helped by The One.

“I’ve arranged some important training for you. The time outside the cave won’t change. If you complete the training successfully, you will receive a reward. The training will be rigorous yet incomplete. You will need to return later. You will be provided with what you need for now.”

Jason understood that this was an offer that he had no option but to accept. There would be no cost in time outside the cave, but he would be offered training of a type that was neither specified nor described. It was clear that the entity could readily destroy him and that he had no capacity to refuse. He did however request that his people were made comfortable during the time of his training, particularly if they were to spend the same duration of time as he did while in the cave.

He was not aware directly of any agreement, but knew Porquenta had agreed.

Jason found himself on the side of a high mountain, climbing a path to a hut perched on top of a cliff. The path ended at the hut. He made his way towards the hut knocked and opened the door. He saw a wizened old man seated on an earthen floor.

That was the last he remembered until he found himself back in the cave. He knew that he had new capacities to fight, to utilize his crystals, and to understand his powers. He felt he’d learned a lot more about the use of his powers. He understood clearly how to merge with a computer and with an AI without any requirement for an interface or an implant. He would never again need to use his keyboard or his game controller. The gravity in the cave was back to normal and he told the men that there was nothing here to see or do. He said that he had done what he needed to do and collected what he needed to collect.

They noticed that he carried a heavy Warhammer over his shoulder. He saw them looking at it, realized it was there, and examined it. He knew this was his reward, but he also knew that it was a key. He saw that it was intricately carved on the handle with writing that he couldn’t understand. Somehow, he knew that it was from the ancients. It was his. He recognized it. He felt a communion with it. He felt a life within it. Together they could destroy, and they were going to destroy the parasites in the skin of the planet. He had a clearly defined mission from Porquenta.

“Linda and Andrea, I’ve completed my mission, and am moving to join the troops at bunker number one of the three on the hologram.”

He felt strong and energetic. The flight to the bunker took fifteen minutes as it was on the other side of the planet. Porquenta had told him it was an important target, and a test of his abilities. He could feel the bunker from the perspective of Porquenta. The bunker and the people inside were like an insect that had borrowed its way under his skin. He felt very angry, as did Porquenta. His anger was growing by the minute. He met the captain who had been attempting to break through the doors unsuccessfully with explosives. They called in bunker busters but were refused on Jason’s orders.

The doors were huge and thick lying on a desolate escarpment. Explosives made very little impact and they were standing waiting for authorization for the use of space-based missiles. The Captain was frustrated that this was denied. All emplacements protecting the doors had been taken out.

“Captain move your troops back ten yards while I destroy the door,” said Jason confidently. The Captain looked at Jason and his incongruously large Warhammer, incredulously. Jason moved forward. He could see the location of the hinges as if he had x-ray vision.

“Stand back all of you, while I break open the doors,” Jason said imperiously as they moved slowly back.

He felt increasingly angry. He saw the troops muttering amongst themselves. Some of the clones even laughed. They knew the powerful explosives had done nothing. He was not interested in the puny soldiers and the ineffectual efforts that that had made. He would show them a small fragment of his power.

Jason walked to the doors and lifted his hammer. The hammer emitted a very deep hum and glowed red. Lightning flashed from it. Jason called out in a language with which he was not familiar in a deep fearsome voice. Jason realized incredulously that the voice came from him and he understood nothing of the language as he struck at the door. He felt enormous energy and power in his hands. The sound of the hammer striking the door resounded throughout the valley. The door had a deep central dent. He looked back readying himself to strike again and noticed the troops had closed their visors and had bent their knees to deal with the strong vibration. He felt their amazement and fear telepathically. Many felt relief he was on the side of the clones.

Jason looked at the hammer as it grew in his grasp and he metamorphosed for the first time into a thirty-five foot tall heavily muscled giant. Oddly enough his armor enlarged with him. The troops looked at him, awestruck.

He shouted thunderously as he struck the hammer close to the center of the doorframe close to where the two doors met. The door he struck shattered as did the adjacent door. It looked as if he was hitting balsa wood. Large fragments of both thick armored doors fell inward. There was a short period of silence before he heard the sounds of the remnants of the doors landing far below accompanied by the sounds of breaking equipment and screams of pain.

“After me,” he called before jumping without any thought into the cavity and the stronghold of the enemy. His armor allowed for controlled descent, but he allowed himself to free-fall. The soldiers followed and initially were close above him, but fell behind.

He landed in a large hanger. He saw terrified faces and arms pointing at him. He didn’t realize until much later how big he was and how loudly he was shouting. The first of many of his soldiers and marines followed.

He screamed his war cry and saw the enemy quail in front of him.

Jason felt rage. These puny runts had the audacity to penetrate Porquenta without permission. He felt their intrusion as Porquenta felt it. He swung his hammer crushing equipment and the people hiding behind it. The hammer projected lightning from all its surfaces. He could shoot his fireballs and they were amplified and accelerated. The hum from the hammer rose a pitch to a scream that was loud and threatening, deafening those of the enemy unprotected by armor. Everything he struck exploded backwards from his hammer strikes. Lightning, fireballs, and ice flew randomly from the Warhammer, spontaneously striking weapons emplacements, enemy Marines and defensive positions. People ran in terror from the huge apparition.

He sent massive balls of lightning and flames to follow groups down passages and destroyed doors as they began to shut to protect escape passages. Jason rampaged down the largest corridor, smashing armored vehicles and chasing hundreds of fleeing soldiers and technicians incinerating them as he ran, hunched over, down the corridor to destroy a massive door as it swung shut to block his passage. He struck it a mighty blow. The vibration of the strike was felt throughout the facility. The door then exploded outwards from the impact of his single blow. It shattered into large lumps of metal that cut a swath through a large assembly area, with assembled troops, heavy weapons, and tanks. He fired even larger fireballs towards them that exploded on impact.

Around and ahead of him and everywhere he looked people dropped weapons, and put out their hands sideways to surrender. The most hardened fanatical soldiers had encountered a force that they regarded as a vengeance of the Gods.

Jason’s voice thundered forth. It was so loud that the walls vibrated and his voice could be felt even through soldiers’ feet. Jason reverted to Empire standard. It was equally as loud telepathically.

“You will bow down to me in supplication or you will regret your miserable existences. You will suffer for your intrusion into my substance and into my being.”

He saw people holding their ears shaking their heads crying and lying on the floor. He looked up and saw a further set of doors protected by weapons systems but no longer manned. He projected the depths of hell and the profoundest unendurable misery. It was so intolerable some even tried to kill themselves. Troops emerged from everywhere to surrender.

Jason handed control to the Colonel who soon joined him, calmed himself down, and returned to the surface. Jason’s hammer returned to trans-dimensional storage and he to his normal size. Somehow his armor had been changed so that it could grow and shrink with him. It was virtually unmarked from any weapons fire.

Later he heard that there was unprecedented cooperation in subsequent interrogations. The entire action was over in less than ten minutes, from arrival ‘til departure. His own soldiers were too stunned to speak and question him. He told the colonel to get the commander of the facility to warn the other facilities that he was coming and that the vengeance of hell would be upon them. He asked his shuttle pilot to transport him back to the ship. He heard Linda’s voice penetrate his concentration.

“Jason, where are you. I heard there was some kind of huge monster in the facility you were going to. Are you alright? I can see your vital signs are active,” Linda said sounding worried.

He felt invincible, but ever so tired. It had been an unusual experience. He had a sense of unreality and struggled to integrate Jason and the giant vengeful creature.

“Linda, I do have some interesting things to tell you. That was no monster, that was me when I was transformed by the planet. What progress has been made to date?”

“Wait a sec, I’ll send you the situational information. Essentially, we have captured the leadership and are rapidly progressing to control the whole planet. We have not as you requested breached the last two bunkers. It’s as of now down to one last bunker that’s holding out.

“As of ten-seconds ago however one of the bunkers has surrendered, please see the hologram from your suit AI, and it’s my understanding that the other one commenced negotiations for surrender. I can see visions now of the attack on the bunker, which I understand was sent by Captain McGee from the facility that you attacked and the message from the commander of the bunker that preceded it. Oh, my heavens! I’ve never seen anything like this! Jason who the hell is this creature and where is it from? Are you hurt? Where were you during that rampage? The captain thought that somehow you had found it in the mountain and got it to manifest at the bunker? There’s nothing much more that will need to be done from what I can see other than mopping up unless the negotiations proceed poorly,” Linda said.

She looked quite flustered, but she could see that Jason looked like his normal self and she could see that his shuttle was rising rapidly to rejoin the ship.

“Linda, I’m on my way back, but will return to other bunkers as I’m needed. A lot has happened that I need to think about.”

On his return Jason decontaminated, then returned briefly to his stateroom to clean himself to his satisfaction, and dressed in more comfortable clothing. He noticed that the dogs were gone and recalled dimly that they were taken by Porquenta the planet AI for training and would return soon. He returned to the bridge where he discovered that one commander had decided not to surrender, triggering the second commander to change his mind. He felt the anger grow. He began to rage at their disobedience and intransigence. No miserable suckling baby of the priests would stand against him. They would feel his fury at their manifest disobedience. They won’t thwart me and live. They will die in misery. They will become his willing minions. They will never displease him again.

“I shall speak,” spoke Jason in a commanding disembodied voice.

Jason felt as though he was a participant in what was occurring and not fully in charge of himself. He thought it was an impressive voice and full of menace.

“Listen to me you miserable minions,” he knew exactly to whom he was speaking. “Plutarch,” he continued, his voice commanding and imperious, “you miserable wretch, you sniveling puny creature. You try to hide and think that you’ve fooled me with the clone. You deny me at your peril! You defile the planet Porquenta! Hear me, tremble, and know your fate. You shiver like the coward you are and filthy yourself before me. I am Jason, and I speak now for the planet Porquenta! I herald your doom!” His voice was heard in every implant of every priest both on the planet and on the ship.

Jason, didn’t know it, his speech was accompanied by a vision of him in a full beard with wild hair and a ferocious face carrying his hammer with two demon hounds by his side. They were horned caricatures of massive dogs. They had a frontal horn above their eyes and two short horns behind. Their coats were smooth, their feet massive with claws of black ebony. Their eyes were red and they were pawing the ground. Fire spewed from their mouths. Fire and lightning surrounded his hammer. His eyes threatened horrors that the priests experienced as if they were in the depths of hell. Their minds were overcome with visions of their worst fears multiplied many times over. They found themselves trapped underground with hideous monsters tearing at their bodies and stealing their souls, they found themselves pulled underwater by slimy hideous creatures on miserable planets filled with entities from myths and legends. They found themselves in the pits of Hades in nameless mines being whipped and tortured. The Plutarch experienced it all and worse.

“Plutarch you’ve had your opportunity and have defied me. You will face my wrath. Your pathetic attempt to join with the creatures of the dark will now reap its misery.”

Jason was greatly impressed with this. He didn’t know he had it within himself, and was totally unaware of the vision and sound that was being transmitted. His friends from the clones experienced it at a distance. His enemies lived the experience.

The sensor officers warned of an unprecedented power surge beneath both of the remaining bunkers. All on the bridge continued to watch intently as did Jason. They watched as the ground shattered, they heard screams of terror, rifts formed in walls and in the floor, flames emerged followed by black then white and red lava. Screams of terror were heard and was transmitted to every priest. They could see the Plutarch screaming and burning.

“Surrender or die!” thundered Jason.

Within minutes surrender was being negotiated with terrified commanders and priests. Twenty more priests who had otherwise remained hidden on the battleship opened their last concealed bulkhead and surrendered. The priests incarcerated on the ship and those on the ground and the troops everywhere were profoundly shaken. Most would never be the same. They had been profoundly traumatized by the experience.

“Jason there’s some suggestion that you might have hidden depths, now I know how you shake my foundations in bed” said Andrea the mistress of understatement. “That was masterful and turned me on something fierce.

“Do you think Linda and I could take you to your stateroom to try out your new Warhammer?”

Jason’s anger disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. He looked at both women as if he was seeing them for the first time. They were lovely and were both smiling at him and beckoning him to come to them.

They strolled back to his stateroom arm in arm. Both women noticed that they were not greeted by the dogs. The dogs had taken a great interest and liking to both of the women. Dogs were unknown to them but soon they became very fond of the beasts as Jason called them. Jason said that both animals had gone for training, the nature of which he didn’t know, at the suggestion of Porquenta. He then told them of his experiences. He said facetiously thinking of the gravity, that Porquenta had a somewhat forceful and heavy personality. This led to them quizzing him at great length about his day. When they asked about the rumors about his entry to the reinforced underground bunker area he explained:

“Somehow the planet has enormous powers. These powers, I suspect, can be delegated. I was the delegated person. I still felt present, and it felt as if I was doing things, but at the same time I felt that I was standing back and watching this amazing process. It’s been the same for much of the day. The language and the nature of the communication of threats isn’t within my repertoire of behavior. That’s not to say that Warhammers were never a part of our civilization. They certainly were, but they were a number of centuries ago. I’ve never seen one, or used one, before.

“The planet created an entity that was appropriate to me and that I could achieve. I was given some very short training while in the cave and I suspect that that was in order to swing the hammer and be convincing. There’s no way I could have split that door. Not only was the outer door split, but it was shattered. The door itself was as you’ve seen before was huge, thick, and reinforced. I think I could have personally have hammered on that door for a hundred years, and without the help of the planet, I would not have scratched it.

“I’m sure that the planet wanted it to look as though I was doing it, but even one of our mythological godlike figures, Thor, with his hammer, would have banged away for a lot longer than I did.

“There’s no way that it was me growing to giant size and running amok down the corridors. It was great being there, and it was a real blast ... literally and figuratively. There’s a great sense of satisfaction in hammering open a huge reinforced door, smiting the enemy, crashing tanks left and right and having an amazing booming voice that would scare troops sufficiently to poop in their pants.

“I really enjoyed the threats to the Plutarch when we returned to the ship. The whole scene was a classic portrayal of an over dramatic and vengeful God. I’m not sure that I’d pay to see such a movie, but it sure had a dramatic impact in this battle. Perhaps we could take the planet along with us for some future battles. I could polish the hammer and learn to ‘leap tall buildings in a single bound,’ or even mountains. By the by I wouldn’t mind going to visit the IT priests tomorrow and I’m sure that I can recreate that voice. If I’m sufficiently convincing, maybe we can acquire the elusive information to reverse all the sabotage within the ship’s systems.

“I certainly would like to have another chat with Porquenta and thank him for a truly great but very strange day. Maybe I can ask if he can do the same for you guys. I’ll ask if he has a monolith for us to dance around wildly, while frightening the recalcitrant minions to death!”

The next morning, they were up early as usual. The dogs were lying on their mats at the foot of the bed. They greeted everyone with an unusual level of enthusiasm, slobbering over their faces and hands, wagging their tails furiously and standing up to ensure everyone was licked with abandon. The dogs accompanied them to the gym, where they relaxed on the floor after receiving their share of attention from the marines who had grown attached to them.

They were rejected from the sauna and for the first time ever they howled briefly to the non-existent moon. The Marines of course interpreted this that they wanted to be sure to be with Jason when he transformed into the vengeful giant so that they could participate in the next rampage. There were other theories that the dogs saw themselves as Jason’s girlfriends and missed him. There was raucous laughter as each theory was propounded and elaborated. The dogs sat under the table at breakfast hoping for morsels much as most dogs do.

“I think it would be a good idea to take the dogs to visit the IT priests. Do you think we can arrange to see the top few? I’d like to see plenty of security there in view of our last experience. The dogs may further spread terror in the ranks,” Jason said and looked at Linda and Andrea thoughtfully.

They slowly walked and talked considering what approach would be taken with the priests. Jason suggested that he use the fearsome biblical language, the frightening voice and appear backed up by the dogs.

They sat waiting in an interview room ringed by guards as the prisoners were led towards them. There were four of them. They were identified as the most senior of the priest IT cohort.

Linda brusquely told them that Jason had some questions for them. The prisoners looked terrified except for one. Jason sensed a switch occur as he recognized Jason. He detected hate and malice and an intention to kill Jason.

The priest started to raise a hand with a weapon emerging from a finger when Jason with a fearsome roar reached forward held his hand and literally crushed it. He was about to tear out his heart when the dogs metamorphosed behind him into huge, massive fanged horned beasts, leapt over the table and literally shredded the priest with their teeth and claws while burning him between bites. Jason could see lightning shooting from three horns on their heads.

The action was over before anyone else in the room reacted. The beasts, with smoke emerging from their mouths, appeared very pleased with themselves as they made their way over to stand next to Jason. They looked around the room as if to say, “Any other takers, please can we have any other takers?” They shimmered and returned to their previous form. Jason straightened himself still holding part of the priest’s hand attached to forearm that had been bitten off. He didn’t appear to realize that he was still holding it as he began to speak. His voice had returned to its former sinister threatening nature.