The only access to the plateau was through a winding path that led to the mouth of the canyon and beyond to the vast plains. There on the plains was a temporary shuttle landing facility. The shuttles could land vertically, but a small runway helped in liftoff and touchdown with higher loads. The shuttle landing facility also had an emergency hut, and stocks of spares and shuttle fuel.
All in all the USC Kormas base was built like a veritable fortress, and it was completely owned by USC since it was outside the Rubicon line. The base however had not been built on that plateau to make it a defensible fortress. That was just a happy outcome of some fortunate geography. The original camp had been built out there because of the ‘Glass Worms’.
In the first decade of this century, as more and more space crafts were sent to Mars, scientists were excited to discover what could only be described from aerial pictures as worms. These were ribbed tubular structures kilometers long and hundreds of meters thick that appeared to be ribbed tubes of made out of glass.
The alien hunters went into overdrive citing this as proof of long lost alien civilizations, while scientists dismissed them as optical illusion. According to them these were simply artefacts of sand dunes. Unlike the ‘Face’ on Mars however, there were many aspects of those pictures, that couldn’t be simply proved as natural artefacts. Even if those were natural structures, they were mighty interesting natural structures, the origin of which was far from certain.
Thus one of the later missions to Mars in the 2040s decided to go and check them out at this particular place, where such ‘Glass Worms’ had been noticed from orbit. They were able to conclusively prove that these were natural structures, without the hand of any alien beings. That didn’t mean that they were not interesting.
Scientists theorized that these ribbed tubes were made by frozen oceans, long go when Mars had liquid water on its surface flowing freely. One can see such frozen ocean structures today on the Arctic Ocean and northern Canada. Over a period of time the frozen ice disappeared leaving the ribbed tubular structures made of salt deposits and hematite.
What was interesting in those structures were the network of tunnels adjoining these Worms dug into the walls of the canyon, carved out by water flowing at high pressure. Some of those tunnels and caves were huge. Since Mars has no geological movements any longer, most of these tunnels have survived, creating a network that would be interesting to any explorer and a goldmine for the scientists exploring the geology of the planet.
When USC had to choose a site for their base on Mars, this site was not just attractive for it fort like defensive location, but also for the amount of hollow spaces that could be used for storage and perhaps even habitation. This was a natural choice for a military base.
What the USC planners would never have imagined was that this same location could become an ideal place for the Shaitans to lay a siege and confine the defenders with no exit available to escape. Even if the humans could have escaped, there was nowhere for them to go to. This was the only permanent base available on Mars.
There were two emergency supply dumps nearby with a makeshift emergency hut, but that would not sustain so many people of the base, even if they have not been destroyed or captured by the Shaitans already. They could defend any land attack from below, and even the Shaitans wouldn’t dare climb down the sheer 5 Km face of the canyon wall to come from above.
The Shaitans had air support in terms of two shuttles that were the size of large bombers used a hundred years ago. The Shaitans had not tried to use those shuttles yet to fire on or bomb the base on the plateau. If they wanted, the Shaitans could easily do either and destroy most of the structures on the base.
The older structures were flimsy and would get destroyed even with those large caliber bullets that Shaitans use. The newer structures being constructed by Dr. Matsumoto and team were made out of local material and were more robust. They could survive those bullets, but not a bombing even by conventional bombs.
Humans had no idea what the Shaitans considered conventional. It was possible that every bomb made by the Shaitans was a nuke. That may be what the Shaitans considered ‘conventional’. The humans could however survive the destruction of the entire base outside.
USC planners had made elaborate structures deep within the network of tunnels, and a large part of Yusuke’s building experiments involved using naturally occurring shelters like these tunnels to make human habitat quickly and cheaply. So they had ample living space, oxygen, food and water stocked to last them over a year inside.
The power source for this base was the old dirty nuclear fission model used first on Titan. That was because this was one of the earliest places in space they had put up a semi-permanent settlement. The modern variable geometry fusion power plants which are clean and more efficient had not been developed yet. Even now they are too expensive to cart one to Mars. It is a lot cheaper to replace plutonium fuel rods on this reactor every few years. This reactor still had decades of working life left.
The reactor had also been buried deep into one of the dead end tunnels. That place had become a natural containment chamber with the additional bonus of a cache of frozen ice embedded within the rocks, which could be used by the reactor.
So the humans had a self-contained and sustainable ecosystem within the tunnels where they could survive for a long time. The tunnels were deep enough that they would be able to survive even if the external base on the plateau was bombarded by a tactical nuke. They may even be able to survive a nuke the size of Hiroshima, but they would most probably be sealed for good and entombed in those tunnels.
The Shaitans however would not go unchallenged if they decided to bomb the base or fire upon it from Shuttles. The base had four automated anti-aircraft guns mounted on turrets that could operate autonomously or be remotely controlled from the tunnels. In addition the base had a stock of 20 shoulder mounted missile launchers, which could be used very effectively on such shuttles.
The Kormas base had been caught in very unfortunate timing on their regular schedules. Mars bases were supported logistically by the older Resolute class ships and their generational equivalents from China and ESA-ISRO-JAXA consortium. Even some of the last Friendship class vessels that were still in service were used once in a while, though they were rare as most had been retired or used for training in Earth orbit or the Moon.
These Resolute class ships took between 5 weeks to as much as 12 weeks for a one way journey from Earth to Mars depending on the relative position of the two planets. Unfortunately for the humans on Mars, the current position was almost at the maximum distance and it took nearly 11 weeks at this distance.
When it was observed that one of the Shaitan Ships broke formation and headed towards the inner solar system, while the rest continued on their original course to miss the solar system tangentially, the scheduled resupply ship carrying returning passengers out of rotation from Mars had already started its acceleration burn towards Earth.
It could not have decelerated to a stop, turned back to Mars in another acceleration burn, decelerated again to stop at Mars and pick up evacuees, all of whom would not have fitted on the ship anyway, and then hoped to have enough fuel left to reach back to Earth.
The relief vessel meant for mars was still in Earth orbit, and could not hope to make it to Mars fast enough to evacuate the humans at Mars before the Shaitan Ship reached there. So the humans were stranded here on Mars.
Leanna as the CO of the Kormas base had done the only thing she could do. She had hunkered down and ordered elaborate preparations for the coming invasion in nearly two months’ time. She was a student of General Takamori, and she was not going to let her mentor down. She would prepare defenses that would make Takamori proud.
It was not clear what the plans of this lone Shaitan ship were. In fact initially it was not even clear which inner planet the ship was heading, and most had suspected it would be heading for Earth, and defense preparations had been made accordingly to protect Ea
rth.
When it became clear that the Shaitan ship was heading towards Mars, the Admiral had sent a single Resolute class ship for their rescue, Leanna thought bitterly. Heck it was not just any Resolute class ship, it was the old and venerable USS Resolute itself! That must be all that their lives were worth she guessed.
She admonished herself for being bitter. As a military woman, she understood the strategic and tactical compulsions the Admiral faced. She knew that the Admiral cared about very man and woman of the USC which was the only family he had. He especially cared about her and Yusuke. The team that survived Titan were friends for life.
The intent of the Shaitan ship were not known. If the ship decided to simply bomb the human base from space with one of those monster 400 megaton nuke they had used last time, then there was very little that Leanna could do. Unlike on earth, where she could have scattered her people along the wide and open countryside, she could not do so on Mars. They had to return back to the base for life support.
Even if she scattered her people temporarily as the Shaitan vessel came into orbit, if it destroyed the human camp then those scattered humans were doomed. They would have no access to life support after their suit batteries ran down and would die, especially if the entrance to the tunnels got sealed due to bombardment.
They were better off inside the tunnels. In case they survived the bombardment of the Shaitan ship, they would be able to survive inside for a long time and hope for rescue from Earth.
Leanna had no way of striking back at the Shaitan ship though. In a monumental oversight, the camp was not equipped with any surface to orbit missiles. She was sure that if she survived this, then that would go as a recommendation to the brass of USC. Every human base needs to be equipped with defense from orbital bombardment.
Leanna could however prepare for defense against ground assault if the Shaitans decided such a course of action, and prepare she did. She had spent the last two months consulting her officers and NCOs and working her people, both military and civilians to exhaustion. She had taken inspiration from the methods of Takamori and become an ardent student of ancient battles. She had realized on Titan that the blood spilt by their ancestors could yet help in their survival.
The Shaitans had arrived in orbit and to her relief did not start bombing right away. The external base was abandoned, but for a few marines on patrol around the plateau. All the humans of the base were hunkered down deep within the tunnels. From her control center in those tunnels, she watched as two shuttles descended towards them.
One of the preparations Leanna had done for the coming assault had been to put an extensive spy cam coverage around the entire base for tens of kilometers within direct visual range. The spy cams covered every pass and gorge within the canyon, on the vast plains below, and even the top of the canyon five kilometers above.
She had them connected with multiple redundant fiber connections, as well as radio and laser backup. These spy cams were encased in EMP hardened cases. If there was anything moving within kilometers of the bases, she would know from inside. The enemy will have to go and hunt out the hundreds of spy cams scattered individually to render her blind.
She saw the shuttles land near the mouth of the canyon on the plains. Her image processor counted exactly 1024 Shaitans emerge from each of the shuttles, totaling 2048. The cameras were calibrated, so she knew their size. All of them were type – B warrior Shaitans.
That was amazing. The Shaitans had crammed over a thousand warrior Shaitans into a shuttle the size of a large bomber or a large airliner. Humans would have crammed no more than half the number, and the warrior Shaitans were nearly 3 to 4 times the size of humans by volume. They must have been packed like sardines inside, and they had no issues about it. It probably had to do something with their physiology and psychology. Octopus for example were very comfortable squeezing into the narrowest of tubes.
Leanna saw with dismay as the shuttles unloaded crates of what was clearly arms, ammunitions and equipment. These were not unarmed Shaitans like the ones she had fought on Titan. They were carrying weapons which were probably far superior to what she and her soldiers had.
She saw one of the shuttles take off. The radar tracked the shuttle going over the horizon, but not back to the orbit and towards the Shaitan mother ship. It was going off to some unknown destination on Mars. Leanna was blind beyond the horizon. The Shaitan ship had destroyed all the satellites orbiting Mars even before closing in towards its own orbit.
Leanna and her people braced for the assault that was to come, but it never came. Instead the two thousand Shaitans spread around and covered all possible routes that could be used for exiting the base, including treacherous paths that humans could only progress using rock-climbing gear.
They established a temporary base next to their parked shuttle, and set up equipment to jam radio signals and signals on every possible electromagnetic spectrum. The jamming signal was so strong and effective, that Leanna had interference even inside the shielded tunnels.
There was no way any signal was going to leave or reach Mars unless using pointed laser. This was not an option for Leanna to communicate with Earth or any rescue ship they may send. So for all practical purpose, the Kormas base was cut off from the rest of the universe.
Chapter 15
Maskirovka
Rendezvous Point, beyond Pluto
September 2083
“Velocity, vector and attitude are all check captain. We are on our programmed course, with no deviations.” The navigator spoke over the com. Gerald gave his mandatory ‘copy’ acknowledgement. It was uncomfortable operating the ship from inside a suit. It were at times like these that he envied the tech-heads, who face very little problems operating without their hands.
Suiting up before a battle was one of the changes in operational procedure in the Navy since the battle of Titan. It was probably a direct result of the lessons learnt in that battle. The crew of the Charles Martell may have survived if they were suited up. The standard USC operational procedure meant that every crew suited up on a condition 2 alert, and right now they were even higher on a condition 1 alert.
The suit Gerald was wearing was a specially made suit for the Navy. It was not designed for rugged use on the surface. It did not attempt to provide any armor for protection. It was not even meant to last a long time in the vacuum of space without external power. The primary purpose was to give temporary protection to the crew in case of a hull breach and loss of atmosphere.
It would help a crewman survive to be able to reach a part of the ship that has not lost integrity, or to effect repairs to the hull breach. For longer and more specialized jobs there were specialized suits for space walk or surface missions. This suit’s life support lasted only 2 hours on its batteries, as a result the power of the suit needed to be plugged in while at battle stations, so as to not deplete the battery.
Fortunately Gerald did not actually have to pull out a wire from his suit and plug it in. The suit charged by induction from the power mats placed all over the battle stations, very similar to an induction heater used in a coffee pot. All Gerald had to do was ensure that some part of his body and hence the suit was touching one of those mats. Every time he went out of his harness and the suit lost contact with power, it would chime irritatingly to warn him that the suit was now running on batteries.
The payoff that this suit reaped in exchange for all the compromises, was the thinnest space suit that had ever been designed. It was fairly comfortable to work within the suit, and the joints were far less stiff and constraining than normal suits. However it was still not ideal to be operating terminals with your fingers for running a space ship. The only people who remained unaffected were the tech-heads, who rarely used their fingers to operate terminals anyway.
Gerald thumbed his helmet to connect with the Admiral. “Sir, USS Nautilus reports in with all systems at 100% and on the planned course.”
“Thanks Gerald. That makes four, so all of us are in
our expected position. I want to let you know that I have just sent the signal to Capt. Strong. She should get it in just under four hours, so the die is cast and now there is no turning back.” Fabi replied.
“Acknowledged admiral, our acceleration program is now counting down. We should be cutting off our acceleration in about 15 minutes.” Gerald replied.
“Yes, I am monitoring it. The message packet has been programmed and scheduled. It will be dispatched at the same time as planned. You and the other captains take care of your part of our Maskirovka, and I will take care of my part. Udači captain.” Fabi signed off.
The Third Fleet had come to a full halt at the point where the two parts of the Shaitan fleet would have met up. Then it had turned to the selected direction chosen by the admiral, and started full acceleration. The Nautilus class ran on the new variable geometry nuclear fusion reactors and were powered by ion plasma engines. So the acceleration could not be expected to be stellar. It was just shy of 0.05 m/s2.
To put that in perspective, a ball dropped on earth fell to the ground with an acceleration of 9.8 m/s2. So the ships could accelerate at less than half a percentage of the gravity on Earth. So the crew hardly felt the acceleration. When you left something hanging in the air, it still felt like it was drifting. Only now things drifted consistently in one direction – towards the aft.
For the crew on the bridge it still felt weightless, but they now had a weird sensation as one feels when a light breeze pushes the body in a lateral direction towards the aft. When you weigh a few hundred grams in this acceleration, the pull of gravity feels like the pressure of a light breeze.
Slow as the human ion plasma engines were, they still appeared to be faster in acceleration than the Shaitan warships they had observed. It is possible that the Shaitan war ships were not decelerating at full capacity, but that was unlikely given the desperation they were showing in getting to their rally point in a hurry.
Shaitan Wars 2: Wrath of the Shaitans Page 18