Martian Quadrilogy Box Set

by Brandon Ellis

  Ozzy pursed his lips. “The trip to the Ark?”

  “No, the Ark itself.”

  It was true. The Ancients had killed their entire race after blowing up Maldek by using the Ark, which, in turn, destroyed their planet’s life-giving atmosphere as well.

  Dangerous was an understatement.

  Plus, the last Ancient Martian survivors probably created as many fail-safes as they could to hinder anyone from getting the Ark…ever again.

  Jozi initiated the thruster, and the craft lifted off. She activated her boosters and shot the Hawk forward, zipping over Firsoff City’s dome.

  “How much time until we get to Olympus Mons?” asked Ozzy, not knowing how fast this ship could truly travel.

  “One hour,” responded Jozi, upping the throttle. “So, sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.”

  “Alright. Will do.” Ozzy took a peek behind him and saw Gragas sharpening a different dagger. “So, what’s your story, Gragas?”

  “I have many stories. Is there one in particular you’d want me to tell?”

  Ozzy rolled his eyes. “No, it’s an expression. I’m asking you to tell me more about yourself.”

  “All you need to know is that I’m a Dunrakee here to help protect humanity against my race.”

  “I need to know more than that.”

  The scrape of Gragas’s knife against a small sharpening stone cut through the air. “I was banished by the officials in my own government because I wasn’t too thrilled with the idea of murdering the entire galaxy.” He continued to sharpen his knife.

  “What? Did they just throw you off your planet or something?”

  “No. They attempted to murder me simply because I wanted to warn Earth what was coming.”

  “You wanted to warn Earth?” Ozzy frowned and twisted in his seat, staring at Gragas. The Dunrakee invaded Earth over a hundred years ago. “How old are you?”

  “We live longer than you.” He scraped his knife against the rock. “A lot longer.”

  “And now you’re here to right your race’s wrong.”

  “I’m here to stop my race from any further wrongs. I can’t right anything. Someday, Ozzy, you will learn what you consider the wrongs you did in the past can never be righted because they already happened. They can, however, be healed. And that’s what I’m attempting to do: heal my race’s evils.”

  “So, you created the Galactic Knights and have been fighting your people ever since?”

  “In a way, the Galactic Knights created me. I had an idea to stop my people from committing the worst crimes. Others were attracted to my idea, and they came to me and volunteered. Only the best of the best were able to stay.”

  “I see. And here you are, somehow with me, going against your little code.”

  Gragas stopped sharpening. “There is more to why I am here with you, but right now I’m comfortable telling you only what I just have.”

  Ozzy nodded. “Alright. Suit yourself.” He closed his eyes. It would be smooth sailing to Olympus Mons from this point forward unless an enemy caught sight of them in the sky. Because with Indigo, they were practically invisible.

  “Oh shit.” Ozzy straightened in his chair. “I forgot Indigo.”

  That meant they were on everyone’s radar.

  Jozi lowered the craft, hugging the red terrain. The cockpit was quiet, and all were watching the mountain grow bigger and bigger on the horizon until it was practically on top of them.

  They were nearly at Olympus Mons, and Ozzy was starting to breathe easier.

  The mountain shined brilliantly across the red terrain, the base as wide as twenty Earth mountains, if not more. The top of Olympus Mons did something that no other mountain in the entire solar system did: it reached the upper atmosphere, nearly poking into the planet’s exosphere and exposing itself to space.

  Ozzy dug into his satchel and pulled out the capsule. He twisted both ends of the device and pulled. A map shot outward into a hologram. A blue dot blinked, showing where the capsule was on the map, and golden wings indicated the Ark.

  An entrance popped up, something that hadn’t happened before. Perhaps the closer the map was to the Ark, the more the map showed.

  “There is an actual entrance. Maybe we don’t need a digger after all.” He pointed at the behemoth mountain toward where Jozi was steering them. “Put in coordinates 18.67 degrees north, 226.3 degrees east,” ordered Ozzy. “That will take us to the entrance.”

  The entrance sat between two massive rocks at the base of the mountain.

  Jozi punched in the coordinates, and Gragas pulled out another knife, sharpening the blade.

  They flew onward, passing over a few dried-up lakes and sunken-in, dry river beds that had once been mountain glacial runoffs tens of thousands, or perhaps hundreds of thousands, of years ago—before the Ark blew the atmosphere off the face of Mars.

  Jozi rounded a large rock protrusion near the mountain’s base. She placed the craft into a hover. “We’re here,” she said and lowered the ship, setting it down on an incline. “I’m either about to help humankind or I’m helping to kill humankind.” Her face was pale, and her eyes wrinkled in worry. She rubbed her hand on her pant leg. “Mars save us all.”

  She shook her head and had good reason to. She was right. If they found the Ark and put it in Jonas Moon’s hands, and the guy couldn’t do what he said he could with the contraption, then the entire planet would explode and join the asteroid belt.

  Ozzy leaned forward. “I see it.” A large black shadow was tucked in between two red rock ridges. He glanced at the capsule’s map. “Yep, that’s the entrance.”

  Could it really be that easy? They actually didn’t need to dig deep into the mountain?

  He closed the capsule, tucked it into his satchel, and zipped it closed, wishing his luck would hold. Jozi opened the cabin door, and Gragas stood and jumped out. He froze in place while staring at the sky. “Incoming craft. Three of them.”

  Ozzy grabbed his rifle and jumped out next, followed by Jozi.

  “The High Judge doesn’t want us to get this,” Jozi growled. “What is his problem? Those are S-9 MMP ships.”

  Ozzy squinted, his lips drawing down when he saw the rear ship. “No, those are two S-9’s and Zeld’s starfighter.” He moaned. “Just what we need: Zeld.” He turned and walked up the rocky incline. They needed to get this Ark and fast. “Let’s go,” ordered Ozzy, picking up his pace and heading toward the entrance.

  Gragas unholstered two double-barreled photon guns and held them up, turning and rushing after Ozzy. Jozi rushed back into the Hawk, emerging with her own rifle. She strapped it over her shoulder and trekked up the incline.

  They moved around a boulder and pushed their way up to the red rock ridges.

  “Almost there,” shouted Ozzy, finding a foothold on a rock and pushing off. “Up ahead.” He took a few more steps and paused. Thrusters burst loudly behind him, echoing against the rock walls. Zeld and the MMP were about to land.

  “I’ll stay here and hold them off. You get the Ark,” said Gragas, pressing against the edge of a boulder and hiding his body from view.

  “MMP agent protocol is to destroy a criminal’s unoccupied ship just in case the bad guy finds his way back to the ship for a fast getaway,” said Jozi. “Try to take out their ships as well, but make sure you leave one of their ships intact. We need one to escape. Got it?”

  Gragas nodded. “Got it. Now, go.”

  Jozi saluted and passed Ozzy on the slope.

  Ozzy patted Gragas on the back. “Thank you. I owe you one.”

  Gragas shook his head, keeping his eyes on the landing ships. “You don’t owe me anything. Galactic Knights don’t keep score.”

  That’s not how it worked in Ozzy-land, but all the better. Keeping score and being owed and owing others was part of the criminal life.

  He spun back around and marched toward the shadowed entrance.

  “Turn on your EVA lights,” said Jozi, flicking on her own EVA
illumination, lighting up the rocks around them.

  They crested a small, rocky hill and came to a halt. The entrance, only a few meters away, was dark, but not because it was shadowed.

  Was that a wall? It shimmered like a graviton shield, but this one was pitch black.

  Jozi walked up to it, inspecting the anomaly. She went to touch the black shield.

  “Wait,” said Ozzy.

  A pile of clothes was tucked away near some rocks at the entrance. He walked over and picked them up. A very familiar archaeology insignia was stitched on the shoulder. “What the hell? This is Toph Bailey’s EVA and jumpsuit?” Did the guy vanish into thin air? Did he disintegrate by touching the shadow? If so, why didn’t his clothes go with him?

  “What happened to him?” Jozi said.

  A capsule, identical to the capsule Ozzy had, was lying next to the clothes. How many capsules were there?

  “I don’t know, but don’t take another step, Jozi.” This was his find, his responsibility. If danger lurked behind the veil, it would be better if he was the one who initially encountered it. “Let me go first.”

  Jozi stepped back, and Ozzy cautiously stepped forward. He pressed into the shadow with his hand.

  He yelped. A jolt of electricity zipped through his fingers and rattled across his body. He shot backward and into the air like being catapulted out of a cannon. He landed on his back with a thud, letting out a loud grunt.

  “Are you okay?”

  Ozzy shook his head, rubbing his helmet as if it was his skull. “What the hell was that?”

  “It looks like a shield,” said Gragas, now leaning up against a large jutting rock, aiming his guns down the hill.

  The Galactic Knight had changed positions and did so without making a sound.

  The guy was good.

  “I know it’s a shield, but shields don’t shock you like that,” replied Ozzy.

  “That one does,” Gragas said.

  Thank you, Mr. Obvious.

  In the distance, rock and pebbles cascaded down the hill. Zeld and the MMP agents were well on their way.

  “They’ll be here soon,” said Jozi. “Are you accurate with those guns, Gragas?”

  “Yes, indeed,” reassured Gragas. “Unstrap your rifle and help me keep them a good distance from Ozzy, will you?”

  Jozi pulled her rifle off of her shoulder and held it out, crouching next to a rock, hiding from view. Jozi was a crack shot like she always claimed, which meant Zeld didn’t know what was about to hit her.

  Ozzy unzipped his satchel and pulled out the capsule. He opened it, and the hologram shot outward, and a red dot blinked. It was his position, or better yet, the capsules current location.

  “There have to be directions somewhere on this hologram,” he said to himself. He pointed the capsule at the shield. The dot blinked faster. He took a step forward. The dot flashed at a quicker clip.

  He touched the tip of the capsule onto the black shield. The tip went through. His mouth gaped. The capsule was shieldproof if there was such a thing.

  He paused, thinking. Maybe he had to lead with the capsule in order to get through?

  He took another step forward. The capsule was now halfway through the shield.

  It was working.

  “I’m a flipping genius,” he said under his breath. His gloved hands were wrapped around the capsule and hadn’t yet touched the shield.

  He took another step. His gloves skimmed the shield. A bolt of lightning jumped through him. He jerked back and flailed his arms. The capsule went into the air and landed, bouncing across the rocks behind him.

  He lost his balance and landed on his side.

  Jozi yelled over her shoulder. “You alright over th—”

  Wapooh! Wapooh!

  A handful of broken rocks tumbled down on top of Ozzy like rain. Dirt and dust shot upward, creating a fog around him. Ozzy rolled, moving out of the way, and lunged for the rock wall next to him. He leaned against it, his body hugging the side.

  Zeld and the MMP agents were here.

  “Firing now,” shouted Jozi. “Time to meet my blaster.” She aimed, along with Gragas, and they littered the terrain in front of them with hundreds of photon shots, their rifles and guns recoiling with every trigger pull.

  From Ozzy’s angle, he couldn’t see Zeld or the MMP agents.

  “Get back up, Ozzy. No time for a rest,” ordered Gragas.

  Ozzy took a step and stumbled to his knees, cringing in pain. Maybe his adrenaline wore off because it suddenly felt like someone had jabbed him in the gut while simultaneously punching him in the ribs.

  Being electrocuted hurt.

  He pushed himself into a standing position and took several breaths, trying to gather himself.

  He glanced at his hands, remembering that the capsule went flying.

  He had to find it.

  Wapooh! Wapooh!

  Blasts pounded against the ground next to him, throwing rock onto his radiation visor.

  He jumped back against the rock wall. “Where is it?”

  “Where is what?” asked Jozi, popping off shot after shot.

  “The capsule.” He studied the small enclosure like a professional surveyor, waving his hand in front of his face, doing his best to push away the dust cloud in front of him. “I can’t see a thing.”

  He went to his hands and knees, reaching out and patting the rocky ground. “Where are you?” He scrounged for the capsule like a blind man.

  His hand brushed against something hard. He picked up the object, his eyes lighting up in hope, and then his hope faded. “Damn.” It was a rock.

  He tossed it aside, searching more.

  He continued to pat the ground. What if the capsule blew up or broke when he dropped it? What if one of the photon blasts destroyed the thing?

  A photon bolt zipped over his head, sucking into the shielded entrance, creating a small electric storm, shooting lightning bolts every which way.

  Ozzy rolled, not wanting to get shocked again.

  But a good thing happened. The dust particles fizzled into smoke from the lightning zaps, vanishing a moment later.

  And there she was—the capsule—laying on the ground across from him.

  Ozzy dove, extending his arms, reaching for it. A burst of photon beams blasted the ground in front of him. Ozzy grabbed the capsule and crawled away, butting up against the rock wall he had been using as cover.

  He opened the capsule, and a hologram shot outward again. “There’s got to be something, anything, that will tell me how to get inside. Give me some damn instructions, please.”

  A photon charge singed the rocks in front of him.

  He ignored it and pointed the capsule at the shield for a second time. The red dot blinked. He walked forward, and the dot blinked faster.

  But from his last attempt, walking through the shield wasn’t the best strategy.

  He waved his finger through the capsule’s hologram, hoping for some type of response.

  Nothing happened.

  He touched the dot, poking his finger through the red icon. Again, nothing.

  He studied the hologram. The entrance on the hologram was black, just like the real entrance. “Okay.” He pushed his finger into the hologram’s entrance.

  The hologram changed, forming hieroglyphic symbols that scrolled across the screen.

  Another blast riddled rock and dirt near him. He jumped back, dropping the capsule.

  The capsule remained on. Symbols were flowing from left to right. Ozzy crouched, reading the Ancient Coptic writing. He was a wiz at translating that language but this was going too fast.

  He had to concentrate.

  “Have you almost figured it out, Ozzy? They’re coming closer,” Jozi shouted. “We can hold them off but not all day.”

  Ozzy nodded. “Okay, okay.”

  An animal scrolled across the holographic screen, resembling an ox from Earth. Then a bird, an eternity symbol, and a leaf. Next, the tree of life. And it kept g
oing. A human, or a Martian, he couldn’t tell. Another tree of life. A Martian plucking a leaf off of the tree of life.

  Then more symbols, all saying similar things but not being too obvious.

  “What’s it trying to say?” he mumbled.

  “Hurry, Ozzy,” said Jozi, pulling the trigger and ducking under a boulder as a barrage of energy beams slammed into the surrounding rock. She poked her head up, shooting again, then ducked back down.

  Gragas was crawling up a rock, trying to find a better position to take out Zeld and the agents.

  Ozzy glanced back at the capsule.

  A hieroglyph jumped out at him. It was the classic symbol for skin, which also meant bare. In fact, going over all the hieroglyphs that were floating in front of him, none of the animals bared any fur or feathers. Even the Martians were naked and bald.

  Most importantly, the Martians were stripping the leaves off of the tree of life.

  Stripping.

  Bare.

  Naked.

  He stared at the glyph and then at the shadow. “No, no, no.”

  The only way through the shield was without any fake skin.

  Fake skin was clothes.

  Fake skin was a helmet.

  Fake skin was a jumpsuit.

  Shit.

  Fake skin was an EVA.

  He had to go through the veil butt-ass naked. He looked down at Toph Bailey’s clothes.

  The guy had figured it out.

  You have to be kidding me.

  He let out a breath. “Here goes nothing.”

  28

  Olympus Mons, Mars

  “I have to go naked,” informed Ozzy.

  “What?” Jozi asked, continuing to blast photon fire.

  A thunderous roar lit up the heavens. Ozzy glanced at the sky, and his eyes widened.

  A handful of Dunrakee cruisers, more than a dozen frigates and a plethora of other craft, were descending through the atmosphere.

  Another armada had arrived.

  “Oh my Mars,” yelled Ozzy.

  “They’ve brought more than we detected,” Gragas said. “It’s another assassin fleet.” He went back to pressing the trigger and unloading photon shots at Zeld and the MMP agents, who were most likely hiding behind cover.