Frozen Sky

by Jack Stornoway

closed.

  “They are taking refuge inside the bridge,” Sandra stated. “Is there more than one thermal suit in that survival pod?”

  “Yes several,” Elayne answered.

  “Good, cause it looks like I've lost mine,” Sandra said and then motioned towards the rear of the gondola. Elayne stepped through the opening into the quickly freezing passageway and ran towards the survival pod.

  Before they got to the pod, the hatch to the bridge slid open, and the Sudaméricans stepped back into the hallway, apparently their movement into the bridge had just been a panicked response to the explosion. Sandra had seen the door opening in her CHUD before the soldiers had even noticed the women in the hallway, and turn dropping to one knee. Two quick shots from from her gun and they were both falling backwards, with holes burnt through their heads.

  Elayne stopped and looked back, “If they're dead we can retake the bridge!”

  “No! Sensors show there are more coming from the freight section,” Sandra stated pushing Elayne on towards the emergency pod.

  “You're accessing our sensors? Yes, of course you are,” Elayne quickly realized turned to run for the escape pod. The pod was around the size of the cabin they had been in, with seats all around the interior, enough for a dozen people. Elayne stopped at the hath and started opening the locker containing the survival gear, but Sandra pushed her into the pod and jumped in behind her quickly closing the hatch.

  Outside the pod there were suddenly voices speaking Spanish, they got louder, and then someone shone a light in through the pod's window and started yelling. Sandra hit the eject button, and the pod dropped out the bottom of the gondola, hitting the ice a second later. Above them someone fired a burst of laser blasts that burnt through the pod, but fortunately didn't hit either of the woman. The shooter had aimed for the seats, but the women hadn't gotten to the seats before ejecting and were sprawled on the floor in the centre of the pod.

  The pod quickly lost its air-pressure though the smouldering holes, and the temperature started to quickly drop. There was Spanish shouting above them, two or more Sudaméricans arguing over something. Sandra motioned towards the emergency gear locker, and Elayne quickly moved over and pulled a couple thermal-suits out, tossing one to Sandra. The emergency thermal-suits weren't as good as the Baihai Division thermal-suit she'd been wearing, and Sandra wondered if they'd make it back to the plane. Above them a new voice interrupted the argument, and started barking orders. Sandra knew they had to move, the first thing any competent commander would do would be to order his troops to make sure the enemy was dead.

  A couple of Sudamérican troops landed next to the pod with grunts and what sounded like cursing, and Sandra pointed to the hatch, and then hit the beacon button. On top of the pod a hatch popped opened releasing an emergency beacon balloon which was quickly filling with hydrogen. Sandra jumped out of the pod a second later, gun in hand. The Sudaméricans were taken by surprise, one had slipped on the ice, and the other turned too slowly to meet Sandra's aim. He fell dead onto the ice, and the other never made it back to his feet.

  Above them the balloon popped as someone shot it, and the two women ran out of range of whoever it was as a burst of laser bolts impacted the ice behind them. Then a burst of laser fire rained down on them from one of the ridges, where several dozen Sudamérican troops seemed to be descending towards the ship.

  “What's going on here?” Sandra shouted as the women ducked behind a large ice-shard. “Why would they need so many troops to steal a ship?”

  Laser blasts began to burst through the ice-shard and Sandra knew they had to keep moving, but to where? There was little cover in this valley. The laser blasts suddenly stopped, and the Sudaméricans were shouting, no screaming. Sandra dared to peak around the edge of the ice-shard and saw the ice ridge they had been on dissolving, and Sudaméricans falling into the quickly reforming ice. They didn't scream for long.

  “Captain Pritchard!” Cheng's voice echoed through the darkness. “There is more coming! You have to go!”

  “Cheng!” Sandra called out and looked around, but a blanket of ice-fog was quickly descending into the valley from where the Sudamérican troops had been, tiny water-ice crystals released as the carbon-dioxide ice had been flash melted.

  “I am north by north-west of your position, move quickly, that ice-fog can encrust your respirator-mask!” Cheng shouted.

  “Let's go,” Sandra said to Elayne grabbing her by the arm.

  “No, I can't see anything since they stopped shooting. I need a light,” Elayne stated.

  “They'll shoot us if we turn on a light,” Sandra observed, then grabbed Elayne and hoisted her over her shoulders and ran north by northwest.”

  “This is undignified!” Elayne argued from Sandra's shoulder. “If you have to carry me, at least let me ride you piggy-back!”

  “Ride me?” Sandra repeated. “I'm not a horse, and we're not going that far.”

  Cheng appeared ahead of them and waved them into a clearing behind an ice-shard. Sandra dropped Elayne behind the ice-shard and turned to Cheng, who had a particle beam rifle sung over his shoulder similar to the one Elayne had aboard the Cacophony. Its tiny status lights lighting up the small area behind the shard.

  “Who's that?” Cheng asked.

  “A survivor from the crew,” Sandra answered. “Why aren't you on the plane?”

  “The Sudaméricans have dropped several landers from orbit,” Cheng answered. “It looks like they took out our com satellites, because I can't get through to anyone. Those troops were from the closest lander, but there are more on the way.”

  “Oh shit!” Elayne exclaimed. “They're go to used the American battle-skiffs to attack Hangtian. The anti-aerospace artillery would destroy the landers if they tried to land at the spaceport, so they've commandeered our arms shipment!”

  “Arms?” Cheng enquired. “The Yanks are giving us weapons?”

  “Yanks?” Elayne sounded exasperated. “I am not a Yank!”

  “Oh, you sound like a Yank,” Cheng stated.

  “I am from North Carolina, Sir, and you will not besmirch my honour!” Elayne stated in her most Southern sounding accent.

  “Is she fucking with me?” Cheng asked.

  “No, Southerners don't like being called Yanks,” Sandra said. “And we have more important things to worry about. How long till those troops get here?”

  “A couple hours,” Cheng reported. “Three landers dropped just south of the glacier in the storm. One landed closer. If they fly that freighter to Hangtian, they could offload the skiffs right in the middle of the Army Base. The battle would be over before it starts.”

  “A Trojan Horse,” Elayne observed.

  “A what?” Cheng asked.

  “Doesn't matter,” Sandra stated. “We need to get back to the Lockheed before we freeze. I'd better carry you, Elayne.”

  “I can run as fast as you can!” Elayne objected. “Just give me a light to see with.”

  “No, it would be too easy to spot us if we turned on a light,” Sandra dismissed the idea.

  “I can't see in the dark either,” Cheng stated pulling his backup flashlight from a pocket. “Unless you're carrying both of us, we're using lights.”

  “I guess we're using lights then,” Sandra conceded as Elayne mounded the flashlight on her shoulder. “But if they start shooting find cover and turn off the light!”

  “Right don't let them shoot us,” Elayne said sarcastically. “I should have brought a note pad for all this wisdom.”

  Sandra set a quick pace, but made sure the others weren't falling behind. The emergency thermal-suits weren't nearly as good as the Baihai thermal-suit, and she could feel the dull ache of cold around her wrists and ankles where her body heat was escaping through the seams. Her neck too, her neck was cold. It didn't matter, Elayne wasn't complaining.

  “Thank the Almightly!” Elayne stated as the Lockheed appeared ahead of them. “I feel like I am going to freeze solid!”
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  Oh a religious type, Sandra realized. No wonder they stayed on Mars to run a strato-freighter. The old U.S. corporate congress had banned all religions decades ago, and the revolutionary government had no interest it restoring the rights of the churches. Most of the religious types had move to one of the African nations, or the Arabo-Persian Caliphate, or out here to Mars. Mars was covered in all manner of religious nuts. Churches and cults seemed to spring up everywhere on this planet, and most of the colonial governments looked the other way, as long at their quotas weren't effected. The Confederacy had banned all religious movements as well, but Sandra heard it was full of them, operating underground, like the fight clubs and the sex slave industry.

  They reached the hatch, and second later were inside pulling off the frozen thermal-suits, and then the icy still-suits. Elayne was almost naked when she turned to Sandra, “Do you have anything I can wear?”

  “Here,” Sandra said handing an Arean Army still-suit to Elayne, and pull another from the locker for herself. A few minutes later they were in the cockpit, and Sandra was checking the sensors while Cheng got them each a coffee from the cappuccino machine.

  “No one followed us,” Sandra reported. “Strange.”

  “I would have called for reinforcements,” Elayne stated.

  “Yes,” Sandra agreed. “No signs of aerospace fighters, or missiles inbound.”

  “Our anti-orbital ballistic missiles could have blown their ships out of the