Malarkey Jack

It was Oct 1st on Sub City, the cycle day of the year.

The majority of the staff would be leaving today,

with a skeleton crew holding down the fort

until fresh recruits arrived that evening.

A separate detachment, the Sub City Race Team,

had also departed for Turbo Atoll, making the base

even more deserted than usual. 

To mark the occasion auspiciously,

snow actually fluttered down from the

heavens in the early morning. 

You can build a base with state-of-the-art defenses,

missile batteries, and armed patrols,

but no one on Sub City knew how to

prevent a metaphysical incursion. 

Malarky Jack was gifted with an intelligence that set

him apart from his Hackerman ilk. It was his idea

to take a small team of his followers into the research base,

in what would become known as the

first offensive against earth from the Trilobyte Kingdom. 

Utilizing his experimental metachete 

Jack sliced into the very fabric of reality,

spilling out instantly into the heart of Sub City,

completely surprising the few remaining crew.
His goons, the devoted followers of Jack's

own Church Of Malarkey, worked quickly to overwhelm the staff. 

Moving with purpose, Jack walked to the room

his informant had highlighted: R&D 12.

As the bay doors opened and he stood ready, but....

...no one was there. 
"Shucks," Jack muttered out loud,

"What's a guy gotta do to encounter a little violence these days?" 

***

With the defenses down, unmarked support aircraft started a barrage on Sub City's key struts and batteries. 

The chaos quickly spread with the few

remaining un-captured staff taking

their chances in the open sea. 

Unbeknownst to the invaders,

Greg Ganon squeezed himself

into a narrow access

hatch and hunkered down...waiting for his chance. 

****

As the thundering attack echoed above,

Jack stood in the cavernous research bay,

eyeballing the device he'd come for-

an experimental portal utilizing two Vector Jump packs.

Reaching into his pocket, Jack produced a

bypass controller he'd cooked up earlier. 

"Time for a little vacation...maybe somewhere...Tropical?"

He laughed to himself.

He was always laughing to himself. 

No one got or liked his jokes. 

The device clicked with energy and

a vector portal thundered to life in front of him.

 Faintly, Jack could make out an impressive

vista materializing in the portal. 
Heavy jungle trees and vibrant green grass,

with the occasionally prehistoric beast wondering by. 

Pressing his index finger to his ear, Jack radioed his team. 

"The door is open, send in the shocktroopers."