Martian Dragons

by Ian Woodhead

  Villas never found out the real truth until much later.

  They found, to their shock and joy, that stealing from Marauder outposts was easier than they could ever have believed. Russlain said that those scaly bastards were too arrogant and honesty thought that humans wouldn't dare steal anything from them. It sounded like a reasonable explanation and none of the others bothered to question his belief.

  The fun times lasted about three months. During that time, the four of them acquired enough wealth to even catch the attention of the Triumvirate, especially when they managed to steal a dozen Marauder armoured suits as well as a crate of light weaponry. Everybody knew that Marauder tech couldn't be used by any other species so as combat gear, the stuff was next to useless but that didn’t mean it wasn't valuable. Even as scrap, the supplies could bring in a decent price. The others wanted to sell as scrap but, as Villas claimed ownership due to him persuading the others to take it instead of grabbing the mining equipment next to it, the decision had been his to choose and he wanted to sell the gear to a contact with the R and D department of the Triumvirate.

  “I should have listened the them,” he whispered. Villas opened his eyes, not wanting to think about the explosive result thanks to his poor choice. He found that they were all awake now. The Velicion's red eyes were staring straight at Villas. He blinked twice then, with some difficulty turned his head, preferring to look at the wall.

  “We need to find Ryan,” said the Velicion. “He is not in this room. I believe the base commander has him in a secure location.”

  Was this idiot actually aware of the trouble they were in? Villas lifted his head as far as it would go. Both the Danu and the Bluelander were looking at him. He so wanted to lie back down and try to think back to those tender moments he spent with Dayna. He wanted to start shouting, screaming and raving, demanding that the bastards let him go. Like that was going to happen, like Villas could rest his head on the metal bed and allow himself to drift back into his past without remembering what those traitorous Beltborn fuckers did to him.

  “Villas,” said the Danu pilot. “We need to know if we can rely on you.”

  Shouldn't it be the other way around? Even if, by some miracle, they did escape from these bindings, what's to stop any one of them betraying him? Villas's behaviour since the Bluelander appeared in his cell hadn't been exactly pleasant. Not that this was any shock. Villas acted like that with everybody he met. He learned, a long time ago, that the only way to survive was to only look after himself, as other people always ended up betraying you in the end.

  The other Bluelander started to speak then stopped with a gasp. Villas knew why as he heard the unmistakable sound of approaching boot-steps belonging to Triumvirate soldiers. They were coming for him! They were coming for all of them! Villas closed his eyes, desperately wanting to his last few moments to be of Dayna.

  His moment of execution had arrived and all his traitorous mind wanted to show him was of Dayna's brother opening the door and several Beltborn security rushing inside along with a single Triumvirate Danu officer. They arrested Villas on the spot and accused him of spying for the enemy. They dragged him out and his last ever gaze of Dayna was her standing with Russlain and Marbik. And they were all smiling.

  Villas heard the door open. He snapped open his eyes. Three soldiers glared back at him. As they approached his bed, he saw himself back in that room. Both Marbik and Russlain were telling the security that Villas was a traitorous piece of shit, that they had seen him conversing with marauder agents.

  In the version that Villas remembered, Dayna had stayed quiet, she slunk to the back and allowed them to accuse him of all those awful and untrue crimes when in reality, she'd gone ballistic and threatened to murder both Russlain and Marbik unless they retracted their lies. She hadn't been smiling at all as the security dragged Villas out, Two other security had to restrain the hysterical woman.

  The soldiers had reached him. His heart felt like it was going to beat right through his ribcage. Villas so wanted to plead with them, to ask for forgiveness, to be allowed to live for just a little longer. He saw his lost love, standing behind them. He saw her mouth opening but couldn't hear the words. “Speak up,” he said, his voice rose in volume when one of the soldiers made a Fist and drew his arm back. “I can't hear you!”

  “I said, are you with us?”

  “Yes! Oh, God. Yes I am!”

  The largest Triumvirate soldier laid a beefy hand on Villas's chest, he leaned over and grinned, displaying a mouthful of chisel-shaped teeth. “I can already see by the fear in your ratty-little eyes you know what we're going to do to you.” he looked back at his equally formidable colleague then cast his gaze around the room before turning his attention back to Villas. “See, my pal here wants to do you a bit of damage before we throw you out onto the surface. I know you won't mind. As it means a slight delay in your inevitable and agonising death.” The soldier then walked over to the Velicion. “I've heard a rumour that your species can handle a huge amount of physical damage before you succumb.” He pulled out a null-wand then looked back at Villas. “This device doesn't have the taint of either Velicion or Danu parts, unlike almost everything else in this place. You're going to see exactly what pure Terran technology is capable of. Once I've played with this big ugly lizard, I'll start on you.”

  The soldier twisted the null-wand's base. A low hum filled the small room. He then pushed the tip towards the Velicion's stomach but before it made contact, the Velicion's arm whipped up, its long claws wrapped over the soldier's wrist. Villas wasn't sure what shocked him the most, the fact that the control collar obviously didn't work on the Velicion or the pure hate displayed towards the Velicion from that Triumvirate soldier.

  The other soldier wasn't slow in reacting. He ran towards his struggling companion but he didn't even make it to the table as the Danu pilot sat up, jumped off the metal bed, pulled the null-wand from out of the soldier's belt and smacked him across the back of the head. The soldier hit the deck in a boneless heap.

  “Human arrogance never fails to both amuse and annoy me,” said the pilot. “It is perhaps your greatest strength but also your greatest weakness.”

  The Velicion snatched the null-wand out of the other soldier's hand. “Such a basic and crude device. The Danu is quite right about your species. After all, it is your inbuilt arrogance which caused this current situation. You were not ready to leave your planet, after three hundred years of observation, perhaps you never will be ready. As for you, perhaps you should be directing all this pent up fear towards whoever turned you into the spiteful worm that you are.”

  “Fuck off,” snarled the soldier. “You're going to die, you're all going to die. Go on, bite me, eat my face. I know that's what you want to do.”

  The Velicion tapped the null-wand against the side of the soldier's head and he fell over the other soldier's body. “You would probably give me indigestion,” he muttered before climbing off the table.

  The Danu had already freed the other two humans. They all approached Villas. The pilot gently wiped perspiration from the man's head then unlocked the control collar. “Tell me what we need to do.”

  “We need to find Ryan.” replied Villas.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Into the Jaws of the Enemy

  It took all of her focus to prevent that last wave of attack drones from strafing the surface with incendiary spores. The base commander had risked breaking the link between her and their orbital forces to order the Danu not to allow any drone or dropship reach the planet. A highly unusual order, considering, in the past few engagements, the Marauders never attacked the surface, intent with only escaping before the main Triumvirate forces attempted to regain control of the base.

  These were indeed unusual times, evident in not only the base commander's message but also in the way this latest marauder invasion played out. Faylar allowed herself to exhibit a very human-like smile. She knew it must look weird on her face but she not not care. F
aylar had been practising this technique especially for this occasion.

  The warrior Taylish had, just like the prophecy foretold, not only proven himself in battle but unified even the most despicable of inter-species criminals into one effective fighting unit. Throughout the battle above the planet, Faylar had also observed the fighting inside the base via security footage. It had, at the start, shamed her to split primary functions into a nine to one ratio but, the shunt had not caused any significant drop in her performance, at least, not that any human would pick up. Her fellow Danu, however, were all very much aware of Faylar's break in established procedure. It shocked her to discover that she did not care, almost as much as it shocked Faylar to find out that none of her other colleagues had any intention of, as the human would say, grassing her up.

  This surely was an exciting time to be alive and Faylar so wished her old wordmasters had survived through their last Velicion war as she believed their own annoying collection of cloned cells would be equally excited at the possible prospect of the reincarnation of Taylish finally bringing out a lasting peace amongst all sentient life in the galaxy, both terrestrial and non-terrestrial.

  Faylar's defence drones wiped out the last of the marauder drones and she recalled her remaining forces back to the Triumvirate battlecruiser. That was the last of them, this skirmish was finally over. She sat back and silently ordered the rest of her squad to disconnect once their tasks were complete. Faylar then ensured the manufactories on the Danu cloud platform were working to optimal efficiency to resupply the drones they lost in the battles before she herself disconnected from the platform's computer.

  It did feel pleasurable not to keep her tertiary memory shunt hidden from the others. They may have allowed one discretion but she doubted they would allow a second one. Faylar kept the tertiary shunt intact just for a moment longer while she discreetly observed the behaviour of her fellow operators, intrigued to see if the discretion they observed would in any way effect their actions. She did not want to be the only Danu on the base excited enough for the arrival of Taylish to deviate from primary orders.

  She wasn't the only Danu who now believed and were acting as they should. Through the security cameras, Faylar watched the heroic exploits of the pilot as he battled alongside the prisoners. He was a pilot though and they were genetically programmed to show more independent thought than any other Danu caste, so really, he had not really changed his behaviour. Despite this, she believed he would make a valuable ally in the potential struggle which lay ahead. Changes were, indeed, coming, and it was up to her to ensure that the rest of her species understood this and, more important, acted upon the changes.

  As vile a thought as it was, perhaps it was good that the wordmasters did not live through that last war. If those harbingers of established dogma were here right now, they'd do everything in their power to ensure order was maintained and any deviation was eliminated with efficiency. Right now, Faylar believed that meant, not only Taylish but her and the pilot.

  It did not surprise Faylar to see that her fellow Danu colleagues were doing anything other than what they were supposed to, namely complying with her instructions before leaving their private booths and waiting patiently for the shuttle to return them to the operations room on the base. They stood motionless and silent like statues. Faylar shut off the video feed in annoyance. Could just one of her colleagues perform a task which differed from the norm? Faylar did not expect one to burst into song while skipping around the departure pod. Just for a single Danu to turn and attempt a dialogue with another would be a start.

  “You have all made our long dead Wordmasters so proud,” she muttered.

  Faylar turned her attention to the tertiary shunt. Eager to watch how Ryan and the others faired with the gunnery sergeant's assault squad. It had been their dropship which the incendiary drones were targeting. Almost a full hour had passed since they entered the base so by now, Ryan and the Deck Commander should already be in negotiation as to how they should finally deal with the marauder threat.

  It would be interesting to see how the Triumvirate alliance make use of Ryan's unique abilities. The base contained a whole wealth of Marauder equipment, either stolen or left behind from previous occupations. Nobody had ever managed to get any of it to function. That was all about to change! Yes, this really was an exciting time to live.

  Faylar uncompressed the data files collected from multiple cameras from across the base and used a basic algorithm to filter out all irrelevant data. The whole process took less than a second. Faylar found herself frowning, she knew the process should have taken longer.

  The file had just a few minutes of footage. She played what there was, growing more and more nervous as each second passed. Faylar watched a drone and the Deck Commander exit the lift shaft, Ryan and his companions left a room close by. There appeared to be a dialogue between the two parties and then Ryan's companions dropped to the floor.

  She jumped up in panic, not knowing what to do next. Had the Deck Commander killed them all? Faylar had no way of knowing as the video feed abruptly cut off. “There had to be more, it must exist somewhere! She opened up a connection to the base, using an interface which gave her priority over all command-level orders. Using such an extreme procedure to find the necessary information was strictly forbidden. Only command staff were supposed to have full access to all base systems but as base primary augmented pilot, procedure required her to also have the codes in case the enemy had compromised their security. As no Danu would ever betray even the most basic of commands, the process was never questioned.

  It took her literally seconds to discover the location of most of them. “Where is Ryan?” There were two Triumvirate soldiers on the floor, next to a collection of control collars. Her blood ran cold when she realised the significance. They were going to kill them! Their reward after saving this base.

  What was going on? Surely, the Base Commander would not sanction such a brutal execution, which left only the Deck Commander. Faylar hurriedly disconnected the interface then wrapped her arms around a shaking body. For the first time in her life, Faylar was scared. Her eyes darted to the airlock. No, this wasn't just simple fear, Faylar Unit-Twelve-C was terrified of the implications, not just for her possibly discovery and certain execution but for Ryan too.

  “Lady Light, please, I beseech you to not allow whatever hidden machinations to pull Taylish away from the highest path.” The Base Commander needed to be told of what she had found out, despite knowing the methods she used would undoubtedly result in her punishment. None of that mattered, only Ryan's safety counted. Even so, Faylar hesitated to establish a direct link with the Base Commander's flagship.

  “I do not even know if Ryan lives,” she muttered.

  Faylar re-established the interface, this time, determined to find if Ryan still lived as well as his location. If it existed, she also had to find enough evidence to ensure the Deck Commander faced a firing squad.

  The connection placed her back inside the base mainframe but straight away, Faylar knew that something had changed in the moments since she was last here. The codes would not access the cameras, they would not allow her to view any incoming or outgoing data traffic, in fact, all that she could find was a single information stream leading from the base, all the way to one of the moons orbiting Saturn. Faylar tried to sever the connection but no matter what method she used, the interface refused to throw her out of the system. There was only one route to take and Faylar had the feeling that traversing the data stream would take her to a place where she may not ever return. What other choice did she have?

  In the end, Faylar had no option anyway. The stream caught her digital essence and no matter how much she struggled, it refused to relinquish its hold. It felt like being stuck at the edge of an event horizon. She continued to fight against the tide despite it now having her essence fully encircled.

  It took her away from the only home she had ever known and pulled her through the blackness of space.
It was an instantaneous journey but the stream slowed down her perception to allow her to experience the foreboding sheer emptiness of the lifeless vacuum between her two locations. She so wanted to scream but knew if that happened, the black would rip out and freeze her insides solid. An obvious impossibility. Digital essences were not flesh and blood.

  After what felt like an eternity, Faylar Unit-Twelve-C became the first female Danu to enter marauder domain undetected. She found herself in a huge underground ship repair facility. Marauder personnel were everywhere, crawling over and under half-complete or heavily damaged hulks that, in her opinion, were well past their use by date. From what Faylar could make out, none of the craft in this facility were space worthy.

  She yelped when a burly marauder walked straight towards her. She ran towards a large derelict then stopped and turned when she remembered her physical being was still a billion kilometres away. Faylar only existed in this facility as a digital ghost. Nobody could see her. She forced herself to relax, after all, this was a unique opportunity. No other Danu has seen a marauder up so close before. Faylar needed to observe and record everything for the sake of the Triumvirate. This facility reminded her a little of how the ancient Mars base once looked before the Danu claimed it as their own and refined it to suit their tastes. Blocky, brutish and utilarian. The place just stank of depression, terror and of despair. The interior mirrored the faces and general stature of its inhabitants.

  She wandered over to one of the dull, grey metal walls and brushed her fingers across the surface, thankful that only her digital presence was here. She wouldn't otherwise dare touch this disgusting wall. There was evidence of old blood here, old grease as well as what could possibly be fecal matter. “They are nothing but animals,” she said, moving away from the repulsive surface.