Prelude to War (Athena Lee Chronicles Book 9)

by T S Paul

  ~~~

  Lieutenant Traviss Hicks was having the worst day of his entire career in the Navy. This was his first week in his position of repair technician. When he originally joined the Martian armed forces it was as a Starfighter repair technician. He soon discovered that to get ahead and make more credits he need to be able to do more. When training was offered he took it. He cross-trained as a missile-tech, then a console and communications repair specialist. It was just his luck to be in the command center when the attack hit. He assumed rank over a scratch built squad made up of communication techs and intelligence wonks. He was the only marksman among them. Traviss was still kicking himself for killing that first assassin. He was completely unaware that the man was wearing an explosive vest. His unit was keeping the two assassins hunkered down behind the Scan desk. The enemy would occasionally lob explosive devices around the room so he peppered shots at them forcing their heads down. His men were only armed with light infantry weapons. They didm’t have any explosive power to penetrate the desk and other obstacles in the way.

  One of his men caught his attention as two women crawled into his position. He almost stood and saluted! “Primus! Are you OK?”

  Amalie glanced up at the man speaking and took in his technician uniform. “I’m fine Lieutenant. We need to get to my office. There is an escape hatch we may use located there.”

  Traviss nodded. “OK, we will do what we can to get you there.” He eyed the other woman. She was wearing a PPL Marine uniform. This must be the Hong Kong Ambassador’s girlfriend. You had to be either living in a cave or from off planet to not know all about those two beautiful women.

  He examined the route they would need to take to get to the office. Faint wisps of blond hair stuck out from below the window. The Ambassador must still be in the office. There was only one way to get them there. Hopefully the other defenders would see what they were doing and help.

  Working their way around the short distance to the large opening the small group hid behind the logistics desk.

  “Primus, my men and I will engage the enemy directly. You and the lieutenant MUST run behind us and enter the office.”

  “Lieutenant! We can’t do that. You and your men will be exposed to enemy fire! You could be killed! My life is not worth all of yours.”

  “I beg to differ Primus. It is, especially after what you just said. You value the lives of everyday Martians the same across the services. I will gladly give my life to save yours! For this I am pulling rank. You wrote the law yourself, Ma’am. In Military matters the civilian government will allow the military to deal with it. No micro-management allowed.”

  “Fine, fine. If you survive this Lieutenant, I expect you to consider a transfer to my personal forces!”

  “Yes, Ma’am!”

  Traviss’s men began firing every weapon that they had at the enemy assassins. He and one other tech stepped out into the open area between the last barricade and the office. He joined his man in attacking the enemy. The few surviving troops on the other side of the room stared in shock as the rate of fire increased. It wasn’t until they saw the Primus of Mars slip into the office did they realize what was happening. Then they too began to concentrate their weapons on the enemy’s position. Dar took advantage of the increased fire and ran for the office. She slid through the broken glass and debris, almost crashing into Amalie who was on the floor holding Gaston’s broken body in her arms.

  ~~~

  I watched as my girlfriend dove into the office. Afraid for her, I cried out as she slid through the glass. Chancing a look outside the office I could see the brave troops firing on the enemy from out in the open. I gave them a thumbs up to tell them that Amalie and Dar made it. The officer in charge was the last to get under cover, but it appeared that none of the defenders were killed.

  “Grandmother, please. We need to get out of here!” She would not budge.

  I finally slapped her on her cheek. She looked up in anger. “I’m sorry Grandmother but his last command to me was to take you to safety. Please, come with me!”

  Amalie nodded. She carefully laid Gaston’s body down and crawled over to the hidden door. Pressing a complicated looking finger-lock, the door popped open. Inside was a dark, short hallway, and a pole. Amalie grabbed the pole and slid down it. The hall got even darker as Dar closed and locked the door from the inside. We followed my Grandmother down the pole. At the bottom of the pole was a small room containing encounter suits and supplies. A small solar powered tram was parked in front of a large door.

  “Only Gaston knew of this place. It was his go-to-hell plan. I owe that man so much!” She choked back another round of tears. “Come along girls. The door leads to outside. We have to go around to the main entrance to get back inside. If the city was compromised, we have enough fuel and supplies to cross half of Mars if we needed to.”

  ~~~

  “Come on you pricks! Do you want to live forever?” The topside barricades had finally been cleared. The regular forces refused to try to enter the base after losing over half of their force to booby traps. Special forces had to be called in to help. The Major in charge took one look at the security forces and replied. “Really?”

  Major Benson Payne had zero respect for the forces arrayed in front of him. “Woliger! Front and center corporal!”

  “Sir, yes Sir!”

  “Take Opie over there and clear these traps. We have a Primus to save! The rest of you maggots load up!”

  The security commander ran over to Payne to protest. He grabbed the Major’s arm and found a foot of navy steel under his nose. “What you doing there Porky?”

  The slightly overweight commander glared at the Special operations officer. “I am in charge here. Get those men out of there it’s not safe!”

  “Look here Porky. My job is all about killing. And business is good! You can sit up here with your thumb up your ass but my men and I are going that way!”

  Gathering his men Major Payne entered the base.

  Chapter 16

  As soon as we stepped outside into the Martian night air, I noticed a difference. The sky over the Dilmun dome was filled with ships! What looked like two squadrons of Mars new advanced Ares Fighters were patrolling overhead. Armed drop ships hovered over the main entrances to the dome. The question was, who did they belong to?

  Amalie, not wanting to screw around, triggered her communicator and sent a message to find out!

  “Primus! This is Major Arcola, Martian ground forces, are you in need of assistance?”

  “Major are any of my security forces available?”

  “Ma’am, most are attempting to secure the city and penetrated the command center. We will try to find one for you.”

  “Grandmother, let me try something different.” I began mentally screaming for Wilson. He failed to answer, so I did it vocally inside my mask.

  “Wilson! I know you leave something so you can hear me. I need you right now!” I gasped for breath a few times. Yelling is hard with an air mask on.

  “Did he hear you?”

  “I hope so. He leaves some sort of monitor in place when he leaves. I figured that out a few months ago. He knew things that he couldn’t have known if he was where he said he was.”

  “That sounds a little complicated.” Amalie was staring at me.

  “Sometimes it is like having a child loose in the store. Do I just yell for him or do I put it on the intercom?”

  “I would prefer that you just yell.” I jumped when I heard his voice in my head. He was back!

  “Thank you Wilson! Now where in the hell were you?”

  “Sorry, I left to find the answers to the question of why a member of the Dorr family would betray them. I found it, but then followed a few other leads as well. I see I missed all the action?”

  “That is your understatement of the day! Can you do us a favor and find out the loyalty of Major Arcola?”

  “Athena, tell your grandmother she can trust the Major. His second in comman
d, however is on one of the arrest on sight lists. Do not trust him. I will find out why he is still around if you like?”

  I relayed the information to grandmother, and she grimaced. The list of traitors went out several weeks ago. It should have been resolved within the military at once. This was troubling to say the least.

  “Athena, can he find out why the other officer was not arrested?”

  Wilson beat me to it. Great minds, even electronic ones, think alike. “Tell her that Commander Tuscadaro is Arcola’s cousin. He refuses to believe that she would be involved in something such as the Cabal. He has prevented her arrest and has gone so far as to hide her from your investigators.”

  “Is there anyone else on the list in his command?”

  “Yes, the Major’s security force is filled with wanted criminals. Athena don’t let these people rescue you!” I shook my head.

  “Wilson, can you find and contact Dorr house security?” I had a stray thought. Why not be protected by those with absolute trust?

  “I have already sent the message.” I thanked him.

  “Grandmother we need to lie low until your people show up.”

  “I agree dear. Let’s step back into the tunnel shall we? It is hidden from most scanners.”

  As we opened the door and stepped inside, I heard Wilson again. “Athena all of you need to get under cover! The Major is worried he lost contact with you and is triangulating the last transmission and has sent one of the air wings to search for you.”

  We all three hurried back inside slamming the door shut. Amalie activated the atmosphere controls and air was pumped back into the room.

  “Athena dear, did Wilson say if he found out why my grand nephew turned traitor on the family?”

  The room we were in was connected to the vid network so Wilson popped up on the screen on the wall. “Primus, I did find out what you wanted to know, but it isn’t good.”

  “Hit me with it! I’m a tough old broad.”

  “Your nephew isn’t your nephew, so he’s not a traitor.”

  “Uh, say what?” Amalie had a shocked and brain freeze moment. I could relate to that, Wilson did that to me on a regular basis.

  “The boy found with his dead parents was not your nephew. Somehow he was switched.”

  “Wilson, I remember that accident. The boy was found buried under a ton of rock and debris! He was lucky to be alive after that ordeal.”

  “That may be true but he is still not a part of your family. The boy, Matthew, had his yearly physical shortly before joining his parents that summer. After he was found buried with their bodies all the medical professionals cared about was insuring his safety and life. No one bothered to run a DNA check or body scan to see if he was the same child.”

  Amalie was frozen in place. “They didn’t? At all?”

  “No they did not. Later, when he returned to school, they ran one. When they tried to compare it to the baseline record, they discovered that a computer malfunction erased the school’s entire database. A new baseline was prepared using the current child. They never bothered to track down an older one to compare. I found one in the house backup files. House Dorr had the original one from birth and one done when he fell out of a tree at age three. House Dorr stores a great deal of information like this, unknown to the general public.”

  Amalie was now nodding her head in agreement. “So when he entered the Academy? Did anyone bother to check for anomalous scans?”

  “They did not. However, he was injured in an aircar accident in his second year. Local security forces took a sample and sent them to house security for comparison. That is standard procedure in cases of perceived negligence.”

  “Did they catch the difference?” She could not believe that her own security missed this!

  “The chief investigator did. He scheduled a meeting with Dorr house for the next day. That night he was found dead, the victim of a robbery. All of his case files and work material was missing, and the backups wiped clean. It is recorded as a revenge killing by someone he put away.”

  “I just can’t believe this!”

  “Primus, the Cabal went to great lengths to get someone inside the command center. I found several cases where information leaks had to have come from him. They must really want you dead to burn this many assets.”

  “Thank you Wilson for all your hard work.”

  “I’m sorry I was not here. I might have noticed the initial intrusion of the base.”

  “Not your fault! Even the CATTs missed it.”

  I looked up at Wilson on the screen. “Do you know what’s happening in the city? Have the terror attacks stopped?”

  “They have. Many of the Cabal forces have been arrested already. That is the really strange part of the attacks.”

  “Why, what happened?”

  “Quite a few families and individuals have been on the fence when it comes to the Cabal. They made a mistake attacking the concert at the Viking school. It seems the band UnknownWorld is immensely popular here on Mars. Fans of the band are up in arms across the planet! Injuring lead singer Bethany Ann and wounding a few of her Bitches was the worst thing the Cabal could have done. The younger generation of fans turned their families in for supporting the Cabal. The rallying cry is how dare they hurt the Queen Bitch! I’m afraid I’m not up on modern music as I prefer disco.”

  “That is awesome! What about the base? Have you heard anything?”

  “There isn’t anything on the Net but, I did find a complaint report by ground force security against Special Forces commander Major Payne. It seems he took his men into the base against orders.”

  “If anyone can hunt down the intruders, it is Payne and his men. They may have unconventional tactics but they get the job done.” Amalie looked pleased.

  “Primus, your house security force has arrived outside. Their messages cannot penetrate the shielding of the safe room.”

  “Wilson will you inform the commander that we are coming out?”

  “Done.”

  “Come along girls. We need to get to safety now.”

  We all donned our outerwear again. Amalie triggered the doors, and we walked outside. A clearly marked House Dorr drop ship sat outside with guards surrounding it. The flight commander saluted and opened the ship's door allowing us to enter it.

  “Captain? Is it safe to proceed?”

  “Yes, Primus. Major Arcola and his entire staff have been arrested. We transferred them up to the Station to keep them out of trouble for now.”

  “Excellent work Captain! Take us to the secondary command center. We need to regain control of the situation.”

  ~~~

  Major Payne and the small squad of special operators carefully made their way down into the darkened base. It was amazing that two teams of enemy agents could do this much damage. It had to have been an inside job. They cautiously entered the base cafeteria. Many of the lights were sparking and shorting out. Some sort of large explosion seemed to have been triggered here. Piles of dead bodies were scattered around the dining area.

  Corporal Dunn was watching his step looking for hidden explosives or triggers when he heard a noise that sounded like a sob.

  PO1 Sanders was in tears. He was unable to save any of his men or his friends in the kitchen. He barely survived the last blast. Subduing the first enemy was fairly easy. Everyone falls down when hit in the head by a heavy wrench. The second one, however blew himself up rather than be captured. Any of Lawrence’s friends that may have survived were killed in the explosion. He felt that it was all his fault. He should have been able to save them!

  Dunn carefully opened the freezer door more. It was already open about an inch. He could see a figure sitting on the floor. He was wearing a technicians uniform. “Freeze! Hands above your head!”

  Lawrence raised his hands above his head. He said a silent prayer that they would kill him quickly.

  “What is your name and rank?”

  “PO 1st class Lawrence Sanders. I’m the
kitchen maintenance supervisor.”

  “On your feet Sanders. Against the wall.” Lawrence faced the wall and braced himself for death.

  He felt himself being patted down then handcuffs were placed on his wrists.

  “OK Sanders, turn around and don’t move a muscle.” Placing a hand on Sanders’ chest, Dunn informed him. “We are part of Special forces. What happened here?”