by Bob Lee
# # #
Grant walked up behind Sergey and looked over his shoulder at what he was working on. On the desk he could see a weapon designed for a science fiction movie. “Well, so you wanted to show me a Buck Rogers ray gun?” he asked. “Has it really come to this?”
Sergey looked back over his shoulder at the Commander. “Nyet, not Buck Rogers,” he said. “James Bond!”
“Really? Alright, I’ll bite. What does it do?”
“It is my recreation of the Gyrojet Rocket Pistol from the 1960s.”
Grant laughed out loud. “Of course, I should have guessed. Something that outlandish deserves a wild name like that. Tell me about it.”
“The bazooka and rockets idea from Mission Control got me to thinking, as you Americans say. My grandfather was an avid gun collector. His prize possession was a 1985 Russian SVD Dragunov sniper rifle with infrared detection and auto-ranging reticle, but he had many other rare guns. He had a Russian Berdan II from the 1880s, a Burnside American Civil War carbine, and even a German Elephant Gun from the year 1844. We do not have the ability to create any of these, although an elephant gun might be very handy if we ran into a large creature. But I still remember one in his collection that really caught my eye. It was the Gyrojet Rocket Pistol. My grandfather told me that it was actually tried unsuccessfully in your American Vietnam War and was featured in the James Bond movie, You Only Live Twice. It requires no gunpowder, is simple to make and works on the rocket principle.”
The Commander looked at the device on the table. It looked like a very large pistol. The barrel was a cheap looking tube with large holes perforating it like Swiss cheese. There was a large lever sticking out in front of the handle, above the trigger. There were a few solid looking bullets lying next to the device. “So how does it work?” he asked.
Sergey picked up one of the bullets. There were three vents in the back, surrounding the percussion device. “These vents are the exhaust for the propellant,” he said, showing the Commander. “The bullet is really a small rocket, and the vents are angled slightly so that they impart a spin to the bullet. This is where the Gyrojet name is derived. Here, look closely,” he said, handing one of the bullets to the Commander.
“Wow, look at that,” Grant said. It looked similar to the back of a bullet, with the percussion dot in the center, but it was surrounded by three slits for the exhaust to exit the projectile.
“There are many advantages to such a device. First, there are no springs in the firing mechanism and it is very simple to build. You cock this lever, and when you pull the trigger the lever flips up and back, pushing the bullet into the firing pin. The rocket bullet ignites and starts forward. There is no recoil as you would have in a regular gun. The barrel needs no reinforcement. As the bullet goes forward, it pushes the firing lever ahead and down, so that it is automatically cocked for the next shot. There is also no casing that needs to be ejected. The whole bullet travels out of the gun.”
“So what are the disadvantages? Why was it unsuccessful?” Grant asked.
“Well, it takes about twenty meters for the Gyrojet bullet to achieve full speed, since it is a mini-rocket. If the object is too close, the bullet would probably just bounce off of it. I heard that in the dense jungles of Vietnam, there was no room to build up speed and there were reports that even thick leaves a few feet away would stop the bullet. There were also manufacturing problems with making the vents precisely, so the bullets were wildly inaccurate.”
“And you expect us to use this with all of those disadvantages?” Grant asked incredulously.
“Da, it will work much better for us. I have created the printing models, and our manufacturing is much more precise with our 3D printer than they had seventy years ago. The bullets will fly true in this thin air. And there are no obstructions here on Mars. As long as you shoot at something over twenty meters distant, this will be as effective as any modern rifle. This is very light and reliable with only a few moving parts. We do not have to worry about dust clogging the mechanism, which would be a big problem for any normal rifle here on this planet.”
“But will it actually work? It just seems too outlandish!” Grant said skeptically.
“I tried it earlier today outside. Do not worry,” he said, noticing the look that he received from Grant. “I followed your orders not to go out alone. I went with Brad.”
Brad joined in from where he was at the rover control panel. “That’s right, Commander. I saw it for myself. That crazy thing actually works. He put holes in a bunch of the rocks out there.”
“Can you make enough for each of us?” asked Grant, who was becoming convinced.
“Da, da, it is very simple mechanism. And the bullets are very safe. We do not have to worry about making bulky rockets that could explode.”
“Serge, you’re a genius. Make enough of them so that we have backups. I want this to be a priority.”
“Excellent. I will start immediately,” Sergey said, satisfied at the praise he had received. “I should have enough by the end of the week for us to start training with them.”
CHAPTER 27
One month later …
“Joon-bee! Mog-pyo! Hwa-jai!” A volley of fire erupted, sending bullets flying across the Moon’s surface.
“Hwa-jai, Hwa-jai,” Another two volleys spewed their destruction at the targets. At least a few projectiles hit.
“Good. Now have them reform, Li Xiansheng,” commanded NCO Wong.
“Position two, on my command,” Li Julong said reluctantly. “Execute.” He could not believe that he had been railroaded into becoming the second in command of the military drills. The general had gone back on his promise. Every fiber of the scientist rebelled at commanding men to shoot firearms, but he had no choice if he was to avoid punishment.
The third row of three Koreans rushed to reform. Those three, who had had their backs braced against the second row to negate the recoil of their rifles, turned around to face forward. The middle row of four Koreans who were standing now knelt, leaning their backs against the legs of their comrades. The front row of three Koreans who had been kneeling stood and scurried to become the third row in the rear. They leaned their backs against the second row. Their function was to brace the formation while covering any threats from the rear. The two front rows were now ready to commence their bombardment.”
“Joon-bee! Mog-pyo! Hwa-jai!” the NCO barked, giving the ‘Ready, Aim, Fire’ command in Korean once more. Another fusillade of bullets spewed towards the targets. As before, with such a mass of projectiles, at least a few found their nearby objective.
“Now, have them move to the next enemy,” Sgt. Wong told Julong through their helmet radios.
“Dragon formation, form up,” said the chief scientist. The Koreans who were kneeling stood, and the ones in the back faced forward. They all took their guns and slid them into bags and closed them up to protect them against the invasive Moon dust. This only took a moment, and Julong yelled, trying to be a bit more convincing this time, “To the next location!”
The three row formation scurried towards the next set of targets. They did not require any ‘hup, two, three, four,’ or ‘left, right, left’ chants. Their formation running and Taekwondo martial arts forms practice of the last month had allowed them to perfect moving as one. The Koreans all hopped from their left foot to their right in sync, looking in their spacesuits like a group of demonic Pillsbury Dough Boys in motion. The chief scientist brought up the rear, carrying the spare rifles, which were also contained in bags and tied in a giant cluster on his back. “And they also made me a glorified pack mule,” Julong thought in disgust. As the formation reached a position close to their next target, he said, “Halt. Assume position three.” The scientist was huffing and puffing, but after a month of this he at least was no longer on the verge of collapse. He pulled the quick release tab and the bagged spare rifles slid to the ground.
The three rows of Koreans unpacked their rifles and the kneeling and st
anding rows prepared to fire. As soon as they were ready, Sgt. Wong, who had followed the group, gave them the ‘Ready, Aim, Fire,’ command in Korean once more.
“I’m jammed,” one of the women called to him on the radio as the others fired. Julong tapped one of the men in the third row, and he switched places with the woman. Julong unpacked a spare rifle and handed it to her. He loathed even touching the things, but he had no choice. As the woman checked the rifle and readied herself to be put back into action, the front two rows continued firing.
“Attention!” ordered Sgt. Wong as he started to walk around the group. The Koreans all stopped shooting, the front row stood, the back row faced forward, and the ten men and women put their guns on their shoulders. They were careful to place the safeties on, not wishing to shoot a bullet in the air that might come down upon their comrades.
“Excellent work. I believe we are as ready as we could be,” said the sergeant. “This is the last practice, as we leave for Mars today. Are there any final questions?”
“Sir, we have watched you practice out here alone,” one of the men asked. “Why do you never shoot with us? And why do you have Lao Li give some of the commands?” the fellow said, using the words for ‘Old Li’ in reference to the scientist.
“You must be self-sufficient, as you are the main strike force. There may be times when I am not with you. Since I am the only true shot among us who can hit a target with consistency, I may place myself in another location to better affect the outcome of a battle. A dictum of Sun Tzu in his Art of War states ‘the general who is skilled in defense hides in the most secret recesses of the earth.’ We must be smarter than our enemy in any upcoming fight and possibly lay traps for them. I may need to position myself away from you, hidden and unseen, in order to stop an enemy as he is focused upon you. Remember, be brave and stand your ground. I will be with you at all times, even if you cannot see me.”
Li Julong blanched at the thought that he might be left alone with this group of men and women, ordering them to fire upon others. “Perhaps I could do it, if it was for self-preservation,” he thought. “But I am not sure, even then.”
The general looked at the group in front of him. “Are there any other questions?” When there were none he said, “Go and prepare yourselves. We leave for Mars in one hour.”
# # #
“Pew! Pew-pew!” Brad yelled, exhilarated.
Pffft, pffft-pffft, hissed the Gyrojet bullets as they emerged from his rocket pistol and flew across the Martian surface. One impacted on the dirt in front of the rock, another chipped the upper right corner and the last flew wildly, missing completely. The image he had sketched on the Martian boulder would have been instantly recognizable to anyone on Earth. The bulbous eyes and exposed brain enclosed in a glass bubble helmet sat there, unmarred by any impacts.
Sergey, who was hiding behind a rock nearby, stepped out and also fired at the target. He pressed the trigger and the lever above it pushed the bullet back into the firing pin, igniting the fuel inside the bullet. A small Pffft sound erupted, and a tiny bit of smoke emerged from the myriad holes in the barrel as the bullet accelerated away. Sergey felt no distracting recoil and carefully watched the bullet’s thin curlicue trail of smoke. The bullet chipped the lower left corner of the rock, leaving the untouched alien head still leering at him.
Annoyed that the Gyrojet bullets were still not as accurate as he had hoped, he said to Brad over the radio, “What is that ‘pew’ sound you keep uttering?”
“C’mon Serge. Everyone knows that’s what ray guns of the future sound like. You really should have put a tiny speaker in these things to make that, you know. Pew!” he yelled again as he released another shot at the alien’s visage, hitting the bottom of the boulder. “Darn, the future isn’t as good as I imagined,” he chuckled.
Grant looked over at Charles, who was just standing there with his arm down and the rocket pistol pointing at the ground. “Chuck, you haven’t fired yet. You need to practice.”
“This is stupid,” Charles said. “I am not going to be shooting at rocks, aliens, people or anything else. What about your ‘we come in peace for all mankind’ bit you spouted when we landed? Doesn’t that mean anything?”
“The situation has changed beyond any scenario we could have imagined, Chuck. Now I order you to fire.”
“Fine,” Charles said. Since he was standing sideways to the target, he just lifted his arm out to the right, kept looking ahead at the Commander in front of him, and fired without even a glance at the boulder.
Pffft. The bullet flew straight and true, hitting the alien mockup right between the eyes.
“Hurray!” Brad and Sergey both yelled with their arms in the air, hopping up and down like demented cheerleaders.
“Great, that’s just great!’ Charles said in disgust. He threw the pistol down onto the Martian surface. “That’s it, I’m done. I most emphatically am not participating in this nonsense any more,” he yelled and stomped his way back to the habitat.
Grant watched Charles’ back retreating and murmured, “I guess he just needs to let off some steam after being dumped by his fiancée. The wound is still fresh; he’ll come around eventually.” He then turned to the other two astronauts. “Move closer to the boulder. Let’s see if either of you two bozos can hit the target then. Keep practicing until you find the optimum distance.”
# # #
General Zhou DeSheng watched as the rocket ascended from the crater floor, sending Sergeant Wong, Chief Scientist Li Julong and the ten Koreans on their way to Mars with their supplies and weapons. After the small dot of the rocket had disappeared into the distance, he turned back to his desk and initiated a video call to Earth. The current head of the ruling committee appeared on his screen. “The journey to Mars has successfully commenced,” he reported to his superior. “Everything is proceeding according to schedule.”
“Excellent,” the committee head answered. “However, the international tensions over our occupation of Southeast Asia have become worse. No doubt the launch of our Mars ship will be detected by the Americans’ telescopes and they will ratchet up the pressure, probably calling for increased sanctions. We have devised a method to deflect their interference. We have taken the video of the alien attack on Mars that our spies at NASA uncovered, and we have anonymously sent it to the man who first revealed the small frog-like creature in the NASA images.”
“Is that wise, to release them to some civilian that we have no control over?” asked the general.
“Yes. Based on his past actions, he will reveal them immediately to the media. The resulting furor over NASA’s duplicity in keeping this knowledge hidden will be unprecedented. Since no one will know that we were behind the leak, we will announce that we have launched a mission to contain any alien threat, and that all knowledge will be openly shared with the world, unlike the Americans.”
“But we will not, will we?” chuckled the general.
“Most assuredly not. You must ensure that, at every encrypted communication with Sgt. Wong, you stress that this is to capture all alien artifacts for ourselves, and that under no circumstances will the mission help the Americans. They should be considered the enemy, and eliminating them completely if needed is acceptable.”
“Excellent. I will send a reminder at every opportunity. China will reign supreme.”
“Good. Do not be alarmed when the news of the aliens is released on Earth. It is all according to plan. Keep up your defenses in case you are attacked.”
“Yes, sir, absolutely,” the general said, and the screen went black as the committee head signed off. The general then muttered, “The accursed Americans will never get this technology. Sergeant Wong was briefed that he is to prevent that at all costs and knows where his allegiance lies.”
CHAPTER 28
The three Platinums were in the bottom chamber of the cycler, preparing along with the two astronauts to perform another supply walk out on the asteroid’s surface. Jean helped her fa
ther with locking his helmet, and checked all of his spacesuit seals via the computer panel on his back. The same information was displayed on the helmet faceplate so that the suited person and his helper would see the same information.
“O2 and N2 pressures are both good and the tanks read ninety percent,” Jean said, having picked up the proper lingo from her time with the pilot. “No leaks reported. The two tethers are clipped onto your belt securely for the walk. You’re good to go,” she said in her best ‘astronaut’ voice.
“Thanks, Honey. You’re a wonderful helper,” Jeff said to his daughter.
“These suits are pretty easy,” Jean said. “You really could have done this yourself.”
“We always use the buddy system, Jean,” Sam said to her as she finished checking Roy’s suit. “It always helps to have a second pair of eyes checking.” After a moment she continued. “We’re ready here. Is everyone else set?”
When the other helpers said that the three Platinums were prepared, Roy told them to head back to the central habitat module. They would be notified by the main computer when they were again needed to help the astronauts shed the suits after their walk. Soon, the five suited people had proceeded through the airlock and onto the surface of the cycler.
As they clipped their tethers onto the webbing that covered the top layer of the asteroid, Roy spoke to them over their radios. “This is the last major walk, fellows. Today we are only a month away from launching the three supply and habitat rockets. During this walk, we are going to fuel the third rocket on the right, as well as carry food supplies to the first and second rockets. As a reminder, the first rocket will resupply the NASA base, the second will have the start-up food for your colony, and the third has the habitat, greenhouse, bulldozer and radar systems for your new home. A month from now, the last walk will be performed by me and Pilot Tuttle to launch the rockets. Are we ready?”
After all had assented, Roy assigned each of them to carrying food containers to the ships located at the nose of the asteroid. The Commander himself carried a large tank which sported a long hose and nozzle. Once more, as they had done on previous spacewalks, the group clipped tethers, pulled themselves forward and re-clipped over and over until they had reached the rockets. Soon they had loaded all of the crates, as well as loaded the fuel that had been manufactured using the asteroid’s water into the final rocket. When they had completed their tasks, Sam pointed up. “Hey, look there. Mars is now a little orange disk.”
