The Dunrakee were planning not only eradicate the human pests, but to take over Mars as their own, like they did with Earth.
As if one planet wasn’t enough.
More images flashed on the holopad with over a dozen vids at differing angles.
“Stop,” yelled Marino, his eyes practically bulging out of his head and his breath coming quickly.
Lyra turned off the holopad and set it down. “Do you see why we’re here, Sergeant?”
Marino’s face flushed white. “The Dunrakee weren’t supposed to be this far along after the Earth war. They were decimated like us, losing as much technology as we had. There is no way they have that many ships.” He backed up, lost in his thoughts, and bumped into Agent Bays.
“Apparently, they’re quick builders.” Ozzy wanted to get right to the point. “What we need to do is alert the Marines, and now.”
Marino pinched his upper lip, looking off in the corner of the room, his eyes wild.
“Marino?” said Ozzy. “We need—”
Marino put his hand in the air, palm out, his upper lip perspiring. “Yes, I know.” He shook off his terror. “Bays, we need to get some information over to Solis Planim Marine Central Headquarters, and—”
Lyra let out a high pitched mew, getting Marino’s attention. “Trust me when I say this. Whatever information you send to Solis Planim will be intercepted and erased. The High Judge doesn’t want to alert the masses, let alone any lower ranking officers in the Marines.”
“No, Jonas Moon is a dickhead, but he must see—”
“He has seen all the videos and more,” Ozzy interjected. “These are his files.”
Marino face quickly hardened and he stood tall and rigid, facing Bays. “Get our best ship ready.”
Bays left the room in a hurry and Marino began pacing the room. “If what you’re telling me is the truth, then I will deal with Jonas personally and as a traitor. Until then, we have to go to Solis Planim.” He rushed to the door, opening it. “Let’s get to the police dock.” He ran out of the room, and Ozzy and Lyra followed. Lyra held the holopad under the crook of her arm.
Marino led them to the back of the station, passing several shocked agents, and to a ship bay.
In any other situation, Ozzy would have dropped his chin at the immensity of this structure. It held hundreds of MMP ships, transports, troop escorts, and more.
Marino trekked with Bays toward a large transport vessel parked next to a departure tube—a tube the MMP had all to their own and not for public access.
“I’ll take you to Solis Planim, and we’ll begin a plan for mass evacuation,” said Marino. He opened the craft’s ramp and Ozzy stepped inside, Lyra right behind him.
Marino tapped on a shoulder com device. “Honey, this is Marino, get the kids to the precinct as soon as possible. I won’t be here, but you must trust me. I’ll be back soon enough.” He paused, listening on his ear piece. “No, just do it. I don’t have time to explain.”
He clicked the device off and touched Bays’s shoulder. “Thank you. Make sure my wife and kids are safe and secure until I get back.”
Wapooh!
Marino’s head jerked back. Blood splattered across the ramp and on the dock. He fell limply to the ground, dead before his head hit the concrete.
Bays twisted around, his eyes wide, the side of his body to Ozzy. He went for his gun, and pointed it forward, readying to take a shot at someone out of view.
Ozzy rushed forward, his arms outstretched, wanting to grab Bays and get him inside the ship and out of imminent danger.
A furry paw wrapped around Ozzy’s arm, tugging him to the ground, stopping him from moving any further.
More shots echoed in the bay and Bays’s gun went flying, his body jostling left and right as photon blasts riddled him.
He dropped to the floor, flopping onto his back. He turned his head, blood dripping from off of his lips, mouthing words Ozzy couldn’t hear.
Bays closed his eyes and stopped breathing.
25
Tagus Valles, Mars
Ozzy rushed toward the button that closed the ramp, and slapped it hard.
A soldier came into view as the ramp began closing. The grunt pointed his weapon, his jaw set, his muscles flexed, and his eyes narrowed and focused on Ozzy.
Ozzy froze, his eyes locked onto a man who was one of Jonas’s experiments. A super soldier, but this one Ozzy knew well.
Ozzy pushed out a hefty breath he didn’t know he was holding in. “Lou, it’s me. Your brother.”
Wapooh!
Ozzy’s eyes widened as Lou’s rifle burst apart, scattering onto the dock. Lou let his arms fall, his expression unchanged, and glared into Ozzy’s eyes.
The ramp closed, and hissed, sealing into position.
Ozzy twisted around, his mouth agape. Lyra lowered an MMP PR-19 rifle, slipped the safety switch on, and slid the rifle on a weapon’s rack set against the transport ship’s wall where a dozen more rifles were locked in place. “Your brother is lost, Ozzy. When you get that into your brain, Darling, you’ll find closure.”
Ozzy bit his cheek, and furrowed his brows. She was probably right, but he wouldn’t give up on him just yet. Still, he couldn’t focus on Lou. He had more pressing issues, like getting the human population into Marine vessels and off this red rock as soon as possible.
“We leave now, Ozzy,” came Lyra, plopping onto the co-pilot’s seat.
Ozzy hurried to the pilot’s seat, and initiated engines. He pressed holographic buttons on the ceiling and on the flight console.
Lights blinked on and the ship hummed. “It’s operational.” He flicked on the com line. “MMP tower, this is…”
Ozzy looked around for the ship’s identification numbers.
Lyra leaned forward, tapping on the ID number on the console.
Ozzy continued, “This is S-17 Carriage 119, ready for take off. Open the departure tube.”
A pause. “Yes, Sergeant Marino, we have you scheduled for departure. We’ll open the tubes. Have a great trip, Sir.”
Ozzy pulled on the lever and the ship lifted into a hover. Marino was scheduled to leave, thanks to Bays, but both were dead.
The com line staticked. “Sergeant Marino, this is tower again. We have two men down on dock 3, what is the status?”
Ozzy leaned forward. “No time. Please check it out. Over.”
He steered the ship forward and flew it into the open tube. The tube’s entrance door shut, and amber lights blinked on, displaying a very long runway with a closed exit door up ahead.
“Ready for take off.”
The exit door opened and Ozzy initiated boosters and anti-gravity, blasting the S-17 Carriage onward.
The amber lights faded as they passed the lip of the tunnel and into the butternut sky. He veered the ship to the left, doing his best to throw all his thoughts of his brother out of his brain.
Good luck with that, Ozzy thought to himself.
No doubt, right now MMP agents were either chasing his brother or they have him cuffed, booking him for killing their sergeant. Eventually, the MMP were going to pin this as a setup that Ozzy orchestrated, like they always had, and most likely how Jonas Moon will spin it.
Yet, it didn’t matter because Jonas and the MMP didn’t have time on their hands. An invasion was imminent, and unless they evacuate soon, no one will be alive to pin anything on Ozzy.
“Punching in the coordinates to Solis Planim Marine Base,” said Ozzy, pressing holographic buttons on the control panel. “At this speed, we’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
“Ozzy, precious, I’ve helped you get this far, now tell me what else the Gaia Stones said?”
Ozzy shot her a look. “Are you serious? You want to know that at a time like this?”
“Yes, Ozzy. Please.”
“Shit,” he shook his head, and pulled up the glyphs from memory. He pulled back on his control stick, rising above a cluster of small, rocky hills, and then leveling out. “The
Gaia—”
The com line snapped on. “This is MMP tower. Who is occupying this transport?” It was a different voice, more stern, and pissed. “We found Sergeant Marino dead. We need you to turn around for questioning, or we’ll assume that you were responsible for this assassination attempt.”
There goes Ozzy theory that they caught the culprit.
Ozzy lowered the ship as he passed over the hills, and hugged the crimson soil. It was desert for miles until he made it to the large crater that housed the Marine base.
“Look at the bay’s vids, genius, and you’ll see exactly who did it.” Ozzy turned off the com line. But perhaps his brother or Jonas Moon had turned off the bay’s vid feed, so that there wouldn’t be video evidence.
If they did toy with the vid fee, then Ozzy was the main suspect.
“What did the Gaia Stones say, Ozzy?”
Ozzy stiffened, and squeezed his hands around the control stick. “It says that the creator of this damn universe, which I find hard to believe, sent emissaries from planet to planet, asking for races to come together and design a species to save the Universe.” Ozzy laughed. “It’s ridiculous.”
“Keep talking. My race needs to know the rest.”
Ozzy huffed. “Look, the Ancient Martians had many ideologies that I find…rather…lacking and misguided, but—”
Lyra slammed her fist on the flight console, her ears pulled back. “I don’t give two Mars shits what you think. I give a damn about what the stones say. Now, do what your culture says, and spill the beans.”
“Okay, but if there is a creator, than why couldn’t said creator save the Universe? Why would help be needed?” He shook his head at the absurdity of it all.
“Because of free will and the expanse of knowledge and experience,” replied Lyra. “Now, speak more of what the stones said and keep your opinions to yourself, smooth skin.”
Ozzy rubbed the back of his neck, feeling the smooth skin she had just called him. “Alright, here goes.” He shifted in his seat. “Over twenty races volunteered for this experiment. They kicked what humans called giants off of Earth and began making different human forms, and most of which they discarded, such as Homo Erectus, Homo Neanderthal, Homo Cro-Magnon and the list went on and on.
“Eventually they came up with Homo Sapien, which they said was the perfect human species for Earth and would be able to eventually propagate and through the years, realize their full potential…that they could go through the most negative experiences and survive them, unlike many other races. This would prepare them to combat the negative entities and aliens in the universe, and eventually teach them that combat wasn’t needed in order to have peace.”
Ozzy snorted. “From what I can tell, humans can barely survive one negative alien attack, let alone save the Universe from multiple alien races. What is it like out there in the vast universe? Is it that bad?”
Lyra nodded. “It’s worse than you think, but I have a more pressing question. How is it that humans can overcome such negative impacts in life and continue surviving? What did the stones say?”
Ozzy bit his lower lip. “It didn’t go that far. You gave me two stones, but there are five.”
Lyra perked up and grabbed his arm. “Did any of the stones say where?”
Ozzy shrugged. “Yes.”
She continued to stare at him, her eyes practically piercing lasers through the side of his head.
“Alright, alright. All I saw were glyphs at the bottom of each stone. Both had the same coordinates, but we don’t have time to get there. Like you said, we need to warn the Marines.”
“What were the coordinates, Ozzy?” Her voice was stern.
“To an underground base that was created around a hundred thousand years ago just before the atmosphere blew off of Mars.” He put his hand up, knowing exactly what she’d ask. “The coordinates are simple: 38 degrees latitude, 38 degrees longitude. It wasn’t specific, but if there is an entrance to a base there, then it shouldn’t be too hard to find.”
She placed her paw on his shoulder. “Look at me Ozzy.” Her voice was a different tone. It was less callous, and as calm and soothing as could be.
Ozzy eyed her, wondering how she could change her voice like that. She was of the Elix race, so maybe it was an Elix thing?
A warmth came from her paw and she blinked a few times, which in cat speak meant thank you. She lifted her paw from Ozzy’s shoulder, and spoke into a device wrapped around her wrist. “Get the ships ready, we’re heading for coordinates 38 degrees latitude, 38 degrees longitude. I’ll be there soon.”
Ozzy shook his head. “No, we have to get to the Marine base.”
“And you will.”
She pressed a button on her wrist device. “We’ll see each other again, Ozzy. Good luck and let the Great Spirit flow through you.”
Ozzy cocked his head. That was how the Galactic Knight’s spoke.
She blinked one last time and vanished before Ozzy’s eyes. Ozzy immediately stood and touched the seat, his eyes darting around the cockpit and cabin. “What the hell?”
He washed his fingers through his hair, his mouth open and his eyes wild. She was no where to be seen. “Am I loosing my mind?”
The cockpit beeped, and the dome lights went from white to red.
“Shit.”
The emergency com line blared. “You are entering military air space. Re-route. I repeat, re-route.”
He sat down in a rush. Sergeant Marino wasn’t on the craft with him and he had no credentials to get him into the base.
He rolled his eyes, whispering to himself. “This is my life, so how else would it go?”
26
Marine Base at Solis Planim
Ozzy lowered the MMP transport, and pulled back on the throttle, slowing the craft down. The red dust swirled into the air when he set the craft on its landing skids.
He was in front of a giant wall that surrounded a large pock crater that the Marine base was set in.
“You are in unauthorized airspace and military territory,” a voice screamed over the com line. “Put you hands up and exit the craft.”
“The holopad, the holopad,” Ozzy said under his breath, searching and pacing the transport for the pad that Lyra had in her hands when she exited the detainment room.
“She had it in her hands when she entered the transport ship, so where the hell would she have placed it? Did it disappear along with her?”
He continued to pace. “And how could someone just vanish like that?” He stopped and punched the back of the co-pilot’s chair, knowing he needed that holopad or it was game over for humanity.
He reached over and pressed the com line. “Give me a second.” He eyed a rack of hanging EVA suits. “I have to get my suit on.”
He pinched his lower lip and closed his eyes, replaying events in his mind. He remembered the codes and the file numbers for the holopad.
But again, where was the holopad? He didn’t remember seeing her put it down anywhere.
“…we repeat, put your hands up and exit the craft.”
Ozzy opened his eyes, startled to see Marines in battle EVA’s, pointing their weapons at the cockpit window. A few heavily equipped Mars Rovers were parked in front of the transport.
“Damnit, Lyra. Where did you put the holopad?”
He kicked the back of the co-pilot chair and a thud echoed in the ship.
He got on his knees, looking under the chair where the source of the sound had been. He gasped when he saw the holopad and lunged for it, swiping it into his arms.
He wiped the sweat off of his brow and pressed the com line button again. “I’m putting on my EVA and exiting the craft. Don’t shoot. I have vital Mars Military Police material that Sergeant Marino wanted you to see.”
“Be cautious with that material. We don’t want to open fire over a sudden move,” came a voice. “Keep it out where we can see it.”
“Understood,” replied Ozzy. He switched com channels, hailing the Galactic Kn
ights through the Knight’s com line.
“This is Jozi.”
“Jozi, I’m at Solis Planim where the Marine Base is, and I need you guys here now. Please, I need your help now.”
“Ozzy, please repeat. You were breaking up.”
Ozzy huffed. “I’m at Solis Planim Marine Base and—”
A bang reverberated in the craft, startling Ozzy. A Marine must have slammed the butt of his rifle onto the exterior armor of the ship or something, most likely trying to hurry Ozzy’s ass up.
“Jozi Ryan, please reply. Did you get my information?”
Static.
“Jozi Ryan, are you there?”
More static.
Another bang echoed into the ship.
“Shit.”
He took his finger off the com line and rushed to the EVA suits, taking one off the hook and slipping it on.
“I’m coming, I’m coming. Hold your horses.”
He slapped the ramp button. The ramp hissed as the air sucked out into the carbon dioxide atmosphere. He lifted his hands above his head, clutching the holopad tightly, and walked down the ramp. His body lightened as he moved past the ship’s gravitational field.
He planted his boot onto the soft soil, eyeing a dozen or more soldiers pointing their weapons at him. One motioned to the right with his rifle.
“Sir, get your hands up higher and walk slowly to the front of your craft,” the man said through his auditory helmet speaker.
Ozzy nodded and walked cautiously, rounding the craft and slowly pacing toward the front.
Three Mars Rovers were parked, all with gunners atop the roof, and decked out in a Marine’s EVA, their fingers wrapped around heavy photon gun handles, ready to blast Ozzy if he made the wrong move.
“Get on your knees,” ordered a soldier.
Ozzy did, keeping his hands up.
A soldier ripped the holopad out of his hand.
Ozzy swallowed hard. He needed the holopad to show the person in charge what the hell was about to happen; a full on Dunrakee invasion, soon to be full on genocide.
Mars Colony Chronicles (Books 1 - 5): A Space Opera Box Set Adventure Page 90