Lane and his group were en route to Freedom from Deimos when the battle of Progress began. Jordan warned them not to return to Mars until the battle ended.
Jordan said, “Keep that bucket of space bolts in orbit. We need you to stay alive.”
Lane asked, “Is this channel secure?”
Jordan said, “Of course it is, but that doesn’t mean I want you telling me anything on the radio. Any information you have is too important to take a chance. It might be intercepted.”
Lane said, “Understood, sir.”
Jordan asked, “Where’s Jack?”
Lane answered, “He had to go be with his girlfriend.”
Jordan said, “We could’ve already won this war if it wasn’t for all the men running to their wives and girlfriends.”
Lane said, “It’s not their fault you can’t find someone to love. Don’t hate on them because you’re lonely.”
Jordan snapped, “You’d better let that go.”
Lane said, “Understood, sir.”
Jordan said, “Good, now keep out of that big ship’s line of sight. We need you to stay alive, and we can’t lose the Renaissance. It’s our lifeline.”
Lane asked, “Do you know their sensor range?”
Jordan answered, “I’m not sure, but I’m guessing you’re beyond it right now. Just don’t get any closer until I give you the go-ahead.
Lane answered, “Yes, sir.”
Lane moved the Renaissance out of communications range and waited for General Rich’s ship to pass. Then he moved his ship back into position to see the battle on the planet below. He did this several times until the battle ended.
***
Scout walked into Freedom’s jail. It was the temporary home of the Allied Earth’s prisoners of war and the defectors from Allied Earth’s forces. Scout wanted to try to either convert some of the prisoners to Martian thinking or extract information from them.
Scout asked a young male prisoner, “What made you come here?”
The prisoner spat in Scout’s face and flipped him the bird.
He said, “Fuck off, you criminal scum.”
Scout could tell he wasn’t going to be able to have an intelligent conversation with him, so he moved to the next prisoner. She was about thirty and very crumpled.
He asked, “You alright?”
She responded, “I’m okay. Why do you care? Aren’t you the one who’s trying to kill us?”
Scout said, “I have no intention of killing anyone. I’m a peaceful person, and my people are peaceful. We were forced into this war.”
She said, “That’s not what we were told. The General told us you stole DeNoPE’s resources. I didn’t even know what DeNoPE was before that.”
Scout said, “We came here after I formed a corporation and bought all of our supplies. I bought everything with money, so I didn’t steal anything. The laws just make it seem like stealing because I brought everything to Mars.”
The prisoner asked, “Didn’t you challenge Rich to a war, though. He said he was an unwilling participant until you sent him the threats.”
Scout said, “I didn’t send any threats. I sent a declaration of independence. We just want to have our own society. By the way, what’s your name?”
She answered, “Rhian.”
Scout said, “Rhian, what we want is a society without money.”
Rhian replied, “What’s the point of that?”
Scout said, “It makes everyone equal, so everyone has the same incentive, and the same resources, to do something great.”
Rhian said, “Rich told us you wanted to destroy the world’s economy.”
Scout said, “That’s not true; we want our own economy. It’s just so different that it requires a separate planet.”
Rhian said, “It seems I’ve been brainwashed. I was taught you were evil.”
Scout said, “If you want evil, look at the prisoners on your ship. I guarantee they’re not being treated as well as you are.”
Rhian said, “I’m sure that’s not true. Rich said we’d follow protocols to the letter.”
Scout said, “What you don’t know is Rich is a monumental liar.”
Rhian said, “Then I don’t know what to do. I don’t know who to believe. Everything I believed is a lie, but I’m sure you’re not telling me the whole story either.”
Scout said, “I’ll let you look over some of our literature. You can make up your own mind.”
The first prisoner Scout talked to yelled, “Don’t believe the commie pig. He’s a piece of shit.”
Scout said, “That’s your opinion, and you have the right to it.”
Scout talked to a few other prisoners. He handed out a few more brochures, and a few more prisoners spit on him. As he was leaving, the female prisoner got his attention.
She said, “What’s going to happen to us?”
Scout replied, “That depends on you. If you want to join us, we’ll let you once the war’s over. If you want to go home, we’ll send you home when the war’s over. We have to keep you here until the war’s over, though.”
She asked, “Why?”
Scout answered, “Because if we let you go now, you might sell us out to General Rich.”
She said, “I understand. I just hope you’re true to your word.”
Scout said, “I’ll do my best to prove our sincerity to you.”
Scout went into the pod adjacent to the one holding the prisoners of war. It held defectors from Allied Earth’s forces. Everyone who surrendered or defected was told before they were taken to the jail that they would be held there until the war ended. The Martian Republic couldn’t risk having a fake defector feeding General Rich information about the Martian military while the battle raged.
Scout asked, “Is everyone comfortable?”
The defectors were granted nearly full access to everything in the pod. The only things they couldn’t do were leave the pod and communicate with anyone outside the prison.
Kate Griffin said, “I can’t speak for everyone, but I’m happy. I don’t have to follow any ridiculous orders and I don’t have a schedule.”
Scout asked, “Anyone have any complaints?”
David Blake said, “The food sucks and we can’t watch TV from Earth. Mars shows are limited.”
Scout said, “That’s not our fault. Your leaders are blocking the TV, phone and internet signals. We’re in the same boat as you are there. As far as the food goes, rations are limited for everyone. Once the war’s over, the food will get a whole lot better.”
***
Lane returned to the spaceport. When he landed, he found Jordan waiting for him.
Jordan said, “We won the battle. They’re severely depleted. I don’t think they’ll attack you on the ground. Just make sure to keep out of the space ships’ way.”
Lane replied, “Yes, sir. I’ll get this boat down safe.”
Lane made sure there weren’t any Space Force ships in his path. Then he returned the ship to the spaceport in Freedom and reported to Jordan’s office.
Jordan asked, “What’d you find out?”
Lane answered, “There’s a supply ship on Deimos. We disabled its engines, but it’s still operational as a supply ship. We didn’t have enough firepower with us to destroy it. We’re going to have to go back.”
Jordan asked, “How big is it?”
Lane said, “It’s bigger than the Renaissance, but not as big as the General’s ship. I think they’re using it to refuel the big ship and the battle fleet. If we take it out, we’ll disrupt their supply chain.”
Jordan said, “They’re probably using it to store food and weapons. If we take it out, we’ll force them to bring reinforcements. Then we can take them by surprise by attacking the reinforcements on the way here.”
Lane asked, “Are you suggesting we attack Earth directly?”
Jordan said, “No, that would be a nightmare. They’re way too powerful and have a whole planet’s resources to fight us. We’d b
e committing suicide if we attacked Earth directly.”
Lane said, “You had me scared for a minute. I thought we were gonna leave Mars and take a crazy chance.”
Jordan said, “I want to meet them halfway here. We’re going to go into interplanetary space and track them on their way here. Then, we’ll surprise attack them and destroy the replacement ship before it arrives.”
Lane said, “That’s still insane. They’ll see us coming. They’ve got very good tracking technology. We’ll never surprise them.”
Jordan said, “But we can. Our anti-tracking technology is unknown to their trackers. That’s part of the beauty of being on another planet. They can’t force us to release our breakthroughs.”
Lane said, “So we’re going to use a sneak attack to destroy a replacement ship. But how are we going to destroy the ship they already have?”
Jordan said, “We’ll just take a few ships with a bunch of ammo and kill it. It shouldn’t be too hard.”
Lane said, “I’ll gather a team of pilots. We’ll leave tomorrow.”
Jordan said, “Just don’t lose anyone. We can’t afford too many casualties.”
Lane said, “I’ll do my best.”
Jordan said, “Dismissed.”
Lane saluted Jordan and turned about. He walked out of the office and went to gather a team to destroy the supply ship.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Battle of Deimos
Lane woke his pilots early in the morning. They did not yet know about the plan to attack the supply ship on Deimos. Reveille played and the pilots rose from their beds. They went through their morning ritual to prepare for the day.
Lane walked into the barracks as the pilots were getting ready for the day. They came to attention when they noticed him.
Lane said, “We’ve got an all week assignment starting today. We’re going to attack the Allied Earth supply line. We sent an operative to collect intelligence about their supply chain, and discovered they have a ship on Deimos. We destroyed the ship’s propulsion and communication systems, but the supplies are still there. It’s just a matter of time before they realize that ship’s disabled. We need to destroy it before they have a chance to repair it.”
The pilots didn’t blink an eye. Lane had them so disciplined that they would follow him to hell without a reason. They remained at attention as he walked through their ranks. All twenty pilots passed his thorough inspection.
Lane said, “Looks like you’re all ready. Get to your ships.”
The pilots left the barracks and went to the tarmac. They started the ships’ engines and let them warm up for a few minutes before taking off into space.
Lane ordered, “Assemble yourselves in ranks once you get in orbit so I can instruct you in case any Allied Earth ships are nearby.”
The pilots took off. They were in orbit a few minutes later. Once there, they waited for Lane to join them. Lane got there last; about two minutes after the group assembled itself.
Lane said, “It looks like General Rich and his ridiculous ship are on the other side of the planet right now. Let’s make sure to be out of his range by the time he gets that monstrosity over here.”
***
The Star Brigade pilots engaged their super-fast engines and flew toward Deimos together. A few minutes later, the Capitalist was in the same place that the Star Brigade ships had been.
General Rich asked, “Do you see what I see?”
He was looking at the computer screen and noticed a few space ship contrails.
The helmsman replied, “I see a few contrails. I think our Space Force was doing training missions this morning.”
Rich said, “No, that wouldn’t still be here. The contrails are fleeting, even in space. Their particles are pulled to the planet by its gravity. These are still fresh. Someone’s been here recently.”
The helmsman asked, “Do you want to call the Space Force?”
Rich answered, “Not yet. I think they’re probably heading for Deimos. My operative told one of our pilots that the Finance took damage a few days ago.”
The helmsman asked, “So what do you want to do?”
Rich said, “Evacuate the Finance. It’s dead in the water anyway.”
He thought out loud, “There’s no way we’ll be able to catch their space ships with ours. I know theirs are way faster.”
Then he ordered, “We’ll attack them on the way back.”
The helmsman sent an order by messenger ship to the Finance to evacuate and return to the Capitalist. The Operative received the order and relayed it to his crew. They headed for the escape pods.
The escape pods were unarmed, and clearly announced this fact to anyone in close proximity by beacon. Rich wanted to give himself an excuse to kill the Martians, so he deliberately made the escape pods easy targets.
The crew of the Finance moved toward the Capitalist as the Star Brigade ships made their way to Deimos.
“I am unarmed. Please do not fire,” blared a beacon.
***
Lane said, “It looks like they evacuated their supply ship. No one has to die today for us to win the battle.”
The pilot of ship number three said, “Should we leave the escape pods alone, then?”
Lane replied, “We have clear orders not to attack anyone fleeing and unarmed.”
The pilot asked, “How do we know that we can trust them?”
Lane answered, “We don’t, so make sure your weapons are still charged. If one of those ships shows itself to be armed, you have permission to open fire.”
The pilot said, “Understood, sir.”
The Star Brigade continued toward Deimos at top speed, which still took nearly a full day. They were unaware that the Allied Earth Space Force was assembling for battle when they returned.
***
General Rich ordered, “Do not engage them on Deimos. You are to lie in wait for them in formation 50,000 kilometers from the moon. We want to surprise attack them on the way back from what they’ll think was an easy victory.”
The Space Force pilots left the Capitalist and headed where they were told to go. They stopped once they arrived, and formed a triangle in space with their 30 ships.
***
The Star Brigade arrived at Deimos and found the Finance. Lane ordered them to ransack the ship and salvage any supplies they could use. The pilots landed on Deimos and walked into the enemy ship. They found very little on the ship. It looked like the Allied Earth forces had already cleared out most of the salvageable supplies. They did find a few rounds of ammunition and some damaged weapons, though. They collected what they found and put it on their ships. Then they returned to orbit around Deimos.
Lane asked, “Did we get everything of value off that ship?”
The first pilot replied, “What little they left. It looks like they’ve already collected most of the things that would’ve helped us.”
Lane said, “So this is only a symbolic victory. We aren’t actually going to disrupt their supply chain.”
The pilot said, “But at least they’ll have to stretch their resources.”
Lane said, “Okay, pilots: Fire on that ship.”
All the Star Brigade ships fired their machine guns at the Finance. They targeted the fuel tanks, which were very flammable. It took a few minutes of solid firing at the triple hulled ship to penetrate the three layers of six-centimeter thick titanium. Once the bullets penetrated the hull, the hot bullets ignited the alcohols in the fuel. The ship exploded and burned as the life support gasses fed the fire.
Lane said, “Okay, mission accomplished. It’s time to head back to Mars and get some rest.”
The Star Brigade pilots activated their superfast engines and headed for Mars. Twelve minutes later, they were met by the Allied Earth Space Force. The Star Brigade switched to their normal engines and tried to evade the Earth ships.
***
The Space Force commander ordered, “Don’t let any of those criminals get past us.”
Lane said, “We still have missiles. If you’re trapped, use them.”
Just then, a Star Brigade pilot fired a missile at the ship pursuing her. Her missile struck the Allied Earth ship and it exploded. The explosion was very fast. The oxygen that fed the fire was consumed seconds after the impact.
Another pilot fired a missile at the commander of the Space Force’s ship. It nicked the ship’s engine and disabled it. The commander escaped in a pod and returned to the Capitalist. The Star Brigade pilot returned to the battle.
The Space Force continued fighting without their leader. They knew their orders. They were not to allow any of the Martian criminals to get back to Mars.
Lane ordered, “We have three seekers. Fire them and let’s make this battle a little more even.”
The Star Brigade pilots, numbers five, seven, and nineteen, fired their seeker missiles. The targets were Space Force ships marked as belonging to officers. The officers knew they wouldn’t be able to engage the seeker missiles, so they evacuated their ships and returned to the Capitalist in the escape pods.
Lane said, “Good job. Now let’s get past this damned blockade and go home.”
The pilot of the twelfth Star Brigade ship said, “I see an opening. I’m going to try and go through it so I can attack from the rear. Then we can get through.”
Lane asked twelve, “How much ammo do you have on hand?”
Twelve said, “I still have all four of my missiles and sixty bullets. I’ll switch from automatic firing to single shot.”
Lane said, “Just don’t fail. We can’t do too much to help you.”
The twelfth pilot charged forward through the hole. Then she turned around and fired single shots at the Allied ships. He was very careful to aim his weapon at strategic points on the enemy vessels that would cause the most damage. She hit one ship’s fuel tank, destroying the ship and killing the pilot. Then he fired a missile at a cluster of three ships. It hit the center of the ship on top of the cluster, destroying that ship and disabling the other two. The disabled ships’ pilots used their escape pods to return to the Capitalist.
MARS: Baroque Revolution Page 16
