button.
There he stood, with the detonator in his hand. His finger was on the button, sweat truckling down his forehead, arms and legs singeing from battle wounds. He was fine with the pain though, it reminded him that this seemingly impossible dream was actually a very serious reality. He gripped the black device in his hand with more tension as he questioned the possibilities.
40 kilograms worth of explosives is plenty for this job, placed strategically in the power core; the explosion would ignite a chain reaction that would destroy all of this.
He loosened his grip a little bit and began to toss the detonator in the air, letting it softly land in his hand each time as the artificial gravity took its toll.
The chamber he was in was incredibly expansive, at least a kilometer diameter, he was standing in the epicenter of the sphere.
Standing there, both decisions seemed to have a severe drawback to them. On one hand, detonation would ensure complete and total destruction, and an end to it all, ensuring the safety of the solar system. Suddenly, the powerful voice pierced his mind again.
“Why do you trouble yourself so?”
Because I can’t let you do this.
“Because you can’t accept what you are?”
No, because something like you shouldn’t exist.
“Tell me, what do you fight for?”
Freedom, justice, truth, and life.
“Odd, I was under the impression that these no longer existed.”
Only because of things like you.
The detonator landed in his hand for one last time, and he placed his finger over the
“You’re not going to do it.”
You already know?
“Not really, the situation is too unstable for me to be 100% accurate in my predictions.”
You know there can be only one of us.
“Yes, we both know that, but you won’t do it, not yet at least.”
How did it come to this?
“It’s a very long story…but we have time. Let’s start at the beginning.”
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January 14 th , 2270, 03:13
Undisclosed Location
Damn it’s cold out here. Ray thought as he broke out of his stasis tube. Shattered glass and green liquid spilled all across the white tiling of the room. As he began to breathe the crisp, cool air, he deduced from the amount of stasis fluid left that he must’ve been in the glass capsule for at least a month. At first, he thought the room was an endless white abyss. After examining it closer though, he realized that there were indeed walls, and they had some white plating system covering them.
This place is enough to make a person go insane…bright lights, white walls, I probably am insane.
Ray began to dress himself with a pair of white sweat pants that had been left in the corner of the room, and as he pulled them up he began to recall the battle he was in. He put the thoughts aside for a moment and walked over to the mirror on the other side of the room. While admiring the goatee he had spawned while inside his synthetic sleep, a puzzled look stared back at him though the mirror.
Humans are supposed to have temporary amnesia, a side effect of the stasis fluids, but I can still vividly recall that battle. How is that possible? I can still hear the rattle of gunfire, and that massive explosion…
Ray was a middle-aged man. Torn by war and revolutions, he was a veteran on and off the battlefield. Standing at about 6 feet, he was about as tall as most Earth natives. As for the
Martians, because of the lack of gravity compared to Earth, it was not uncommon for most of them to exceed 7 feet. Ray “Ghost” Monterro was Italian. His jet-black hair was anything but neatly kept, and his rather large nose was yet another addition to the stereotypes he had attained from his heritage.
He then began to worry; questions started to well up inside of him as emotions would in a teenage girl, not knowing which ones to answer first. He slapped himself, leaving a red mark on his face. While rubbing his cheek, he thought.
First things first, I need to figure out where I am, and why I’m here. Think Ray, think. some sort of space cruiser. But for what side? Where am I headed, and why am I in a room with a stasis tube?
He began to sniff the air
The air… it’s flat. It smells different than the air on Earth and its rather cold… odds are I’m on
He realized where the thoughts were leading. He was dead, sort of. The TMS (Terran
Military Syndicate) had developed a system of stasis trials that had the ability to repair the body through robotic implants, laser surgery, and sustained time in a newly developed synthetic fluid capable of resurrecting the brain and other vital organs. On all of the machines was a familiar quote to most Terrans, “Arise my soldier, for you shall serve a more noble cause than death.”
General Stukovf said that to the first successful patient of the stasis trials. The individual had
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been dead for 2 weeks. Although the trials main function was militaristic, it also revolutionized the judicial system as well as many other things. Capital punishment was handed out much more generously, given the fact that if an innocent person was executed, he could be resuscitated if needed. Murders were no longer as devastating, and life, could continue on for hundreds of years.
He then looked at his chest; it had several scars, each roughly the size of a golf balls.
They started from his shoulder and extended down to his hip in a diagonal fashion.
Well based on this room, my current condition, and the fact that this room has no obvious exit, I must’ve been plucked out of that alley I died in, drugged beyond comprehension, and pickled inside that
hellish jar. But why? Genetic experiments? Possibly brainwashing? No, it doesn’t matter why you’re
here, Ray, you’ll have plenty of time to figure that out later. It only matters how you’re going to escape.
Ray looked around the room and started to feel the walls, looking for an exit he began to knock on the walls, hoping to hear a hollow noise, telling him where the door was. A hollow clank filled the silent room.
Bingo. Now figure out how to open it.
Ray felt around. His fingers found a white panel, which blended in with the rest of the room, making it hard to see. He began to punch in numbers. Realizing the guards would probably figure out what he was doing before he happened to stumble upon the right code; Ray ripped off the covering and fiddled around with the wires. A few sparks and beeps let Ray know that he had done something, for better or for worse. The blast door opened vertically.
He stepped out into the hallway. The walls were black and shaped in a hexagonal fashion, in contrast with his cell. There were a plethora of red and blue lines running horizontally across the hallway. Bright phosphorescent lights beamed down and reflected off the heavy steel grating that covered the floors. At the end of it was an adjacent hallway, constructed in a similar fashion. Noticing many other cell doors, Ray concluded that he was in the holding wing. While checking the other cells, he spotted a guard and slipped into the closest alcove that contained a cell door. He could hear the guard’s feet clanking loudly on the grates, the sound crescendo as the guard got closer. When Ray saw the guard come into view, he jumped the officer and wrapped his arm around the man’s neck, and pulled the guard’s pistol from his holster.
“Where am I?!”
“The holding wing.”
Ray tightened his grip on the man’s neck.
“Ugh…the lower…sector of…” The strangled voice began to say, but stopped as he elbowed Ray in the stomach. The force of the blow made Ray lose his grip, which allowed the guard to escape his hold. As the guard ran down the hall, he screamed, “Patient 0467 has escaped, alert all…”
The shot from Ray’s pistol concluded the silence-shattering wail. The guard collapsed to the ground.
Ray checked the man for keys and opened the closest cell. He drug the body into the room. He took the guard’s clothes and spare ammo clips. As he pulled back the hammer of the pistol, the click triggered a flashback of a previous espionage operation. The operation that was the reason he was stuck on the ship in the first place.
December 20 th , 2269, 20:02
Terran Military Base:
20km outside Wellington, New Zealand
After the Terran government had betrayed Ray, he joined the Martian Intelligence and
Espionage Agency (MIEA). Ray was ordered to infiltrate a Terran R&D plant, and seek out blueprints for a new weapon, the latest type of battle cruiser. The new B-Class ship would be equipped with an Anti-matter drive, making it possible for it to reach speeds of up to 2% the
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speed of light. Being able to reach such high speeds would mean practically being able to appear and disappear in a matter of seconds Moreover, having a quick acceleration time would make it the fastest weapon in the solar system, creating a large threat to the Martian Fleet. If it was completed and launched into space, it would redefine stealth warfare. It was known only as
Operation Xythos.
On his way into the facility, Ray encountered several guards. Posing as a researcher, he made it past them easily; he just showed them the fake I.D. and they allowed him to pass through. The compound was booming with life; researchers were walking from room to room, carrying papers, briefcases, and small test tubes.
Ray had managed to make it into the crowded, low security area. He walked into the nearest bathroom and pulled out the photos of the researchers that would have access to the high security areas. After memorizing their faces, he stepped out of the bathroom and looked around.
One of the targets exited a lab and had a bad look on his face. He stepped aside as the constipated man made a dash for the bathroom. In his hurry, he dropped a few documents. Ray picked up the stray memoirs and read them.
Due to new security standards, the code for the safe room is now being changed on a 3 day basis, a
Key card is now required for entry, and will be issued ASAP. The new code is typed in as the following puzzle----Leo’s sol is hellish. Please heed to this new system. Thank you.
Ray thought of the puzzle as he entered the bathroom.
Leo’s sol is hellish...Leo’s sol is hellish...What could it mean?
Ray looked under the stalls for feet, finding a pair on the end. He pulled his silenced
10mm and fired through the door. Blood spooled out from under the stall, as Ray kicked open the door and took the scientist’s clothes and keycard. He closed the door as best he could, and walked out of the bathroom. Upon entering the crowded hall once again, he headed towards the scientist’s office. Ray kept a low profile as he opened the door to the office. Once inside he began to search the desk and drawers for information regarding Xythos.
May 30 th , 2268
From the Office of Dr. Tolstoy
Dear James,
As requested, here is an update of the recent accomplishments of Xythos.
---The Anti-matter Drive is nearing its final stages of completion.
---We need Robentainium for the heating chamber; it is the best-known metal capable of sustaining the necessary temperatures needed for the anti-matter reaction core.
---Finally, we need a Weapons Grade Thermonuclear Reactor to start the generator up to attain the required high temperatures.
I promise you will be more than satisfied with the results if you can supply these items.
Ray continued to rummage through the desk, but didn’t find anything important. He decided to leave the office. As Ray stepped out the door his foot caught a young, female scientist.
As she was falling, she grabbed onto Ray’s white lab jacket, tearing it as she it the floor, revealing
Ray’s Martian military gear. He drew his pistol and shot out the alarm controls mounted on the nearest wall.
“Everyone! Into this room, NOW!” He ordered as he pointed his pistol towards the office he had just been in. They all began to walk in, when one of them, feeling rebellious, ran the other direction. Ray ended the runaway’s demonstration with a shot from his gun. Ray tossed a gas grenade in the very crowded room before closing the door.
Would’ve had to take care of them anyway. They know too much, and their existence prolongs the idea of a new Terran Battle Cruiser.
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Ray started his way down to the top-secret area, where the blueprints and the beginning parts of Xythos would most likely be stored. The halls of the facility were an off white, a rather common color for R&D plants. The ceilings were high, to allow for better air circulation. Ray had gained access to the area only after finding a directory for directions. On his way down he continued to think about the puzzle.
The amount of researchers became less and less as Ray walked further underground. As he came closer to the safe hold, the number of guards increased drastically. Continually having to lean out of corners to see the guards before killing them, Ray had remained mostly undetected, and thus brought his total kill count somewhere near 35. He finally came to the doorway he was looking for. He examined the panel to access the room, and it hit him like a ton of bricks.
Leo’s Sol Is Hellish, it’s a numeric password, just upside down!
He slashed his card through the reader by the door and punched in the code on the numeric panel.
4517734517055037 Enter.
A soft hiss broke the constant humming of machines as the airtight door slid open. As
Ray walked inside the room the door slid shut behind him. The room became completely silent, aside from the muffled sound his boots made as he landed to the ground from walking. He was startled by the clank the door made as it closed. The room was a long, pale hall, with a computer and keypad at the end of white void. He began to walk towards what he figured was the safe.
As he came to it, he couldn’t find a way to open the door and obtain its contents. He needed to improvise. He pulled out his laser cutter and put it to work. It would take roughly one minute for the beam to cut completely through the reinforced safe before he could reap the benefits of his work.
43 seconds…35 seconds…21 seconds...
January 14 th , 2270, 03:15
Terran Battle Cruiser, Lima:
Undisclosed Location
Ray was shaken out of his reminiscence by a sudden shift in the ground.
Shit, the cruiser must’ve taken a hit by something. Just my luck, I’m trying to escape, and I get stuck in the middle of an interstellar battle. Great.
Ray walked out of the cell and leaned against a wall. He saw a small platoon of men, about 7 or 8, run past the hallway he was in. He immediately ran to the intersection, peered around the corner, and went the opposite direction of the mob. The hallways slowly began to fill with a white haze as he continued down the corridor.
If I remember the layout of the Terran Battle Cruisers as well as I remember my sadistic past, then the emergency Suits should be in the Landing Deck.
Ray was slowly starting to remember more and more about his past. The stasis fluids ended up having an effect on his memory; it seemed as if the liquid may have even triggered the flashback in the first place. As he walked into a large room with hundreds of computers and mainframes, he had another flashback. This time he recollected his experiences with the Terrans.
March 4 th , 2264, 03:13
15km above Hellas Planitia
“We’re flying over the Hellas Planitia,” the pilot said to Ray, “ETA five minutes.”
Man, this mission is going to be a piece of cake. Parachute in, find out what’s going on with the
Martian arms trade, eliminate any signs of rebellion supporting supplies, and assassinate the head of the
operation. Ray thought as he swung his sniper rifle over his shoulder and sheathed his knife across his belt buckle.
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Ray got up and began to walk around the cargo area of the plane. He found a weapons crate on the ground and opened it, checking over its contents. Along with the jeep the Terrans had packed him, he was also given quite the arsenal of weapons---bombs, anti-vehicle sniper rifles, rockets, grenades, and many other destructive items. He was also assigned a small platoon of men, 15 to be exact. He walked to where they were all sitting, in the passenger area. They were lined up against the wall, all wearing parachutes, holding their rifles, ready jump at any moment’s notice.
Ray then heard another plane engine, definitely not his.
That sound, jet propulsion-probably twin Valkyries, only used for interceptors.
Ray grabbed a parachute off the floor and ran to the door. As the small fighter planes flew around, one of his squad mates popped a question.
“Are we supposed to expect an escort, sir?” There was an explosion in the left wing as
Ray shook his head. The plane began to shake and lose altitude; the room’s pressure became unstable. As smoke began to fill the large plane, Ray yelled for his friends to jump out. Ray quickly ran for the cargo area and pushed out the boxes of ammunition and jumped inside the jeep. He started it up and drove out into the sky.
The interceptors came around for another strike. Ray saw only one soldier make it out of the plane alive. He closed his eyes as his plane went up in a cloud of fire.
Ray opened the parachute attached to the jeep and began to float to the ground. He looked over at his last surviving soldier, whose parachute was malfunctioning. Ray watched as the man plummeted to his death. After Ray had landed, he began to wonder.
Those interceptors, they were Terran planes. But why…why would they attack their own cargo plane, at the expense of some of the most highly trained soldiers they had?
Ray shook his head and began cutting the parachute off of the Jeep. As he tried starting up the car, it made a wheezing noise. He checked the fuel case, and saw that it was empty.
Shit, of all things to happen...First my plane get shot down by my own government, my whole squad is eliminated, and now I have no way of transporting my arsenal to the Rebellion stronghold because my military intelligence can’t afford a couple of fuel cells! Now I have to walk kilometers to a rebellion
outpost in this hellish desert!
Reddish dirt covered the ground and hills of the area. There were some small plants, but mostly just red as far as you could see. A cold breeze swept past Ray, and whirled up dust that was on the red earth.
By the looks of the clouds, a sandstorm was going to start up, and I’m going to be stuck in it.
Ray took a deep breath of the Martian air, and started to walk west, the direction of his mission.
A couple of hours later he came upon a complex that resembled the one he was shown in the mission briefing. They called the place “Gemini” because of its two identical main buildings.
The facility appeared mostly deserted, except for a couple guards in outposts and patrolling the grounds. The compound itself was an age-worn structure, the walls were concrete, but the original color was gone; eroded away and replaced by a rust color from countless harsh sandstorms.
Ray crept closer to the entrance and stood up against the front wall. As the guard in the outpost turned around, Ray fired his pistol at the man. The silencer muffled the bullet sound.
Ray walked into the concrete booth, and climbed up through the roof. From there he saw two guards talking by a truck. He rolled out of their view and jumped over to the truck. He didn’t make the jump over, and was hanging on to the top part of the cargo hold. He pulled himself up and surveyed the area with his thermal goggles.
Ray unsheathed his knife from his belt and held it in his right hand, keeping the silenced pistol in his left. He waited for one guard to expose a vital body part, and seized the first opportunity. The guard lifted his head up in laughter and Ray immediately threw the razor sharp knife into the man’s throat while simultaneously landing a shot in the other’s head. Both the guards fell to the ground instantly in synchronization. Ray pulled out his sniper rifle from
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his shoulder holster. The sandstorm lowered visibility greatly, masking Ray’s position very well.
He peered through the thermal scope and saw a man patrolling back and forth on a raised bridge that connected the outside parts of the two facilities. He picked the man off and shot out the search light next to him.
Ray got off the truck and liberated his blade from the expired guard’s neck. He proceeded to walk through the gate under the bridge. Hearing footsteps, he flattened up against the wall. After the guard passed his position, he ran over to what he figured was the fuel center for the facility.
Just for insurance incase I die. I’ll set it for 20 minutes.
He placed an explosive on the large, steel tank and ran to the best entrance to the facility.
Shit, it’s locked by an electric security device. One I can’t hack into.
Ray turned around and raised his rifle. He peered through the scope and shot a patrolling guard. He began to walk down the valley of concrete and steel, looking for a high voltage sign posted somewhere on a wall. He eventually found one, and it was pointing to his left. Ray headed in that direction.
He began to hear a loud humming sound as he came closer the power generators.
Ray pulled out his pistol and aimed for where the power lines connected with the transformers. And, as though it were a switch, he pulled the trigger and all of the humming stopped. Sparks and electric bolts streamed in every direction as the floodlights of the facility lit up. Ray sprinted like crazy to the previously locked gate, but managed to run into some resistance.
Ray rolled behind some barrels and holstered his sniper rifle on his back. He drew his pistol and pulled back on the slide. As he rode it forward he took a deep breath, and leaned out from behind the barrels, only to be met with a barrage of bullets.
Shit, they’re going to shoot me to death if I lean out again and its suicide to try and escape.
Ray pulled a flash grenade and chucked it over the crates; he covered his ears as the grenade exploded. He took the opportunity of the guards’ temporary demise to give them a permanent one. He rolled out from behind the crates and unloaded his pistol clip into the blinded men.
Ray continued his way into the underground area, where the headman of the rebellion should be.
As he went further and further down into the Martian crust, guards and security was less and less. An occasional guard here and there, but for the most part, nothing.
It’s odd how scarcely guarded this place is. It’s almost like something isn’t right.
Ray had a bad feeling as he came to the end of the foreboding series of halls and stairs.
He opened the door, and was greeted by someone he would never had expected to see, and a gun pressed against the side if his head.
“I didn’t expect you to make it this far Ray.” A deep voice said. The owner of the voice stepped out of the shadows and revealed his face. The face was rough; a pair of sunglasses covered the eyes.
“Markinson, I should’ve known it was you. Only you would turn on your own partner.”
Markinson was Ray’s partner all of his life while he was in the Espionage and
Intelligence area of the Terran government. He was also Ray’s his most trusted friend, although apparently corrupt now.
“Trust is a fickle thing. Something humans created to make them feel safe and warm at night. The only things you can trust in this world are your gun and the mission.”
“Trust can stand alone; it is error that needs the support of the government.” Ray snapped back. The comment resulted in a more forceful press against his head
“So tell me, why did you do this? What was the point of faking this arms deal just to get me out here?”
“You know too much Ray, plain and simple. Your existence threatens my secret exploits.
You have to stick your nose in everyone’s business, and because of that, many want you dead.
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You were always the better of us, Ray. When it came to who should get the promotions, I got them because of bribes and blackmail. It was always you that was better.”
“Clever cover up Markinson, what dirt did you have to dig up on Langford to make him approve this vendetta? Or did you pay your way through like everything else?”
“It’s amazing really, how much someone is willing to bend for you when you have their arm twisted a little bit. It was simply tricking the general into hearing what he wanted to hear, as always.”
“You dirty son of a bitch.”
And in one smooth motion, Ray ducked his head, unsheathed his knife, and brought it around to his right, slashing Markinson across the stomach.
As blood seeped out of his stomach, Markinson yelped “No! It’s not supposed to end this way, my money, my knowledge, where are you now?”
“You won’t need them where you’re going.” Ray justified as Markinson fell to the floor.
Ray found a nearby elevator that led to the Communication Tower. He took it and there was a small, one-man helicopter there. He got in it.
And as fate will have it, there are no keys.
Ray ran back to the elevator, and pressed the down button, realizing it would save him time to sprint down the stairs and take the elevator up. After he descended the seemingly endless long flight of stairs, he ran back to where Markinson was laying...
Common Ray, only one more minute and this place blows.
He searched through the cadaver and finally came across a key.
Markinson, I swear, if this isn’t the right one...
He sprinted to the elevator and pressed the up button. As the elevator was going up; he counted down the seconds he had to live.
32, 31, 30, 29.
He made it to the roof; he jumped inside the helicopter, inserted the key and turned it clockwise. The slowly accelerating rotor blades informed Ray he had found the right key.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1…
The blast created a massive amount of turbulence as Ray took off. The small, one-man helicopter began to shake uncontrollably.
I’m not gonna make it, I’m not gonna make it, I’m not gonna make it!
The helicopter lasted long enough to withstand the explosion, Ray had made it, and he had survived his betrayal and lived to see another day.
Damn you Markinson, damn you Langford, damn you Terrans, damn all of you.
January 14 th , 2270, 03:19
Terran Battle Cruiser, Lima:
Undisclosed Location
“Damn you, damn you to hell!” Ray said as he smashed the computer counsel in the room. He looked up, and realized he was back from his precedent. He then heard a voice come over the intercom.
“INTRUDER ALERT, INTRUDER ALERT”
Damn it, they know I escaped…
Ray went through the door with the word “Exit” on it. He continued down a hallway, the letters and numbers painted on the walls in a white stencil fashion told him he was heading towards the loading deck. He saw a guard coming. Ray drew his weapon hid behind corner.
Not wanting to draw any more attention to him then there already was; he hit the man in the back of the head with the butt of the gun. Pausing only to grab the guard’s spare clips and sidearm, he broke back into his dead sprint hoping to reach the end of the hall without being caught.
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“Freeze!” The words Ray wanted to hear the least at that moment pierced the annoying ring of the sirens. He stopped and slowly turned around. He faced the guard who had his weapon drawn and aimed right at Ray’s chest.
Ray slowly knelt to the ground and put down his pistol.
“Your safety is still on!”
The guard checked his safety and before he could look back up, Ray landed a shot into the man’s head.
He continued down the hall and was stopped by a blast door with the letter “D” on it.
Finally, the door to freedom.
Ray then had another recollection.
December 20 th , 2269, 20:18
Terran Military Base:
20km outside Wellington, New Zealand
11 seconds… 6 seconds…done.
The loud clank of the metal safe door hitting the ground was a reassuring sound, and repercussions of the sound echoing through the expansive hallway let Ray know he had made it.
The safe was very large, a walk-in safe to be exact. The safe’s inner walls were lined with many smaller safes-little tiny boxes, each one with a little number on it and a few lights.
Great. There has to be at least 500 boxes in here. How am I to know which one contains the blueprints for Xythos?
Ray pulled out his pistol and started blasting away at the locks, checking each one and hoping it contained the blueprints. It was then he realized the alarm was going off, and it would be a matter of seconds before the guards found out where he was. He checked one last safe.
Nothing. He looked a little closer. It actually contained a few microchips. He grabbed them and dropped them into a small capsule. After inserting the container into his pocket, he pulled a C-5 explosive from his pocket. Placing it into the safe and closing it, he hoped to destroy something, if not the Xythos plans, at least something important. He sprinted out of the walk-in safe, out of the long corridor, and into the main room. Bullets flew past him as he ran to freedom. Finally an auto-rifle’s bullets hit him. The rounds formed seven gaping holes in his chest extending from the shoulder to his hip. He managed to jump out of a window and came crashing into an alley a few floors below. Then the explosion came. There was a blinding light, and then a loud hammer as the bomb exploded.
Good. The facility has disappeared, and I hope any plans for the Xythos Cruiser with it.
Then he blacked out.
January 14 th , 2270, 03:21
Terran Battle Cruiser, Lima:
Undisclosed Location
Ray returned to loud sirens and voices that were reality and opened the final blast door that kept him from escaping into the void of space. Given a couple of days at the most, he could hook up with a Martian cruiser and be home in no time at all.
I can lie down, take a nice long vacation, and maybe go to Athens. Heck, I might even write a book.
His grin quickly fell off his face as the door opened. He dropped his weapon and knelt on the ground. Several officers and guards, all of them pointing their weapons at Ray, quickly surrounded him. One of them piped up.
“Any last words, spy…?”
The sentence was cut short by the sound of an auto cannon; it was a familiar sound to
Ray. It was the sound of a Martian Dredge Suit’s trademark weapon. The guards all crumpled to
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the floor, revealing behind them three dark silhouettes. They were Ray’s fellow soldiers, more likely than not. They had found out where he was and had come to rescue him. Ray was saved.
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January 14 th , 2270, 03:18
Terran Battle Cruiser, Lima:
Undisclosed Location
Ray took a couple steps forward. As the lighting changed its position from the shadows, he put up his arm to shield his eyes from the bright spotlights mounted on the suits. He saw that his rescuers were none other than a part of the Obsidian Squad. A squad known by Ray to be a cunning and ruthless band of Martian rebels, not Mars regulars as he hoped.
Ray jumped inside one of the Suits he saw. It was a standard issue Dredge for the
Terrans; it was nothing special, but better than nothing. The Loading Suits always were ready for combat, including the keys. Ray powered it up, fired the jets, and followed the others out.
“So, I see you guys are part of the Obsidian Squad.” Ray commented.
“We are the Obsidian Squad. Three strong, we have a small enough force to stay off most radars, but strong enough to eliminate larger squads if the right tactics are performed correctly.”
The unknown voice was dripping with Russian influence. Ray then observed a picture come up on his screen. It was the presumed Ruskie. The bottom half of his face was covered by a heavy brown and black beard. From what Ray could tell, the man could probably crush someone’s skull with one hand. The Russian, whoever he may be, was monstrous.
“My name is Vladmir Tartkovfski. I am the general of the Obsidian Squad. We are the famous rebels that have eliminated many of the Terran forces in the Martian sphere. Because of our rogue tactics, we are a force presumed at least 15 strong.”
Another face popped up on his HUD (Heads-Up Display) “Piloting is an art. Not many can do it, let alone master it. If you wish, we can teach you how to use the Suits like real pilots.
We can make you an Obsidian pilot.” The voice was of the Pavonic tongue, an accent from a region on Mars. “My name is Geti Outoma.”
The last member of the OS appeared on Ray’s screen.
“I’ve done some research on you. You worked for the Terran government, an expert of espionage, and a spy. Supposedly one of their best pilots. The name is François Javierre, and when we get to Mars, show me what you’ve got!”
The last voice was heavy in a French accent.
The OS was a lot smaller than Ray, or any other person for that matter would have ever guessed. Ray thought about it for a moment.
“Ok. I need a place to stay anyway. And if you guys will help me refine my skills, then staying with you sounds like a plan to me.”
“Alright then, follow us. We will lead you to our stronghold outside of the Noctis
Labyrinthus sector.” Vladmir exclaimed.
With that, Ray followed; not knowing his life would be forever changed.
January 15 th , 2270, 11:53
Obsidian Squad Headquarters,
Noc-Lab Sector
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“Fight me you fool!” François commanded in a raging scream. To Ray, it was almost funny; Ray always enjoyed the French accent.
Ray and the others had been on Mars for a couple days. The OS “headquarters” had a rather large ammo dump. Concrete walls formed the square hanger and barracks of the haven.
The barracks were about the size of a normal house, and the hanger about twice as tall. The entire complex carved into a giant valley that was part of Noctis Labyrinthus.
Even though the battle was fought in virtual reality, humans could still feel pain in the simulator. Every detail and factor was taken into account when programming the VR and the result was the most realistic simulation possible without actually gearing up and battling. The entire VR system was linked up to a supercomputer that François had constructed himself.
François, a master of electronics, dealt with all the computer and guidance systems in the Suits for the OS. Vladmir was at the control of the computer. The contrast of Vladmir’s body and the computer was humorous, like a body builder playing with a baby’s rattle. Ray found it amazing that Vladmir could even type, given his fingers were so large.
“Ready…Set…Fight!” Vladmir yelled.
Ray began with his usual tactics, jumping high into the sky above his opponent. Ray unleashed a salvo of rockets down upon the opponent on the ground. François looked up, and aimed his laser cannon towards the incoming warheads. Firing blankly into the sky, he destroyed a few rockets, creating explosions that set off most of the other rockets, and the rest of the warheads, being heat-seeking, headed towards the explosion, and collided.
“First mistake, you must know your enemy as yourself. Knowledge is one of the most undervalued things in war, and yet it is the most vital to survival. Don’t lose your mind, or you will lose your life.”
Ray cut his jets, landed on the ground and pulled out his auto cannon. Setting it to shotgun, he began throwing slugs towards François’ direction. Several of them hit, causing
François to lose his flying capabilities.
François retaliated by pulling out his auto cannon and setting it to rapid fire. Rapid fire used smaller rounds, but at a much higher speed. He drifted his crosshairs to the ground in front of Ray’s suit, and started to fire. The virtual soil spat up red and brown dust. With Ray blinded because his viewing cameras were covered in dirt, François was able to launch his own salvo of missiles unchallenged. Ray attempted to dodge them using his EEB (Emergency Evasive
Boosters) but failed to avoid impact from all of the missiles. The explosion from the successful rockets disabled his EEB and automatic rocket targeting capabilities.
François is really good; his knowledge of my tendencies amazes me. How do you defeat someone that knows everything about you?
The pain in Ray’s back was pushing him over the limit. Too many more hits and he would be crossing the threshold. Ray dropped the auto cannon and sprinted towards François at the Suit’s top speed. He commenced in hand-to-hand combat, something neither Ray nor
François was expecting.
“Mistake number two, never initiate a battle you aren’t ready to fight, or have the knowledge to.”
After many kicks and punches, Ray pulled out his battle-axe, a small weapon, but lethal in close quarters.
“Ahh, it’s just like an Italian to bring an axe to a spear fight.” François said
François pulled out a spear and countered Ray’s swings with the axe.
Ray suddenly felt a sharp, stabbing pain in his stomach.
“Mistake three, never use a weapon you can’t handle, no matter what the situation is, always stick with what you know. That’s three strikes, you’re out.”
The spear had stabbed Ray. Beams of electricity shot out of everywhere like hundreds of lightning bolts.
Everything is blurry; I can’t see where I am going. Ray thought as he dropped his axe. Then everything went black as the battlegrounds faded away.
12

Ray awoke a few hours later. Not only had he lost the battle with François, but consciousness along with it after the final blow with the spear.
“You fought a pretty good battle, Ray, but you still have a lot to learn. François wasn’t even using half of his strength to fight you.” Vladmir informed Ray
Weeks turned to months. Rays knowledge of a suit was vastly expanded. He always thought of himself as an amazing pilot, but in reality, his callow experience was nothing in comparison with the OS. They ameliorated the flaws in Ray’s fighting style. They better trained him with a wider variety of weapons, but still managed to make him specialize in what he felt he was best at. He followed the stringent rules of the OS, and allowed all of their teachings to permeate his mind.
April 7 th , 2270, 08:21
Obsidian Squad Headquarters,
Noc-Lab Sector
“This is the heart of a suit,” Geti began to explain, “the highly advanced AI control system. The AI is actually a network of computers located throughout the Suit that send information back and forth at incredible speeds. The Dredge Suit features the first EMS or
Electromagnetic Movement System. Rather than hydraulics, EMS uses a series of electromagnetic pulses to regulate its movement. The EMS is much more efficient than hydraulics could ever hope to be, and it allows for much more human like movements; not choppy, robotic ones. But there is a downside. This system is still very susceptible to EMP shocks, so watch out for the EM mines. We are in the process of fitting our Suits with a sort of plating that should shield the EMS from most shock, but until then, keep your ass warm.”
“The weapons are also linked to the AI and EMS, so you’re looking at a complete shutdown for at least 30 seconds if you step on one of those bastards the radar doesn’t pick up.”
Vladmir warned.
“Now to show you how to fight. Your standard tactics aren’t bad, but they could use much improving.”
The next months were long, spent training and honing Ray’s skills. He spent days in VR, fighting against computers and members of the OS. He learned different styles of fighting and learned how and when to use various weapons in combat, including Bazookas, Lasers, Rockets, and the infamous Auto Cannon. Various strike formations and tactics were taught to him, most revolving around stealth and deceiving opponents. Ray learned the basics of hacking and memorized Dredge statistics and famous battles.
April 9 th , 2270, 20:14
Obsidian Squad Headquarters,
Noc-Lab Sector
“We have taught you all we know, Ray. If you wish to become a member of the elite group Obsidian Squad, you must pass one final test. You must defeat Geti, François, and I, in a 1on-1 battle. Each one will specialize in a specific region of Suit tactics. Should you defeat us all, you will be a member. If not, we will cast you out into the barren wasteland that is Pavonis Mons and leave you for dead.” Vladmir negotiated.
“I shall take you up on your deal.”
“Your first match will be against the Mars native, Geti Outoma. He is our master of hand-to-hand combat. Melee weapons are allowed,” Vladmir spoke as he readied the Dredge simulator. “You may begin when you are ready.”
Ray jumped inside the simulator and readied his fists as the battle began. It first appeared as a boxing match; the two pilots were circling each other with both of their mechanical arms guarding their faces. Finally, Geti made advancement and landed a punch in Ray’s chest.
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There was a loud crunch as Geti pulled back his arm. Ray countered with a high kick to Geti’s unguarded head. The blow sent machine shrapnel everywhere.
“Let’s up the weapons, shall we?” Geti suggested, using his best British accent. He tossed Ray a battle-axe and they resumed the fight.
The sound of the warping airwaves was unsettling; the large axes were known for doing that when they were swung.
Let’s see how he likes this.
Ray ran towards Geti with his axe back in strike position. He appeared as a barbarian, sprinting and screaming like a lunatic. As he came into attack range, he drew the axe forward and began using the Viking tactics, fighting with both sides of the axe, by holding it in the middle like a Bo. It increased Ray’s speed and amount of hits he could get in. Geti locked axe heads with Ray, and pushed towards the ground, forcing the heavy weapons into the black simulated earth.
“You are much better than I expected, but now you must fight me at my best, with the long sword,” Geti tossed Ray a sword, and as he drew his own he said, “May my sword Neptune take your life!”
The loud clashes of the swords filled the simulator’s black emptiness. Geti tried a slash at Ray’s legs, but he managed to jump in time. While in the air, Ray’s sword came crashing down on Geti. Geti rolled out of the way and retaliated with a cross slash while kneeling. The blade missed and they both resumed the fight. As the battle raged on, not much was accomplished.
Ray and Geti were equally matched.
Damn, this guy is really good.
Ray drew his sword back behind his head, and with both arms flung it forward, in Geti’s direction. As the sword spun towards him, Geti realized that he had been defeated. The sword crashed right into the chest of the Suit with amazing accuracy.
Geti fell to his knees, and then to his back. Sparks and electric rays darted outward from the sword in his Suit’s chest. Then they both faded away.
“Good job Ray, but you still have two more battles. Don’t expect them to be any easier.”
“Your next bout will be with François. This fight will cover bazookas, mortars, and missiles. Mainly heavy artillery if you can’t tell,”
Vladmir stated. “And once again, you may begin when you are ready.”
Ray started the battle off by hiding behind a simulated boulder, and firing some guided mortars at François.
Shit, most of them missed
Ray leaned out from the rock and aimed his bazooka. A relentless beeping let Ray know he had a lock on. He pulled the trigger a couple of times and hurled five bazooka rounds in
François’ direction.
François turned around and saw the flames heading towards him. He fired his jets and jumped into the air, and launched ten missiles in Ray’s vicinity. François was grounded by two of the five bazooka rounds, disabling his jumping jets, and Ray lost his guidance for the mortars to the collateral damage of the missiles. They both came out of hiding and threw everything they had at each other. There were mortars colliding in mid-air, missiles blowing up in complete disorder, and bazookas hitting arms and legs left and right. By the time the smoke had cleared,
Ray was gone.
“Ha ha ha, and you thought you could beat me Ray? You don’t have what it takes to be in the…”
François’ voice was cut short by an explosion that hit him from above. Ray had used his jumping jets to hover above François until the smoke had cleared, then unleashed hell with his remaining bazooka rounds.
“Well, well, well-2 for 2 Ray, but now you must face me, in the battle of the auto cannons.
This is the most important battle because the auto cannon is the soul of the Dredge. It is what we
14

are known for, and it is our trademark weapon,” Vladmir informed, “should you win this battle; you will be a member of the elite Dredge regimen, the OS. Good luck.”
Ray was silent. He was planning his tactics.
Vladmir has been playing with the auto cannon before you had even been born. Well shit Ray, look what you’ve gotten yourself into. I guess it’s still better than being in that hellish container of green fluids.
He chuckled and the fight began. Both of the pilots began circling each other, firing their auto cannons. The unique trait of the auto cannon, and what made it so formidable, is the fact that it had the capability of carrying multiple types of rounds in its stock. In addition, because of the AI, it could determine the type of object you’re aiming at, such as what its armor thickness is, and what other objects are in the way. With all of that information, it could determine the right shell for the job.
Now, it was set for explosive rounds, due to the wide openness, and short distant from
Vladmir. Ray fired a couple and they both missed, Vladmir had used his EEB. He returned fire with his rapid fire rounds, all of them hitting Ray, tearing away at him, piece by piece. The rounds were like someone shooting needles into you. They hurt, but don’t do much damage unless many are used. Ray switched to the standard 30mm rounds and began to unload his monstrous clip in Vladmir’s direction, although a mediocre percentage had hit, the damage wasn’t severe.
Ray switched to armor piercing, the AI had informed him of the armor Vladmir had,
Titanium alloy
Ray fired the shells, and they went through the armor without much trouble. Armor piercing was about the only thing that could stop Vladmir. Vladmir had been firing his 30mm the whole time, and Ray’s suit was loosing armor fast. Ray had just plain titanium armor, nothing near the level Vladmir had.
Damn it. Too many more hits and I’ll be a carcass on Pavonis Mons. Shit.
Ray did the last thing he could think of. He fired up his jump jets, went into the sky, aimed his auto cannon, and took the shot of faith right at the head of Vladmir’s suit. Ray came crashing to the ground. He and Vladmir both faded away into the blackness.
“I have to give it to you Ray, you put up a good fight, but I’m sorry.” Vladmir said.
Ray lowered his head and slammed his fist on the table.
“You didn’t let me finish, I’m sorry because if you wanted to leave, I couldn’t let you; we need your piloting skills. Welcome to the OS, comrade!”
15

April 20 th , 2270, 17:54
Martian Battle Cruiser, Millennium:
10,000km outside Martian orbit
“Sir, something just appeared on our radar, 200km away, it looks like a Terran battle cruiser!”
“What? How is that possible, we should’ve seen it days ago if it is that close!” Captain
Walters exclaimed.
Walters was an amazing officer. Cool under pressure, an amazing strategist, and being a perfectionist, he was a relentless trainer. He commanded the 47 th Mars rebellion division, and was a ruthless fighter.
“Power up the shields and ready the Emerald Weapon. Be ready to hit it with all we’ve got!” Walters commanded.
The Emerald Weapon was the nickname given to the cannon that the Millennium wielded, due to the green tint of the helix the shells left behind when they were fired. The
Millennium itself was a Type-B battle cruiser for the Martians. It was the second largest cruiser in the Martian’s fleet, and could destroy most ships the Terrans had under their control.
“The cannon is ready sir, fire on your word.”
“Send them back to hell.” Walters commanded.
There was a thundering boom as the shell was fired. The green haze from the helix lit up rocks and dust in the area, creating an aurora of sort.
“Sir, they have fallen off of our radar…”
“Good, chalk up another one for the Millennium.”
“Sir, the shell hasn’t detonated yet. It’s still moving though space.”
“But how did they disappear so quickly, how did they get off our radar? How is that possible?” Walters asked franticly.
“It’s not.”
“Sir,” another radar worker piped up, “we’re getting large energy readings, like a beam cannon charging up…Shit! They’re behind us, sir!”
Oh my God, how is this possible? No ship can move that fast, and teleportation is still only in science fiction..
There was a bright blue cloud in the distance, and as the Millennium and her crew watched helplessly, a white beam shot out of the blue haze. It engulfed them all in a ray of light, then there was a bright explosion, and the Millennium was destroyed.
April 21 st 2270, 12:14
Obsidian Squad Headquarters,
Noc-Lab Sector
“An Atomic-Fusion drive. That’s what destroyed the Millennium. Only one ship I know of actually has an A-F drive. Xythos, the cruiser that shouldn’t even exist. And besides the extreme uppers of Earth and Mars, the Xythos crew, and us, no one else knows it exists.” Ray said to Vladmir.
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“The A-F drive can be used as both a weapon and a propulsion system. It operates by fusing multiple atoms together to create massive amounts of energy. A phenomenal Martian scientist, Edward Girdeaux, developed it. During the later years though, the Terrans managed to get their hands on the technology and construct their own. An A-F drive can roughly get you to
2%C, maybe faster, but that is fast enough to look as if you are disappearing and reappearing in a matter of seconds.” François informed.
“This weapon may very well decide the outcome of the war. We need to sabotage the
Xythos, or risk losing the rebellion. The Mars government isn’t doing anything to stop it, trust me. The strategic purposes of this ship are endless. Think about it, being able to transport reinforcements from planet to planet in a matter of a few hours.”
“Ray, we shall not destroy this weapon-” Vladmir began to speak.
“But sir, you need to understand!” Ray interrupted.
“Once again, you must let me finish what I am going to say. We are not going to destroy the weapon,” Vladmir said with a smile on his face, “we shall steal it.”
April 21 st 2270, 13:32
Obsidian Squad Headquarters,
Noc-Lab Sector
The preparations began.
“Go into the TMS database. I will take it from there.” François told Ray.
As François began to hack into the database, the room filled with the clicks and pecks of keys being stroked and punched by an amazing typist. He broke through the first set of security codes easily. The second codes required a more complicated code.
“Damn, they’re getting much harder, let me think here…” François said to himself. The last one was nearly impossible. François surmised multiple possibilities, none of them working.
He continued to infringe on the Terran’s codes, attempting to ingratiate himself to the system.
François inveighed loudly after managing to break through it by recalling some simplistic tendencies of the Terran code makers.
After days more of hacking and data theft, François managed to gain access to all of the
Xythos’ blueprints and statistics. He found out its flight path and targets.
“As you can see in these blueprints, Xythos has no apparent weakness. It is heavily guarded, and will be impossible to storm, even with the aid of a Martian Battle Cruiser.”
“Ok, so the best time to attack the cruiser will be while it is stationary. We will want to raid the ship when it is refueling. The plan is to use the space elevator near Pavonis Mons to go up into space and meet up with Xythos there. We will enter the ship through the suit storage bay, and work our way towards the control tower from there.” Vladmir informed as he outlined the path on the maps and blueprints, “Any questions? Good. Let’s ready the Suits.”
They all went to the hanger, where their Suits were stored. They spent most of the day customizing the war machines. Ray customized for well roundedness, but added a sniper rifle.
Vladmir set his for power and strength. Geti compensated for Vladmir’s with his Suit being customize for maximum speed and agility, armed only with an auto cannon and a long sword, his Suit was very light. François customized his for well roundedness like Ray.
Ray then loaded himself with weapons, putting a couple pistols, a rifle, and some ammo in the storage compartment of the Dredge.
Ray looked around-
-And just in case things get a little too hostile…
He grabbed some explosives and put them in the compartment as well.
It’s time to finish this.
Ray and the other members of the OS suited up and went inside their Dredges, and darted out of the hanger.
“So Ray, tell me; how did you end up in that cruiser, anyway?” Geti asked.
17

“It’s a long story, it actually has to do with Xythos. I’ll explain it to you later if you want.” Ray responded
“Five kilometers and closing.” the AI informed Ray.
“Ok, see that hill over there? That will be my sniping point. I will be there providing cover fire and data on the forces coming in for you guys.” Ray commanded.
“I will take the south side of the complex and destroy the hidden gun emplacements on the map I’m sending you, that should clear a way into the elevator. Geti, after I destroy the emplacements you and François will charge the complex. You from the east, and François from the west. With the back up fire from Ray, we should be able to take them by surprise, and it shouldn’t be a problem getting up the elevator.” Vladmir informed. “Godspeed everyone,
Godspeed.”
After ten minutes, everyone was in place, ready to commence with Operation Xythos.
The space elevator they surrounded was basically a giant pillar, constructed of very strong alloys.
On the inside of it were eight cable cars. They operated on electromagnetics and could ascend or descend the elevator at neck breaking speeds. Because of its primary use of electromagnetics, the elevator was cheep to run and maintain. It was ideal for re-stocking ships and freighters. The elevator was originally Terran, then Martian Revolutionaries took it over, and then the Terrans took it back. This time the Terrans surrounded the large column with a fortress of walls and hidden gun emplacements. Terran dredge suits constantly patrolled the rest of the walls.
François activated his stealth device. As he knelt to the ground, tiny cameras captured what the ground and his surroundings looked like, and disguised him as that. Of course, this was only to the human eye.
Ray gave his ready signal and Vladmir fired his mortars. There was a large explosion.
François could see the suits guarding the elevator start to move and look for any more signs of attack. One of them collapsed to the ground, exploding on impact.
Keep them coming Ray…
François gave the signal for Geti to move in. They both darted towards the elevator. It was sunset, and the elevator shined blood red in the light. It was a bad omen for the superstitious François. of them.
François began to fire his auto cannon at the other dredges. He hit and destroyed some
The explosive rounds work like a charm.
Geti pulled out his long sword and began slashing left and right. Being very agile, he darted around the landscape and avoided being hit.
“François, behind you!” Geti screamed.
François turned around just in time to see a suit about to slash him with a beam sword.
The machine dropped the sword and crumpled to the ground, twitching. Off in the distance,
François could see Ray waving at him. He waved back.
François skulked around the corner, and blasted a Suit with a barrage of 30mm rounds.
“Hey, Vladmir, Geti, I found the entrance to the elevator. Come quickly. Ray, keep your trigger finger warm, I have a bad feeling about this.
“Ok, it will take a couple minutes to crack this door code, but then we’re going up to
Xythos.”
“François, we have bogies approaching 50° north northwest, roughly 20 Terran regulars.
They don’t seem happy either. Pulse guns and rockets. Looks like they want to smoke your asses bad. I’ll do what I can to slow them down.” Ray notified the others.
“Cover me!” François exclaimed.
Geti and Vladmir armed their auto cannons and started to walk towards the incoming forces. The forces were now past Ray’s position, and they were about to see Geti and Vladmir.
The Italian picked off a dredge, and they all looked towards his direction.
“Now! Get them from behind while I have them distracted!” Ray screamed.
18

Vladmir stayed behind and fired guided mortars at the forces while Geti charged them with his long sword and slashed some of the suits. After the first explosion from the mortars though, the strike force scattered. Continual hacking and slashing of the suits created an eerie backdrop as explosions filled the air. Ray picked off the suits that got too close to François while
Vladmir ran back to protect the hacker. Geti began to take some serious hits; he lost his auto cannon AI. Vladmir was almost out of rockets and François was tied up with the door code.
Shit, if François dies, we’ll never make it up that elevator.
Ray came out of his sniping spot and went into a mad dash. He sprinted towards
François’ direction. As he was running, he turned down the zoom on his sniper rifle and began shooting Suits in his way. He first picked off the ones that were still getting too close to François and then he proceeded to help Vladmir with the other Dredges. Geti was on the other side of the elevator, fending for himself.
“Vladmir, drop a mine and run for it. We need to get back to François and make sure he’s alright.” Ray said in a forceful voice.
“Don’t forget who is in charge of this mission, insubordination is punishable by death!”
Vladmir yelled back as he threw a mine in the other suit’s direction.
They both ran back to the elevator entrance to find Geti and a very large auto cannon waiting for them.
Geti lowered his rifle and resumed watching François peck away at the elevator lock controls. The OS crowded around the door, watching, as the Terrans grew closer. As they started to come into view, all hope began to fade as they looked at each other, they all gave the nod that said ‘I’m out of ammo’ and pulled out their melee weapons. Just as they were ready to die, the elevator door slid open. The OS jumped inside one of the cars and François closed the doors. The cable car lit up like a Christmas tree with red and green lights as François activated the control panel for the elevator.
“Ok, we escaped those Terrans, but once we get up into the Xythos, we’re going to be surrounded by some different bastards. Keep your cool. First, we are going to ditch the suits.
They’re too big to walk through Xythos. Next, we will arm ourselves and ready the remote detonating devices on all of the suits in the hanger of the ship. If something happens, that will be our bargaining chip; or Plan B: if stealing Xythos doesn’t work out,” Vladmir began. “Next, we need to kill General Costaki, leader of the 82 nd Terran Division and supreme officer of the ship.”
The elevator stopped with a jolt. They had reached the Battle cruiser.
As they stepped out of the elevator, there were several suits in motion around the hanger of Xythos.
“Don’t use your guns; you might punch a hole through the hull! Stick with your hands and melee weapons.” Vladmir ordered.
It wasn’t much of a fight. Recruited rookies against hand picked veterans. The OS quelled any threat the other suits could’ve possibly posed quickly. After getting out of their
Dredges, the OS activated the remote detonating system on all of the other suits in the room.
Objective one complete…
They then proceeded into the hallway, which was the same as all of the other Terran cruisers, black and hexagonal. They came into an intersection in the tunnel.
“Ray, you go left and find the general, you know what to do with him. François, you go right and steal any files you can find from the computer mainframes about the A-F Drive, and then plant an explosive on it just in case. Geti and I will continue forward and begin eliminating all military forces on this ship and liberating any personnel we find.” Vladmir commanded.
After they split up, Ray started down the hall. Remaining as secretive as possible, he made his way closer and closer to the General’s quarters; he began to have a bad feeling again.
You’ve done this a thousand times Ray, what’s to be any different about assassinating this guy?
Ray came across a guard. He walked quietly behind him and put the man in a chokehold.
“Where is Costaki?” Ray demanded.
19

The soldier pointed to the left. Ray jerked his arm, snapping the man’s neck.
“Liar.” He went down the hall to the right-
-Terrans can’t be trusted with shit. And they’re usually honorable towards their leaders, or at least the newbies pushing for a rank promotion. They’ll do anything to protect them.
He continued down the hallway until making it to another adjacent tunnel. He crouched down and peered around the corner.
“Hey, you, show yourself!” a guard said. Ray rolled out from his hiding spot and shot the man with his pistol. An echo of gunfire filled the hallway. Ray felt a sharp, stabbing pain in his back. Ray felt his shoulder with his hand. When he pulled it away, a crimson stain was left on his hand.
That echo wasn’t from my gun…
Ray turned around saw a guard standing with his gun pointed in Ray’s direction. He swung his good arm around and fired at the guard, killing him.
He held his shoulder and walked towards the guard. He examined the body for a cloth of some sort. Ray unsheathed his knife and cut off the sleeve of the corpse’s uniform. He tied it around the wound and hoped it would stop the bleeding. He then continued down the hall, and finally came to the door that appeared to contain the general.
Ray shot the control panel and holstered his weapon as the door slid open with a soft hiss. He was welcomed with a very angry looking Japanese general holding a gun that was ready to shoot him.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Costaki. Calm down, I’ve already been shot once today,” He began. “Listen, if you kill me, my fellow squad members will not hear from me. I told them if they didn’t hear from me in 15 minutes, to blow the ship to hell. Yeah, that’s right. Bend your sweet and sour ass over and drop the gun.” Ray said.
As Costaki bent over, Ray pulled his pistol and shot the man in the head.
He dragged the body across the room and stuffed it into the closet, leaving a rather obvious stain on the carpet.
Hiding his body doesn’t really make a difference, provided the blood trail leading to the closet.
Either way, it’s mission complete.
* * *
“Yes…ok…good…alright, bye.” Vladmir ended. “That was Ray, he killed the general.
We are supposed to go down to where the A-F drive is and protect François as he hacks into the
TMS database and steals the plans for the A-F drive.”
Vladmir and Geti reloaded their rifles and dashed to where François was being held.
“Vladmir, to your left!”
They turned to their left and fired at the oncoming forces. The guards fell to the floor and Vladmir ran past them, shortly followed by Geti.
“The computer mainframes are this way, François should still be in there, hopefully alive.”
They opened the doors. Sparks and smoke was everywhere. The sound of fried electronics filled the previously humming room. Bodies were on the ground all over the room.
“What the hell happened here?”
“François, are you still alive? François?” Vladmir asked the empty room.
Then some pecking sounds pierced the constant humming. It was François. He had been shot several times and was losing blood fast. However, he had still done his best to complete the mission.
While coughing up blood, he managed to stutter out “I’ve stolen and deleted all the files on the A-F drive and on Xythos,” François was dying fast, “I set the bomb, but in the firefight, the detonator was damaged. It needs to be set off manually. There is no other way. There are too many men on this ship, there’s no way we can steal it.”
20

“But François,” Vladmir tried to say. François managed to cut him off.
“But nothing. You know the mission; we need to complete it, at all costs. I am willing to lay down my life for the freedom of Mars. I only regret that I have but one life to lose for the freedom of Mars… Vladmir, look out, behind you!”
Vladmir turned around, and fired his rifle, but he was too late, the guards that had entered the room had shot him first. Vladmir collapsed to the floor.
“You bastards!” Geti screamed as he jumped out from behind a mainframe. He shot the guards that had entered the room, but more and more kept coming. Geti ended up being shot near his stomach and hip.
God, too much more of this and I’m dead.
Another platoon of men entered the room and surrounded Geti, François and Vladmir.
I have failed you Vladmir, I have failed you Mars. I bring only shame to my name.
Geti bowed his head and waited for the shots. He heard the rattle of a machine gun and squeezed his eyes and clenched his teeth. The painful feeling of being shot to death was nothing he had ever expected. He looked up, expecting to see fire and the Devil himself.
“Thank you God?” Geti said as he saw the guards’ bodies, all of them were dead. As the smoke cleared in the background, an icy silhouette of a man with two large machine guns appeared behind the lifeless bodies.
“Damn, what happened to you guys?” Ray asked.
“After you told us to go and protect François, we came to this room and found François dying. He said that he had stolen and deleted all of the files on the A-F drive and on Xythos.”
Geti began to inform Ray, “And the detonator for the bomb on the A-F drive was damaged and needs to be set off manually. François has volunteered to stay behind and detonate it.”
“Good luck to you, François.” Ray said.
“Let’s get the hell out of here; can you still pilot a suit?”
Geti gave a nod.
“But I’m afraid our fearless leader isn’t going to make it, he took some pretty bad hits in the skirmish before you arrived.”
Ray lowered his head for a moment, dropped one of his guns, and then hoisted the badly wounded Russian up on one of his shoulders
Geti nodded his head and they both ran out of the room. With a machine gun in one hand, Ray continued to eliminate guards and officers with Geti. They made it to the hanger in about a minute. Ray put Vladmir in his Suit and set the autopilot for the nearest place on Mars.
Ray boarded his Dredge and with Geti, they flew back to Mars, one man short.
After a couple of minutes, François detonated the bomb, causing a giant implosion of the
Fusion drive. The Xythos was no more.
21

April 21 st 2270, 22:07
Low orbit over Mars
“How is Vladmir doing?” Ray asked softly.
“I still don’t know if he’s going to make it.” Geti responded in a sad voice. Ray could tell he was sad over the loss of a very close friend.
“Prepare for re-entry to Mars in five, four, three, two, one…” the calm female voice of
Ray’s AI said. There was a sudden jolt as the Suit’s atmospheric shields popped open. They looked much like a parachute, but facing the opposite way in the front. As the Suit shook drastically, all Ray could do was think about what had happened. He looked on his HUD and saw a very depressed look on Geti’s face.
“Look man, there was nothing you could do. François knew the dangers of joining the
OS, and he knew that he was sacrificing his life for the better of Mars.” Ray commented as he tried to comfort Geti. All it did was make Geti sink lower into his Suit’s control chair.
Geti blames everything on himself. I swear, if I was to leave him alone for more than a week, he would probably start to think that his lack of effort is the reason there is no air in space.
Ray rolled his eyes and braced himself for the thrust backward as his Suit launched its parachute.
It gets me every time. I hate this part of the re-entry sequence.
The suit released its parachute, and as sure as the Sun rises, Ray jolted backwards. Geti,
Ray, and the subconscious Vladmir slowly drifted to the ground. Geti and Ray set up base camp, as they knew Vladmir would not awake until morning, possibly later.
The camp was made up of a large, clear, plastic-like tent that covered a backup generator from one of the suits, a few sleeping bags, a heater/air conditioner with self-regulating heat, and of course, a large tote of food.
After Geti had fallen asleep, Ray got up and began running checks through all of the
Suits, making sure everything was in order. To his surprise, nothing had been severely damaged in the explosion. He then set up some motion detectors on the ridge near them to make sure nothing surprised them while they were asleep.
God you’re paranoid Ray. You can only sleep knowing that everything is in order, and if anything moves within a 10km radius, you will know about it. I guess that’s what being in counterintelligence and espionage does to you.
Ray crawled inside the sleeping bag and closed his heavy eyes. Before he dosed off, just to confirm his paranoia, slid a pistol under his pillow.
April 22 nd 2270, 10:29
Temporary OS Camp,
Chryse Planitia
Ray awoke the next morning to find that Geti’s sleeping bag was empty. He walked over to it and found a note on his pillow. It read:
22

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN-
I HAVE LEFT THE OS IN SEARCH OF A BETTER LIFE. I RECIEVED NEWS LAST
NIGHT OF MY HOME TOWN BEING COMPLETELY ELIMINATED, WIPED OFF THE MAP
BY SOME PIECE OF SPACE JUNK SENT IN BY A TERRAN CRUISER. THE TERRANS ARE
BLACKMAILING US. IF WE DO NOT THROW DOWN OUR WEAPONS, THEY WILL
CONTINUE KILLING OUR FAMILIES. I CAN NO LONGER STAND ALL OF THE KILLING. I
APRECIATE YOUR HOSPITALITY AND SAFETY WHILE I WAS IN THE OS; IT MADE ME
FEEL FOR ONCE AS IF I ACTUALLY BELONGED SOMEWHERE. I WISH YOU GUY’S THE
BEST OF LUCK; I WILL BE CHEERING FOR YOU VICTORIES AND TRIUMPHS. IF IT IS AT
ALL POSSIBLE, I WILL TRY AND HELP WITH YOUR WAR EFFORTS; I HAVE
CONNECTIONS. AS FOR MY REPLACEMENT, LOOK IN TO THIS GIRL, HER NAME IS KARI
MOSTAVICH. SHE IS AN EXCELLENT PILOT. AS FOR A REPLACEMENT FOR FRANÇOIS,
THERE IS A MAN NAMED ERICH BENFORD, HE IS STILL YOUNG, BUT HE HAS GREAT
POTENTIAL IN PILOTING AND HACKING, HONE HIS SKILLS IF YOU ARE ABLE TO
RECRUIT HIM. KARI IS LOCATED IN NEW HAVEN, ON THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF
ACIDALIA PLANITIA (0, 30). AND AS FOR ERICH, HE IS IN MARKHAM, ON ACIDALIA
PLANITIA ALSO (3, 40). GOOD LUCK WITH THE NEW RECRUITS, AND I’M SURE WITH
YOU GUYS FIGHTING, THE TERRAN FORCES ON MARS SHOULD BE GONE IN NO TIME.
GETI OUTOMA
Ray dropped his head and buried it in his arms on the table. He sat there for what seemed like a minute, but really ended up being a couple hours.
As Ray was eating some rice he had cooked up, something triggered his alarm system.
He jumped inside his Suit and looked on the radar.
“Roxanne, what’s heading towards us?” Ray asked the AI.
“TSF’s (Terran Supporting Forces), about 10km away.”
“AI or human, and how many?”
“20 infantry, 6 Dredges-HC (Human Controlled) and 4 Battle Tanks-AI,” Roxanne informed him. “It is suggested that you destroy the camp and hide.”
“And live like a coward? If I don’t destroy these forces, who will? Roxanne, startup the engine, and ready the auto cannon and rockets.” Ray ordered.
Ray picked up the motionless body of Vladmir. He carried him over to the Russian’s suit.
He placed him inside and set the suit for prone position. As Vladmir’s suit began to lie down on its belly, Ray darted for his own and began powering it up and arming his weapons.
Ray began preparing for the incoming forces. He shot some EMP mines in the valley that the incoming forces would take, hoping to temporarily shut down all of their electronics. He then found a safe hiding spot and stayed there until they arrived.
Ray was sweating; his hands were shaking, nervous for his life.
Snap out of it Ray, nothing is going to happen. Just remember what the OS taught you, and you’ll be fine. Just calm down.
He began to press buttons and type on the control pad in front of him. Lights began to flash and an image appeared on his HUD. It was the incoming force.
500 meters. Almost in range.
Then it happened. A bright blue shockwave lit up the valley. Everything stopped moving but the infantry. Ray fired his grenade launcher down at the troops. Explosions and screams filled the air as smoke and red dust clouded the gorge.
Good. Nothing is moving on the radar. The infantry are dead, and I should have a couple seconds before their electronics come back online.
Ray jumped off the cliff he was on and hovered over them. Ray could hear them over his
Communications Link (CL).
23

said.
“What was that? Radar check, any hostile forces? Keep your eyes peeled.” An officer
Ray then flew down, landed about 30m in front of the force, and launched a salvo of 40 rockets in their direction. He took out the tanks and two of the suits. The other four suits then ganged up on Ray. He set his auto cannon to heavy slugs, and hurled five of them at one of the enemy suits. The dredge blew up instantly. Then Ray’s HUD changed from a passive green to an alerting red as someone locked their bazooka on Ray. He turned around and rolled left to avoid getting locked on. He then switched his auto cannon to a smaller round, and fired in the bazooka man’s direction. The small rounds were fired at incredibly fast speeds. They tore away at the Suit’s epidermis, making it collapse to the ground, twitching.
One of the last suits was charging at him with a battle-axe, ready to strike. Ray did a back flip over the oncoming suit, and on his way back to the ground, he pulled out an EM dagger, and thrusted it into the back of the attacker.
Ray landed behind the paralyzed soldier and pulled the dagger out. He placed it back in its sheath. He turned around, and spotted the final Suit running away.
No one can run from Ray “Ghost” Monterro.
Ray set his auto cannon to sniper mode, and the view on his HUD changed. He aimed for the back, specifically the lower left, where the main power supply was. He squeezed the trigger and released a shell. He watched as the suit crumpled to the ground, allowing red dust fly into the air. Ray then sprinted towards the suit. As he approached, he looked down at it, and pulled out his long sword.
“…Who…are…you?” The pilot of the fallen Suit managed to ask as he was dieing.
“I am a ghost; I have no name.” Ray responded.
Ray released the tension on the sword and let it swing downward. The power of the sword cut the suit clean in half.
Ray ran back to his campsite, finding Vladmir sitting in a chair, clapping.
“Good job Ray! I’m astounded by your skills. You have far surpassed me in piloting of suits. When I awoke, I found myself in my suit. I could see explosions and bright flashing lights on my HUD. I knew you had placed me here for my safety and went out to fight an on coming force. I used my Suit’s sniping mode to see how you were coming along, and because of your resourcefulness, I have decided to let you take my position as leading officer of the Obsidian
Squad.” Vladmir said as Ray stepped out of his Suit.
“But Sir…” Ray tried to say but was quickly cut off by Vladmir.
“But nothing, you are now the commander of the Obsidian Squad.”
24

April 22 nd 2270, 13:47
Temporary OS Camp,
Chryse Planitia
As the two renegades were salvaging what ammo and parts they could from the destroyed strike force, Vladmir spoke to Ray.
“I read that note Geti left. It was rather depressing. I have no family, so destroying my hometown will not make me budge at all. Anyway, what’s the plan?”
Ray lowered the suit’s control stick he had in his grip and released the tension on the hand modulator. His suit bent over and set down the large ammo crate he had removed from one of the trashed suits.
“I say we load up what we can into our suits. We take any potentially useful weapons, and find these two pilots, Erich and Kari,” Ray responded. “I did some hacking, and found an arms base not too far from here. If we head 51 degrees north-northwest from our position here, we should easily be able to hit that arms base on our way to New Haven. We can steal a couple of suits and bring them with us to New Haven.”
“Alright, it sounds like a plan.” Vladmir responded. They finished taking what they could from the wreckage and started off.
April 22 nd 2270, 16:09
Terran Military Outpost 547,
SE Acidalia Planitia
“There it is. Terran Outpost 547.”
“Wow, it’s a lot bigger than I thought. How the hell are we supposed to get in? There must be at least 50 suits in there.” Ray questioned.
“Hey, that’s only 25 each,” Vladmir joked. “Well, if we go with the pincer formation and attack them from two sides, we will have to take 25 each, with no cover fire. While if we just stormed the place, we could take 50 with cover fire.”
“I say we each take 25, and then meet up in the middle part of the outpost.”
“Okay. On my mark, we unleash our spare mortars and take out as many as we can before actually entering the outpost,” Ray commanded as they ran to their positions, “Now! Fire the mortars!”
And with that order, the once placid sky boomed with sound and light as mortars exploded in mid-air. Some of them made it into the compound and destroyed some suits, but for the most part they were a miss.
“Count eight down for me!” Ray said as his AI informed him of the few successful mortar shots.
25

The outpost was a complex place. From the outside, it appeared as nothing more then a base surrounded by a large concrete wall. But once you stepped inside, it became a maze. The outpost reminded him of some Arab cities back on Earth.
God, it’s hard to navigate through here, let alone fighting off several Dredge Suits and Drone
Guns.
Ray dove for cover as a suit launched a few rockets in his direction. Black dirt and rocks flew everywhere as it exploded on the ground. Ray leaned out of his corner and fired his auto cannon and shredded part of the enemy suit. It continued to fire at Ray until he threw a grenade in the direction of the enemy. The large cylinder rolled in between the suit’s legs and exploded, obliterating the machine.
Ray then walked into an open area, at least compared to the other parts of the outpost.
He turned in circles, trying to figure his way out of the encircling walls and barracks. Five suits came rushing into his area. Ray pulled out his long sword and stabbed the first suit. He put the
Dredge in a chokehold and used the lifeless machine as an extra shield. He hid behind it and fired his auto cannon at another suit, blowing it to pieces.
Two down, three to go.
Ray turned to see one suit firing a salvo of rockets at him. Ray quickly returned fire with his own missiles to prevent being hit. As planned, the missiles collided, and Ray got the last hit as he squeezed the trigger on his control stick and decimated the opposing suit.
Then Ray felt a tight wrap above his shoulders. One of the suits had jumped Ray and was attempting to snap off his suit’s head. Ray dropped his sword, grabbed the soldier’s arms, threw him over his shoulders, and crushed the Suit’s chest with his foot. The final suit had his hands put up in a boxing position. Ray put up his arms and the two commenced in a hand-tohand bout. The soldier threw a right hook; Ray managed to dodge it and threw in a left jab while the other man’s arm was over extended. The blow was crippling and left the suit motionless.
Ray finished it off with a roundhouse kick, which warped the entire torso of the previous war machine.
That’s 25 for me. I wonder how Vladmir is doing. He’s probably fine. Time to go find the suits and complete the mission.
* * *
“Die you pig!” Vladmir screamed as he brought around his auto cannon to his right and fired it at a suit. He encountered a plethora of suits while wandering the alleys of the outpost, a lot more than he should have been.
“Computer, what my kill count for today?”
“37, and counting.”
Something big is going on here, and I have a bad feeling about it.
Vladmir looked around the valley of concrete and windows he was in. The outpost was enormous. Continuing east, he was trapped in an ambush.
Shit…
He unleashed several rockets in the vicinity of the suits, while diving for cover behind a building. As he stood up, he leaned against the wall, and looked into the street. Smoke flew past the alley. Vladmir leaned out from his haven and fired his auto cannon into the smoke. An explosion confirmed one kill. Another suit fired back and pierced Vladmir’s suit armor. He squeezed the trigger and waved the gun back and forth; spraying 40mm rounds everywhere, eliminating any remaining suits.
Vladmir walked passed the ambush and spotted a ground elevator, probably leading to the underground holds where the suits they needed would be stored. As he walked inside, he began to wonder.
I wonder what Kari’s like. She seems like she would be cute.
26

He chuckled. He knew deep down inside of his rocky surface that he had a big weakness for women, especially blondes. As the large cargo elevator slid downward on its tracks, the space around the elevator became larger. Vladmir was suddenly inside a room of massive proportions.
“Ray, you better get your ass down here. I’m in the cargo elevator; I shot a flare up to show you my position. You won’t believe what’s going on down here.
* * *
Ray saw the bright green color light up an area of the outpost. He changed his heading and started toward that position.
I wonder what could possibly have our Russian friend’s balls in a tightening vice…
Ray stumbled upon a smoldering ruin. Several suits were lying on the ground, leaking flaming oils and fuels.
Vladmir must’ve come across these sentries, it was obviously an ambush. Ray thought as he began to retrace the large footsteps left in the soil.
He continued through the maze of buildings and series of small roads, and finally reaching the origin of the smoke flare. He entered the elevator nearby and rode it down.
Ray was astounded by what he saw as the underground complex came into view. A giant underground hanger filled wall to wall with an entire army of suits.
“Holy shit! What are they planning here?” Ray said a little louder than he wanted.
“It looks to me like a full scale invasion.”
“I’m glad to see you alive.”
“You aren’t the only one. After I passed 37 kills, I knew something was going on here, so
I took this elevator down here to see where all the suits were coming from, and I came across this,” Vladmir informed, “so what are we going to do?”
“Well, we can’t just leave this strike force alone and hope it goes away if that’s what you’re asking. We need to destroy this place, and all the suits with it.” Ray answered.
“God, there has to be at least 200 suits in here. We can’t take them one by one.” Vladmir fretted.
“Okay, here’s the plan. A lot of these suits are still not combat ready. You can tell those ones because are getting rockets and ammo loaded into them. Don’t worry about them yet. The ones moving around are our first targets…” Ray began.
“What!? Are you insane? We can’t take all of them! It’s-”
“You didn’t let me finish. I have a plan trust me. Take out all of the moving ones first.
Then we move on to the ones being fitted with weapons and ammo. After that, we snatch two of the non-moving suits, and set a bomb or something and wipe this place off the map.”
When the elevator hit the ground, Vladmir ran to the left side of the hold, where the mobile suits were. Ray gave a nod and Vladmir launched what few rockets he had left. As all the mobile suits turned to Vladmir, Ray jumped into the air and fired a rocket at a gas tank in the corner with all the slugs and rockets. The explosion took out the whole right side of the room, and the facility began to collapse on the right side.
“I’m hit, I’m hit! I’ve lost function of my jumping jets.” Vladmir screamed. Ray returned to the ground and ran to the non-piloted suits. He used his Dredge’s AI to hack into the system and activate two of the suits. He then remotely commanded them to go above ground and head to a safe distance from the complex.
“Vladmir, I’m coming!” Ray shouted as he shot one of Vladmir’s attackers. The Russian was surrounded and losing armor fast. Ray continued to fire his auto cannon at the forces. One by one they fell, but then another took the fallen’s place. An additional part of the base crumpled downward and crushed another part of the underground station.
“Vladmir we need to get out of here! The whole place is going to collapse!” Ray cried.
“Go without me, I’ll cover your back! Go!” Vladmir said as he continued to fight off more and more suits.
27

“But-”
“Get out, that’s an order!”
Ray activated his jump jets and flew up the elevator and out of the complex. He watched the destruction from a distance as he hoped Vladmir would appear through the elevator shaft.
He waited for a minute, and then the entire outpost sank into the Martian soil, destroying everything in or near the facility. Ray, filled with grief, began to run to where two suits would be waiting.
* * *
“I’ll take you all to hell with me!” Vladmir screamed as he pulled out his battle-axe and began to hack up Suits with it. He had lost his jets and rockets to substantial damage, and now was fighting a battle that was lost long ago. He continued to fight until he felt a sharp stabbing pain in his back. Screams and blood filled his suit’s cockpit as the Russian was stabbed in the back by a beam sword. He continued to fight until he collapsed to the ground and was ravaged by 15 suits firing their auto cannons and impaling him with swords.
April 23 rd 2270, 02:13
85km south of New Haven,
East Acidalia Planitia
Ray screamed as he jolted forward. He looked around, realizing it was all a nightmare.
He wiped a cool sweat off his heated forehead. Ray slept inside his suit; it wasn’t the most comfortable thing. It was hell for your back, but much better then sleeping out in the harsh
Martian winds. Ray stepped out of his suit to stretch and loosen his extremely stiff back. He looked up into the sky. Mars’ two moons, Phobos and Deimos, glimmered in the night sky like the eyes of a demon. Ray looked to his left and saw the two unoccupied Terran suits. As much as Ray wished they were, all of the events of the day weren’t a dream. Vladmir was dead, and there was nothing he could do about it.
Ray boarded his suit and started to walk slowly to the city of New Haven. He set the other suits coordinates to the same place and they followed him.
I should be there by midday, and I should be able to find this Kari, and get her to join the OS.
April 23 rd 2270, 12:33
New Haven,
Joint Martian City-State (JMCS) Markham
It was a small city, not too much bigger then a suburb to a big city. None of the buildings were any taller then a strip mall and the houses were all one story, with a basement from what
Ray could tell. Ray hid his suit in a nearby cave. It was very friendly body language to walk into a city with a 20-foot Dredge, armed to the teeth with guns and rockets. It was a good way to get shot most of the time, even with small-town folk. Ray began to look around the city. He found a telephone booth next to a pharmacy. He checked the phone book for a Kari Mostavich.
186 Polk Street. That’ll do.
Ray walked down the roads of the small downtown area and into the housing section.
He found Polk Street on the “outskirts” of the town. In truth, the town had no outskirts; you take five steps away from city hall, and you’re on the city limits. When he came to Kari’s house, he rang the doorbell. A video camera from the upper corner of the door scanned his face and sent the image to Kari’s computer. A speaker next to the door confirmed someone was inside.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Ray Monterro. I am a member of the Obsidian Squad and I wish to speak with you. Your friend Geti Outoma suggested your name.”
28

The speaker didn’t respond for a minute. Then the door slid open, revealing a beautiful woman, about 7’2’’ and had long blonde hair.
“Geti, huh? Well, we were really good friends. How is the guy anyway?” Kari questioned
“Not too good. His family died in that space junk crash. He left the OS and I haven’t heard from him since.”
“That’s unfortunate. Well, I’ve been waiting for this day for a very long time. The day I could join the legendary OS. I’m an excellent pilot. My suit is in the basement, I built a hanger down there so I could keep my suit, and have it in case of emergencies. I will not let you down
Ray.” Kari said with excitement.
“Let’s hope not. Kari, as of now you are an official member of the elite Martian Rebellion
Obsidian Squad.”
* * *
Kari led Ray down through her basement and into a secret hanger where her Dredge was stored. Ray kept turning his head, looking in all directions. They entered the maze through a door, classically hidden behind a bookshelf in her basement. He was amazed at the labyrinth that was Kari’s home. The tunnel they were navigating through looked much like a sewer, it was completely stone. It was tall enough for Ray to stand and walk through without much trouble, but Kari had to hunch over, being too talk to walk comfortably. Kari apparently didn’t want anyone to find out about her tunnels, and even if they did, they would probably get lost. They finally made it to her suit; an expansive room took the place of the network of tunnels, and in the center, was her suit.
“That’s your suit?” Ray said with an amazed confusion in his voice.
“Yeah. Is anything wrong with it?”
“It’s so small, and looks like it has little armor.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. It actually has TAPC, some of the strongest armor in the universe. Titanium Alloy with Poly-Carbon filaments. It is made by threading the poly-carbons around the titanium alloy, forming a mesh-like shield. It’s nearly indestructible, and in addition to it being strong, it is extremely light weight.”
Issue?”
“Of course, that’s the same type as mine; but where’d you get it, that’s Government
“Oh, I have my connections, believe me. Martian Black Market, good place to have friends in high places. Hell, if you had the money, I could probably hook you up with a Terran battle cruiser.” Of course she was just kidding, but Ray got the point.
“Looks like you have the standard features: EEB, Jump Jets, Satellite Uplink, and
Thermal Imaging. Your armament isn’t bad either, standard Auto Cannon with 30mm, 40mm and armor piercing rounds. An Auto Shotgun on the shoulder…”
“Don’t forget the Anti-Dredge missiles mounted on the back. I had to do a lot to get those puppies. Long-range, heavy-payload guided missiles.” Kari boasted.
“Well, pack only what you can store in your Dredge, say your good-byes, and get a good rest. We leave at sunrise.” Ray commanded. “If at all possible, do you know where a nearby transport is? I have a couple Dredges we need to take and, well, it’d be a lot quicker to take a transport.”
“Well…there is one on the other side of town, it’s not much, I’m sure we could bargain our way into it.”
April 24 th 2270, 09:27
New Haven,
JMCS Markham
29

The next morning, Ray and Kari walked to the landing strip where the possible transport would be.
“Carmen, how are you today? That’s swell, look; we need to buy your transport. I have five grand I can give you now, and a high quality Dredge Suit. Do we have a deal?” Kari offered her old friend.
As the man was contemplating the offer, Ray elbowed Kari and whispered.
“What the hell are you thinking? Why are you giving him your suit?”
“No, not my suit you moron, your suit. I saw you stash a couple of suits in a cave. I figured they were for me and you, and since I have one already, we can use it for a down payment on the transport.”
“You have yourself a transport girly-girl. Bring me the cash and the suit, and you can have the transport.” Carmen finally agreed.
They told him the location of the suits, gave him the cash, and loaded up their gear and ammunition. They were off to Markham to find Erich Benford.
* * *
“So, who is this Erich Benford?” Kari questioned.
“I don’t know. Never met him in my life, or heard of him for that matter. I’m simply following an old friend’s letter.”
For the rest of the three-hour flight not much conversation was struck, Kari occasionally popped up with a question, and Ray answered it in a cold, quiet voice. She eventually asked him what his problem was.
“What is my problem? What is my problem!? You try losing one of your closest friends at your own error. You sit a few hundred meters away as your friend dies, trapped underground as a large concrete outpost crushes any hope of his survival. After you go through that, then ask that question again.”
“Listen, I didn’t mean to stir up trouble. It seemed like something was wrong, and I just wanted to help. I’m sorry if I brought back any bad memories. I’m sorry about your friend.”
Kari added, “And you shouldn’t immediately assume that no one has gone through what you have. As a child, I lost both of my parents to the Martian Revolution. I had to sit there and watch them be executed for “treason” to Terra. I no longer have a family; all of them are dead.”
“New subject. Where are we going? Where is this Erich Benford?” Kari asked.
“Erich is located at Markham, west of here.”
“Wait a minute, we are going to Markham? The living cesspool of this planet, that
Markham?”
“Yes, “The Martian City of Lights”, that Markham. Hopefully this Erich is as tough as nails. That’s what we need.”
April 23 rd 2270, 14:11
Markham,
JMCS Markham Capital City
Markham looked like something out of a Sci-Fi book. As it came into view, they could see the outline of the city. It was formed in a very circular manner. Alone in the area, it looked like one giant tower, rising out of the Martian soil. As they came closer to the city, what once looked like one giant tower then appeared as several skyscrapers. The towers defied the laws of physics. Standing on the ground at the base of the towers, looking up, they reached up as far as the eye could see.
“Man, I’ve heard of this place before, but never once have I actually seen it in person.”
Ray said in disbelief.
30

As they came into the city, cars were everywhere, including above them. A very intricate road system covered the city. The roads were the veins of the city. The city had multiple levels.
As you came closer to the top of the city, it became lighter and the places of living richer. But as you went lower and lower, it became darker, due to the several layers of highways over each other blocking out the light. The area at ground level is in a state of eternal darkness, only lit by the artificial glow of fluorescent lights. That is where crime flourished in the city.
As they came to a port in the canopy of the city, they landed in the air dock. Ray walked out, noticing a much unexpected welcoming committee. He jumped back inside the ship.
Damn, Military Police…
“Kari, you know what to do, right?” Ray whispered softly as he slipped her his pistol.
She gave him a nod, and hid inside a closet of the transport.
Ray walked out with his hands behind his head and was handcuffed.
“You are under arrest for the murder of Shelby Markinson.” One of the officers said
“Shelby!? His name is Shelby!?” Ray broke out into an uncontrollable laughter. As he was walking towards a door leading into the port’s interior, he noticed a few MPs walking into the transport.
Common Kari, I know you can do it, please kill them…
Gunshots were heard from inside the ship. As Ray’s captors looked back at the ship, he thrust his handcuffed hands at one of the men, knocking him to the ground. As the other turned around, Ray gave the guard a crushing kick to the stomach. He used a guard’s key to unlock himself and grabbed the guards’ weapons. He dashed into his transport, to find it covered in smoke. He looked around and found Kari standing in a corner breathing heavily.
“Good, you made it-”
“Ray, behind you!” Kari screamed. As Ray turned around, a huge fist came crashing in on the left side of his face. The blow brought Ray to his knees, and left him unconscious. Kari drew her weapon and began firing at the unknown man. The small caliber rounds bounced off the man’s armor like they were nothing. He continued to walk towards Kari, and finally threw a punch in her in her stomach. she let out a muffled yelp, and blacked out. The enormous figure picked up Kari and Ray as if they were nothing more than stuffed dolls, and carried them into the heart of the port’s interior.
* * *
“What… Where…Where am I?” Ray sputtered out as he regained consciousness.
He looked over to his right and he saw Kari tied to a chair next to him. He looked down at his own hands, as if he hoped he wouldn’t be tied also.
It’s almost naive to think they’d tie her hands and not mine.
He looked down and sure enough, his hands were bound to the chair by some tightly wound fibers.
He looked around and was shocked by what he saw. To his left was a very tall, muscular man, his lower face covered by a dark brown and black beard…
“Vladmir? Is that you!?” Ray said with question in his voice, “I thought you were dead, how did you survive? Either way, help us out man! Untie these ropes.”
Vladmir just stood there, expressionless. Then out of the shadows behind Vladmir stepped Markinson.
No, that’s not possible! I killed him. I watched from above as the entire complex went up in flames. This isn’t possible.
“Hi Shelby,” Ray said mockingly, “how do you always survive?”
“Death is no longer the end, as you can see with Vladmir, my new found friend, and myself. I was deep enough underground that the explosion didn’t kill me. My body was found as the TMS was digging up the useful files underground. They decided I was an invaluable asset, and put me through the Stasis Trials.”
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“And Vladmir?”
“You betrayed me and left me for dead, I would’ve killed you an hour ago if Markinson hadn’t ordered me otherwise.”
“What, Vlad? You believe and trust Markinson?” Ray speculated.
“You did.” Markinson added, “And now Vladmir rightfully trusts me. Mother Terra shall rule all, including Mars. My orders are to quell the OS and all of its supporters. I’m also ordered to eliminate all rebelling forces. My reign of terror begins here.” Markinson commented in malicious voice as he pointed his gun towards Kari and smiled.
“I hate to kill such a pretty woman…such a waste. I’ll have my way with you first.”
“You’re a coward, you die when you can’t take the heat of life and come back when it’s convenient!” Ray interjected.
“It was not by my hand that I am once again given flesh. I was called here by Martians, who wish to pay me tribute.” Markinson said.
“Tribute!?!? You steal men’s souls and make them your slaves!”
“Perhaps; the same could be said of all politicians...”
Markinson suddenly dropped the pistol, and fell to the ground, revealing behind him
Vladmir.
“Jeez that guy talks a lot. Sorry about that, I had to pretend to subside to the brainwashing to gain valuable information about the Terran’s battle plans. And sorry about knocking you guys out, it was all just a part of my act,” Vladmir said as he untied Ray, “and I assume this is Kari?”
“Yes, we can catch up on old times later. Let’s blow this place!”
The reunited group dashed out of the secret complex, led by Vladmir, and up to the front port. They jumped inside the transport and flew out of the port.
April 23 rd 2270, 14:41
Orion Interplanetary Spaceport,
Upper Markham
“Shit Vladmir, you had me spooked back there. I thought you seriously had been brainwashed. Thank God you’re not. But knowing him, he’s already up and about, plotting how to find and kill us. We will need to stay sharp.” Ray informed.
Vladmir gave a nod and explained to the others what had happened, and what he had found out about the secret exploits of the Terran government.
“After I told you to leave without me, I continued to fight off the “dumb” (Computer
Controlled) suits. After taking too many hits, my suit collapsed, a few moments later, the complex with it. I don’t remember anything in between that and the sad attempts at brainwashing the Terrans had. Obviously, I played along with the “switching sides” ordeal and gained some useful information about an invasion. They are calling it Project Omega. It is a mass invasion of Infantry and suits. We’re talking hundreds of thousands. I don’t know how the
Terrans pulled this one out of their asses, but they sure as hell did some way or another. We need to come up with a way to stop Project Omega.”
As they entered the port, they began to ask around for Erich Benford. Most of the people at the public port suggested checking “The Canopy” or the rich part of the city. It was located in the highest part of the hundreds of towers. They grounded and locked up the transport, and boarded a taxi. The steady incline of the intricate roads gradually led them to a series of condos in “The Canopy.” They paid the fare, and began checking out the condos. They finally came across one with a nameplate on the mailbox. Erich Benford. The outsides of the condos were done in a Spanish fashion, odd for Mars, but nice nonetheless. The white stucco walls were rough to the touch, and the red clay shingles were a good finish to the string of houses.
Ray pounded on the door and heard footsteps coming near the door. As the handle turned, Ray gave a little gesture with his arm, illustrating his excitement. As the door opened, it
32

revealed a tall, reasonably-defined tan man. His dark-blonde hair was messier than Ray’s, and slightly longer also. Although he seemed gentle, the gun at his side was still intimidating, and the glasses finished his geekish, most likely paranoid, appearance.
“Can I help you guys?”
“Is this the Benford Residence?” Ray questioned.
The man gave a nod, and invited the group in. They gathered around his table, only a foot or two off of the ground. They kneeled on a few mats scattered around the low table. They explained to him their situation, and Ray told him of Geti’s untimely leave of absence. Erich boiled up some green tea and served it to the group as they were discussing their past endeavors.
“Wow. Quite the motley crew you have going here Ray. One dead Russian brought back to life, a young mechanic-turned Dredge Pilot, and yourself, a side-switching renegade pilot. And why do you want me to join?”
Vladmir quickly piped in, “Because you know about the H-File.”
Erich dropped his glass of tea, letting it shatter on the ground. He stood there, staring at
Vladmir, almost looking like he wanted to kill him at that moment-
An awkward pause in the conversation filled the room. Ray broke the silence.
“Rumor has it you’re a bad-ass computer hacker.”
“One might say that, another might say I’m just a beginner.” Erich responded as he shot a glance over to Kari and winked.
She rolled her eyes at the flirtation. Erich began to clean up the mess he had made, and offered them another drink.
“If needed, I have a few spare beds. You can stay here until morning; you don’t want to wander these streets at nigh. Either way, I need to think this over.
“Shall we, Kari?” Erich asked.
“Only in your dreams.” Kari responded, full of disgust.
April 24 th 2270, 09:30
Benford Canopy Penthouse,
Upper Markham
Ray awoke to the annoying cry of a buzzing alarm clock. He rubbed his crusty eyes and climbed out of the hide-a-bed he had slept in. Dragging himself through the bedroom, he entered the attached bathroom and slumped over t he sink. He turned the faucet to cold and cupped his hands, letting them fill with water before taking a sip. After satisfying his morning thirst, he splashed his face with the chilling liquid, immediately waking up. He took a long yawn before looking at himself in the mirror, deciding he needed to shave soon.
Vladmir and the others awoke not too long after Ray, and lined up to use the bathroom.
“Can you take any longer to do your morning routine Ray?”
“Yeah, Sally, take your sweet time!”
“Give me a sec!” He shouted back.
He opened the door and walked past his colleagues and directly into the kitchen. Erich was already up, boiling a pot of water, probably for tea again. Ray didn’t understand the allure of tea to Martians. They all loved it; they drank it more than plain water to be honest.
I’d much rather just have a coffee or a soda…
He gave a nod to Erich, and walked over the potential soldier. Erich was dressed in his khakis and white dress shirt, with the sleeves rolled half-way up his arms. It was a retro look, which happened to be the style everyone was wearing.
“Good morning sunshine.” Erich smiled.
“Eh, same as always I guess.”
“I’ll have some herbal tea ready for you in a moment. I hand picked and crushed it myself from my garden out back.”
33

The Martian culture was a very liberal one, always looking for change, welcoming it when it came. They were very relaxed, but staunch conservationists. They had all seen what had happened to Earth when the old countries united and formed the UES, collectively known as
Terra. The planet changed from a beautiful world, perfectly balanced between urban sprawling and desolate forest, into nothing but a giant corporate wasteland. The Martians strived to be just the opposite of the Terrans. The Martians worked very hard to keep their planet beautiful.
Everything was recycled, almost nothing was thrown away. Everyone ate what they had on their plate and nothing more. Forests and grassy planes filled to the brim with genetically engineered crops flourished in the iron-rich soil.
Martians favored agriculture a lot more heavily than industry. That’s not to say the industrial workforce on Mars was worthless, just that agriculture received a lot more government funding. Martians genuinely enjoyed growing and eating their own crops, and farmer’s markets were always waiting on the corners of every street. That was something everyone loved about
Mars, the plethora of small businesses in the towns.
The government put regulations on businesses, forming a new form of economy,
“Limited Capitalism.” Limited Capitalism functioned under three very simple clauses. The first clause stated that no single business could employ more than 10,000 persons. The second clause stated that no one individual could attain more than $1,000,000 a year by any means, and any extraneous cash flow must be donated to a group chosen by the donator. The third and final clause stated that any violations of the previous clauses would result in an immediate closure of the guilty business and fined accordingly, or a $750,000 fine for a guilty person convicted of surpassing the set salary cap.
Ray grabbed the morning paper and turned to the sports section, reading up on the latest scores and rankings for the Martian Elph League. Elph was about the only thing that Martians and Terrans had in common; they both loved the aggressiveness of the sport. It was born from a combination of older sports on Earth, brought over to Mars by second and third generation colonists. It was played with a normal-sized ball covered in a tacky surface for excellent grip.
The object of the game was simple; throw the tacky ball into a goal by any means necessary. The ball could be carried, dribbled with feet, or thrown to team mates. Anyway the ball passed through the goal posts was fair; whether it was thrown, shot in by foot, or even drop-kicked.
Any form of stealing a ball was legal also, from hitting a ball out of an opponent’s hands to just plain tackling them. The only form of protection the players had were shin guards and a sturdy waistband that protected the kidneys and other abdominal organs.
“The tea is ready.” Erich said passively.
Kari and Vladmir both walked into the room at an above-average pace and kneeled down at the table. Ray joined them without the same enthusiasm. Erich brought the pot over and poured each of them a glass of the steamy liquid. Ray was the first to pick up his glass, slurping it down quickly, singeing his throat in the process. The others looked at him curiously, forgetting he wasn’t a native. The object of drinking tea wasn’t recreational, it was spiritual, a symbol of healing in every nature of the word. Chugging it completely defeated the purpose of the beverage.
“You know Ray, only a Terran would do that.”
“Do what?”
Everyone simply shook their heads and slowly sipped on their drinks. A few minutes of small talk filled the room before Erich informed the OS of his decision. He decided he would join. Everyone finished their tea and left the residence for the dropship.
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April 25 th 2270, 20:53
Obsidian Squad Headquarters,
Noc-Lab Sector
“It’s no use. There is no way I can dig up this kind of stuff here on Mars, especially with this equipment. I can give you a rough estimate of what’s happening, but nothing better than what you could get by stepping outside and looking up to the sky.” Erich complained.
“Oh, cry me a river, Erich. I’m sure there is a way you can gain access to those Terran battle plans; just tell me, what do you need?”
“Well, for starters, I’m going to need a T596 super-computer, access to a satellite uplink, and…about five hours of hacking time.” Erich requested spitefully.
“Ok and how about we just throw in a Battle Cruiser for good measure.” Kari said sarcastically. “I mean seriously, the only people in the world who can possibly afford or build one for that matter are the Terrans themselves. I mean, why don’t we just go ahead and storm a
Terran uplink bunker and fend off thousands of infantry and suits for five hours as our demanding friend here hacks into the Terran attack plan data files?”
“You know, that might just be crazy enough to work…” Vladmir began.
“Oh no, you can’t be serious! If you are seriously thinking about…no, you guys are crazy! No, don’t leave me here-” Erich wined.
“How could we possibly leave you here? You’re the one who’s gonna do all the work for us!” Ray said with a smile as he grabbed Erich by his shirt and dragged him to the battle lab.
* * *
The battle lab was an average sized room, but a very large table in the center took up most of it. The walls of the room were outlined with several computers and books, all full of battle tactics and other useful data. The center table opened up to reveal a holographic projector.
It had every map of Mars, Terra, and the space between the two planets programmed into it. The
3-D projector showed land texture, height, and formation of the hills and land. It could be programmed to show Dredges and other troops in their positions as well.
“Computer, bring up information of the nearest Terran Uplink Base.”
“The nearest TUB is located in the sheltering mountains of Arsia Mons, west of our current location. Do you want me to show pictures of the targeted area?” the computer responded in a calm female voice.
“Yes.”
The large projector showed a maze of valleys, much like the OSHQ’s location. In the center of it was a large base with an uplink dish on top.
“That will be our point of attack. Computer, can you give us an estimate of the amount of forces stationed at this base?” Vladmir questioned.
“Yes, approximately 75 suits patrolling the base and 225 infantry inside.” The computer claimed modestly.
“Ok, everyone, begin the battle preparations. Arm the suits, and be ready for one hell of a fight, we’re going in!”
* * *
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“Ray, catch!” Kari said as she tossed him a large bag full of rifle ammunition. Ray caught the bag strap and slid it onto his shoulder. Vladmir was grabbing rifles for everyone and handing out side arms. Erich was grabbing data theft chips and other hacking devices. Ray and the other members of the OS slipped on their trademark slick, black suits. They covered the entire body including appendages, and reflected light and colors in a way that camouflaged them very well. They also put on Electromagnetic Armor (EMA). The thin, light armor covered the chest and back. It worked by sending electromagnetic waves back and forth through the armor at speeds quicker than bullets can travel. Instead of hitting the body; the bullets seem to bounce off in the opposite direction. Vladmir had stolen the armor from the Terrans while he was with
Markinson. Ray sheathed his trusty knife and walked out into the hanger with his comrades, and climbed inside his Dredge.
“This is Vengeance reporting. All systems green.” Ray confirmed.
“This is Valkyrie reporting. All systems green.” Kari said.
“This is Thor reporting. All systems green.” Erich mimed.
“And this is Odin reporting, all systems green, ready for action.” Vladmir concluded, and once the checks were finished, they all ran out into the night.
April 25 th 2270, 21:21
Terran Uplink Base 14,
Arsia Mons, Amazonis Planitia
“What we need to do first is take out the suits in front of the base, all of them. Now these will be human controlled suits, so they will be much smarter and stronger that the dummies, so be ready for one hell of a fight. After we destroy the enemy suits, we will stash our own close to the entrance for a quick escape. Erich will inform you on the basic structuring of this facility, and the whereabouts of the computer he needs access to.”
“Thank you, Ray. The T596 is located towards the center of the base. It will be heavily guarded, and may take a while to hack into. The possibility of my success utterly depends on how much cover fire and protection you guys provide.”
“Then it’s settled, Erich will lead the frontal assault…” Vladmir joked, everyone laughed but Erich, who was obviously petrified of the idea.
They came close to the complex. When it was in view, they split up and climbed up the steep ridges of Arsia Mons. Vladmir, a frontline man, remained in the deep crevices in front of the TUB. Vladmir would create a distraction to lure most of the suits out of their hiding spots, when Kari and Ray would take the suits from behind by sniping them. Erich wasn’t much of a pilot, so his help wouldn’t be much.
“Commence the operation, Vladmir. Start the distraction!”
Vladmir fired his mortars at the suits guarding the front of the base. He took out 6 of them. Then the ground began to shake. An area to the side of the base opened up out of the ground, revealing a long tunnel from which suits began pouring out.
“Ray!”
“I’m way ahead of you buddy.” Ray responded as he launched several heavy rockets at the tunnel’s entrance. The explosion forced it to collapse, ceasing the reinforcements of Suits.
The OS was left with about 35 suits to take care of.
“Such ease, truly child’s play!” Kari laughed. his CL.
“Oh shit, it’s the Obsidian Squad! We don’t stand a chance!” an enemy pilot said over
“Hold your ranks! There can’t be too many; we outnumber them nine to one at least.”
“That won’t matter much when you have a ghost following you.” Ray said in a placid voice. He jumped down from his sniping spot and floated down the gorge, firing his bazooka at
36

several suits, destroying them. Vladmir laughed at the play-on-identities, and began to fire his auto cannon, hurling his heavy rounds at other suits, reducing them to nothing. The massacre continued on for several more minutes. Kari and Erich continued to pick off suits with their sniper rifles while Ray and Vladmir had both switched to their long swords. The glimmer of the metal blades shined magnificently in the Martian moonlight. The scrapes and scratching sounds the swords made was quickly becoming a familiar and somewhat comforting sound to the OS.
“There, that’s the last of them.” Ray said as he sheathed his sword behind his suit’s back.
“Yeah, let’s get going, who knows how quickly Terran reinforcements will arrive.”
Vladmir continued the conversation. He blasted the door with his auto cannon, and stepped out of his Suit. Ray and the rest of the OS followed his lead and began to walk inside the complex.
* * *
The entrance to the uplink base was a very long hallway. And, like every other Terran structure, it was painted an off-white and was lit by bright fluorescent lights. Ray broke into a sprint, followed closely by Kari and Erich, with Vladmir bringing up the rear.
First checkpoint. 225 guards and only four of us. One small mistake and were all toast.
Ray drew from his hip holster, an auto rifle. As he rounded the corner, he squeezed the trigger, and sprayed rounds all across the first room. It was a check-in area. The people in the room began to stand up, but were grounded by Ray’s fire. He shot the man at the control desk and had Erich unlock the electric door. As it opened they ran through it.
“Ok, we’re at an intersection. Which way Erich?” Ray asked, breathing heavily.
“Left!” Erich said.
They hurried down the long corridor and came into the bunking area of the stronghold.
As they came to the door, it opened, revealing several Terrans, none of which looked very delighted to see the OS. The group ran to either side of the doorway, leaned into the room, and fired. The Terrans returned fire and managed to hit Kari in the arm. She clenched her jaw and rolled out from behind the sliding doors unloading her clip in the direction of the enemy, killing the remaining troops. Kari put some gauze on the wound and wrapped some tape around it to hold it in place. She ripped off the excess tape with her teeth and spat it out. The group continued their way through the fortress, following Erich’s directions.
“Ray, to your left!” Kari screamed.
Ray turned in time to roll out of the way of the incoming fire. He fired his rifle at the assailant and brought him to the ground.
Oh God, this better not be happening. Please say this didn’t just happen…
…They met up with a dead end, and with at least 50 guards coming their way; the OS was met with a quickly darkening demise.
“Quick, that vent!” Ray cried as he pointed to the ceiling. As Erich began to climb up, the guards came into view. Ray pulled from his shoulder holster an auto cannon. A monstrous weapon, it had the same concept as a Dredge’s, just smaller.
“Ray, are you insane?!” Vladmir screamed, “that gun’s recoil is enough to kill you!”
“It’s the only way. Go, don’t worry about me, I’ll make it, trust me, I will find a way out.” Ray commanded.
* * *
Damn you Ray. Why do you always have to go and be the hero? Someday you’ll get yourself
killed. Vladmir thought as he climbed through the extremely small vents.
“If we are going in the direction I think we are, then we should be headed straight towards the control counsel for the T596.” Erich whispered.
“You think?! You’re the one who is supposed to know this place!” Vladmir questioned.
A loud scream echoed through the vents.
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“Ray!” Kari cried.
“No, we can’t go back for him; Ray is dead. He knew the dangers of joining the OS.”
Vladmir said as he pushed Kari forward.
Kari and the rest of the OS were silent as they continued their way through the vents.
After a couple minutes they reached their destination.
“Ok, here we are. We’re right above the control room. Which might I add, is heavily
guarded!” Erich said with growing intensity.
“Move up you two; let me storm the place.” Vladmir insisted as the other two continued moving over the vent grate. Vladmir punched the grate to the floor and dropped out of the vent.
When he came in contact with the tile floor, he rolled behind a computer and ducked. The guards in the room began firing at him.
“Don’t let them hit the T596!” Kari screamed as she and Erich also dropped out if the vent. Vladmir drew his dual handguns and leaned out of his crouching position and returned fire with several heavy-pistol rounds. Kari pulled out her pistol and shot some of the attacking guards.
“Ok Erich, the room is cleared. I hope you were joking about the five hour thing, ‘cause
Vlad and I are running low on ammunition.” Kari said as she reloaded her weapon. Vladmir gave a nod in agreement.
“I’ll see what I can do to hurry along the process.” Erich stammered out as he set up his datatheif and other hacking devices.
Vladmir and Kari continued to down the guards, but were quickly becoming overwhelmed.
* * *
Ray stood close to the back wall, stabilized himself, and pulled the trigger on the 42pound weapon. The force of the weapon threw Ray into the back wall, and caused him to drop the gun.
“Aghhh!” Ray screamed in pain.
He picked it back up, stood straight up against the wall, and once again squeezed the trigger. The caliber of the gun’s bullets was enormous. They could penetrate most armor of man and machine without losing much velocity.
Ray continually fired the weapon, and decimated any human that came into his cross hairs. By the time he had gone through his second clip, his arm bones had shattered.
Shit, my arm’s busted!
Ray hoisted the heavy weapon back into its holster with his good arm, and pulled out a grenade. He tossed it on the ground, and smoke began to fill the room. Ray climbed up into the vent and shut the grate. With one arm completely broken, Ray slowly made it to the exit of the vents by following the heavy dents-
-Left by Vladmir, no doubt.
Ray heard gunfire in the upcoming room below him. He drew his pistol and pulled back on its slide. He continued to crawl towards where the rest of his companions would most likely be. The gunshots and screams became louder and louder, and the vents began to smell of burning cordite. Finally, Ray came to a hole in the vents, leading down to a room. He dropped down only to be welcomed by Vladmir’s kind words, “Get your ass over here you fateful son-ofa-bitch.”
Ray overturned a desk, and began to fire at the incoming guards.
“My right arm is completely shattered, I can’t move it.” Ray informed Vladmir.
“I told you that would happen. You’re lucky it didn’t kill you.” Vladmir mocked.
“I know. Here, I'm sure you can wield it!” Ray said as he tossed the auto cannon over to
Vladmir.
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Vladmir loaded a new clip into it, pulled back the bolt, and squeezed the trigger. The bullets cut down the incoming troops like a hot knife through butter. He handled the weapon as if it were an ordinary rifle, which came as no surprise.
“I’m copying the data over to some discs; it should speed up the process.” Erich insured.
“Vladmir---Kari and I are going to go over to the fuel cell room, it’s right next door. Give us some cover fire as we plant the explosives.”
Vladmir walked into the atrium outside of the Uplink Control Room and began to fire as
Ray and Kari made a run for the next room.
“Cover me!” Ray said as he began to set the charges. Kari reloaded her pistol and stepped out into the very loud hall. Vladmir was facing one direction while Kari faced the other.
They waited for troops to come up the stairs in her area. Ray armed the bomb and stepped out of the room.
“We got it!” Erich screamed.
“Alright, let’s get the hell out of here then.”
They ran to the nearby fire exit, which led them to where they parked their Suits. They boarded the machines, powered them up, and rode off into the Martian night.
Ray looked back as he pressed the detonator with his hand.
39

May 3 rd 2270, 09:13
73km outside Corcyia,
Western edge of Thaumasia Fossae
Tae turned the top of the joystick on the control center of his suit; the image on his heads up display (HUD) showed a red dusty landscape. He turned the camera almost a full 360 degrees before he saw what he was looking for. The small green glint told him that he had found the bottle he dropped on his way back from the mess camp. Tae pushed a small red button next to the joystick, the HUD showed a different view but the same bottle was on it. He put the crosshairs on the glint of green glass.
“Ha,” he laughed, “green in red.”
He pushed the small black button on the top of the joystick and immediately heard the report as the automatic shotgun on his Dredge suit’s right shoulder fired, on the HUD the image of red dust spraying up and thousands of tiny stars appeared in the sand, as five hundred carbon filament wrapped pellets hit the bottle.
A new image popped up on his HUD, it was the young worried face of his companion sniper, Doug Johnson
“What happened??!!”
“I recycled,” Tae said with a smile, “I supposed your suit AI would have told you that.”
The sniper AI aboard both their suits took in all sound coming in through different microphones on the exterior of the suit and identified them along with the range and heading.
“Don’t do that! I’m already nearly having stomach ulcers out here.”
“Is that from the food or because your nervous?”
Another image popped up on his HUD.
“We’re lucky to be eating at all; on the home world this war is costing some people their lives.” The accent of Dimitri Romanizt dripped of Russian influence, probably encouraged by his parents considering he was a native Martian so he would not have any natural Russian accent.
“Hacker.”
“So?”
“What do you mean costing people their lives?” Tae asked.
“Earth can’t produce enough food for herself, but when they have to send troops to Mars, it makes things even worse. Instead of agreeing to let us go free, they would rather have the populous of earth starve to death.”
“War costs a lot.” Johnson said.
“Especially when interplanetary supply lines come into play.” Tae added.
“Well you snipers are lucky; you don’t have to be up there on the front lines with thousands of bullets and rockets flying around you with only your suit for comfort.” Dimitri, unlike Tae and Johnson, was a frontline troop.
“Hey guys, we better get off the comm. link or commander will be mad at us.”
“Good idea.”
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Tae sat back in his suit and switched the HUD image back to his camera turning it around and programming the shotgun to automatic. Anything that had a metallic signature and moved would be vaporized automatically.
May 4 th 2270, 10:32
Obsidian Squad Headquarters,
Noc-Lab Sector
“Project Omega, a massive interplanetary invasion.” Vladmir said to himself in disbelief as he watched Erich type on the computer, researching deeper and deeper into the
Terran battle plans.
“We’re done for. Mars is forever going to be under Terran control, and there is nothing we can do about it.” Erich complained insignificantly.
“No, that’s where you’re wrong. We will find a way to stop, or pause the invasion until
Mars realizes what is happening, even if it means joining the MFs ourselves. It’s all a matter of figuring out where the weak point is in their battle plans, so think.” Ray inspired. A deafening silence filled the room as the group contemplated various battle schemes.
“Well, there is not much we can do to stop the invasion now that it is underway, right?
However, what we can do is cripple their supply lines. This would cause their forces to go without food and fuel, halting the invasion until more supplies are transported. That should buy enough time for our reinforcements to come, i.e., the MFs.”
“Anyone object or have a better idea?” Ray asked. After no one responded, “Then it’s settled; Erich, see if you can find the nearest supply convoy, Kari, begin the checks on the Suits and ready the dropship, Vladmir, you and I will begin discussing battle tactics once Erich finds the nearest convoy and where it is en route.”
The group scattered and for a few moments, all that was heard in the small room was the constant pecking of keys. Ray looked over at Erich, who was in his usual tableau, silhouetted by his monitor’s glow. He was absorbing information, or trying to at least.
Fossae!”
“Bingo!” Erich screamed, “Approximately 100 kilometers south of us, Thaumasia
“Perfect. Computer, bring up terrain and vehicle detail.” Ray ordered.
The table screen revealed a hologram.
“There are approximately 20 heavily armored convoy trucks, carrying 30mm, 40mm, and
50mm auto rounds with armor piercing and incendiary add-ons; Valkyrie missile salvos, and lastly, TAPC armor.” The computer informed.
“Shit, that alone is enough armor and ammunition to screw the rebellion several times over!” Ray exclaimed, “We need to stop that convoy.”
“The convoy is accompanied by 50 Dredge Suits, HC.” The AI added.
“Now that I think about it, we need to ready the dropship also. We can’t pass up an opportunity like this to restock our arms,” Ray said with a smile. “Erich, go power up the Suits and tune the engines.” As an afterthought, he added:”and take Kari with you.”
Man, this is perfect. We start to run low on ammo, and fate actually throws something our way.
May 4 th 2270, 06:31
76km outside Corcyia,
Western edge of Thaumasia Fossae
Tae awoke still inside his Dredge suit, its AI waking him up at the usual time… no, it was early. The monotone woman voice of his AI issued from the speakers of his headset.
“Commander Longfleck wishes to speak with you corporal.”
“Yes Commander?” He grunted; his back stiff from sitting all night.
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“You and Johnson are to follow a group of TSF’s (Terran Supportive Forces) and destroy them if they get too close to the group.” the commander stated, finishing by taking a swig out of the coffee cup that he was holding.
“Sir,” Johnson said in a whining tone, “why not just move the group out of the way or destroy it?”
The commander looked angry but knew he couldn’t do anything.
“Cause they will be detected by the satellites in orbit and every single ship flying over
Pavonis, its not every day that you see two hundred Dredge suits just pop out of nowhere.” Tae explained.
“You’re to move out when I say, most likely tonight…if you’re lucky.” the commander ordered.
“Sir?”
“Yes?”
“How many are there?” Tae asked in a tone that he hoped didn’t give away what he was thinking.
“Approximately fifteen tanks and twenty or so transports, Longfleck out.”
There was a pause and then Dimitri’s face appeared on the screen.
“Good luck.” Dimitri once again had hacked into their conversation
“Does anyone even try to stop you from eavesdropping anymore?” Tae asked with amusement.
“Umm…” there was about a five second pause as if he was thinking, “no… not really,”
“Typical.” Johnson snorted.
Tae pulled on the release bar that let him out of his suit and stepped outside. Onto the stairs that the door made when opened.
He jumped out and slid down the leg of the kneeling machine that was his suit. It was only 2.5 meters taller then he was, not that big. It was medium sized suit for those days, not necessarily a scout, though it could hold its own in speed. It wasn’t that big or its weapons that strong but still a deadly machine. The only real armament that could do any damage to a tank or
Dredge was his rifle. The barrel was shorter then expected for a sniper rifle, but it had a few different types of ammo. It wasn’t fast firing and couldn’t be used to demolish buildings, but it wasn’t brute force that made his suit so deadly, it was a combination of the pilot’s imagination for tactics and the suits ability to match those schemes.
The automatic shotgun on the right shoulder was able to turn 180 degrees in half a second and shoot most things down, up to 450 KPH flying overhead or towards the suit. Another feature that was a tactician’s dream was the multi class rocket pod, carrying ten different types of rockets, ranging from dummy rockets that looked like an ICBM to all electronic detection systems, to smoke rockets that sent a continual fissure of smoke able to cover an entire army with only fifty or so. Another great weapon on the suit was the electro magnetic mine that could be planted by the suit and when anything came near it the mine would make and release an EMP
(electro magnetic pulse) and disable all electronics within twenty meters.
The other thing he was proud of was the half-meter long canister on the back of his suit, this contained a small flying scout he lovingly called Bill. Bill spun the two sets of string like rotors in opposite directions so there wasn’t any need for a rear rotor. The centrifugal force of the spinning kept the rotors taught. The rotors were flexible straps of thick material shaped like a conventional wing. Bill was controlled by his suit AI and had a range of twenty-five kilometers.
He made his way over to the supply depot and got the food and ammo supplies he would need for the next week or so, if he ran out he could always ask for a drop ship to leave some at a checkpoint.
When Tae got back to where his suit was located he found Johnson and instructed him to re-supply too. It would be a long time before they could re-supply their Suits and their stomachs.
He couldn’t visit Dimitri on the front line so he made his way back to his suit and opened a comm. link to him.
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“Dimitri, can you hack into our command database and see if there is a catch to this order of mine?”
“Ok, but I didn’t do it if I get caught.”
“Yes, of course.”
Tae sat down and looked at the clock, it was 2:30, and without realizing it, he dozed off.
May 4 th 2270, 10:41
Obsidian Squad Headquarters,
Noc-Lab Sector
“You wanted to see me, Erich?” Kari asked.
“Naked,” He joked. Kari gave him the I’m not that kind of girl and if you ever say that to me
again I’ll slit your throat look, ”Um…well, we leave tomorrow at sunrise and you and I are supposed to find out what everyone wants their suits armed with and prepare them to that fashion. That is all.”
“Will do.” Kari responded in her peppy voice as she walked away.
“Like an angel…” Erich said under his breath.
“What was that?”
“Err, nothing. I didn’t say anything” Erich defended himself. After she left the room, he slapped himself and began preparing his suit.
May 4 th 2270, 14:52
73km outside Corcyia,
Western edge of Thaumasia Fossae
Tae was awoken in a cold sweat by his suit AI, in her sweet monotone.
“Commander Longfleck called and he wants us to leave immediately after you had enough sleep.”
“Thanks,” Tae bumbled, “contact Johnson’s suit AI, and tell him that he is to be ready within twenty minutes.”
“I already have.”
“I should’ve known.”
A low whirr and some of the LED’s lighting up informed him that Charlotte, the AI, had ignored the last comment and was currently running an armor check, fuel calculations or something. He also checked ammo and fuel reserves, when seeing that everything was topped off, he knew that Charlotte had not been idle when he was asleep.
He sat up and stretched, banging his head on the low ceiling of the suit, and dropped to his knees and crawled out of his suit.
“Damn!” Tae said louder then he meant.
“Your mother would be very disappointed in you if she heard you using that language.”
“Hello Dimitri.” Tae heard the voice behind him in his suit.
“Hacker….you programmed her to say that didn’t you.”
No response, Dimitri had wondered off into his little world.
“Did you come to say anything of importance or just to prove that you could hack into my suit?”
Tae turned around to look into the suit’s cockpit. There immediately was a start of machinery as Charlotte started warming up the various components of the suit.
Tae looked back down at Dimitri; he was standing on the platform that doubled as a blast door for the cockpit of the suit. Dimitri looked both worried and relieved,
“They caught me last night when I was hacking in for you, not digitally though.”
“Of course, you’re too good for that.”
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“But one of my bunkmates saw what I was doing and reported me. I was taken to the commander’s office. I thought I was dead, but the amazing thing is that they knew about my hacking for awhile and were amazed at it, so I have been promoted and I’m shipping off to somewhere.” Dimitri said this all as if he really didn’t know what had happened…a kind of sad, happy, relieved, and depressed feeling, all crushed together into a ball of emotion.
“So, we’ll be leaving at the same time then.” Tae said emotionless.
“Yes.” he turned then paused and turned around with a smile. Even from four meters in the air, Tae could tell that Dimitri was smiling.
“You’re in for a treat tomorrow. The commander told me that if I told you, I would be killed for treason along with you and Johnson, but who cares… You’re going into space.”
Great… He was going to space. Tae hated space. Even though he could navigate across
Mars without a map and could probably do the same on Terra, space still made him a little queasy and very frustrated. He hated space.
“What was that all about?” Johnson appeared caring boxes of food most likely.
“Nothing, Dimitri is moving to another post.”
“Really? Where?”
Tae turned and walked into his suit. Once he got inside, Charlotte closed the door behind him. For a second it was pitch black in the cockpit. The only light glowed from the LED’s on his control panel, like small stars. Stars, the only thing he liked about space. Stars fascinated him, he studied them a lot when he was young and the knowledge stuck with him.
“Charlotte, bring the HUD online.”
Immediately the green glow of the HUD display filled the cockpit with green light. He sat down and started playing a combat simulator that looked so real, he sometimes forgot it was fake, at least until he recognized one of the patterns that the enemy was using. That always slowed him down, whenever he saw a recognizable move, he tried to remember what battles he’d seen it in. This was a good thing for both Tae and Charlotte, while Tae learned to fight more effectively, Charlotte could predict the moves of the enemy in certain situations, using the defensive technology on the suit more effectively.
The HUD came on and disrupted his thinking, by reaction he sat down and immediately grabbed the two control arms. Charlotte put a small tank and a moderately sized suit in front of him. Charlotte knew Tae well enough that she knew that these two would not be a problem for him, most likely she had something else in store for him.
“Ok, let’s start.” Tae said, concentrating on what he should do.
The terrain was of the Vallis Marinias. He knew these lands well, he had flown through them in his teens. He looked on the radar image underneath the HUD and saw the two vehicles that Charlotte had shown him. They were separated by half a kilometer, so he could sneak behind them but he didn’t want to and decided to try one of the new weapons he hadn’t tried in real combat.
He hit a few buttons on the Joystick that controlled the weapon targeting system and programmed the rockets with one of his directives. He was going to squeeze the button when a new dot appeared on the radar. The key to being a good pilot in one of the suits or anything else in combat is keeping your eyes open all the time to everything around you, radar, ammo, etc. The third blip was about 3km behind the other two; he decided to take the other two out first. He squeezed the button right below the trigger and heard the fire of rockets, (he knew it was fake because he didn’t hear a direction and heading warning appear on his HUD,) three small rockets flew out from the pack on the suits left shoulder, spraying fire and smoke behind them. They stayed on a strait course and then after about a hundred meters the outer left one veered towards the tank. The right one and the center one continued for another two hundred meters before the right one veered. This tactic made it seem like there were more than one suit attacking.
The middle rocket stopped exactly 50m after the right one veered and dropped, Tae waited for about twelve seconds and then pushed the throttle on his suit to maximum his suit immediately leapt forward and ran into the smoke screen the rockets had made for him. He
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decided to deploy Bill and see what was approaching from ahead of him. The canister lobed Bill out of the top end by compressed air, bill carried a camera and infrared censors, along with last known location that the suit was. In case the suit lost contact with Bill the small computer brain immediately headed for the nearest friendly outpost or Dredge suit.
While Bill was moving towards the unknown target Tae moved his suit forward and over a ridge. The two blips were moving towards each other. He decided to get a good vantage point and take them out with his rifle when they went by. A blue dot on the HUD told him where Bill was. Tae moved the left joystick forward a bit then hit a button on top of it, his suit dropped down into a prone position and brought the rifle up. Tae switched the view to the scope on the gun.
His gun was one other of the many things he was proud of on his suit. It also had a receiver so he could fire the gun without being there. If he dropped the gun to lighten the suit then he could relocate it later and disable the firing mechanism. If his suit was stolen or destroyed then he could detonate all the ammo in the gun, destroying everything around it. He decided to use the small nuclear slugs; he preferred them in these situations. He turned the small knob on the right joystick to the third setting and waited for the enemies to appear. Meanwhile he brought up a new screen to check where Bill was.
The HUD showed the canyon walls below and the pink sky above. Ahead he saw something that he really didn’t like. A large space cruiser was moving slowly towards him. He knew that it was unusual for a battle cruiser to be flying this low but it had happened to him once in a real battle. He checked his gun scope camera. The tank was there but the suit had apparently gotten lost. Then again, suits didn’t get lost, ever.
He slammed the left joystick around in time to see the large suit standing over him. If he had waited another moment he would have been turned into burnt flesh in a pile of metal wreckage. He pushed the button slightly below the trigger to shoot whatever rocket was first in the pack. The rocket was not a moment to fast; it was at such a close distance that the fuel was still in it.
The rocket turned out to be an incendiary, the suit ignited and was obviously a remote controlled suit or it wouldn’t of fallen like it did, our would have waited so long. As the suit was burning, it crashed into the ground with a roar and a thundering slam. He immediately turned and brought the rifle up and put the tank on the crosshairs and fired once. The whole thing happened in what seemed like slow motion. Then about a half second later the tank exploding into a massive fireball as the almost microscopic piece of super enriched uranium exploded and vaporized the top part of the tank.
He relaxed his tensions for a bit and looked around; he was on the north side of the canyon wall of Vallis Marines the layers of red rock shining different colors. Then Bill returned with an unwelcome guest. The cruiser had arrived. It seemed to float over the huge canyons, it was falling, and its size made it look like it was floating. That was more then he could bear.
“Enough!”
The image shut down and he nearly kicked open the hatch release on the door. Tae stepped out into the relative brightness of dusk, the Martian sky all sorts of colors.
He saw Johnson’s suit was preparing for the mission, its various parts moving and twitching, like some massive brainless sleeping creature. He jumped off the platform and made his way down the rest of the way to the ground. He grabbed a box from a pile nearby and started eating its contents.
“Great vacuum packed sandwiches, probably fifty percent soy.” he mumbled.
“Like everything edible on this base.” Johnson yelled from his suit.
“What can you expect, it’s from Earth!” Tae shouted back.
“Ha!” they both laughed quickly and Tae then got absorbed into the vacuum packed goodness of his sandwich.
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May 5 th 2270, 06:00
Obsidian Squad Headquarters,
Noc-Lab Sector
“Wake up everyone! We’re going to kill us some Terries today!” Ray yelled and he flipped the light switch on and off, “Briefing at 600 hours!”
The group woke up and dressed; Vladmir in his usual thick denim suit, Kari in her sweats, and Erich in his camouflage. They all came in to the kitchen area of the base and began preparing their meals.
Funny how you can tell what kind of a person someone is by what they eat and wear. Ray thought. Kari wears comfortable sweatpants and shirts and eats a bowl of cereal, matching perfectly with her carefree spirit. Vladmir wears a tough denim suit that closely resembles some farmer outfit and eats his bacon and eggs to go with his “big strong man” attitude. And finally Erich, someone who is always in khakis and some sort of polo shirt. He ate plain rations for every meal. Works with his punctual/formal attitude. There is something suspicious about him though, something I don’t like at all…
“Done!” screamed Kari. “Ha ha, what is that, two weeks in a row now, Vlad?”
“Hey, I like to take my time and savor the flavor…hey that rhymes! I’m a poet when I don’t know it!” Vladmir chuckled.
“Whatever, you’re just a sore loser.” Kari said.
“Can you guys be a little quieter? I’m trying to read.” Erich said in an obviously irritated voice.
“Oh, did somebody get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?” Kari mocked as she gave her best baby face. Erich just shook his head and buried it further into his newspaper.
After the crew finished eating they gathered around the central table in the briefing room.
“Ok, here’s the plan: as you can see the convoy is approaching Pavonis Mons bearing the heading 340.26. We can intercept them once they enter the sheltering arms and canyons of
Thaumasia Fossae. Luckily, it snowed heavily in that area recently, so we can plant explosives in two areas to trap the convoy by avalanche. Alright? Suit up, we leave as soon as you all are ready.”
The group dressed into their piloting outfits and armed themselves. The then ran to the hanger and powered up their suits and rode them into the dropship.
Good, Kari armed Vengeance with what I wanted. A heavy auto cannon with incendiary, 50mm,
30mm, and armor piercing rounds. Ray thought as he inspected his Suit. He stepped out of it and walked out of the cargo hold and felt a sudden shift in the floor.
Take it easy Kari, my God.
Ray continued into the cabin where he saw Vladmir sitting on a couch polishing his .70 caliber “Lobotimator” as he called it. It was a solid silver gun, something he had won in a
Dredge tournament in Markham while he was with Markinson. The gun fired bullets that had to be custom made. They had gel caps that contained hundreds of bb’s that exploded on impact, completely disintegrating the victim.
Ray continued moving his eyes in a progressing manner, scanning the room. Kari was piloting the ship and Erich was navigating. The dropship Llama was a little bigger than a house, and was shaped much like a hovercraft, but with jets and rockets attached.
The inside of the cargo hold was white, with metal beams stretching across the curved ceiling. The cabin and other areas were also white, and had padded walls in case of impact.
Not that it would help much. With how fast this thing goes, if you’re not strapped in when it hits, the padded walls are gonna be like doing a belly flop into water from 200 feet.
Erich sat down and pulled the harness over himself. He leaned back, closed his eyes and thought of how nice the sandy beaches of Hawaii would feel.
* * *
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“Girls, girls, one at a time please. There’s plenty of me to go around!” Erich said in his sly voice. Lying in the sand, he was surrounded by several women, one of them being Kari.
Erich got up and walked over to her and began conversation.
“Well Erich, that is, I never realized how manly you are.” Kari said in a soft voice.
“Now you know.” Erich said as he bent over to kiss her. He was greeted by a hard slap to the face.
“Who do you think you are?!” one of the other women said.
“I thought you were with me!” another piped up.
“Ladies, please!” Erich tried to calm them. His words weren’t enough. Kari pulled a gun und shot one of the girls. A brawl broke out and bullets were being fired everywhere. Erich reached for his pistol…
“Looking for this?” Kari said as she pulled back the hammer on Erich’s pistol and pushed it against his head.
“Wait Kari, what are you doing? Think this through!” Erich negotiated.
“I have, you pig!” Kari said as she pulled the trigger.
May 4 th 2270, 14:41
Obsidian Squad Dropship Lima,
Airspace above Thaumasia Fossae
“You pig!” Ray screamed, “Get up you lazy pig! We’re under attack! The convoy knew we were coming; they must’ve intercepted our data or got tipped off or something!”
It was just a dream…Erich thought; relief replaced the feared look on his face. That relief was quickly turned to anger as he began asking questions to Ray.
“Where are Vladmir and Kari?” Erich asked. All he got was an arm motion from Ray pointing to the padded walls up front. Kari was lying there, her back snapped in half. Vladmir had a bullet through his head.
“Who’s on the ship? Who killed Vladmir and Kari!?” Erich asked franticly.
“They have committed treason to Terra, and so have you!” Ray said as he drew his pistol and shot Erich in the head.
* * *
Ok, two dreams, both involving death. Erich thought as he awoke from his dream. He had a headache and found that his harness was unbuckled. He walked out of the cabin and found
Vladmir on the ground, with blood on his chest.
“Not again!” Erich screamed.
This is like some sadistic cartoon. Erich thought as he turned around and expected to see
Kari or Ray with a knife or a gun, but no one was there. He turned back around and saw
Vladmir stand up.
“Oh man, I must’ve fallen asleep while I was eating again. Godammit! I got ketchup all over my shirt!” Vladmir said.
Phew, at least I’m not going through that whole thing again.
Suddenly the ship began to shake vigorously; Ray lost his balance and fell.
“We’re under attack!” Erich said through the cabin doors.
“Quick, everybody, man your suits and prepare for battle!” Ray screamed as he picked himself up off the floor. Erich pulled the Llama up to a safe altitude and opened the cargo hold doors. Ray, Kari, and Vladmir flew out of the ship and descended to the column of trucks and suits.
“On your left, Vladmir!” Ray screamed, Vladmir turned and squeezed the trigger on his control panel. The blast from his auto cannon destroyed the opposing suit.
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“Everyone, once we reach effective targeting range, fire your rockets and try to take out as many of the HC Suits before we hit the ground.” Ray commanded. As they descended through the Martian air, they all fired their rockets. Within seconds, the entire ground began to light up with explosions; it looked like an entire minefield going off at once. They all pulled out their main weapons; Ray and Vlad with their auto cannons and Kari with her Rapid-Fire
Bazooka.
“Computer, 50mm rounds!” Ray ordered. The AI complied and he began to devastate the ground forces.
“Death from Above!” Vladmir laughed.
The OS landed on the Martian soil and was immediately ambushed by several suits. The battle had begun. Ray, Kari, and Vladmir split up into different directions.
* * *
What a great day to be in charge of guarding the column, of all days, today had to be my turn.
Terran Commander John Lahr thought to himself as he hid behind a rock, seeking cover from the fire. As he leaned out, he realized who the aggressors where.
Shit, that’s the Suit Vengeance! Ray Monterro is piloting that thing, and that means the rest of the OS can’t be too far behind him.
“Requesting backup at waypoint Charlie. I repeat, backup at Charlie; the OS is here.”
John screamed into his CL. He threw a chaff grenade in front of the dirt and ran for another rock to hide. The grenade exploded and wreaked havoc on all computer-guided rockets. After the chaff cleared, John locked onto an OS suit with his mortars and fired.
Come on, I know you can hit him, come on!
The suit rolled out if the way of the mortars just before the hit, and retaliated with an entire barrage of 50mm rounds. The bullets disintegrated the rock John was hiding behind and damaged the EMS of his left leg. Limping for cover, he fell over and couldn’t get back up. He began to crawl, much like he was missing his entire lower half. His movement was halted by a sword going straight though his torso.
Screams could be heard from within the suit. An OS member lowered its arm and aimed its Bazooka right at the suit’s head. John clenched his teeth as his assailant pulled the trigger and ignited a round into his head.
* * *
Kari pulled her sword from the remains of the fallen Suit and spun herself around to slash another suit. Several Dredges were approaching from the gorge. Kari aimed her auto cannon to eliminate the attackers, but was knocked down by Ray.
“What do you think you’re doing!?” He began. “We need those supplies, if you create an avalanche on the suits, you’ll bury the convoy too!”
Kari got up and assisted Ray in the extermination of the Terran troops. Ray picked up another suit’s auto cannon and began firing it along with his. Suits continued to pour over the horizon.
“I’ve got you covered, Kari!” Ray said into his CL as he blasted away a nearby suit. “Set the dust-off point for way Bravo and ready the convoy for evac. Once this canyon is finished, go help Vladmir!” Kari nodded and they both got in position. Ray fired his jets and flew up to the top of the canyon, where the snipers were. When Ray reached the peak of the plateau, he began to open fire. He took out the first couple of snipers unseen, but the light suppresser on the cannon he stole was damaged and gave away his position. The distraction he created drew a lot of the fire towards him; allowing Kari to place the flare for Erich.
“I’m gonna need serious cover fire for this landing if we want this rig to still fly.” Erich screamed. “I can’t land her until the ground fire is contained.”
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well.
On the other side of the battlegrounds, Vladmir fighting by himself, but not faring too
“Ray, things aren’t looking too good over here. They keep on coming, and the pilots are obvious veterans. We don’t stand a chance.” Vladmir said with obvious disgrace in his voice.
“I’m sending Kari over; just hold on.” Ray responded. He looked over to Kari’s position.
He could see her shaking her head.
“Kari, that’s an order. Go and reinforce Vladmir, NOW!” Ray screamed. Kari hesitantly ran over to Vladmir’s position on the opposite side of the area. Ray took over Kari’s position and suddenly had complete mechanical failure on his suit.
Oh shit…what the hell? I just had this suit fixed, the power cufflinks were working fine a moment ago…I just hope it wasn’t the power cells.
He stood there, powerless. He checked his radar, which was still working somehow, and saw a dropship lowering down to his position
Thank you Erich!
The dropship opened up and lifted Ray into it. Ray opened up the emergency hatch on his Dredge Suit and stepped out.
“Ray, there are too many of them, we won’t be able to get the convoy.” Erich said as he shook his head
“Yes, you are right, we need to get Kari and Vladmir out of there, fly over to their position. I will power up the defensive turrets.”
Erich nodded and ran into the control room.
Ray looked outside the window and saw a fierce battle raging on the ground. There were several explosions and lights flashing everywhere. Some of the lights began to circle the others. Within seconds, there was an eye staring up at Ray, Vladmir and Kari were surrounded by Terrans ready to kill them.
* * *
“It’s been nice knowing you Vladmir.” Kari said as she released her finger from the trigger on her suit.
“No, this isn’t the end; I won’t let it be. Erich will come, or Ray, but we won’t die here.”
Then, as if an angel was listening, a huge explosion took out several of the suits surrounding them. Kari reloaded her auto cannon and began to open fire on the enemy.
Vladmir looked up and waved his gun as he saw the dropship coming down to pick them up.
Two cables lowered from the ship. Kari and Vladmir both hooked them to their suits and began to feel the ground fall away from them.
Vladmir pointed his gun out towards the mountains.
“Vladmir, what are you doing!?” Kari screamed
“I’m not letting the convoy get away. If we can’t have it, then no one can.” Vladmir responded as he pulled the trigger on his auto cannon. The resulting avalanche crushed the convoy.
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May 7 th 2270, 17:34
Obsidian Squad Headquarters,
Noc-Lab Sector
In the course of the following weeks, the OS ran a number of operations to cripple Project
Omega before the troops actually landed; most of them supply raids. A few of the missions were successful, allowing the OS to gain some much needed intelligence, ammunition, and food.
“Our intelligence reports that there is currently an attack column of artillery and battle tanks moving in the Pavonis Mons sector, which, as most of you know, is one of the main space ports for Project Omega. Search and destroy.”
“Great, yet another routine mission set up by Captain Blood.” Kari said sarcastically under her breath.
“Do I sense a bit of disdain in your voice, Kari?” Ray questioned. The comment made
Kari blush, realizing she had mocked Ray a little too loud. She answered the question by looking back, smiling, and whipping her hair around as she walked out the door.
What would I do without my charm? Kari thought as she shook her head and laughed.
May 29 th 2270, 10:13
Spartan Flatlands,
7km East of Pavonis Mons
“One kilometer and closing.” Ray informed.
The group had made their way to Pavonis Mons, one of the greatest volcanoes on Mars, and one of the biggest space ports also. But those were far up the volcano. They were only at the base, where they would find the attack column.
Everyone began to power up their targeting systems and weapons.
“Activate your EEB, the artillery tanks are going to be firing at us soon, and if you get hit by one of those shells, there isn’t going to be anything left of you, and if you’re anywhere near one of them when they impact the ground, your suit will be thrown 20 meters into the air at least.” Vladmir informed
“Here they come!” Erich shouted.
The shells began to impact the ground. Huge chunks of Martian soil and sand were being thrown everywhere.
“300m until we’re close enough so the Artillery can’t fire!” Ray said as he hit the EEB button in enough time to dodge an incoming shell.
“Shit, that was close, Ray!”
“100m!” He repeated.
“We made it!” Vladmir shouted “Anyone damaged?”
“Just mentally.” Erich responded, his joke made the group laugh, all but Ray.
“We need to get ready to destroy those Artillery Tanks, and ready the ambush.”
The valley the column would enter was coming into view. Ray activated his jump jets and flew off the edge when it came near. Ray switched his auto cannon to armor piercing and
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opened fired on the two artillery. The others followed his example. By the time they landed on the ground, there was nothing but a large smoldering ruin where the two tanks used to be.
The OS began to prepare the ambush. Kari was digging the foxholes to hide in, Ray and
Vladmir were setting up a perimeter of mines, and Erich was in charge of setting the detonating mechanisms.
“Ok everyone, get into the foxholes and power down all of your systems except radar.
The column should be approaching in a couple hours. Until then, take a nap.” Ray ordered.
Time passed before the column came. Ray awoke to a surprising alarm as the column of tanks and one suit passed over the ridge.
“Power up your suits. Wait for the mines to detonate before attacking.” Ray commanded.
The battalion began to cross the mines, but nothing was happening, no explosions.
“Shit Erich, you screwed up the mines!” Ray screamed.
“I’m sorry, I’ll go fix them!”
“No, are you retarded? Those tanks will eat you alive!”
“And they’ll eat you too if I don’t stop them!” Erich finished as he jumped out of his foxhole. The next second a tank targeted Erich and hurled a shell at him. Erich activated his
EEB, but it was not enough to prevent his suit from being hit. The explosion completely disabled his left leg and left him open for the finishing shot.
“Shit, Shit, Shit!” Ray screamed as he began firing his heavy auto cannon at the ground by the tanks. Suddenly, a few hammering shots from the heavens created a shockwave, followed by a large explosion that engulfed the entire area. The OS’s thick armor kept them from everything except losing their paint jobs to flying sand and rocks.
“What was that!?” Kari asked.
“The mines went off late!” Vladmir said.
“Better late than never, right?”
“Hey, can you guys help me, my leg hydraulics aren’t working!” Erich whined.
“Why?” Kari questioned, “You’re useless anyway!” a laugh.
“C’mon, that’s not fair!”
“Exactly, all you do is eat and get damaged before the battle begins!” Vladmir said with
“What’s the deal Erich, are you trying to kill us, first you screw up my engine, now the mines too? For god’s sake, will somebody just help him up, and make sure that the Terrie command suit doesn’t move!” Ray ordered.
“The suit is crippled!” Kari responded, “But it wasn’t us who did it!”
“I know; there is a sniper on the ridge behind me!”
Before long, Erich let out another scream as he fell once again to a bullet.
May 29 th 2270, 12:41
Spartan Flatlands,
6.5km East of Pavonis Mons
“Sir, there are tanks ahead.”
A smoke trail and the thundering of large guns told them that some other group of suits had engaged this smaller patrol from the main group heading to the bottom of Devil’s Ridge.
“Looks like someone else is interested in not letting these tanks out alive”
“Sir,” Johnson asked, “are we going to help?”
“Yes.”
They cleared a small rise in a prone position and saw below them some tanks caught between two low rises, on either side of the tanks were suits, dug in, only about a fourth of their bodies were uncovered. Tae could see one smoking ruin of a tank; near it were three other tanks and a large Dredge suit, most likely a fire support vehicle. There were four suits surrounding the
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tanks and a fifth was on the ground, its leg had considerable damage and Tae figured it was out of commission for this battle. The other suits were medium size front line. Even though they had obviously had the element of surprise it looked as if they were losing.
The closest one had a rather large auto cannon, that was the commander or the most skilled pilot. It was almost beautiful the way the pilot used his suit. He seemed not to be aiming for the enemy tanks but was trying to hit the ground as much as possible. Tae increased the sight enhancement until he saw what the pilot was aiming for. He fired one of his high explosive slugs.
Four or five milliseconds passed while the slug was traveling from the end of the barrel to right on top of the mine.
A small explosion sent a small shockwave across the low slope, and then four then five explosions sent dust and shrapnel across the small plain. The tanks were thrown into the air and the suit was almost torn in half but its dense armor protected the suit from everything but it‘s paint being skinned off by the sand. Tae moved the gun up and fired two armor piercing rounds into the center of the suit right were the engine and the hydraulics was. No doubt they would want the pilot alive.
* * *
Colonial Jakk Luquae felt the shudder as the two bullets pierced his suit’s heavy polycarbon/titanium armor and hit his hydrogen engine. The sniper had skill not to hit the fuel tank, or him for that matter. He knew that right now it was his obligation as a commander to kill himself with the small dose of cyanide that he had in his vest pocket. He was a selfpreservationist; even he realized that without shame. He knew that if he was a loyal informant and talked a lot. The Martian forces would treat him well. The few tanks that were with him were computer controlled so he didn’t mind losing them, if they were real men he would have never given up this willingly. He may have been concerned for his own life, but he certainly wouldn’t let soldiers die for him to just talk.
“Ok you can take me,” he said calmly into the common band, “I don’t care; the damn war is pointless anyway.”
He never did really side with the Terran forces on this war, who cares if Mars gets its freedom, let them have it. He liked the Martian’s way of thinking anyway, “Don’t bother us and we won’t bother you.” It was like most things in the universe.
“So a Terrie actually doesn’t want Mars for himself.” One of his captors said, though he wouldn’t call them captors, more like…liberators.
“So how do you plan on getting me back to your base?” Jakk asked as if he was anxious to go.
“Our base is just fifteen kilometers away,” the leader said, “there is a rover that will take you back to our base automatically.”
* * *
“Ok, you can come out now, we know you’re talented.” Ray asked blankly to the sky.
An unidentified suit, most likely Martian made, stood up from its prone position and dashed down the side of its hiding spot in a nearby mountain. As the suit inspected the ruins of the tanks, he revealed his name.
“You are Sergeant Ray Monterro, are you not?” He asked.
“Yes,” Ray responded, “and you are?”
“Tae Namosi, Second Sniper Division, 34 th Angels wish…” Tae began but was cut off by
Ray.
“Under the command of G. Longfleck? I assume you received the same orders I did, to follow that attack column two Kilometers up Pavonis and make sure they…”
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“Don’t finish that, my babysitting, err… “partner” is on a need to know basis, he thinks that we are making sure there aren’t any Terran troops stationed in hiding.” Tae interrupted.
“Hmm…” Ray grunted, “My men aren’t on that kind of basis, so talk freely around them.”
Tae then turned around and walked a few meters away, making a private transmission, probably to his commander. He came back to Ray for a few moments.
“You the commander?”
“Just recently, you heard about the Xythos, right?”
“Yeah, I heard they had the shit beaten out of them by the OS, was that you that led them to victory?” Tae inquired.
“Indeed.”
“Ray, I have interrogated the TSF, his name is Jakk Luquae and he has given us everything we wanted.” Vladmir informed.
“What do you want? To give him a fruit basket?” Ray joked, “Let him go.”
“Wait!” Tae yelled, “Send my partner with him!”
Ray and Vladmir knew what Tae wanted right then, to get rid of his babysitting job.
May 29 th 2270, 21:31
Spartan Flatlands,
7km East of Pavonis Mons
The group set up camp in the newly made ruins, sleeping in the previously dug foxholes.
Most of the night passed without much commotion. Occasionally there was some movement on the radar, but mostly just biological life forms, like rabbits and deer. The movements were a blessing of sort, allowing Ray to do something while on patrol duty. He hated patrol duty. It was like a lose-lose situation. If nothing happened, then you waste a good night’s sleep. If something happens, you are up the rest of the night wasting its good sleep.
Suddenly, a metallic being showed up on Ray’s screen. Ray quickly typed a text message to everyone.
That is a TSF convoy,
Jack in the Box,
In thirty seconds, these are not Mars forces,
Confirm with text message.
Movement and several replies confirmed Ray’s assumption. The plan was to ready your weapons, and ready to fire in thirty. Ray knew to use non-explosive weapons, computer AI was smart, but at times slow, especially when determining whether or not you’re under attack. It can take a matter of seconds to figure it out if its gunfire, but a bazooka, the computer will retaliate right away to one of those. Ray drew his favored Masamune looked over to Tae. They both nodded.
“Now!” Ray screamed over the CL.
Ray dashed full speed at one of the unexpecting suits, and performed an upper slash with his sword. The blade cut through the plasteel armor like a hot knife through butter. The suit split in half at the torso and blew up; it was Ray’s favorite touch.
Suddenly, green lights began to fill the night sky.
“Shit! They have Particle Accelerators!”
Ray turned around to see Tae pick one up from a smoldering suit.
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“I’ve always wanted to try one of these.”
Ray smiled and turned around, just in time to blast the suit in front of him.
Shit that was close, you need to stay focused, Ray!
Ray switched to his heavy explosive rounds, figuring most the AI suits had figured out they were being attacked anyway, it didn’t matter how loud he was. Ray looked up towards the mountains and saw several suits pouring out over them. He targeted the suits and squeezed the trigger a few times. The suits exploded in a fraction a second. Ray pretended to blow smoke from his auto cannon when he looked over at Tae, who was hacking into a heavy gatling gun at the moment, but was a sitting duck to enemy fire. Ray’s eyes lit up as he saw a suit right behind
Tae, targeting his newest ally. Ray quickly lowered his weapon and got off three rounds in the knick of time. Tae looked up and saw Ray’s smoking barrel.
“Thanks, I owe you one.”
“No, we’re even.”
The battle raged on for more than a half an hour. Ray and Tae stuck together, each racking up more than twenty kills. In the end, the OS and companions had eliminated over two platoons of Dredge Suits (Most Dredge platoons consist of 30-35 Suits) before the remaining suits ran form their fears.
“Fate was on our side today, if those had been anything but AI controlled Suits, the outcome would have been disastrous.” Vladmir affirmed.
Most of the next day was spent doing what any victor would do after a battle; salvaging armor, ammo and weapons. They even stumbled upon a usable transport while combing the area.
“You’re patrol is over 15km out, we might want to get a move on.” Ray commented.
“Let’s go.”
“Alright, you heard the man, let’s move out!”
Odds were that the suits were from the space elevator on Pavonis, and headed towards
Devil’s Ridge-a primary battle between the Martian Forces and Terran Supporting Forces. Most of the suits they scuttled were artillery. There were going to be fireworks, but not the kind the
TSF expected.
Devils Ridge was a strategic land point, a very large city south Tharsis.
“Looks like we saved the MF some trouble.” Kari commented.
“They still hate you.” Tae informed graciously, “If that’s what you’re trying to say.”
“Well fine, we don’t like them either then.” Kari said with a childish tone in her voice.
“Quiet…I have a contact.” Vladmir smiled.
May 30 th 2270, 11:24
Spartan Flatlands,
12km East of Pavonis Mons
Ray stopped the advancing group. The convoy they had been stalking stopped about three kilometers in front of them, just a few meters ahead of the TSF was a large outpost, with much activity happening.
“The radar information isn’t sufficient to know numbers; there could be hidden gun emplacements all over.” Tae said.
“We should send a scout.” Vladmir suggested. The comment forced a smile upon Tae’s face. Tae launched his friend, Bill, a mini helicopter like thing that flew at 3000m, high enough to escape radar and the human eye.
“I’ve heard of those, they’re supposed to be pretty reliable and stealthy. How long did it take you to acquire it?”
“Not that long, actually. It was an impulse buy, from the Terran Black Market. Actually it cost more to ship the little bastard than to actually purchase him.” Tae said as he stared at viewing screen.
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May 30 th 2270, 11:39
Spartan Flatlands,
14km East of Pavonis Mons
The base ended up not being a base; it was a large dropship with many suits and tanks protecting it. Ray decided to not go on a full-fledged suicide mission for this one.
“Shouldn’t we take advantage of this opportunity to cripple another battalion?”
“Because, dropships never come from Earth to Mars unaided, there are ALWAYS freighters involved.” Ray answered.
“So you want to capture the entire freighter?” Tae said in disbelief.
“Precisely.”
“Xythos…cough…Convoy!” Kari rustled up a fake cough to mock Ray’s previous battle tactics. Ray didn’t respond, but was obviously annoyed.
“So how do you intend on getting onboard? You know how valuable dropships are; they leave at the first sign of danger.” Vladmir questioned.
“That can be used to our advantage.”
“Exactly.” Ray said, almost pleased with himself…almost.
“Oh, oh let me guess this one, you want to sneak onto the dropship and fake an explosion so it will take off, right?” Tae said
“Right.” Ray said. The tone of his voice suggested that he had no idea Tae was mocking him.
Tae began to take out a spare power cylinder he stole from a laser cannon. He also pulled out an EM rocket and an EM mine. Surprisingly, the wiring led them far into the night, no one could have done it alone.
“So how are we going to do this?”
“We take out whatever human controlled suits we see with thermal imaging, then we set of our makeshift EM bomb to disable all the “dumb” suits.
“Let me take out the Suits, after all I am the only real sniper here.” Tae said with a little spite in his voice.
“How do you know?” Ray questioned
“Are you disagreeing?”
“No.”
* * *
Ray could see Tae climbing along the ridge behind the ship. The thumbs up meant he could commence with his operation. Tae was supposed to use his KO rounds, because they didn’t make much light, they were quiet, and they got the job done be sending an electrical charge to the cockpit, knocking out the pilot. In a matter of 15 seconds, three suits had bee downed no problem.
“Confirmed down of HC Suits. Igniting EM bomb in 30.” Tae informed.
Tae and the OS fired an entire salvo of missiles to create a blanket of smoke, concealing them. Then Tae fired his remaining rockets at the dropship. Even through the dense smoke, it was obvious the ship was taking off, its jets shined through the cloud. The OS jumped onto the ship and looked for Tae, who was in a dead sprint to get to the ship. Tae jumped on to some crates and bounced onto the ship, almost crushing a robotic vehicle.
“Fire the goddamn bomb!” Ray screamed. As the words came out of his mouth, a large blue sphere expanded its way from the bomb all the way to the dropship and past. The ship’s shielding protected everyone inside from the EMP.
May 30 th 2270, 09:23
55

Martian Forces Headquarters,
Athens, West Vallis Marinias
Johnson’s suit made it to the Nickol outpost that morning, walking in through the front gate and proceeding to drop off the TSF commander who was taken to a dropship bound for
New Boston. He docked his suit in an unused port and let the techies start working on repairing it. He proceeded to the communications room to report to Longfleck that Tae had continued with
OS.
“So it’s all in his hands then sir?”
“No, not all in his hands; there will be a squadron of shadows assisting him.”
“Affirmative, I will be back to our base on the first transport over.”
“Good job Lieutenant. Take leave as soon as you get back.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Johnson left the room and looked for something to eat.
June 1 st 2270, 13:41
Terran Dropship Scarlet,
Airspace above Spartan Flatlands
The dropship had taken two days to get out of the gravity of Mars and to a safe distance where its big brother waited. Tae was at first nauseated and nervous, he hated space. But he eventually relaxed. Meanwhile the OS slept and waited in the darkness of their suits. Tae passed the first few hours by fitfully sleeping, soundly in fact the last bit of information Charlotte had transmitted to his little wrist computer was that there were only pilots and a few plants for life forms on the ship. Their suits would protect them from being detected and the pilots wouldn’t come down into the suit hold because it was a vacuum once the dropship reached space. Tae rested quite well for ten hours or so. The little light in his suit came from a green lantern that fed off any magnetic field and produced enough of a glow to see things in. Not enough to read anything. But it wasn’t total darkness. There was also his wrist computer, three small flashlights, his watch, power cells, and some other items.
He had a few books to read on his wrist so he decided to project them onto the wall of the cockpit. He talked to Ray once on the first day, a routine check to see if everyone had food and water. Water was not a problem; there was always a five liter tank in the suit that was drinkable, but the food was not anything more then soy bread.
He had set a timer for when they would arrive at the asteroid that was the freighter. The asteroid was potato shaped with five hangers for dropships around a central core on the end. The other side was just a small fusion drive module that propelled the asteroid very fast. The rest of the asteroid was robotic mining and huge amounts of space for anything that could fit. The asteroid was spun for gravity and was covered in levels of storage space; the inner core was designed for moving damaged ships or anything else that was too big for the floors, or hiding a ship.
The time came when his relaxing had to end. Tae spent the last fifteen minutes slowly starting up his suit. First he had to power up the core. Then slowly one by one he started up the various systems. His suit was powered by nuclear batteries that would outlive the suit, their power storage was amazing and they fed off any electromagnetic field, basically recharging at all times.
Tae immediately felt the effects as the dropship entered the freighter He was pressed against his seat in the familiar Martian G.
June 1 st 2270, 14:29
Terran Freighter Washington,
Low Orbit over Spartan Flatlands
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“Is everyone’s suit armed and operational?” Ray asked.
Tae was distracted by the information and readouts of the freighter.
“Tae?”
“All systems good to go!” Tae said quickly.
“Ok, move out once the doors open, they should be taking on more suits.” Ray ordered
Ray pulled out his battle-axe and gave a nod. The OS knew what it meant-Melee weapons, and stick together unless told otherwise.
Once the doors open, the group lurched out of the hanger.
This would’ve been a surprise to any suit, but despite the obvious laws of nature, Ray dropped to one knee and fired a large unguided mortar at the back wall. Ray and the group grabbed onto the closest secure thing they had. Ray could see Tae, slamming his two axes into the floor to avoid being sucked into space with the enemies. Then the dropship began to shake unsteadily. It slid and spun out of the freighter and began an emergency descent into the
Martian atmosphere.
After all the air was sucked out into space, the OS walked into an amazingly expansive cavern where they expected to find thousands of thousands of suits, but nothing was there.
“What the…” Ray never finished.
“This isn’t right!” Vladmir stated, “Where the hell are the suits?!”
“It isn’t exactly empty…” Tae said as he pointed his gun over to a holographic image of a suit. As he did, the image came to life.
“Ray Monterro,” it paused, “Truly nice seeing you here….”
“Alive.” Tae added, “I think a raise in my pay is in order this time. It took considerably longer to accomplish then killing that damn Terran cyborg spy!”
“Markinson?” Ray asked, “That bastard never dies, I owe you one.”
“Right.” Thos voice continued, obviously annoyed, “If you’re done, I’d like to continue.
Tae, we will discuss you’re money later.”
“Wait a minute.” Kari said, “You did all this for money? You bastard!”
“Thanks.” Tae said, not taking offense to the insult
“I represent the Mars Global Government and the MF,” the voice informed Ray and the rest of the OS, Tae busied himself with stretching his arms and a long yawn. “I’m willing to make you all an offer. Since you are wanted for the destruction of Xythos, on both Mars and
Earth, you are faced with a difficult decision. If you ally with us and do your part to defend
Mars, you will be pardoned and can have a handsome pay for as long as you help.”
“What if we don’t want anything to do with this and just go home?” Ray asked, tempted by the deal but not wanting to show it.
“There is a squadron of Shadows waiting outside, you wont last long.” The shade said coldly, Tae wiped a smudge off of his targeting screen, trying to publicize his boredom.
“Ray, I think we should take the deal.” Erich whispered.
“Me too.” Added Vladmir.
“Very well then.” Agreed Ray.
“Good, you will be sent to Pavonis to help with the oncoming invasion, we need someone to strike the base of the elevator.” He continued, “Go to Hanger Number One, to your right, and board it. From here, it will take you to Nickol outpost where you will get your orders.
Good Luck.”
Ray started for the hanger, reluctantly followed by the rest of the OS.
“Are you sure that we can trust them?” Vladmir asked Ray
“I don’t know who I can trust outside of you Vlad, and we don’t have much of a choice either way.” Ray responded.
“I assume we will see you on Pavonis, Tae?” Ray asked.
“Only if you’re lucky.” Tae said spitefully.
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“You mean if they pay you.” Ray continued, “We could always use a sniper, contact me if you’re interested. When you’re tired of money.”
* * *
Tae reached the hanger and turned inside. While boarding his dropship, he saw the familiar inside of it with the spare suits and large ammo boxes. He got the dropship from the
Martian government in exchange for stealing the battle plans for them. The cargo section nearest to the bridge had been converted into a living quarters. He stayed there with his real partner Ted
Reinfield, an excellent pilot of any ship and also an amateur hacker.
He jumped out of his suit into the cargo bay and continued into the living quarters. Alec greeted him there.
“Did they take it?”
“Yes.”
“So where are we off to now?”
“I need a burger, which one, Markham or Hellas Ridge?” Tae asked.
“Markham has Jim’s, plus we have a safe house there.” Alec replied casually.
“I like Hellas Grill better, but you are right, we need to take a break anyway.”
As Alec ran up to the cockpit Tae threw off the old jumpsuit and went into the bathroom to shave and visit the shower that he had long missed. As the large dropship descended into the
Martian atmosphere, the fifteen fighters de-cloaked and increased their speeds to match each other. The movements of the fighters looked like a dance as they moved into formation.
58

June 1 st 2270, 17:22
Orion Interplanetary Spaceport,
Upper Markham
Markham was big, no that wasn’t right, it was gargantuan. The part of the city that was above ground was built only since Mars was terraformed. The city below extended for at least a kilometer, maybe more, most of the subterranean was made for the Martian rebel underground.
Vast production facilities and storage space was there, not to mention the hub of tactical planning was done there for the war.
The large transport almost looked as if it was floating down from the sky. Sitting on the plume of exhaust, it made the slow descent lining up in between the traffic blimps and starting in towards the hanger on Orion Interplanetary Spaceport. As the ship passed the immense sphere or coliseum that housed the most popular sport on Mars, a rediscovered sport of gladiators, only this was fought with remote controlled suits or other such things, sometimes even space fighters fought here. The coliseum was right by the port for easy access, even though the entire sphere served most of the times as a giant holographic leviathan, simulating a battle that took place kilometers away or on the other side of the world. It was still the heart of the city.
If the coliseum was the heart of the city, then the underground was its muscle. The foundations of the port were the brain of the city. It housed the most advanced monitoring center ever known. All types of hacking took place there, from ship movements to what the smiths had for supper. There were at least five hundred different satellites under the control of this place.
As the big ship was on its final approach it began to slow, jets of heat began to vent from its belly. The ship was barely moving as it released the landing gear. There was a blast of exhaust from the engine as the ship landed and released the pressure from its engine. Finally the large gantry crane hanging from the ceiling clamped down on the shuttle and moved it off to one side in a private holding alcove. The hanger was a medium sized one of the many in Orion. Two figures emerged from the personnel hatched and walked across the hanger floor. Walking to a yellow and red marked platform, they were lowered through the built in security checks and were deposited in one of the hundred and forty lobbies in the building.
“So Tae, what first, food or rest?”
“I slept a little bit on the way; I assume you’re not that tired.”
“Food it is.”
People were so busy on their way to elevators or shuttles that they barely even noticed the strange dressed Martian and his smaller companion. Tae was armed to the teeth as were most who traveled the under dark streets of Markham, and by no means were the Martian Police after him. He was almost above the law, besides he never got rid of law abiding citizens anyway. Plus most of the work was done for the Martian government. Under his specially tailored cloak Tae wore a long knife and an 11.34mm energy pistol. The pistol used a magnetic pulse to propel it.
No report and no smoke. The cloak was a specially tailored light absorbing material that also shielded his body heat.
Alec pushed his way into an elevator and descended to the air taxi dock. Tae was right behind him on the next elevator. They couldn’t take any chances in Markham. There were at least four bounties on Tae’s head at a time. They both boarded a flight to Soukup Square.
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* * *
Tae’s hideout was a residential sweet on the top floor of a moderately priced apartment complex. They had eaten at a seafood place in Soukup Square. Tae had slept until noon; Alec left him a note saying he was buying computer parts or something. Tae was at a slow point in his career, there was hardly anyone who would hire him except the Martian Government anymore, something about being too good.
He decided to check his computer for any messages.
“Hello there…” He mumbled as he saw something that interested him
Tae,
We may be in need of your assistance. Meet at rendezvous site one. Midnight on the 3rd. Don’t be late.
Zeus
“Zeus huh?” Tae said to himself. Zeus had been a fellow mercenary until he decided to begin his own gang and try for the money involved. Tae had no idea what this was about. He received this message only a day ago.
“Today and tomorrow off, the third I go back to work.” He said to the holographic interface. He called Alec.
“Yup?”
“Where are you?” Tae asked.
“Getting all the stuff I need to fix your suit.” Alec replied casually. It was no surprise; suits needed a lot of attention, especially if it was a masterpiece like Tae’s. Alec spent most of his days fixing it. Although the suit could run for a year without maintenance, things happened. Tae was paying Alec well, and he worked for that money.
“I got another job; can you have it ready by the third?”
“Really though, what do you think you pay me for?”
June 2 nd 2270, 12:11
Orion Spaceport Coliseum,
Upper Markham
Tae was absolutely bored to death. He decided to take a look at a gladiator battle in the
Sphere. He took an air taxi there. It wasn’t a big battle today, but there was still a crowd. He chose one of the seats slightly below the center, on the northern wall. He was early enough that there wasn’t going to be a fight for at least twenty minutes. He picked up a program sheet and read through it. A moderately experienced fighter was going up against two rookies. This was not uncommon, an expert could take on three rookies at a time, and if they were really good, they could take on more then five and live. But these fighters were not really soldiers, just people making a living. They couldn’t really fight, not on the front lines.
As Tae finished up the program sheet, one of the suits took the field. The “field” was a platform in the center of the floor of the sphere. There were magnetic fields protecting the spectators and laser batteries for taking out larger chunks. The first suit was owned by a G.
Oswald, he was the moderately skilled pilot. His suit was a monstrosity, armor plates hung everywhere. The largest auto cannon Tae had ever seen was on that suit. Missile and rocket packs were spread out on the exterior of the suit also.
One of the other suits walked out, this one was the exact opposite of the monster across from it. Tae could tell immediately that it was fast, agile, and deadly. The packet didn’t say who the pilot was. The suit was not more then a meter taller then Tae. It sported from what he could
60

see, just one gun. He couldn’t tell what type of gun it was, but it also carried a knife in a hip holster. A rocket pack was on the forward part of the suit. He didn’t have a clue what it could be.
Before Tae could finish sizing up the small suit the third, and final one walked out.
This one seemed to be medium sized. This one was owned by a man named Peter Slade.
The cockpit seemed to be the most heavily protected part of the suit. It carried a bazooka, something he hadn’t seen in awhile. It walked to a point slightly behind smaller suit. The judges signaled that they were ready and the battle began with a blast from a horn.
Immediately Oswald launched a barrage of rockets in the general direction of his opponents. He tried to us the smoke cover to move his position and begin using his primary weapon. Unfortunately for him the small suit had run strait through the barrage and pulling out the knife. It got within fourteen meters of the suit before Oswald saw it and unleashed a hail of auto cannon rounds at it. The suit took at least four before it backed off a little bit.
“This guy is suicidal.” Tae mumbled to himself.
The smaller suit moved off to the side as a streak of fire blew past it and hit the artificial turf below Oswald. Whether or not the pilot missed on purpose or not, Tae didn’t know.
Oswald’s suit was so large that it immediately lost its balance and stumbled into the crater that the bazooka round had made. The small suit ran towards Oswald and stabbed its knife deep into the left arm of the suit.
There were some sparks and a hiss as Oswald’s left arm failed. The small suit backed off and stood still. Tae looked back at the Slade’s suit. He didn’t seem to be doing anything at all. Tae then understood something that had been bothering him. The smaller suit was just an AI under the control of Slade. He was amazed at this and had not seen this happen before.
While he was thinking to himself Oswald’s suit had started moving again. It stood straight up and launched every rocket it had on it, Oswald must have realized the same thing as
Tae and all the rockets were aimed at Slade’s suit. Some of the rockets clashed together and exploded before they even got halfway towards Slade. Others ran out of fuel before they impacted and fell to the ground blasting chunks of material up. Maybe fifteen our so actually hit the suit. Destroying the right leg, the bazooka flew out of Slade’s grasp and landed on the ground. The suit landed hard on the ground and made no attempt to get out of the prone position it was in.
Oswald was obviously pleased and let down his guard, a large and deadly mistake.
While Slade’s suit was out of commission, the robot wasn’t. It had run behind Oswald during the confusion of firing a hundred and fifty rockets and was now hacking away at the hydraulics of the knee joints. Oswald fell, incapacitated obviously. Slade’s smart tactics had saved him the match, as part of the rules Oswald would have to pay for all the damage he had caused to Slade’s suit.
The judges called the match over and in the favor of Slade. Oswald had given and good fight and seemed like he was worth the title he had, but despite his piloting skill, he was defeated by a pilot who knew how to use tactics to his advantage. Tae was finished with this, he had to think about this tactic and how he could defeat it.
It seemed like the pilot in the master suit was pretty much immersed in the piloting of the slave suit.
He was distracted by a hiss and a flash from behind him. One of Oswald’s legs had set fire and the magnetic/hydraulics failed with a flash and a fire broke out. The firefighting drones flew in to spray foam on the suit. Oswald dropped out of his suit and ran. Tae smiled as he walked out.
“That would mean that you need a better mechanic.” he mumbled to the cavernous inner sphere.
Passing the concession stands and a small novelty shop on his way out, he looked at a small child with a model of a suit.
* * *
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It was about time for him to eat when Tae made it back to the hideout. Alec was already done with the repairs on Tae’s suit. He slept that night and deep into the next day. He worked on his computer checking different things. When he finished eating dinner he went down into the hanger bays on the very top of the building and checked out his suit, he wondered if he would need it. The entire thing had been repainted and topped off, the paint itself was made of the same material that his cloak was, it changed hue tiny bits according to light.
“Am I good, or am I good?” Alec asked.
“You’re lucky you’re not a suit pilot or your cocky attitude would get you killed.” Alec was a good mechanic…and he knew it.
“Tuned her up and topped everything off. She wasn’t bumped up too badly this time.
Only a few scratches, I did find this though in the armor on the left leg.” He threw him a small scrap of metal, a chunk of TAPC, most likely from a tank…or the suit that he tackled.
“Any structural damage?” Tae asked. He looked at his watch. It was 9:30 he wanted to get going.
“None, but I replaced the armor panel on that leg, along with assigning the druids to repaint it.”
“Good I’m gonna get going; I’ll be back at the latest two.”
“Will you bring me back an ice cream,” Alec whined, “Please?”
Tae ignored him and turned back towards the elevator, his suit was standing by the dropship, Alec must have moved it after they had eaten. He took the elevator to an air taxi port and paid the driver in cash. The driver was surprised by it but not suspicious.
Meeting place one was on top of a small building in the very heart of the city, it was considered part of the under dark. Tae had his usual weapons with him, along with fifteen mini stun grenades that could blind a person temporally. The taxi landed half a mile from the structure, in the closest taxi port.
“Sorry buddy, this is as far as I go tonight.” The taxi driver said.
For some reason Tae never took automated cabs, he didn’t trust them, plus they wouldn’t do chases or insane things like a well paid driver would.
“Hmm.” Tae grunted in response.
He climbed out. Walking down the street, ignoring the young punks that looked at him with their glaring eyes, the poor hiding in doorways. He could be invisible in the cloak if he hid in the shadows. He put up the hood of the cloak, best to scare them away and save the grenades for the gangs. The farther you got from any civilization in the under dark, the rougher it got.
Instead of punks you got drug lords and gangs that would kill someone for fun. If you were poor then you were safe, they didn’t pick on someone who didn’t have anything, they did have some morals.
He was halfway to the meeting place when he ran into the first of the street gangs. They were standing around talking and picking on passersby. He got about halfway around them before they noticed him.
“What do you got in the coat?” the punk in the middle said, his voice sounded Hispanic.
The gang surrounded him.
“Save it boys.” Tae said as he separated his cloak to show them the wide array of weaponry he possessed. A few of them gave the leader a nervous glance. But he didn’t seem phased by the pistol and stun grenades.
“I said….” Tae didn’t give him time to finish. He brought his fist up into his stomach faster then he could react. In the same motion he rushed out of the circle and pulled out the ten millimeter. Aiming it at the leader who was bending over his stomach swearing.
“Go away before I take a leg or two off.” He said emotionless. They were afraid now, but one of them in particular wasn’t afraid in fact he was quite amused.
“I see you have not changed your style much, still emotionless and deadly, like a good little mercenary.”
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Tae looked darkly at the man, he wasn’t a punk like the rest of them, and he cursed himself for not noticing him. Then he realized who it was and lowered the gun.
“Zeus you slimy bastard, I wondered if I would be seeing you soon.” Tae said to the dark man.
“And a warm welcome to you too.” Zeus replied.
“Hurry up and tell me what you want?”
“Down to business, come walk with me.”
Tae and Zeus walked away from the stunned punks. They were out of earshot before
Zeus continued.
“Now, down to business I expect?” he said glancing quickly in an alleyway before they crossed it.
“Yes, the usual payment for urban jobs, twenty-five thousand per day and double that if you need me to use my suit.”
“Yes, Yes of course.”
“What is it then?” Tae asked.
“There is a gladiator pilot who has not paid me back for using a suit that I let him borrow, he says that he doesn’t owe us any because he didn’t destroy the suit.” Zeus said with a laugh.
“Idiot.” Tae said, smirking.
“Actually, I don’t want you to kill him, just disgrace him. He has quite an ego; he spends a lot of time in pubs showing off to girls. I want you to beat him at the fights on Saturday; this is his trial for an expert rating.”
“And in exchange I will get parts of the suit that I defeat.”
“Yes, yes you will, is that enough for your payment?” Zeus asked really not knowing what he was saying; they were halfway to the taxi port.
“Yes, but there is a problem, what is his name and how in the hell do I get to be one of the suit pilots that he challenges?”
“Oh yes, I nearly forgot, Peter Slade. I already have a reserved space.” Tae stopped listening after he heard the name. That was lucky…he knew this guys fighting style, he knew what to expect.
“So it should be relatively easy for you to get a spot if you tell them you’re my fighter.”
Zeus finished. Unaware that Tae wasn’t listening.
“Ok I’ll take the job, I want the entire suit, and you can have the one that he borrowed from you.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, there is only one suit that we let him borrow, and we’re keeping that one.”
Tae shook his head, “Just trust me okay?”
“Ok your fight is tomorrow at one fifteen and I’m….” Tae walked off before he could finish what he was saying.
Tae was in front of the taxi port just a minute later. The huge buildings all around him were so tall that they blended together, forming huge shadows. He walked into he took a cab to his hideout entrance and slept the rest of the night.
June 3 rd 2270, 11:00
Gateway Apartment Complex,
Upper Markham
“You have a message from the OS.” He said through the closed door. Tae jumped out of his bed and looked quickly out the window. The sight was stunning even though he’d seen it before. He was on top of the fifteenth tallest building in the tower of a city. He could look down into the under dark. All the way up to the Hawk building which was the tallest building ever constructed. Suspended roadways and air taxies lined the different sized buildings. Markham
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was the largest city on Mars. It was also the tallest city in the solar system. It was composes of thousands of towers and couldn’t sprawl far across the continent because it was placed very near to the original lava tube that the first colonists occupied in the beginning of Mars. Therefore the entire city was built up and up until it was a massive tower in itself.
Tae turned from the window and went to the door to open it. Alec had left; inpatient as usual. Tae went to the kitchen and got some water before going to Alec.
“Yeah, they said they want you for a job, and will send you information within the hour.”
“Who was it that contacted us?” Tae asked.
“Ray.” Alec replied.
“Okay, what time is it?” Tae asked groggily.
“Eleven.”
“I’ll be back at two, ready the dropship, I’m taking my suit.”
The suit was stored in a suit storage building near the sphere. He would need the dropship to pick him up after the battle, hopefully in one peace, but then again, Tae had an advantage over Slade-he knew what Slade was going to do.
He took a maglev train to the suit storage building. From there he would be able to walk his suit into the waiting shed on the sphere. He looked down as the train passed over a large bridge, amazed at how fast the trains went. He walked through the security checks; the security system identified him and opened the doors in front of him. He was qualified as a top rank fighter, there were only two pilots who were ranked better then him and they were both in the heavyweight division. He still didn’t know why the refs let Slade have two suits.
“Bet it’s not in the rules.”
He walked into the warehouse that held all the suits that would fight. The ceiling was twenty meters high with massive gantry cranes and pillars spread through the room. He spotted his suit ignoring the different pilots who looked at him. They all sported different “crowd pleasing” outfits, but Tae just wore his usual cloak with the usual Martian clothing underneath.
The cloak was still stronger then personnel armor.
The ladders to the suits were adjusted for the individual pilots based on their heights. He climbed it quickly. The suit had a security system that locked out any pilot unless they were authorized. He placed his hand on the skin of the hatch and felt a tingle as Charlotte sensed to see if it was him. The door opened Tae stepped back then walked into the dark cabin.
June 3 rd 2270, 12:08
Orion Spaceport Coliseum,
Upper Markham
It took Tae until about noon to boot up and run a full system check. Then he was ready to move across the bridge that separated the sphere and the storage building. The bridge was large enough to accommodate four suits, but only two suits could move across at once. Both suits were as close to the center as possible. There were large cables attached to the side of the bridge to stop any falling suits.
Tae entered the staging area, surrounded by other suits. His was the medium of them all.
There was a suit next to him that could easily store his suit inside of it with no parts showing. He was scheduled to enter the ring in forty-five minutes. So he decided to take a walk and get a hot dog. He climbed out of his suit, engaging the security system as he went.
Walking down the inner corridors he heard percussive explosions even though there was sound buffering equipment all over the place. He ate his hot dog quickly; and even though it tasted like cardboard, he enjoyed it. He walked back to the storage shed nodding at the guard.
The guard stopped him.
“Hey, you’re fighting Slade today?” The guard asked.
“Yes, why?”
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“I want to know who I should put my money on.”
Of course, gambling it was illegal on Mars, except in the sphere. The only place on the entire planet where gambling was legal.
“It’s your choice, but I would put my money on myself.”
“I’m going with Slade, he defeated Oswald, and that guy didn’t lose a match before that.”
“Your choice.” Tae said. He was wondering what the odds were on him. Originally the odds would have been in his favor but since Slade had beat at least two expert pilots, the odds were probably against him.
He walked back to his suit, there was a young pilot waiting there for him.
“I guess I’ll be fighting you” Peter Slade said.
“I guess so, I should wish you good luck” Tae responded, he was acting really pleasant, not wanting to give this pilot anymore of a bad day then he was going to have.
“Well, I guess I should say thanks.”
June 3 rd 2270, 13:15
Orion Spaceport Coliseum,
Upper Markham
“Ladies and gentlemen” the loud voice echoed. “This is a deciding match for one of the newest gladiator suit. This fight will decide if Peter Slade will make it into the legendary circle of pilots. His opponent is a long member of the circle and known worldwide for his piloting skills.”
The crowd thundered everyone clapped; this was the first addition to the circle for a year and a half. The crowd was absolutely going insane. Pyrotechnics went off all over the arena.
“Taking the field is the challenger, PETER SLADE!” the announcer yelled with huge enthusiasm.
Two small suits walked into the field. One stopped in front of the other showing off with fake Kung Fu movements. Slade was quit a crowd pleaser. The arena went dark. No light in the entire building except for the few monitors and LED’s of the force field system.
There was a drum roll as the announcer began.
“And now the moment all of you have waited for…”
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June 3 rd 2270, 13:16
Orion Spaceport Coliseum,
Upper Markham
Tae smiled inside of his suit. It wouldn’t be long until he humiliated this arrogant pilot, take his suits, and scrap them for parts.
All in all, Slade wasn’t a bad pilot, his tactics just lacked strength, and there were too many easy ways to take advantage of its many weaknesses.
He laughed a bit, and readied his weapons.
“Charlotte, it’s going to be a short day, I already know what I’m going to do. Run a final systems check now please.”
“Scanning…Scanning…All systems green Tae, your suit is ready for combat.”
Excellent
The crowd was roaring uncontrollably as Tae walked into the coliseum. It always was a big deal when an expert trial came up; Tae was only so happy that he could take part in it. The shadows lifted the shroud on his suit, and the announcer gave the crowd his name.
“The challenger-Tae Samosi!”
The arena suddenly filled with boos and garbage was thrown at Tae, obviously not the favored pilot in the fight.
“Let’s hope I don’t disappoint them too much, right Charlotte?”
The buzzer rang through the air and the battle commenced. Slade’s drone suit flew towards Tae as he backed up and put up his defenses.
The distance closed between them and Tae strafed to the right of the drone and fired his boosters to propel him towards Slade. He continued firing shells at the suit as he dove towards it in a lunging attack. Slade didn’t have enough time to switch controls to his main suit, and was tackled to the ground. As the massive suits collapsed to the ground, dust and turf flew into the air and the grinding titanium screeched and pierced the cheering crowd’s screams.
Tae began to punch the suit senselessly until Charlotte picked up a scan on the radar.
“Tae, unmanned suit approaching on your six, impact immanent!”
Tae gave the suit one last punch, warping the head of it severely, and kicked it as he rolled to his right, picking up the auto cannon he had dropped in his attack, drawing it up immediately and setting the crosshairs on the drone from the ground. He ignited several rounds into the blade-toting drone as he side stepped to dodge the lunging attack. Once the drone had missed Tae, it flipped 90 degrees, and slid on the dirt floor several meters before coming to a complete stop, and sprinting towards Tae again.
He did his best to keep distance between him and the drone, which only aggravated it to launch several rockets in his direction. Tae smiled when he realized that the projectiles were guided, making them useful to him, and a plan quickly fell into place.
Tae made a second dash for Slade, who made a quick switch in controls this time, bracing himself for another impact with Tae. But to Slade’s unfortunate surprise, Tae didn’t dash for him, but to the side, and by the time Slade realized what would happen, it was too late. The
Rockets were not able to turn quick enough to follow Tae, and glided into Slade, disabling his suit for the battle.
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Tae felt the shudder of the ground as the titan collided with it. As he stood up, he was quickly brought to the ground by the annoying drone that continued to pose a serious threat to
Tae’s victory. It was only half the size of Tae’s suit, but tore away it its epidermis with its claws and blades. Tae knew he had to throw the suit off as soon as possible, because a simple EM dagger into his back would incapacitate his suit, leaving it open to the final attack from the drone.
Tae dropped his auto cannon and grabbed on the forearm wrapped around his neck with both hands. He pulled down on them and threw the drone into the ground with an amazing force, spattering up dust and chunks of rock into the air. Tae lifted his foot into the air and drove it towards the drone, which rolled away before impact.
Tae sighed; he was beginning to become very frustrated with Slade. He picked up his auto cannon once more, and fired at the drone. He launched several guided rockets at the bastard, and knew there was no avoiding destruction this time. Tae engaged his boosters and followed the onyx trail of evanescent smoke left by the rockets, which thundered as they impacted the drone. He came upon the crippled suit, and crushed it with his massive leg.
He let out a deep breath as he removed the visor and stepped out of the remote control facility. He looked to his left as a huge crowd of reporters defected over to him. They began to bombard him with questions.
“Mr. Samosi, how does it feel to have knocked out such a talented pilot like Slade in his
Expert Trial?”
“Mr. Samosi, please, C.R.P. News, do you believe you’ll be attempting to attain an expert rating, or continue your efforts to become an Elite?”
“Mr. Samosi, over hear please!”
Tae ignored the ranting reporters and their flashing cameras, which were doing a better job of blinding him then his flash grenades usually did. He forced his way through the sea of them, and saw Alec waiting for him by the exit.
“Let’s get out of here, shall we?”
“Yes, please.”
The two jogged to an awaiting taxi and sped off.
“I see the fight went well, only to be expected of a pilot of your caliber, of course.”
“Quit brown-nosing, Alec, a raise may be in order as once I’m paid by the MF.”
They both smiled. The snug air car darted around the coliseum to the loading bay. Tae still needed to pick up his suit. He only hoped that the reporters weren’t smart enough to figure out that he still needed to fly his suit out of the arena.
“The coast is clear, you take the taxi to the dropship and pick me up here in ten, okay?”
Alec nodded as Tae stepped out of the vehicle and jogged into the hanger. The arena was good enough to move all of the suits and their remains out of the coliseum and into the hanger for the victor to pick up.
Tae looked around as he saw his master piece of a suit towering over the wreckage of
Slade’s. As were his orders, there was a fair amount of damage, but it was left in between the tolerable limits, just enough of course, so that he wouldn’t have to pay reprimands to Zeus.
His eyes then drifted over to the other wreckage, mostly intact, except for the torso, which had been entirely smashed by Tae’s final attack with his foot. This was no disappointment to Tae though, he didn’t want the torso at all anyway, he only wanted the actuators and armor plating on it, maybe the AI depending on its advances.
He opened up the several story tall hanger doors with a control panel to allow his dropship access to the expansive hanger. The hanger itself was huge, but cheaply constructed, it wasn’t meant to house battles or anything, just prevent the outside world from seeing in. The support beams and steel walls were a silver-gray, very dull. Bits of sunlight peeked in through tiny holes in the roof, probably from accidental gunfire from a careless pilot.
There were a few other pilots in the hanger, and Tae observed them simply out of boredom. A few were obviously running system checks on their suits, several devices and wires
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were hooked up to them, along with ammo crates being loaded on, basic and usual pre-combat rituals. Others had obviously just finished a battle, and like Tae, were waiting for a dropship to show up.
While he was examining the drone the thunderous hum of his dropship echoed through the hanger. Tae turned around and walked towards the entering vehicle. Once it stopped, he stepped inside of it and greeted Alec once more.
“Open up the rear and activate the power cells for the loading crane.”
Tae walked to the back of the relatively large ship, around 100 meters in length and 30 in height. The crane was stored in a prone position inside of the rear compartment, flush with the top of the fuselage. When deployed, it could extend past the back of the vehicle for several meters.
Tae continued over to the controls for the crane and flipped on the switch. He guided the arm to his suit and latched on to the torso like a vice, and pulled it into the ship’s cargo hold. He could feel Alec activating the support legs protruding the ship and attaching to the floor to prevent the ship from using excess thrust to hover. The air pressure would knock several people to the ground, and could potentially damage the integrity of nearby suits. The drone and Slade’s suit were both loaded in a similar fashion.
He pulled back the arm into its original, condensed position inside of the ship, and closed the back doors to the ship. cockpit.
“Alright, we’re good to go Alec!” Tae screamed from the back as he walked towards the
He wanted to get out of the coliseum as soon as possible, mostly because he had seen many a time, a sore loser round up several of his gang members and attack, usually killing the victor, and then stealing whatever money he had on him, sometimes even his suit.
“Where do we go from here?”
“I’ve arranged a drop off with Zeus in the fifth sector, third quadrant. He’s got a ship there with my money and a spot for his suit.”
“Fifth sector? Shit, he likes to meet in the slums, doesn’t he?”
“Yes, where brave men fear to tread.”
Markham was such a massive city, it needed to be organized in several ways. Because it existed on so many different horizontal planes, each major one was numbered as a sector, extending from the ground on up. Two vertical planes separated the city into four quadrants, north being the 1 st , east the 2 nd , south was the 3 rd , and west, the 4 th .
“Zeus? Never met him.”
“He’s not you’re type, I’m sure.”
A smile crept along Alec’s face. Tae was a very stern, serious man, so when he cracked a joke, it was usually fairly humorous.
The streets and alleyways became narrower, making navigating the larger dropship through the under dark increasingly difficult.
“Are you sure we’ll be able to make it through these openings? It’s getting rather cramped out there.” Alec commented cautiously.
“Yes, I’m quite positive actually, Zeus wouldn’t have picked an inaccessible location to meet at, he knows this city too well for that. Besides, he has a dropship too; he’d need to be able to navigate these alleyways just as well as us.”
Looking out of the cockpit, Tae observed again, several poor citizens of Mars, and other inhabitants of the under dark. Gangs and their leaders huddled together to study the dropship curiously, it wasn’t every day such an expensive and advanced craft entered the depths of their part of the city.
Tae was only able to notice them by his night vision, which most people in the under dark had. It was almost always pitch black. The upper areas of roads, buildings, and other nontranslucent objects managed to block out any possible sunlight. There was an occasional fluorescent light illuminating an entrance to a pub, or maybe a store. Mostly it was a creepy sight,
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every window in the stores was barred shut, and the doors were heavy steel made, obviously not the friendliest of neighborhoods.
“We’re just about there. I hate flying in these close quarters. An advanced EMP grenade could probably disable some of the minor maneuvering jets for our ship, causing us to crash…and I don’t think the people that would be rushing to the scene would be the type to offer us a little help.” Alec whined once again.
“Quit worrying so much, like I said before, Zeus had to go through this area too…hell, most the gangs here are probably under his control, they probably are expecting us as far as we know. Either way, this ship has enough weapons on it to stop some rebellious teenagers, you know that.”
Alec let out a relieving sigh, and returned his complete focus to navigating.
Tae walked through the exit of the cabin, and into the weapon’s hold of the ship, located a few meters down the narrow hallway and to the left. The interior was decorated compliments of the Martian government, or in looser terms, not at all. He had been given the dropship as a payment for several missions well done, not remembering particularly what they had been. The ship’s skeletal system of metal alloys was covered by the lightly painted walls, which was perfectly fine with Tae. A dropship wasn’t exactly meant to be a chick magnet, function was the main, and usually only consideration for “decorations.”
Tae tried not to remember most of his missions actually, many a time he would end up double crossing someone he had previously helped; it just went with the territory. Creating more friendships than necessary had the possibility of hindering his ability to kill. A conscience is a mercenary’s worst enemy.
He opened one of the several tall lockers that lined the weapon’s hold. Inside it was a vast assortment of weaponry; this one specializing in sub-machine guns, each of the others contained a specific style of weaponry too. Although interior design was not of much interest to
Tae, organization most certainly was.
Tae first obtained his holsters from one of the lockers, and placed them around his belt, chest and upper left arm.
He grabbed two identical machine pistols from the locker, custom made, as were most of his primary weapons. These were tailored particularly for urban warfare. The shortened barrels and expanded dual-clip chamber minimized the need to reload often, and they were both completely overhauled and reduced in size greatly for easy concealment. Tae’s favorite aspect was the ceramic design. Every part of the weapon was made out of an extremely dense ceramic compound to prevent it from being recognized by any x-ray or metal detection system.
He placed the two guns in the tactical holsters on his belt and slid a few extra magazines in as well. He skipped the rifle locker and continued straight towards the hand guns. He opened it up and seized a pair of handguns, just service pistols. He threw them into his chest holsters and opened up a crate in the corner of the room. Although not as flashy as the others, it was perhaps one of the most important armaments he carried-a blade.
He sorted through the rack of insanely sharp knives, and grabbed one of average length, double edged, serrated on one side, and slid it into the holster he had on his upper arm.
Walking back into the cockpit, his sat down, and began checking his weapons.
“A little paranoid, aren’t we?”
“It’s not paranoia when you know something is going to happen.” Tae replied coldly.
“Thanks for the optimism, I appreciate it.” his guns.
“Any time…”
Tae was already preoccupied, removing the slide and other things while field stripping
“Don’t you ever get tired of doing that?”
“Yes, very much so…but it pays off knowing that your weapon is fully functional, and dependable no matter what the conditions outside might be.”
“Fair enough.”
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The entire process of completely field stripping one of the machine pistols and putting it back together had taken a little under thirty seconds. Everything had checked out fine in all of his weapons, as he had expected. He always checked and cleaned them directly after a battle, making sure no damages had been incurred on the weapon, and no dirt was in the barrel or chambers, etc. He checked the weapon before a battle solely because he didn’t trust anyone or anything, because he didn’t monitor his weapons on a 24/7 basis.
Tae looked out the window and saw the faint lights of Zeus’ dropship, illuminating the pipes and buildings in the under dark.
“Switch to rear view cameras please.”
The viewing glass of the ship shone with a translucent picture of the scenery behind their current position, and Alec began to turn the ship around and fly backwards, backing up to the other dropship.
After a few more meters, the ship came to an abrupt stop.
“Sorry about that…the controls must’ve slipped.”
“Yeah, I’m sure.” Tae laughed back.
Tae stood up from his seat and walked towards the back of the ship once again, stopping in the arms cache to grab Alec a weapon.
“Here, take this, I have a bad feeling unfortunately…”
“What, like Zeus is gonna try and get his suit for free?”
“No, something more like a third party involving themselves with our private matters.”
Alec nodded his head and stuck the pistol in his pant pocket.
Tae always got bad feelings, although, rarely when he was making a trade with a client.
But Tae was usually fairly accurate in his predictions; his gut instinct was an excellent guide to follow. It had been with him as long as he could remember, at least as long as he knew Alec, who lovingly claimed it as “female intuition.”
He stepped into the cargo hold, and took one last look at the damaged suit that he would be parting with shortly. It wasn’t saddening though, personally, Tae had seen much better suits, much more expensive ones too.
“You go to the cargo bay and ready the crane for the trade, I’ll meet Zeus down below.”
Tae instructed.
“Aye aye, Captain.”
Tae stepped outside of the ship and greeted Zeus with a friendly handshake.
“I trust that you have my suit?”
“Of course.”
“Excellent.”
“Yes, but the question remains, do you have my money?”
“Quite, fifty-thousand dollars in cash, small bills.” Zeus answered as hi lifted his left arm to reveal a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist. The sterling silver finish of the box captured and reflected a brilliant shine in the darkness.
Zeus set it on a nearby edge and opened it for Tae to check. Tae grabbed several wads of cash and ran through them with his fingers, checking to make sure it was all there. Zeus knew netter than most that Tae never trusted anyone, and more than that, never cheat him out of his reward.
“Was Slade any trouble?”
“Trouble, no; annoying…very.”
Tae turned around; still keeping his eyes fixed on the surroundings and gave a holler towards the dropship.
“Alright Alec, deliver the goods!”
Zeus smiled and uncuffed his wrist to change possession of the money to Tae. No sooner had the handcuffs left his hand than a bullet was ignited into the briefcase, blowing it out of his hands and skidding across the concrete and steel grounds.
“Son of a bitch!”
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Tae and Zeus both darted for cover as machine guns began to blare.
“You were followed?!” Zeus screamed over the gun fire.
“The hell I was, you know I’m too good for that. There must’ve been some damn street gang waiting to ambush us. That flashy briefcase probably didn’t help much either.
Tae leaned out from behind the dropship as he unsheathed his two machine guns. One gang member was making a move for the money. Tae quizzed the triggers and ignited several rounds into the man’s body.
Alec had halted the controls of the crane, and the suit was suspended about halfway between the two ships, providing extra cover for Tae and Zeus. He instinctively reached for the pistol in his pocket and pulled back on the slide as he strafed along the cargo bay wall. As he reached the edge of it, he leaned out and released some cover fire.
Tae tried to look out past the ship again, and a shot was fired at him, barely missing his head, courtesy of the dropship’s armor plating.
“Shit, they have snipers somewhere high! They’ve got us pinned down!”
A moment later, glass shattered as fragments of the street lights rained down to the ground after being shot out. Blackness cast its dark shadow over the area, only pierced by the landing and interior lights of Tae’s transport.
“Damn it, I can’t see shit out here!” Zeus screamed.
“Alec, grab the Therm Gogs and Night Vision!”
Tae reloaded his machine gun and fired into the shadowy abyss in a sweeping motion, hoping to deter anyone else from attempting to grab his money.
Without warning, the air began to fill with a violent hum, full of reverberation, comparable to someone cranking up the volume full blast with massive sub-woofers.
“You’ve got to be kidding…not Dragons…”
Dragons were a popular form of transportation in the city. They used an advanced methane-combustion engine to turn powerful turbines, generating massive amounts of air thrust.
The thrust could be directed completely through the rear, providing forward movement at ludicrous speeds, or it could be directed downward, elevating the biker as high as he desired.
Tae climbed into the back of the dropship and sprinted towards Alec.
“Change of plans, they’ve got Dragons.”
“Oh no, you’ve got to be kidding, not in these areas…”
“I’m not giving up that money, if you want to earn your keep today, here’s your chance.”
Tae snatched a pair of two pairs of the multi-purpose goggles and put one on. Dashing back to the cargo bay, he quickly thanked himself for having the insight to bring along Dragons for close quarter’s maneuvering/exploring. He jumped on one and started it up. He flew through the legs of his suit and ramped out of the ship, and flung the extra pairs of goggles at
Zeus.
“They have Dragons, if you have a bike, join us; I’m getting my damn money.”
As Tae was speaking, he heard one Dragon speed by and snatch the brief case. Wasting no time, he revved the engine and shot out after the biker, taking a tight left turn out of the area.
God damn, good for nothing punks…oh well, this may prove interesting to say the least…
It’d been a while since Tae had ridden his Dragon, but before the recent events, he was a pretty avid street racer; although like most other things in Markham, it was illegal, but that did not keep gangs from doing it. It is pretty safe in terms of legality and getting caught, because there really are no benefits for cops, chasing punks that are riding bikes that could top off at over
600 kilometers per hour just to hand out a few speeding tickets didn’t put the police in any position of a raise or recognition.
Biking was an excellent way to make some quick and serious cash, if you were good enough. The races in the urban sprawl could reach prizes of over $500,000 cash for first place in a winner take all event. Piloting a Dragon took god-like reflexes and a pretty thick wallet too. The maintenance required to keep a bike in racing condition could potentially put one out more than they could stand to win. The wide streets of the underdark had the ability to change quickly into
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thin alleyways with little area to decelerate and turn, creating an extremely hazardous environment to fly in.
Tae glanced down at his readouts; he just hit 200 km/h, and was beginning to approach one of the bikers. As he caught up to him, the man pulled out a small, blunt weapon and struck
Tae with it. Tae clenched his teeth and after seeing that the driver did not have his briefcase, he lifted his leg and kicked the other bike. At the speeds the bikes were traveling, the gangster lost all control, and flipped over, skidding across the pavement a few hundred meters, dying instantly.
Tae looked in front of him after the other bike had exploded, and recognized the quickly approaching wall. He tweaked the handlebars hard-left, and slid the bike to a 90  angle. As he leaned to his left, forcing the bike to a 45  angle with the ground, he fired his hovering thrusters to slow himself down, still rapidly drawing nearer to the wall. He florred his accelerator into the adjacent alleyway in front of him, praying he wouldn’t slide into the wall on his right.
He reached up and switched his goggles from night vision to thermal, searching for traces of the gang he was following. He found several streams of the heated gas that was a byproduct of the methane combustion. They stood out brightly red against the blue and black background of the alleys. Unfortunately, the streams split into three different directions at the upcoming intersection.
Shit! If there was a time I ever needed luck, now would definitely be it…
The thought was half-true.
He made his decision in a split second, realizing that there was no logical way to discern what trail had has money. So he turned in the direction of his writing hand, left.
In the distance, Tae noticed the trail getting larger, and a large dot of orange. There was a bike up ahead. He went full-throttle and could feel the g-forces attacking his body, wanting to throw him off. He instantly broke 300 km/h and hit 400 km/h a few seconds later. Everything around him was an intense blur, lights where long, thin lines of bright color, objects in the streets would instantaneously come into sight and disappear as fast as they came. He hoped nothing would get in his way, at 450 km/h, hitting anything would be like a running into a concrete wall.
He kept a decent distance from this biker, realizing he also did not have the brief case.
Tae was growing irritated. He pulled one of his pistols from its holster and fired a shot into the thug , right through the temple.
“Tae, we’re following the trail of the other bikers, both of them are taking the Second
Quadrant Market Avenue spiral road up to who knows what sector.” Alec piped in on the
Dragon’s radio system. The spiral roads were a series of spring-shaped highways that twisted vertically up through the different sectors. They were the only way to navigate through the different sectors…legally.
Tae always felt he was above the law though…something about the fact that he was a government agent at times granted him immunity to a lot of things. He jerked up on the handlebars of the bike and began to fly vertically up through a maintenance shaft of a road system. He kept his legs squeezed tight to stay on the bike; there were no seat belts or safety devices on Dragons. If he let go, he would fall…several hundred meters.
Tae continued to swerve in and out of the cramped tunnels. Pipes and chains streamed commonly from support beams across the several sectors he climbed, forming a deadly net of obstacles that if hit, would spell the end for Tae.
“What the hell are you doing!? Are you insane!?” Alec screamed over the radio.
“Not now, I’m busy!” Tae barked back.
It was crazy enough just to consider taking a maintenance tunnel at slow speeds, but hitting close to 140 km/h was suicidal.
Tae smiled as he saw daylight seeping in through cracks in the dense piping surrounding him. He had arrived in a middle-class sector, probably Sector 25 or 30. He shot out of the tunnel like a bullet into an open area above a wide highway. He braked heavily and leveled out his
Dragon, floating lightly back down to the highway, looking for the bikers.
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I know I saw them get off here…but where are they?
By this time, he had turned off his goggles; the sun prevailed over any darkness in this area during the day. He watched for the thugs keenly as a hawk, and the moment he saw them, he dove down just as one. His entry angle into the highway was perfect, as was his timing. He hit a large brake between traffic, about half a kilometer behind the gang. Unfortunately, it was rush hour in Markham…the worst time and place to be driving on Mars.
Tae found a quick solution to avoid the traffic problem: just fly over it. As he popped up over the trucks and cars of the highway, a siren pieced the honking and engine clutter. Tae had blatantly disregarded numerous laws of Markham. Nothing escaped the watchful eye of the
MPD, at least in the middle and upper class sectors.
Shit-I can’t stay up here or I’ll be shot out of the sky…
The MPD had excellent marksmen; Tae knew that. Staying above traffic would have been faster, but also made him an easy target for someone in a squad car or bike. The best way to lose them would be in the dense rush hour traffic.
Maybe rush hour today won’t be so bad after all…
Tae began to speed up, around 250 km/h in the 150 km/h speed zone. The westbound traffic was eight lanes wide by itself, making it easier to hide from the cops. He continued to weave in and out of the vehicles, scaring many of them. Horns were blaring all over the place along with the squealing of tires.
Tae finally could see the bikes ahead. One of the two had his money, and probably wouldn’t go out without a fight. He sped up to the remaining gangsters and checked to see which one had his brief case. The one on the left was holding it tightly, handcuffed to himself.
Tae cursed the situation loudly, and tried to think of a way the get his money. There were still massive amounts of traffic being sped past, which closed out any lengthy possibilities.
But at the same time, the man had handcuffed the briefcase to his wrist, which would make a quick snatching also impossible. He kept his eyes forward as he continued to think. No later than Tae had come up with a plan, one of the muggers looked back and saw Tae. He immediately swerved from his position next to his friend to directly behind him, and in front of
Tae by about 30 meters. Tae could see him laughing. He looked to the sides of him, and saw that he was completely boxed in by three large semi trucks, two at his sides and one behind. It clicked in his mind immediately what the biker had planned.
Oh shit…
The thug jumped off of his bike and onto his companion’s. The rogue vehicle spun out of control and was approaching Tae rapidly. There was no way out.
June 3 rd 2270, 15:15
Sector 30 Second Quadrant,
Middle Markham
Tae is insane, no doubts about it.
Alec liked a little excitement occasionally, but nothing near the magnitude Tae preferred to experience. He had used the round-about route the gangsters had taken, following them at a distance up the spiral roads and onto the highway. He was shocked to see Tae use the maintenance tunnels to fly up the different sectors. It was without a doubt, one of the craziest stunts he had pulled.
Tae wasn’t greedy in a Scrooge sort of way; he wouldn’t rob helpless citizens or anything like that; he just liked to keep what he’d earned. Alec of course was required to follow Tae wherever he went, no matter how insane his ideas were. That’s what he was paid for, in a twisted sense, the money Tae was chasing after was partly his. Tae knew what he was doing anyway…or so Alec hoped.
73

Alec had seen Tae shoot out of the tunnels like a bat out of hell, and then dive bomb back towards the highway. The spectacular act was something he expected to see in a movie or video game, not in real life, but he had gotten used to Tae’s surprises.
Maybe it was this clash of personalities that kept him and Tae such good friends for so long. Many pilots lost the relationship with their mechanics or partners because of money, women, or just plain disliking each other. Tae was very fair in is payments, neither of them had time for women, and both enjoyed each other’s company.
“Zeus, can you see Tae?”
“No…he’s to far down, and some semi trucks are blocking my view.”
“Damn...”
“It’s okay, just go faster, we’ll catch up to him sooner or-“
Alec wasn’t able to understand the last bit of the sentence, although it didn’t really matter, he knew how it was going to end. They were interrupted by a massive explosion, obviously a pair of Methane Turbines. The flames shown with a brilliant blue for a few moments, a sure giveaway of a methane explosion.
Oh no, unless there were Dragons on the highway, the explosion must’ve come from Tae and those thugs…shit…
He watched the large plumes of smoke funnel up from the fire, casting an eerie shadow over the screaming traffic. Several cars had slammed on their brakes and slid into one another in a futile attempt to avoid the accident. Alec was able to smell the burning flesh as he came closer, a pungent, gagging stench that was similar to several day old road kill in the summer.
He slowed down as he approached the crash site, and saw two bikes speed away in the distance, carrying a briefcase…although he couldn’t tell who it was. He parked his bike near the wreckage; there was a large circle of people surrounding it, almost as if the entire world stopped.
Alec had to pull his shirt up over his nose and mouth to prevent him from vomiting. He walked up the charred and gnarled remains, it was still burning. Neither the bike nor the rider was recognizable. The exploded power core completely dismantled the Dragon, and Alec had no clue whether it was Tae’s or not.
This better not be you Tae… his bike.
Alec turned around and hopped back onto his bike. Zeus showed up as Alec started up
“I can’t tell if it is him or his bike, its burnt beyond and possible identification. As I arrived, I noticed two bikes racing off east towards the city, I’m gonna follow them, hopefully
Tae’s one of them.”
Suddenly, police flew overhead, in pursuit of the two bikes no doubt. Several cars zoomed around the wreckage a moment later.
“Well, looks like we aren’t the only ones who want to find out, let’s move!”
June 3 rd 2270, 15:09
Sector 30 Second Quadrant,
Middle Markham
Son of a bitch!
Tae pulled out his dual machine-pistols from their hip holsters while he braked slightly.
As he brought them up, he squeezed the triggers painfully hard, hoping his new plan would work. The weapons sprayed a stream of bullets towards the tumbling vehicle, hitting it dead on in several places. Several of the bullets pierced the methane tanks and blew it up instantaneously. Tae ducked his head into a protected position as he flew through the burning wreckage. The flames licked his exposed skin and singed the tips of his hair, but he survived.
He could see the remaining bikers up ahead.
You can run…but you can’t hide…
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Tae began accelerating to insanely fast speeds, hoping to catch up with the gangsters. As he hit 300 km/h, the only thing he could hear besides his engine was the unmistakable hum of a police aircraft along with sirens behind it.
The cops were after him. It really wasn’t a surprise; you couldn’t do anything illegal in the upper sectors without being caught. Tae didn’t particularly fear being arrested by the police.
He could easily lose avoid them on his bike, and he had enough connections to people on the force to get out if he was apprehended. What he was afraid of was the possibility of the cops catching the thugs, and confiscating his money in the process. That would prove very bloody and troublesome.
A new sense of urgency fell upon Tae’s shoulders as he heard the police approaching closer and closer.
Money was decadence to Tae; he never could get enough of it. Money was-and always had been-the life force of any civilization. Tae was only more than happy to show approbation to this cycle. He raced closer to the riders in front of him; desperately want to assuage the situation.
There was a brief hiatus in the traffic, and he finally caught up with the last bike and its two pilots. As hackneyed as it had become, he knew he had to shoot them one way or another.
The back gangster began to shoot at Tae again. Tae was growing jaded of the man’s restlessness, and swerved to the left, returning a few shots to his knees. The thug fell to the ground and bounced past Tae in a flash. Tae kept his fingers crossed that he had left a strong enough innuendo with the remaining thief. Anyone with common sense would know enough to drop the money and run.
He aimed his weapon one more time, and decided to take a shot that would be considered very meritorious. He aimed for the cuff link between the suitcase and the man’s hand and pulled the trigger. The shot landed perfectly, and as planned, the biker dropped the suitcase.
You only have one shot at this, don’t screw it up…
He reached his hand down as he saw the suitcase approach him, taking a couple bounces. He felt a part of it hit his hands and he grasped as tight as he could.
Shit! You have to be kidding me!
He had grasped nothing but air. He missed the suitcase entirely. He was screaming on the inside, wanting to turn the bike around. The petulant sirens that were following him were saying something more important though, “Don’t get caught!”
He approached a corner where he would lose the cops following him. He slid into an alley again and flew over trash cans and bums sleeping on the ground, transcending structures and buildings, looking for a provincial short-cut back to the dropships, hopefully avoiding confrontation with the police also.
June 3 rd 2270, 17:34
Sector 05 Third Quadrant,
The Underdark, Markham
Losing the cops proved much easier than trying to find the gangsters that had stolen his money. Tae had made it back safely into the back alleys of Zeus’ underground, finding that the dropships and suits had been completely untarnished, which was no surprise provided most locals knew of the alarms and self-defense/anti-theft mechanisms integrated inside both of them.
Tae was exhausted after the chase, and decided to take a nap after locking up the ships and suits, hoping Zeus and Alec would show up sometime before he woke back up.
A sudden rapping at the door of the ship followed by a voice that obviously belonged to
Alec pierced the calm silence of the ship. Tae sensed an immense joy in Alec’s voice, and was curious as to what it could be from. He opened the door, and felt more happiness than he had in a long time. Alec and Zeus had managed to snatch the briefcase.
“Let’s talk about this over a warm cup of tea, shall we?”
75

The three of them drifted into the kitchen of the ship. Tae filled a steel kettle with water and set it on the stove to begin boiling. He pulled up a chair and sat down by the metal table in the center of the room.
“How the hell did you manage to grab that?” Tae inquired.
“Well, while Alec and I were escalating the spiral up to Sector 30, following those bikers, we saw you take the maintenance route and shoot out from between the two highways, landing perfectly behind the gang but in front of us. The cops interceded immediately afterwards, you blowing up that bike didn’t help much.
“We simulated your path as close as we could. The gunfire was flying past us the entire time. Suddenly we could see you through a major break in the traffic. A few more shots were fired and we saw the briefcase was dropped. I noticed that you had missed it, and reached my hand down immediately to scoop it up, but I couldn’t get a hold of it. Luckily Alec has good hands or you would be out a few ten-thousand dollars.”
“Well, thank you very much Zeus, it was a pleasure doing business with you, and next time, let’s make sure our deal runs a little more smoothly, right?”
“Of course, I’ll inform you soon of another mission if I come across one.”
The two shook hands and were about to depart when aloud whistle of steam screeched violently through the cabin.
“Wait Zeus, I almost forgot-“
Tae sprinted back to the kitchen and poured the boiling contents of the kettle into three cups, which had already been prepared with crushed leaves and herbs lining the interiors. He carried the drinks back into the cabin with a smile.
“Cheers---to a hard day’s work!”
“Cheers!”
“Cheers!”
Tae took a sip of his drink and driveled at the taste of his creation. Tae took pride in everything he did. Sometimes he thought he let his talents go to his head, but then realized his ego would never swell large enough to satisfy himself. Of course, he only kept these bombastic thoughts in his mind, never informing the community of his accomplishments. He also never tried to elicit the public for compliments or praises. Tae knew he was good. He knew he was talented. And he definitely was confident.
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