On Jupiter

On the rocky core we were. Me and Jeff. And there were aliens all around us. As far as the eye could see. It was a rocky and treacherous place. Yes with aliens coming and popping out of everywhere. Quickly one Jupiter alien pounced on me. It was really something. Me and the Jupiter alien traded blows back and forth. Of course, with his special alien powers he was able to dodge everything. So pulled out my speciality fire magic and incinterated his sorry ass.

Jeff had some heat of his own. He had a flamethrower that seemed to do the job just fine. Yes, he could burn down the competition. Speaking of competition we turned it into one. We tried counting down how many Jupiter aliens we could kill if in succession. I took down five with my fire and he took down five as well. Then one came from behind him and punctured the outermost shell of the outer arm of his spacesuit. Damn. Then he turned around and headshotted the alien with his blaster. Six. He had won. But at what cost?

"Are you ok?" I said to Jeff.

"Kind of." Jeff replied back. "He only hit the outermost shell of my spacesuit so my flesh isn't exposed to the elements of Jupiter. However I have to sit this one out until I can repair my suit."

"But how do you repair your suit?"

"I don't know." Jeff replied. "But if I fiddle around I think I can repair it by the end of the day."

"We don't have to the end of the day. We have only to a couple of days before the invasion begins."

"Go on." Jeff said. "I'm sure you'll figure out something."

And so I went on. There were three key points we had to destroy before being able to access the core of the planet. As I trekked along I couldn't help but gaze up at the sky. It was just so wondrous. The way the colors all mixed together in that beautiful never-ending storm that is Jupiter was wondrous. No wonder the aliens here were powerful. They had to withstand THAT.

I went atop a hill where I could clearly see my first target. It was a power crystal I needed to destroy to lower the force field. However surrounding the crystal was a group of aliens holding what appeared to be a meeting. And among them were the survivors of Mars. They were discussing.... something. I got a newly invented electronic earpiece to listen in. They were speaking Martian but luckily over the years and had come to be fluent in the language. They said:

"RAS RU RHAS VANTO NUNTO GENTU BUUN KANTU JUN RHA MUU JEEEN ..."

Their guttural ramblings continued. When translated the important bits translated to:

"The humans have invaded our world. Protect this crystal at all cost. And make plans for the other crystals. Set traps up front that upon touching the ground they will fall down into a pit and be eaten by our giant insects. And never tell them the secret of the crystals: when extracting a piece of it it has regenerative properties. It can also increase the strength of the user."

Very good information to know.

Very good.

So knowing where their traps where I circled around behind the crystal and shot up some Martians with my machine gun.

"They're here!" Another Martian screamed. "Get into attack pos-"

I shot him dead before he could finish his sentence. Several Jupiter aliens ran towards me in that moment and that's when I hatched a plan of my own. Through running away and using to fire magic carefully I managed to get the aliens exactly where I wanted them. Then, just as I had hoped, I heard a loud rumbling noise. And I smiled.

The ground opened up and swallowed the Jupiter aliens whole. I looked into the abyss and saw a giant centipede-like monster alien just eating them like they were candy. The Jupiter aliens clawed at the walls looking for an escape. But there was none. And then the monster would eat them whole, leaving nothing left after consumption.

With those aliens defeated there was nothing in the way of me destroying that crystal. And then I heard the ground shake behind me. When I turned around I saw a giant one of the Jupiter aliens. He whacked me and sent me flying some feet. Fortunately my suit didn't puncture, so I was still standing. I shot some of my fire magic his way but the behemoth seemed unphased.

I fired more fire at him. More and more. The thing seemed unphased. I had given him his own personal inferno and he seemed like nothing had happened at all. He hit me again, this time knocking me to the ground. Hit was going to finish me off with one final blow but I rolled over and dodged it. Then I got an idea.

I backed up towards the power crystal. Then the creature charged at me and swiped at my with it's razor sharp fist. Then I moved out of the way. Several chunks of the power crystal flew off in various directions. I grabbed a piece and focussed my mind on it. For just a moment all that existed was me and that crystal. And then I felt a massive energy building up inside of me. I released it. A huge tornado of flame came out. It pushed the Jupiter alien up to a wall. The creature squirmed trying to escape but my flame did not let him go. After seconds of screams and squirms the creature was incinerated. It had become nothing more than dust. Well except one thing of his remained. When he died he dropped a map. A map showing the location of the other two power crystals.

I then went back and destroyed the power crystal. But I made sure to collect pieces of it. I had the knowledge it would be useful for later.

I ran over rugged hills and climbed walls on my way back to Jeff. I stared back up to the sky to just marvel at the atmosphere of Jupiter. I lit a light and journeyed through the cave to see Jeff. There was just one problem. He was gone. But I did see an assortment of tracks leading to his location with some materials scattered about. I followed a trail and it led out of the cave and to a pack of former Martians and a Jupiter alien in a circle. In the middle was Jeff tied up. The aliens spoke:

"NUN KAK ABU JUNHUN HAN NI ZOO LOO DU KHAN BA UN..."

Their ramblings went on. When translated they said: "We can use this human to lure out and blackmail the other one. Victory is nothing but assured!" They then pointed a gun to Jeff's head.

This hostage situation should have shaken me to my boots. Escaping with Jeff alive should have been an impossibility. But this time I had a trick up my sleeve. A secret weapon. I pulled out the crystal shard and let its power flow through me. I shot fire at the Martian pointing a gun to Jeff's head - melting its arm off in the process. After witnessing my awesome power the aliens scrammed. But I wasn't going to let them get away. Not after what they did to Jeff. Not after what they were planning to do for the whole world. I incinerated the fleeing aliens. But a couple were still getting away and they were outside my flame's reach. It seemed as if I'd be able to get to them in time.

Then all of a suddenly a huge laser blast impaled all of them. It was Jeff. He had harnessed the power of the crystal into his suit.

"I observed that these things had some great power." Jeff said. "Now mind telling me exactly how it's used?"

"Well you see you put it in the palm of your hand and focus on its energy. Once that's done you can channel its energy to your weapons and your suit. It looks like you've done it once now."

"Ok got it. Let's repair my suit and talk strategy in another hiding place."

And so me and Jeff walked across the surface of Jupiter and found another cave. We passed by some holes inside leading to god knows where (I could have sworn I heard space alien centipedes at the bottom). Anyways we continued until we found a flat big room that was lit up by some glow algae.

"So what's the strategy?" Jeff said with an inquisitive look on his face.

"Well first I got to use this crystal to heal your suit." I replied.

I put the crystal on Jeff's chest and focussed my energy into it. I closed my eyes and felt my aura flowing around it. When I opened my eyes I saw the ripped pieces of Jeff's suit fixing myself before my very eyes. New material was being materialized out of thin air. It was amazing.

"Whoa..." Jeff responded. "That's amazing!"

"All the more reason we need to get these things." I replied. "I'm starting to run out."

"So what's the game plan?" Jeff said.

"So I overheard the aliens at the first crystal. They said that they have traps set up in front of both crystals. Fortunately since I now know where these traps are we can plan around them when destroying the menace."

"Good. Good." Jeff replied.

And so I told him the plan. It was for him to draw out the aliens in front with his machine gun fire while I flank them from the back with my amped up fire magic from the crystal.

"Sounds good." Jeff replied.

I got out the map that big alien dropped and skimmed it over. There was a large gap between where we were and the next crystal. It was a desert. We needed to cross a large desert.

And so we trekked. Even in our conditioned space suits it was impossible not to feel the heat.

"Are we there yet?" Jeff said, cheekily.

"No!" I responded.

We walked by some spiky plants that resemble cacti that you'd see back on earth. What a coincidence.

Then the ground beneath us began to shake violently. And then a massive figure came out of the ground. It was one of those centipedes from earlier but it was massive. Seemingly the size of a two-story building. I shot some of my fire magic at its eye. It blinked. Its eyes seemed sturdy enough to survive my blast. Then before I could react it snatched me up. I was flailing high up into the air. I flailed my arms about trying to hit the thing with some fire but I just couldn't do it.

Jeff then shot his machine gun fire at the centipede and it released its grip. Though the creature did not seem damaged. But it had found a new target: Jeff. Jeff ran away while continuing his fire. The creature then followed Jeff and swallowed him whole.

I gasped. I couldn't let him eat my friend.

Jeff had all the power crystals so I couldn't use them to my advantage. I shot one raging fire blast after the next at the creature. It refused to cough out its victim. I then began to cry.

The creatures belly than began to rumble. A shining light began to illuminate from the creature's belly. I watched in anticipation.

BOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!

There was a big explosion and the creature split in half with pieces of it flying in all directions. Jeff came out covered in the beast's intestines.

"What did you do?" I asked.

"I self-destructed one of the crystals. I focussed on it and at the point the energy levels peaked and crushed it causing it to explode. I wedged it in-between the creatures intestines and it exploded."

"Whoaa." I replied.

And so me and Jeff journeyed off into the sunset to locate and destroy the next crystal. Unaware of what awaits next.