2 Minutes to Midnight

by Steve Lang

  Date: October 14, 2015

  Location: Mars Defense Colony, Mars

  An all hands meeting of Mars defense soldiers was being held at eight hundred hours, earth time. All essential personnel were ordered to report to a briefing from Colonel P. Sherman Hollaway in the chow hall. What had been a small scientific exploration to Mars had quickly blossomed and had become a colony of scientists and archaeologists, defended by soldiers and contracted killers from earth. The operation had been funded by a multinational conglomerate, the Mars Colony Corporation for the purpose of discovering minerals that could be used in cheap energy production back on Earth. What the mission discovered were not only ruins of ancient civilizations, but entire cities populated by two different races of aliens: the Reptilians, and Insectoids. Army, Air force, Marine, and Naval personnel guarded the colony from indigenous reptilian and insectoid inhabitants. Tensions were light between the colonists and Martians as long as each side stayed to themselves, but that was about to change. Inside the chow hall hundreds had gathered for the briefing and those who could not fit inside were viewing Colonel Hollaway from conference rooms set up with streaming video monitors. He entered the room, and before everyone could stand he put them at ease.

  “Thank you all for attending. I’ll make this quick.” Colonel Hollaway said. He gazed across the room with a stern frown.

  An image of the Martian landscape appeared on a wide screen behind him. The camera panned across the planet’s surface past a series of large cities. It stopped at the opening of a cave in the mountains.

  “The folks on Earth financing this operation have informed Mars Command Central that we are to infiltrate this cave in the northeastern mountains and retrieve a crystal shard hidden somewhere inside.”

  The room remained silent.

  “The Caldona region is heavily defended by Draco reptilian forces, and this artifact is sacred to the reptilians. Ladies and gentlemen, as you know, these guys are smart and tough. I’m sorry to say, but their weapons are far more sophisticated than ours. We’ll have to go in hard and fast, because the location of that cave is directly outside the reptilian capital city of Jhaag. Our objective is a crystal shard rumored to give the bearer second sight. Intelligence has relayed that it is the sole remaining piece of a planet destroyed a million years ago. Sergeant Major Benet will take over from here and answer any questions after the briefing.”

  Colonel Hollaway stepped away as Sergeant Major Benet stood and began to speak. The Sergeant Major had a severe look to his expression, and a long scar running from his right cheek down to the tip of his chin. This wound had been received during an insectoid attack that had left twenty of his men dead. Knocked unconscious, and wounded, the insectoids had tied him to a pole, and when he came to, his men were stacked like cord wood around his feet. The terrestrial map on the screen was replaced by slides of a road that had been taken with aerial photography that stretched around the back of a mountain.

  “The cave we’re heading to is about a hundred miles north of here, and we don’t anticipate much resistance until we get to the outskirts of Jhaag. A joint task force of Marines, Army, and Naval personnel will take this road to the northeast of our objective. Air Force bombers will be standing by if we need them. Captain Latrell is in charge of this extraction mission, and since this assignment was literally just handed to us, a roster has been posted at the back of the room for those involved. Are there any questions?” Sergeant Major Benet asked.

  Master Sergeant Carlsbad, on the front row raised a hand.

  “Sergeant Benet, do we know why we’re being sent on what seems to be a suicide mission into Draco territory?”

  Rick Carlsbad was a lifer who had hopped through the ranks to make Master in eight years and his work in aeronautical robotics at the JPL plant on Earth had earned him a ticket to the red planet. The nuclear powered dune buggies deployed to Mars were his design, and had spawned from a side project he had been working on with quantum energy drives for interstellar travel. Command felt he would be great for this mission because if they broke he was there to fix them.

  “That information is classified Sergeant, but good question. You just volunteered to head up the extraction team, Rick. There will be forty men with you inside the cave, but since those tunnels are narrow we can’t send everyone in at once. Don’t worry though, because we’ll have close to a thousand troops outside waiting with an armed response in case your team experiences retaliation. Let’s do this clean, and get in and out before the lizards even know what hit em’.”

  After the briefing, MSgt Carlsbad looked at the mission roster and his name was nowhere on it. He had forgotten a basic rule of military operations, and that is, if someone in charge asks for questions it is almost always rhetorical. Dune buggies hover craft, and electrogravitic troop transports powered by quantum field generators that gave them the ability to travel through the time-space continuum, were assembled in a convoy and ready to go as Rick pressed the ignition button on his buggy. MSgt Dave Gnal, Rick’s friend since they were in technical school together hopped in the passenger side.

  “You comin’ along for the ride?”

  “Yeah, well my name was actually on the list. Ha ha, you had to ask a question. Classic.” Dave said.

  Rick’s team was a good mix of service branches, and all drove dune buggies surrounded by troop transports, and a division of heavy armor marine assault vehicles. The air was dry, and hot as Arizona, making breathing more difficult than normal on that Martian afternoon. Dust swells kicked up in eddies as the convoy began to move forward.

  “Here we go, man. Nervous?” Dave asked.

  “A little. We’ve got a treaty with the reptilians to mine in these parts and they leave us alone. I’m not comfortable taking their property, and I think the whole think stinks like cheese. This operation is going to destroy our peace.”

  “I guess we’ll know in a few hours, right?” Dave grimaced.

  Vehicles on Mars were lighter due to more relaxed gravitational forces, and thus traveled much faster. The entire convoy was moving at eighty miles per hour in a matter of minutes. Any faster and the risk of collisions on Mars’s rocky terrain would increase dramatically. To Dave Mars was not much different than a visit to Phoenix, with the exception of lighter oxygen. A three-mile walk on mars was equivalent to hiking a good sized mountain back on Earth. The convoy moved along the Martian surface in silence, with no sign of opposition. After about two hours they were well into Draco territory. All of them felt the unease of violating a fragile peace. Five miles to the east, glass spires of the Draco capital city rose high into the late afternoon sun, and nothing moved. It had not escaped Rick’s attention that one hell of a dust storm was erupting from their convoy, and he wondered if Captain Latrell knew it, too.

  “It’s too quiet. I know we’re miles from the Dracos, but something’s not right about this.” Dave said.

  “I know. Think we’re driving into a trap?” Rick asked.

  Dave looked east without answering. Attached to the side of their buggy were two plasma rifles that each had a four hundred round capacity, but the reptilians numbered in the millions. Dave felt his stomach tighten and a nervous tingle in his crotch as he put the palm of his hand on the butt of a forty-five caliber sidearm. The technology of his pistol was antiquated, but the gun was a gift from Rick when they were younger men, and it had never failed Dave in combat.

  “Look…your GPS.” Dave said.

  “There’s the cave.” Rick replied.

  What the Colonel had failed to explain in his briefing was that the cave was at the end of a long canyon. There was one way in and out and the walls were easily a hundred feet tall.

  “This ain’t a cave entrance. It’s a kill box.” Rick said.

  Rick pulled up along the lead transport vehicle where Captain Latrell was stepping down. The silence was deafening, and none of them wanted to be there.

  “Hiya’ Sarg. You ready for this?” Captain Latrell asked.


  “As ready as I will be, sir.” Rick said.

  “Take this map with you. It has the tunnel system mapped out and the location of the shard will be blinking red. These tunnels could get you lost permanently, so don’t lose this. If you’re not back in five hours we’ll send in an extraction team.” Latrell said. Rick opened the cargo pocket of his right pants leg, handing Latrell his tablet PC. Latrell placed his own beside Rick’s and the map transferred.

  Rick, Dave, and thirty-nine other men, a few veterans and a majority of new recruits to Mars, assembled with plasma rifles and night vision glasses. They would be using infrared to see through the tunnel system, and from the look of Latrell’s map the crystal shard was about a mile into the cave. Rick turned to the men going with him.

  “Alright, listen up! We have the coordinates of the reptilian artifact in our tablets. Mine is synced with all of you boys, so anything I know, you’ll know.”

  “Sgt Carlsbad, do you think they know we’re coming?” Airman First Class Peterson asked.

  “Let’s keep the…” Rick began.

  The canyon suddenly exploded with gunfire from atop the cliffs as lasers rained down like death from above. The canyon was only wide enough to go in on foot and even their smallest vehicle was too large for the opening. Captain Latrell’s men began returning fire and they could now see that the hills and cliff crevices were alive and crawling with Draco offensive forces. Rick turned to his men one more time and screamed.

  “Run, dammit! Run like your ass is on fire!”

  Forty terrified men sprinted thorough the canyon, but one after another they were picked off by sniper fire. While running and shooting, Rick’s soldiers were able to hit only a handful of reptilians, but by the time they reached the cave opening only ten of Rick’s men were alive. Once Latrell saw that Rick’s remaining team was safe inside the cave he ordered the mortar team to lay down a barrage, aiming for the top of the cliffs. A .50 caliber turret peppered the rock face dropping reptilians while they reciprocated; reducing Latrell’s forces by as great a number. A blood bath coated the rocks and dusty ground as each side suffered enormous casualties.

  Inside the cave, Rick, Dave, and the other eight men put on their night vision glasses and were able to see clearly in pitch darkness. They moved quickly and soon the battle outside was far behind. Minutes turned into an hour as they wound around one tunnel after another following the electronic map, until they saw a light ahead of them in the cave. Rick and Dave led the way and in a few moments.

  Ten men stood in a room the size of a stadium marveling at the massive hovering crystal floating before them in the center of the cavern. It looked like a large icicle.

  “You people from Earth are so arrogant. You think you can just take what you want, when you want it, but some things are outside of your grasp.” A voice said.

  From out of the darkness a Draco priest slithered out of the shadows with his hands folded before him, and behind him were imperial guards. The ten men had removed their glasses and acclimated to the bright white light before them.

  “I had no idea.” Rick whispered.

  “This is all we have left of our home planet after it was destroyed over a million years ago. When the tectonic plates of Mars shifted ten thousand years ago our shard was covered in rock, and we have guarded her ever since. Her life force keeps the room from caving in.” The priest said.

  Rick looked at the Draco reptilian with apologetic eyes.

  “Sir, I don’t know why we were sent in here for this shard, and I’m pretty sure whoever it was thought his thing could fit in someone’s pocket, but if you let us leave I’ll never return. I can promise you that.” Rick said.

  “Rick, can you hear it? The shard is humming.” Dave said.

  “She speaks to those who will hear her council.” The priest said.

  “I hear it too,” another soldier said.

  The shard entered their minds and transported all ten men back in time to when she was a part of a great living planet. They saw waterfalls, forests, jungles, and vast oceans teeming with life. Cities of great industry rose through the trees with buildings composed of green, red and blue glass. Their society was ornamental, beautiful like Christmas trees back on Earth, but all of the time.

  “You can’t take even one piece of our mother with you. Your commanders sent you on a death mission to retrieve what they thought was a small rock that would become a gift for the grandchild of a wealthy man on your planet.” The priest said.

  Rick looked at the reptilian priest with disbelieving eyes.

  “We know a lot more than you earth men give us credit for, and our technology is far more advanced. We’d like to share this planet if you can cooperate, and respect the boundaries of our mutual societies. We Dracos have a similar treaty with the Beel Insectoids on the other side of Mars. Stop seeking treasure in our sacred areas.”

  “All these people died for a birthday present?” Dave said.

  The priest nodded.

  “Those guys are going to want something for all this trouble, and the lives lost.” Rick said.

  The priest considered this for a moment while his guards waited for the order to attack, and then he put a hand inside the pouch at his side. He brought out a small crystal that glowed red and green.

  “Here, have the rich man give this to his granddaughter.”

  “What is it?” Rick asked.

  “It’ll help her sleep at night. It’s a very good luck charm I picked up on a sabbatical to Ryjel 7. No more bad dreams for her, but essentially it’s a harmless bauble.” The priest said.

  “Sir, thank you for the gift. It’s a shame so many people had to die for…this.” Rick said.

  “We are well met, Rick Carlsbad, but the result of war is always the same end. Take the crystal and leave our people in peace.” The priest said.

  Rick, Dave, and the others bid the reptilian’s farewell, and returned to the mouth of the cave where hundreds of bodies, both reptilian and human lay strewn about like rag dolls.

  “Well, the fat cats’ll have their trinket today, but I’ll never follow another order to attack these people again. They died because a faceless man in a suit told them to.” Dave said.

  Rick held the object, rolled it over in his hand, and surveyed the carnage before them. Rick wondered if anyone else in high command had known the real reason why so many good men and women died that day. He supposed it didn’t matter.

  “We’ve been looking at this the wrong way, buddy. The reptilians may not be the monsters we thought they were.” Rick said.

  Dave nodded.

  “I’m up for retirement in a few months, and I think this time I’m taking it.” Dave shook his head.

  They walked through a graveyard of dead men, women, and reptilian soldiers piled alongside canyon walls as Rick shook his own head in disgust. The only soldiers alive were Draco, and as Rick and his men approached they stepped aside, rifles at their sides. Nearly a thousand men had been killed for a birthday present.

  “Me too. Let’s get the hell off this rock and go fishin’.” Rick said.

  For their bravery in combat each man who survived was promoted in rank, and received a medal of honor, as well as a Mars Combat Veteran ribbon for their dress uniform rack. Rick had no idea if those giving orders back on Earth would try to take anything else from the Dracos, but he suspected the reptilian army would be ready if they did.

  the gate

  Two adventurous engineers open an interdimensional gate, but when they awaken the Ism, what horrors await?

  Phillip Howard had worked on the gateway with diligent patience in his basement for almost two years, and now it was finally operational. Two electrical wires connected his magnetic zero point field generator to a limestone statue resembling the entrance to Luxor temple in Egypt. Months spent grinding and chiseling the stone, and following his translated instructions had paid off. The copper tablets explained that there were magical properties contained within limestone, and it mad
e from the same material used in construction of the Giza pyramid. That, and red granite, but limestone was far more accessible, and cheaper. After some trouble he was able to locate the amount he needed for a miniature version of the doorway, which meant that he had to modify the original schematic, but this, was only a test. Roger Tanley, his friend and spelunking partner, when the tablets were found, would soon be there with him to open the gate for longer than a second.

  While Phillip waited for Roger his mind played back to the day they had discovered the ancient tablets during their vacation in Peru. Far below the surface, and deep within the dark recesses of a cramped and frighteningly tight cave they found a gold box. It looked more like a pirate’s treasure chest, and it was covered in slime and bat guano, waiting for someone to stumble upon it. How long ago it had been resting there was impossible to tell, but when they lifted the lid there were nineteen carved stone tablets within. Smuggling those tablets out of Peru had proven to be a challenge and more than once required evading detection, and a possible jail sentence. Phillip remembered their conversation.

  “So, what do you think this is? I mean the hieroglyphics look like they’re Egyptian, or something.” Phillip said. Joel held one of the tablets in a gloved hand, turning it over.

  “Where did you guys find these? They’re exquisite, and in pristine condition.” Joel asked.

  “Well, that’s a bit sticky actually. We had to smuggle them out of Peru.”

  “You didn’t steal these or anything did you?” Joel laughed.

  “No, no, we didn’t steal anything. Roger and I were spelunking in a long set of caverns when we ran up on the gold box that contained these tablets. It was nearly covered in bat shit. We figured the Peruvian authorities were not going to just let us walk out of the country with them, so we snuck the tablets out.” Phillip said. His smile was sheepish, and he hoped that what he had revealed would not come back to bite him later.

  “It’s Sumerian, and I can understand a lot of it thanks to the work of Zecharia Sitchin.” Joel said. His brow furrowed as he examined each tablet.