Lord of Damnation

Book idea based on Duke Nukem, Escape From L.A., Barb Wire, Rush Hour... 

 

Chapter 1:  L.A. Meltdown 

 

    The Duke flew over the desert in his space jet.  He'd just returned from a mission beyond, to find out why strange signals were coming from the Eridanus sector.  The signals meant that a mysterious fleet was headed to their corner of the galaxy.  He felt it was urgent that the proper authorities in Los Angeles be notified. 

    His monkey Nimrod scurried about the cabin, anxious to return home, where his artificial jungle waited for him behind the loggia of the Duke's mansion.   

    "Get off the damn controls, imp of a chimp", scolded the Duke.  Nimrod curled up on the passenger's seat in innocent comfort.  They'd come a long way, their relationship was getting testy.  But all the space wars they'd survived had made it stronger.   To the Duke it felt like nothing could ever tear them apart.  It was simply time for a break from all the fighting and shooting and blowing up star ships.  Yes, the mansion was calling to him like a seductress the sweet siren of homecoming. 

    The Duke snapped out of his daydream when he saw smoke billowing on the smoggy, orange horizon. 

    "What the f*ck?", he muttered.  Nimrod's ears perked up. 

    Closer to the city they came.  The Duke's eyes sparked with a rekindled rage once he realized his city was in ruins.  L.A. had been blown to smithereens, just like the all the damn mystics had predicted.  He discovered what were unmistakably alien ships gliding through the sky above the ruins.  Looks like they'd beat him to the punch. 

    "These galactic scum are faster than the speed of Hellfire.  Grab your bazooki, chimp, we're going down." 

    Nimrod hefted up his miniature bazooki, a monkey friendly missile launcher that acted more like a machine gun.  The Duke ran through his inventory of weapons in the back.  Chaingun cannon, flamethrower, plasma shrink ray, microwave expander, the modest rifle, and his favorite... The grenade launcher. 

    Vacation could wait this time. 

 

Chapter 2:  Hollywood Holocaust  

 

Shot down by aliens, they search the city for a new ship.  They meet Barb Wire, a badass babe who looks like Pamela Anderson; Chris Friday, a young goofy gangster based on Chris Tucker, good at scheming; Chan Lee, an old, wise, Chinese martial arts legend who keeps the group grounded; and Carly, a tomboy teenage girl needing a father figure. 

 

To be continued... 

 

Chapter 3:  Raw Meat 

Chapter 4:  Freeway 

Chapter 5:  L.A. Rumble 

Chapter 6:  Fahrenheit 

Chapter 7:  Bank Roll 

Chapter 8:  Hotel Hell 

Chapter 9:  Movie Set 

Chapter 10:  Stadium 

Chapter 11:  Toxic Dump 

Chapter 12:  Launch Facility 

Chapter 13:  The Abyss 

Chapter 14:  Spaceport 

Chapter 15:  Lunar Reactor 

Chapter 16:  Warp Factor 

Chapter 17:  Overlord 

Chapter 18:  Area 51 

The Chess Wizard

 

Once there was a boy who went to a carnival with his friends.  An old man at a booth wearing a wizard's hat let them ride a rollercoaster they weren't tall enough to be allowed on.  At the top of one of the loops, the boy fell out of the seat and landed on a flying ship that caught him, carrying him to the clouds.  When he looked up, he saw that the captain looked just like the wizard at the booth.   

They flew through the clouds, in between blue stars and infants riding in their cribs.  As one of the stars got closer, a shiny landscape emerged.  They flew down on a land made of candy, with mountains made of chocolate, trees that looked like candy canes, gummy bear bushes and gingerbread houses. 

The beings who lived there were chess pieces fighting in a war.  When they went to battle, they could only move in their respective directions; the pawn one or two steps forward, the bishop diagonally, the knight in L-shapes, etc.  But they wished to move freely, which they expressed when they met the wizard and the boy. 

Together they explored the candy land, seeking a way to grant them their wish.  They came upon a glass-blown landscape, in which marvelous colors dazzled the eyes.  Deep in the heart of this land of gleaming figures that were contorted in all sorts of artistic shapes, they found a white city with buildings that looked like all the chess pieces.  At the center stood the King's Tower, which they decided to enter. 

Oddly enough, the city was empty, so the boy and the wizard climbed the tower as swiftly as they could.  Inside the highest terrace was a baroque library with a parquet floor.  It was filled with sculptures of deep thinkers, the globes of other worlds, and all the important beings one could find in the books.   

On a pedestal stood the largest book of them all, a holy book the city's scribes had written.  The wizard read that the chess pieces had once lived here but were ordered by human overlords to wage battle in the lands of candy and glass, only for their petty entertainment.  There was a spell in the book, revealing that only the blood of a human child could bring the chess pieces home to freedom. 

And so, the boy crossed his heart, offering it to the wizard's deathly wand.  But the wizard decided he wouldn't strike the boy down, that his innocence and selflessness had shown how good humans could be if given the chance.  Despite most of them being corrupted by vice, some just needed a little mental work to reach maturity.  The chess pieces would have to suffer indefinitely in order to mold the minds of their morally challenged overlords.  And that is how the game of chess came to be played by humans.