by Greg Ellis
Chapter 5 The Martian World War
The guards had come back from their escort mission. There still had been no UARS activity. Everyone was really jumpy and a blinking glaring DEFCON 2 sign in the air did nothing to relieve tensions. "We have subspace fluctuations," Simon yelled. Immediately Simon brought up the satellite image from where the fluctuations were coming from. A number of small domes and ships surrounding them appeared. The apparent commander of their mission sent a message to the AU dome. The commander’s image appeared saying that they would be landing on their side of the planet. Joel wanted to immediately raise the planetary shield and fire everything they had at the domes and the ships but couldn't. He sent a message back thanking the UARS commander for the heads up.
"Simon patch me into the intercom system," Joel said. "Done," came Simon's reply quickly. "All pilots and the squadron commander to the briefing room. Repeat, All pilots and the squadron commander to the briefing room." He turned to look at Simon. Simon replied with a knowing look and said, "I have the bridge." Joel headed for the briefing room.
...
"Well not that we're all assembled we need to formulate a stratagem. UARS has landed their bases without resistance like we expected. We have confirmed sighting of 15 ships and 3 domes, which may be holding more fighters. We figure the reason they haven't attacked us up till now is they are waiting for reinforcements to attack." Joel stopped to get a breath. The squadron leader looked at him asking, "If I may?" Joel nodded.
"The first thing you should probably know is that blackjacks have amazing maneuverability in atmos. However that is Earth's atmosphere and with Mar's less thick atmosphere that advantage may be lessened. In space neither really have the advantage in maneuverability. The blackjacks should have standard lasers like our Beagles but they may also be carrying missiles, which might be nuclear in nature. If they are nuclear they will likely have a failsafe point which once passed the missile cannot unlock from it's target and deactivate. The array's shields will be up. While a bunch of geostationary satellites forming a shield around a planet and themselves may sound wonderful please keep in mind that it's limits have never been tested. It is suppose to filter out all sorts of radiation and be able to shield against a nuclear detonation but this has never been tested so be cautious. We're hoping to be able to split the UARS forces into two groups with the shield: one on the planet and one in space. Our primary target is the enemies within the planet’s atmosphere because they can cause the most damage to our bases and interests. The second set of forces will not be able to come to Mars but a worst cast scenario is that they start a siege and try to starve us out. That's why A Flight will be engaging those forces while B and C will be taking the in atmosphere enemies." He paused for a second. "Any questions," he asked. No one had any.
...
The bridge was a beehive of excitement. Everyone was looking for the slightest sign of UARS aggression. None had been found. Joel and Simon were sweating, as were a few others in the room. Everyone wanted to see something so they could hurry up and get the fight over with but at the same time no one wanted a war with UARS. When some beeping came from the computer everyone in the room jumped. "Subspace fluctuation," Simon said. "Something huge is coming out." On the screen and in the room everyone could see 18 Blackjacks suddenly appear.
"Oh that is really not good. There is abnormally high level of radiation. They have one or more anti-gods." Simon said panicking. "They don't want to use them. It would make no sense to destroy such a valuable resource as Mars. Blanket threat," Joel said hopefully. Simon looked doubtful. A message came from the UARS bases. It showed some UARS military person saying they have five minutes to surrender. "Wait five minutes," Simon asked. "No let's get this over," Joel replied. "Action Stations. Repeat Action Stations. Launch all Beagles and prepare for attack," Simons voice rang throughout the base. Simon started rolling the trackballs and pressing the red buttons next to them. The UARS ships easily dodged the incoming lasers.
A Flight was nearly outside the Martian atmosphere and about to pass through the shield. B and C flights were half way to the bases and they could see blips on the outermost part of the ships radar system. They were heading towards them. Shots rang out but most of these were misses or did little damage. Flight A had just crossed the shield and began to engage the enemy too. Dogfights broke out everywhere. Each pilot was dodging leasers up and down left and right looking everywhere to make sure no one outflanked their ship in any of a thousand or more directions while they tried to get a few hits on the enemies. In space 7 UARS ships had been destroyed. One beagle had been destroyed. Another had its wing explode and another was dead in space with no power. It was eleven against four now. In the atmosphere the casualties amazingly were mostly blackjacks and the majority of their forces had been destroyed.
On the bridge there was a dull roar. Orders were being issued and people at the stations communicating with each other. "Good news! UARS only seems to have one nuke and an anti-god." Simon yelled. "And the ship carrying the nuke is headed for the planet. Crap." He tapped a button on a headset he was wearing. "A Flight. All form up on the blackjack heading towards the shield." Simon was trying desperately to hit that ship but all his attempts were dodged though he could have sworn he nicked a wing. None of the Beagles had any better luck. "Missile is deployed. Attempting to stop it." He had a perfect shot lined up. He fired. What looked like lightning sparks formed in front of the missile. "Crap it's shielded. Impact in five, four, three, two, one." A brilliant explosion occurred with a sizable fireball that quickly dissipated and large lightning bolts appeared everywhere. "Sensors are temporary blind but the shield held," Simon shouted joyously.
Up in space the situation was bleach. The Beagles had managed to bring it down to a six on four fight but they had sustained massive damage in the process. Systems were on the blink and there were some holes in the hull but thrust, acceleration, and weapons systems still managed to work. Ashley had a sense of forbidding. She could place where it was coming from till she saw a missile on radar. "Base anti-god has been launched," She radioed quickly but almost in the same instance she heard the command, "Scatter," coming from Joel. All the beagles did getting as far away from the missile as they could. Ashley however could not seem to shake it. "Computer, status of FTL drive," She barked. "Irreparably damaged. Unstable." A fraction of a second later more contacts showed up on radar. "Base the anti-god seems locked on me and my FTL systems are shot. Please advise."
Joel turned white. This couldn't be happening. More reinforcements from UARS had showed up and a nuclear missile was locked onto Ashley. Simon just had a puzzled look for a few seconds then radioed, "Head for the UARS domes. Don't pass through the shield till I tell you." "Belay that," Joel yelled angrily. He rushed over to where Simon was sitting and put his hand around Simon's throat. "What the hell do you think your doing?" Simon was gagging. Throatily he replied, "She's dead almost anyway you put it and that could stop the attack." Joel lessened his grip allowing Simon to breathe easily but his hand was still in position to choke again. "You’re not going to do it!" Joel shouted. "There has to be another way." The Squadron Leader turned to them. "Plus that doesn't get us what we want. If they don't back down we'll just enrage the bear all the more." "The chance that they will back down is worth it. We'll not win this war any other way. UARS seems to have endless reinforcements." Simon said sullenly. "What about fallout," Joel asked shaken backing away from Simon. "The yield on this bomb is the same as the Antarctic one. It would only take out a relatively small area." "Relatively small! That yield took out Antarctica! I won't let you! Guards take these men."
Neither of the guards moved. Simon turned to the Squadron Leader. "Do you agree with the plan?" "No but it's our only choice. Guards take him." They complied immediately with Joel shouting this is mutiny while being dragged to the edge of the room. Simon began typing rapidly. "Anti-god has been programed into the shield to pass through with you. Godspeed Snoopy and I am very sorry." "I
s Joel there," Came Ashley's voice. "No detained for the moment," Simon said quickly. "I see. Beginning descent." "All ships give Ashley cover then run like hell," Simon radioed.
Ashley passed through both shield layers. Then she began her descent. No need to worry about g-forces now she thought and made the ship go as fast as it could. "Yeehaw," she called out. Wait what was this? Why was she making an exited sound when she was about to die? She slowed down her speed. She prayed aloud. "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."
Joel prayed a different prayer. He didn't care much as to what deity or cosmic force it was he just wanted them to save Ashley. Ashley saw the domes. She wanted to say more. She wanted her last words to have meaning. All she could think of were these: "If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take." Ashley crashed into a dome. The anti-god followed and a brilliant explosion occurred.
In the control room everything was silent. What could one say in a moment like this? A beep broke the silence. "Incoming transmission from UARS," Simon called out. A Russian appeared in the room. "We surrender under Article 13 of the Articles of Colonization." Simon looked to Joel. Joel looked back with a face of intense rage and anger. "Are you two done?" Simon nodded. The guards released him. "Send this message in reply. You will land at the coordinates given. You will then walk to our dome. If I see so much as one weapon on you I'll toss every last sticking one of you out an airlock as is my right under the Articles." Joel nodded to Simon. "Make sure the coordinates are four clicks away from this base." “Will do," Simon replied. "Stand down," Simon radioed and then sent the message.
"Wait hold on sir. We may want to make an amendment to that. We have one possibly two survivors in space in heavily damaged craft. It would be a good show of faith if UARS rescued them and they were the first things shown before we open our airlock to UARS." "Fine make it so. I'll be in my quarters." "If you need to talk-" Joel cut him off abruptly. "You are quite possibly the last person on this god forsaken piece of rock that I want to talk to." With that Joel left the command center and headed to his quarters. He immediately sat down on the floor and grabbed the box from his pocket. He opened it. There was a beautiful engagement ring in it. Guess I won’t need this he thought and tossed it aside. He grabbed a remote and rope from a storage cabinet in the room.
He jumped onto his bed and rolled against the wall. He pushed a button on the remote. He rolled up to the wall until his body touched the ceiling. He pushed another button and then stood on the ceiling and started tying.
In the command center Simon had just finished sending a report to Earth. "Simon the UARS party is just a click away," called out the Squadron Commander. "I'll get Joel. Joel UARS is almost here." All Simon heard was silence. "Joel please respond." "You don't think he," the Squadron Commander said but was cut off by Simon running out the door. When he arrived outside Joel's quarters he slammed his hand into the hand scanner. "Unauthorized," the computer responded. "Override, Zed Zed 9 Plural Zed Alpha." The doors slid open. Simon saw a remote and small box with a shiny object and Joel chocking to death in a noose. He dove for the remote pressed a button. He, Joel, and the box with the shiny object all flew upwards to the ceiling. Simon felt like he may have broken something. Joel was coughing and breathing hard. He removed the noose and started rubbing his neck. "I was going to ask her to marry me." "I know but this is not the answer." Joel sighed and took a few seep breaths. "What's going on with the base?" Simon gave Joel a quizzical look but wasn't going to press the issue. "UARS are inbound and almost here. Still waiting for orders from Earth for what to do with them." "Then let's swing by the command center and then the flight deck." They went through the long process to get out of the room.
When they got into the command center the Squadron Leader immediately turned to them looking worried. "Reinforcements should be here within the hour. UARS left moon base alone. We are to escort the UARS prisoners in waves back to Earth to stand trial. You two are ordered to report for a court martial hearing. Guards escort them to the flight deck and make sure they are on the first ships out of here. Hope it goes well for you."