Battleground Mars (7 page)

“How long before we can leave?”

Kacy looked up. “We’re almost there. The Tauron attack damaged the mounting. Saul had trouble getting it out at first. I think he’s got it now.”

In the slow motion forced on them by the low gravity, the huge toolpusher’s arm rose and fell, shattering the silence. Even through their helmets they heard the series of loud clangs. He twisted and wrenched back hard, his hand came out clutching a small, alloy container.

“I’ve got it. This is the recording data module.”

“Is it damaged?” Rahm asked. The last thing they needed was to come this far into enemy territory for nothing.

Saul shook his head. “I can’t tell yet, but it should be ok. Let’s take it back to base and we can check it all out.”

“Rahm!” He looked up as Kaz’s voice echoed in his helmet speaker. “Taurons at one hundred and twenty degrees, I'd estimate they're about five miles away.”

“Have they seen us?”

“Yes. They’re headed straight for us.”

“Mount up, let’s get out of here! Move, move, move!”

They clambered aboard the buggy and Rahm took off at high speed back to Chryse Gulf. They surged out of the valley and he skirted Isidris Bay to hit the narrow pass between Araby and the Schiaparelli Crater. It wasn’t the smoothest way back, but it was the shortest.

“Are they following, Kaz?”

“Yes.”

“Can’t you make this thing go any faster?” Kacy asked him. “Their vehicle is quicker than ours.”

“Not a chance. Kaz, how many of them can you see?”

“It looks like three of them in an open Tauron transport.” They heard his cry of surprise. “No, by the Prophet, there’re just two. But one of them, he’s gigantic.” Even the normally taciturn Arab sounded worried. “Rahm, it really would be best if we didn’t tangle with these aliens, that big one, well, I wouldn’t like to face him without an armed squad behind me. A large, heavily armed squad. And even then I’d be worried.”

Rahm took the hint and concentrated on steering a straight course. If they kept driving at top speed they should make it back ahead of the Taurons, but it would be a close run thing. They were all silent for a time as they hurtled across the craggy Martian surface, then they dipped into a pass that skirted the crater. It was narrow and uneven, and the buggy lurched wildly as he fought the wheel to keep it on course. They lurched out of the end of the pass and began skirting the Plain of Xanthe, across the rolling sands that led back to Chryse Gulf and home. They were ten miles out from Mars Base when the full force of the storm hit them.

The Martian tempest smashed into them with more violence than anyone on Earth could possibly believe. The winds whipped up the sandy surface, picking up rocks and debris and hurling them around as if they were made of paper. Their whole world disappeared, one moment they were looking for the first signs of Mars Base, the next moment there was nothing. It was as if they had sunk into a deep dark hole. Once more Rahm cursed the management for not fitting the automatic navigational equipment that would have taken them directly home. Instead, they had to fix their course and position the old way, using a paper map and dead reckoning on their last known position. There was a rudimentary satellite navigation system, of course, but when a major storm hit it was rendered useless. He had to cut his speed down to a quarter and carried peering through the thick murk. At least the Taurons couldn’t follow them in this. It would be like looking for a dropped quarter at the bottom of a lake.

“How long do you to get back?” Saul asked.

“It should be about a half hour. Provided we won’t get lost,” he added. “You’ll have to wait a while longer before we can eat breakfast.”

He kept driving, clinging grimly to the wheel as the winds tore at the vehicle, threatening to turn it over every time they hit a bump and the wheels left the ground. Rahm estimated they had seven miles left to go, that was when the power on the buggy died.

They sat in the lifeless vehicle, buffeted by the storm, trying to shut out the ominous threat of the howling winds. The mesh framework would stop all but the largest pieces of rock or debris from hitting them, but every time something crashed against the alloy frame they were reminded of the fury that awaited them only inches away.

“Kacy, is there anything you can do to get this fixed?”

She was already looking inside the inspection hatch. “It could be tricky, but I’ll do my best to find the problem. These are not ideal working conditions, Rahm.”

They waited while she delved into the mysteries of the buggy’s inner workings. When she finally looked up, her face expression was grim.

“The main power distributor board has been cracked by something, it must have happened while we were escaping from those Taurons. I expect it got hit by a rock coming up from under the wheels.”

“Can’t you fix it?”

She shook her head. “That’s a negative. It’s a workshop job, when we get back I’ll talk to the mechanics, they’ll have to come out here and tow it in. I’ll switch on the locator beacon before we leave her, but that’s all I can do, this baby isn’t going anywhere.”

Rahm nodded. “We’ve no choice, then. We’ll have to walk the rest of the way.”

“In this?” Brad looked horrified. “Listen, Rahm, listen to those winds, the debris smashing against the framework. We won’t get a mile. We should stay here and wait until it clears.”

“And if the Taurons are a mile away, waiting out the storm too? When it clears, they’ll come straight for us and we’ll be sat in a dead vehicle.”

His face fell. “You’re right, yeah. Ok, we’d better pull out.”

They equipped themselves with pieces of steel mesh from inside the buggy to use as wind shields, and then they climbed down onto the surface. The howling wind nearly blew them over, but they managed to assemble in a group.

“We need to keep together,” Rahm shouted over the howling of the wind. “If anyone gets separated we’ll never be able to find them.”

The storm was blowing in from Chryse Gulf, so they knew which way to head. They held the mesh shields in front of them and started to walk into the full force of the wind.

Less than a mile behind them, Granat stood on the surface; he enjoyed feeling the power of the storm, even the small rocks that thumped against his body. Unlike those puny humans, his people didn’t need to wear a full pressure suit. A simple life support mask was enough for them to breathe on this planet. All he wore on his body, like every other Tauron, was a simple pair of fighting trunks, mainly to cover his vulnerable areas, his genitals. He would hate to be confined in the coverings that the humans adopted, their ‘pressure suit’. It was yet another example of their weakness. Any kind of protective clothing was not fit for a warrior, their skin needed to feel and touch the air, to feel and touch the closeness of an opponent as they fought to the death. He grunted as a larger rock smashed into his chest. It was good to feel pain, it reminded him of the precious joy of battle, face to face with an opponent so that you could feel their breath on your face, suffer their blows to your body and know that your own blows were hurting them even more. He sniffed the wind. It was still strong, it would be two or three hours at least before it eased, by then the enemy would be safely inside their *base. The dome was too heavily defended, and it would be pointless to follow them. But his plan to take out the drilling teams one by one was good. He laughed to himself, soon there would be no teams left to drill on the planet. One by one, they’d be destroyed. When their relief ship arrived, they would find nothing but bodies. And he would be there waiting for the new arrivals, if they dared set foot on Mars. He lifted his head high and shouted to the storm. The war cry was pitched to overawe enemies, to terrify them before launching an attack. The terrible, eerie, tremolo echoed across the barren Martian landscape.

The going was cruel and hard. Rahm led, he guided them by using a primitive compass, the only navigational device they had that worked. Saul followed, he’d zipped the recorder into his pocket, and Kacy was right behind him with the rest of the crew. Kaz was in the rear, using his Arab hunter’s instincts to listen out, if it was possible, for any sign of pursuit. But there was nothing, only the storm that slashed at them, threatening to hurl them over and across the swirling sands of the plain that led to the Mars base. Rahm called a halt after five miles and they crouched behind a rocky outcrop. The going had been brutal, staggering into the teeth of a vicious storm. They were all exhausted, agonizing slog into that left them all battered and bruised.

“Any problems, anyone?”

There was a shout of ‘are you for real?”

“Good, that means you’re alive. Drink the rest of your water, we move off in three minutes.”

“Why drink all of the water?” Brad muttered. “We could be stuck out on the surface for some time, we’ll need the water.”

“We need our strength more. It’ll enable us to keep up a fast pace and get to Mars Base as fast as possible. If the storm clears and the Taurons come after us again, we’ll be in trouble. We need to be as strong as possible, so finish off the water. Our life support is running low, and most of us haven’t got more than enough air for two hours.”

They all stared at Rahm.

“Two hours? What the fuck happened to our reserve air?”

“Brad, we abandoned the buggy, that’s where we carry the spare cylinders. Our only chance is to move fast and get back while we have the chance. If we delay and hang around out here, the chances are that we won’t run out of air, the Taurons will get us long before that happens.” He checked the time. “Let’s go, we should see Mars Base inside of an hour. We’ll be ok.”

He added the word ‘hopefully’, under his breath. Kaz saw his lips move and glanced at him, then gave a slight smile.

If they needed anything to spur them on, more than the threat from the Taurons, it was the danger of running out of air on the harsh Martian surface. Rahm pushed the pace hard and fast, by the time they’d traveled for another half hour he estimated that they should be close to home. If only the storm would abate for a few minutes they could check their bearings. He smiled grimly to himself. So many of life’s failures had been pinned on ‘if only’. The storm showed no sign of easing, if anything it was getting worse. They’d have to manage.

“Pick it up, we need to move faster.”

They slogged on for another hour, the storm still raged and they were no nearer to finding Mars Base. They stopped again in the shelter of another pile of rocks. It was time to take stock. Already, some of them were breathing harder, a sign their life support was running low on air.

“What’s our next move, Boss?” Saul asked. His voice was casual, but Rahm wasn’t fooled. They all knew that their chances were slim. Rahm felt the old anxiety creeping up on him. It was a long time since he’d been under the ultimate pressure, making life or death decisions. He’d tried to push that memory into the background, into the darkest, furthest corners of his mind. It couldn’t happen again, whatever had gone before he had to keep thinking, to keep working to save his crew. He realized someone was speaking, it was Kacy.

“What?”

“The underground air scrubbing plant, I think we’re close. If we can make it to cave, we can replenish our air and more importantly, we’ll pick up our bearings back to Mars Base.”

“Christ, the cave is five miles past the base, we must have walked right past it in the storm,” Saul muttered.

“Are you sure?” Rahm asked her.

She nodded. “Yep. The rock strata around here are unique, I’d know them anywhere. If we follow these rocks north we’ll walk straight into the entrance.”

“That’s good news. Right, everybody, let’s get moving.”

They followed Rahm, as he plodded through the storm, walking in that strange, slow space hop that was the only way to walk on the surface. The underground air scrubbing plant had been built when the first miners reached the planet. They’d found and enlarged an underground cavern, installing the equipment away from the dangers of storms and meteor bombardments. So far, the Taurons hadn’t discovered it, although most thought it only a matter of time. Almost every crew leader had begged the Mars Base manager to put a guard on the installation, but they’d been refused. The men couldn’t be spared from the all important task of mining the precious mineral, trevanium. Rahm checked his air supply, ten minutes left and he would be on reserve, the others would be as critical. Then he saw the marker. They were there. An old drilling rig, part dismantled and sand blasted by the storms, lay on the surface. Ten yards away was the edge of a small crater. Inside the crater was the huge airlock doorway that led into the air scrubber plant. He pushed aside a small rock and exposed a keypad. He keyed in the combination and the light went green, he twisted the wheel and opened the door. They scrambled inside, Brad and Nathan were both breathing heavily. Rahm connected a hose to their life support systems and started pumping the life giving air directly to their helmets. There were many more hoses hanging down from a hub, the others connected up and started to recharge their air supplies. Rahm left his for later and walked around to check the huge cavern for signs of any damage, but it all looked good. When they’d built the new Mars Base five miles away they’d decided to run an underground pipeline from the cave to the new base. Many had argued that it was a tactical mistake, but financial necessity had prevailed. The life of every human being on Mars depended on an undefended air scrubbing facility connected by a fragile, five mile long umbilical that stretched underneath the surface. Kacy finished first, her technician’s fingers were agile and deft as she unhooked her resupply hose and went to the communications console.