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by Eddie R. Hicks
Every sense in your body is heightened when you enter the cold vacuum of space. Especially if you’re alone. Captain Jessica “Aura” Davis’ body performed a quick turn to reorient herself. The burgundy horizon of Mars appeared seconds later through the helmet of her space suit. Sunlight in the distance shined through the visor of her helmet, casting its light across her smooth ebony face. The holographic HUD inside relayed white and blue imaginary of the surrounding area and the location of the elusive beacon she spent the last four hours searching for.
She took several deep breaths, triggering her mind to focus on the next hurdle. Stay calm and focused, almost done. She looked around once more, no ships, no other United Nations of Earth (UNE) personnel. She was alone. Her left hand rose up and lightly and tapped the flag of the United Kingdom on her shoulder, a good luck ritual of hers, before she activated the jet pack on her suit. Its thrusting force of indigo energy propelled her body towards Mars, and towards the pulsing beacon.
“I got this!” a man spoke over the radio with a southern American accent.
So much for being alone, she thought and then located the person in question on her HUD. There was indeed another target approaching the beacon according to the blue blip that appeared at the end of the projection. “You’re coming in too fast,” Jessica transmitted to him.
She remained on course, her suit providing just enough thrust towards the beacon but not too much that she’ll overshoot it when she arrives. Unlike the American of the distance, coming in way too fast, at this rate he’ll slam right into it, if he’s lucky. She saw him quickly approach, as he cut the jets from his suit. His hands reached out to grab a hold of the beacon... and missed. His leg, however, didn’t. The impact that followed flung his body away, spiraling out of control towards Mars.
“Aw hell, what did I tell you?” she said to him. He replied back over the radio with laughter. “Oh bloody hell, hang on.”
When the time was right, Jessica cut the thrusts from her suit, and allowed the light forward momentum to carry her towards the beacon. She held onto the floating satellite hard as it came close, causing her body to slowdown. Her fingers imputed a sequence of command codes onto an exposed console. A light on the beacon began to pulse green rapidly shortly afterwards. It’s done, finally.
Now for the next task at hand. The man in the suit from earlier continued to spiral out of control, and would continue to do so until his movement stabilized so that he could use jets properly. She released her grip on the beacon, aimed her body, and then primed her jets once again, launching her on a direct course towards him. Her hands extended forward as she neared him to offer assistance. His tumble stopped as the two held onto each other. Once the two were stable, her retro rockets fired to decelerate them.
“I’m not gonna lie,” he said to her. “That was awesome!”
“It’s called survival training not orbital training...”
The last beacon was finally activated putting an end to their training for the day. Five minutes later, multiple transports accelerated towards the two from the opposite end of Mars. Various other UNE personal also adrift in Mars’ orbit during the training run were also picked up.
#
Ares Station Gamma was one of four orbiting UNE military space stations around Mars. This station in particular hosted UNE pilots for their twelve week survival training session, a brand new and mandatory program that everyone enlisted must participate in. It was a program Jessica wasn’t exactly fond of.
Most of her childhood in some way was a never ending survival training session. At eight years old she found herself an orphan roaming the streets of Manchester, what was left of it, in the aftermath of the Hashmedai Empire’s invasion of Earth. There wasn’t much in terms of order back then; if alien invaders weren’t trying to kill you, then looters in the streets were. She learned quite a bit about survival then, and additional things when Martin Xavier found her and raised her in the years that came.
Speaking of him, Jessica thought as she finished putting her uniform on. A small computer inside of her quarters chimed; there was an incoming transmission for her. And there was only one person that would want to speak with her in private.
She tied her black hair into a pony tail before picking up the message. A small hologram of her foster father appeared. He began to speak after a small five second communication delay. “Jessica my dear, great to see your face again.”
“A live transmission, you must be close by?”
“Aye, the Wilfrid Laurier is making a flyby. Figured I’d send ya a live message rather than those boring recorded ones,” he said. “How’s the training coming along?”
“Finished the space part, Mars is up next.”
“You’ll do just fine, just watch out for those goddamn sandstorms,” he said after an eight second delay.
“The delay is getting longer.”
“Must be moving further outta range. Well, I’ll let you get back to it, good luck, and stay safe.”
It’s a shame the transmission had to end so quickly. She missed the many stories he had to tell about his early days in the Royal Navy, and what life was like before the human race discovered the existence of alien life. It was stories like that influenced her to enlist and join the UNE forces and become the fighter pilot she was today.
Later in the day, she entered the mess hall... alone. It was reasonably packed with pilots all awaiting their next trials in their mandatory survival training. It was hard to make out what some people were saying giving the various languages being spoken. German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Hindi, English... the UNE recruited from across the globe. It’s amazing what the human race could accomplish when you ignore borders and work towards a common goal, defending Earth from future alien invasions.
A familiar face bumped into her as she filled her meal tray with a hearty selection of food. First Lieutenant Greg “Hammer” McTavish, an accomplished pilot she’d met during her brief stay at the UNE base in New Dublin.
“McTavish, wasn’t expecting you out here,” she said to him.
“Aye, been stuck here for the last two weeks, the team I was supposed to go down to Mars with failed the space survival tests.”
“Odd one out, eh?”
“Pretty much. How about you, lass?”
“I’m the only one from my team in Geneva to get shipped out here. Only sendin’ one of us at a time to ensure they still got people ready in case of an attack.”
“Didn’t realize our forces were stretched so thin.”
“That’s what happens when you move to colonize the whole solar system so fast.”
The two sat down at a large nearby table. An observation window was behind them, delivering an awe-inspiring view of space and Mars in the distance. Perfect seats for partaking in the delightful task of indulging in their meal. Way better than rations, the chef on this station has out done himself again.
“Let’s get a team together,” Jessica said after finishing her steak.
“Thought ye’d never ask.”
“I have no plans on staying on this station for weeks because people aren’t capable of finishing the first test.”
A young man with a meal tray had approached one of the many vacant sets next to the two. He had the American flag on his uniform and the rank insignia of a Second Lieutenant. “Mind if I join ya?” he asked, his accent... southern American.
“You’re that recruit from yesterday...” Jessica said to him.
“The one spiraling in orbit around Mars? Hell yeah, that was me.”
“Your accent isn’t hard to miss.”
“Accent? Ain’t you the one with the accent, lovely Brit one at that.” He sat down next to her, and then offered his hand for a formal hand shake. “Name’s Fisher, Mike Fisher.”
“Jessica Davis...” she said shaking his hand. “Nice to meet you, now that you’re not in orbit.”
“Just won’t live that down eh?”
“I suppose I’ll let it go in time. Command on the other hand...”
“Meh, ain’t worried about them, the training on Mars, that’s where all the points are at,” Fisher said. “We’re all pilots anyways, ain’t no reason for us to learn how to survive in the vacuum of space. Hell, I reckon in a few years they’ll scrap this whole program all together, train people what they need to know when it comes to survivin’.”
“Are you daft? It’s all important,” said Jessica.
“If our fighter gets shot to hell, we’ll eject into an escape pod.”
“The escape pods on our fighters have no atmosphere like our cockpits. The pod is just to send a beacon and protect you from debris and radiation if you end up spending a long time adrift.”
“So shouldn’t they be teaching us how to survive in a pod rather than being out in space activating beacons, ‘cause reasons?”
“Our flight training covers the use of the escape pod.”
“Exactly!” Fisher jubilantly shouted. “All this is pointless.”
“Look, everyone is expected to go through the same training, survival in space with only a suit, and then survival on Mars.”
“I just want this done and over with, apparently you can’t advance through the ranks until this training is finished.”
Jessica smiled for a moment, having made captain before the survival training plan was made mandatory. Had she enlisted later, she would have had to perform this training straight after finishing basic.
“So you’re a new recruit?” she asked Fisher.
“Yes ma’am, eager to get this over with so I can get my butt into a flight simulator.”
“What’s wrong?” McTavish cut in. “Don’t like being a transport pilot?”
“Ain’t what I signed up for, sir,” Fisher replied, then pointed toward the window behind them looking out into space. A squad of Solaris fighters flying in formation on patrol could be seen making a pass by the window. “That’s where the action is, and if those Hashmedai ever come back, we’ll be the ones pushing them back into space.”
Their brief chit chat came to an end as a six person group of pilots arrived at their table. None of them looked happy, especially their leader who stood with her arms crossed seemingly unimpressed. Jessica recognized her, Asian woman with her hair tied into a pony tail. It was the infamous Captain Meifeng “Red Lotus” Lin, part of the Hyperion squadron assigned to Titan.
“Do I amuse you?” Jessica asked Red Lotus who did nothing but gaze at the three.
“You’re sitting in my chair, at our table,” Red Lotus replied.
“Last time I checked, the mess is for everyone.”
“This table is for us.”
“Who’s us?” McTavish asked.
“Hyperion squadron,” Red Lotus said.
Both McTavish and Fisher kept silent.
“We were here first,” Jessica said, defiantly. “I don’t see your team’s name on it, and was not told we had to leave otherwise. Find another table or wait for us to finish...”
“My team works hard and deserves the best seat,” Red Lotus spoke down to Jessica. “We shouldn’t have to be forced to sit apart while every other team gets to sit and eat with each other. With that said, why not sit with your teams?”
“We aren’t part of one...”
“Then do like the rest who are solo and sit in whatever vacant space you can find, Hyperion should not and will not sit in random spots because of you three.”
Jessica rose up from her seat, the palms of her hands slammed against the metal surface of the table causing everyone in the mess hall to become silent and fix their eyes on her and Red Lotus.
“OK, I don’t like ya attitude,” Jessica said, then quickly stepped towards Red Lotus.
“What are you going to do about it?” Red Lotus said. “Now that you’ve gotten up, finish up with the last step, and step away...”
Thump. Jessica’s sucker punch drilled into Red Lotus’ face, sending her falling backwards. “Sorry love, did I just knock you on yer arse?”
Red Lotus’ predicable retaliation came next, and the two entered a brief brawl. Jessica’s actions weren’t exactly the most professional way to handle things. But it was the most natural. One of the earliest lessons in life Martin taught her when they were salvaging for what they could find in the ruins of Manchester. Don’t take any shit from anyone.
A few of the personnel in the mess hall stood and watched in shock, while others crowded around like it was a boxing match, cheering on the person they wanted to win. An airman from Red Lotus’ group pulled her back as McTavish pulled Jessica back, the message from them was clear enough, ‘break it up.’
“OK, we’ll find someplace else to sit...” McTavish said to Red Lotus.
“Like hell we will!” Jessica shouted, trying to break free of her friend’s grip.
“Jess... please,” McTavish pleaded.
It took Jessica some time, but she ended up standing down. Not because Red Lotus looked like she was going to do the same, or because of McTavish. But because she officially lost her appetite. Can’t eat when you’re pissed off at someone. That and her lip radiated with pain and dripped blood.
#
Jessica retreated to her quarters, a bottle of whisky helped keep her mood up in the aftermath of the disagreement, not to mention took her mind off the fact that the quarters next to her was playing some loud thumping music and overall being inconsiderate. Thankfully nothing else happened afterwards in regards to their skirmish. Red Lotus had too much pride to file a complaint; everyone else in the mess hall knew to stay out of everything Hyperion squadron was a part of.
She was about to take another hit of her drink, having not had one for the last hour, when an knock came on her door. Opening it revealed McTavish’s presence as the lights from the hallway radiated across the top of his buzz cut hair.
“What were ya thinking, lass?” he said to her.
“I don’t want to talk about it right now...” she said, inviting him inside. “That stunt really pisses me off.”
“It’s Hyperion...”
“Yeah, yeah, best of the best, protecting the furthest human settlement in the system, heard the speech; got the t-shirt, don’t give a shit about them.”
“Just be thankful everyone turned a blind eye towards this.”
“We need to get our team made quickly,” she said. “I’m not going to watch those elitist arses finish this training while we are stuck waiting for enough solo trainees to show up and slowly form a group.”
“Four is the minimum, but command recommends six.”
“Let’s go with four and hope for the best,” she picked up her holo pad and began to input their information into the screen; officially making them part of a team for the next leg of training. “You and I puts us at the halfway point, just need two more.”
“How about that lad from earlier? He looked like a solo recruit.”
“He’s a bloody FNG,” she said shaking her head.
“Beggars can’t be choosy, especially in our position.”
“I suppose you’re right, if he’s in that makes three... just need one more.”
A loud muffled thud came from the room next to hers followed by drunken laugher and roaring. “Loud neighbors, eh?” he asked.
“Second bloody night in a row,” she said flinging her holo pad onto her bed. “I’ve had enough.”
She stormed off towards the door, McTavish followed behind, clearly concerned about how she was going to handle this next conflict with station personnel.
“Jess...” he mumbled to her.
She turned to face him with a warm smile before leaving, “I won’t hit anyone this time!”
Jessica’s fists knocked on the next door room; she hoped this would be the only time she’d have to use her fists to solve a problem. The source of the loud music and other forms of irritating racket began to drop in intensity. The sliding doors slithered open, a young woman with short red hair greeted her. There was some wobbling in her movement; she was drunk or at least getting to that stage. Inside were five other crew members from the station, drinking, yapping, and otherwise enjoying the small party. Some were fellow pilots, others were marines. There were no navy personnel. Of course not, they’re not that dense to partake in a party inside of someone’s quarters.
“Kinda full at the moment, but if they leave,” the woman spoke. “We might be able to get you in!”
“Not here to party, here to file a noise complaint,” said Jessica.
“We aren’t that loud.”
“I can hear all the high jinks you and your friends are causing! Besides I don’t exactly think this is okay with Ops.”
The party goers inside started to make their way to the exit after watching the small exchange between Jessica and their host.
“We were on our way out, ma’am,” one of the marines inside said to Jessica. “Catch you later, Piller,” he then said to the woman.
One after another, they all left, forcing the party to come to a close. Jessica figured her rank and tone of voice frightened them off. Well that’s one problem dealt with, she thought. Though the quarters of the woman who was hosting this party however, wasn’t up to spec; empty bottles and rubbish littered the floor.
Out from a nearby elevator stepped Red Lotus, of course it would be her. She looked furious as she moved directly towards the party that ended.
“Two times now I’ve been trying to read and noise from this room has interrupted me!” Red Lotus harshly roared to Piller.
Piller was slow to react, probably too drunk to realize that a superior was pissed off and wanted answers from her. Jessica cut in and said to Red Lotus. “That’s nice, now go back to your book.”
“Some of us are taking this training seriously; some of us are trying to get some sleep.”
“That’s nice,” Jessica repeated. “Now go back to your quarters.”
Red Lotus sighed. “People from Earth... nothing but trouble makers.”
Seriously... Jessica thought as she and Red Lotus looked at each other with contempt. She had a hard time trying to let her comment go. The colonies throughout the solar system were still fairly new; most of the population at one point originated from Earth, before moving there. Red Lotus was no different. She may have lived on Titan, but was born on Earth, and if her comment was any indication, the folks on the colonies were already starting to make themselves feel different compared to their counter parts living on Earth.
If that’s how it’s going to be... “Clean up inside,” Jessica said to Piller. Earthers are going to have to look after each other.
“I’ll be fine,” she said.
“No, do it now,” Jessica said. She then faced McTavish. “Greg, give her hand please.”
“Aye,” he replied and entered her quarters.
As the doors slid shut, Red Lotus demanded to know, “What’s going on in there?”
“Nothing you need to worry about,” Jessica said to her. “Now leave. Don’t you and Hyperion have to sing lullabies to each other or something?”
“Is there a problem?” said a voice neither of the two wanted to deal with. A voice of stern authority. The voice of General Landis.
Everyone in the halls stood at attention and the decorated gray haired general walked through, stopping right at the quarters both Jessica and Red Lotus stood at.
“Sir, no sir,” Red Lotus replied back.
“I heard noise from two decks above,” said Landis.
“Sir, we have it all under control,” Jessica said.
“Do you now?” Landis asked, and then inputted his override code into the control panel for Piller’s quarters.
Jessica began to come up with a long list of possible replies she could spit out when the general started to ask why the quarters in question looked like such a mess, like there was a party going on. From the corner of her eye she could see that... the rubbish was gone, and both McTavish and Piller remained calm. Good job!
“Captain Davis, Captain Lin,” Landis said toward both Jessica and Red Lotus. “You two are the ranking officers in this section of the station, see to it there are no further disturbances.”
“Yes sir!” they both said.
Everyone became at ease as the general walked away from sight. Red Lotus went back up to her quarters a minute later as both Piller and McTavish approached Jessica.
“Hey... thanks,” she said to Jessica.
“No more high jinks, understood?”
“Understood ma’am. Just wanted to have a bit of fun before military life takes over. And do some networking, I’m all alone here.”
“Not part of a team?”
“No, ma’am.”
McTavish and Jessica looked at each other. He nodded to her with a grin and thumbs up. Jessica replied with a sigh and face palm.
“What’s your name recruit?” Jessica asked her.
“Cassie Piller, second lieutenant.”
Team member number four was found.
#
Three days later, two transports were primed and ready to launch as Jessica, Piller, McTavish and Fisher entered the launch bay. The four of them were officially registered as a team and ready to undertake the final survival training mission on the surface of Mars. They all wore environment suits, much like Red Lotus and her team, as they boarded the transport opposite of theirs.
Teams were dumped on the surface equipped with their environment suit and nothing else. Small shelters were deployed in random locations full of supplies, med kits and O2 tanks, and of course a somewhat comfortable atmosphere on the inside beyond the airlock. The goal was to survive with what limited resources you could find in the shelters for four weeks until the training ended. The location of the shelters were secret, the amount of supplies inside were random. You might get a stash that could keep your team alive for days; you might find a stash of food when you really needed medical supplies.
Most daunting part of it all? Communications were fixed so that you could only speak to people in close range. Needless to say, calling for help during an emergency was out of the question. If you were injured, command didn’t know about it. The only link there was to the outside world were one’s vital signs as they were transmitted to the station in orbit. If it looked like someone was about to die, or had died, then and only then would a rescue team be sent.
The all clear was given, and ships rose up and propelled out of the launch bay of the station and made their dive towards the red world below them. The loss of gravity was almost instant now that the transports were no longer bound by the artificial gravity of the station’s rotating habitat rings.
Jessica saw the desert terrain of Mars via the forward windshield; they were quickly approaching. Large swirling clouds of dust and sand were starting to take shape. A storm was coming, a sand storm. “Figures they’d send us down during a sand storm,” she commented.
“Wouldn’t be a challenge without one,” said McTavish.
“Visibility might be an ass, but walking through one shouldn’t be an issue,” she said. “It’s the supply shelters; they’re partly powered by solar power.”
“So if we’re low on air and can’t get the systems inside to work...” Fisher said with a worried tone of voice.
“Aye, so let’s not be in that position,” Jessica said addressing her team.
As they neared the surface, gravity started to take hold of their bodies, forcing their feet to stay on the floor of the transport. Only, it was Martian gravity, instant sixty-two percent weight loss when compared to Earth.
Jessica got up to head to the rear section of the transport in anticipation of the doors swinging open. Hyperion squadron’s transport exploded.
What remained of it plunged down towards Mars, leaving behind a trail of black smoke.
“The hell?” Jessica said toward the transport’s pilot. “What’s going on?”
“Looks like an explosion! They’re going down.”
She looked at the burning craft as it continued to spiral and crash. As much as she detested Red Lotus and her team, she didn’t wish death on them. At the end of the day they were all UNE military personnel, they were on the same team. If they were going to die it should be on the field of battle against the enemies of the human race, not here on some damned survival training exercise.
A second blast rattled Jessica’s ears; this one came from inside the transport she was on. Looking back behind her, she saw fires rage as smoke filled the cabin. Her team desperately tried to deal with the fire, but no avail. A secondary blast threw them all to the floor. Jessica’s transport plunged towards the surface of Mars, on fire, triggered by an unknown explosion.
This was no accident...
“I’m losing control!” the pilot shouted.
“We’re venting atmosphere!” Piller shouted.
Jessica turned around and saw that she was indeed right; the smoke was being sucked out by small holes along the walls and ceiling.
“Everyone, helmets on now!” Jessica said running towards the exit of the transport.
Her team all donned their helmets and began to take in the fresh breath of air the suit provided for their lungs. After the pilot applied his helmet he reported to the rest, “Brace for impact!”
“No,” she said cutting the pilot off. “We won’t survive the crash! Let’s jump out now.”
Jessica inputted a command on the wall terminal next the doors of the transport, the transport doors were forced open. The light red rue of the Martian horizon was the first thing she laid her eyes on. She was quite impressed on how calm everyone on her team remained during this critical situation, especially Fisher and Piller the FNGs.
She took a look down towards the red desert that grew in size; the sandstorm was quickly rolling in. Between the low gravity on Mars and the jet thrusts on their suits, their descent after leaping out from the burning craft shouldn’t be fatal, at least that’s what her suit’s HUD reported.
She ordered everyone to jump out; one by one they leaped out and activated their jets to slow their fall. Jessica and the pilot remained, a pilot who still sat at his seat up front trying his best to keep the doomed craft still. She tried calling out to him, there was no reply, he wanted to keep the craft still and its crash to the surface controlled so that they could all leap out safely, or so she thought.
The transport rocked and slightly rolled, nearly causing Jessica to lose her footing. Now or never, she can’t force him to save his life, and at this point her team below was going to need her to lead them out of this mess. She leaped out, and hoped that the pilot would clue in that it was his turn to do the same, or that she was wrong, and the crash was survivable.
Her jets powered on and her body slowly floated down to the surface like a prewar sky diver leaping out of a plane. The blue thrusts from her jets caused the sand below her feet to blow away as she safely came to a landing. She looked up at the track of black smoke in the air, it stretched out across the horizon, there were no signs of the pilot. The loud thud that came later signaled the transport crashing into the ground. Her HUD reported no signs of life within a fifty metre radius of her, and therefore nobody to communicate with due to training mission’s survival settings. Bullocks...
Her traverse into the desert all alone, as a sandstorm rolled in, made her grimace behind her helmet. Sand, rocks, hills, more sand, howling winds blowing towards her. Every step she took to find her missing team put her closer into the mouth of the storm that looked like a giant cloud cruising across the surface. If the now dissipating smoke in the sky was any indication, she was walking towards the estimate location where the other three had leaped out to. Here’s hoping they aren’t walking in the opposite direction of her, otherwise this trek would turn into a quest of her chasing them down.
Visibility as well as light was low, she was directly inside of the storm now and it was giving her scanners a hard time. She nearly tripped over three different large rocks due to not seeing them and her HUD failing to relay to her that there was an obstacle nearby. It almost failed to report the existence of a person wearing an environment suit lying down on the dusty landscape. It was someone from the team, no question, but who? And were they alive?
“Hang in there, I see you,” she transmitted to them now that she was in range. Nothing but static and garbled words back was their reply, damn this storm!
She got closer and knelt down beside the person. Communication strength started to improve, their voice became clearer, it was Fisher.
“Lieutenant,” she addressed him while whipping way a layer of sand that covered the top of his visor.
“I’m fine,” he said. “My leg on the other hand...”
Her HUD began a quick scan of his suit and the condition of it; there were clear signs of damage and worst of all. “You’re leaking O2...”she reported.
“So that’s what those alarms were...” he said then laughed. “My HUD is all messed up right now, probably damaged on impact.”
“Hey!” Piller’s static voice yelled.
Jessica looked away from Fisher, and saw Piller’s body slowly emerge into visual range from the bluster of sand and dust. She waved towards Piller, signaling her to come towards the two of them and assist.
“He’s got an hour of air left at best,” Jessica said to Piller. “Here and here...” she pointed to the punctures in suit as they sprayed pressure, air and heat away. Piller’s hands pressed down upon the damaged parts of his suit to slow the leakage of atmosphere. “That looks like where all the air is leaking out. Can you supply him with some air?”
“I can but...”
“It could be hours before we find the closest supply depot, I’d rather him be alive when we get there.”
“I’m just gonna slow you all down, don’t drag me along,” Fisher said.
“I’ll find it myself,” Jessica said and stood up. “You two stay here and keep safe.”
“What happened to the transport?” Piller asked.
“Both exploded from behind...” said Jessica.
“It was a bomb wasn’t it?” asked Fisher. “What are they called? Hashmedai Liberation Front?”
HLF, the one group of lunatics that would place a bomb aboard a space craft, if they had the chance. “HLF? No way, they don’t operate outside of Earth,” Jessica concluded.
The HLF were made up of a group of Hashmedai who were left behind on Earth after the war had ended. Several humans began to take pity on them, alien soldiers who were stranded on a world that wasn’t theirs. As time went on, those human sympathizers got close to those Hashmedai and formed the group. They launched a barrage of terrorist attacks, demanding that Hashmedai that were left behind be given the same rights and freedoms humans have.
“Who else could it have been?” Fisher asked.
“I’ll be back,” was all Jessica could reply with as she started her hike, taking her deeper into Mars’ infamous tempest.
An hour had passed, Jessica nearly ran into the walls of one of the supply shelters. To her disappointment she got there too late, someone else managed to force the doors open and help themselves to the goods beyond the shelter’s airlock. She hoped it was McTavish, the last person from her team that was uncounted.
“Hey,” Jessica transmitted to them.
“Well what do we have here...” it was Red Lotus, of course.
“I need O2 tanks and a med kit,” Jessica said to her. “One of my team members was hurt.”
“I have five injured on my team,” Red Lotus said, securing an O2 canister into her hands. “Sorry I can’t spare anything.”
“There’s gotta be more inside.”
“Command made sure these shelters were lightly stored to force us to be careful.”
“I get that, but we got a critical situation here.”
“I have a responsibility to my team,” Red Lotus said and began to walk away with the goods in hand. “I have to get them out of this mess.”
Jessica followed behind and said. “So do I, and one of them is going to die.”
“If I give you this, I’ll be asking two people to die,” said Red Lotus. “This isn’t the only supply stash, find the other and help your injured team mate, I’m sorry.”
“How bad are your people?”
“All of their suits were damaged during the crash and leaking O2 as we speak. Some were burned while the others got some nasty cuts.”
“What you got there isn’t going to keep them alive for long.”
“No it won’t, until I find more supplies... or command realizes what happened.” Jessica heard the tone of Red Lotus’s voice switch to a more pleasant one. “Help me with my team... and I’ll help you find another depot.”
“Just like that?”
“As it stands, if we both don’t find a second shelter, we’re both going to lose people.”
Jessica nodded and joined Red Lotus on her trek back to the crash site of her team’s transport. “Let’s move quickly.”
#
Another hour passed and there were no signs of the storm letting up. Jessica and Red Lotus did what they could to patch up the suits of Hyperion squadron and kept them alive a little while longer with the O2 tanks supplied, before heading back into the unknown. Jessica wondered how everyone else was holding up, upon seeing the red holographic bars in her HUD that represented her air supply slowly shrivel away. Assuming Fisher wasn’t dead, the air that Piller was sharing with him might be nearing critical levels. Those O2 tanks needed to be found and taken back to them quickly; no way in hell was she losing people under her command.
“Any idea what happened to the transports?” Jessica asked Red Lotus, breaking their nearly hour long silence during their journey.
“HLF bomb.”
“That crossed my mind, but don’t they operate on Earth?”
“They’ll strike any UNE or Radiance target, it’s just their resources are limited, and leaving Earth requires tough background checks.”
“And half of the HLF are Hashmedai, it’s impossible for them to leave Earth without being detected...”
“The transport we were on came from Earth.”
“I know, they were the same ones I rode on to come here, from Geneva.”
“The HLF that planned the bomb had to have come from Geneva as well, and had to have been on the transport.”
Jessica was slightly baffled by Red Lotus’ statement. “Explain...”
“Those weren’t time bombs; they went off right as we entered Mars’ atmosphere. It was planned, they wanted us to crash and they wanted the station to be intact. Otherwise they would have blown it up while it was still docked, and done a lot more damage.”
“That’s true, but why wait for us to head to Mars?”
“Because the terrorist was probably still on the station and didn’t want to get killed themselves, they needed to the transport to be clear of it, they needed it to be close enough that they could survive the crash.”
‘They,’ the implication being that someone on one of the transports was secretly a terrorist. Jessica didn’t like where the conversation was heading, they needed to be focused on getting out of this alive, not pointing fingers at each other. “So you’re saying someone from one of our transports is an HLF member.”
“From what you told me, your pilot and one other is missing. You have two others that are brand new recruits from Earth, as in we know very little about them. Meanwhile my pilot is dead, and Hyperion squadron is from Titan, we haven’t been to Earth in years. And you yourself said you’re from Geneva. Do the math.”
She should have become a detective not a fighter pilot. “We got no proof of that.”
Thirty minutes later another sand-covered supply shelter came into view. As with the previous one, the doors had to be manually forced open due to the lack of solar power. They entered a small dark room as they passed through the airlock. Jessica hoped for the best as they started to plunder the supply crates inside.
Food rations.
Food rations.
Medical supplies, which will be needed to treat Fisher’s wounds.
Food rations.
Food rations... goddamn it.
O2 tanks within the final crate, finally. Jessica grabbed three from the crate and then made her way towards the airlock. Quickly.
“I thought you needed one O2 tank?” Red Lotus asked her.
“Piller is supplying him with her own air,” she replied. “We’ve been gone so long she might be low as well.” She spun around and looked at Red Lotus’s face as the lights from the inside of her helmet shined upon it. It was the look of someone that wasn’t impressed. “Look, I’m not the terrorist if that’s what’s going through your head.”
“I’m just worried you might be helping the person that put us in this spot.”
Back outside, Jessica loaded a rough map of the area through her HUD. It displayed a record of everywhere she had been since setting foot on Mars, including the last location where she left Piller and Fisher. It took a while, but the computer was able to plot a course directing her to where she needed to walk via a superimposed holographic projection across her visor.
She took one step forward.
And was tackled to the rusty land below her by Red Lotus.
Multiple theories played out in her head. Red Lotus was really the terrorist? Or perhaps she wanted the O2 tanks for herself. Or maybe this was payback for the sucker punch from earlier?
Jessica was wrong on all accounts.
Multiple gun shots roared, every bullet flying towards the general area she was standing prior to being tackled.
Jessica quickly got back to her feet, well as quickly as she could with the Mars gravity and winds doing their things. She couldn’t see the gunman very well in the distance, but no shots were fired back at her or Red Lotus as they ran behind the shelter for cover. Whoever this person was, they were having a hard time getting a fix on their location, the storm must be giving their eWeapon trouble, much like how their suits were struggling to scan and communicate.
Jessica heard footsteps pressing against the sand. Someone was creeping up towards them. Her first thought was it was the gunman, but he was still a few metres away from what she’d seen. Even if he ran could it be possible he’d be this close already? The steps were coming from her left, and so she signaled to Red Lotus to move to the right, around the circular structure they hid behind. With any luck she might be able to get the jump on the person in question, while Jessica remained here as bait.
There were sounds of a brief struggle, like someone got jumped. Red Lotus? If it was her, she got there fast. The footsteps got closer. It was multiple steps at that, at least two people, and Jessica seriously doubted Red Lotus was one of them. She had to have been moving around on the other end still. There were two people approaching Jessica, McTavish and the pilot were the only ones not accounted for. She took several deep breaths in preparation for learning who was around the corner.
The two figures arrived in visual range at last; Jessica was forced to stand up as she quickly figured out what was going on. The gunman was one of the footsteps, he held a rifle to the back of the head of another person. The face of McTavish was barely visible from the visor.
“Give me the O2 tanks and you all get to walk,” said the gunman, his voice was that of the missing pilot.
If Jessica resisted, both she, McTavish and possibly Red Lotus could end up dead, resulting in Fisher and Piller dying as well.
Option number one: Sacrifice the lives of Fisher and Piller, to save the three?
Option number two: Sacrifice the lives of superior officers so that the lower ranking ones can live.
“Damn it!” Jessica yelled as she held one of the O2 canisters up... while watching Red Lotus sneak up behind the gunman.
Jessica’s hand moved forward and tossed the canister towards the gunman, it landed in the sand next him and within arm’s reach of Red Lotus. Red Lotus picked it quickly, rose to her feet and swung the heavy object towards the visor of the gunman as she stood behind him. The impact from the blow cracked open his visor, and a loud hiss bellowed as air and heat from inside of his helmet escaped quickly, while exposing his face to the suffocating sands of the storm and the not so nice pressure of Mars atmosphere. He fell to the ground, losing his grip on his rifle, and then later his own life.
Option number three: Don’t negotiate with terrorists.
“One of our pilots... I’m guessing he’s the reason we’re in this mess,” McTavish said gazing down at the dead gunman.
“Have you found everyone else?” Jessica asked him.
“Saw Piller and Fisher over there, they told me you went to gather supplies. Came over to help, then ran into buddy around the corner.”
Jessica stepped towards Red Lotus, and extended her hand out. Not a fist like the last time, rather a hand shake. “Thanks for the help,” she said to her.
“Thank you for helping my team,” Red Lotus said smiling.
Rescue transports arrived at their location minutes later. The death of the HLF gunman sent a message to the station above that someone on the surface suddenly flat lined. Hyperion squadron, Piller and Fisher were all picked up afterwards and ascended up towards Ares station Gamma. She was pleased with everyone’s performance; McTavish taking it upon himself to find aid, Fisher staying calm even when he was close to death, Piller for staying with him to keep him alive longer. These were people Jessica would be grateful to work with again in the future. She wasn't sure if they’d have to redo the survival training excise, but if she had to do it again, she wouldn’t hesitate to do it with those three.
-o-
Eddie R. Hicks is a Canadian author known as a man of many talents, and for good reason. He’s educated in media arts, journalism, and culinary arts, and now he writes dark and sexy science-fiction thrillers such as the Splintered Galaxy series.
If he’s not working with skilled chefs in the restaurant industry, baking an epic red velvet cake for the hell of it, or playing video games, then he’s in front of his computer doing what he always dreamed of doing since he was a kid: storytelling.
Homepage: https://eddierhicks.wordpress.com
Mailing List: http://eepurl.com/cuJS-L
