Prelude to War

Chapter 2

Chapter 2Since the Earth ship Colossus exploded just ten days ago wreckage and debris was everywhere. The Martian mass driver weapon had proved more powerful than they’d expected it to be. But much of the Earth fleet and parasite crafts were not in a position to be caught in the explosion. They subsequently split up into three groups of attackers. Force One continued the attack on the Martian reserve fleet. That fleet was made up of over a hundred mixed vessels. The Earth forces attacked them head-on trying to inflict the most damage possible. Waves of earth fighters, now without a ship to go back to, had attacked targets of opportunity in Mars orbit. Surrender was not an option in the mindset of the crews of these ships. They had to be hunted down and destroyed to the last craft.

Group two of the Earth fleet retreated back towards their home. The Earth defense stations, still active, shot down many of the pursuing ships. How many Earth ships escaped is not known. Many of the monitoring satellites and ships were either damaged or destroyed in the chase. Group three was the chunk of the Earth fleet that worried us the most. They just disappeared.

I remember standing in the Martian war room myself as the battle for Mars unfolded above us. I watched with my own eyes as the decimated Earth fleet dove their ships in k******e attacks against our ships. In the end they were blasted from space with no quarter given.

“Primus, the Earth fleet is breaking up!”

We turned our heads toward the main monitors just in time to see the large cruisers and support craft separate into three smaller units.

“Captain Bishe, tell our ships to attack all elements of that fleet!”

“Yes, Primus.”

“Grandmother, that third fleet unit, they’re trying to break orbit!” I pointed at one of the monitors. All of our attention was on the main battle. The Earth fleet were attacking the reserve ships without any regard for their own safety.

“Alert the defense stations tell them to stop those ships!” It was at that moment that the second group strafed the Space station and drew much of our fire onto themselves as they broke orbit in the opposite direction. In an almost planned maneuver the small fleets went in opposite directions confusing our defense stations. Both managed to break orbit.

“Primus, we are in pursuit of the group that appear to be headed toward Earth. The other group slipped past the orbitals and have disappeared.”

“Disappeared? How? How can they have just vanished?”

“Our techs can only speculate, but they may have the codes to our IFF system and were able to fool our system into ignoring them.”

“Those keys are one of our state secrets! Damn, it! Find them.” In the end Wilson was needed to dive into the system and track the access codes. Special codes were used by the outside forces to spoof the system. They were traced back to a computer tech inside the defense building. He was found dead at his desk surrounded by thirteen credit chips. Someone in the Cabal had a sense of humor.

As I said that was ten days ago. But now we had some prisoners who might talk to us! We already knew much of their order of battle and what some of the conditions on Old Earth were like: Wilson had retrieved a great deal from their computers. Direct intelligence is what we really needed now. We’d tried before and failed to talk to them. I was not present, but Dar was when those first prisoners were brought in. Very few occupied survival pods were found from the Colossus.

She told me about it afterward. It had not gone well.

The three prisoners had all been unconscious. Dar and Martian Security forces were watching as local med teams attempted to wake the Earthies up.

Checking the prisoner’s bonds, Corporal Kovac had extended her hypo spray and injected the first prisoner in an attempt to wake them up. The Earthie woke up with a jerk and thrust his arms forward breaking the titanium manacles and freeing himself. He jumped off the cot he was on and attacked the med team.

“What in the nine hells?” Corporal Kovac watched in horror as her patient broke free and attacked.

“Xandrie, get down!” Hearing Sergeant Martelle’s voice she hit the deck just as the prisoner was hit from all sides by gunfire.

As she got up, she began cursing. “How the hell did he get free? Those are military grade cuffs!” Just to make sure he was dead she stood over the prisoner and bent down to check his pulse. As she touched his neck, his eyes opened! He turned his head, saw her surprised face, reached up, grabbed her arm and pulled her down.

It happened so fast. One moment the corporal was standing there the next she was on the deck with the Earthie clutching her by the throat. Sergeant Martelle cried out in surprise, but was too late as Kovac’s neck was broken. The prisoner drew Kovac’s laser pistol and attacked a second time. This time the troops fired until their guns ran empty. Cautiously checking the other two prisoners it was found they somehow committed suicide in the commotion. After Corporal Kovac’s death most Earth troops were not captured alive.

But now after almost two weeks we finally have a few who are willing to talk to us! Gaston sat beside Dar and I in our Embassy aircar. It was a sign of the times that I traveled with an armed and armored escort. When I tried to press the little man for more information, he just smiled at me. It was at times like this that I could almost believe that he was a member of my family. Almost. In many ways he reminded me of Hannibal: too cocky for his own good. I knew that he was completely and totally loyal to Amalie and to me. But he would only tell me just enough to keep me interested. I really hate puzzles!

Palace security was tighter than it had been just a week ago. Gaston claimed it was because of the Cabal terrorists and some of the threats that were made against the Primus. As we walked the long halls and corridors that zigged and zagged throughout the palace I commented on the lack of lifts in this place. Gaston surprised me by answering truthfully this time. “The palace originally had them. The last Primus, Amalie’s husband, was killed in one when his political opponents cut the cables. He and his bodyguards went into free-fall and died when the lift hit bottom.”

“Gaston! That’s awful. I thought that commercial lifts are designed with emergency brakes?”

“They are. But like most things they can be hacked. Amalie removed all the lifts and decreed that stairs and ramps were the future. There are a few still around but they only travel between two floors.”

“I’m afraid I don’t know much about Martian politics. Did they catch the assassins?”

“Yes. It was one of the corporations. They wanted better tax incentives and thought that Amalie would be a pushover. What a surprise that was to them.”

“Were you here then?” He stopped walking and turned toward me with wide eyes.

“Athena. That was over a century ago. Amalie has ruled us ever since.”

I had forgotten how old she was. We resumed walking, and I began to recognize some of the decor. Up ahead should be the hidden door to the War Room. Gaston approached a random spot on the wall and applied his hand. Two hidden doors opened and we could see down the hall into the War Room.

Amalie stood in the center of the very busy room talking to a man. I could only see his back but their discussion seemed to be very deep and intricate. Great-grandmother was using hand motions to explain something. When she saw me she motioned to the man. As he turned to look at us I noticed something about him, that was familiar to me.

“Sam!”

“Athena Lee. You turn up in the most unusual of places. Nice to see you again!”

Something was definitely up if Sam 0256 was here on Mars talking to Amalie.