Beyond Mars Crimson Fleet (15 page)

"Then what shall I do with
them, Major?" the sergeant asked.

"Stick them in evac-pods
and get them the hell off the station! There's no way we're taking
them with us!"

"Aye, Sir!" Gagarin snapped
a reply.

Walking to the head of the
detail, Sergeant Gagarin pointed the muzzle of his weapon at the
first prisoner and indicated a direction with it. "ALL RIGHT YOU
BUNCH OF MAGGOTS, START MOVING!" he commanded.

As the prisoner detail
marched off, Franks glared at them hatefully.

"Those poor dumb grunts are
just doing their duty," Colonel Lon's voice surprised Major
Franks.

The major
turned to face his commanding officer now standing next to him.
"Does the Colonel mean like when they shot up
Dome-One
thirty years ago? It must
have been really tough for these Earthers facing down a bunch of
unarmed workers, striking for better conditions."

Major, hating these people
for past sins is not going to bring your father back," Lon offered
sympathetically.

"No, Sir, it won't," Franks
reply was emotional, "but they've always treated us as sub-human.
Personally, I don't give a rat's tail what happens to them. I just
want to be free of them."

"We're doing that right
now, Ed," the colonel reassured. "So what's the situation, Major?"
Lon's tone changed back to a military professional.

"Sir," Franks once more
buried the past and became a marine again, "although we caught them
by surprise, they're still putting up a tremendous fight. We've
have just secured the reactor room, but there is still sporadic
fighting and flare ups throughout the station."

"It's no better out
there," Colonel Lon confessed. "They recovered quickly. They're
launching fighters and continuing to fight regardless that we
knocked out over half of their batteries. I think
that…."

Suddenly, a small
explosion blew off the hatch to the engineering crawlway, choking
the room with dust and smoke. Major Franks and many other marines
automatically threw themselves to the floor and readied their
weapons. And luckily too, for plasma bullets sprayed from the
opening, and mowed down those marines that didn't. A second later,
figures in the Earth’s black security uniforms jumped out of the
hole with the objective of taking back the control
center.

"BREAK-THROUGH!
BREAK-THROUGH!" screamed Franks as he began shooting his weapon
from a prone position.

Franks killed the first two
soldiers out of the duct, however, many more followed. The Earthmen
poured through the hole, shooting, clubbing, and bayoneting in a
hateful frenzy. But marines are marines, and countered the attack
with their own fervor and tenacity. For many moments, the struggle
lay in the balance, with the advantage shifting constantly from one
side to the other.

Finally, Sergeant Gagarin,
leading marine reinforcements, charged into fray. The marines’
withering fire and wild onslaught took a heavy toll upon the Earth
security forces, driving survivors back into the duct. Several
concussion grenades were then heaved into the engineering access.
Their detonation announced the end of the battle.

As Major Franks watched
Sergeant Gagarin and ten other marines climbed up and disappear
into the duct, he rose slowly to his feet.

"The sons of bitches, they're using the engineering
and repair ducts to filter in behind us!" the major's voice boomed.
He turned quickly to where before his superior officer once stood.
"Colonel, I think we better…." Franks voice suddenly trailed off.
Colonel Michael Lon, Commandant of the Martian Marine Corps, lay
dead from a blast to his face.

The death of his friend and
superior officer instantly stunned Franks. He stared stupefied at
the corpse unbelieving of the colonel’s demise. He then bowed his
head with closed eyes in mourning and out of respect, but the
situation demanded no time for lamenting.

"MAJOR, WE GOT A PROBLEM
HERE!" a marine manning the communication's position yelled
out.

Franks spurted to the
control consoles. His attention quickly shifted to the Martian
freighter fighting for its very survival. Although the ship was
heavy shielded as well as bristling with armament, it was not able
to fend off the multitude of fighters that attacked it mercilessly.
Soon gaping breaches from the hull belched plumes of water vapor,
contaminated with other particles, reminiscent of smoke.

Franks
redirected some of
Guardian
One
'
s
batteries in support of the languishing ship, but
the inevitable could not be forestalled. With a single missile from
an Earth fighter, the huge ship was transformed into a massive
expanding orb of fission that scattered burning wreckage in all
directions.

Flaming metal chunks were
spewed across space in deadly shards as well as large sections.
Fighters that were too close disintegrated in smaller explosions
from the freighter's aftermath while other debris rained upon the
two space stations with total disregard. The two stations careened
wildly from the enormous shock wave of the blast and the impact of
the last physical remnants of the ship that pierced both of them.
Many minutes passed before the effects of the explosion were
spent.

Franks displayed a slight
sneer. "Looks like we'll be walking home! WHERE THE HELL IS OUR
SUPPORT!" the man roared in frustration.

Suddenly, an electronic
buzzer echoed through the room.

"Shit!" cursed another
marine. "Major, the gate controls just went red!"

"Can you trace the
problem?" Franks yelled back.

"I'm trying to, Sir! There
seems to be a break in the converter circuits!" the marine
responded.

"Try to bypass them!" the
major ordered. Franks then abruptly grabbed at his throat mike.
"Left Guard to Pistol Pete! Left Guard to Pistol Pete! Do you copy,
over?"

"Pistol Pete to Left Guard!
I read you, Six! Go!" the voice of Captain Benson filled the radio
receiver.

"Benson, were the hell are
you! We've got all reds on the hyper-gate controls!
Over!"

As Captain Benson squatted
behind a huge piece of machinery in some unknown room, plasma bolts
whizzed furiously passed his head. However, he quickly returned
fire, hitting one of his assailants sniping at him from an elevated
platform. "We're a little busy right now, Major! Between trying to
stabilize the reactor power and these damn snipers, we’ve got our
hands full! We'll try to get to it as soon as possible!
Over!"

"Don't try, just do it!"
Franks sternly decreed.

"Aye, Sir!" Benson replied
as he shot another sniper.

Suddenly,
Guardian 2
shook from several explosions on its unseen side
in bright evanescent flashes. Its batteries then eerily went silent
as all power faded from the station in a rolling
blackout.

Major
Franks stood amazed as he gazed out a large porthole and watched
as
Guardian 2
began
to drift further away. He did not believe that the fighting between
the two stations was so unexpectedly over. As he continued to stare
out into the dark void, his eyes caught a ship approaching from
behind the wayward station. A lone
Dolphin
destroyer in Martian colors
drew closer.

Franks dashed over to the
communication's position and keyed the audio transmitter. "Left
Guard to Right Guard! Left Guard to Right Guard! Do you copy?
Over!"

There was a short pause and
some static, and then the voice of Captain Richard Wakinyan was
heard over the speaker. "Major, you needn't be so formal. I would
know that loud and irritating voice of yours anywhere," Wakinyan
tried to lighten the situation.

However, Franks was in no mood for joking and grew
very annoyed. "You're ten minutes late, damn it! Where the hell
have you been?" he demanded to know.

"A few Earth ships took a complete disliking to our
existence," Wakinyan explained becoming more serious. "They cost us
time— and casualties."

As
the
Crazy Horse
glided by, Franks clearly saw the damage to the ship. "Sorry,
Wakinyan, I guess this morning hasn't been pleasant for either one
of us."

"It’s okay, Major." Wakinyan assured. "I suggest you
send your success code. Paladin is probable a little worried by
now."

"I will. By the way, have you got room on that
garbage scow of yours? Our ride got zapped, and there's wounded all
over the place," Franks asked respectfully.

"Start shuttling them over, we'll make the room,”
Wakinyan did not hesitate to answer. “You'll have to use your own
boarding pods and anything else that you can find though, but be
advised—only Bay One is operational."

Franks shook his head as he spied
the gapping hole in what was left of Bay Two of the
Crazy Horse
. "Thanks,
Captain," Franks was relieved and grateful. "It's too bad that not
all the transports are equipped with hyper-drives," the major
turned and saw a tarp being placed over Colonel Lon's body, "it
would have saved a lot of grief."

* * * * *

Chapter 8: Eye of the
Devil

The planet Mars was an
outwardly angry and hostile world that inspired both imagination
and myth, but it also instilled feelings of fear and awe in all
those who looked upon it. Ever since man first gazed up into the
night's sky at it, the planet glowed in a flaming red and orange
like heated coals. However, "The Devil's Eye" as it was once
nicknamed, held an overwhelming magnitude that left many visitors
to this world in breathless wonder.

Dust storms moving in splotches of browns and blacks
appeared as bellowing wisps of smoke that seemed to float over the
Martian landscape. They intermittently blurred and distorted
terrain features as if excessive waves of heat were swirling about.
This added to the illusion of a world on fire. Not even the white
polar caps were able to cool this fervent impression. However, the
impression was now reality.

Olympus Mons boiled and roared upward in fiery
explosions. The huge volcano smoldered eerily against the heavens
as it spat lava and ash furiously in plumes of pungent sulfur. Its
physical contempt reached well beyond the atmosphere, threatening
space itself. Truly, this inferno was a most fitting tribute to the
Roman God of War, especially as dead hulks of ships and human
remains slowly circled the planet in space. So were the thoughts of
Admiral Selena Darius who held an obsessive loathing for the planet
and its people.

Selena’s
fixation of hatred against Mars and the Martians grew out of her
ordeal of her only command in the Arris War. As she stared out a
porthole on the bridge of the
Quinton
, she was mesmerized by the
volcanic violence of the red world that imperiled its surrounding
space. It led her mind back in time, and then Darius remembered why
only one moon now circled Mars.

* * * * *

Almost a score of years had
passed since the Arris had attempted to invade the Earth’s system.
An insect race that was driven by their own basic instincts, they
had exterminated all other beings before them to ensure their own
species future survival. And seventeen years ago, they had turned
their malevolence upon humanity after accidentally discovering and
destroying several human colonies at Alpha Centauri A.

Although the last colony to be annihilated had sent
a dire warning before their fall, the Arris had quickly determined
how to operate its hyperspace jump-gate as well as the coordinates
of humanity’s home world, the Earth. The Arris then had sent their
hordes immediately through the jump-gate to obliterate the Earth
before the human military could respond in force. Sadly, all that
had stood between the aliens and the extinction of billions were
several squadrons of Earth warships Darius commanded—and the newly
commissioned Martian fleet.

Yet,
Selena had personally ordered the Martians to remain out of the
engagement. Like so many other Earthers, she had been indoctrinated
in the perception that Mars was inferior to Earth in every way and
believed that the Martians' obsolete ships and untried crews would
only be a hindrance to her efforts. And as the two human fleets
parted, the Martians were left behind with the task of forming
their own last ditch defense should the battle go badly. It became
a self-fulfilling prophecy for Selena as her formations were
quickly struck from both quarters by the Arris warships while
a
gunline
of alien
vessels was used as a blocking force in the
center.

As clash grew in ferocity,
Darius’ crews courageously fought what slowly became a one-sided
battle, for the superior numbers of the Arris eventually took their
toll. For every Arris ship the Earthers destroyed, two more came
through the gate. Selena then tried a mad dash through the center
to destroy the gate, but was driven back with heavy
losses.

With her squadrons
decimated, Selena was forced to order a general retreat, fighting
as they withdrew. There was nothing else she could do but despair,
for there seemed no way to stop the bug-like aliens, who massed for
the final drive.